The Clements Crew

Because there were so many cool houses in Charleston, I thought a neat way to document our trip would be to take pictures of the front doors on houses. I plan on printing these out and hanging them together in a group in our house somewhere.

Looks like the entrance to a secret garden.

This one is very formal, and had a huge knocker! ;)

My favorite. The flag ads the perfect touch.

So unique!

Love the walls on this house, you can see the history.

Love the color of the siding, and the pineapple on the door to welcome visitors! While the man of the house was away (work, war, etc.) it was considered indecent for the wife to entertain guests while he was gone. So, when the men would come home they would bring back fruit baskets to their wives. To signal that her husband was home, the wife would place pineapples on the entrance to the home. That way everyone would know she was ready to entertain. So, that's why pineapples are a symbol of hospitality.

The lanterns run on actual gas, and light up with fire at night. Most of the houses had these real lanterns outside, and the city of Charleston pays to light them. They wanted it to feel more historic.

Hope you enjoyed touring the doors of Charleston!

We flew into Charleston on Friday night around 5:00, got our rental car and drove straight to downtown Charleston. It was love at first sight!

Even the alleys were beautiful. It was neat to see the cobblestone streets.

We parked right by the water, and walked down the battery. The houses that lined the street were the epitome of old southern mansions.

Huge porches with tons of trees. I just knew the owners were sitting out there in their rocking chairs drinking sweet tea. :)

Porches on every house, love! Most of these houses were worth 5-7 million dollars!

Looking down East Bay Street on the left with the Harbor on the right

Bryan by the Charleston Harbor

My turn!

This is the bridge that links Mt. Pleasant (where our hotel was) with downtown Charleston. It's the longest cable-stayed bridge in America. It was really fun driving over it.

I loved that they had parks right by the water. Those trees are Palmettos, and they were everywhere. They are different than palm trees. Palmettos are South Carolina's state tree.

This is right off the pier in Charleston Harbor. It reminded me of Dawson's Creek. :)

We ate dinner at Southend Brewery that night and it was very good! What I loved about all the restaurants in both Charleston and Savannah, was that it was a guarantee that they would have fried green tomatoes on the menu. Talk about southern!

After dinner we walked around the city. We walked up and down King Street where all the shops are. It was late at night but we felt really safe. We also noticed that Charleston was really clean, especially the downtown. After we walked about 5 miles (maybe flip flops wasn't the best idea, sorry mom), we walked back to our car, and drove over the bridge to Mount Pleasant to where we stayed the night. The next day we continued our exploration of Charleston.

Come back for more pictures of our southern adventure!

We are back from our trip and we had so much fun!! It was filled with fun, relaxation, and Southern charm!!

Just wanted to share some of my favorite pics, and I'll be back soon with a full recap.

Charleston was definitely our favorite of the two cities, but Savannah was beautiful too.

Enjoy the sneak peek!

I have a new love/obsession. It's a website called Pinterest.

It's a visual bookmarking site where you can create collections of things you love. I can "pin" things to my boards from all over the internet. And I can follow people with similar interests so then I can repin things that they discover. So many great ideas, it's very inspiring!

You can tell a lot about a person based on their pins and boards. Some of my categories include:

Polka Dots {obviously}

Cupcakes {of course}

Kitchens

Crafts

Southern Belle {wannabe}

Monograms

Recipes

Classroom {hope to have my own soon}

and my new favorite love, Buntings!

You can see all of my boards and the pictures I've pinned by clicking here.

You have to receive an invite to start pinning, so if you are interested I'd be glad to send you one. But beware, it's majorly addicting. I've even convinced Kendra, my future sis-in-law, to start pinning. Her board is all about her wedding.

In other news, we are on our way to South Carolina and Georgia tomorrow to celebrate our birthdays!!

{told you I was a Southern Belle wannabe}

I might not come back. :)

Its been such a long time since I've blogged, SO sorry. Wanted to hit a few highlights of what the Clements crew has been up to:

We went to Austin a few weeks ago. I drove there, but Bryan rode his bike. It took me a little over 2 hours to get there, and it took him 2 days. He rode the MS 150 from Houston to Austin!

I drove down early to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law. Brittyne and I got to spend some time together, and we made sure to stop by one of my favorite cupcake spots: hey cupcake!

Here he is at the finish line! He did an awesome job and raised over $400 for the MS Society. He finished around noon on Sunday, and I'm so proud of him.

This was his view as he rode to the finish. Pretty cool, huh!

For Easter, we made a trip home and got to meet Charleigh girl! She was just as cute and tiny as ever. I love her big bows. :)

Me and my girls.

Bryee with Charleigh, makes my heart melt.

Pops and Ellie. I love this picture because it totally captures my dad's silly personality, and Elliot looks so adorable!

We went shopping and she wanted to try on the monster gloves and shoes. So here she is showing me her best monster face. I just have to say, she is the best shopping partner. Every time I tried something on she would tell me, "Ash, you look cuuuuuuute!"

There is nothing better than holding a sleeping baby. :)

During our time at home, we also got to spend some time with Nathan and Kendra because they got to come too. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of our time with the Clements fam. Sorry guys, I still had tons of fun! The girls spent some time shopping, and one night we all went and ate some Tex-Mex. We have to teach Kendra (she's from Wisconsin) all about Texas food! Chicken fried steak and fried okra is next. :)

I am also very lucky and won a food processor from the Pioneer Woman! All I had to do was comment on a blog post and out of 50,000 people I won 1 of four prizes.

I have since made banana bread as well as grated some cheese with it and I am impressed with it. Bryan was in awe of how fast in can grate cheese. I also learned that I now own the very food processor that the Barefoot Contessa uses, fun!

In other news, we are moving to an apartment this Thursday. It's a transitional time for us, as we (I really mean God) decide what our next step is. We are in a period of waiting, and are anxious to see where He leads us.

Since Kelty will be losing his backyard soon, he's been soaking up the sun and enjoying his last few days.

He loves to cuddle on the couch with his dad. :)

I'm so excited that it is May! It's not only both of our birthday month (our birthdays are 5 days apart, cute I know) but we are also going a special trip to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. We are taking a trip to celebrate our birthdays and our 2 year anniversary. So, if you have any tips on those places, we would love to hear. I'll try to keep you updated. :)