Oh hey there...

Oh hello. 

After having a cold that knocked me off my feet for a week and then taking a long weekend to go camping, I haven't been around these parts much lately.

But after spending the weekend going 'balls to the wall' and eating a bag of non-vegan marshmallows and my body weight in guacamole, I am back with a vengeance (and a tummy ache).

Sidenote: I ran 17 miles today and my body H.A.T.E.S. me right now. Feeding my body crap for a week and a half and then pushing it to it's breaking point with running makes for a sad Ashlee and sad tummy.

But back to more awesome things. Like camping with an adorable puppy and handsome husband.

If you don't remember, I recently wrote about my last camping experience here and our encounter with a bear. Needless to say, I was beyond terrified to go camping again but decided to suck it up and went back into the woods armed with a bear bell and bear mace (which I bought off of a stranger I met online and had to go to a local gas station to get the goods/exchange money. Isn't the internet so weird?).

Other sidenote: I am pretty sure my punctuation on that last sentence with the parenthesis was way off and I am sorry if that bothered you or you judged me for it. I get confused and flustered with commas and parenthesis. I have been told by many of teachers that I am too comma happy.

So besides having bear mace in hand and better flashlights than before (so I could peer into the woods every minute after it got dark), I still was unbelievably stressed out the first night. My anxiety level was at an all-time high and I honestly didn't fall asleep until the sun began to rise in the early am. From 8pm to 6am, I was convinced that a bear was sneaking up on me to maul me to death (or steal my marshmallows). Each night got a little bit better but I never did sleep through the night and had terrible nightmares when I did finally pass out. 

Wait...wasn't I supposed to be talking about awesome things, not how much of a freak I am now about bears? 

So on to the cool things...

/My husband made me some of his amazing guacamole to eat for lunch/dinner one day. I was in an avocado lover's heaven\

/We stayed at a campground called Cooper's Creek and it definitely lived up to its hype for our black lab Cooper. PS...we may or may not have been swayed on staying there because of the name.\

 You can see the creek in the background on the right hand side of the photo. 

/Cooper is a very good and appreciative camper.\

 

/Our camping trips consist mostly of reading, drinking, playing games and letting our inner pyros out.\

/On Monday, we hiked up a little bit of the Appalachian Trail which was a first for me and it was so incredibly beautiful. I have to remember that not all the pretty mountains are in Colorado. Although most are. Also, I get to cross this off of my 52 in 2013 list.\

 

/Guys....fall's coming. And isn't nature so cool.\

 

I hope you guys had a great labor day weekend and are pretty much recovered from whatever mischief you found yourself in. 

 

 

Linking up with Sami for some Shenanigans. 

PS....I'm embarassared to say how many shots it took to get this pic and now looking at it....I don't look all strong and awesome, just awkward and constipated. 

 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Our Weekend at Summer Camp

Phew.

I don't know how you parents do it.

This past weekend, John and I took our 'Little Brother' to a summer camp sponsored by Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America (BBBS) and we are exhausted.

We got back late Sunday night, and here it is Tuesday at noon and I am still recovering from our weekend.

I am still slowly drinking my morning cup of coffee and we just spent a while searching Youtube for clips of Carlton dancing.

We lead a busy and exciting life.

Anywho, this weekend was all sorts of fun and tiring.

We arrived at the summer camp around 11am on Saturday and did the usual icebreakers with the other 100 or so 'littles' and 'bigs.'

This basically involved us saying...

'My name is Ashlee and I would bring avocados to a picnic.'

'My name is John and I would bring jam to a picnic.'

Our little's two older sisters were at the camp which made him happy and John and I were the only married couple at the camp. With BBBS, you can be a solo 'Big' to a 'Little' of your gender or if you are married, you can do it together to a male 'Little.'

This was something we wanted to experience together and I am so glad we signed up for the program this way. I love seeing John interact with our 'Little' and just seeing how much of a positive impact our relationship on him.

Our first activity of the weekend was archery which our Little was soooo excited about. When we first told him about the camp a few weeks ago, this was the one thing that he kept talking about. I am glad it was our first activity of the weekend so he didn't have to wait any longer.

Waiting ever so patiently

 

Getting instructions...

First shot and he turned out to be pretty good!

Can you figure out which one is me and which one is Katniss Everdeen?

Didn't think so. 

 Somebody had to shame us all with his perfect form. 

After archery the rest of the day was filled with playing improv games, painting rocks, having 'Spirit' time which consisted of a lot of synchronized dancing and singing (which my husband purposefully hid from once he found out what it was), eating Smores by a campfire, playing carnival games, eating the 'vegetarian' dinner of white rice, going swimming in a big pool with a water slide, and participating in the 'Wacky Olympics' which was just a ploy to be covered by our Littles in hershey's syrup, shaving cream and applesauce. 

