The North Carolina State Fair!!!

I love the fair.  Like seriously LOVE it!  One visit each year just isn't enough!  I always have my list of foods I need to eat and depending on how full I get, sometimes I just need an extra day to get my fix.  Poor Kevin; after an entire season of traveling to fairs all over the country, it's just not his favorite place, but he sticks with me because he knows how much I love it!

This year, we missed the first weekend because we were up in Vermont for my brother-in-law's wedding, but we didn't let that mess up our flow!  We went for the first time on the last Friday of the fair and then again on the last Sunday of the fair!

Here's how we do the fair...
Stop 1 is always corn!  The best roasted corn is the far one when you come in the mill gate (gate 8) near yesteryear.  It's beside the big strawberry!

Don't blink, or the corn is GONE!  Rocking the Labatt Blue hat again!  I just love it!

Stop 2 is always a ham biscuit.  The best ones are on the main drag headed towards Dorton Arena, the Pittsboro Kiwanis booth near the hotdog stand from Four Oaks.

This year, stop 3 was pickles in the Education building.  We went to look at the cake submissions and I got myself weighed on the NC Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services scale and then we got Mt. Olive Pickles (guessed the amount in the jar) and got some Maple Cotton Candy to go!

Stop 4 was cheese curds!  The best Wisconsin cheese this side of Wisconsin!  It's so stringy and so good dipped in Ranch dressing.  You have to head towards the big ostrich to find the cheese stand!

We ended out the evening with a visit to the animals in the Exposition Center and a look at the biggest pumpkin and other produce there before grabbing a mint chocolate chip milkshake from the NCSU booth.

Howling Cow is the BEST!

Then we took a stroll through the Village of Yesteryear and grabbed a hot apple cider down by the mill and walked around the flower gardens waiting for the fireworks.

Hot Apple Cider with the fireworks always rounds out a great evening at the fair!

Sunday, we jumped in again! 
We started the day with Roasted Corn again!  This time we each got our own ear!

Al's French Fries was next.  I've never had them, but I've always heard great things about them and they were AMAZING!

With vinegar and ketchup-so good!

Our third stop was a steak sandwich from the Butcher Boys!

Yummy!

Lastly, we rounded out the day with mini cinnamon and sugar donuts.  They were SOOO good!

We walked around the Kerr Scott building to look at the art submissions before grabbing a caramel apple and heading home!

I love the fair!!

Vermont in the Fall

The Thursday of our anniversary week, we packed up our suitcases and boarded two planes to Vermont!  We typically fly after work and arrive at midnight, so even though flying took up most of the day, it was a nice change to land in the daylight and be able to enjoy the afternoon a bit!

Our first stop immediately from the airport was to visit baby Peyton!  He is too sweet for words and I enjoyed meeting him and being able to hold him throughout the weekend!

Kevin and I rode with Hannah and Alex to an Italian restaurant down the road to meet the bride and groom-to-be, Daniel and Shelby, for dinner.  The food was AMAZING and it was great to catch up with everyone!  Then Kevin and I took Dan's car and headed for CKs to grab a drink and watch some of the Red Sox game.  Next it was off to Marble Island to crash for the evening!

Friday morning, Kevin was up bright and early to golf with his brother and I went for a 4 mile run over Marble Island.  Here are some shots I got from my run.  Everything was so gorgeous!

I came back to his mom's and showered and packed up all of our stuff and then it was off to run errands for the bride!  We went up to Sand Bar (Grand Isle) to pick up like 15 apple pies!  And we stopped for some maple doughnuts too!  Then we had to deliver the apple pies to the reception hall in Williston.  Next, my mother-in-law dropped me off at the hotel in Burlington to check in and helped me get all of our luggage up to the room.  I waited in the room until Kevin came back with a late pizza lunch for me and we showered and got ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!

The rehearsal was at St. Francis and thank goodness I asked Father Lavalley about the Prayers of the Faithful because he noticed the Pope listed was incorrect and I would have made a fool of myself!  Whew!

