oh the joys of south carolina

so last saturday we went to the beach for the first time. it was soooo nice and relaxing. so different from all the beaches in so cal that i've been too. the water is warm, it's not crazy crowded, and it's just so gorgeous and calm! i loved it. so did mitch. it was awesome seeing him get in the water and just turning into a little kid again. what a cutie. we're going again tomorrow for a ward activity and i'm really excited. we want to go get an umbrella or something though so i don't get as exhausted as fast!

on sunday we tried something a little new for dinner.  i had found this recipe in one of our cookbooks for a tropical salsa and it sounded just absolutely delicious. it called for kiwi, mango, papaya, pineapple, cilantro, jalapeno, red onion, and some lime juice. well i exed out the papaya first because it smelled horrible, and being preggers. i couldn't stand it. and for one it was like 3 dollars! not worth it haha. all the other components we kept. or at least we wanted to.. the cilantro went bad before we made the salsa :( sad day. since i LOVE cilantro. and i almost butchered the kiwis haha. so those probably weren't as prevalent as they should have been haha. but we did grilled salmon tacos that night. with that tropical salsa (which actually turned out really good!) and also we made some rice with a little orange mango juice and some lime juice. it turned out amazing! and mitch really liked them too! it was definitely a success and a perfect summer night dinner :)

yummy stuff! this week has definitely been crazy. with it's ups and downs. mitch is off at school all day, always leaving before 6:30 but sometimes even before 6am. and then not getting home till after 6 pm with all the studying and the homework that he has to get done. which he's not allowed to do at home, he HAS to do it on base. so it's rough, it's been taking it's toll on me that's for sure. but it's a sacrifice that we both knew we would have to make. and it will all be worth it in the end i know it! just got to have lots of faith and trust. i just wish our little maddox was here already cause there's only so much i can do in a week to keep me busy! the other day though i took mitch back to school after lunch so i could have the car. i had to had to the commissary (military grocery store) for some things and caught a glimpse of this sweet ride haha.

 we had seen this car within the first couple days of being here and now i saw it on base, i was like OH MY GOSH. i had to take a picture to document it, haha. only in the south that's for sure. speaking of only in the south, that night after i picked mitch up from school i got a picture of a little FROG on our wall in the carport. it was so cute and so tiny! it was freaking adorable! by the time i went to see if i could go catch it, it had hopped off somewhere and it was dark so i couldn't find it. sad day :(

i am finally starting to get used to everything about here though. like the heat and the humidity. poor koko is starting to get super exhausted though and has starting chilling in her kennel. which is hard to see cause i feel bad that i can't play with her like i used to :( it's hard but we're going to be building a fence in the backyard for her to play and run around in. so that will be really good for her! but look how gorgeous she is, i still can't believe that we got such a beautiful blue eyed puppy!

what do gators and bbq wings have in common?

...and the answer is our puppy KOKO!

let's start with the gator story. so last night after mitch got home from school, he decided he wanted to take me on a little surprise. we went down to this little spot in a place called marrington plantation right on base. it was a dock on a pond/river looking thing. definitely not the kind of pond i'm used to cause it was huge. totally a place to go fishing and to just relax. he wanted to take me down to watch the sunset but we barely missed it :( and that was a bummer. but we got an even better surprise. all of a sudden mitch calls to me and says, "babe, look right over there!" points, and i look. about 100 feet away is an alligator, swimming straight towards us. i was just like OH MY GOSH! of course i had left my camera at home and neither of our cell phone cameras would have picked it up. so i was complaining about that, and then i realized why it was swimming towards us! our baby kokomo was on the deck with us and that gator had it's eyes right on her! it would stop every so often and just stare at us. and ever so slowly, it was creeping closer and closer. such a crazy experience.mitch said that we should name it. so i did. his or her name is now gizmo :) haha. it was starting to get dark, we were getting eaten alive, and i was getting super anxious haha. so we decided to leave our new friend. by the time we left it was probably about 20 feet away. when we were leaving mitch apologized for the fact that we missed the sunset. silly boy, that was SOOO much better than the sunset! :)

now for the bbq wings. last night i was craving wings. like one of the only things that i've actually craved while being pregnant. and not even to the point of me dying to get them. but anyways.. we ordered some wings, pasta, and a sandwich from dominos. i ate my sandwich and didn't want any wings cause i was full. so we put them in the fridge and left them for the next day. well mitch took some for lunch just in case he couldn't come home. well he was able to come home, and i heated some up for him. he left about 5 for me. and before i ate them i really had to pee. well i go to the bathroom and usually koko stays in the same vacinity. this time, not so much. i thought to myself. if she gets those wings, i'm gonna kill her. but i gave her the benefit of the doubt and figured she just went back outside on the porch. i walk back into the kitchen, and koko is standing up, paws on the counter and the entire plate is EMPTY. i could not even believe it! the only thing left on the plate is 2 of the bones from the wings mitch had. she ate 5 bbq wings, bones and all. the first thing i thought to myself was, "crap, she's going to get sick and have the runs." and i'm gonna be the one who has to deal with it. JOY. and of course like the idiot i am, i didn't put the plate in the sick right away. left it on the counter. the next time i go back into the kitchen the 2 other bones are off the plate and it's half way in the sink. seven freaking bones. i'm just praying that she doesn't get super sick! fingers crossed! and i didn't even get any of the wings that i ordered because i was craving them. lammmmme. oh well, it made for a good blog entry! :)

