Virginia Beach, Baby!!

Ryan had never been to Virginia Beach before, and as I mentioned yesterday, I'd not been there for five years.{For a fun throwback time, here is a post from my first view of the ocean five years ago.} So we were pretty excited about our trip and the chance to see a new section of the ocean!

Our Saturday morning was pretty low key. We hung out at Mark and Lynnette's house, bonding with their dogs, Belle and Charlie. Please excuse my bedhead. I feel we are good enough friends that I can post this picture.

Please excuse Ryan's bedhead, too.

 So fun, those two little doggies!!

Mark had some things to do at home that day, so we hit the beach scene with Lynnette. It was a bit cool for beach water, but it was PERFECT weather for just walking the sand and seeing the sights. Wanna peek?

{She actually took us to TWO beaches: a lesser populated, more natural beach, and the big touristy oceanfront beach area.}

These pictures are from the first beach, the lesser populated one. We kicked our shoes off and walked through the sand for a while, listening to water slap against the shore and feeling the perfect breeze and the sun. Heaven on earth.

After we went to the first beach, we took a break for lunch. We tried The Shoreline Grill - a restaurant attached to a hotel by the boardwalk, and although it was chilly by the water, it was too pretty to eat inside, so we ate on the patio. Ryan and I were complete pigs, but lunch was so good!

And then we walked up and down the boardwalk....here's a peek at our fun!

{Crashed a wedding....}

{And a quick remake of a picture in 2010}

After our beach fun, we went home to meet up with Mark, and they took us to a BBQ place Guy Fieri once visited: Whitner's BBQ. I was so full from lunch, I didn't eat much, but it was so good!!!

With full bellies, we went back to Mark and Lynnette's to play with the dogs and watch TV!

Beach day = success. I was so happy to see the ocean again. It seriously makes me happier than it should.

The Great Getaway of 2015

Hope  you're ready for a virtual vacation, because I took 1000 pictures on our vacation. DO NOT WORRY. You don't have to see them all.

This was our first full-week vacation away from home since our cruise the first year we got married. WHAT!?! How did that happen? {It happened because the full week we both took off work in our second year of marriage was our much-loved staycation.} Anyway. This started out as just a long weekend to visit friends, but our dreams grew along the way, and we ended up being gone eight days, during which time we saw 7 states and 2 countries. We {Ryan especially} needed a break from life and work, and this turned out to be a pretty perfect week!

We left home last Friday morning, after MUCH protest from someone in our house:

But, you know, the show must go on:

So we set out...coffee in hand, and began our 738 mile drive. Destination? Virginia Beach!

You guys, we had the most perfect day to drive. I've never seen anything like it before or since. The weather was superb. We did not hit rush hour anywhere. We did not hit construction anywhere. We did not get lost anywhere. It was so weird. So very not Shaffer. But here is the picture of two people who were NOT complaining about the ease of the trip.

We played games, and I read to Ryan while we were in the car. {He has now heard my entire written book of our first year of marriage - AND he said he liked it, so that's a wife/writer win!}

And here are some peeks at our lovely day. From a perfect sunrise...

...to lovely lakes and rivers...

...to the fun of driving in mountains...it was so perfect.

We drove through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and finally...into Virginia! {Which, apparently, is for lovers. Who knew??}

When we finally got close to Virginia Beach, we had to drive through a tunnel. {An under WATER tunnel.} You can imagine the prayer that went out of me during that excursion.

After eating breakfast on the road, stopping briefly for lunch {we won't discuss that stop as it is not a restaurant we would EVER recommend, and I don't want to be ugly about it on the internet}, and a couple of other quick fuel/coffee stops, we made it to our destination at 8:07 p.m. That was about 2 hours sooner than I ever imagined we would arrive.

We actually stayed with my best friend, Lynnette, and her husband, Mark. I hadn't visited Virginia Beach in five years {I was mid-personal-desert during my last visit} and it was so good to be back and to get to visit with them again!

And guess what?? I MADE A NEW FRIEND!!!

That's Charlie...and he wasn't part of their family last time I visited {or at our wedding, for that matter}. He was my little buddy for my visit, starting with the very minute we walked in the door. Couldn't you just DIE over his cuteness?? I sure could.

So that was the great getaway, day one. All driving, but much fun. Ryan is the best car travel partner EVER.

