Over the past month I have enjoyed many little things about marriage. It's hard to believe that it has been a month already but I had a feeling that would happen. Time has flown by with all the traveling and settling into this new life with Peter. I'm not going to lie... I was a little nervous about coming home and starting a new routine with a husband in my life but I can honestly say that it has been the most fun month. It has been full of laughing and mushy love stuff but I don't know why I expected anything less since I was marrying this silly, wonderful man of mine. Here are a few of the little things that I never want to forget...

the way Peter told his mom his favorite part of marriage is not having to say goodbye to me at night // driving to church on Sunday mornings together // Peter suggesting that I should change my personal email so it will have my new last name // the morning kiss every day and the little "see you when I get home" with a wink before he leaves for work // making breakfast together on Saturday mornings // the way he helps me wash the dishes after dinner // holding his hand and feeling the ring on his left hand 

My friend Madison...

This is my sweet friend Madison.....

Madison is one of the fiercest people I have ever met. She overflows with the Lord’s love and I am always amazed by the things she does, the words she says and the way she carries herself. She is a warrior for His Kingdom and she is doing some amazing work right now. On September 30th Madison left her comfortable life here in South Carolina so she could move to Mozambique Africa for almost three months. Here is what she has shared about her new home:

“It is an amazing place where people are equipped for international missions & ministry. Jesus is glorified above all else, & their main mission is to love people into an encounter with Him. The supernatural is a normal part of life there. They see the deaf hear, food multiply, the lame walk & more on a daily basis. The power of Father is at work in mighty ways there & I am so honored to be able to go be a part of what He is doing as I'm more equipped to move forward in His calling on me.”

Gives me goose bumps every time I read it. I think what Madison is doing in Africa is astounding. During the time she is living in Africa and attending the Harvest School of Missions in Mozambique she has been blogging about her adventures there. I wait as patiently as possible to read them and when she posts a new update I’m left sitting in front of my computer crying tears of happiness because of the way she shares her heart so openly and freely.

I wanted to share this with all of you so you can follow along her journey also. You can help support Madison by lifting her and the team she is working with in prayer. There are also financial needs for Madison’s trip and if you feel that The Lord is leading you to help her in this journey by giving then you can do so HERE. Make sure that you put her name (Madison Hopkins) in the “notes/comments” section.

Also feel free to catch up on her journey on her blog and stay tuned for all the exciting updates she has to share!

{ Madison, I love you so much and I can’t wait to see where this road is going to lead you next!! I am praying for you and waiting patiently for you to be home again so I can hear all of the amazing stories and hug your neck! }

Dining Room Re-Do // Part Four

And we are back on schedule with my Thursday house updates and it feels good!! Honestly, it feels pretty awesome to be living here and enjoying it now with my husband and all that fun stuff. I'm still thinking that the dining room is my favorite room in the house. We haven't had a big meal at our pretty table yet but I get so excited when I think about it. It will be so great. 

All of the little pieces in this room have come together so well. The super cheap finds that I scored at estate sales or yard sales and also our beautiful wedding gifts that family and friends so graciously gave us. Everything in this room is new to us except for the gorgeous china cabinet that belonged to my great grandmother. When my mom told me that I could have it I thought I wet myself {sorry... just being honest} because I was so excited to have such a precious piece of furniture in our home. I still smile when I walk by and see it. 

^^^ our bottle of wine waiting patiently in our buffet. 

^^^ a beautiful Christmas Cactus plant my grandmother gave me 

and my favorite milk glass purchase from an estate sale. 

^^^ thanks to Jocie my china cabinet has been "Jocified" and I love it.

^^^ view from the front door when you walk in.

^^^ and one of my favorite yard sale finds! This plant stand was made by hand and it was only $10, I absolutely love it. 

yup.... definitely my favorite room.

little bit more of San Fran!

At the beginning of the trip when we were in San Francisco I was crossing my fingers for a trip to the Ferry Building Marketplace but we couldn’t squeeze it in. I was a little bummed but I was still crossing my fingers that we could make it happen before we flew home. Well, make it happen we did! It was even better than all the pictures I saw online. All the vendors with the fresh food and the delicious restaurants to choose from was so neat. We decided to try out The Slanted Door and it was also my first time eating Vietnamese food and Oh My. I don’t know what took me so long and it was honestly really dumb of me to wait because I have a feeling it will be pretty hard to find some Vietnamese cuisine that will top that restaurant. After the yummy lunch with the beautiful views outside we found a few of my most favorite desserts, French Macaroons!!! With a slow drip cup of coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee company and a Hazelnut, Coffee & Pistachio flavored Macaroon we ended our trip on the highest of high notes. Or at least in my book…

A perfect ending...

