Dancing in September

Didn't do a whole lot of dancing, I just like the song :)  September was a very exciting month - a few trips, birthday celebrations, and getting Roger!  Below are the highlights...

• Celebrated Maggie’s Birthday – Kevin and I came down to Newnan to hang out with Maggie and we headed to Senoia to go to Southern Ground Social Club, a restaurant/bar owned by Zac Brown, for dinner and drinks.  It was really cool!  The food was great and the band was too.

•  Labor Day at Zack’s for GA Tech VA Tech Game – Zack and Katie had us over to watch the game on Labor Day.  It was lots of fun.  Before the game the boys smoked ribs and the girls drank mimosas, yum!

 

• Two Year Anniversary – On September 5^th Kevin and I celebrated our two year anniversary!  When it was our one year anniversary I couldn't believe it had already been a year, but this year I can’t believe it’s only been two years!  Kevin hid flowers in the garage the night before and surprised me with them when I woke up the morning of our anniversary.  We had a wonderful dinner at Little Alley Steak in downtown Roswell and then came back and had dessert from Alpine Bakery on our back porch. 

• Beer Tasting at our House – A couple years ago, Kevin and his coworkers/friends started doing “beer tastings” every couple months.  This was our first time to host since we have a house now and it was lots of fun.  We made Italian beef and everyone (well mainly Josh!) brought yummy beers to taste.  They got the projector from their office and we set it up on our back porch to watch a movie!  How cool.  We watched The Professional.

• Floyd’s 4^th Birthday – Floyd turned 4 years old on September 13^th, which also marks mine and Kevin’s 4 year dating anniversary.  We didn’t make Floyd wear any silly hats or blow out candles on cat food, so it was probably the best birthday he’s ever had.  We love that cat so much it’s crazy.

• Tallulah Falls Camping Trip – Kevin, Maggie, and I were itching to go camping and didn't want it to be as freezing cold as it was last year!  We found a cool campground on the river, explored the town and views of the gorge, and felt like we became part of the community at the bluegrass gathering!  Read more and see more fun pictures here.

• Nashville/Pick up Roger/Kevin’s Birthday – This was an exciting weekend! Friday we spent the day in Nashville and Saturday was Kevin’s birthday.  We picked up Roger in Kentucky on Saturday and brought him home, and Sunday we had our parents over to celebrate Kevin’s birthday and meet Roger!  Read more and see more fun pictures here.

• Girls Ranch Weekend – We spent a weekend at Darly’s family’s ranch house in Madison County Florida.  It was beautiful and just a fun, relaxing girls weekend!!  Read more and see more fun pictures here.

Boots & Booze: Girls Ranch Weekend

The  last weekend in September some of my favorite girlfriends and I headed down to Darly's family's ranch house in Madison County, FL.  We all became friends in college but through the many bachelorette weekends, weddings, and other gatherings we have become even closer over the years.  A weekend with these girls is good for the soul and full of lots of laughter!

It was so fun to get away and relax for the weekend - wear flannel, ride around the ranch on the ranger, play games, make fun drinks, make yummy meals together...Usually I come away from our weekends together with a few theme songs that remind me of the weekend - well the music that defines this weekend consists of an absurd humming noise from Casey trying to get us to guess what song she was humming, haha!

Amanda was planning to get together with us that weekend but came down with a stomach bug just the day before we were supposed to leave...aka she was pregnant!  She called me earlier that week to tell me and of course I was thrilled for her but I had to keep it a dang secret all weekend!  And of course Ashley and Lauren's first question to me was "Is Amanda pregnant?!"  I think I played it off pretty well if I say so myself :)  Sorry ladies!

A little side story - Lauren has had a couple turns of bad luck on prior trips...on Ashley's bachelorette trip her SUV started smoking and we had to rent a mini van, and on Casey's bachelorette trip she got pulled over for a speeding ticket.  Well this trip was no different - she and Ashley had parked her car about 30 minutes before I met up with them to carpool down to the ranch, then when we were loading up my stuff we noticed that her hand gun, Louis bag, and Ashley's GPS had been stolen out of Lauren's car :(  We had to wait 3 hours on a police officer to arrive, and that only happened because Lauren chased him down in the rain!  So our trip was a little delayed but Casey and Darly were waiting at the ranch with a delicious meal of taquitos and guacamole.  We joked that we were glad to be starving to eat their cooking -  but we had to admit it was pretty good! :)

Lauren  waiting on a police officer to pass by...