As it got dark on Saturday night we discovered that this was going to be the first night that our Little has ever slept away from home (he has never even stayed the night at a friend's house), so there was a lot of tears and homesickness. 

I was staying in a girl's cabin with one of his sister's so she helped me soothe him enough to stay at camp, but John had the adventure of sleeping with him in the boy's cabin that night. 

Neither of them got very much sleep that night and as soon as it was light out (6am) they finally left the cabin and went to the playground to spend the next few hours until breakfast. 

After breakfast we got to go fishing where our Little caught two fishes and John caught one too. 

As John was the only male Big in our group for that activity, he had the pleasure of unhooking everyone's fish.

The rest of Sunday was filled with more 'Spirit' time along with playing games with other kids his age.

We left camp and headed back to Atlanta for our Little's first professional sports game. 

We had some pretty amazing seats to the Braves game courtesy of John's mom and our Little enjoyed the game even though it was so hot that day.

After sitting in the heat for a few hours, we realized that thanks to our tickets, we had access to the club level at the Braves stadium and we found some seats in the shade and enjoyed the rest of the game from our new vantage point.

Our little was pretty emotionally and physically exhausted at this point and needed a little alone time.

When John and I saw this photo, we started singing 'All by myself.......' at the same time. 

After we dropped off our Little at his house, we stopped by the grocery store, got a frozen pizza, a bottle of wine and a bar of dark chocolate and sat on our couch for the rest of the evening watching 'The Sopranos.'

After this weekend, we have vowed to never have teenagers and that we will force our children to go from age 12 to 21.

No inbetween for us, thank you very much.

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Weekend Shenanigans: Ghost and Beach Edition

I feel like a weekend must have been good if it takes you until Wednesday to plug your camera into your computer and sort through the events. 

What I liked the most about this past weekend is that we did things with people. 

(After I typed that sentence, I realized how vague that was but I am just gonna roll with it.)

This past weekend, my husband's BFF came into Savannah with his lovely girlfriend (both of whom are law students) and we had a fun time exploring the city on Friday and relaxing at the beach on Saturday. 

Too often we just get meals with friends, but don't actually do any other activities together (at least as a couple).

Don't get me wrong, I love eating. A lot. And I love eating with friends a lot.
But when you are constantly surrounded by law students and aren't one yourself, the conversation is typically law related and I find myself having little to contribute around the dinner table. But when we are doing things and experiencing fun activities together, I feel more involved and find myself enjoying the occasion more.

So back to my original statement, 'what I liked the most about this past weekend is that we did things with people.'

Be forwarned....I took a lot of photos when I actually remembered I had a camera with me so be prepared for a lot of similar photos. 

Drinking some wine while waiting on pizza to arrive at our table and giggling to myself as my husband has to figure out how to type on his new smart phone with his sausage fingers.

Hanging outside, waiting to get our ghost tour pub crawl on. 

The ghost tour started outside one of our favorite pubs which we visit often thanks to fond memories of eating brie and drinking wine during our honeymoon on their patio. 

Our ghost tour guide was from Boston and absolutely hilarious. We heard maybe two ghost stories in the 2.5 hour tour, but got lots of dirt on his ex-wife, laughed at stupid things people say to him while he gives a tour and heard lots on how he is a terrible horse carriage operator. 

I definitely captured a lot of 'orbs' while taking photos at the Colonial Park cemetery in downtown Savannah. 
NBD but I am a little bit of a ghost hunter. 

After the tour, we headed to a rooftop bar in Savannah which overlooked River Street and the Savannah River. The sight was gorgeous. 

Saturday we headed down to the beach undeterred by the cloudy skies and the possibility of rain. 

Joe brought along a deluxe kite and I watched three law students attempt to build it and fly it. Even though it did end up flying after a few unsuccessful tries, I don't have any photographic proof, so maybe it didn't really happen after all. 

We sat, had some drinks and swam for the rest of the day. And yeah, thanks to open container laws and no glass on the beach laws, I poured myself a giant sippy cup of wine before we left the house. 

 

After having a bit of sippy cup wine, I ended up with a series of photos like this one below, which I have a very vague recollection of taking. 

Saturday evening consisted of lots of eating, playing a ring toss game with a lot of kids at a local restaurant and talking into the wee hours out on my in-laws patio.

Sunday was spent eating lots of grease and recuperating.  I didn't move very much that day and definitely didn't take any photos of my hungover self.

Even though it is Wednesday, I hope you all had a great weekend. I am linking up with the hilarious Ms. Sami to share these shenanigans. 

Have a great day everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~