S'mores Dip

If you live in Florida, I won't need to tell you twice but,

Summer is here, folks! Temperatures creeping up to 100 degrees, 4th of July

RIGHT around the corner (weeeee!), kids out of school, everyone and their Mom

is taking a vacation, families going camping... wait, what?!

Yeah, no. You won't catch this girl camping in Florida mid-June. You crazy?!

I have actually always wondered why camping was categorized as a Summer activity.

I mean it. is. hot. Who wants to spend a night in a tent bundled up in a sleeping bag

on what is likely the World's most uncomfortable air mattress (if you have the luxury of an

air mattress that is), let alone partake in the latter activities when it's a hundred dang degrees out?!

No, I'm a Fall-campin-kinda gal. Bryan officially asked me to be his girlfriend one night

in November on a camping trip with a bunch of our friends so I guess I just tend to

associate camping with Fall... and being "asked to be a girlfriend."

Ohhhhhh, memories! 

Anyway, back on track here, the point is, people do it! 

People still brave the heat and load up the whole fam dam and head to the nearest campground

and plop their butts there for days at a time in their 10-person tent (another thing I don't understand..

because camping is much more enjoyable when you cram everyone in one tent right?).

The one thing I *DO* crave this time of year? S'mores.

I loooove S'mores. 

Fun Fact: National S'mores Day is August 10th!

#truestory

However! You don't need to find the nearest campground to enjoy this

Summer favorite... heck, you don't even need a campfire!

S'mores Dip

You Will Need:

Mini Marshmallows 

Chocolate Chips

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Graham Crackers for Dipping

Directions:

1. Combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk

2. Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until melted

3. Add mini marshmallows and pop in the oven {on broil!}

for 2 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on how quickly

the marshmallows brown. Some ovens are quicker than others!

4. Allow to cool. 

5. Grab your graham crackers and dip em on in!

YUM.

Campground style S'mores, minus the sleeping bags. And 10-person tent.

Enjoy and happy {almost!} weekend!

Our Wedding: The Guys

Ohhhhh the boys :)

What would a wedding weekend be without some shenanigans from the groomsmen?

What I probably hadn't previously mentioned were our accommodations for the weekend. 

We were married at BG Equestrian Resort, which just so happened to have the most

GORGEOUS, jaw-dropping, 8 bedroom "house" (for lack of a better term.. can we just say castle?)

on the property that we also rented for the weekend. In the first phases of planning, I knew I wanted

to make a whole weekend out of our festivities and, with 250 guests, a destination wedding

was not exactly an option. With this house we would be able to accommodate our entire wedding party

and some of their dates for both Friday and Saturday evening. This was PERFECT because

we ended up holding our rehearsal dinner there as well. 

I made strict arrangements to be IN my bedroom with my sweet maid of honor (with a glass

of wine of course) no later than 10:00 PM. I. Was so. Wrong.

Shortly after the families left, there we were, 25 individuals between the ages of 23 and 28,

already a little jazzed up over pre and post rehearsal cocktails, left in this massive house

with copious amount of alcohol remaining. I felt like the camera crew from Real World

should have been following us all around for crying out loud. 

Liquor flip cup soon commenced, one of the guys actually got carried up to their

room by none other than the Groom-to-be and the MOH and myself may or may not

have decided to start karaoke. Around 12:30 or 1:00, I FINALLY made it to my room.

I was so worried about not being able to fall asleep the night before but as soon as my little head hit that pillow, I was out. Until around 3:30 AM. When quite a few of the groomsmen 

proceeded to stomp around outside the master bedroom as if they were wearing freakin combat boots.

This house was almost 9000 square feet, why are you doing the A-town stomp

right outside of my bedroom? Go play in the other 8800 square feet of the house!

Bridezilla maaaayyy have come out for a split SECOND, then all was calm. 

Back to sleep and back to happy Bride :)

I still can't believe we pulled off staying in that house without any major injuries. 

