Happy Monday! I had such a fun long holiday weekend (I hope you did too!), so I wanted to share an old-fashioned weekend recap post. I haven't done one of these in so long!! I had a quintessential American summer weekend, so I'm immortalizing it in a scrapbook-style post.
My weekend started on Wednesday - I had Thursday and Friday off, and my boss let me leave a couple of hours early! I went over to my parents house and my mom and I painted our toenails and had wine together - I had picked up the Trader Joe's Le Blanc for like $7 and didn't have high expectations for it, but it was actually really nice!
On Monday, a brand new Bucee's opened in Mount Crawford which is like 15 minutes south of where I live, so when Kenny got off work we went to visit it! We got there after 9:00 and it was still very crowded - my guess is that it was popping all holiday weekend and probably still is since it's only been open one week at this point.
On Thursday, my mom and brother and I went to the pool together! My mom and I go to the pool together occasionally in the summer, but we hadn't all three been together since high school! When we were kids, my mom used to play this Barenaked Ladies greatest hits album when we drove to and from the pool. 😂 We had to break it back out for the nostalgia - and I had to take a picture!
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| My dress |
I ran into my bff's sister and her family so we sat with them for the fireworks show!
The sunset was gorgeous. 😍 Brix and Columns may have the best view of Massanutten mountain in the whole valley!
I had invited my brother, Stuart, and his girlfriend, Carmen, to come but he said they weren't coming, but Carmen convinced him to change his mind and I was so excited when they came! We got a couple bottles of wine (the McGahey red blend is my favorite) and had fun just hanging out - the fireworks were much further away than I remembered from years past so we didn't pay full attention. 😂
Kenny was our sommelier for the evening and this picture cracked me up. 😂
On Friday, Stuart and Carmen were hosting a bonfire, so I spent the day prepping some food. I cut watermelon, made shrimp ceviche (I'd never made it before but it was delicious, everyone loved it!), and my tried and true chocolate peanut butter no-bake bars.
Stuart and Carmen planted a beautiful garden that's approaching it's peak right now, so I thoroughly enjoyed Carmen giving me a tour of everything!
Before the bonfire, we all hung around in the backyard. If you zoom in next to Kenny, you can see we were joined by the neighborhood cat who we lovely call Bob because he has a bobtail. 😻 We don't know his real name - he lives in the house across the street but he spends a lot of time outside and will always hang around us if we're in the yard.
We had quite the Fourth of July spread! Carmen made a delicious pasta salad with sundried tomatoes, feta, and black olives.
I hadn't roasted hot dogs over the fire in years! Can you tell which are real and which are vegan?
I wore my granddad's old Stetson hat around for a while - it felt right. It is SO tall, I felt like Dirty Dan from Spongebob. 😂
We got the most amazing surprise firework show after the sun went down! We couldn't tell where they were coming from, but we speculated it was from a nearby wedding venue.
We stayed outside LATE singing and dancing and had just the best time! I am still suffering from countless mosquito bites but it was worth it.
On Saturday, Kenny and I hiked Saint Mary's Wilderness falls trail which we had never done before! There were lots of people there which ended up being helpful, because there are several stream crossings along the hike and it isn't always clear exactly where to cross, so we relied on other people a handful of times.
The hike was beautiful because it follows the river most of the time, and the water is SO clear and blue! I was not expecting all of the stream crossings so I wasn't thrilled to get my feet wet, but we have been in a bit of a wet spell with the weather so I'm sure there are other times where it's easier to cross without submerging your feet. I tried my best to stay dry and Kenny stacked rocks up along the crossings to help me get across. 😭 Angel!
My mom and I love spotting wildflowers - I spotted these fringed bleeding hearts (AKA turkey corn) and had my mom double check my identification. It turns out that they're fairly rare to see and she had never spotted them in the wild before! She has a Virginia wildflower book where she marks when and where she saw each wildflower, and I was excited to get to be the one to fill this one in. 😍
Another exciting find on our hike was wild blueberries! There were lots of wild blackberries along the trail but not many ripe ones because they're identifiable, so other hikers had eaten most of them. I only saw one blueberry bush, but I must've been the first to spot it because it had 6 perfect tiny blueberries for Kenny and me to share!
The end of the hike boasts a gorgeous waterfall, and photos of course do not do it justice - I wish you could tell how gorgeously clear and blue the water was!
There is a very deep spot at the bottom of the falls that a group of guys was jumping into, so Kenny joined them! There was also a guy with goggles diving down below the falls and seeing him swim down made it look super deep. He said there were a bunch of fish down there!
When we got home from our hike, Kenny and I headed over to my parents for one last firework show! We sat outside in the bed of my dad's truck like we always used to do when my brother and I were kids. My parents were SO cute. 😭
On Sunday, Kenny was out of town so I had a chill day! Roxy and I sat outside and I finished reading Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. It was a cute summer read but not my favorite book I've ever read - I love Elin Hilderbrand books so much that hardly anything compares for me when it comes to summer books! I leant it to my neighbor once I was done because she said she had been eyeing it, so I'm interested to see what she thinks of it!
For dinner I ordered pad see ew which is my FAVORITE food ever! My mom sent me this gorgeous sunset photo to end the night - they have THE most amazing sunset views at my parents house. 😍
xoxx, Laura
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