Post rehearsal at St. Francis

The rehearsal dinner was back on Marble Island at my mother-in-law's house and we enjoyed dinner and spending time with the groomsmen and their significants and that sweet, sweet boy, Peyton!  Then it was back to the hotel and we all went up to the Upper Deck Pub for a drink before bed.  (of course Kevin stayed out until the wee hours of the morning because that's what he always does!)

Poor Peyton has a distorted head in the panoramic shot!

Saturday morning was a bit crazy for me!  We went down for breakfast at the hotel and I was just going to go with Kevin to Dan's room and take pictures of the guys as they got ready.  Well, no one had thought about food for the guys, so in my pajamas with no make-up, I was sent on a food run.  In Dan's car again, in a town I don't know!  I picked up Subway sandwiches for everyone and then got a text that they needed more beer and a dozen roses to decorate the room for that night.  By the time I got back, I was so flustered and I had to just drop everything and run back to our room to shower and get ready in time!  I did get a prize for my work in the form of a Labatt Blue hat-from the case of beer!  You'll see more of that guy later!

Wedding Errands

Look at those socks!

I managed to get ready in time and was rushing to get to the church, thinking I was late arriving 25 minutes before the ceremony and there was like NO ONE there.  Whew!  Daniel and Shelby got married and although I made it through the Prayers of the Faithful, I did get choked up!  I think I had the entire church sniffling at one point!

Next was pictures and then it was back to the hotel to drop off some stuff and I ran into Aunt Patti, who needed help decorating Dan and Shelby's wedding suite.  Good thing I went!  The maids hadn't cleaned anything and the room was a total mess!  We spruced it up and got everything looking great and then we rode over to the Catamount County Club for the reception!

The results of our handy-work!

We had a great time eating, catching up with family and friends and just enjoying ourselves!  Kevin made a great toast to his brother that had the entire room laughing!

And we had a bit of fun in the photo booth again!  Labatt Blue hat!

All of the groomsmen with me and the Labatt Blue hat!  Hilarious!

Then it was back to the hotel and we all hung out with the newlyweds for a hot second before I went to bed!  Word to the wise: don't drink Cristal right after you've brushed your teeth!  Gross!

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel and went over to Kevin's grandparents for breakfast and more time with family!  Then we met the newlyweds and more family and friends at McKee's for brunch.  We went over to Kevin's dad's to say goodbye and rode with the newlyweds to their house so they could open gifts and get ready for their honeymoon.

Pretty tree in my father-in-law's yard!

 Then it was off to the airport for the trip back home.  The trees were just so gorgeous at the airport!  I love Vermont in the Fall!

One more trip down.  One more wedding!  Congrats Daniel and Shelby!  Who's next??

Our First Anniversary

Kevin and I had a slam-packed weekend to celebrate our very first Anniversary!

Friday night, I set-up a 40th birthday party on behalf of Priscilla Erwin and Orangerie Events (my lovely wedding planner that I occasionally work for when needed).  As I was picking up supplies for the party, Kevin came to my rescue to switch vehicles with me so I'd have enough room for all of the items for the set-up.  Then, he spent an evening at the driving range, while I worked myself to the bone setting up for the event.  The party was for a member of the Carolina Hurricanes Staff and was on the top floor of the Raleigh Times.  I was seriously star-struck as the guests started rolling in after the game!  Rod Brind'Amour, Glen Wesley, Ron Francis, Jim Rutherford, Eric and Jordan Staal, Cam Ward, etc.  I got home around midnight and my hubby was passed out, but I was still on a high from seeing all of the players and staff!

Doughnut set-up from the party!

Saturday, I woke up with a killer headache (most likely from my wild late night- party animal over here!) and I putzed around the house trying to get myself feeling better!  We grabbed Moe's for lunch and then came back to shower and get ready for our Anniversary photo shoot at Yates Mill Pond.  We took photos for about an hour and as soon as we left, we booked it to church and missed most of the music, but made it in time for the message.  For dinner, Kevin was craving macaroni and cheese, so we went to K&W, where I allowed him to get the tray that feeds 20 people.  Now that's true love!  And an anniversary gift for sure!  We spent the evening catching up on our favorite shows!

