Impressed

            On this very chilly morning I was able to take advantage of the stellar location of my D.C. home when I walked down 35th to the bottom of the Key Bridge to watch the amazing athletes running in the Marine Corps Marathon.  And one of those athletes just happens to be my good friend, and Cooper's original god father, Mark.  I thought spotting him in the sea of thousands of runners was a long-shot but Cooper and I caught a glimpse of him around mile 5 and were so excited to give him a little extra encouragement (not that he needed it!).  And let me tell you, if there is anything that'll get you feeling inspired and bring a little perspective to your morning its watching the group of servicemen and women who have suffered life-altering injuries and are completing the marathon on their hand cycles (had to google that to figure out what those things are called).  Amazing.

The leaders...miles ahead of the rest of the pack and clearly not losing steam.  Sorry the picture is blurry...they were running pretty fast.

            Hope you're enjoying a happy almost-Halloween Sunday!  As for me, I'm planning on doing a whole lot of nothing and making up for the snowy Saturday that I missed out on while I was cooped up in the hospital yesterday (oh the joys of working in health care :-).  See you soon!

Baby Steps

            I recently splurged a little and purchased a comfy, cozy bed for my four-legged child, complete with his monogram cause I'm crazy like that.  And unfortunately, as much as I love having this new spot for Cooper to curl up, he is just not that into it.  In fact, he pretty much despises the thing and will only sit on it if I'm sitting next to him, I've covered the thing with treats, or I drag him onto it by the collar...none of which are ideal options.  So you can imagine just how happy I was to see that my dollars had not gone to waste and the dog whisperer my roommate, Laura, had coaxed my sweet pup onto his bed tonight.  Okay, so he's just barely perched along the edge but that's progress, baby.  And I'll take it.

            It's Friday tomorrow and Halloween is well on it's way which means that jack-o-lanterns are being lit and trick-or-treaters will soon be descending on our steep little cobblestone street.  I.CAN'T.WAIT.  I'm dressing as a pinata with a black eye and the pup is going as a hotdog...what are you dressing as this year?

Live Free or Die

            I know that I recently moved to a new city and have been very excited about exploring all that it has to offer but I have also been enjoying getting out of town for the past few weekends.  My most recent getaway was spent in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and though I'm not a cold weather girl I must say that New England is starting to grow on me.  Especially when it looks like this...

            Highlights of the weekend included a night at the Cabernet Inn, apple cider donuts and pumpkin cake for dinner (hey, we were on vacation!), and a scary drive up the very steep Mt. Washington.  And though the destination at the end of our ride up north, quaint little North Conway, was absolutely wonderful, I think I loved the stops along the way just as much.  I don't think my roadtrip partner was completely thrilled with my squeals to pull over at every roadside antique junk shop and "Brake for Moose" sign along the way, but I think he had a pretty good time too :-).

Umm take me back, please!

Fall at its Finest

            Just wanted to share a few pictures from the most perfect Fall day a few weeks ago.  Liza and I (and some boys we kinda like) headed out to Virginia for an afternoon in the countryside complete with a picnic, apple picking, and wine tasting.  Our first stop was the Stribling Orchard...

And after getting our fill of pumpkins and gourds and apples galore we headed over to Vintage Ridge winery where we sampled some (bad) wines and soaked up some late afternoon sunshine (which then quickly induced a wine coma of sorts and left Lize and me passed out sound asleep for the entire ride home...oops!).

Cause this is clearly how the mature kids take notes on the different wines...

The most gorgeous Fall day?  Yeah, you could say that.

Coming Home

            I know that I'm going a little bit out of order and skipping over my birthday weekend with my handsome boy (he has a real name, I swear...happy Chris? :-) but I am waiting on pictures from Liza before I write a whole post.  There were moments of wine tasting and apple picking and picnic blanket lounging that are much better explained through pictures than words.  So while I wait, I will update y'all on the goodness that was this past weekend and my return to Wake Forest for homecoming..

            I was skeptical about the weekend to say the least and I almost didn't make the trek back.  I'm no longer at the point in my life where I feel like I would give my left kidney to go back to college, I get hungover from two glasses of wine, and I actually kind of like this whole grown up life I have going right now.  But I'm so glad that the peer pressure from my sorority listserve and the guarantee of some serious FOMO (Mom, this means fear of missing out) if I didn't go convinced me to road trip down to Winston after work on Friday.  And I was certainly not disappointed.  It was the perfect weekend with my best friends and though we really only hung out with each other and could have had this reunion in any city, there was something special about going back to the Dash, walking around on the quad, and reliving just a few of the many precious memories I have from my four years at Wake.

Yep, we took this picture.  We're officially old.

LOVE

The handy work of Mr. Coleman Team, ladies and gentlemen.

Go Deacs!  Okay, let's be serious I wasn't really paying attention to the game but I can still call myself a fan, right?  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!