Chasing down a police officer to come help us!

He did the cool finger print stuff but couldn't get any prints

 

We were relieved they didn't steal any booze though :)

I'll let the pictures tell the rest :)

Casey and Darly greeted us with masks on and we all greeted Daisha with the masks when she arrived!

The awesome/creepy mask room

Jack and coke slushies!

Cows by the pool

Miss Kitty!

Bella!

Darly knew her way around the ranch and we enjoyed riding around and taking pictures

Kevin's Birthday Weekend: Meet Roger!

We took Friday off of work and got up to Nashville by lunchtime.  We looked up places on TripAdvisor for lunch and decided on Monell’s – it was an interesting experience!  It was pretty tasty southern food served family style so we sat at a table with a bunch of strangers and passed bowls of food around the table.  Afterwards we walked around downtown and stopped in a bar to get a drink and listen to some music!  My coworker Lacy had told me she was going to the Zac Brown music festival that weekend in Nashville and then I saw John Mayer posting about it on facebook – so on the way up to Nashville I looked it up on the internet and saw that Friday night had a pretty cool line up: Amos Lee and Michael Franti & Spearhead to open, then Zac Brown Band with special guests Gregg Allman, Sheryl Crow, Alan Jackson, and John Mayer!  So we decided to buy tickets and we were glad we did!!  Afterwards we walked around downtown Nashville for a bit so Kevin could see Nash Vegas all lit up.

Outside of Monell's

Had a bottle of wine and empty coffee cups in my car = pregaming before the concert began :)

The next morning we got up early and headed about an hour North of Nashville to pick up Roger in Kentucky!  The breeder let all 8 pups out when we first got there – they were so cute!  There were only 2 males and we knew we wanted a male so he put all the girls up and we interacted with the two boys for a little while.  Roger was the “white male”.  The “red male” was a little smaller and not as masculine looking.  He had a very sweet face but I thought Roger was cuter, and Roger seemed more interested in me when I would go up to him, he came when I called him, and he stared into my eyes!  I was relieved when Kevin said he liked the “white male” better too, and after we expressed our opinions the breeder said hands down the “white male” would be his first pick too.  They were part of the “L” litter so they like for their registered names to begin with an “L” – so, Roger is registered as “L Dorado von Schneiden Fels”.  Kevin’s grandfather’s name was El Dorado, and I’ve always joked with him that we can’t name our son that but we could name a dog that :)  Speaking of dog names, it took much debating to land on the name Roger!  I’m so glad we finally thought of a name we both loved.  A long time ago I suggested the name “Reno” for our future German Shepherd and Kevin got stuck on that.  But I wanted it to be a musician’s name because my parents started that theme with Jeffery and Becky (Jeff Beck) and we carried it on with Floyd (Pink Floyd).  I don’t know why it took us so long to think of Roger (Roger Waters) – I mean how perfect!  Kevin thought of it and it has fit him perfectly.  We also like to call him “Rogi” (Rah-gee) because of that State Farm commercial “Show me whatcha go whatcha got Raji!”  yep, we sing that to him all the time!

I guess his love for chewing sticks started young!

The "red male".  His ears were already up!  He was pretty but I'm so glad we got to see Roger during his floppy ear stage.

Sleepy boy after showing off and playing

Yay!! You picked me!

I'd give anything to hold Rogi this little again!

The ride home was great overall, although I was in a completely different outfit by the time I got home (he got sick on my shirt and pottied on my jeans).  But mostly he just slept and gazed into my eyes.  

 

We got home while it was still light outside so we played in the yard with him for a little bit.  The introduction with Floyd went pretty well.  Floyd wasn’t thrilled, and Roger wants to play with Floyd like he’s a dog, but Floyd defends himself pretty well.  I’m so glad Floyd hasn’t seemed mad at us – if anything he’s been sweeter!  

On Sunday our parents came up to celebrate Kevin’s birthday and meet Roger.  It was so fun to show off Roger!  He was so cute playing in the yard and then getting completely worn out.  We grilled out and Kevin’s mom brought red velvet cupcakes.  Kevin’s mom gave Kevin lots of doggie-themed goodies and Mom and Dad gave us two new fans for our back porch, yay!  What a fun weekend!

Roger's first encounter with his next door neighbor Riley!  Roger loves playing with Riley !

Floyd pouting