Life lately

I've been really terrible at remembering to take photos lately. So that's why this post looks a little more sparse than usual. Anyhow, I had a really good Thanksgiving with family, it's always good to see my niece and nephew (and yeah, the rest of the fam too :) I ate lots of food and my brother took some outfits photos that I still haven't even had a chance to review yet. I think they are gonna be pretty good though, so stay tuned for that!

The next day I got up early on a freezing cold morning to meet Casey (in town from Portland!) for a quick run through Mountain Brook and then a brief coffee break so we could actually talk without all the huffin and puffin up the hills. I was so stinkin happy to see her (& her ring!) and squeeze her in person. Miss that girl so much!

Later in the day I got to meet one of J's best friends who lives out in Tahoe and was home for the long weekend. We all drove up to somewhere near the Ocoee River and crashed another one of their friend's family Thanksgiving weekend. I was fully prepared to be roughing it in a cabin with several people that I didn't know, but we pulled up to an incrediblly large house that sat right on the Ocoee River (or I think it was the Ocoee anyhow). It was gorgeous and we had a great time eating and laughing and playing ping pong and watching football all weekend. After dating J for about 10 months now, I was stoked to finally get to meet both Adam and Josh.

After the big Turkey Day weekend getaway, things have been pretty slow in my social life (not so much at work though!). It's rained a ton here lately, so J and I have seen a couple more movies including Thor, which I actually enjoyed, and the Hunger Games, which of course I loved. I also used this past yucky Saturday to get part of my Christmas shopping done before we watched the SEC Championship with some friends of ours. Then yesterday's rainy weather gave me a chance to even get a couple of gifts wrapped and under the tree!

And for me, cold dreary weather also brings about the desire/need for coffee. I'm really hoping my new Wednesday-after-work coffee break with the girls takes off and it becomes a time that we can all see each other and catch up hopefully once a week. But with holiday schedules and plans, who knows! It's worth a shot though :)

Life lately

I wish every weekend was a three day weekend —don't you?! And apparently by my lack of a post yesterday I must still be in the three day weekend mode!

Since I can't actually have another long weekend yet, I guess I'll just tell you guys about how great my Memorial Day weekend was instead. J and I got the invite to go camping at the Ocoee with some friends of mine that I met through the climbing gym. We've been hanging with them a good bit doing trivia nights and what not, so we knew it'd be a good time.

We got extremely lucky that John and Katie went up a day earlier and checked out a couple of campsites. They ended up snagging the six of us a prime spot about 15 feet away from the Ocoee. Nights were spend around the campfire listening to the river and grilling amazing food, while mornings were spent sitting on a rock, drinking coffee and heckling watching the rafters and kayakers coming over the rapids. I also managed to get in a run one morning with everyone. Well, if you call mostly walking straight up a mountain and then running back down a "run" :) We also floated the Toccoa River one day and then rafted the Hiwasee the next. It was good times all around.

J and I decided to split from the group a little early and spent the day in Chattanooga on the way home. We had an amazing breakfast at Aretha Frankensteins and then walked by the river and eventually ended up visiting the Hunter Museum of American Art. We saw this incredible special exhibition by Whitfield Lovell called Deep River. Seriously, it was amazing. I've never seen portrait drawings so beautiful like this. If you're in that area, you should check it out.

That weekend has definitely been the highlight of life lately. I've also been to another Barons game, attended a crawfish boil going away party for a couple at church and the baby shower of a mutual friend of mine and Shannon's. Oh and I managed to squeeze in a little bit of pool time with Ashley on Sunday afternoon. Working towards that tan! Hopefully you guys will be able to see it first hand in some pics soon.