SNOW!!!! LOTS of snow!!!

Be warned...this post contains LOTS of snowy pictures. ;)

Standing outside in the 65 degree weather on Thursday afternoon, it was really hard to believe the weatherman as he predicted 6-10 inches of snow accumulation on Friday night, starting around 9 PM.  But we got it last night...a good 6 inches at least!

Ryan and I went to dinner with friends last night around 6, thinking the snow wouldn't start until around 9 as predicted.  During dinner at one point, I looked out the window and noticed snow had already started to fall and by the time we got outside to the car, an inch had already covered the ground and my car!  Driving home, the roads were already dangerous as unprepared drivers were still on the roads and got caught in the mess before they were prepared for it, so our friends had to leave right away to get back to Raleigh since they didn't have 4-wheel drive. 

Ryan and I decided it would be a warm and cozy stay-in movie night, so we ventured out to Target in his Tahoe for some decaf coffee and candy to go along with the movie.  Target was practically dead at that point except for the last few people trying to get their milk, bread, and eggs.  Haha, they were all getting their essentials and we were after our decaf coffee and candy! :)

We woke up early to find snow everywhere and wanted to get out in it and see campus before the sleet started.  So I got a pot of coffee going and tucked some piggies in their blankets and we put on our layers while they baked.  I called Matt to see if he wanted to join us in our venturing out, but he declined because Wes and Banks were at his place and they would get out in it later.  I shoulda known he would want to drive instead of be a passenger. Why even ask...men and their 4-wheel drives....

So after Ryan scraped the windshield, we headed out with our coffee and pigs...

First, we went to the Duke Gardens...

The only reason I took a picture of a trash can is because it shows how deep the snow is...

Mischievous Ryan tried to kick a little snow on me....

Our attempt at getting a picture of ourselves...

We were literally as excited as kids at Christmas I think. But the real fun was still yet to come...

Next, we hit up the Duke Chapel.  Didn't get pictures of Duke's icon during the snow last year, so wanted to definitely get some this year!

 I have to say, Duke's a pretty place to work :)  Here's the chapel up close...

Ryan mastered the self-take on the second try.

 And then came the real fun...BUT on second thought....I have a whole lot of pictures of "that fun" alone so I'll save it for tomorrow and give it it's own post...so stay tuned :)

After we left the chapel, we met up with Matt, Wes, and Banks...the three amigos...and went to breakfast.

...at none other than Waffle House.  It was one of the only things open and it was delicious! :)

And Matt is totally reppin' the wrong school, haha! ;)

After breakfast Ryan and I did a little more driving.  We drove through the Duke Forest...

...just look at that face...I think it's kinda cute, even though it is saying "I'm about to throw this snowball in your face!"  ;)

And last stop, the good stuff...

West Campus and the athletic facilities...  This picture of Cameron was taken especially for my friend Britney, the most die-hard Cameron Crazie I know!

And here's Wally Wade's north gate and the football building.  I love this picture, maybe because it contains so many good memories...it's where the players' families enter for games. :)

Ryan and Wes inside the gates in front of the Yoh...

Such a fun day with all my boys! 

And currently those boys (including my husband) are all over at Matt and Wes' playing video games, so I guess I'll walk on over and join the fun.  Have I ever mentioned that I love that my little brother lives next door?  ;)  I'm glad he's in Durham with Ryan and I and I forgot how fun weekends of spring semester are when Matt & Co. are actually around on the weekends and not traveling for football!

My public apology

It has been drawn to my attention that I need to clarify something that I wrote in my former post, "Girl's Weekend, here I come!".  In order to accurately describe the massive amounts of food that our friend Patrick consumes, I had referred to him as a "garbage disposal". 

Well, last night, his girlfriend Maggie posted on my facebook wall:  "'GARBAGE DISPOSAL' -- I was cracking up!! Patrick got himself a new nickname from me haha!..."

