She said yes!!!

That's right...the moment you've all been waiting for...we're engaged.

After a 3 mile hike up to an amazingly beautiful alpine lake, i proposed to Karen and she said yes. As you can imagine, we're both really excited and as of yet haven't made any decisions on a date or a location....but most likely '09 and somewhere fabulous.

Enjoy the pics and stay tuned for more shots from the rest of our trip.

En route to our hike

The view of Lake Sabrina about 45 minutes into our hike

Overlooking Lake Sabrina and the White Mtns. in the background

Blue Lake - the end of our hike
(with gusts up to 30mph and temps in the 30's, this view wasn't had for long)

But long enough...



10,440 ft above sea level

Will & Lodod get hitched

Our dear buddies, Will and Laurel tied the knot on
November 10th in classic Will & Laurel style. The festivities began a bit early for me and I flew from Richmond to Charleston on Wed night to work in a visit with Meg, Peej and Molly Piper. I got to spend a full day with Megan Ann and Molly and soon realized what all the hype was about...Molly is quite possibly the most precious thing I've ever seen. I also soon realized how much energy it takes to raise a little one. Kudos to Meg and Peej, I'm way impressed!
On Thursday the masses began to arrive in Edisto and the celebrating soon began. Jim, Patti, Anna and Phil arrived Thursday night and we all got settled at the 3 Palmettos. John arrived late Friday morning from his red eye flight. We got a short walk on the beach in before John was ready for a nap. While John rested up, I went over to the wedding house to help in the massive undertaking of making 250 cupcakes for the reception. Friday night we enjoyed the Rehersal dinner and catching up with all the friends and buddies we hadn't seen in years (eek, yes years!). After dinner the party migrated back to the beach at Whaley's bar. We continued catching up with friends and enjoyed the cheap beer, southern rock cover band, and of course taking in the local rednecks...haven't seen those in awhile. Saturday we cheered on the Wolfpack to a big victory over UNC and then made our way over to the creek for the wedding. The ceremony was held at the Middleton plantation right on the creek. The setting was beautiful and Laurel looked amazing. It was quite a tear jerker...I must of teared up at least 5 times during the night. The reception was a blast featuring music from the Avett's and the buddies. And where's there's music there is dancing. Enjoy the pictures and Best Wishes to Laurel & Will....we love you guys!

Jason, Will, Mac, Laurel & Lizzy

The Kiss! Laurel wore the lace from her grandma's wedding dress during the ceremony

Group shot by the creek: Phil & Anna, Karen & John, Patti & Jim

Awwww...

Let the party begin! Karen, Megan Ann, and Steph

The Avett's!!!

The back of Laurel's dress. A family friend made it...so gorgeous!

Finally, a picture with the Bride!

Back tracking to Friday night....Whaley's Bar featuring soon to be bride and groom, Laurel & Will

Patti and Jim hanging out at Whaleys

Yeah...we're back on the East coast!

I of course have to include some Molly P. pictures...Here's Daddy Peej and the Mollster

Love this one! Molly is practicing her downward facing dog.

All bundled up for a walk on the beach

Lunch...Molly has all eyes on Mom.

Kenny's 30th!

My brother celebrated his 30th trip around the sun on November 4th. By the luck of a cheap Delta flight and an understanding cool boss, I was able to fly back home and help Kenny celebrate his big 3-0 and work in a visit home with the folks. Amber coordinated a great house party featuring a keg, beer pong, and flip cup. It was a blast and I got to catch up with a bunch of Kenny's friends that I hadn't seen in years.

Time for Birthday Cake!!!

Kenny Sykes and Kenny Denton gearing up for beer pong in the garage

Shot of team girl flip-cup: Jenn, Drea, Allison, Karen, Kim, Amber

Team Dudes

Jenn, Ken, Amber and me....Kenny's drunkers

Washington DC

Back in October I had the chance to go to DC to help work at a Health and Wellness Expo in conjunction with the Marine Corp Marathon. No, I did not participate in the marathon but I did work my butt of at the Kashi booth for 3 days. It wasn't all work though. My good friend Melissa and I worked in a few sites, visits with East coast friends, and I did end up running in the Marine Corp 10k. Here are a few pics from the trip:

Melissa, Abe, and Me at the Kashi Booth. Abe loves his whole grains!

Site seeing...the white house seemed much smaller in person.

Melissa and I went to one of the wings of the Art Museum. I enjoyed the Matisse section, love all the colors!

Inside part of the Smithsonian Castle...the windows and architecture were amazing

We caught up with Lori and had dinner in her neck of the woods. We had an amazing dinner at Sonoma restaurant in Capital Hill.

More visitors!!!

As usual, we're a little late on getting our posts out on the blog, but I of course wanted to highlight the visit of our good friends Corey and Ashely. Corey and Ashley made it out from Wilkes county, NC for a So Cal adventure back in late Sept / early Oct. As soon as the arrived we packed up the car and headed north to Santa Barbara for a "camping" adventure. I put it in quotations b/c it was what I like to call glorified camping...which included, a safari tent, beds, and even electricity. We stayed at the El Capitan Canyon resort which was absolutely beautiful! We stayed 2 nights and worked in a visit to Santa Barbara, hiking, and wine tasting. We has such a great time. Here's a link to the complete pictures of their visit, but I'm posting a few below.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EcNW7JmyasXzw

On the drive up we stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch.


Our Safari Tent at the El Capitan Canyon Resort, creature comforts included.

Playing yard games....feels just like summer camp!

Sunday morning we did a hike up above our campground...this is the view of the Pacific to the North

Onward to wine tasting...cheers

Group shot outside one of the vineyards we stopped at.

Back in San Diego. Corey, Ashley and John went kayaking in La Jolla cove and then we regrouped at the house before going out to dinner for their last night in town.