adios summer

I could totally get used to these family-filled holiday weekends. Adam and I were lucky enough to welcome summer with exciting new adventures, and we said goodbye to summer content and happy.

My parents went to Miami for the long weekend to see the Enrique/J.Lo concert, so Adam and I house/pet sit for them. Is that situation backwards, or what? To be honest, I love hanging out at my parents' house - they usually have tons of junk food and booze, so I was excited to have free reign and no judgment while I consumed ALL OF IT. You can imagine my disappointment when I arrived Thursday evening to find only random condiments in the fridge and one drinks' worth of Grey Goose in the freezer. You should have seen me in Publix... I practically danced through the aisles grabbing every salty, junky food I could get my hands on. Self-control at the grocery store is something I usually pride myself on, but I gave myself a pass. After all, this food wouldn't be in my pantry, so the calories obviously don't count. Right? Right.

Ruthie thought it would be a fabulous idea to not sleep at all on Thursday -  she just wanted to pull an all-nighter with Phoebe instead. Phoebe, on the other hand, was completely content hanging out in her kennel, sleeping like a gem all night. And I kind of forgot about Rico most of the time. He's almost 10 years old and cannot be bothered by Ruthie and Phoebe's antics. He basically begged me not to get him out of his kennel in the mornings.

The next morning Phoebe decided it was cuddle time... on the couch... with me. There were a couple times I thought the 100-pound, 100% puppy was going to smother me. But after a nice walk with Debbie and her pups, Ruthie and Phoebe were pretty worn out the rest of the day (Amen!).

I had a super-productive rest of the day on Friday. And by productive, I really mean I ate a lot of salty stuff and watched cable all day long. Oh wait, I also painted my nails. My kinda day off! Mitchell made it back around 7pm (his first trip home from college) and then we patiently waited I fell asleep waiting for my cousin (Michael), his girlfriend (Maggie) and their friends to arrive for the weekend!

Saturday we were up an at 'em to get ready for the Braves vs. Phillies game. We utilized the Nalley Lot for the first time, and holy cow - we have been missing out! Talk about prime time tailgating. We were literally a stone's throw from the stadium.

My handyman built this cornhole set. Pretty impressive, huh?

Adam and Maggie talking teacher talk. Nerd alert!

Cousin Michael and his fab girlfriend, Maggie

The guy behind me caught a foul ball and let me take a picture with it. Cool, I guess?

Other than the fact that the Braves lost, it was such a fun day! Couldn't have asked for better weather, better company, or a better baseball team. Saturday also turned out to be the first day of College Football, so after the game we raced back home to catch a couple games. Talk about sport overload!

Sunday, ah Sunday. Sunday was one of those days you just look around and get butterflies thinking of how great God is. It was a perfect day, topping off the perfect weekend with some of my favorite people. I smiled all day long. At one point, we pulled out Table Topics and one of the questions was "If money wasn't an issue, what kind of party would you throw?" I could honestly say that I would want Sunday repeated. Sure, I'd like to have all of my favorite people there, but a handful was enough for me.

Cornhole got a lost of use that weekend.

The 'rents came home to a full house. Dad, the entertainer, brought out tequila shots for all.

We stayed up past midnight just sitting on the porch talking. Perfection.

Some exciting things in our little family have started brewing, but I'll have to save that for another post. This one (as most) is already too long. Spoiler Alert: I'm not pregnant.

Another happy ending to summer 2012 - my wonderful friend, Anna, got engaged last week! Congratulations to the future Ackers!