Halloween

This weekend we were off to my parent’s house – since we won’t be getting together for Thanksgiving this year, we all got together for Halloween instead. Friday night involved some serious pumpkin carving – look at these masterpieces!

Saturday morning was bright and early golfing – I went out with my mom for 9 holes while the guys (Brad, Ryan and my dad) did 18 on another course. This was the first time that I’ve ever actually kept score. Let’s just say it was not so pretty. Fortunately, my mom and I decided that we would only count to 10, so the scorecards didn’t get toooo insane ;)

Then Saturday night, Brad and I headed out to “Hulaween” – the annual Halloween concert of String Cheese Incident, another of our favorite bands. It was a great show with lots of interesting costumes from the audience (and the band!) and Brad was able to bring in a camera again with a photo pass…

Finally, Sunday we went to Kiera and Ryan’s in Richmond to see the kids get dressed up for Halloween. I, of course, went crazy taking photos of the kiddies! First, some quality time between the grandparents and grandkids …



Then Natalie and Blake donned their Halloween costumes. They were dressed as Max and Ruby (a kid’s cartoon – Max and Ruby are brother and sister rabbits). They were adorable!

And of course, Duke got in on the Halloween costume fun :)

When we finally did get home, we were instantly inundated by trick or treaters - apparently, we get a lot of traffic in our neighborhood! Some of that traffic might be attributed to our neighbors who give out candy for the kids and jello shots for the adults - I think that might entice some parents to walk a bit further than they otherwise might have done! ;)

Coach K Practice

Got to attend another Coach K practice this year through work. I love getting the chance to see Coach K in action and get a little sneak peak at the team before the season starts.

A few shots from the stands …

Last year, I talked about how impressed I was with the managers (run practice like a well oiled machine). This year, I realized I’m impressed with whomever cleans the Cameron floors – seriously, look at those things shine!

The Art of Fried Food

The saddest part about my trip to Cali was that I missed the NC State Fair while I was gone :( Fortunately, Brad was able to make it and experience the art of fried food - seriously, my lesson from the State Fair is that everything and anything can be deep fried. It definitely is an art.



The newest addition this year? Krispy Kreme Burgers. Yes, you heard that right. Deep fried Krispy Kreme donuts serve as buns, with a burger (complete with condiments, bacon, etc) in between. WOW.



You might be wondering "who in the world would eat that?!?". Fortunately, we have Billy :)

The Best and the Worst of Cali

Soon after we returned from Charleston, I was off to California. Point of the trip was for work – we had a Board meeting, followed by a fundraising dinner with some alums, and then we were hosting a daylong conference with an impressive cast of characters.

It was complete chaos. Because our travel budget is so tight, only my boss and I were going to Cali to run all the events. Then at the last minute my boss had a family emergency and didn’t end up coming at all – it was a total nightmare for me. Everything ended up going smoothly and was a success but it was not fun at all!

Fortunately, I had decided to stay out in Cali for the weekend so was able to enjoy some time with friends and redeem the trip a bit. Had a wonderful Friday night catching up with Michelle. Then a mini-GSB reunion on Saturday with Michelle, Dani and Bill, Emilie and Ben, Chi, Shelley, Kerry and Colin (and all their cute kids). Super fun to get to catch up – especially nice to see Dani and Bill who just happened to be in town from Portland for the weekend! I was so glad to meet Dani’s kids – Sawyer is this gorgeous, blue-eyed charmer (who is going to be quite the ladies’ man when he grows up – watch out Dani and Bill!). And Riley is adorable – a totally mellow and happy baby.

Then finally Michelle, Kerry and I headed to San Francisco for a bit of Saturday night debauchery. Totally a blast and we made plans for a girls’ weekend in May to continue the fun. So, overall a successful trip but I returned home completely sleep deprived and exhausted – oh well!

Charleston, SC

This weekend we started a string of traveling that will pretty much lead us in to the holidays! It’s going to be a busy time but hopefully full of lots of fun.

We started out with a trip to Charleston, SC. We’ve been to Charleston once before (thanks to a wonderful B&B gift certificate from Ginny/Geoff, Erika/Kovas & Shaz for our wedding) but this time we weren’t really going to see the sights. We were off to our only Phish shows of Fall tour. So, we had a great weekend - saw two great shows and hung out with great friends.

But the best part of the weekend was that Brad was able to get his first photo pass! Brad had put together a portfolio of some of his concert photography and sent it out to some media outlets and, lo and behold, he scored a pass for Friday night’s show! That meant he could bring in our nice camera and got to spend the first 15 minutes of the show up in the pit taking close-up shots. SO COOL!

Here’s a couple of shots from that night ...

For Brad's first set of photo credits, click here :)