A Weekend of Adventures

A group of our really good friends came to visit us in Durham back in March.  It was a great weekend, and it was so nice for us all to get to spend some quality time together.  They came from Chicago and Birmingham. We had so much fun showing them all of our favorite places in Durham, and I'd venture to say that they enjoyed exploring Durham with us!  Instead of doing a boring, long post about it... I'm just going to do pictures and captions.  We can't wait to see everyone again at Lauren and Charlie's wedding in September! 

We had apps and happy hour drinks at City Beverage

"I can't wait to get apps with you cats"

We gathered around and partook of the Beer Tower of Power at BCBB

We visited Mystery Brewing and played a serious game of Cards Against Humanity

There were multiple intense games of Battle of the Sexes

We visited Fullsteam Brewery and shit got real during Jenga

Greg was too busy with darts to get involved in our fierce game of Jenga

I snuck over to the Pit with my best girl friend, Scott

We devoured apps from The Pit

There were many man snuggles

The boys took the pizza menu seriously when we were ordering dinner

We had delicious brunch at Top of the Hill Brewery

Lastly, we had "brewtails" and Scott was not pleased

Thanksgiving, part 2 (finally)

Hi everyone!  I have no clue where the time went between December 1 and today.  I never got around to doing my second post about Thanksgiving.  So, here we go.  To refresh your memory... We went to Carolina beach for our Thanksgiving break.  We took the dogs, and rented a beach front condo, and it was absolutely perfect.  We did a ton of relaxing.  We watched football.  We walked on the beach, and we played with the dogs on the beach.  Here are some pictures!

The beach house.  We were in the unit on the bottom right, and we were the only people there!

Sunset the first night we were there- beautiful

Hershee loved chasing the waves as they crashed on the shore.

Penni loved digging in the sand.

Another beautiful sunset.

The morning that we left.  My favorite part of the trip was sitting on the porch taking in the view.

Our Lake Vacation

In March, we started talking about taking a summer vacation with a couple of friends.  We thought about going to the beach, going camping, and then we had the idea to go to a lake.  We decided that the beach would be too difficult because there isn't exactly somewhere 'in the middle' that we could meet at with our friends.  After a lot of research, we decided to try and find a rental on Lake Hartwell.  There are parts of the lake in Georgia and South Carolina and it's half way between Durham and Birmingham.  PERFECT!

We called our friends Scott and Kathleen to see if the would be interested in going on a vacation with us, and they said yes.  Thus began the search for the perfect vacation home.  By the way, here's a picture of the four of us at Scott and Kathleen's wedding:

We stayed in a cute house that was on a little cove.  The water around the dock wasn't very deep, but there was this 'sandy beachy' area that we could walk down to get to deeper water.  We had a blast.  We floated in the lake all day, we cooked yummy dinners at night, and we had lots of wine.  After we got done laying in the lake, we came in and had dinner, and then we would start up the games.  We played Taboo, Catch Phrase, and Apple to Apples.

Now, being the crazy dachshund momma that I am...  I bought the babies life jackets.  I am SO glad I did because they loved the water!!  Penni would just swim on out to us when she wanted to hang out, and then she would swim back tot he shore when she was ready to roll in the mud (and dig in the 'sand').  Hershee like hanging out at the shore more than actual swimming.  She laid in the sun, and would go in the water just far enough to cool off then lay back down on the shore.  They both went out on the kayaks, although that wasn't a huge hit.  They tended to try and swim back and forth between whoever was in the two kayaks.

I was terribly lazy and took ONE picture the whole time we were gone.  Sorry!  Here it is:

Here is a picture of the babies in the life-jackets the day that we got them (note: Hershee and Penni were not amused, and Hersh was convinced that she couldn't walk while wearing it- she got over that and realized not only could she walk and run, but she could swim!):

A Quick Update

Hello all!  I have been a terrible blogger over the past month, and for that I apologize.  The last post promised you guys a lot, and I have not come through on those promises.  Don't get too excited because I am not going to give you a great post today either.

Yesterday I got feisty, and called out all my dear friends who also have blogs that they have not been updating.  Then I didn't update my own blog.  HA!

Things have been super busy since I last updated.  We went home for a long weekend that ended up not being that long at all.  It's so hard to enjoy a trip when there is a constant reminder that you have to go so soon.  We did two days in Tuscaloosa with my parents, and then we spent two days with Greg's parents in Childersburg.  I'm going to do a long post with some pictures that I took.  But, I think we experienced everything that I said that we were looking forward to on the last post.

Greg's parents took a BIG road trip in July.  They drove up to spend the 4th of July with us.  We were suppose to go to a baseball game, but alas it got rained out.  Then they drove up to Philadelphia, New York City, and the whole point of the trip was to visit Greg's uncle in Boston.  They had a great trip, and it has been fun hearing about their adventures.

We also went on vacation with some very good friends in July.  We rented a house on Lake Hartwell, GA.  It was a great trip.  It was SO good to spend time with Scott and Kathleen, and it was great to relax and not have anything to do!  AND for those of you that don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter, the dogs absolutely loved the water!  They loved swimming and playing in the dirt/mud.

We have a really busy month coming up.  I am actually fortunate enough to have the month of August off.  I will be in transition between the family I am currently with (they are moving to Philadelphia- I'm super sad about them leaving) and a new family that I am so excited to work with.  Of course I couldn't have a month off and just sit around a do nothing!  Here is what August is shaping up to look like:
- maybe spend a few days in Philadelphia with Kate, Mark, and the baby
- fly to Mobile, AL for Greg's cousin's wife's baby shower (can you say that 10 times fast?)
- fly from Birmingham to Raleigh with Mom- she is visiting for a week
- Dad is driving over from Asheville to spend some time with us
- spend a few half days with the new family
- go to Knoxville to visit my sister-in-law and brother
- plan a special birthday celebration for my sweet husband

My 'plan' is to update you all on the things that we have already done, and then to stay on top of the blog and blog about all the things going on in August as they happen!

How are you all doing?  I've missed you!