Wedding in Nashville

Kor and J's wedding in Nashville was stupendous. 

Nicole Marie Photography

 Belle Meade Plantation was gorgeous. Such a fun weekend full of love & dancing, singing at the top of our lungs, and Fireball shots. 

Damn Fireball shots.

Ben and I even had a little bit of time to head downtown one afternoon and have Jess take some "10 year anniversary" photos on her fancy pants camera. The photos............... capture our odd little relationship pretty accurate. Kinda awkward, super cheesey, and basically crazy.  Once I bug Jess enough, I'm sure she will forward them. 

On our drive back to the Dairy State, we pulled over at a dusty little gas station to refuel the car and fill my need for caffeine and Doritos. It was straight out of a movie. Dusty little shack, middle aged lady behind the counter with a southern drawl, and a cop and local farmer sitting at a bench talking over a coffee. Hey small town, hey. So good.

xoxo, b 

2 years & unsolicited advice

I had a vivid revelation of awesomeness the other day. In order to reflect upon our last two years of marriage, I thought Ben and I should answer similar open ended questions concerning stuff like what's changed, what's the same, where do you see us in 5 years, why isn't there any good beer left in the fridge, and what's for dinner.... but I digress.  

So I cornered him. Started asking him questions. And he, like a wild animal, tried to escape. My revelation of awesomeness was going nowhere, and I was forced to shut it down after there was way too much interest in describing in detail the only thing he believes to have changed in the last two years: that I've farted in front of him. There were references to Nazi gas chambers, dying beasts, and the end of days before he finally concluded, gave a satisfied smile and nod, and shut his mouth.

First off, I'm a trophy wife wanna-be, I don't fart. That's something boys do. 

And second, I don't fart. 

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So in lieu of my vivid revelation of awesomeness questionnaire, 

here are my little bits of unsolicited advice/knowledge nuggets on the matter:

Your husband will be the single most annoying person in your life. He throws his dirty socks at the cats. He is addicted to checking sport updates and stock prices on his smart phone. He forgets to put leftovers in the fridge. He gets moody when he is having what I can only assume is a man-period. He still has not figured out how to work the laundry hamper, despite intense one-on-one training sessions with the Rocky theme song playing in the background. He strolls into the bathroom and asks what you're doing when you're trying to use the toilet or shave your legs in the shower because he doesn't fully understand privacy. And sometimes he flat out disagrees with you about severely important things like "what should we do tonight?" But what sets the husband apart from any other run-of-the-mill annoying roommate? It's that you care way too much about his opinion and your opinion matching up. You want him to see things the way you do. Exactly. You want him to think the way you do. Exactly. You can't give the generic "whatever I could care less what you think" response to him and de-friend him on Facebook because you do care what he thinks, and he lives with you. He's an individual with his own opinions and thought process... which is so annoying. 

Your husband will be the single most amazing person in your life. He wakes you up with breakfast in bed most Sundays. He swaps back rubs with you before falling asleep at night. He's funny and spazzy and doesn't mind that you sing off-key during car concerts. He let's you do your own weird thing, and encourages you to be your awkward self. He takes you to the zoo, even though you've gone at least one gagillion times already. He lets you have the bigger piece of steak or eat more of the cookie chunks from container of ice cream. He makes excuses to drive 30 minutes with you to your job on the weekend so that at the very least you can see each other for the hour worth of driving there and back. He just gets you, even when you don't get yourself. As a self-proclaimed commitment phobic person (it took 7 or 8 years before I power-walked down the aisle), my Oprah ah-ha moment was when I realized that yeah, I could live without him... But I didn't want to. And even though I allegedly hyperventilated and had to take a moment to sit (not run, even though there were bets placed) before my I-do's, that 24 hour period of time is a drip in the leaky faucet of life. A very expensive drip. 

And everyday since then has been a bit of an adventure. 

xoxo, b

2 year anniversary road trip

TWO YEAR ROAD TRIP!!

Kor's Bday party in DC :)

This year's anniversary road trip extravaganza started with a surprise birthday visit to Kor in DC. After hanging out and celebrating the 5th anniversary of her 21st birthday, Ben and I rented a car and started wandering southward down the east coast.






There was plenty of car concert singing before we pulled into the Embassy Suites in Hampton, VA late Sunday afternoon. One fancy Taco Bell drive thru dinner and approximately 23 minutes later, and we were both dead to the world.

road trips & complimentary drinks at the hotel every night

road trippin'

Monday we drove to Virginia Beach. It was HOT. 107 degrees. It was HUMID. It was GREAT. Ben wanted to go into the ocean... but I had just finished watching every episode of Shark Week on Netflix a week or so before. Pair this with the fact that I had scrapped my food while in DC and that I'm not too keen on the idea of being mauled by a shark (who can smell blood up to 1 mile away, thank you Discovery Channel), I politely declined his invitation.


After an hour or so of baking in the sun, we found ourselves some air conditioning and a cold beer. While sipping our suds, Ben struck up a conversation with the bartender about how I wouldn't go swimming in the ocean because of sharks. The bartender, in turn, told us about how there was a great white spotted the week before.... about two miles offshore... for about 4 days in a row.... and that authorities were tracking it because it seemed to be hunting..... told ya so.

