Music on the Mountaintop

For our official anniversary celebration, we wanted to get out of town and take a trip with just the two of us. You're probably thinking some beach resort getaway, fancy dinners by candlelight, spa services, etc.

But think again! After all, this is Brad and Erin we're talking about, right?!

So, here we are on our romantic anniversary weekend - not having showered in 2 days, standing by our 5 star resort (aka my 2 man tent) and grilling on a little bitty charcoal grill. :)

It was an awesome weekend - so nice to get away together, get back to nature with some beautiful weather, and hear some really great music. The festival was called "Music on the Mountaintop" and was a great lineup of bluegrass and jam music in Boone, NC.

There were vendors set up in one area of the festival which I enjoyed visiting and buying some clothing (happy anniversary to me! ;)


and then just hanging out with about 4,000 other music lovers in a beautiful setting.


And of course, seeing some great bluegrass music. We managed to get front row for several of the shows which was amazing to be up close and personal and really get to see some of the ridiculous picking that was happening in front of our eyes.

Keller Williams (one of my favorites - just a really happy, upbeat sound)


Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band


Sam Bush (a ridiculous mandolin and fiddle player!)

Toubab Krewe (a cool West African inspired band - the guy in the pic on the right is playing the kora which is this insane looking 21 string instrument. Seriously, 21 strings!?!)

Acoustic Syndicate

Larry Keel - check out his "missing middle" beard - awesome!

Railroad Earth


A super great weekend. Love camping and live music!

Mexican Kissing Cousins

We've been spending some good quality time at my parent's house this summer. While Sharon is off from school for the summer, she's been flying down from NY and the rest of us have been meeting up in W'burg.

That's meant lots of quality time with the family, shopping, golfing, margaritas and lots of eating. This past weekend we had a little hiccup because Natalie and Blake were sick and so Kiera, Ryan and the kids weren't able to make it out for the weekend.

So, instead we had an adults only weekend including game night. Here is the crew playing "Mexican Train" which is a domino game that my parents learned. We couldn't remember the name of it the whole weekend so had a multitude of names that started out as Mexican Cousins and grew into Mexican Kissing Cousins on a Train Crossing the Border, etc etc. What can I say, we're dorks.



And the results of the game? Brad seriously kicked everyone's arses. That boy has some kinda luck when it comes to card games. Good thing there was no money bet!

Academic Irony

Here's the entrance to the neighborhood where Brad and I live ...

I imagine that after building a lot of new neighborhoods, it becomes pretty hard for the builders to come up with new street names. They must have been running out of steam when they got to us - the entire neighborhood is education themed. Totally embarrassing to give directions around here ... "turn on Scholastic", "right on Baccalaureate", "pass Freshman and Sophomore before you hit Senior". "if you hit Alumni, you've gone too far", etc. Seriously, I am not kidding!

But I got a good laugh when I was driving home from work the other day and noticed that there were some new street signs up on the main strip in the neighborhood. Notice anything funny about this sign? Hint, compare it to the previous picture.



Yup, in our academic themed neighborhood, they have spelled the street name wrong. But hey, who needs a second L or an apostrophe, right? I think it's hysterical and want to keep quiet about it so that I can see how long it takes for someone to fix it. Brad thinks its terrible and wants to report it to the Homeowner's Association. Opposites attract, I suppose!

3 Long Years

First of all, I'd like to say that Brad came up with the title for this post - except when he said it it was more like "3 looooonnnngggg years" - ha!

But in all seriousness, we really can't believe that we were married 3 years ago. It feels like just yesterday that we had the most awesome wedding weekend ever!! SO amazing to have all of our friends and family together to celebrate us finally getting married (I mean really if we're being honest, this post should be called "12 loooonggg years"!)

So for our 3 year anniversary we went to the spa and got massages (awesome!) and then went a really nice dinner at Four Square in Durham (delicious!). It was a really nice night to celebrate how blessed we are to have found and married our best friend. :)



p.s. While we're on the topic of our ridiculously awesome wedding weekend, a quick shout out to our parents... Brad and I were reminiscing about our wedding weekend and then thinking about the amount of money that was spent to make it so special. Just thinking about the bottom-line made me a little ill (seriously, all that for a big party!?) but every minute of that weekend was awesome and still makes me smile from ear to ear just thinking about it. We just feel really blessed by the sacrifices that our parents have made and continue to make to make sure that we are happy. SO THANK YOU MOMs & DADs!

Roller Derby

In my opinion, the piece de resistance of the weekend was our visit to see the Carolina Rollergirls! All women's flat track roller derby - hell yeah!