Anyway, back to these handsome fools who we got to call our Groomsmen!

Obligatory goofy sock pic, of course.

A quick pre-ceremony cheersies.

Annnddd they're off. Bryan looking totally cool, calm and collected. 

Would ya look at this good lookin' son of a gun?

Holy groomsmen!

And! Wedding Wednesday bonus (or just because I can't do a post

with only two pictures) our group photos of our entire wedding party. 

Weeeeee!

Love, love, LOVE the lighting on these!

Uggghhhh, can we go back in time to March 1st already?!

Our Wedding: The Girls

EIGHT BRIDESMAIDS.

I had EIGHT bridesmaids...

Before our wedding, vendors, family members, friends, etc were all asking

the size of our wedding party and when I replied that we had a total of 18

people in our wedding party (including ourselves), the looks just said it all. 

8 pretty pink monogrammed robes. 8 bedazzled champagne glasses.

8 bottles of bubbly. 8 beautiful bouquets of pale pink roses...

8 best friends who are practically like sisters.

I love each and every one of these girls to pieces.

Treasure Island & Beach Bag Essentials

Due to lack of shenanigans this past weekend

Seriously, we went to the movie theater twice.. who are we??

I'm sharing my beach bag essentials and LAST weekend's mini vaca with Mom. 

Treasure Island seriously never disappoints.... 

But first! I read the funniest article the other day on how you can tell if people have kids

or not by the items that they bring to the beach. Like their children, for example. No, I'm kidding.

People without kids usually bring a cooler of beer and maybe, if they're smart, a sandwich.

People with kids bring water, Gatorades, juice boxes, 4 different types of sandwiches, cheese sticks,

fruit, chips, cookies.... I mean how do these people even have anything left in their pantries for the following week?? I literally have to laugh because I think its a hassle NOW to load up and go 

to the beach that I can't even picture a beach trip as a family of four. 

1 // Floppy Hat. Shades your sweet face and hides your hot mess beach hair! Win, Win!

2 // A Magazine. People watching isn't enough. Your ADD will eventually kick in

and you'll need something to do to preoccupy yourself because your Mom

doesn't want to hear you talk for 4 hours straight. This was supposed to be relaxing, remember?

3 // Obnoxious shades. Because the hat isn't obnoxious enough AND

they were only $12 from Old Navy. Weeee!

4 // Tanning Oil. LOTS. To the point where you look like you're ready to compete

in a bodybuilding competition. 

5 // Some type of a beverage. One of my girlfriends turned me onto the new

Coors Light summer brew and I. Am. Obsessed.

Run to the store immediately and get yourself a 12-pack.

6 // The Cube! Or something to blast your tunes. Unless you're playing Jason Derulo

"Talk Dirty to Me." If that is the case, keep that one to yourself.

#overit

7 // Noodles! For when you get hot and need to bop

around in the ocean. Also multi-purposed as a head rest. You're welcome.

Early Saturday morning we packed up all of the goods and started making our way towards Tampa.

My parents have had their beach condo in Treasure Island for a little over 3 years and I swear

this was their best investment (other than myself of course) because I am SO in love with this little beach town. See also National Best Friend Day Beach Weekend.

I wasn't kidding about the Coors Summer Brew.

Suns out buns out!

After getting way too much sun, we headed to the casino!

I thought I would play it safe and stick with the roulette machine rather than sitting at an

actual table. $120 dollars later. Wrong. 

Coffee tastes better at the beach :)

Pretty solid $5 dollar investment I have there!

 This was way too funny not to take a picture of.

What you're looking at here is an obviously empty beach chair, 

several empty beers and a pair of men's underwear. 

What. 

The beach was completely empty when we walked down Sunday morning,

with the exception of this. Someone clearly had a top notch Saturday evening.

 ...You then grab a Strawberry margarita even though it's only 10:30 am

and jump into selfie-mode while your Mom relentlessly tries to plant the umbrella into the sand.