Monday night we got a couple complimentary drinks in the hotel lobby, then went for some fresh seafood dinner on the James River. So good!


Tuesday was AUGUST 13th!!! Our two year anniversary!! We had breakfast at the hotel and then drove back over to Virginia Beach. This time, I was feeling feisty and ready to cross off another bucket list item: swim in the ocean.

swimming at Virginia Beach

Here's where it gets tricky.
1- My swim skills start and end with the doggy paddle. 2- I don't do sharks. 3- The ocean is the final frontier. Who knows what type of tentacle-clad gooey monster is lurking beneath the waves thinking about taking a nibble of me. Creepy. Long story short, it took me awhile to wade out and do my anxious doggy paddling like no body's business.... but it happened.


After swimming, we watched some air force jets take off and land right across the street from where we were parked. Feeling the air force fever, we then decided to go to an air museum. There were a ton of really awesome planes.

air museum

For our anniversary dinner, we had decided that we should do fresh seafood (again). So we found a restaurant with an all you can eat seafood buffet. We practically gorged ourselves on fresh king crab meat, oysters, flounder, salmon, clams, blue crab, and shrimp. Ben asked a waiter to take our photo with our "2" sign. Ten minutes later, we had a champagne glasses and a cupcake with a candle delivered to our table.

2 year dinner :)

Wednesday we traveled back to DC for our afternoon flight back to MKE.  But that wasn't before my first trip to Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery

Then there was a quick flight, and bada bing bada boom we were home.

xoxo, b

the ugly cry

first business trip

 Ben departed for New York this morning sometime around 4am. I'm not 100% sure on the exact time because, hell, it was 4am and frankly, I was ugly crying. No single glistening tear on this cheek. No, no. More like a pitiful pajama-clad, bedhead me standing lost in the living room trying to keep it together. I don't know about the rest of the population, but when I'm tired and sad my ugly cry is straight out of an 80's horror film. To hold back tears I hold my breath, my stomach clenches up, and my face crinkles and conforms into ways previously unknown to mankind. The breath-holding causes red-eye bulging and a series of odd choking gasps, boogers, and tears.  To top it off, muttering things between gasps like "You look so handsome! I'm going to miss you so much! The cats are mean and punch me while I sleep!" and I've successfully brought a whole new level of sexy. 

Paris & Nicole helping Ben pack

So my husband's gone for Monday through Thursday night. Seriously, not that long at all. Especially since he rounded up some "brit-sitters" to keep me company this week. I have a busy week. And we are leaving for our two year anniversary road trip on Friday night. That's exciting.... I could totally Google things for us to do.... we have plane tickets and no plans. Just the way it should be!

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WI State Fair

Ben and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair on Saturday. It was glorious and sunny and warm and wonderful. We tried loaded potatoes, funnel cake, ice cream, craft beer, did a wine tasting, and rode the sky glider from one end of the park to the other. We also found the barn with the ducks, but the place was way too crowded for me to steal one. 

riding the sky glider

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And here is a photo of Paris wearing a bikini. 

She's trying to break into the cruel world of swimsuit modeling.

I think she looks fantastic.

Paris in a bikini

xoxo, b

chasing waterfalls

 New York 1 Year Anniversary Trip = Success!!

We left Thursday night after work and started driving east towards New York wine country. On the way, we saw a deer, and there was cursing and a slight heart attack. And then life continued.......

climbing a building

Anywho, on Friday it was overcast and rainy-ish. Our general plan was to get to Watkins Glen State Park and get our camp on, but that didn't seem like fun in the rain. So we switched gears and ended up in Rochester, NY Friday afternoon. We headed over to the National Museum of Play and naturally, we played.

Xbox

There was literally every toy that you could have ever played with...
Barbies...
Xbox....
Pong....

chatting with Big Bird

dolls.....
Michael Jackson disc player.....
Seasame Street....
Dance Dance revolution....
a comic book heroes section......

and everything else you could possibly think of...






Friday night, we left our riverside hotel room and walked over to Roc Brewing Company for a cold craft beer. I was positive we were walking through the ghetto, and that I was going to be brit-napped.... then the clouds parted and a stream of sunshine shone down upon the brewery and all my worries vanished....

so dramatic.

At the brewery, we each tried a beer. Then we saw some other folks near us who got a sample platter of beers... and within two minutes we also had a sample platter of beer.

taste testing

It was pretty tasty stuff. Then my smarty pants husband had too many sips and figured it would be a great idea to not only taste test each beer individually... but to mix a little of each beer in his glass and taste them all at once.

He thought it was fantastic.

I thought it was not  fantastic.



Saturday, we drove down the Seneca Wine Trail-- right along the lake-- to Watkins Glen, NY. I got all sorts of excited seeing all the vineyards and wineries on our way south.... and I began plotting my wine trail travels.

vineyards and Seneca Lake

Upon our glorious arrival to Watkins Glen, we found Nascar fans in every nook and cranny. Turns out that there was a Nascar race Sunday afternoon.... so the place was jumping. Neither Ben nor I are race fans... don't get me wrong, I love cars that go fast. The important fact, however, is simply that I like to be IN  the car that is going fast, not watching it.

