Mini Vacation

This weekend felt like a long weekend/mini vacation--restful, lots of time with family and friends, and lots of time in the car!

Friday afternoon, Kelly and I loaded up my beloved "Roxy" (aka my car) and headed to Marietta. Friday night was spent with my parents, Katie, Lee, and Charlotte. Kelly and Charlotte quickly became friends and the 3 of us were nearly inseparable the whole weekend; if Charlotte was doing something, she wanted us to tag along. After we took a family walk and read her bedtime stories; the "kids"--Katie, Lee, Kelly, and myself watched Lincoln Lawyer. It was a great Friday night in!

Saturday morning, Bonnie stopped by to get "teacher things" from my mom and she and my mom spent the better part of 2 hours talking about classroom stuff. Kelly was upstairs the whole time playing with Charlotte--they played with the Little People and Kelly's favorite part was the dance party to Charlotte's 2 favorite songs--"Jessie's Girl" and "Awww the Single Ladies". Chandler made me a CD senior year of college even though she has the choice of "I can show you the world", songs from Enchanted, and "Part of Your World" my niece choose those 2 songs! Hilarious! Kelly's favorite conversation of the morning went a little like this:
Kelly: Show me your favorite dance move.
Charlotte: Um, no.
Kelly: Why not?
Charlotte: I have too many!
That kid never ceases to keep my (and my friends) entertained!

Kelly and I made it out the door (Charlotte was distracted when we snuck out) and got sort of lost found our way to the Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch--YUM!

Since Kirby and Daniel live so close to the stadium, we didn't even have to deal with parking! We caught up with Kirby, and of course Felicity, before going to the best seats I have or will ever have at a Braves game--22nd row from the 3rd base line! It was "alumni weekend"; Friday night they retired Bobby Cox's number and Saturday was the 1991 team vs. the legends team game before the actual Braves vs. Cubs Game. It was so fun to see baseball players that I remember watching in my childhood like John Smoltz and Tom Glavin!

Our seats were shaded so we were pretty comfortable the whole game, which was nice. I mean, it doesn't get much better than best friends, Braves, beer, and roasted peanuts on a late summer night.

We slept in on Sunday and sadly headed back to Chattanooga. I was only in Chattanooga for 30 minutes max because I literally got out of my car and into Becca Hart's. We headed to Young Harris, Georgia (just outside of Blairsville) for her college roommate's wedding...Since Matt is still in his critical period after his bone marrow transplant, weddings haven't been easy to go to, especially ones where she has to travel. I gladly accepted to be Becca's wedding date--she said I was the best wedding date she'd ever had :) The wedding was held at Brasstown Valley Reosrt which was so nice because the wedding, reception, and our hotel room were all within walking distance. The ceremony was sweet, personal, and beautifully decorated!

But the reception-man oh man!! If I could copy everything about it, I would! It was outside, but under a covered pavilion with romantic lighting and plenty of space to dance to the live Motown band. There was a cocktail hour with waiters passing out Hors d'Oeuvres while the wedding party took pictures. They had the guest book out to sign and had a HUGE bottle of wine for guests to sign too! They served beer and wine, had a buffet line for dinner, yummy cake (the Groom's cake was cheesecake, which I LOVED!), and they even came around and poured champagne for the toast! The service was incredible, the food was delicious, and it was obvious how much fun the bride and groom were having with each other and all of their guests. The family makes their own raspberry jelly so they gave jars of that for the wedding favors, I'll let you know how delicious it is later :)

A highlight of the night though was when Caroline (the bride) threw the bouquet directly to Becca! ha! So that means you're next, right Becca?? ;)

Bonus, we got to just walk right back to our super nice hotel room-way better than dealing with a late night 2+ hour drive back. An added bonus, there was a light switch operated fireplace in the room! So fancy! Granted, it's still August and not quite fireplace weather....we turned in on regardless, just because we could! The whole hotel was incredible and I would die to go back there when the leaves are changing colors! Also, they had a squirrel shaped lamp, so how could I not take a picture?

This weekend was an at home and away from home vacation and so worth the hours I spent in the car! It was great to see friends and family and have plenty of rest and play time too! I'm excited about these next few weekends that I have planned and this was the first of many that I'll remember fondly.