#kattsbach {asheville, nc}

back when katt's moh/sister-in-law, sutton, & i started planning her bachelorette party, sutton decided it would be fun to make her bach a surprise. so until thursday evening when she hopped in the car, she had no idea what any of the plans were for her special weekend!

sutton & i headed up to asheville around 3pm on thursday to get checked into our house & get things ready for katt's arrival. i made katt the booklet below to let her know where we were going. britt gave it to her when they left charlotte around 6pm and turns out she actually had no idea where we were going! i thought for sure someone had spilled the beans at some point over the past few months.

the cabin i rented was AWESOME. there were 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a total of 16 places to sleep including the futon. there were also 3 couches and plenty of room for air mattresses - i'm convinced at least another 10 people could have comfortably fit in that house. there was a triple decker porch that had the most beautiful views of the mountains. it was perfect. i rented through vacation in asheville, and they were also extremely helpful and nice!

{sunset on thursday night}

the rest of the thursday night gang got in around 8:30pm and sutton made us cheese, meat & crackers for an app. we ordered pizza, played cards of humanity, drank beer, and hung out around the cabin for the rest of the evening!

{party favors: more on these awesome but simple gifts soon}

friday morning we slept in and hung around the house before heading into town for lunch. we ended up at wicked weed brewery after hearing some awesome things about it. it did not dissapoint! the beer was creative and delicious and so were all the menu items. my favorite beer was the v saison - it was dark in color, but not in flavor, and had a raspberry taste. i ordered the black bean burger that was served with pimento cheese and crunchy okra on top - it was amazing. the weather was beautiful - we could have stayed there all day!

we headed back to the cabin to meet the rest of the girls & get ready for friday night. i made a taco bar for dinner at the house, and once everyone else arrived, we headed back into town for the pub cycle! it is seriously worth the trip to asheville just to do this. the company we used was asheville amazing pubcycle and they are true to their name. our guide, chase, who played "becky" all night, was absolutely hysterical. i think he was born to do that job. we cycled up and down the streets of asheville, stopped at a few bars, and drank along the way. it was SO FUN. apologies to anyone who heared us screaming kilo ali lyrics around 10pm...

saturday morning we woke up and got ready for katt's shower. sutton made us delicious quiches & we had plenty of bottles of the yummiest champagne, asti, from trader joe's. we love you, andre, but there is a newer (and cheaper) champagne in town.

after the shower, we all did our own thing for the afternoon. some of my college pals & i headed back downtown to walk around and do some shopping. we ended up back at wicked weed for a snack and a brew. saturday night we drove to west asheville for dinner at isis. sutton's friend owns this new restaurant/music hall and they set up a special dinner just for us! we had a lovely 3 course meal and loved all the unique things on their menu.

after dinner, we hopped around to a few bars downtown. after we forced katt to chug way too many beers, we ended the night in our pajamas eating katt's famous nachos - just like old times!

i hope it was a perfect weekend, katt! we had a great time celebrating you and i hope you know that you are so loved. 52 days until you are mrs. smits!

march 1-10, 2014.

somehow it's already march 10th. how does this keep happening?

march 1st weekend i worked all day saturday, and then headed to the ballantyne for the annual march forth with hope foundation gala. i look forward to this night ever year and am so glad to be a part of it! this year's theme was "welcome to the jungle" and it was decorated beautifully!

shout out to katie for doing my hair and make up since i am not girly enough to do either one of those things on my own! we also took uber for the first time and it was a great experience! we will definilty be using that more in the future. after the gala, we met up with some friends at selwyn. it was a great night!

sunday morning we met up for breakfast & then i did some much needed vegging the rest of the day!

monday, the 3rd, was my sister leigh's 29th birthday! we went to PF changs with momma & b and it was delicious as usual. the week carried on and i was glad when friday rolled around again. 

friday night i stayed in with leigh, derrick and baby. saturday morning i stood in line for charlotte knights opening night at the new stadium tickets for 2.5 hours and they sold out before we even got close to the ticket counter. that was a bummer! i went on a bike ride with mom, took a nap, did some crafting and ended the night out with the boys.