After an obvious fail, she needs your help as she's engulfed in the very

umbrella that she was trying to set into place.

The wind is blowing like crazy, your margarita practically flies away and

all hell is breaking loose. But no, you grab your iPhone and snap a photo

of all of the madness. Looking back, Mom now finds this photo pretty funny.

Not at all the case as it was happening. 

 All is calm. After we ditched the dysfunctional umbrella.

 Being a kid, per the usual.

Side note: Mom S W E A R S as she was taking this picture a sting ray came jumping out of the 

water behind me. The guy pointing at something is probably a pretty good indication that there was. Treasure Island is usually swarming with them but I've only seen one jump once.

I had to google it because I was convinced there was some radioactive, flying creature in the

water at the time that it happened. Please tell me I am not the only one who has seen this occurrence..?!

Beach ice cream is the BEST. So is beach coffee.

...Actually, everything is just better at the beach.

Happy Monday!

Five on Friday: Island Edition

Oh haaayyy Friday! 

Linking up for Five on Fri because, well why not?

- ONE - I'm not even going to ease you into this one. BIMINI. Boom. I am obsessing over this little island and I haven't even been there yet. A quick trip from Florida,  this little Bohemian island is only a 20 minute plane ride or an hour and a half by boat and, since we're feeling adventurous, we will be taking the latter mode of transportation. July 2nd-6th. We're booked! This is happeninggggg.

- TWO - Itsy bikini bottoms from Victoria Secret. So fun! They're literally only $13

bucks right now and did you know that they will match the price in stores??

I did NOT and then proceeded to go a little overboard. Seriously who else goes into VS with a free panty card and walks out with at least $100 bucks in merchandise? Guilty. 

- THREE - Okaayyy with that being said, fave numero tres is definitely this little workout routine

that will now become my BFF. I love, love, love the elliptical because I'm just not a runner 

and I can't wait to try these intervals. 

- FOUR - This song.

{ P R E S S  P L A Y }

- FIVE - These 4th of July monogrammed koozies.

Gotta have 'em. 

Happy (almost) Weekend!

Turks & Caicos Recap

I kid you NOT when I say that I'm going through fun in the sun withdrawal today.

Oh you haven't heard of that illness before? It's real, I tell you.

See also: Where is my umbrella in my beverage? and Pass the tanning lotion. 

This will be my first FULL week back at work in over three dang weeks.

YES. THREE.

#thestruggleisreal

Today you're in for a real treat! I'm sharing a recap of our Turks & Caicos trip and next up

will be MDW (or Memorial Day Weekend if you're not up on your instagram acronyms) anddd

then this past weekend's mini beach weekend with Momma! 

I know. We have been all over the place lately.

If you feel that it's only necessary that you sip on a frozen strawberry margarita or six

while browsing through these photos, or the next few blog posts for that matter,

then by all means! 

It all started three weeks ago, when we were setting sail to the islands of

Turks & Caicos (by the way, why is it so fun to say Turks & Caicos?)
south of the Bahamas, in the British West Indies for my fabulous 

sister-in-law's 21st birthday... 

Off the beautiful Miami coastline.

Shannon wasted literally zero time grabbing herself a $16 Bud Light.

Docking in Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

Myself & my hunk of a Husband. Please, Bryan, flex a bit more babe.

Offshore excursion? No thanks! We'll head to the bar!

The water in Turks & Caicos was so so SO blue, literally unparalleled. 

Screen saver worthy, am I right?? 

And finally a gorgeous sunset despite the clouds moving in on our way back home.

Side note:

Not quite sure why I only have a handful of photos from the whole trip?!

Anyway.. it wasn't the longest vacation but it was absolutely perfect.

I'm not the 10 day vaca type of gal anyway because around the 3rd or 4th day

I'm over here like "Soooo where's the Wifi??" But nonetheless

I will absolutely be making a trip back to this little fabulous little island. 

Now back to reality and resuming normal Thursday activities.