Happy Halloween

Back when we lived in our little apartment in Brighton that allowed dogs (which was a big plus when we were apartment hunting even though we never got a dog while living there) I would always talk about our hypothetical goldendoodle puppy and how I was going to dress her up in little dog clothes. The shirts, the rain jackets, the doggie boots, everything. Rob would just shake his head and say, "No, my dog will not wear clothes." Half of the reason I talked about it was to get a rise out of him and half was because I really think dog clothes are cute. Well, I'd say Rob (and Roxanne) have been pretty lucky over the past year. I can honestly say the only pieces of clothing I have purchased for Roxanne have been Halloween costumes. Last year she was a cute little pumpkin...



And this year a cute, much bigger (she needed an XL costume) bumble bee...

Surprise DC weekend

I know my posts have been few and far between, and for that I apologize. I think I apologized in my last post for my lack of posting, but things have not slowed down since then. Since the first weekend in August Rob and I have been on the go 8 out of the 11 weekends, and only 1 of those 8 weekends was spent in Atlanta. There was Rae's wedding in NH, which was an absolute blast and just the Delta reunion/party I was hoping it would be. Then Rob's Dad and Kimberly came for the weekend and we had fun spending time with them going out to dinner, watching football, exploring Stone Mountain and the Zoo.

This past weekend we were on a "secret" trip to Washington DC. It was really only a secret from my mom, but in an attempt not to spill the beans I didn't tell a lot of people about the trip ahead of time. Yesterday was my parents 30th wedding anniversary. They had an aluminum association dinner to go to for my dad's work on Friday evening and they decided to spend the rest of their anniversary weekend in DC. It was my dad's idea to secretly fly me, Rob and my sisters into DC on Friday so that we could surprise my mom and have a fun family weekend together. Leading up to the weekend we had many conversations over whether my mom knew or suspected anything, but she didn't and it turned out to be such a great surprise for her.

Friday was spent checking into the Churchill Hotel, eating Mexican, figuring out the metro, walking all over DC, going to the Newseum, seeing the president's helicopter leave the white house after dropping him off and going out to dinner. Then, Lisa, Rob and I met up with Michelle at our hotel and from there we walked to the restaurant my parents had their dinner at. By the time we got there they had just exited the restaurant and were all talking outside. My dad told us to go say hi to my mom, so I went up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and just stared at me for a minute, and then was like, "What, hey, what? How did you get here!?" Her eyes went from each one of us to the next and when she realized all of us were there with her in DC she just couldn't believe it. It truely was a great surprise and my dad did a great job planning it.

All of us at Veritas Wine Bar after the big surprise...




The rest of the weekend was spent being DC tourists, going to the American History Museum, taking pictures in front of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the WW2 Memorial, going to the National Archives, having a delicious and memorable Italian dinner at Filomena's in Georgetown, finding $5 on the ground and losing it in a bet/dare with Lisa, having breakfast at Teaism with my dad's half sister Breese, going to Georgetown Cupcake, catching up with Allie for 10 minutes on the street, and having lunch by the water. We had such a fun weekend! It had been 8 years since I was last in DC, so I forgot what a great city it is. I'm sure I won't wait another 8 years to go back.


Happy 30th Mom and Dad!!