November= weekend trip and Eric's Marathon

One of the main fun things we did in November was take a trip down to Charleston, SC. Cutest town ever. We have established a great traveling system with the Innes' of having our trips somewhat revolve around good food...

Saturday Farmers Market

We bought tickets for a carriage ride around town and saw the most charming houses.

And then continued the touring on a boat!

We had to stop at a bakery AND a breakfast joint before we left. Believe it or not, Eric and Natalie's mouths were both stuffed full of the most delicious sweet rolls in all three pictures we tried to take. 

November 16th:

When Eric was 12 years old, he started a marathon, ran about 16 miles, and had to ride to the finish line on a bus. That his been haunting him ever since. So, the Richmond marathon was his chance to redeem himself. After watching Eric do it, I made him to commit to keep running them. It was seriously the coolest atmosphere. When I first dropped him off we were worried because it was raining, but the weather dried up and turned out to be perfect. You could tell this was our first exposure to a marathon because we picked a spot to meet but had no clue how to get in touch, what time to be there and how it would work out finding each other among the 10 thousand other people. Luckily Matt and Natalie were there to watch with!

I got to the finish line extra early to make sure I didn't miss him. I realized how hard marathons were by watching people fall to the ground because their legs were shaking so hard. I was crying watching people I didn't even know! This man's legs cramped so bad he fell RIGHT before the finish line, so this picture is when people came to help him finish. The fact that Eric ran 26.2 miles is just crazy to me.

Eric was ready for the camera man.

 

While we were waiting, Natalie took my phone to try and snap pictures, I had my real camera, and Matt was on the look out for Eric. But then he came running SOOOO HARD AND SOOO FAST we didn't even have chance to take one...hence the shoe photo.

 That's how we ended up getting suckered into buying the profesh photos from the marathon photographer. These photos give you a sense of Eric's finishing style.

The finish line had such a pretty view with the bridge over the river in the background.

Eric said the crowds were the bomb and super supportive. This sign said "smile if you peed a little."

I was SO proud of my marathon finisher!!

October 2013

Here is the October photo dump:

Eric did a tour of the dental school with the young men's crew

And then we went on a trip to Grundy, VA with the mission of mercy. They transform an elementary school cafeteria into a dental practice and do free dental work for two full days, and then put everything back together. When Eric signed up, I decided I wanted to tag along. I signed up for a "dental assistant"  and I think they were a little disappointed when they realized I couldn't give shots or do anything dental assistant-ish. It was a really cool experience and we came home motivated to floss.

The awesome thing about having some of our best friends in DC and Chapel Hill is meeting up for the weekend! They both drove to Richmond and we had a blast showing them around.We went to the Brunswick Stew festival downtown and took the ferry boat onto the River. We also checked out Maymont, went to Hogshead for dinner, and played games.

One of the highlights of the stew festival was asking this man to take our group photo. When I looked at my camera there was literally 9 attempts that were selfies life this:

Richmond has SO many festivals and I don't think they will ever get old. We loved the Folk festival.

In lieu of a weekend trip that was supposed to happen, we planned a sleepover night with the Innes'. The night started out at Hogshead, where we were thoroughly entertained (and then annoyed) by a crazy man and crazy women who told us that meat is the key to a healthy diet. Then we played tennis and headed to our house for the sleepover part... The sleepover ended up being a movie night till 3 am because they practically live next door.

I also started work at KPMG in October (my ugly cubicle is pictured below), and I had training in Florida for two LONG weeks. I was a roller-coaster of emotions, mostly just missing Eric. He got a few phone calls of pure panic and tears.

I had to secretly take a picture because that guy in the suit with a sign was waiting for me at the airport. That was the coolest I've felt probably ever, and I am pretty sure that will be the last time that happens.

It was torture being stuck inside while the weather was gorgeous and there was this pool sitting right outside our workrooms. But they took pretty good care of us and sent us to Disneyland and to the Disney Frightmares.

At breakfast one morning I tried to make Eric jealous by sending him a picture of his favorite pastry.

No less than 5 minutes later he responded with a matching picture that he ran to the hospital to buy.

I also got some picture texts of the adorable new twins that Eric was visiting!

September Catch Up

At some point while the Redskins were practicing in Richmond, Eric decided to go watch them and sneak in. Once he got in, a security guard kicked him out. He decided that he would go to his car, get a shirt he had "just in case" he got the chance to meet RG III, and sneak right back in. Which he did, and he definitely got his signature.

While Eric had his intense test studying at the end of September, I went and partied in Cali with the fam. My mom's friend Susan let us use the most gorgeous condo on the beach! And then I drove down to Palo Alto with Tob and Rand to see where they live. I fell in love with their town! 

 

 

 Apple picking in Charlottesville!

 We did a fun birthday weekend in DC for Eric's 28th. We were so excited when we heard Rob and Chels were coming to town. We ate lots of good food and hung out at Jeff and Katie's house. 

On his actual birthday we did some more celebrating-I picked him up right after school and we went and tried a nice restaurant, went to a movie, and came home to presents!