Vacation!

Matt and I got back last night from our North Carolina vacation - so much fun! It was hard coming back to reality today (i.e. going to work), but somehow I managed. Plus - in two weeks, it will be Christmas break! Yay!

We left last Tuesday and drove to Asheville. The weather was AWFUL. I drove through the mountains, at night, in the pouring rain. Awful awful awful awful. I think Matt and I went about two hours without talking, and I was clenching the steering wheel so hard that my entire upper body was sore afterwards. True story. But. BUT. We made it there in one piece, checked into our hotel, and then headed back into the deluge for the most amaaaaazing dinner at Tupelo Honey. I had shrimp and (goat cheese) grits with andouille sausage, spinach, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms. And a very large glass of wine.

Matt had something else ... and I don't remember what it was. But I'm pretty sure he loved it!

I convinced Matt to pose for a photo with me. It was tough, but eventually I convinced him it was worth it. Okay, I didn't, but I DID force him.
The next day, we went to a most amazing place - the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. This place is the real deal. CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE as far as the eye can see. Or ... in these display cases. The place had the most extensive hot chocolate (ahem, drinking chocolate) menu I had ever seen.

Oh, and we bought a bar of Mast Brothers chocolate. These dudes are serious about chocolate. We haven't had this yet - because it was kind of expensive for chocolate and we feel like we should save it for a special occasion. Like ... Christmas maybe. I absolutely LOVE the packaging and design on these chocolate bars - they are so beautiful. I had to take a photo because it looked so amazing!

Mmmmm! My drinking chocolate. It was seriously amazing. I had to take photos. This was called something like ... a liquid truffle, in "pure dark." Drool.

See how cute?
Can you tell how thick this stuff is? Kind of amazing. No, make that ... really super duper amazing.

After walking around Asheville for awhile, we got back in the car and drove to Charlotte to spend time with our friends Anna, Tim and their beautiful daughter Mae, who is 10 months old now. I am totally and completely in love with her. Here she is, hanging out with the boys:

Matt and Mae, having some play time.

All bundled up and looking OH so adorable for a walk in the cold!

So adorable in her santa jammies!!!

Matt and I are posing as surrogate parents here. Ha! We had so much fun with her. Matt was amazing with her - she LOVED hearing his voice and looking at him. She would always stick her tongue out at Matt, and it was the cutest.

Ahhh. So cute.
Matt and Mae, hanging out again. Just chillin.

Anna and Mae! Such a happy, happy baby.

Le sigh. Perfect, perfect baby.

And that was our trip! We hung out and played with Mae and it was fabulous. Thankfully, we had an uneventful drive home yesterday and now ... back to the grind.

At least until next weekend, when we're off to Chicago to spend the weekend with Lisa and Randy, and then off to Michigan to spend Christmas with my fam. Can you believe it's almost Christmas???!

Up north = heaven!

I am, sadly, home from my vacation in northern Michigan. Oscar and I had a blast at the lake house and with my parents. It was so great to just relax and not do stuff! Plus ... the lake was just AMAZING. Warning: basically all of my photos are of my dog, or the lake, or my dog in the lake. Sorry. :)

I seriously cannot believe this was northern Michigan - I've never seen a lake look so beautiful and blue!


Looking back up the many, many steps to the house!



On Monday, I went to Charlevoix to meet up with my college friend, Margaret, and her absolutely adorable little boy, Sam. I am MORE than a little bit in love with him.









Beautiful!!! But now I'm back home, and back to work tomorrow. Wah wah!

Up North!

Happy weekend, friends! I didn't get quite as many posts up this week as I wanted to - I had a busy week full of work, a terrible migraine that ruined my entire Wednesday, and packing/getting ready for my VACATION! Tomorrow morning, Oscar and I are taking an eight hour road trip to northern Michigan, where my parents rented a lake house on this lake:

Isn't it beautiful? I am really looking forward to relaxing and spending time outside in a place that isn't 100,000 degrees. I finished my class tonight and, in celebration, went to the library and checked out about 5 books. Yayyyyy reading! It has been really hard for me, not having time to read stuff for fun the last 6 weeks. I will be starting with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - soooo excited!

Anyway, while I'm up north I will get to reconnect with an old college friend I haven't seen in about 5 years ... she has THE most adorable 16 month old son, Sam, and I can't wait to meet him!

I was going to do some scheduled posts for next week, but it just didn't happen. I'm not sure if I'll have internet or not - if I do, you'll hear from me! If not ... well, have a GREAT week and I'll be back next weekend!

Randoms

Happy Monday, y'all! I thought I would throw up a quick post while I'm watching the finale of the Bachelorette. Isn't it amazing how every final rose ceremony is the most dramatic rose ceremony in Bachelorette history??? Le sigh.

