Girl's Trips

An early Christmas for you, a new post! I'll attempt to not have such a long blogging hiatus next time. Between the holidays and starting my new position at work blogging hasn't been at the top of my priorities the last few weeks if you haven't noticed ;-)

Rachel and Autumn came to Atlanta for a visit and the Kentucky vs. Duke basketball game a couple weeks ago, as usual we went all over the city and had so much fun!

They got in on a rainy Monday evening and I thought Cafe Intermezzo would be the perfect spot for drinks, dinner and dessert. We all got a different champagne cocktail and piece of cheesecake. Autumn and I split salad, the black bean burger and pumpkin cheesecake. Whenever Rachel comes in town I give lots of special thought to where all we will eat. Now don't get mad Rachel but you know you are a picky eater and drinker. A few things she doesn't like: Coffee, tea, wine, beer, diet sodas, tequila, any exotic or different flavor combinations, I'll stop there you get the point. Rach gets annoyed at my affinity to pointing this out to people ;-) But I try to think of places with a fun atmosphere that will have good quality, plain food. While driving around town Rach said, "Atlanta has so many restaurants, how do you ever decide where to eat?!" It's just so hard.

 The next day I took off work and enjoyed a day of brunching (Flying Biscuit by Piedmont Park, Rach has eaten there before and approves ;-) and shopping. We strolled the shops in the Virginia Highlands and went to Paris on Ponce. Rachel even put on one of her famed dance routines to an audience of one (me) -

Autumn responding to us telling her to strike a sexy pose -

After a full afternoon of shopping we took a snack break at Belly in the Highlands (Why yes that's a red velvet cupcake in my head) -

And fun fact: This is where some scenes from the movie "Life As We Know It" with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel were filmed. And not so little known fact: Rach and I love celebs!

 Rach loves coke, too! Since I listed some things she doesn't like I'll list some things she does like: Dr. Pepper (regular), milk, orange juice, mini Hostess chocolate doughnuts, chips and salsa and chocolate chip cookies (what she got at Belly).

Then we went to cheer on the Cats at the Ga Dome that night! Autumn let me borrow that cute scarf and I bought that top at Festivity that day. Brit gave me those earrings for my birthday :-)

 I don't think I've been to a UK basketball game since I was a student, only football. Even though we lost and all the Duke fans around us were so awful and annoying it was great to see them play in person, and we are a very young team so will only get better!

 I'm due for a visit to Nashville soon!

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A few days later I headed up to Lexington for Brittany's baby shower and our annual girls' Christmas get together. I got in Friday evening and Sarah and I had dinner at one of my fav restaurants in Lex, where else Jalepinos, it was as delish as always. As you can see we definitely indulged with queso dip, chicken fajitas and margaritas -

 I stayed at Sarah's parent's house and got in lots of cuddle time with their lab, Bufford, he refused to get on the couch with me tho -

 Saturday morning was Brittany's shower at Chelsea's to celebrate baby Bradford who is due in just a little over a month! Chels made this adorable sign -

Lots of amazing food, we had mini ham sandwiches, Chels made 2 different kinds of quiche, a cheese and strawberry jelly ring and rosemary cashews, Caris made her coffee cake and muffins and Sarah and I made blueberry cheesecake cookies :-)

 Caris's baby boy, look how much bigger he is from the last time I saw him just a few months ago!

 Always ready for a photo op :-)

Brit opening her presents, she got lots of great stuff. When she opened each gift the giver had to share some baby advice, when it was my turn my advice was to dress her baby in socks that will fit him. I'm telling the story here about a photo up in my parent's house of me standing up as a baby wearing knee socks that were too tight on me, making my legs looks like big sausages. My mom says the socks in the size above wouldn't stay up. Anyways this pic has caused my brothers to make countless sweet comments over the years about my pudgy, baby legs jammed into these socks.

 After the shower we went to Chelsea's family lake house in Austen, Ky. It's so funny because we did the exact same thing last year, had a shower for Caris and then all went to the lake house. Wonder what next year will have in store!

We had our Christmas gift exchange and everyone outdid themselves this year. Chels made us books filled with pics from trips, holidays and birthdays over the years that we poured and laughed over, Caris made us adorable packs out of rice and cheerful chevron fabric that can be heated or frozen to use for aches and pains and some super cute gift tags and stamps, Sarah gave vintage classic novels and pretty note cards, Brit gave the cutest measuring cups made of teacups and some of owls and I gave handmade lavender pouches and candles from an antique market in Roswell. I love our gift exchanges!

 And of course we played our annual game of charades -

We never cease to amuse ourselves by watching each other do ridiculous things!

 One of the favs this year was Sarah turning into a spy, she suddenly morphed into a scary spy peaking at us through a window from outside, she had to stop because it made Brit too upset, haha.

The next day we went for a walk around the complex. Weather was perfect. I wanted Baby V strapped to me for extra exercise! That's Chelsea's sweet 2 month old baby in the stroller :-)

Baby V loved looking out the window! We had a couple deer spottings.

Also tradition on our girls' weekends is to indulge in lots, and I mean lots, of decadent food. Chels made biscuits and gravy casserole that I wanted to stick my face in. Chel also made salted Nutella fudge! (If you click on the link you can see my request for her to make it, haha) And as you can see many cups of coffee are consumed as well.

Playing our fav game, Dutch Blitz!

Baby V is so sweet and fun to have around, one of the rare times he was on the floor and not in my lap :-)

Baby model!

 ♥♥♥

The other Baby V with his Auntie Sarah

 Tickle!

 This random stray cat loved Chelsea but sadly the feelings weren't returned, "Git!!!"

 Ruffin' it sans makeup

The backyard

 Another girls' weekend essential

Cheers to many more girls' weekends and celebrations to come! And next year we'll have yet another bouncing baby boy in tow to join in on the fun! I can't wait to tell these little boys how I remember them coming with us on our trips as babies :-)