Siesta Key, Surprise, Sacks, & Sorority Weekend!
I kicked off March with the continuation of my trip in Sevilla, Spain with my two amazing friends from work, Chris and Stacy. We admired the gorgeous Plaza de España’s moat and fountain, then went and toured the the Royal Alcázar Palace, where portions of Game of Thrones were filmed, the architecture was intricate and the land was full of peacocks! It was pretty idyllic. We spent the afternoon walking around and then ended up at the Naked and Famous cocktail bar where we had an amazing time laughing and reminiscing on our fun adventures together. The next morning, we took the train back to Madrid for some shopping and one final dinner with a bigger group of co-workers who spent their time post-sales meeting adventuring in Madrid. I was lucky enough to have access to the Iberia premium lounge on the way back home as well as another luxury of sitting in a pod on the plane. Those things will spoil you! It was another fabulous work/personal trip with more fun memories made and an official stamp on the passport for Louise Anne (I keep saying that I need to make her a little mini passport)!
As part of one of Brayden’s classes, she was able to continue her reporting skills at a county commissioner meeting and then write an article about it. Another awesome opportunity! Congrats to Giselle who walked the catwalk during Paris Fashion Week and looked stunning! Brayden also applied for her sports media certificate, which is basically her concentration that she will focus on for her major. Unfortunately, she did not get in this time around, but that’s actually not too surprising because most freshmen do not. They need to have more classes under their belt before they are accepted, so she’s working on that for her fall schedule. I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a video for my company in support of International Women’s Day, providing advice that we want to pass along to others. Here’s the link to the video. Brayden continues to have her recruitment roundups in preparation for rush this fall. They are learning all the basics about what it looks like to participate in rush, but this time from the sisterhood perspective. Trent and I met up with Kendall, Andrew, Heather, Rob, and Graham for the weekend where we stayed at the Whitcombs beautiful mountain house. The original intent was to go skiing, but the weather had other plans: it was 70°. So, we took advantage of it and took a a wonderful hike to the 5,506′ Sky Bar at the top of Beech Mountain (where there were people still snowboarding and skiing), followed by visiting a winery (where it poured), and then bar hopped around Banner Elk (Graham was our Uber). We came back to the house, played games and ate dinner. The weekend was incredible and full of laughter, as is to be expected with his crew. We concluded the weekend by driving to Happy Valley Filling Station on Sunday on our way home for lunch with Andrew and Kendall.
Brayden spent her first college spring break in Siesta key, Florida (they made the long drive from Athens). There were 17 girls that shared one house and they had an absolute blast! Everyday, they would wake up, get coffee, go to the beach for most of the day, come back to the pool at their house, continue relaxing, and then either make dinner at the house or go out to eat. The room that Brayden stayed in had three sets of bunk beds, but they weren’t your average bunk bed, they were three-bunks high! Hilarious. I’m glad she had such a great time! At the end of her spring break, she headed back to Atlanta to stay with her friends before the dorms opened back up to students…or so we thought. I was in the kitchen making lunch and I heard the door open. I turned around and Brayden was there! I was in complete shock for a few seconds and then just started crying because I was so happy that she had surprised us! I took her around the corner and she surprised Trent as well and he also started getting teary-eyed! Hanleigh actually called her from school and busted her because she saw that she was in Charlotte based on her Snap Map location. That night, we went to dinner at Link and Pin while Hanleigh spent the night at a friend’s house. The next day, we went out to lunch with GG and Aunt Patty, and that evening we all cuddled on the couch together and watched a movie. And it was so awesome to see the two sissies picking on each other and loving on each other! It was the perfect weekend with all four of us reunited! Thank you so much, Brayden, for surprising us!