{Car karaoke}

The Shafferland Shuffle

In case you missed it yesterday...SURPRISE! We went on vacation this past week! In fact, we sneaked out a couple days early at the end of last week, making my picture sharing tricky for last Friday and Saturday! While everything I told you was absolutely true, here are a couple of montages that show a little bit more fully the events of a week ago Friday and Saturday:

* Friday was really filled with an all day road trip that began at 7 a.m. {and the trip to Starbucks you saw} and ended when we arrived at my best friend Lynnette and her husband Mark's house in Virginia Beach, Virginia. {They own the cute dog you saw in last week's Shuffle.} We had THE most perfect day ever for driving. Not one single construction zone. Not one single wreck. Not one single slow down. Nothing. And stunning blue skies, sunshine, and changing leaves made for such a pretty drive. We had a blast in the car, but we were happy to arrive and stretch!

* Saturday, we really did sleep in and eat BBQ and cuddle up to watch TV at night, but there were a few more exciting things throughout the day. We lounged around Mark and Lynnette's house all morning and then we headed TO THE BEACH! Lynnette took us to two different beaches and we had a great time walking through sand, walking down the boardwalk, crashing a wedding, playing with photo props, and so much more. We ended the day eating at a darling little BBQ place and then watching TV.

* Sunday, we went to church with Mark and Lynnette, and then they took us to Colonial Williamsburg. We'd never been before, and again, we had such a pretty day and LOVED being able to run around, having fun, seeing history, and spending great time with my half of our wedding party. {And I won't lie - I kind of wanted to move into some of the houses in Williamsburg! They are adorable! But I would not have wanted to live back in those colonial days!}

* Monday was our last day in Virginia, and Mark and Lynnette took us to the lighthouse at Cape Henry. {Again, in case you have forgotten, I am petrified of heights and enclosed spaces, so climbing lighthouses is a feat for me. But I did it!!} We had another GORGEOUS day - much nicer than was predicted, actually. We had a seafood dinner on the water and ended our day at Mark and Lynnette's favorite coffee shop. A great end to our time in Virginia Beach!

* We left Mark and Lynnette's house early Tuesday morning and drove almost the entire day, headed to our NEXT adventure! The morning's drive was kind of maddening - rush hour and delays and wrong turns and such, but midday, we stopped and visited Furnace Hills coffee roasting company! We'd never seen roasting in action before, and it was exciting! More about this later. We drove all afternoon, up from Virginia, through Maryland, all the way through Pennsylvania, and into New York, and we got a hotel for the night - and it had complimentary coffee and cookies. YUM!!!

* Wednesday, we were THRILLED when the weather report was wrong and our day at Letchworth State Park in New York went splendidly! I can't wait to show you more of the pictures, but we hit a stunning leaf season to drive and hike through this beautiful park that is voted the number one state park in the nation for a very good reason. We spent the entire day in the park, ate dinner before 5:00 {LOL!!!!} and then spent the evening resting our aching feet. Hiking uphill is a change of pace for these flat-land midwesterners!!

* Thursday morning we had our shortest drive of the whole trip: an hour and a half to the great sight of Niagara Falls! It was Ryan's first ever trip to the Falls, and my third. {Second that I remember. I was two months old the first time.} Though the day had been slated for cold and rain, it was warm and sunny and STUNNING. There weren't a ton of people there, so we had plenty of room to move around, take pictures, see beautiful fall leaves, and take our first trek into CANADA! Though our legs almost fell off at the end of the day from all the walking, it was a lovely day in every way.

* Friday morning, we took our time getting ready and packed up, walked back down to the Falls one more time for a goodbye look, and left New York shortly before lunch. The drive home was every bit as annoying as our drive TO vacation had been NOT annoying. We had construction delays, rush hour, and didn't get home until 10 p.m. But we enjoyed our day on the road together and decided it was the best end to our vacation! {Plus I got to stop at Sonic, so I was VERY happy for that!!}  Thankful to be home with our girlie again! 

* And because we hadn't spent enough time in a car, yesterday morning we picked up my parents and drove a couple hours south of home to have lunch with my sister at the Mayberry Cafe in Danville, Indiana. The food was so good, and it was a fun day, even if it was a long drive. And it's never a bad day when you get to watch Andy Griffith the whole time you get to eat lunch!!

The Saturday Six

SURPRISE! Guess what? We just got home from a much-longed for {and much needed} week away, and I am so excited to tell you all about it. But this week's Saturday Six is inspired by our travels...hope you enjoy!

One.

Source

In all my capsule-wardrobe-reading, I'd also been fascinated by the traveling capsules. As a girl who tends to pack 13 suitcases to be gone for a weekend, I was eager to see if I could apply some of what I'd learned to packing for a trip. Tricky, since we were traveling through several states, and through several potential temperature zones. But as I read along on different sites, I found this one, which is just a fun traveling site in and of itself, but it also gives good tips on knowing what to pack for different destinations, and even in different seasons!

