This past week was one of my four much-needed vacation weeks! I had been working the night shift in the ED and when I got off at 4am Tuesday morning I headed straight to the airport to fly and see my family! It was a packed week with visiting my family, two best friends, and attending a wedding! I gathered a couple thousand sky miles and traveled through quite a few airports along the way.
CHO --> BHM (Charlottesville --> Birmingham)
Mom and Dad picked me up in B'ham at about 830 Tuesday morning. It was so great to see them! There's really nothing like a hug from Mom and Dad when you have been working like crazy and haven't slept in a long time! We drove straight to Cracker Barrel for a proper Country breakfast, and then made our way to Gadsden. I may or may not have taken a 3 hour nap when we got back.
On Wednesday I slept in and indulged myself in two episodes of House (I haven't had a TV in 4 months!) before going to my BFF Megan's house! She and her husband Daryl just had a precious little boy, Sawyer, about 2 weeks before I came. Megan and I have been through a lot of years and stages of life together, and now its sweetly strange for my best friend to be a mommy! I decided to spend the day with them and get to know Sawyer, as well as cook a nice dinner for them and their fam.
We had a wonderful visit. Check out this little guy!
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| Unfortunately he's a Bama fan. He doesn't even know better yet! =) |
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| The only smiley one I could get was blurry |
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| Aunt Kacie wore him out! |
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| She's already back to her pre-preggers size! Hooray Megan! |
Thursday after I recovered from the baby-day (I'm not used to kids, remember?), all the fam came over for a BBQ celebration! A celebration of what, you ask? Well, basically a celebration because we love spending time together and I haven't seen them all in a long time. Mom had been asking me for weeks what food I requested, but let's be honest ... only one thing really mattered: Aunt Charlotte's From Scratch Super Delicious Baked Banana Pudding. Oh. My. Goodness.
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| I could swim in it. |
After eating banana pudding, hamburgers, and some more pudding, we all enjoyed the lovely almost-fall weather and took some photos and played some badminton outside! Thankfully I was trying to make up for a few lost pounds over the past couple of months since the badminton definitely wasn't enough exercise to make up for that pudding!
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| Mom and her sisters |
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| Tammy, me and Ashley (cousins) |
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| Look who I found! This is Tammys 8-month old, Grant. |
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| And this is his super-cute brother Trenton trying to hold him |
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| ... Unsuccessfully |
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| Not sure what Trenton's trying to hit back there? |
BHM --> OKC (Birmingham --> Oklahoma City)
Friday morning I woke up at a normal hour (8am) and the fam took me back to the Bham airport to fly out west to Oklahoma! My good friend Jack from college was conveniently getting married during my vacation week, and my other best friend Meredith was coming too!
I really didn't know what to expect from Oklahoma - I had never been before. The entire state seems to be pointing away from itself with it's big tail on the left, almost saying "there's nothing here, go westward my friend!" And, well, it is kind of right. I met Meredith's brother, Thomas in the airport and we followed each other in our rental cars 1.5 hours southeast from Oklahoma City to Ada. Before we arrived at the booming metropolis we passed miles and miles and miles of haybales, cemeteries, ranches, and little towns where it seemed like there were more cows than people. Alas, I didn't see any tumbleweeds or cowboys. Maybe next time.
I guess the theme for this trip was babies. Not only did Megan have one, but now Meredith is pregnant, too! Don't get excited Mom, it won't be me any time soon! It was so good to see her and her miniature baby bump.
Me, Mere, Thomas and our good friend Ryan went to "the nicest restaurant in Ada" on Friday night. It was a store-front Italian restaurant with mismatched furniture, a few men in cowboy hats, cheese on the bruscetta, and a random lady dining alone and talking to herself. A good time was had by all!
Saturday morning we awoke bright and early to watch the Auburn game of course! We found one (pretty cool actually) sports bar in town that would play the game for us. We ordered greasy food and huddled at the bar to watch us (narrowly) beat Louisiana-Monroe! Another college friend Todd joined us, and Jack even showed up for a bit on his wedding day! I think we drove those poor Boomer Sooner fans crazy while were were laughing with each other and screaming at the TV.
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| From L to R: Thomas, Todd, me, Jack, Mere, Ryan |
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| Of course the pregnant lady asked for a plate of pickles. |
That evening was Jack's wedding. He and Brandi had a sweet reception at her home town church, followed by quite the party of a reception at the country club. We ate, danced, and some of us even karaoked (not me!)
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| I snuck a picture without flash! |
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| You can't see Mere's baby bump really from this angle |
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| First dance |
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| Early in the night we all looked at each other and said, "Where's Ryan??". Then we heard him singing Billy Idol's White Wedding karaoke style at the front! He was actually quite amazing! |
OKC --> CHO (Oklahoma City --> Charlottesville)
And as of last night, I'm back in Charlottesville! It was a whirlwind of a trip! Today I'm doing Activities of Daily Living (i.e., washing clothes, cooking, walking the dog). Tomorrow night I start working on the Acute Cardiology Service. AKA heart attacks. Should be a good time!
