Bachlorette + Oktoberfest

I feel like I've been doing an awful lot of traveling lately. Even if it is just throughout Ohio, I've been back and forth between Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Sandusky over the last few weekends.

At the beginning of September all of the girls got together for Lauren's bachlorette party. On Friday Lauren threw a huge house party, then Saturday we spent the day at the pool with bachlorette festivities that night. We all had way too much fun doing our hair, taking jello shots, and dancing the night away.

(I made Tom take a picture with the turkey hahaha)

The next weekend started with the Florida Georgia Line concert on Friday night. Tom and I went together and met up with Des and her sister. They actually had two extra VIP tickets, so we upgraded from the lawn to really close seats! We had planned to, once again, try to go to Cedar Point on Saturday, but again it was hot and rained all day. We finally got lucky on Sunday, the weather was perfect, cool and sunny. We spent the day riding roller coasters and barely even had to wait in line since the park was so empty. It was perfect. 

This past weekend I headed to Columbus on Friday and Cincinnati on Sunday. Tom and I had plans to make dinner together on Friday, but when the stove suddenly stopped working we scratched our plan and ordered pizza instead - completely fine with me. We finished Stranger Things (so good) on Saturday, then I went to Cincy to meet up with Hannah! We got brunch, did some shopping, and went to the Cincinnati Oktoberfest, the largest Oktoberfest in the county. We pigged out on pretzels, beer cheese, and strudel (and of course German beer). 

Finley!

Finley, known by everyone as Finny, came home to us on July 14! Looking back at these pictures from when we first got him he looks so tiny, he has already grown to around 16 pounds now! He was born in May and has definitely grown into one crazy pup. 

Finny is a Wheaten Terrior and is just a little fluff ball with endless amounts of energy. His hair is sooo soft, he feels like a teddy bear. However, anything within reach is used as a teething ring, whether it is a shoe lace, finger, leg of a chair, or the hearth of the fireplace. 

He is a smart little guy and already knows sit, lay down, and paw. We're working on roll over at the moment, and have learned that his favorite treat while practicing new tricks is blueberries. 

When he's not being a crazy puppy he is actually very cuddly. If you kneel down he will run right up to you and nuzzle himself against you, it's so cute. But if you stay at his level for too long you might get a nip to the nose (I know from experience). 

He is the greatest little guy to have around the house and has already brought so much happiness to our lives. He still has a lot of growing to do and will eventually get to be about 35-40 pounds. He's just so freakin cute and I'm so obsessed. 

Weekend Snapshots: Lake Erie

This weekend Tom and I had plans to go to Cedar Point, but when we checked the forecast and saw temperatures in the 90s we decided we might need to reschedule our trip. Instead, we spent the weekend at his parent's house enjoying some of the final days of summer. On Saturday we headed to Huntington Beach for a little lunch and to soak up the sun. We grabbed hot dogs and pretzels from the beach hut and went down to the water. The view of the lake actually reminded me a lot of Cape Cod with the sail boats anchored near the shore.

Saturday night was spent at Bar Louie, some of Tom's friends were in town and we and we had a few drinks while catching up.

Sunday was equally as hot, but made for the perfect pool day. We spent several hours at the country club pool sipping pina coladas and bouncing around in the pool. It was the perfect way to end the weekend and mentally prepare for the week ahead.

In other news... I am officially moving into my own apartment downtown! I move in the beginning of October and could not be more excited. I love Cleveland and can't wait to be in the heart of the city. Apartment decorating posts are sure to follow. 

Cape Cod

Last week I took a very short trip out to Cape Cod, somewhere I've never been before! Tom's grandmother has a house in West Yarmouth. He was able to spend the whole week there, but I could only join him for the weekend. I flew out of Cleveland after work on Friday and got into Cape Cod late that night. 

Since we only had a day and a half, we crammed as much as we could into the trip and were actually able to accomplish a lot. Saturday started with blueberry pancakes and coffee homemade from Tom's grandma, Syb (per my request, of course). After we finished sipping coffee on the back porch we headed down to the beach, only about a minute walk away. The weather was in the 80s, and the cool breeze made it feel absolutely perfect. 

After hanging around the beach for a bit we decided to go into town. We headed to Hyannis, a cute, small town just north of us. We went into a few shops, stopped for mimosas (for me, beer for Tom because I think mimosas would hurt is masculinity), and stocked up on salt water taffy from Village Fudge Shoppe.

We had plans to head to the Nauset Lighthouse next, but decided to stop for ice cream in South Yarmouth on our way. We popped into Cape Cod Creamery and were lucky to beat the rush that came minutes after we got in line. We enjoyed our ice cream in the blue and yellow Adirondack chairs on the porch, desperately trying not to drip all over ourselves! 

Nauset Light Beach was our next stop, and probably my favorite place we visited. The beach sits at the bottom of a steep, sandy cliff with the Nauset Lighthouse at the top. The sand is so golden and beautiful, but we quickly found out the the water is ice cold! There was also a shark alert in the area while we were there, so we were sure to only put our toes in. We walked along the shore, then made our way up to the lighthouse. 

The Nauset Light is so quintessential to Cape Cod and is actually famous for being on the Cape Cod Chip bag. Looking back at my photos I actually kind of have to laugh (Tom might not agree) because we had a minor travesty when I thought I lost my phone. I went to pull it out of my purse to take a picture at the lighthouse, and when I realized it wasn't there I immediately ran back to the beach thinking I left it there. When I couldn't find it I started panicking a bit, thinking about all the photos I just lost, and Tom kept calling it hoping someone found it. Luckily someone finally answered and said it was at the lighthouse, about three feet from where I was standing when I thought I lost it... oh boy. But when all was said and done I was just thankful for the nice people who picked up the phone! 

We were pretty exhausted at this point in the day, and headed back to the house to freshen up. However, we weren't home for long, and after doing some googling decided to head to Dennis to watch the sunset at Chapin Beach. The beach was unlike any I've seen before, the tide was low and receded about a mile down, leaving tons of tide pools. It was the absolute best spot to watch the sun set, the colors reflecting off the pools were incredible. Once the sun completely dipped below the horizon we headed to dinner back in Hyannis. We had a hard time finding a restaurant that didn't have a two hour wait, and ended up settling for a pizza place on Main Street (completely fine by me!). We were starving, and pizza tasted better than ever. We ended our night sitting on the quiet, moonlit beach near the house, and even caught a firework show across the bay. It was the most perfect ending to the day. 

Our flight back to Cleveland was leaving at 7 on Sunday night, and with traffic and the long drive to the airport we sadly had to be ready to leave by 3. We had planned to get up to watch the sun rise, but ended up turning the alarm off and going back to sleep. Instead, we slept in, had bagels for breakfast, and headed back into town for mini gulf! Tom kicked my butt, but he's been playing all week :) We ended our time in Cape Cod laying on the beach and eating Cape Cod chips. We had the most perfect mini-getaway.