And then I woke up to find an email with the subject "I've got a problem" from Patrick himself that read:

"Erin,
I have a problem with the words that you have used in your blog.  The words "garbage disposal" do not articulate the situation appropriately and therefore should be taken off the blog.  These said words don't accurately represent the food that was consumed.  The food was delicious and very far from garbage.  Therefore, you may say that I was either (a) a glutton, (b) a food black hole - which I'm thinking about naming a black hole after Maggie for her birthday, - or (c) a gourmet garbage disposal if you want to keep the garbage disposal part.  I just wanted to ensure that words provided in your blog are true events experienced by real people in real time and that I enjoyed the delicious food.
Thanks,
Patrick Bailey"

So, I want to clarify to Patrick and Maggie and anyone else who may have misunderstood my use of the term, that "garbage disposal" is most definitely a term of endearment in my book and was intended that way the first time I wrote it.  The term has now been changed in the original post (second to last paragraph), but since it was important to Patrick and since his email was so funny, I thought I would share the humor with you and clarify that I meant the term only in a positive way.  As one who loves to cook, the biggest compliment to the cook is when someone eats lots of their food and seems to enjoy themself in the process, so "garbage disposal" was definitely a compliment, Pat! :)


h   e       i   s      a   l   w   a   y   s         e   a   t   i   n   g   .   .   .

P.S. I also want you all to know that I did not spoil any surprises for Maggie's birthday by including the black hole part of Pat's email.  The black hole is a running joke between them.

So, in an effort to ensure that words provided in this blog are true events experienced by real people in real time, I just had to get that off my chest.  Goodnight!

24...is getting old.

No, no, no...I'm not talking about Jack Bauer.  Don't get mad at me...yet.  I'm referring to the new age that I have just reached.  And now you're mad (all you that are older than me anyways). 

I know you're thinking I'm crazy and want to say "shut up, young one, stop complaining about 24.  That's not OLD!"  And really it's not.  But, for some reason 24 just feels like a whole new phase of life that feels OLD.  I was talking to one of my best friends Laura about it on my birthday and she was so right in the way she put it.  At 23, you could still be a fifth year senior in college, but at 24 you are PAST the college days, PAST your youth and getting good and settled into the start of your ADULT years...from here on out.  YIKES!!  Thanks for bringing THAT to my attention, Gowder! (She's one of my few readers, so I enjoy calling her out by name) ;).  I think I'm going to have to pull a Joyce (referring to my grandmother's trick) and start repeating ages on my birthday.  She's been 39 for yeeeeaaars.  My mom is older than she is...how does that work?  So maybe I'll just turn 24 again on my birthday next year!

Seriously though, according to the life plan that I created when I was about 14...and still abide by...(that I may not have shared with Ryan, and God just might have laughed at), I wanted to get married young (at 22, check) and have kids young, but not without having several years to spend with my husband first, traveling and doing all kinds of adventures that you can't do once kids come along...and of course get a house first, with a white picket fence, a yard and a dog (that was my senior class prediction in high school...it also included marrying Ryan, ha!).  My theory here was that if I had kids young, then I would have tons of energy for them at every age and then when they were all grown and "out of the house", hubby and I would still be young enough and have lots of energy left over for traveling, being adventurous, and also have enough energy for grandkids.  (I think of my mom's best friend who had kids young and at my mom's same age, has 3 grandkids with another on the way and has them all up to the lake house every weekend of the summer and takes one of them out to Jackson Hole, WY every winter and goes on mission trips to Nicaragua and trips to Europe and jetlag barely even phases them - oh, can I just get a little bit of that energy now.  I'm already tired, just from going to work today).  So back to my "plan"...24 was always my "ideal" age to start having kids in order to be finished having kids by 30.  Buuuut, now that I'm 24, I'm not ready for that yet. We haven't been on a big trip yet (like Italy)...and we don't have a house yet...or even a dog...etc, etc, etc....

And I hear a quiet voice say "Erin, STOP PLANNING! ...and trust ME because MY plan is perfect".  So I stop.  And I realize that each day in life is numbered and I only have a certain number of days to live and instead of trying to live by my "plan", I need to enjoy each day and realize that each one has a purpose and that purpose is to ENJOY God and glorify Him forever, and I'm not glorifying Him very much when I'm just trying to rush through life checking things off my life plan's to-do list. 

All that to say...I'm now 24...yay!  And God has given me 24 years worth celebrating so far, filled with the best family and friends anyone could ask for, a lifetime full of GOOD memories, good health so far, and a husband who is perfect for me.  We shall see what this 24th year has in store, but I sure hope that come good OR bad, I will glorify God with my life, my attitude and with praise and thanksgiving. 

