The Whirlwind that was April & May

I have been a very bad blogger. As I told you last time, work is trying to kill me. But I haven't let it yet. So it's Tuesday night, I left work before 7pm (woohoo!) and it seems as good a time as ever to try to get up to date on the blog. I've missed too much to do my usual play by play journaling style. Instead, I will just take you through the last month and a half with a picture tour. If something is interesting to you, call me or email me and we'll talk more! Or, I will see many of you in a couple days and we can talk more then. Ok, rewind to mid April...

TIM'S BACHELOR PARTY

On April 14th, Joey met Scott and Tim in LA and then drove out to Las Vegas to meet their dad for Tim's bachelor party weekend. Most bachelor parties have a strict no cameras policy but since this was a family occasion, Joey made an exception. They played lots of golf and gambled the night away.

NICOLE COMES TO TOWN!

In the meantime, our friend Nicole happened to be in town for a convention for work and was able to stay the weekend with me. We did lots of fun stuff - good food, torrey pine hike, la jolla - but since Joey had the camera at the bachelor party, I only had my iphone. Here is a picture of Nicole anticipating her extraordinary dessert from Extraordinary Desserts. 

Close up of the flowers at La Jolla shores.

Five minutes with Joey before heading to the airport after he got home from Vegas.

RESEARCH IN PHOENIX

That very next day I took a 6am flight out of San Diego to Phoenix for my first week of in home interviews for a home appliance product.  Not too many pictures I can share here (stupid confidentiality) but here I am enjoying a beer at a super cool cafe my coworker found. The weather and scenery in Phoenix was AMAZING and I really didn't want to leave. It was so nice to be WARM instead of always a little chilly.

And my client coworkers - Elliott and David. It's weird to eat fish tacos outside San Diego...

And a pic from my morning routine. I don't know what I'd do without a grande non fat misto and spinach feta wrap from Starbucks!

EASTER

Luckily I was able to fly home for Easter weekend between my two weeks of interviews. Saturday morning my brother called me randomly and told me he would be south of San Diego painting faces at a children's fair. So Joey and I hopped in the car to meet him. So nice to see him on a holiday!

 On Sunday after church we decorated easter eggs. Let me just say - dying eggs is overrated (just remind me of that next year!), eating hard boiled eggs is not. Yum!

After dying eggs we had grand plans to have a picnic on the beach. We packed our little basket (thanks Erin!) and headed out. Unfortunately it was way too cold so we chickened out and ended up picnicking on the living room floor.

We finished off the night with a yummy microwave lava cake from Trader Joe's and some fresh strawberries!

BACK ON THE ROAD

On Monday morning, I hopped back on a plane and headed to Orlando for my second week of interviews. Again, not many pictures to show but one morning I went for a nice run in a park near my hotel. Very pretty! I was pleasantly surprised that Orlando wasn't too humid. It was a nice trip! My friend Karen was my client coworker this week so we managed to have a little fun too.

ANOTHER FESTIVAL

Ok, now I'm just going to go through some random things quickly. One weekend there was another Little Italy festival outside our door so we decided to go. It was the annual art walk. We perused the art and had some fish tacos (I can't get enough!)

I had two favorite artists. One that did humorous kids paintings - which made me want to start decorating a kids room now! See more here.

And this guy who did long exposure photography and put his own shadow in the pictures. Amazing! See more here.

SUNSET ON THE BAY

One Tuesday night I was feeling stressed and didn't feel like cooking so we decided to take a sunset walk on the bay. We ended up stopping for some appetizers and a couple glasses of wine on the deck of a nearby restaurant. So crazy that we can do this stuff right outside our door!

In this picture you can see the sunset and the water, even though you cant really see me.

And our yummy crab artichoke dip, shrimp cocktail, and wine.

CINCO DE MAYO

That brings us up to the first week of May. I am a huge fan of Cinco de Mayo for some reason - that can only be attributed to my college friend Katie. I think it has to do with the excitement, margaritas, chips and salsa, and sombreros. This year we went to Old Town with Fabian and Angelica and met up with Sarah, Sam, Sean, and more. No pictures of the whole crew...

Joey was excited and determined to get the El Jefe - giant margarita. The picture isn't great since I took it with my phone, but if you look closely, you'll get the idea!

THE LAST BITE

This super mundane but I think it is worth a mention. Lately when I've been doing the dishes at night, I've been finding a little corner of a sandwich in Joey's lunch tupperware. This cracks me up because I don't understand how he got too full for this tiny little bite. For the record people - Joey eats like a bird and it's not my fault! This is evidence!

ATLANTA WEDDING WEEKEND

This last weekend we flew to Atlanta for our good friends' wedding. We got in Friday, zipped up 75 to Cartersville and had a great time at the rehearsal dinner. Everyone was just so happy and emotional. It was really moving.

Saturday morning Joey went to play golf with the groom while I went to my favorite thing in the world - BTS fitness classes. It was so great to see my old fitness friends and get a little exercise! It's a little sad how obsessed I am with these programs...Oh well. While I was there I also saw my fitness guru's children who I used to babysit and they made me this "early Christmas present" (since they won't see me of course). I love how it says "We wish you can babby sit us!" So cute!

After BTS, I spent the afternoon with my long lost friend Jenny enjoying some delicious middle eastern cuisine at the Jerusalem Bakery in Marietta.

And it wouldn't have been complete without some honey soaked, flaky, nutty baklava!

Then, back to the hotel, off to the wedding! It was a beautiful wedding and so nice to see all our friends.

I have to say, I've never seen a happier bride than Lainey. I think I cried like 6 times. Stupid emotions! I don't have any pictures of the couple from that night, but here we are with Ryan and Lainey the morning after. Gotta love the groom hat!

Next, off to Acworth to meet my mom and dad at my little bro's new house. He lives in a cute old house in walking distance of down town. We walked to a nearby restaurant for a true southern brunch.

Ken enjoyed a nice beer with his fruit and cream waffle.

Then back to his house to hang for a bit. Joey whooped up on my dad and brother at ping pong!

My brother's dog Montana. He's a really cool dog.

My brother took up skateboarding again. I just hope he doesn't break something!

Me and my dad. I am sporting my dad's Tony Stewart jacket because it was unnaturally cold!

UP NEXT

Ok, so we are all caught up. I didn't go into a lot of detail but it's probably less boring that way anyways. So what's next you may ask? Well...

• Tim & Lauren's wedding weekend in Nashville (yes we are flying back to the east coast two weekends in a row! but we are SO excited!!!)
• Erin's visit over Memorial Day Weekend
• Vacation to South Africa. We will be going to Joburg, Cape Town, driving the Garden Route, and taking a 3 day Safari - ask us about it!
• My 28th birthday on 6/16 and Joey's 27th on 7/11
• More work-related research in June & July in LA, Chicago, Mexico City, and Brazil! (oh my!)
• Our 2 year wedding anniversary on 7/18

Have a great week everybody (or month, depending when I see ya)!