A Super Fabulous Time Together

I am so glad I decided to make the drive to Rhode Island last to spend some time with my husband.  We had a super fabulous time together.    We spent 5 great nights in a beautiful hotel, spent time with my husband's family, shopping, eating great meals, and just spending quality time together with one another.  We explored our new town to be (as of August 1st we will be residents of Rhode Island).  I really learned to love our new town when we were there and I am so excited for our future.

As we approach the end of our first year of marriage (our anniversary is July 17, 2011) we looked at this trip almost like a second honeymoon...and to be honest it was way better than our honeymoon.  As I got into my car on Wednesday morning to drive the 9 hours back to Virginia to pick up Madison... I was filled with so much hope and excitement for our future.

Our first year of marriage has not been awful, but it certainly hasn't been all unicorns and rainbows either.  We have had our shares of ups and downs... We were both in jobs we were not happy with, we were dealing with the orchestrating of an upcoming move which at times did not go as smoothly has it should have, house-hunting, raising a pre-teen, and some other minor things that added a bit of stress to our relationship.

I am definitely excited to see what year 2 has in store for us.  We only have three + weeks until we are reunited again for good...and in the middle of that we get to meet up again for a fabulous wedding (which I am doing the baking for...more to come about that soon).

The countdown is on to our big move.

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part Two

Sunday morning we slept in and then spent most of the morning hooked on the Casey Anthony trial. Then we drove to pick up my mother-in-law.  We took her to lunch at one of her favorite places, Chili's.  Then we hit Kohl's and Home Goods.

After dropping her back at home we headed to get some ice cream at a place called Gray's.  It was fabulous.  I had peanut butter cup and Chris had coffee Oreo.  They had cows behind the place in a small pasture.  We will definitely be going back and taking Madison.

On Monday (4th of July)...we were once again hooked on the Casey Anthony trial and got a late start.  We decided to head to Providence for the day to go shopping at a big shopping center there called Providence Place Mall. I looked it up on my iPhone and saw they had a Crate & Barrel so I was super excited to go.  We got a little bit lost getting there, but eventually found it.  We went to a fabulous place for lunch called Joe's.

We saved Crate & Barrel for last...and wouldn't you know when we got there it was the only store in the entire shopping center that was closed for the holiday.  I was a little annoyed. 

This mall had the weirdest thing... I have never seen anything like this before.  You pay for your parking before you get in your car and leave the garage.  Does anyone else have this where they live?

After leaving the mall we headed to my father-in-law's house.  We watched TV, hung out, and ordered carryout for dinner.  I really enjoyed getting to know my father-in-law a little bit better and listening to some of his funny stories. 

Chris had to get up on Tuesday morning to go to work... although I was on vacation... he wasn't.  Tuesday was the first day his new boss was reporting to work as well as his new team, so he had to go.  I slept in, straightened up the hotel suite, and watched some TV.  I planned on running to the grocery store for him and going to a few stores as well as meeting him for lunch, but was super happy when he texted to say his new boss agreed to let him leave at 11:30.  I was ready and waiting when he got home...and we headed into Newport for the afternoon.

Newport is such a beautiful area.  We found parking and had a tasty lunch at a placed called The Red Parrot.  Afterwards we added some more money to our parking meter and walked around for a bit.  We stopped for a Del's Frozen Lemonade...YUMMY!!

Afterwards we headed to the Christmas Tree Shop where for just $22 I picked up tons of home decor stuff for our new bathroom. 

Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up some items for Chris for the week as he is still in the hotel.  Imagine my surprise when I saw these on the cake aisle!! Score!! I picked them up for $1.99 and cannot wait to make some sort of banana cupcake in them.

To finish up our fabulous time together we spent Tuesday evening in bed watching a prison show called Hard Time and eating this tasty ice cream treats.

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part One

My husband has been in Rhode Island working since mid-June. When I realized Madison was going to go with my parents for a 4th of July beach vacation... I decided to make the drive to Rhode Island to spend several days with my husband.

I left early Friday morning (around 6 AM). For the most part the ride was fine...there were a ton of tolls and lots of bathroom stops (I pee all the time). Connecticut was the worst. The traffic there was ridiculous. I finally arrived around 3 PM.

After showering and relaxing for a bit we headed to a nearby restaurant for an appetizer and drinks. I had two of the margarita specials...

Afterwards we headed to the liquor store to pick up some more drinks and I was able to find this -

I have been wanting to try this forever. It was pretty strong, but good.

We headed to the next town over for our nephew's 17th birthday get together with my husband's family. A lot of his family lives around here and we were able to spend some time with my in-laws and two of my husband's brothers.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Tito's for a yummy Mexican lunch. We ate there in April when we visited and really enjoyed it.

After lunch we used a Groupon and headed to Newport Vineyards. We got to tour the small vineyard. We also got to taste 5 different wines. We went with the Rising Tide, Pinot Grigio, Great White, Bellevue Blush, and the Pinot Noir. We left with a bottle of the Bellevue Blush.

Next door happened to be a bakery. We got a few different things and some drinks. We sat and relaxed for a bit and enjoyed some treats. My husband says I am too picky when it comes to other people's baked goods... I cannot help it if the only thing I really loved was the baklava. I felt like the other choices - strawberry lemonade cupcake, peanut butter cookie, frosted sugar cookie, and chocolate iced brownie were nothing to write home about.

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Coddington Brewery for a great dinner and drinks. I had some sangria and fish and chips. Chris had India Pale Ale beer and the prime rib.