And a big thank you to everyone who made my birthday so great.  It started with my sweet hubs getting up early and making a big breakfast, complete with biscuits, fried eggs, and grits, before I even woke up.  Then when I got to work, my sweet friend Samantha who is the event planner for all the Duke Athletic events (and is amazing at what she does I might add...) put together a pretty bouquet of flowers for my desk.  The third floor took me to lunch for sushi.  Then later, Ryan took me to a favorite Durham restaurant (City Beverage) for dinner where a whole group of our friends and Matt and Banks surprised me.  The next day Ryan, Matt and I made my annual birthday shrimp dinner and it was delicious.  Oh and I can't forget the birthday cake my sweet friend Melissa from small group made me, ALL the birthday cards and the awesome gifts I received.  Ryan got me a suh-weeeeet new GPS (no more getting lost in this confusing town...and that does happen alot even for this "good-sense-of-direction" girl) and the new purse my parents got me to replace my old worn ragged one and can't forget the Coach scarf from my brothers that my mom and sister definitely picked out without a doubt! (ha, when I called TJ to thank him he said, "what scarf?"). And I believe that was a run-on sentence.  Unfortunately, the ONLY pictures I took the entire weekend were of Samantha giving me flowers.  None from the lunch outing with the office, none from dinner with everyone, none even of Ryan and Matt making my birthday dinner.  At least I got these though because the flowers were beautiful - and Gerber Daisies are my favorite, how'd she know?!

 It was a great day and a great weekend!

Love,

Girl's Weekend, here I come!!!!!!!!!

Come 5 o'clock this afternoon, I will be heading straight to the parking lot where my car is already loaded, and I'll be driving straight to Asheville, NC for GIRL'S WEEKEND!!!

These three girls are, of all my closest friends, the ones that I go the farthest back with.  We've been friends since elementary school. 

Asheville, NC is a fun little town that's perfect for a girl's weekend and it happened to be the perfect place to "meet in the middle".  It's about 3 hours from me in Durham and about 3 hours from them at home in Gainesville. 

It seems that we never have enough time to fully catch up the times we manage to all get together when I'm in town, so I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend full of lots of "catch up" time, food...because we all love food, lounging around in pajamas in our hotel room all day if we choose to, and...

...getting a camera tutorial!  Erin C. (left) is a photographer (she did our engagement pictures!) and knows all the tricks to using a camera, other than just "auto" mode like me, so Susan and I who both recently acquired some fancy cameras are going to have her give us a tutorial! :) 

My only hesitation about this whole weekend getaway was leaving poor Ryan behind all by himself all weekend (although Matt and Wes do live right behind us...) even though he insisted he was happy for me to go, but I do feel better now that the situation worked itself out and his former roommate/teammate Patrick ended up coming down last weekend from Pittsburgh and just decided to stay through this weekend since I was going to be gone.

So, I'm sure these two will have a fun weekend and find plenty to get into.  Matt and Wes have already tried talking them into going to their frat party/crawfish boil tonight, ha!  Ryan said he's too old for that since he's old, married, and graduated, even though he was their teammate just last year.  Other than that, I'm sure between all four of them, they'll have plenty of Call of Duty playing to get under their belt before "she" gets home...since they can't play 24/7 when I'm there.  18/7 is ok, but 24/7 is a little much...

They'll just love it - these two normally join games together online with Pat playing from Pittsburgh and Ryan playing from here, talking over bluetooth... but this weekend, they can just get their fill of playing side by side, screaming "watch my back" right beside each other, live and in person.  I'd really be surprised if they ever get off our red couch all weekend.  :)  Except that Patrick will have to eat periodically.   (picture of Ryan and Pat is from our spring break cruise in '07)

The Pittsburgh Steeler's #55 linebacker can put away some food!  I bought triple the amount of groceries that I normally buy and that normally lasts us a week and a half to two weeks and we have gone through ALL of that food just this week!  I've been doubling recipes that I normally make for mine and Ryan's dinner that usually leave us with enough leftovers for both of us to take for lunch the next day, and we've been eating it ALL - just me, Ryan, and PATRICK!  I pretty much gave up and instead of going to the grocery store again before I left, just left them leftovers in the fridge and decided they could go out to eat if they needed anything else.  I mean, I come from a family of six hearty eaters with two of those being college football players who know how to put away some food, but this guy is a glutton...a food black hole...a GOURMET GARBAGE DISPOSAL, LOL!  I must say though, he's made some food (homemade granola/candied pecans) during the day when Ryan and I are at work, and it's all been delicious. And it has sure been fun to have him around all week - wish we got to see him more often.  Can't wait to visit him and Maggie in Pittsburgh and go see him play in his home stadium!