FINALLY

well after rolling the 4runner, trading the '85 chevy pick-up with my parents for a '80 2 door volvo (btw, i HATE 2 door cars, especially being 6 months prego), and having the volvo crap out on us down here in south carolina....

we are the owners of a super sexy black 2009 jeep grand cherokee. can you say FREAKING AWESOME?!

 oh and then there's my mister in his camo. what a hottie ;)

our first anniversary :)

 well friday night we were able to finally go off base! yay! we decided that we wanted to go to downtown charleston for our anniversary dinner. oh my goodness, never seen anything more gorgeous in my entire life! it literally is impossible to describe it. they have cobblestone streets, and buildings from the 1600s. the charm and the history just roaming around the streets is overwhelming. i mean, just look at the pictures! they definitely speak for themselves! and i can't wait to get my dslr camera and start taking amazing photos to put up in the house! these are just some of the ones that we took while we were down there.

after walking around for a little bit, we finally found a restaurant that wasn't super expensive, and had a good looking menu! it was called the southend brewery and smokehouse. it was really cool inside and the table that we were sitting at had a little cup or crayons and had butcher paper on the table to color on! everyone there at the time looked a little bit more sophisticated than a young couple in their twenties, haha, especially mitch. but my man grabbed some crayons and came up with a super sick design :)

and since 13 is our number, and our last name starts with "B" we both love doodling the number in block form just because it's so much fun. and mitchy has some sweet artistic talents, which is AMAZING, cause i don't haha. it's one of the reasons why i love him oh so much! and the food was sooooo worth it. mitch got an order of wings with a dry rub on them to start with, and i got a cup of she-crab soup. apparently it's big back in the south. which i confused with a version of clam chowder, haha. so it was obviously not what i expected. but it was alright.

mitchell was literally in heaven lol. it was hilarious to watch him eat them. he let me try one, and they were pretty darn good if i do say so myself. but after going on a mission to texas, mitch has had a lot of wings and bbq in his lifetime. and he said they were probably THE best he had ever had. wow.

when he was done, he was literally praying to thank Heavenly Father for sending him such amazing food! for our main course, i ordered the meatloaf, with sides of gouda mac'n'cheese and fries. kind of a weird thing to order at a place like that i know, but it was actually really good, and for some reason it was the best looking thing on the menu, and i'm pregnant so i have an excuse :) mitch got the brisket with a side of mashed potatoes and fries. once again. he was on cloud nine. we were so full after all of the good food that we had eaten that we paid our bill and walked back to the car. headed home, got on some comfys and after letting the food settle a bit, had some southern blackberry cobbler ice cream. soo delicious. it was definitely a good first anniversary :)

new and exciting things

wow, have i been slacking or what! let's catch up on a few things. on the way home from montana, we rolled our 4runner totaling it. scary as heck, but one of the biggest blessings we could've asked for. mitch left for boot camp on february 23 and i thought i would never make it for those 8 weeks that he was gone, but i did! yay :) found out on april 15th that we're having a baby BOY, and we are just so freaking ecstatic about it! that weekend my sister, her husband, and my adorable baby niece came into town for the weekend of their 2 year anniversary. and my amazing sister threw me a baby shower in boise that weekend before the 3 and a half of us had to come to south carolina. mitch graduated from the naval recruit training command in great lakes, illinois on april 22 and we were finally reunited. he officially became a sailor. and i was finally able to kiss that sexy man's face! it was an amazing day! the day after i flew home to boise, and he flew out to south carolina to pick out our house and get everything situated for us to move! he came home during the crazy southern tornado storm, so between delayed and canceled flights he came home the next thursday the 28th. and then on saturday the 30th we road tripped it ALL the way across the united states. what a crazy, fun, GORGEOUS adventure it was. living in hotels for an entire week is definitely not my favorite, especially with a spaz for a dog! we had lots of cool stops and tried to see some random things on our journey. but after 6 1/2 days, 11 states, and about 2660 miles, we finally made it to our new home in goose creek, south carolina :) pictures will definitely be posted soon! but today is the most amazing day ever! i've been married to my handsome man for exactly a year! and obviously so much has changed in this past year. but i wouldn't have wanted to go through it with anyone but my main man! i am seriously the luckiest girl alive to have someone so amazing as him! :D