WILSON COUNTY FAIR | 2017

After almost 25 years, I finally made it to a county fair! We decided to go after our Summer Soiree since we were all together and it was opening weekend. One of our friends knows the Wilson County Fair really well, he's been going every year for a long time and has showed a couple of his animals there before.

This thing was MASSIVE!

The fair food was delicious and 100% awful for us, but completely okay because we were at the fair!

The best date to the fair!

We had fun, experienced fair food, fair people, a crowd, a monkey riding a dog (lol), a tractor pull, and a ton of other things you experience at a fair. 1st time at the Wilson County Fair was a success! 

SUMMER SOIREE 2017 | TACO 'BOUT A PARTY

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our second annual Summer Soiree. Last year we kicked off summer with our first annual Summer Soiree, and because of a crazy summer schedule this year we ended up winding down our summer activities with our soiree. I decided to go with a taco bar for simplicity's sake and it was a hit!

Here's the invitation.

We had a very simple taco bar and a big ole crock-pot full of queso. 

I cooked the taco meat like normal about 2 hours before we ate and then moved it to the crock-pot and kept on warm until it was time to eat. 

I picked up those cute and festive banners from the Target Section. They came with a big fuchsia balloon on the end but I quickly remembered (about 30 minutes before everyone arrived) that in order for the balloons to stay up they would need helium.  So we cut the balloons off and just used the banner as a backdrop. Work with whatcha got, amiright?!

Katie's boyfriend couldn't make it so Reagan stepped in for a picture!

After we ate we loaded up and all headed to the fair. It was my first time going to an actual fair so I'll share about that in a separate post soon.

We had a great time and I am already looking forward to our next dinner party....which is Friendsgiving!! My favorite dinner party of the year. I designed the invitations last week and confirmed the date with all our friends. We can't wait!

COATS WEDDING #3

I'm really behind on blogging, but I couldn't let my BIL's wedding weekend recap fall through the cracks. So here is a belated recap!

Matthew was in Knoxville all week for work so he met me in Chattanooga Friday afternoon just in time for their rehearsal dinner. I worked half a day at the office and then headed home to pick up baby girl before hitting the road. Reagan was excited for a road trip!

They rehearsed and as you can see my other BIL, Nathan, was taking things real serious ;) and had us all laughing!

My in-laws hosted their rehearsal dinner at a hibachi grill in Chattanooga and it was delicious! After dinner we decided to all go get frozen yogurt. It had been a long time since we had frozen yogurt and I forgot how good it was.

That night was the first night Reagan stayed in a hotel and it was pretty rough. She heard every little noise and was woken up so easily throughout the night. So it looks like we just need to go on more trips and take her so she can get some more travel/hotel experience. ;)

Saturday morning we headed to the church so the guys could get ready for the big day. I hung out with my SIL, Jenny, and the bride while she got ready!!

A few hours later it was time for the wedding, and it was beautiful! I can't wait to see the pictures soon. I didn't take any pictures of their actual wedding, but we took some after and at the reception.

While the bride and groom were taking pictures we realized that we all forgot to buy window markers to decorate their car. Thankfully there was a Dollar General across the street from the church so we booked it over there to grab them. Dollar General for the win!

After pictures we headed to the reception venue, and it was gorgeous!

Sister picture!

and sibling/couples picture!

The newlyweds! 

It was a great weekend celebrating Andrew and Christina, and we are so happy for them!!

and stole this picture off their Facebook, because it's just too cute not to!

And just like that the Coats family is complete!

ECLIPSE DAY 2017

Everyone's talking about it, so I'm sure some people are already over it, buuuuuut it was incredibly cool and a once-in-a-lifetime experience....so I am doing a full recap of our Eclipse Day! 

We both decided to work from home since there were about 1.5 MILLION extra people making their way to Nashville for the day. Fighting all that traffic just didn't sound too appealing.

I woke up and cooked some omelets for breakfast and then we both got to work. My office is upstairs in our home and Matthew's office is downstairs, and Reagan could not decide who she wanted to hangout with so she hung out on the stairway between the two of us lol.

I wrapped up a conference call and ran outside with Matthew to view the initial contact. We downloaded a pretty cool app that had a timer on it and told us when everything was happening. Best $2 we've ever spent on an app!

After we saw the first initial contact happen we came back in and worked a little and would go back out and check every little bit until it was close to totality time. 

After hearing a ton of horror stories online, I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing. I have awful vision already so I didn't want to ruin it anymore, but I did read that if you take a break from looking at it (with your glasses on, obviously) every few seconds then you would be okay. Fingers crossed that's true, ha!

Loved all of the filters for Eclipse Day!

And then it started getting darker!! We could hear the birds starting to chirp, crickets, our neighbors, and the timer counting down. When we hit full totality we heard a ton of people in our neighborhood cheering. It was one of the coolest experiences we have ever experienced.

So incredibly cool, literally, the temperature dropped and we stopped sweating for a full two minutes. Pure beauty right there.

The coolest day with the coolest (& cutest) guy, ever!

MY SISTER IS HOME

As some of you know, my sister has spent the summer in Casco, Maine as a counselor at a summer camp. Well her plane landed this past Monday night at 10:23pm and we were there to welcome her back home! 

She had gone all summer without Chick-fil-A and requested that be her first meal back in Tennessee, so my parents stopped and picked it up on the way to the airport to surprise her with it a little early.

My two youngest sisters made her a sign and her two best friends made her a sign as well. So sweet and such a fun touch to welcome her home with!

Her welcoming party lol 

hugs for everyone!

She shipped most of her luggage home last week, but we still had to get a cart to carry her carry on bag because she packed it FULL. So since there was room on the cart and we had a long walk I caught a ride ;) My dad wasn't able to get his workout in that day anyways so pushing her bag + me counted as his workout, right? 

Welcome home, Mady!!!!!