Wedding Bands!

Today, Justin and I went WEDDING BAND SHOPPING!! We went to Long's Jewelers in Virginia Beach on Shore Drive and saw our favorite jeweler Joel. We had a BLAST picking out the bands that we will be giving each other when we get MARRIED. Justin chose a yellow gold hammered band that is 6 mm. It really looks sharp on his ring finger. I can't wait until it's on his finger forever! I got a plain platinum 3 mm band that matches my engagement ring. Both are just beautiful and we are surprising each other with engraved messages inside! Can't wait til December!

Justin's Band
My Band

More updates!

Oh how we LOVE duty-free weekends!! :-) Justin and I spent Friday and Saturday working on the downstairs. We finished the painting early Saturday morning and then shopped around in the afternoon for furniture and accessories. We found a cool shelving unit at the furniture store on Little Creek Base and found some awesome accessories and art work at Home Goods and TJ Maxx. We had a blast decorating OUR house! We spent Sunday enjoying our new living room and admiring the work that we have done together!

Looking to the dining room from the living room. We are only needing a china cabinet at the end of the room.

Looking down into the living room from the stairs.

Our beautiful living room!

We LOVE our new living room - note the new furniture on the left wall.

My FIANCE' enjoying our living room! :-)

Happy Birthday Nana and Sally!

Happy Birthday to two very special and beautiful women. My Nana and Justin's Mom's birthdays are today. We wish that we could be with you both on this day and are sorry that we can't. Know that we are thinking about you today and always. Thank you for your love and support and for being so very special to us both. We hope that you both have a great day! We love you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Justin and me with my Nana and Mom at our Engagement Party!

Justin and me with his Mom and Dad at our Engagement Party!

McCain - Palin 2008

This morning, Justin and I got up, put on red "to keep Virginia a red state" and headed to the Virginia Beach Convention Center where John McCain and Sarah Palin were having a rally! Having been heavily involved in politics for years and years, I jumped at the opportunity to see them speak. Justin and I waited in line which was well over a mile long which started down 17th Street and wrapping around the building. Vendors on the street sold McCain/Palin t-shirts, buttons, hats, and playing cards. I especially liked the pink button with the pink elephant proclaiming "hot chicks vote Republican". Once inside, we heard state leaders speak of their elections and listened to special guest Hank Williams Jr. sing 6 songs before John and Cindy McCain and Sarah and Todd Palin were introduced to a roaring crowd of around 20,000 people. It was thrilling to hear their plans for America and we wish them luck on November 4th.

Goooo McCain - Palin!!

Me posing with my yard sign which is no longer there thanks to a McCain hater. :-(

Wooooooosh!

That's the sound we were making all day today as we rode the roller coasters 16 TIMES at Busch Gardens today! 16!! Justin and I got up to the park which in Williamsburg (about 40 minutes away) at 11:00AM and stayed til 10:00PM! We had a FULL day of riding scary roller coasters, eating park food (where else would eating a funnel cake for dinner be acceptable?), and being scared at the frightening haunted houses during Howl-O-Scream! Busch Gardens totally transforms into a scary, spooky park for the month of October. Fog fills the sky, spooky music is projected on the speakers, the lighting is orange and eerie, and scary people pop out of no where just hoping to get a jump or squeal out of you!
Our favorite ride of the day was "Griffin", the WORLD's TALLEST floorless dive coaster. Imagine... Looking down 90 degrees, 205 feet up in the air. You hang 90 degrees over the side of the track for what seems like an eternity (in reality only 10 seconds) and then go zooming down it at 75 MPH. The ride lasts 3 minutes and believe it or not... we didn't go back for seconds, we went back for thirds! We rode it 3 times throughout the day and enjoyed every single second of it. THRILL SEEKERS! (see the website for the ride at http://www.griffoncoaster.com/ )
One of our favorite things to do after the roller coasters were to look at the candid pictures that they take of you as you are zooming on the ride. Justin's mouth was always wide open and he looked like he was having the time of his life. Me on the other hand was holding on for dear life and I looked absolutely terrified.
After 11 grueling hours, we decided to call it a day. Next up... a massage or chiropractor visit to get our backs and necks back in line! :-)

Justin outside of the roller coaster "Alpengeist".

Justin with the beer wagon!

Justin and I enjoying a moment amidst the fall decor.

Griffin

Look at it hanging! Ahhhh! Just looking at it brings chills!

Painters for Hire!

Haha, not really... painting sure isn't something that we enjoy but we aren't too bad at it, if I say so myself! Justin and I spent all weekend painting the half bath, kitchen, and dining room. Since we are hosting Thanksgiving this year for our families, we wanted to make at least the downstairs of our place beautiful. We only have the living room to go - the end is in sight! Below are a few pictures of our place... it's really all coming together and we love calling the townhouse "our home". We know that we will make many special memories here together...

We aren't afraid of color! Our kitchen is painted "Afternoon Tea".

More kitchen.

More kitchen.

Our half bath is "Retro Colonial Blue".

A work in progress.... paint is "Leather"

What a day!

What a fantastic day! Justin and I spent the morning sailing on the bay with our dear friends, Grady and Angie Hill and their precious two kids Alex and Cole. Mimosas, sun, sailing, and friends.... life doesn't get much better than that. After that, Justin and I went to look at some furniture for our living room and then went to try on wedding bands. Our wedding day is quickly approaching and we couldn't be more excited. We can't WAIT! This evening, we went to Shore Break to meet our great friends Kevin and Mollie White to watch the NAVY game. They had a room just for Navy fans and we had a great time cheering on Navy to yet another victory.... if only Auburn could have been so lucky, right Mollie?

Gooo Navy!

Engagement Party!

This past weekend, Justin and I headed to WV and PA for the weekend to visit our families. My Mom and Nana had a fabulous engagement party at the historic Summit Inn. We had an amazing evening celebrating our engagement with our families! Please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/laurenac421 for all of the pictures! We also got to see a lot of our friends while in town. We had a great time catching up with Corey, Steve, and Jen in downtown Morgantown and also hitting up Rio on Sunday morning with our families. What a fantastic weekend. We love making memories with our families and look forward to seeing them for Thanksgiving.

The happy couple with the delicious cake!

Cheers! to a beautiful life together!

Our loving families...