sunday i woke up, had breakfast with momma, watched dallas buyers club, took a 3 hour nap, and had dinner at ruth's chris for my sisters' birthdays! court's is on wednesday, so we just did a big joint dinner for the both of them with dad & mary ann. it was a great way to end a super relaxing and fun weekend!

this weekend is kathleen's bachelorette! her sis-in-law and i have been planning for months & i am so excited that it's finally here! she still doesn't know where we're going, so it's all a big surprise. cheers to the beginning of wedding season - it's gonna be a busy one!

february 2014.

a recap of the entire month of february is about to happen in one post.

weekend 1 (jan 31- feb 2): i was home for the only weekend of 2014 and got the stomach flu. how special. 

weekend 2 (feb 7th - feb 9): i traveled to the good ol' "city" of hartsville, sc. two of my very best friends from college are from hartsville and they were throwing our pal laura a bridal shower there, so we made a weekend of it. and i sure am glad we did!

there are two bars hartsville, and one is a double wide trailer called j. michaels. an in j. michaels, you can go to the bar and order a PITCHER OF SHOTS FOR $25, which of course we did. and because i've been good friends with these girls for so long, i seriously knew half the people in the bar on friday night. it was amazing. the shower was adorable and i actually really loved their small town. we did every single "must do" hartsville thing and had a wonderful weekend!

and then the great snow storm happened. it was crazy for us southerners! it was the most snow i can ever remember seeing in charlotte. we couldn't drive anywhere for days. luckily, we live in a great spot and can walk to the grocery and more importantly, the bars.

weekend 3 (feb 14 - feb 17): CHEERSPORT! read more here. because of the snow, my flight to atlanta got cancelled and i didn't get down there until friday night. but i hit the ground running as soon as we got there, and i slept less this year than ever before. when i headed home on monday, i had slept for a total of 9 hours over the 3 nights i was in atlanta. but as usual, it's totally worth the work to see all of my cheer friends & spend the weekend doing what i love with my daddy!

weekend 4 (feb 21 - feb 23): murrells inlet, sc. rachel turned the big 26 so a gang of us headed down to her beach house for the weekend. we have spent so many weeks & weekends here over the years that it truly feels like a home away from home. i love everything about the inlet & love it best when i'm surrounded by 16 great friends. saturday was gorgeous and i spent a few hours on the beach relaxing with laura. saturday night we got a limo and went out in myrtle beach (disclaimer: we don't normally go out in myrtle beach) and it was a goooood time. maybe a little too good.

february has been full of fun! this weekend i'll be staying in charlotte for only the 2nd time since christmas. i'm really looking forward to it, even though i have to be at work at 6:45am on saturday... yuck! saturday night is the annual march forth with hope gala and sunday will be spent doing a whole lot of nothing.

bring it on, march!

the great slump of 2014.

i'm in a slump. i am unmotivated and sad. i try not to complain on the internet very often {or actually ever} so i won't list all of the reasons i want to cry at my desk right now. but this blog is adding pressure to the mountains of pressure i already put on myself about everyone and everything, so i'm taking a break.

and in the meantime, i leave you with my current life struggle:

 

 

january = breaking bad + girls.

way back after christmas when i came down with the plague that left me in bed for 5 days (and i still have the sniffles), i finally started watching breaking bad. i've been wanting to watch it for a while, but got distracted by all the other millions of tv shows that i decided to start watching over the past two years. being sick + traveling every weekend therefore staying in during the week + freezing temperatures left me with a lot of time this month to watch netflix.

so i watched breaking bad from start to finish and just like everyone else, it left me slightly speechless. the writers are insanely smart, the actors are incredible, and the whole thing ended perfectly. i fell madly in love with jesse pinkman and maybe even cried for him once or twice. i think i need to watch it over again just to relive the brilliance. now someone buy me this tee shirt.