We got lost for a hot second trying to find the state park... which is right in the middle of town. But moving on...

We got to Watkins Glen State Park and set up our camp. Then we got busy hiking in the GORGEOUS gorge......

It was like something right out of a movie...

A heart at the bottom of some falls

 

 Pictures don't do it justice!!





After we got done hiking, we went back to our campsite and started a campfire. We went into the woods to pick up some kindling... or so I thought. I returned to camp with little twigs and sticks.... Ben returned with a fallen tree. Hmm...

 

That night, we sat around the campfire and chilled out. It was great to hang out together and just shoot the breeze. It was a warm night, but the fire felt wonderful.  
Side note: we could hear the Nascar qualifying races early in the night, which was kinda cool.




Sunday was wine trail day. And it was everything I had hoped for and more. An area dedicated to wine and wine tastings-- such a place does exist!

We decided to drive north for a little bit and then turn around and hit up the majority of the wineries on our way back to Watkins Glen.

Fruit Yard Winery: first stop, super friendly. Specialized in fruit wines.We bought 2 bottles.

Ashley Lynn Winery: great lady with a silly laugh that I loved. We only got a tiny shot glass tasting of each wine, but she waved the $2 tasting fee because we bought a bottle and she liked us :)


Shaw Vineyard: specialized in dry wines. We paid $5 each for a glassful of  10+ red and white wines, and got to talk to someone who was near our age. Bought a bottle of white wine

Stopped at R.E.D.S. Hots for a philly cheese steak sandwhich..... tasty and quick and right along the wine trail so we didn't lose any precious wine time

Miles Wine Cellars: weeping willows and a big white mansion on the lake... sleeping dog on the great front porch.... so beautiful!

National Geographic Travel said it was the "most serenely gorgeous setting of any winery in the region." They were right. $3 tasting and wine glasses to keep. We bought a bottle called "Call Me a Cab"

a few items from our new wine collection

Glenora Wine Cellars: overlooking Seneca Lake, gave us cheese (woohoo Wisconsin)  with our wine tasting. Live jazz musicians playing outside on the patio. Bought a bottle of sparkling wine... SO GOOD!!

Magnus Ridge Winery: super pretty building with friendly dogs that greeted us as we drove in. We didn't do a wine tasting here, but we found a funky little hot pad that made me laugh

Pompous Ass Winery: loved it because of its name... and the wine was good, too. We got a bottle of wine, and a coffee mug for my coffee mug addiction

After our wine tastings, I was in the mood for some more hiking. So off we went to the gorge again.....

During our hike, it started to rain... and we went running around like a couple of goonies trying to find shelter. Then it cleared up and we saw a rainbow.

kissing on a bridge... using the 10 second self timer on the camera

walking behind waterfalls

When we were done with our hike, we headed back to camp and started up a bonfire. Ben finished burning the giant tree he had dragged out of the woods on our first afternoon there, and we made s'mores

Monday morning, we broke camp, packed up, and drove over to Ithaca, NY to go hiking and swimming at the base of a waterfall. Because swimming at the base of a waterfall sounds pretty sweet. Monday also happened to be August 13. 2012, aka our first anniversary!

Lucifer Falls

happy hikers

Robert Treman State Park was very pretty, and we spent a good deal of time doing hiking trails that were a bit more difficult than Watkins Glen. By the time we were done hiking and ready for swimming, the 66 degree water felt.......refreshing.  And then straight up shocking.

off-roading...

We took videos of each of us jumping off the diving board into the lake: Ben did a stunning cannonball that made the kids gasp and cheer. I did a rendition of a flailing noodle arm bird about to drown.

Monday afternoon, we finished up our trip to the Finger Lakes area and were trying to figure out what to do: #1) start driving back to Milwaukee and stop somewhere along the way or #2) head up to Niagara Falls

Option #2 won, and by Monday afternoon we found ourselves standing at the biggest waterfall we had seen on our trip.

1 Year: Niagara Falls, NY

We (eerr... Britani) thought it would be pretty cute if we took a picture each year on our anniversary of the two of us-- wherever we happen to be-- holding a sign with what year we are at. And all those pictures are going into a little scrapbook.

Year 1's sign was a bit bootleg.... a random piece of copy paper that was in the car and a ballpoint pen to write with.....but that actually ended up being perfect

We got a hotel on the river a couple miles from the Falls, showered up, and then headed back to the Falls to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and check out Niagara Falls light up at night.

 

Tuesday morning, we slept in and then went back to Niagara Falls for some more exploring. We checked out Three Sisters Island, which is just upstream from the American Falls.


Then we got in the car and drove back to Milwaukee.... with multiple stops at Starbucks, fast food restaurants, and gas stations.

We got home around 10:30pm and dropped into bed..... where 2 very fluffly kitties tried to get our attention all night.



Home again, home again :)

xoxo, b