Mickey, Music, Mountains, Pinehurst, Jordan, & St. John

May was another awesome month! Lots of travel and exciting trips in the mix. Hanleigh went on her eighth grade field trip to Disney World with most of her class. Her and her besties shared a room and were managed by chaperones while they navigated three parks less than three days and that included driving down to Orlando from Charlotte and back! It was a very ambitious and very successful trip. Before the trip, she coordinated outfits and Mickey Mouse ears with all of her friends. I can tell by the pictures that they had an amazing time! 

UGA rush opened up, so Brayden registered for that. I took Tonya to Juniper Grill to celebrate her 51st birthday, and a few days later, Julie, Heather, Tonya, and me had an amazing 24-hour girls staycation uptown for the Lovin’ Life Music Festival. This was the second year in a row for the festival and we were super stoked to go. We kicked it off with lunch at Culinary Dropout and then Ubered to the Grand Bohemian Hotel to check in. Once we got settled and ready, we made our way over to the festival. We started off catching Petey Pablo (” North Carolina, raise up!”), followed by Ludacris (“Southern Hospitality”), but his set was interrupted by mother nature, who had other plans. I honestly think I have never seen that much rain coming down, up, and sideways in my life. The good thing is that we were prepared with rain gear. The bad thing is that we had about 10-minute run through major puddles and a monsoon. I always say that some of the most fun memories in my life have taken place in a rainstorm and this was no exception. We made lemons out of lemonade and chilled out in the hotel room for an hour or so laughing about the entire experience. Once the rain had dispersed, we made our way back to the festival to see Lola Young (“Messy”), who was followed by an artist that none of us had seen before, but all were super psyched to see: Pitbull! He was everything you could imagine: energetic, sexy, charismatic, and he played all of his hits! It was incredible just how many songs he actually has recorded. Many of them are collaborations with other artists, and some that are just his, but he played so many from his library of bangers! We were nothing but smiles and danced the night away! Unfortunately, he was not the main headliner. Rather, it was Weezer. I was excited to see them and they played a lot of the hits from their blue album, but honestly, they didn’t sound that great and the energy level dropped after having seen Pitbull. Those two acts should have been switched for sure! It rained on us a bit more at the concert and then we headed back to the hotel where it took Heather over an hour or so just to get an Uber. Poor thing! The entire day and night was such a success. The next morning, Julie, Tonya, and me went to 50 Vines for brunch and it was delicious!

Brayden registered for her orientation at University of Georgia, which would end up taking place in June. More on that later. We finally caved and decided to interview a house cleaning team to get the house ready for the upcoming graduation party. It was quite comical because they had originally given us a quote by text and then when they arrived, they looked at the house and how much detailed cleaning needed to take place, and raised the price for the initial deep clean. However, this is something that we really needed done. We attended Hanleigh’s high school orientation, which was very informative, if we could only have heard what the principal said. For some reason, they conducted it in the gym and hearing what he said was nearly impossible. Good thing they sent out the PowerPoint presentation afterward. Brayden took her AP literature exam, which she ended up doing great on (she got a 5!). I had dinner with Kendall at The Garrison, and we celebrated Trent’s 51st birthday at Mellow Mushroom. My mom took the girls to Kyle and Cammy’s mountain house for the weekend and they had a blast hiking, crafting, playing cards, and just spending quality time together, which was very special. Meanwhile, Trent and I went to Pinehurst as a surprise for his birthday and stayed with Joe and Leslie at their condo. Them being there was also a surprise to him. We had dinner at a delicious restaurant where we had our sidecar martinis and the next day, Leslie and I had massages at the spa while the guys played golf. That afternoon, we went to “the cradle” to have drinks on top of a choo-choo train. That was really cool! The next day, Leslie and I had a massage at the spa while the guys played golf. Later that afternoon, we did some shopping and then had dinner at a delicious restaurant, followed by some music and amazing people watching at one of the local bars. We made our way back home on Mother’s Day and had dinner at Margeaux’s with the girls, mom, Terry, and Fran. It was delicious. Hanleigh had her spring sports banquet, where she was awarded a certificate for her contributions to the track and field team.

Kendall’s grandmother, Goggi, turned 100 years old this month as well! Happy birthday! We got all of our ducks in a row with the food planning for the graduation party, I went to Amy’s house for some pampering, and Brayden took her AP Spanish exam, which she also did wonderful on (she got a four, which gives her seven hours of college credit!). I had dinner with Abby, Aunt Patty, and Christel at CharBar, and Trent and I had dinner at a delicious restaurant called Mazi. It’s relatively new and the food was absolutely delicious! We sat at the bar and had some amazing drinks as well. I surprised everyone for dinner the next night and we had some yummy food at the Melting Pot, a restaurant that the girls had never been to before. Later that week, Brayden took me to dinner to Postino to celebrate Mother’s Day, which was so incredibly special. I really cherish all this time with her before she heads off to college. 

Two nights later, Brayden and I went to Coyote Joe’s for Joey Logano’s charity event where Jordan Davis played! Our typical modus operandi at concerts is to get there early so we can get right up to the stage. This was no different. We actually were just the second row of people back and it was amazing. I’m pretty sure he was only 10-feet away from us, at best. He played an acoustics set and sounded amazing. It may have been the sixth or seventh time we have seen him and at the end of the concert, Brayden took off her blue jean jacket that Corey Kent had signed just a few months before, handed Jordan the Sharpie that she brought and he signed it and kept the Sharpie to sign other items from fans! Once again, our strategy worked very well! 

The next day, I flew to St. John, US Virgin Islands. This was a trip with five other coworker girlfriends of mine the get along so well. About a year ago, we were on a business trip and started talking about how someday it would be for us to take a vacation together, so we did! We stayed at Paige’s timeshare at the Westin in Great Cruz Bay and it was the perfect setup for our week in paradise. We had a private pool and three bedrooms and three baths. There was plenty of space to spread out and cook some amazing meals. We were always on the go and exploring. We visited Trunk Bay, Honeymoon Bay, and Waterlemon Bay. I went scuba diving, we did karaoke at the condo, spent hours snorkeling, visited the Windmill Bar three times, and circumnavigated the island on a boat where we visited the infamous floating taco boat, Lime Out. We had drinks at Karma before eating an amazing dinner at Morgan’s Mango, and did glow-in-the-dark night time kayaking, which was pretty uneventful, although the paint we had all over our faces was pretty comical. Everyone got along really well and were very easy to travel with, which was wonderful. St. John is definitely an incredible Island and I can’t wait to go back.

While I was there, Emilia visited Trent and the girls for the weekend and they tried out a new restaurant that serves soup dumplings, which was apparently a hit. They also attended Kaitlyn’s graduation party, which was also a lot of fun. Hanleigh took her end-of-grade reading test and should get those results soon. I’m sure they will be great as they have been in the past. Trent went to see Dark Star Orchestra at the Amp. Brayden attended Jillian’s graduation party, the first of many that to come in June. More on that later. Brayden’s last day of high school was on May 29th, 12 days earlier than the actual last day of school. This is because she was exempt from exams for having all As and great attendance at school. It was an extremely busy month, but full of things that we are extremely thankful for having the opportunity to do and participate in, so no complaining here! 

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