 

{source}

 

another show i have been wanting to watch for quite some time is hbo's girls. i have loved lena dunham ever since i watched tiny furniture and realized how strange, yet painfully normal she is. well i finally caught up with the 21st century and learned about hbo go. so i got my parents to give me their cable login and watched every episode ever made in an embarrassingly short amount of time. holy hell, i love this show. what i love most about it is how different all the characters are and what they represent. it's similar to how i feel about parenthood - i just love everyone's stories. and sure, sometimes things that happen to these girls seem a little bit ridiculous, but we all do dumb stuff that leads to hilarious nights. well... maybe not as much anymore.

 

 

and they're also all seriously gorgeous. i love them.

 

so... what show should i get addicted to next?

 

mini CHEERSPORT weekend {atlanta, ga}

last weekend i went to atlanta with my dad to work a CHEERSPORT competition. {read more about CHEERSPORT here} i was planning to drive myself down after work on friday, but my dad had a busy day and ended up not leaving when he was supposed to, so we got to ride together. we got to atlanta around 9:30pm, checked into our beautiful suites, {thank you connections & omni for taking care of us!} had a beverage at the bar, and headed to bed.

{view from my room}

 

{view from my room - atlanta got a ferris wheel.. not sure how i feel about that!}

my 5am wake up call came quickly! i don't think i've woken up at 5am since nationals last  year. it was a loooong and pretty uneventful day which is always a good thing. we ended the evening having a drink with some of my dad's employees, i love them.

{i love our new backdrop}



{teams competed from 8am-10pm, breakdown was done in an impressive 30 minutes}

 

sunday morning i woke up too early for having been awake from 5am-2am on saturday. i laid in bed for a few hours doing absolutely nothing & it was glorious. i have been on the go non-stop since christmas, and i really enjoyed the down time on sunday morning. dad & i packed up and headed home around 11:30am, but not before i enjoyed room service in bed :)

{i love you, atlanta}

 

it was a quick but fun weekend and what i loved most was getting to spend so much time with my dad! being the baby of 3 girls, it's very rare that my dad & i get to spend one-on-one time together. i cherished our time together this weekend!

after 4 out of town trips and 1 weekend filled with baby showers all in the month of january, i'm looking forward to staying in charlotte this weekend. next up is a weekend in hartsville, sc {aka the middle of nowhere} for a bridal shower & the next week i'll be headed back to atlanta for 4 days for CHEERSPORT nationals!

mountain weekend 2014! {boone, nc}

since mary emerson decided to make an early arrival, i wasn't sure i'd make it up to mountain weekend this year. but with all the hoopla & family members we have in charlotte, leigh & derrick assured me i was there for the important stuff and told me to go. so i packed up on saturday morning, stopped by the hospital to see the baby, and then headed up to boone!

after a quick 2 hours drive from charlotte, i turned onto the street that was supposed to take me to our house, and quickly started sliding all over the place. i was FREAKING OUT & actually terrified.  i put in a 911 call to the boys and 10 minutes later all 9 of the guys showed up to the rescue. the end result is that my car spent the weekend at the bottom of the mountain, but not for lack of effort!

{view from the porch}

once we recovered from climbing the mountain with all of my stuff, i convinced the girls to head into town for some exploring. i had done some research last week so i knew where i wanted to go. first stop was our daily bread for lunch - yum! we stopped in mast general store for some shopping and then went to the appalachian mountain brewery! we sat at a picnic table on the heated porch, drank a lot of beer, and played card games for awhile before heading back up to the house. it was such a fun day with my pals!

{turkey philly with white beach & turkey soup}

{crooked common & honey badger were our favorites}

the rest of the weekend revolved around food, alcohol, a sketchy hot tub, never getting out of our pajamas, card games, and football. 

{dalton made venison burgers}

ammie and i got a little stir crazy and decided to go sledding on sunday between the games... i was so happy to be there for ammie's first time on a sled!

it was a wonderful weekend filled with my college pals + some awesome new friends. as i was driving down the mountain on monday morning, i felt overwhelmed with happiness that this life is mine!

already looking forward to mountain weekend 2015!