Kendall and I had our monthly dinner at Hobo’s, which was awesome as always. My coworker and long-time friend, Gary, was working his way toward a well-earned retirement. I arranged a few team-purchased gifts for him because he is so awesome including an engraved wine bottle holder and a metal sign for the name of his new home in New Mexico. Hanleigh’s flag football season kicked into high gear with practices nearly every day after school and games on Sundays. She is really shining as a player! So much so that the coach has her playing both defense and offense, which makes her quite tired, but she is giving it her all. She’s racked up interceptions, sacks, and touchdowns, and it’s such a fun sport to watch her play! I believe it will even be part of the next summer Olympics and have heard that D1 schools are even offering scholarships to players! Brayden continued to go to fraternity pledge class and chapter social events throughout the month as well.
I went to Houston for my annual conference’s planning meeting, which is one of my favorite meetings all year long because it’s a great chance to network with our customers and co-workers, and plan such a huge, amazing event. We always have one dinner with all of our board members and we ate at a fancy Mexican restaurant where part of the menu was a dish full of roasted bugs. Of course, I tried it! They are full of protein, so why not? After our main day of planning the conference, we were all ready to let loose, so a bunch of us went the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo and that was such an experience! We saw all kinds of various rodeo events, including cattle tackling and mutton bustin’! What is that, you may ask? It’s where little five-year-old kids ride on the top of a sheep’s back and wrap their little arms around its belly and try not to fall off as the sheep runs around a pen. It was the craziest and funny thing I’ve ever seen. They are wearing helmets, so at least they’re somewhat safe. It was hilarious! Once the rodeo was over, we got to see Laney Wilson perform and she was amazing! She sounded so great.
Brayden had a Hamptons-themed date night, where everyone wore all white. The girls looked so beautiful! She also went to a Chi Phi spring party. Trent and I had a date night, where we went to North Italia for a yummy dinner and had a great time! The next day, Tonya and I went to the Jia Foot Spa for some pampering. Tonya had been there before with Mike and said the experience was pretty good, but whoever gave her the massage with me was amazing! We had a great time and then we met up with Heather for dinner afterward at Burton’s. It was an awesome blue-hair tribe night! Later that week, I went over to Tonya’s house for dinner. It was great just to hang out with just the two of us!
During the last weekend of the month, I drove down to Athens for the annual AOii mom/daughter weekend. I had the cutest VRBO studio apartment and Brayden packed her bags and stayed with me the entire time, which really filled my bucket! When I got there, she was finishing up school, so I did some work at a local coffee shop, and then she went to a Pi Kap spring party. Once that was over, we met up with Morgan and her mom and went to have a cocktail at Five Bar before dinner. I put my name on the list for all of us to eat at Last Resort, the elusive restaurant that always has a multiple-hour wait. There was eight of us for dinner, four moms and four daughters, and we had an absolute blast! The food was incredible, so I get why there’s always a wait. After dinner, we ventured to Magnolia’s where the sorority had rented out space for everyone. We probably stayed there about 15 or 20 minutes and them bounced to Double Barrel for a cocktail and then to General’s, a local country bar that was super fun. After a late night, the next morning we woke up and took a cycle class, which was super fun and energetic! We were riding to the beat of the music and dancing on the bikes. It was incredible! After that, we went to Café Racer to get some delicious breakfast and I can’t wait to go there again. We came back to the VRBO to get ready and work a little bit, then went to Marker 7 for lunch, did a Milledge walk, and then landed in downtown for the Jam for Cam music festival (a charity concert benefit for a former student named Cam, who died of skin cancer). It was really crowded and we spent a while trying to get closer to the stage, but the sound wasn’t ideal where we were standing and it was really crowded, so we backed up a little bit and had a much better experience. We were the ones that shut down the concert out of all of her friends, so then we headed back to home the VRBO and went to bed. The next morning, we got up and went to our favorite place, Farm Cart, for breakfast. I gave her a lot of hugs and then drove back to Charlotte. The weekend was so incredibly special and I feel so lucky that we were able to spend all that wonderful time together!
After I left, Brayden had to film a recruitment video for her sorority. I’m looking forward to seeing that! While I was gone, Hanleigh had a bunch of friends over for a hot tub party and I know they had an absolute blast! I love how social she is and she’s got a lot of amazing friends! Happy birthday to Dadaw! We love you so much and miss you! I ended the month with an amazing pampering facial from Amy. Thanks, girl!
