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 :-)

Weekend Updates

Still feel like I am recovering from Sarah and Rachel visiting this past weekend, we packed a lot in and had so much fun!

Friday night when they got in we had a mini wine and cheese party so they could unwind from the long drive.

Then we went to dinner at The Big Ketch along with a couple others. I was thinking they'd like Big Ketch because of their extensive low-cal cocktail offerings :) We actually ended up not eating dinner until like 11pm that night, haha. We're just so young and crazy.

Sarah said she looked bored and like she wasn't having fun in this pic haha, "I promise I was was!" She said.

After dinner we went out in Buckhead for a bit -

Then Saturday morning we were up and moving, get ready for the most jammed packed day ever -

Sarah and I went to the Peachtree Road Farmer's Market where we got coffee and walked around.

 Then brunched at Buckhead Bread Company -

Waffle of the day

After brunch we decided to do a little shopping, shocker. I wanted to take Sarah to an area she'd never been to before so went to walk around the shops at Little 5 Points. She got two pairs of amazing ankle boots and I got some wedges and heels on sale and a silver, long vintage looking necklace. 

 When we got done with the shops at Little 5 we really didn't feel like shopping any more, well our wallets didn't. I looked at the clock and it was right when SweetWater was open for the day and I had been wanting to take her there, too. So from there on to the brewery!

 Confession: We walked up right at 2:30 when the brewery opened and there was the longest line ever. We wouldn't have gotten inside until like 3:30 and they closed at 4:30. So me being the ever gracious and considerate hostess to my out of town guest (who had traveled 7 hours for a day and a half visit) decided that no harm would be done for just us 2 to slip in at the front of the line....Ok I know that's horrible haha but it totally worked and we were inside just moments later enjoying our beers in the shade -

Rachel was seeing the Dark Knight and getting barraged by annoying texts from me telling her how much we missed her, and one that said "If you'd like to pick us up at 4:30 we'd like that!" I ran into some friends who were nice enough to drive us home.

Just a random golden :)

 After SW we hung out at my pool, Sarah got in but I couldn't because of my foot. Then we got ready, were picked up by Rachel and Adam and had dinner at Kaleidoscope in Brookhaven.

Red velvet ice cream cake for dessert, sooo good

As you can see we definitely indulged this weekend.

After dinner -

 Some of the group went out to the Ivy but Sarah and I met up Chrissy/Pony, her mom Linda who was in town and Scott/Kitty at a bar close by. Sarah had met Chrissy once before but she was excited to spend more time with her, and Sarah and Linda both had been anticipating meeting the Kitty since they have heard all the crazy stories. Scott said they probably expected him to be like a wild animal walking in, haha. But everyone was on their best behavior and it ended up being a very fun night. Sarah and I headed home around 1am and were absolutely exhausted from our busy day!

Oh and Rachel ran into this crazy tiger dog later that night -

Weird and creepy! He was probably so much cuter before :(

Sunday we kept our healthy streak going by having breakfast at the brunch buffet at Lenox Grill. I highly recommend their brunch buffet, it's just $10 and I think the food is really good, an omelet bar, fruit and pretty much every breakfast item imaginable.

Then I finished out the weekend with book club that night! We ate delish food, talked about The Paris Wife (it was really good I definitely recommend it, I promise I had more comments than that at book club haha) and then watched the Olympics.

This is how I was feeling, so was nice to have a relaxing evening -

Pepper and Roxie napping

Goal this week - Detox from all the lard I consumed over the weekend. Stitches come off on Wednesday hoping to be able to run in a few days!

Pics from Ky Weekend

Allison and I made the drive up Friday afternoon and almost immediately after arriving we headed to Rachel's cute townhouse then out and about downtown. It was Allison's first trip spending time in Lexington (she'd been there once when she was in band at UGA) so it was important to hit the fun and happening spots ;-)

Adam was in town from Atl, too (band aid from an accident with a hockey stick)

Ashlison in the bluegrass!

Kentucky Ale

After a late night out (3am bedtime sheesh!) we went to this delish brunch spot Saturday morning I'd never been to before, Windy Corner Market, where everything is fresh and local, was sooo good!

And I got to meet Caris's baby boy when he woke up from his nap :-)

Here I am holding him looking like a crazy baby snatcher lady

Even though it was very cold and a little rainy we of course had to show Allison some of Brit's family's exotic animals, here is Gunner the camel -

Allison was wearing a white pashmina around her neck that he tried to eat! Sad that her scarf got partially eaten but definitely funny." Of course that happened to me!" she said laughingly.

Sarah just hanging out with the ostriches

They also have a zebra, buffaloes and llamas, so it's pretty much a zoo :-) I love visiting them all when I am in town but because it was so cold and rainy we didn't venture out much.

After brunch and zoo we got showered and ready for Keeneland, and wouldn't you know Ashlison was out on full display in coordinating outfits, I swear we didn't even plan it! Besides the floral dress with the belted cardigan our boots and tights were the exact same colors, haha.

Sarah going against the group ;-)

Although it was chilly it turned out to be a pleasant day at the track. The rain stayed away and we had clubhouse passes to be able to go inside, sit down and walk around in a lot of different areas. I love the paddock where the horses and jockeys walk through on their way to the track.

I heard that the weekend before was record breaking attendance at Keeneland, about 40K people were there! So although it definitely would have been appreciated if the sun had made an appearance it was nice to be able to move around and not wait an hour to buy a drink or place a bet.

We watched a few of the races right up at the fence

We bet on one race and was very nervous about the fate of our $5

The manic outcome

After Keeneland we drove through UK's campus to show Allison some of the high points and we even made a pit stop at my freshman year dorm. Sarah captured this special moment of me bothering a college student asking if we could come in. They thought it was weird/embarrassing but I'm immune to such emotions.

Such a beautiful kitchen, I definitely felt very old, how has it already been 7 years since I lived there?!

After our tour we made a very poor decision, we got pie from Missy's Pies and ate them at Common Grounds. I'm still trying to feel human from all of the weekend's indulgences.

A piece of black bottom banana, peanut butter and brownie. Why we didn't just split one piece, we asked ourselves immediately after.

Dinner that night at Harry's, one of my fav restaurants in Lex, because we were craving salad and sushi. Had an early'ish night then had brunch at Stella's on Sunday morning, another one of my fav spots. Hit up Kroger for some Ale8 then Ashlison headed back down to Atl!