Monterey, the Big Sur & Carmel were all so, so gorgeous!! I loved different things about all of them which made the last part of our trip so much fun. In Monterey we did some shopping by the water and had some tasty Pinkberry which made this lady very happy. Big Sur was unreal with its beauty that kept on becoming more beautiful around every corner of the drive. The sunset dinner with Peter in the photo above was one of my favorite memories from the trip… the food wasn't the best but the way we sat together and watched the sun go down behind the silky water and talked about all the places we had been and the places we want to go in our future was so exciting. I am really happy that I get to do life with this man and I know how blessed I am to call him mine! Carmel was complete perfection and I could have honestly spent an entire week there. From wine tasting and olive oil tasting to some delicious sushi and then window shopping for art that cost anywhere from $300 to $15,000… needless to say we did not buy anything but along the way we stumbled into a Syrian/Jordanian owned café and had some tasty Turkish coffee. It was an all around great day and great days make me super happy!!

^^^ beautiful downtown Monterey!

^^^ we stopped at the Cannery Row Brewery Company and I loved this awesome light.

^^^ First stop on the 17 Mile drive which we accidentally took twice. Definitely didn't mind driving through this beautiful scenery more than once. 

^^^ The Lonely Cyprus

^^^ does not even look real. It's crazy how beautiful this place is!

Just a little bit more of San Fran coming your way tomorrow and then the Honeymoon posts will be over. I honestly did most of this for my memories but I also thought a lot of you would like to see and hear about all the places we visited! I hope you've enjoyed it... I know we will look back on this trip every year and remember all the happiness and love that we had on the 10 amazing days. 

Some more beautiful photos for your enjoyment...

I honestly can't tell you the names of all the beaches we saw on all of our drives because there were a ton but they were all gorgeous. On Saturday the fifth of October we drove through Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz with a little pit stop at Big Basin on our way to Monterey. The long drives were starting to get to me by this point and a hot cup of coffee was needed a couple times just so I could keep my eyes open to see everything. The big ocean views and ginormous trees were so amazing and made me realize how small we are and how big God is. There were times when I had to take a deep breath and just stare at His beautiful work. He really does like to show off and I absolutely love it. 

^^^ we stopped in Half Moon Bay to take some photos and have some lunch. 

the views were so pretty and the weather was the perfect combination of hot sun and cool breeze!

^^^ on the way to Big Bason we saw this cute little tractor at a pumpkin farm and it made me feel like I was home again. 

^^^ this family on the right with the stroller was the only photo I took that truly captured how big these trees are, so amazing!!! 

^^^ Peter went in the middle of this big cluster of trees and said "You have to come see this!" 

the photo below is what we saw. 

^^^ definitely framing this in our house! 

We ended the beach stops in Santa Cruz with some light houses, super hot wings that almost made us cry & a walk through the amusement park by the ocean. It was gorgeous but this was the only picture taken during our time there since we were trying to reserve the battery for our Cannon as much as possible. I'm the genious that forgot to pack the wall plug in charger. I still want to kick myself for forgetting it but in all honesty it was nice to just enjoy the veiws with my own two eyes instead of clicking away with the camera.

Some wine and a little beer too!

I've always wanted to visit Wine Country and I had high hopes for this part of the trip but I definitely realized that I'm much more of a beer girl than a wine girl. I've always been the girl to choose wine if I have a choice so this really surprised me. After our first day of tastings I knew that sipping on a lot of different wine over a long period of time is just not my thing. Beer on the other hand is a different story. I could taste all kinds of well made beer all day long. Since my husband is an at home beer brewer and loves beer almost as much as he loves me this is a good thing. 

Beer > Wine pretty much sums up this part of our trip and we were perfectly fine with that. 

^^^ our beautiful hotel in Sonoma!

^^^ some tasty beers on our first night after the long drive and a delicious meal.

I chose the 10% dark sour and it was absolutely perfect!! Mmmm. 

^^^ Our first winery stop on Thursday at Matanzas was also a lavender field and since we used lavender in our wedding it was so wonderful to be surrounded by that lovely scent that reminds me of our special day! 

^^^ B.R. Cohn was one of our favorite wineries and the only winery we bought a bottle of wine to take home with us. I can't wait to drink it on a special date night at home with Peter! 

^^^ Benzinger was the only winery that we had a cheese pairing and I think it really helped with the tasting.

^^^ it was also the most beautiful winery too! 

^^^ Peter snacking on a grape from the vine! 

^^^ after all the wine we dedicated Friday to Lagunitas Brewing Company on our ride out of Wine Country. It was so much fun!! 

Since Yosemite was closed we couldn't spend the two nights we had scheduled there so we got lucky and found a hotel for Friday night and then another hotel on Saturday night. It turned out to be a great way to break the trip up a little bit and gave us some extra time to explore. Plus, now we have an excuse to travel back to Northern California and see Yosemite someday! Sounds like a win-win to me.