Two. 

If, in your travels, you return to a place you have been before, it's fun to remake a picture from a previous trip. This was mine from this trip. I came to Virginia Beach five years ago, before I was married, to visit Mark and Lynnette. Lynnette took me to the oceanfront and I wanted my picture taken with this shell. AFTER we took it, we realized a guy sat down right before our picture and it looked like I smashed him with the shell. So we remade it this time with Ryan playing the part of the guy. Loved it. {SURPRISE sneak peek! Virginia Beach was on our travel route!}

Three.

This began as an accident, but it works so well, I think we may start making it purposeful. Our first hotel of our trip didn't have rooms available that contained just a single king bed, so we got two queens instead. We ended up using the second bed to place ALLLLL our bags {yes, we are packrats}, and it worked out well for pawing through them. They were up at easy-to-see height. We loved it so much that at the next hotel, when they gave us a choice between one king and two queens, we took two queens on purpose so we had a place for all the bags.

Four.

My biggest stress factor in packing used to be the toiletries bag. What if I forgot THE one thing I needed? {Well, Bekah, go to the store!!!} But a couple of years ago, when my toiletry bag broke on vacation, Ryan and I stopped and got this one, and when I got home, I filled it with one of everything I'd need {makeup excluded} and I just leave it packed. That way when I know I'm going on vacation, all I have to do is make sure everything in it is full {shampoo bottles, hairspray, etc} and I'm all set. I don't have to worry if I've forgotten bobby pins or a claw clip or hand sanitizer. It's all ready to go. Takes away stress and saves time. {And I have a nice backup of everything if my everyday supply fails at any point in time!}

Five.

This was another unplanned thing that has become a tradition. When we got engaged, I bought these chalkboards to use in our engagement pictures. And as you know, if you read this blog often, they show up everywhere. We've definitely gotten our money's worth. We've started using them on our vacations to mark the spots where we visit. {On our cruise, the chalkboard pic with the date and location was the first picture taken every morning so we could easily know which pictures went with which day.} One time this week, after a family saw us using our chalkboards for our picture, they asked if they could borrow them for THEIR family picture. I won't lie: that made my day more than it should have. So it's just fun to use these not only for cool pictures, but also for keeping track of what was when. 

Six.

We went old school this time: atlas usage!! I used to have unlimited data on my phone, when I had a work phone, so I could keep track of our progress on that. But now that I have to  limit my data usage, I went the old school route: an atlas! It was actually fun to find roads on a paper map and remind myself of how to follow a map and all its little signs. Skills we've lost, right? If you haven't kept track of a trip on a paper map lately, give it a try!! :) 

Thank You Lord, It's Calmer This Year

You know how Facebook likes to remind you of your memories from a year ago on this day? Or two? Or three?

My feed has been flooded lately with pictures from three years ago. Three years ago when things looked a little bit like this:

Okay, so some things never change. We're still picture freaks with coffee in our hands. But this was day one of our engagement photo shoot. Day one of worrying about whether or not the weather would hold...if all the pictures would get taken before the sun slid down...if the hair would sit still on a breezy autumn evening...day one of marking things off endless to-do lists.

Days like this one:

 Days when my hair was bad but I couldn't do anything about it because I was growing it out for a wedding. Days when we took the ONLY free day we had for miles to come and spent it road-tripping to bigger cities to knock out important stuff like finding a wedding ring for Ryan, a wedding outfit for Ryan, outfits for our groomsmen, bouquets for our bridesmaids...and this stop at Build-a-Bear to make the honorary bridesmaid and groomsman bears for our posthumous duo.

Days like this one:

...when God was gracious enough to let me find "the one" on the second try. When something I liked online actually worked ON ME. Days when my family and friends and co-workers sacrificed their time and came to be part of one of the most memorable days.

Days like this one:

...when I had a bridal shower and a bachelorette party in the same day because it fit for the one weekend my best friend could fly into town for pre-wedding festivities. Days when I met people in Ryan's family I'd never met before and tried to keep all their names straight. Days when I opened present after present and tried to balance between lingering in joy and moving along for the sake of those watching. Days when I ate delicious food {but with the dress in mind}.


And there was so much more. Evenings spent designing invitations, writing our program, writing our ceremony, making favors, going over the detail list AGAIN...

That was then.

And I loved everything about that season. It was so short and I made myself focus enough to savor every little bit of it. I wanted to remember it forever, and I still remember.

But ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh how glad I am it's this year and not three years ago. Not because it was bad then, but because breathing now is such a joy. SUCH a joy.

Ever have a season like that? You loved it and cherish it...but you are thanking the Lord it's calmer now?

Bekah and the Blue Dress Shirts

Thank you guys for being my capsule wardrobe therapists. It is helping me make sense of what I want and need to talk this process over with you. :)

So I told you already about why I decided to try this capsule thing {here, here, and here} and about the graphic t-shirts I fell in love with and about the plain t-shirts I'm using to make capsule staples. And so far, everything I've showed you has been basic. Many neutrals. And I'm really not a neutral sort of girl.

Over the past few years, I've received the most compliments when wearing some shade of blue. Apparently it really goes well with my skin tone, hair color, and eyes. BONUS: I like blue. BONUS AGAIN: It's Ryan's favorite color. So I decided, as I began this wardrobe building experience, that I would try to make blue a staple color. I did that partly because I already owned a fair amount of it, partly because I owned jewelry to match, and partly because who doesn't like to build up a color she's been told looks good on her? :)

Even though I am not part of the working-away-from-home crowd anymore, I did want to make sure this capsule adventure contained enough options for Sundays, dressy-ish dates, and other such occasions when I need to look a little bit better than yoga pants and graphic tees. And this category of shirts {also in thirds, as has become my accidental rule} is where the blue entered the wardrobe. All these shirts are basic in that they do not have a print to them. I like prints and think they have their place, but I wanted to make sure some of what I have in this wardrobe is plain, because I think that makes it more timeless.

So here are the three blue dressy shirts that made the capsule cut.

One.

This shirt has been in my wardrobe the longest, and not shockingly, it came from Cato...but it's been long enough ago now that I don't know how much I paid for it, and I know I can't find you a link, because you know how Cato has quick turnover in their clothing. But that's the beauty of this piece. Already owned it, so the entry fee was ZERO DOLLARS.

 As the teal part of the blue collection, this shirt reminds me of the beach and that makes me happy. I love the neck on this...kind of turtle-ish without being tight and causing me to suffocate. It has presence and character and I like that. The shirt itself is a medium and is more form fitting, so I like how it makes me feel {except on really fat days, when I just don't wear it.} It goes well with jeans AND dress clothes - and I can wear it in winter or summer because it has short sleeves and can stand alone or be layered with longer sleeves.

OH! And look! it made an appearance in our engagement photos three years ago!

Sentimental value? Extra bonus.

Two.

I bought this navy blue shirt last year, from Cato {gasp!!} and it was featured in our Christmas card photo shoot. So...two good things about it already? ZERO DOLLAR entry fee into the capsule AND...sentimental value!

It's has this beautiful flowy-ness about it that makes it good on the fluffy-feeling days, but it's not SO billowy that it doesn't fit against me a little bit. That's a lot to ask out of one shirt and it delivers. It's a medium, and again, it's got short sleeves, so I can wear it in warm weather, or I can add to it without overheating in colder weather. AND - it can easily dress up or down as well. Bonus!

Ryan LOVES this shirt, and I do too. I knew when I was sorting through shirts that this one was loved enough and worn enough to make the cut.

Three.

The newest blue-shirt entry into the capsule was this one that I bought at Cato earlier this summer when my sister came to visit. Technically I had already begun the mental process of knowing I was making a capsule...so this was a purposeful entry, but I no longer have the receipt, and since the process hadn't officially started yet, I'm marking this one as a ZERO DOLLAR entry fee.

This shirt is a small {WOO HOO!!} and royal blue, which was one of our wedding colors, so I really love that! It's definitely a fat day shirt, meaning it's quite billowy and needs to be worn with skinny pants to keep me from looking TOO pudgy. But I always need a handful of fat shirts in my collection, because for me, some days just demand it.

Ryan really likes the color of this one and how it looks on me, so that's a bonus.

In truth, I'm still learning how to style all three of these shirts in different ways. That's part of the learning curve of this capsule. But I think they have a lot of potential, even though they have really different construction. I love that all three are lightweight and therefore I can layer them without overheating {hopefully} since that's a pretty big issue for me. And I love all three of their blue hues. I love that I can use some of the same jewelry on each of them - because that's a savings of money and space as well!

So...the recap:

Three dressy shirts for the capsule wardrobe: CHECK!
Total cost for said shirts at this point in time: ZERO DOLLARS.
Size breakdown: medium, medium, and small. 
Color base for capsule: navy, teal, and royal blue.
Bekah: very happy with this trio. No need to look further at this time.