Well, everyone have a great weekend!  And keep the poor people of Haiti in your prayers!  We have some family friends who just returned from there last Friday following a medical mission trip.  They have a close missionary friend who lives there and runs a school who has still yet to be found, so please pray they find her alive!

And...I'm off!!!

Ice Ice Baby, too cold, too cold!

What a cold and icy past week and weekend we have had here in North Carolina!  This southern girl has been out of her element - that's for sure.  It's not like Georgia weather is all that different from the weather here in Durham, but this winter already seems much colder than last, especially so early in the winter!

My first "out of my element" experience was on Monday...and it was cold out.  I mean a whopping 12 degrees cold out.

Anyways, I had to run by the parking office before work to renew my parking pass and to get to the parking office, you come to a roundabout (aka traffic circle..."roundabout" just sounds so "British" that it's a little more fun to say) with four entrances.  As I approached the roundabout, I saw a poor girl standing in the freezing cold examining the smashed up front end of her car, just outside of the circle coming down the opposite side of the street that I was coming from to enter the roundabout.  Police were already on the scene, but no other cars were involved, so I wondered how her car had ended up in the position it had - over the curb and with a smashed front end.  As I was in a rush to get to work though, I continued on my way to the parking office without giving it too much thought.

After my not-so-quick errand at the parking office (it always works so that when you're in a rush, the line is longer than ever and the people behind the counter are moving slower than ever - and then proceeded to SKIP over me in line), I headed back towards the traffic circle/roundabout on my way to work.  As I approached the circle, a man in some kind of uniform (security guard?  I'm not sure) had some kind of firecracker looking device in his hand that was lit and he was trying to position on a stand in the road, right in my way of entering the circle.  I wasn't sure what he was doing or if I should drive on around him or wait on him or what.  In my state of confusion, he finally looked up at me and kinda glanced around the other directions of the circle and waved me on through.  Little did I know that traffic had been stopped in all directions from entering the parking circle, so when the man waved me through, I proceeded to drive right onto the ice sheet that was covering the entire circle.  I might as well have been a puppy on an ice pond the way I lost all control and just skated across the circle and, thank goodness, ended up on the other side right where I would have tried to go, HAD I had any kind of control of my steering wheel.  When my car stop sliding, I realized I was right in the same spot the girl with the smashed up car had been (and thank goodness was no longer there or I would have probably just rear-ended her). 

At the point my car came to a stop and I realized my eyes were bulging and my mouth was frozen in the "woah" position, I realized that there was a LOOOONG line of traffic approaching the circle from every direction except for the one I had come from where officers weren't letting anyone enter the circle, except for the one who had waved me on through.  How nice of him... So I gave a "thank you, thank you very much" wave to all of the onlooking drivers (just kidding, I didn't really) and sheepishly went about my way.  And while all of my co-workers are northerners and make fun of my southerness when it comes to the cold, I'll admit...Yes, I AM a southern driver...and where I come from school/work/everything shuts down when there is ice on the roads!

My second "this is TOO cold" experience was when our kitchen sink pipes froze on Friday night, after we had dripped the sink AND left the cabinet open.  Lucky for us, we're seasoned veterans when it comes to frozen pipes.  Those same pipes froze and burst in three places last year, spewing water EVERYWHERE when it thawed out, flooding our kitchen.  Good thing the maintenance guy had been here when it happened (and you know when it happens...that's when you hear the "pop" followed by "shhhhhhhhhh" and water going everywhere) and he was able to cut the water off to our apartment - but more importantly, Ryan saw him shut off the water and this year knew how to cut off the water himself.  Because this year when we woke up to frozen pipes and knew the inevitible thawing and spewing moment would come, Mr. Maintenance Man was nowhere to be found.  After three calls to the front office, we still got LaTonya's "I could care less" monotone voice saying "sorry, I can't get ahold of Juan.  I'll page him again and let you know if he calls".  But it was Saturday and we had friends in town and so of course had nothing better to do that sit at home and play the waiting game with our kitchen sink pipes, just waiting on them to spew.  So it was a good thing that Ryan was able to shut off the water when we did finally hear that "pop" followed by the "shhhhhh" (and water only filled up the under-the-sink cabinet rather than the entire kitchen this time) because Juan didn't show up til an hour later.  That would have been a LOT of water in this place had it been spewing uncontrollably for an hour.  So needless to say, we spent Saturday at home with the maintenance man tearing apart the kitchen and installing new pipes, for the second year in a row.  Thankfully, this year he added insulation - last year he did not, even after we asked him to.