Annnnyway, I am happy to report that Oscar is feeling much better. His tail is still ick and hairless and I tried very hard to get a good photo of the bald part to show you (gross, right?) but I couldn't. He has been taking his pills (in a little cheese and peanut butter sandwich every day) and he lets me put his special ointment on his tail without getting growly. All good things! I have attempted to put the cone on him but ... he takes it off almost immediately. He is a very crafty dog. But before he removes it, he sometimes looks all pathetic and droopy - probably for my benefit.

See? Sad.

Anyway - I went to Holiday World yesterday with some of my SILs. We had such a great time! I haven't been to any sort of amusement park in several years, so it was a total blast. I spent the day going down big water slides and riding crazy roller coasters. So much fun!!!

The class I'm taking is coming to a close - this is the last week. The final stretch! I have one final group case study and one final quiz. Cannot wait to be all done! The class is going great, and even though it has been a ton of work and reading, I have learned a lot - and I'm still getting an A, yay!

On Saturday, Oscar and I are going on vacation! My parents rented a lake house in northern Michigan and we are joining them Saturday-Thursday of next week. I am so excited! Oscar and I are both ready to unwind and hang out and, you know, do nothing. Woo hoo! What's up for all of you this week?

Great White North

I have returned to my native homeland from the great white north ... and I must say, I thought twice about, um, ever coming home. Not only did I fall in love with the beautiful orchards and vineyards, but I just had the best time with Jenny and Lucy. Lucy wrote a great post today about how it seems like we have always been friends - and not just "internet friends." She was right.

This is a really photo-heavy post - it was just too hard to narrow it down and keep it short. Deal with it! I arrived Friday afternoon, and Jenny arrived after dinner. Lucy and her husband gave us a nice tour of the area, and we went to an amazing ice cream place called Toute Sweet. The ice cream was amazing!!! It was like a Coldstone-type-place only the ice cream and mixins are all made in-house. Delish. We attempted to take a photo. It ummmm took awhile.

Ah, finally - a cute one! Ta da!
Lucy's hubs shows us a place called Balls Falls. Literally.
That night, Jenny and Lucy shacked up together, and Oscar jumped up because, well, he's been sleeping on the bed and that's just what he's used to. However, he's not used to there being more than one person in the bed!
So he had kind of a hard time finding a comfy place.
This only lasted a minute. Then he came out to sleep on the floor next to the couch, where I was sleeping (Lucy's hubs was sleeping on their crib mattress on the floor of the baby's room. What a man!).
Oscar even made a new, Canadian girlfriend! This is Nika. For the most part, they got along great. They had a couple of fights but quickly made up. :)
On Saturday, Lucy took us to a fast food place to get a good Canadian treat - poutine. This was something I had never heard of before, but turned out to be delish! Fries topped with brown gravy and cheese curds. Yes, you heard that right. No complaints here!

We walked around Niagara-on-the-Lake for awhile but it rained off and on, which was kind of a bummer. But that's okay! Let's move on to the next meal ... we went to this amazing Brazilian barbeque place right by Niagara Falls called Copacabana. Delish! It's one of those places where they keep bringing you meat. Hmm. That's what she said.

Here I am at the bar with Jenny, looking shiny. Note to concerned readers: Lindsay's hubs and I were the only ones who enjoyed a beer.
Jenny and Lucy. Look at that baby belly on L!
It was SERIOUSLY delicious. SERIOUSLY.
Here we are, post-meal. I think we looked better pre-dinner - afterwards we were all pretty stuffed. But had a great time eating and talking and enjoying the bachelor party going on behind us!
I cannot believe I'm sharing this photo with you - I almost wanted to post it on my blog as a joke, but then Lucy posted it on HER blog and now you know it's a fake. I did, indeed, ask the ladies working at the maternity store if I had to be pregnant to try on the fake belly. They said no ... so I did it to send to Matt as a little joke. The ladies at the maternity store thought I was crazy. But we had a pretty amazing laugh at it!
Here is Jenny with the belly - she will actually look like this in a few months!!!! Yay!
After the maternity store, we wandered over to Walmart so we could find a super cheap fake wedding band for L. And we parked in the expectant mothers spot! I had to take a photo of two of my favorite expectant mothers.
Look, it's L's hubs! On a roof! Gratuitous shirtless man photo.
Meanwhile, back at the farm ... Oscar had the most amazing weekend being an outside dog. Plus, ummm they have chickens!!!! Chickens! Oscar spent a lot of time RIGHT here. Watching them, and possibly plotting a way to get into the coop.
The humans enjoyed wandering around the beautiful garden and orchards.
Oooh, a fresh tomato! Um, I ate that one. It was delicious.
Late afternoon on Sunday, we wandered through the orchard to a pond for the pups to swim.
Seriously - can you believe this is L's back yard? I am tres jealous.

Canada = Oscar heaven
Canada also = friend heaven.
Already planning my next trip - but not until Baby Cramp is here!