Sunday my love woke up with a desire to clean the entire house and quickly got me on board.  I was definitely not in the cleaning mind-frame, but I didn't have much of a choice.  We cleaned the entire upstairs and vacuumed too!  I kept saying we weren't going to have enough time to shower and get to Durham in time to see Beauty and the Beast at DPAC (one of our Anniversary treats).  And we almost didn't make it!  Kevin thought the show was at Memorial Auditorium in downtown Raleigh and we had to rush to get to the show in time.  It was a great show!  Awesome touring cast!

Selfie in the parking deck after Beauty and the Beast as we waited for traffic to clear!

We left the show and went home.  Booked some hotels for our Christmas European Adventure and then went over to TJ and Claudia's house to see Candice, Todd and Paisley, who were in town from Texas and were having everyone over to catch up.  Before we knew it, it was late and we went home and straight to bed.  (So great to see you guys!  We're coming to TX soon!)

Monday, we woke up and it was our Anniversary!!!  YAY!!!!  Of course we had to go to work, but we took our top layer of cake out of the fridge to thaw and went on our separate ways, so excited for what the evening would bring!  I left Kevin in charge of planning the night, so I had no idea what was in store.
After work, I went to get a pedicure and then stopped to pick up some balsamic vinegar that Kevin said he needed for something at work the next day (odd).
When I got home and opened the door, I immediately smelled the delicious feast he had been preparing since noon.  We weren't going out!  He had our wedding menu out as a guide and was making everything we ate during our reception.  The balsamic was for our appetizer!  That trickster!

The table set-up!  He did such a GREAT job!

I had an itinerary: Pour a glass of wine from our Honeymoon in Napa and take a bubble bath.  I was hungry, so we went ahead and enjoyed caprese skewers as an appetizer.  Then I went for my bubble bath.

Caprese skewers appetizer

I was BLOWN AWAY!  Rose petals lead up the stairs and the bathroom had been decorated so nicely for my relaxing bath. (No wonder he wanted help cleaning on Sunday!)

I relaxed in the bath and read some while Kevin finished up dinner.

Bubbles, wine, candles, a book: PERFECTION!

Then I came back downstairs and we enjoyed salad (with apples, caramelized onions, gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and cranberry dressing-hands down the best thing I've ever eaten in my life), salmon with a maple glaze, pork covered in mushrooms and cheese, chicken with Kevin's homemade cranberry, ginger and apple chutney, and rice pilaf with veggies.  We ate as we listened to the audio recording of our wedding ceremony.

This was truly a feast!

Next we ate our year-old cake!  It was pretty dang delicious!

Then we exchanged gifts!  I was adamant that the gift had to be traditional paper for our first anniversary and Kevin didn't disappoint!  He made me a "love bucket" and put in slips of paper with things he loves about me written on them (he's AMAZING).  I made him an "I love you because...." that we now need to frame so we can write why we love each other in dry erase marker and change it often!  The Beauty and the Beast tickets were also paper and a gift for both of us!

On the topic of tradition, I had asked to receive orange blossoms since they're the official first anniversary flower.  They're probably out of season and I was nervous that Kevin wouldn't find them or wouldn't even think about it.  He did think about it and he did SO MUCH BETTER than orange blossoms!  Thanks to a hint from Christi (thank you baby!), he got me my bouquet from our wedding day.  It was gorgeous and brought back so many memories from our wedding day!  It was PERFECT!  Thank you Gregg for arranging this beautiful bouquet!

But our fun didn't stop there! Tuesday night was our first Canes game of the season and we enjoyed getting back to the arena and cheering on the Canes as they played the Blackhawks.  Wednesday flew by with so many things to get done before flying up to Vermont on Thursday.  I'll share more about that trip later!

It was a busy and festive week!  Happy Anniversary Kevin!  I love you to the moon and back!