We had a fun weekend with Patrick and Maggie, which leads me to my third "too cold" experience.  Patrick is Ryan's former college roommate (actually, our guest bedroom that I'm typing this post from right now used to be his bedroom) who now lives in Pittsburgh and plays for the Steelers and Maggie is his girlfriend that we got to meet for the first time this weekend. (She and I had a lot of fun together!)  So after we dropped Maggie off at the airport today after church (she's headed to San Diego for a work training thing while Pat stays here for the rest of the week), Ryan, Pat and I headed to Moe's for lunch.  As we were walking in, the water fountain outside was frozen.  Frozen! This southern girl has NEVER seen a frozen body of water in her life!  And for some reason, it amazed me.  I felt like it was something that could only happen in Alaska or Canada or at least the very northern part of the states, but not here in the south.  Then, after we left lunch, we drove a back way home through some farmland and a pond had sheets of ice around the edges.  Crazy!

It is way too cold for my liking.  As Ryan tells me, I could probably not survive north of the Mason Dixon line!

And since I took zero pictures this weekend, partially due to the fact that I left my camera at home over Christmas and won't have it until Tuesday when Matt comes back from his long college kid break, and also due to the fact that all this cold and ice has come with NO snow...here are some pictures of last year's snow. :)

 My car.

His car.  And of course we had to get her out for a drive to check out campus.

This is the pretty drive I take to work every day.  I love this stretch of 751 because it changes drastically with each season.

President's house

Entrance to Chapel Drive (although I managed to not get a picture of the Duke chapel somehow??)

Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club entrance

Running Trail through the Duke Forest.

And there's your tour of campus too! :)

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy 2010!!!

Well, we had an AMAZING Christmas at home in Georgia and stayed very busy, to say the least, while we were there.  We got to spend some much-needed family time with both of our families and were able to see as many friends as we could squeeze into the time in between, though our time with friends felt brief and there were still friends we didn't get to see.  

We came back to Durham for New Years and enjoyed a quiet few days of no work and playing with Christmas toys - Ryan has already beat the Call of Duty game and I've read two and half books and just installed my new Photoshop program last night.  We watched the Sugar Bowl on Friday, saw Sherlock Holmes in theaters last night and are looking forward to meeting baby Quin later today, born to our friends Jared and Jodi on New Years Day.  And that is as eventful as this New Years break has been and I have LOVED it!!

Now, here are some of the things that I love so much about Christmas-time at home...

Taking the Jeep to the mountains in Highlands, NC to find some snow...

and hiking a very familiar little trail...

...with Ryan's parents this time...

...to Sunset Rock, where the magic happened two years ago on December 23, 2007...

It was right about there that Ryan made me read a sweet letter that ended with "Erin Nicole Pridemore, will you marry me?" and I turned around to find him down on one knee...

Ahh, sweet memories.  But about 30 seconds of reminiscing was all we could take before we had to get off that cold, windy rock. 

And since there are quite a few more pictures and "favorite" things from home, moving on...

Britney, the "Bunny Whisperer" as we call her.  This is Bella the bunny who runs the Pridemore house.  Many of you have heard my stories of Bella - well here she is!  And we call Britney the "bunny whisperer" because she can make Bella do all kinds of tricks we never knew.  This bunny is potty-trained, does NOT live in a cage but instead has the entire house to roam, shares a water bowl with Sadie the black Lab, and loves animal crackers and other cookies.  haha!

We played lots of Bananagrams, an official game of what we formerly had called "speed scrabble"...

Two of the most competitive people you'll ever meet - Britney and Dad - were constantly suspicious of the other trying to cheat, haha!

Notice the coffee mugs in nearly all the pictures from the Pridemore house.  This house has some serious coffee drinkers and you can't resist a cup every few hours when there are so many options for how to take your coffee...

That, or we're a very indesicive family that needs lots of options.  This could also likely be the case, ha!

YUM.

can you tell I like the coffee at home?  ok, moving on... ;)

Another favorite: I like how home feels like the country! 

Ryan's just chillin' while Jamie tries to get her horse under control.  :) 

Come on James...

