Did I mention?

I got a new toy and a few accessories a little while ago!  

Grand Opening Gala

Carleton threatening to beat up Gene Hamm, designer of our golf course and many others, for saying that I'm really pretty.  He said something like, "easy there, buddy, that's my wife you're talking about, you better not say anything else"  He's such a kidder.  He was a VIP speaker at the party.

Carleton was my self-proclaimed drink holder, there he is doing his job well:)

The Country Club where I work had the long awaited Grand Opening for our new clubhouse!  It was fun seeing the people I work with and for in a different environment and getting to dress up with my very handsome husband, especially after running the race that morning and being at the pool during the afternoon, what better way to feel better about yourself than to get dressed up!  My parents watched the kids again that night (thanks again, parents) and we went and started snapping pictures and mingling with the members.  Carleton had a much better time than he thought he was going to have!  As you can see from just a couple pictures there was some yummy food, there was an ENTIRE room that was desserts only-yum!  

Disclaimer: the order of this post and the last one are switched, this was the weekend we had the kids and did the race!

Weekend Getaway!

While the cat's away the mouse will play.  Over the past couple of months that's seemed to be the theme for Kristin and I while our husbands are gone for the summer.  Although our definition of play does include occasional visits to the pool, going out to dinner, and Rita's (if you haven't been there, google it, find one in your area and go...right now, I would suggest the Gelati with mango ice), it also includes running, cooking, and other things that aren't typical "play" things, but we still manage to have a great time!  Well this was not one of those weekends.  This weekend we flew to NY to visit Kristin's man, and Carleton flew in from Charlotte so we could all live it up in New York City for the weekend!  Ben is in NY for the summer doing an internship so we crashed at his place and did the tourist thing, went to see a Broadway show (Mary Poppins-I've never seen the movie), on Canal Street and bought stuff from people selling things illegally, to the MET, on a few cab rides, etc.  Apparently the "in" thing in NY right now is to rain, because it rained, and it rained a lot, which equals hurting, nasty feet and a complaining Ashley.  A few other happenings not pictured below, we saw the temple, took a stroll through central park, during church the fire alarm went off and the whole building evacuated...the NY fire dept. has a VERY fast response time!  

Here's a quick recap of our weekend....1st things first, a kiss from the husbands and snapping a few pictures!  The first one was taken from Ben's balcony at his apartment

We saw some sites

We smooched

We saw more sites

and did more smoochin'

what's a trip to New York without visiting Times Square?

we reflected on things we did

we ate...

...way too much...

no bull!

2 plane tickets: $371.05

4 day passes for the metro (we saw a rat): $30

Total Cost of food (3 meals out): $260

Weekend with your husband and some of your best friends: priceless

Get up, and win the race!

Now by no means did I "win a race", we weren't even enrolled in the competitive race, but that's a repeating line in one of my favorite short books/poems...my dad bought me the book when I first started college, if you haven't read it you can read it here.  Anyway, this race that we participated in was my first time ever running in anything (besides on the track/stadium for gym class or cheerleading).  I had to train for this run, and still couldn't run all of it.  

The place was PACKED.  When the woman on the PA system signaled the start of the race we were stuck standing, moving every couple of minutes for about ten minutes, I felt like a cow being herded.  As soon as we got to the balloon arch (the starting place of the race) she said congratulations on starting your race, you technically started 10 minutes ago.  

As you can tell by the shadows under our eyes (which I tried minimizing) and our really bright faces, the sun was out, it was BRIGHT, and that bright sun was HOT, even at 9 in the morning.  Carleton and I made it 2 miles before I had to walk, Meredith College is VERY hilly, let me tell ya!  Anyway, we walked for a little while, then ran, then I had to walk again, then ran.  When I saw the end I started sprinting so I could make it in less than 35 minutes, but I'm pretty sure I crossed the line at exactly 35 minutes or 35:01, darnit!  

I think this will definitely be a yearly event, and I'm glad our friend, Ali, got us all involved and got us to run in this race, it was fun, and definitely a first for me!

P.S. on our way to the race someone flew in front of us and sent a rock up into our windshield giving it two BIG cracks:(  But it didn't break our spirits!

Charlotte for the day!

So for Jes' birthday we went to Carowinds.  She has always been the one in the family that LOVES theme parks, the last few times she's wanted to go however, she's been prego.  Well this time around, she decided this is what she wanted to do for her birthday so we dropped the kids off with my parents and headed down to Charlotte to meet up with Carleton and hit the rides.  The first roller coaster was definitely my favorite, I was so proud of myself for A. sitting in the front and B. keeping my eyes open the ENTIRE time (both firsts for me).  The other rides kind of gave me whiplash and even the next morning in the shower I felt like I had to squeeze my hands to my head as tight as possible to keep my brain from exploding out.  One ride in particular, I hated.  It's called Nighthawk.  This doesn't really even BEGIN to describe how traumatizing it was, but here's a video someone took while on the ride.  To make a REALLY long story short we wait in line for around an hour and 45 minutes before we get to the front where we get on the ride then they make us all get off, call the engineers over to work on it (while the other people are laying head down diagonally waiting to get off).  They end up sending off that one to be tested so we got on the next one (phew).  It was the scariest roller coaster ever.  With one hand I grasped the other wrist in an attempt to keep me in, incase my vest came unbuckled (the guy before me in that seat had to be rebuckled a couple times by one of the ride operators, he looked terrified, and as luck would have it, I got his seat).  Well Jes and I made the mistake of opening our eyes once.  If we were cussing women, I'm pretty sure an entire string would've been let out until we stopped.  Carleton realized the futility of trying to hold on for dear life when he saw how high up we were, felt how fast we were going, and the fact that we were hanging by our stomachs didn't help too much.... so he just put his hands out and said he'd go out with a smile....my husband. 

This is one ride Jesica would NOT go on, the drop zone

I started screaming then totally lost all vocal capabilities.

He would go for the hottie that's closer to him in height!

All in all we had a blast there, then Carleton and I sent Jes and Phillip off with our credit card to go have a nice dinner while we headed over to one of the partners at the firm Carleton is interning with.  We enjoyed a great dinner and great company, Jim and his family, along with Colby and his family were very nice and fun to hang out with.  Just as we were leaving we had 10 minutes to stop in ikea before we met Jes and Phillip to take me home while he stayed in Charlotte:( Ikea was HUGE, we had to keep looking at maps to see where Jes and Phillip were and we barely got through the furniture before we had to go.  

On another Charlotte day trip I went to a dinner at another partner's house and then helped Carleton and some other summer associates put up all the drywall in a habitat for humanity house.  We (mainly Carleton) did LOTS of measuring, cutting, and breaking...I think I did most of the nailing though:)  We lined all the windows with drywall which we thought would be the quick, easy job.  We were wrong.  Very wrong.  Poor Carleton was cutting so much with a dull blade that the skin on the back of all of his fingers got rubbed right off, OUCH!  No pictures of that but we will be watching the kids all weekend and we're running a 5K tomorrow (my first time ever running for an event-I've been training and I am TERRIBLE at running...my in-laws, particularly two of my sisters-in-law and a brother-in-law would be so disappointed in hearing that I actually have to train for it...I think Carleton might be a little bit too).  Anyway, I am not super fit (unfortunately) like Carleton's family, so for me this is a HUGE deal.  So we're running that in the morning, then we have the Country Club's Grand Opening Gala of our new clubhouse!  So stay tuned for some more updates of this upcoming weekend!