Mom's Surprise 60th weekend in Raleigh

WOAH. Major throwbacks on this Sunday in (almost) late April. It's great to see the blog again, especially to break up my graduate school papers and assignments due this week. PHEW...semester 2 is almost over!

 

ALAS! We are caught up to Mom's 60th weekend back in October (yea don't judge) and boy was it a blast!  I flew up on Friday and Josh, Andrea, and the kids picked me up from the airport and hung out until Mom and Dad arrived. She had NO CLUE I was coming and I completely forgot to snap a picture of her reaction. She walked in and the kids ran to her as usual and after she hugged them she stood up and looked around, saying hey and giving hugs. She scanned around and said, "Hey Jenni. JENNI?!?!? Wait...you're supposed to be in Florida!" and then all the laughing and crying ensued.

 

It was a weekend filled with lots of hugs & kisses, catching up, wearing Gator shirts, Jack's T-ball game, playing outside, pumpkin patches, and eating delicious barbeque at The Pit. Here is our weekend in photos:

 

 

Jack's T-ball team:



 

                     

 

Mom & Cal - his giggles are contagious!

 



Cal practicing his skills:

 







This started out as an adorable reading session and turned into

everyone cracking up because of Cal's cute giggles!

 



 

 

Pumpkin Patch:

 



 

 

Then Mom's birthday dinner at The Pit!

 

It was a wonderful weekend spent with family and I could not have been more excited to be there to celebrate my amazing mother. Cheers to 60 more years! :) Love you!

Gator Football Fall 2014

Alright y'all - this is a summation of our Fall Football experiences! This is a huge perk of being a graduate student & basically the first time I can really call a football team "mine." Radford didn't have a team and NC State was through Clay...but boy was this NOT the season we wanted!

 

It all started way back at game 1 with these crazies below & the biggest rain out ever! Game was cancelled and we survived a monsoon...barely. Darren & Jess came to kick off the season with us so we went to St. Augustine after the torrential downpour of a game to enjoy the rest of our weekend!

 

 Gorgeous view at lunch - Conch House

 

biggest onion rings we've ever seen!

Home Game #2:

 

 

Home Game #3: That time when CMT came to film tailgating in the South (supposedly a new show is coming out this Spring) so Dustin & I tried to get the "boom" mic in a picture ha!

Seth & Dustin - always a great time!

 

 

Home Game #4

 

 

 

 

 

Home Game #5 (Homecoming)

Season was crumbling right before our eyes so we left before halftime.

 

 

 

The Gators ended up firing their head coach, Will Muschamp, and shortly after hired Jim McElwain. I hope next season is better but nothing can beat the Florida heat & great friends to relieve some graduate school stress! I REALLY love being a Florida Gator!

Clay's 30th Weekend

Waaaay back in October, we celebrated Clay's big THREE-O!!!!!!! He really wanted to go to Halloween Horror Nights in Universal so we asked our travel buddies Dustin & Gilberto to come along for the fun! I was TERRIFIED but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and most importantly, Clay had an absolute blast!

 

Basically, the park is open until super late at night for all the normal rides and they have made some of the studios and buildings into themed haunted houses...and there are like 15 of them. They really go all out to decorate and also have staff members dressed up and walking around to scare you as you go through the park. When we went through the houses, I NEVER went first and held on to Clay's arm and Dustin's jacket in front of me the entire time (yes, I'm such a wuss!) If you ever go, we recommend the Fast Pass so you can cut in front of everyone waiting to get into the houses (several hours per house). It was more than the actual ticket but it was SO worth it! 

 

 

I insisted that we go to the Guest Services counter and get birthday buttons (like we did for mine) so I got one for Clay & I.

 

 

 

 

 

In line for the Michael Myers house (below). Everyone in the house wore that mask and at the end, you had to walk through a room in a single file line and the aisle was LINED WITH THEM standing and staring at you from all sides.  I made it out just fine...by screaming and running with my eyes closed.

 

On Clay's actual birthday, our awesome neighbor Heidi made Clay this fantastic pumpkin layered cake! They are the best! 

 

I can't believe we both celebrated our 30th birthdays at Universal Studios in 2014!