Summer

Summer has begun and I am loving it.

It started out in North Carolina (more on that trip here). After that, I returned to the 'Burg to get settled into my new apartment.

The short story is: the place was nasty, and I spent most of my time there cleaning, unpacking, moving furniture, cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, and then took some random adventure breaks with friends.

I've found that I love having the ability to dictate what I eat. It's so great to know that everything I eat I know exactly where it came from, as opposed to the cafeteria where I had absolutely no clue...

My favorite place in the house is a cute little breakfast corner by the window. It faces outside and gives a view that goes across a small, cleared area straight to the woods. Birds of all sorts swoop down to pick up bugs, deer run through the clearing... Overall, the whole atmosphere is quite calming!

There are a few adorable littles who live a few apartments down who could be roll-models for the energizer bunny to look up to; as soon as they get home from school each day, they ride their scooters and battery-car around until it's too dark for them to do anything other than go back inside.

My room is finally coming together, but it's a process...

The day before my time in the Burg was up, a beautiful friend of mine got married! It was such a honor to be there for her BEAUTIFUL day. Hers was the first wedding I was able to practice my photography on, and it was an absolute stunner to start with. I have definitely learned a lot from that 5 hours of beauty, and excitedly await my next opportunity to practice more. (See the photos here!)

As a departing gift, Austin gave me a cute little succulent the day I was to be picked up by my grandparents for the summer. We took our time on the way down and made sure to stop whenever we needed to make the trip fun (although just being with them was quite fun in itself!).

Here's a photo of the succulent's sad little self (I named him Underwood) at our hotel on the way home.

Our last stop was to catch up with some family... Here's a photo of the oldest and youngest men of this side of the family. Little V loves to fall asleep in Pa Jim's arms, but for now he's lovin' these bells.

The "Sunshine State" seems to be having trouble living up to its name since I've been here. The view out my window as I lie in bed today:

...anything BUT sunny.

But it's alright -- I have LOVED having the opportunity to spend some much-needed time with family and friends, and get back into the groove of work. It's definitely been a great few weeks so far, and I look forward to all the fun the summer has to offer!