3 T's

sorry for the break in blogging for the last little while.
i have had a few "good" excuses--all of which just so happen to start with "T".

the first is Technology.
you see, for the last year or so, my laptop has had a "full start-up disc". translation? the hard drive is full, which makes downloading pictures or running certain programs a little "tricky". and by tricky, i mean that in order to make room, i have been deleting apps, photos, and anything else that will let me squeeze out any extra space. i have been using our desk top to download pictures, and then i load them onto my blog and do most of my blogging and design work from my laptop. it's not ideal, but this system has worked for me for the last year. well, until about 2 weeks ago, when i walked into my office  and saw this:

long story short?
a fried hard drive. NOT good.
i will spare you the details, but in order to get our pictures off this hard drive (because we don't have a back up of most of them), it will cost about a thousand dollars, and may not even be possible. i am sick even thinking about it. for real. lets change the subject before i start to cry.

anyway, there is SOME good news. i bought a new laptop.

so, i should be able to resume blogging on a somewhat normal schedule.

my next excuses?
why, Travel and Thanksgiving, of course!
we decided this year to come "back home" to the southeast to visit family at thanksgiving. we left a few days before thanksgiving, and will be back in utah on wednesday. we flew into nashville and spent the night there, before heading to alabama to see family and spend thanksgiving.
here are a few pictures from our adventure so far:

this may be the largest and most confusing hotel in the world to get into.
we drove around for like 10 minutes to find the lobby.
but, it is pretty spectacular once you are inside!




did you know that there is a full size replica of the parthenon in nashville? it was built for an exposition in the 1890's and is open to the public.


since our family in alabama live near huntsville, we decided to stop by the us space and rocket center.



even though we have driven past it about 284 times, we finally made time to check it out!
(isn't that the way life is? you never seem to get to those "touristy" things in your own back yard until you move away!)

they had an amazing exhibit on da vinci, which the entire family loved.



after lots of smiles and visits with family and a great meal on thanksgiving day, we drove to seabrook island, south carolina and met up with my parents.

we will be here until tuesday, when we will drive back to nashville and make a very brief stop in knoxville (our old stomping grounds) to see some more family.

until then, i am going to soak up the view, relax, and get ready to do some sight seeing today in charleston.

i will be posting some more pictures of trip highlights later in the week, and i hope to finally share my front door with you. if you follow me on instagram, then you know what paint color i picked. we installed the door hardware at 9pm the night before we went out of town, so one of my first priorities when i get back is to take some pictures and show y'all!