Beach Vacation!!

So, here we are at the beach!! It's the best thing although I do really miss Layla.
The trip down was a success. Every moment I kept just thinking about how thankful I am to be married to a wonderful loving husband. He makes me smile. He wrote a song for our trip down and although I might not be supposed to share it... I am anyways. He didn't finish the verses. But it was a fun surprise for our trip. :)

So I wrote that yesterday and gave up trying to add the link for the song. Sadly you won't be able to hear it until Brandon decides to post it because I'm obviously not technologically savvy enough to post it. But I do want to tell you about our WONDERFUL Anniversary date we had last night. It wasn't really planned to be our anniversary date but that's what it turned out to be. We obviously celebrated a little early but now that I have my new job we have decided not to take a trip on our anniversary. We'll just go out for a nice dinner or something.
Back to the date!!!
It started out with family shopping at Independence Mall in Wilmington. I've been talking about getting a halo put around my engagement ring for a while now so we shopped at a few stores and found out the best thing would be to get it custom made which was pretty pricey. We had starbucks and Anna Grace jumped on the trampoline. We also got in the machine that shows you what hurricane-like winds feel like.  Overall, it was just fun. Not your normal shopping in the mall. I did buy a pair of shorts at Forever 21 which I love and were incredibly reasonably priced. (love when that happens!)

Then, we decided not to take the family trip to Cracker Barrel but to set out on our own. As we were leaving the mall we stopped at Reeds because I remembered their "upgrade" program that they had since Brandon bought my ring there. I ended up falling in love with a ring and it was less than what we had talked about for custom-making a ring, and I will actually get to keep my original engagement ring. Maybe one day I'll put it in another ring or maybe I'll just save it - not sure yet. But bottom line, I get my new ring today!! :) :) I can't even describe how beautiful it is.  My husband is amazing. I told him that I didn't want it if it was going to make him feel like my first ring wasn't good enough but we talked about how this was a better idea than custom making something because I still get to keep my ring and get a new one. Anyways, he's happy that I'm happy and this ring will definitely be the one I wear forever. :) :)
I know some people will probably think I'm a little ridiculous but bottom line, I don't really care.  I love it so much.

Next, we went to the place where we wanted to purchase Brandon's anniversary present. Brandon has decided he wants a gun. For our first anniversary we are investing in things we want rather than spending money on a trip. This beach trip is virtually free (other than gas and food) so we feel good about it! :)
Anyways, we went to a gun shop in Wilmington and Brandon compared some guns that he was interested in. Then the guy told us we could try shooting them and he would wave the lane fee and the gun rental fee so we only had to buy some target bullets. Brandon said he definitely wanted to so he could get a feel for what he liked better and somehow I ended up saying that I would shoot them too. I told Brandon later that the closest thing I had shot to a gun is one of those car wash hoses that kicks back when you hold it down cause of all the pressure. Lame huh?
So we went in there and Brandon shot first and then the guy taught me how. Brandon videoed but we later found out that it didn't work because it ran out of memory. It was the only disappointing part of the whole trip. You would have LOVED that video. I was scared to death and the guy was like "No, don't hold it like that, let me show you," and then I was just like "I'm scared!" but I shot it but I shot the thing that was holding the target and it knocked the whole thing down. In my fear I hadn't really aimed. I mean, I was aiming into an open room so it was ok but I wasn't concentrating on the target. Lol. Brandon said he was so nervous watching me do it but I have to admit it was actually fun. We both shot more rounds and I got a little more comfortable with the idea of him having a gun. All in all, a really cool surprise part of our date. We never expected we'd take time to shoot guns (especially me).

Then we headed down to the river to eat dinner but we ended up just taking pictures and walking and deciding to go back to Olive Garden. I actually talked Brandon into splitting the Tour of Italy even thought he normally doesn't want to share but it was enough food for us both and it saved us some money. He ended up saying it was a good idea at the end. Love it when that happens! :)

Then the drive home was a disaster. We took a wrong road and I had to pee so bad but all the gas stations looked sketchy. I finally got my bathroom and after a couple more wrong turns we made it to the Food Lion to buy Jack (his aunt and uncle's dog) food and headed home.
Yesterday was a SUCCESS! :)

Today we get to go the beach all day cause Brandon promised and then I get my RING!! pics to come :)