And alas, they're off.

And the reigning favorite of being home:  spending time with family...

On the 23rd, we had our annual get together with my mom's side of the family.

Cousin pic 2009.  It makes the moms and grandmother happy. :)

And of course, the Pridemore kid pic!  TJ, don't fight it - the quicker you give us a smile, the less painful this will be and the sooner it's over :)

Afro man and his girl

Couple shot - Ryan and I with Afro man and Jennica. I think she's a great companion for my little brother.  Know why?  Because she picks out great gifts and she helps TJ with all of his Christmas shopping (or does it for him, I don't really know).  I wore the earrings from them today :)  kidding...I love Jenn for a LOT of reasons, but she does pick out good gifts!

Two of my favorites here: A fire in the fireplace and Joycie, my grandmother!  Yes, it feels like home...

And Matt sang for us.  Did he not get the memo that Pridemore's were not blessed with talented vocal cords??  ha, apparently he's the surprising exception.  It was fun to hear him play his twangy Robert Earl Keen and Lynard Skynard renditions.

Joyce with her girls - Mom and my aunt Elaine

We spent Christmas Eve with Ryan's family and enjoyed the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at Perimeter, Ryan's home church.

Ryan, his parents, and Rachel and Jeff spent time visiting with lots of friends afterwards, most that I either didn't know or had only met once or twice before, so I did a lot of standing in conversations and saying "nice to meet you" and "good to see you again".  Ryan and I talked to one guy for a little while who looked familiar, but I wasn't sure where from.  A few mintues later, Ryan said to me, "you have no idea who we were just talking to, do you?".  I said, "no, but I meant to ask.  Who was he?".  It was Jeff Franceour.  Oops.  How did I miss that? 

As always, I just soaked up the time we got to spend with our nieces and nephew.  Couldn't you just eat them up?!

A cute grandkid picture with Dexter and Martha. :)

Here's our 2nd married Christmas Eve picture in front of the fireplace at my parents house

Ryan and I decided to exchange gifts first thing on Christmas morning by ourselves instead of with everyone else, so before bed, I hung our stockings on the dresser and put our gifts underneath at the foot of the bed.

At the Pridemore house, Santa doesn't always wrap all the gifts, so us kids always get each other out of bed and go in the den together on Christmas morning.  I love how even though we're grown and I'm married, that doesn't change.  With modern technology...aka...texting, this was changed slightly.  Just in the sense that I first got a text from Jamie saying "are you awake yet?"  and when I responded "yes, Ryan and I just exchanged gifts in my room", she said "ok, I'm coming up" and a minute later knocked on the door and came in and we all sat in my bed in our pjs til the boys came upstairs. 

After our traditional Christmas breakfast of Monkey Bread and cheesy eggs, we all sat down in the den and listened to Dad read the Christmas story from the Bible before opening gifts.

And then everyone attacks their pile of "Santa" gifts!  Hey, we put out milk and cookies and he DOES still come to see us! :)

haha, they really were "new" and they were larger than a remote control car's tires, but he had to have something to "unwrap"!

After Christmas morning at the Pridemore house, we moseyed our way on down Buford Highway to spend the afternoon and the remaining days at the Wood house.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...with lots of presents under it!  Samuel and Ellie Kate divied up the gifts.

My sister-in-law Rachel is such a great gift-wrapper.  Her gifts were exciting even before they were unwrapped! :)

It's so much fun to watch kids open gifts at Christmas!  Uncle Ryan and Aunt Erin got Samuel, EK, and Abigail a popcorn maker and some popcorn bowls.

I think this is just such a cute picture of Ryan with his sweet Mama! And although Ryan's the spitting image of his dad, I have to say, he looks a lot like his mom right here.

On Sunday, our last day in Georgia, Ryan's grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins came over from Alabama to spend the day.  It was so fun to visit with them and see them before we started our I-85 North trek back to Durham.

I somehow did not get pictures of the whole crew, but I did get this cute one of the Wood siblings - Ryan and his sister Rachel.  We don't have a lot of just these two together, so I love this one!

And the last picture of our trip...with Rachel and Jeff. We have some fun fun memories with those two, especially from when they lived in Athens while I lived there during my UGA days and we got to see them a LOT more often.  It was so fun to get to spend some time with them and have a movie date night to see the Blind Side while we were all home together.  Miss you guys!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2010!