Still sleepy

Well, my whirwind trip in the states started right here at Mellow Mushroom in Marietta with David and Red (my brother and his wife). I was pretty loopy at this point, but the lively conversation back at their house following our pizza feast managed to keep me up 'til midnight (that was 6 am my time-doh!). I only managed to sleep til 7:30 am the next day and after a run in the beautiful Georgia spring, I began my journey to Nashville via Chattanooga. I kept chanting to myself "drive on the right...". In spite of David's concern for his car I managed not to drive on the wrong side of the road (at least when any cars were coming :0)

The next stop on my journey was at Carol and Chris' new house on Lookout Mtn and I got to play with my wonderful nephews who keep getting bigger and bigger. This is Bennett and then Wilson with Carol (my sister). My niece Mae Sheraton should be along any day now. Yeah! My Mom and Dad were there helping with the house and trying to keep Carol from working (something about being pregnant :0). It was so good to see them all, even though it was just for a couple of hours. From there I continued on to the happiest home in Tennessee--the Brooks'.

Everyone who goes to this house feels at home. Here's Mrs. Ginger Brooks cutting the beef tenderloin she grilled for our dinner. I took this to make Blayne jealous. It worked :0) Sarah Catherine's parents home is one of my favorite places to be-sitting on that back porch sipping sweet tea with dear friends... well, it doesn't get much better than that. The wedding I went home for was Rob Reeve and Elizabeth Setty's. Rob, Nate, Tim, Sarah Catherine, Kat and I were sort of like family back at Auburn. For a year and half we ate most dinners together and shared lots of life and laughter. This was the first time the 6 of us had all been together since my wedding (Aug 1998!) and it was "scrumtrulescent" to say the very least. I wasn't even mad, it was AMAZING! (for those not into Will Ferrell, sorry about that)
This is when we took Rob's to do list on Friday morning and left him about 3 things to do on it. It's fun to get to help the groom-much lower key than what the bride has to do. We did manage to have a girls lunch at Panera with Elizabeth that day which was lovely. Here we are, Kat, Elizabeth, me & SC at the rehearsal dinner. I can't say how much of a lovely time that we all had. I even got to sneak away Friday afternoon for a tea with Katy Hutson at Provence and a quick hike at a Warner Park (a piece of my heart will always belong to Nashville, TN *sigh*)

Saturday dawned a georgeous day for a wedding. Everything went off beautifully. Here's the bride and groom in front of the cake-notice the cake topper. Yes, the bride is dragging the groom. We danced and danced and danced some more at the reception. Here's the Auburn crew only 9 years after graduation and still going strong. Nate, Rob, Sarah Catherine, Tim and down front that's me and Kat. Not pictured are all the fun times on the Brooks' back porch, silliness and fun with David (Kat's husband), Rabino (crazy friend of groom) and Rob and SC's families. I'll stop gushing :0)

I have no pictures to post of my time in CO. I was too busy doing stuff. It was so good and strange to be home but not to stay. I got to hang out with so many dear friends and got to go shopping with Jen for a wedding dress. Yahoo! Walks with Darcy dog and so many friends. I had just enough of a taste to make me really miss home again and make me very eager for June 13th to arrive when we'll be heading home for good!

The last little leg of my trip I got to hang out with these three crazy women-Steph, Abby Smith & Abby "squeakers" Meeks who I met when they were in 6th and 7th grade. I guess that makes me old since they're all in college now. We had a super short, but super fun visit on Steph & Nathalie's front porch. Steph will be coming here to visit in May-yeah! Then I headed to Atlanta for the night. I had all day on Wed. before my flight and my brother and I went to the Atlanta aquarium where Nate (pictured above) is a marine biologist in charge of 2 of the freshwater exhibits. We got to see behind the scenes and see where Nate is getting to do a dream job. It was so very fun and surreal to stand at the top of a tank as beluga wales came up to say hi... or to stand at the top of the largest aquarium in the world while a whale shark swims by through a school of golden trevallys. It was amazing. I have rambled WAY too much and if you've read this all you should probably get back to work or whatever you were doing ;0) Love you all lots and farewell from Ireland.