Not knowing what to expect, we had a conversation on the way over about whether this would be "real" or more like the WWE (all fake hits and such). The answer became pretty clear when parked at the entrance to the rink was an ambulance!



Let's just say, they weren't messing around! I don't really understand the scoring yet but it was fun to watch and there were quite a few hard hits. These girls are tough!

The match was between the "Debutante Brawlers" and the "Tai Chi-tahs" and all the girls had super fun Rollergirl names. A few favorites ... Elektra Q. Tion; Beth Row; Holly Wanna Crackya and Lady Smackbeth. I loved it all!



Probably one of my favorite parts was the "Chi-tahs" human mascot - this awesome(ly hysterical) guy that took his job really, really seriously. I can't make this stuff up people, check him out! ...



Here's Marcus enjoying the show (and wearing his new Carolina Rollergirls t-shirt which he won!).



Ah, good times. I am totally hooked and can't wait for the next game!

Some NC flavor

Since Marcus was in town, we had to make sure that he really experienced the finest that NC has to offer. What better place to go then the NC State Fairgrounds, eh?

We took Marcus to the state flea market which was definitely an interesting display of junk and some truly excellent people watching. Here's Brad displaying some of the wares at one of the stands - why they are selling swords, I have no idea!



Marcus took advantage of the Fair and bought a few things to bring home to Israel. His favorite stand was the $1 used hat stand (again, really? $1 used hats? Man, I love NC!). After much deliberation, Marcus purchased this gem - "Re-Elect Bobby Hammons for Sheriff"! Don't think it gets much more southern that that!



After the flea market, we headed over to the day's main attraction at the Fairgrounds, the "Dixie Gun and Knife" show ... I kid you not!

It was one of the most frightening places that I have ever set foot in. We didn't take many pictures since technically cameras were not allowed and let's face it, we were a little afraid of getting anyone pissed off at us given that we were surrounded by about a million firearms. But here's a couple of shots from the big day ...



It was definitely an experience, let me tell you! Lots of confederate flags being sold, the sounds of tazers being tested and the deepest of Southern accents, and the sight of fathers with their young sons trying out guns, fitting their sons with holsters, etc. SCARY.

Duke BBQ'ing

Brad and I have been meaning to have folks over for a BBQ forever and just couldn't seem to find a weekend that we were in town and had the day free. But finally we were able to get our act together and invite some folks over for a Saturday evening grill-out.

We invited over a bunch of Dukies - some that we have seen a bunch since we've been back in NC and others that we knew were in town but hadn't had a chance to reconnect with. Despite the heat and humidity it was a great evening and I'm really glad we made the effort to get folks together.

We even broke out the lawn games and played a couple of games of bocce ball. And yes, since these are Dukies that we are talking about, it got a little competitive and Brad even broke out the measuring tape to ensure that we were accurately scoring. Yup, that is my husband with beer hanging from his mouth and measuring tape in hand - what can I say? I am so proud ;) (and Brad chimes in, "By the way, I put the beer bottle in my mouth just to make for an entertaining photo". Hmm, I'm not so sure.)



Here's the group (without Beth, Jason & Ava - sorry guys!) on our porch towards the end of the night.



It was a fun night and I was even surprised with birthday cake and candles from Brad and Marcus at the end of the night - I am always totally embarrassed by the singing of Happy Birthday but it definitely made me smile. Thanks guys! :)

Duke Gardens

While Erin was working I decided to take Marcus on a tour of campus and to the Gardens. It was a really, really hot and sticky weekend but got some good pics to show for it. What amazes me the most is how the garden staff turns over what is planted in all the gardens. When we came earlier this year with Uncle Tom none of these plants were even there and now they are. Good thing we contribute to the Duke Gardens so they can keep planting beautiful and in season flowers.

My birthday present = Marcus

Another birthday weekend comes and goes - the big ol' 32 this weekend. Jeez, 32?? Really? Sometimes I wonder where the time goes?

Anyway, I've realized that birthdays just aren't quite as fun as when we were little kids - another year older just gets a bit more depressing as the numbers continue to climb! But, as Le Anne likes to say "age is just a number" and that I can totally get behind. Plus as each year goes by I get to count more amazing experiences and adventures, more wonderful times with my family and more great friends.

Speaking of great friends, this year I had a wonderful birthday present ... our friend Marcus came to visit us all the way from Israel. We had a blast with Marcus all weekend and did our best to show him around NC and get the "true" NC experience (ok, maybe not the "true" experience but as many funny and random things as we could squeeze in to the weekend)