John & Alexis' Wedding

July 6th - July 8th

What a fantastic weekend! Our weekend started off with a little shopping at Short Pump Mall and dinner with Terri at California Pizza Kitchen. I know it isn't some fun local place but I do love this place and miss it from time to time. We spent the evening catching up and just being silly.

On Saturday morning, we had some time to explore Richmond before the wedding. Jed and I had heard about and talked about going to a restaurant called Dot's Back Inn for a long time and Terri was up for an adventure so decided to check it out. It was a great move on our part. The place was located in a small, cute little area and the atmosphere of the restaurant was great. There were plenty of locals there, we didn't have to wait and the food and company was excellent. I highly recommend the Chunky Monkey Pancakes. So good! After a very filling breakfast, Terri had been to this area in Richmond that she was interested in going back too called Carytown. It was a fun area that we were able to do a little vintage shopping and found Carytown cupcakes!

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the wedding. Joe and Lisa joined us and the 5 of us all went out to the wedding together. The wedding was beautiful! You could just feel the love and excitement as soon as Alexis walked into the building. The ceremony was just perfect for the two of them.

After the wedding was over there was a little time before the reception started which was great cause we had a lot of work to do. You see, Lisa and Tracy own Downtown Cupcakes in Blacksburg, and they were providing the cupcakes for the wedding. Lisa was riding sole for this event so Terri and I got to help with all the set up. So we quickly made the drive to the reception place and started to get all 350 cupcakes set up. I felt like I was on an episode of Cupcake Wars! It was so much fun and Tracy and Lisa's cupcakes looked incredible. I kept wanting to stick my finger in one of the cupcakes so I had to eat it but I didn't.

We got done just in time for cocktail hour. We spent the rest of the evening meeting new people, talking with friends, eating lots of food and dancing. They served Greek desserts that were homemade by Alexis family that were amazing, Ouzo was consumed and we were able to be a part of a traditional Greek dance. We even may or may not have wandered past another wedding reception with a photo booth and taken advantage of a free photo shoot. Don't worry, we left 3 pictures of ourselves in there wedding scrapbook wishing them the very best.

It was such a fun night that went by so incredible quickly. The night ended with Downtown Cupcakes cupcakes and a super sweet exit by the couple, dancing there last song outside to live music with all of us surrounding them holding sparklers.

John & Alexis, thank you so much for letting us be a part of your wedding. It was just so incredible.

A Duck Vacation

July 1st - July 5th

This year everyone but my brother in law was able to make it to the beach for a family vacation. I was able to drop Jed off on Saturday night so he could spend most of the week with the family. I wasn't about to stay the entire time but I did get some time with the family. As most beach vacations go, there was a lot of eating, sleeping, hanging out at the beach and ice cream. I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our Duck Donuts

Fourth of July Parade in Duck

Duck Float in Duck, NC parade

Where everyone spent the majority of the vacation

Dinner at High Cotton

Boy, do they group up quick!

Ice Cream stop



All our Castro niece's



Spontaneous Dancing





With cousin's from New York that were vacations the same week



It was so great that everyone was able to get together and spend time together. Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon.

Scotty & Jamie's Wedding

June 30th

What a crazy weekend! We had simple plans of spending Friday night with Mathis and Nicki before the left on Saturday morning, driving to the wedding in Fredericksburg and then finishing the evening with Jed's family in Duck, NC.

Friday night we had a huge storm. It was mostly wind at our house but it did a lot of damage in the area. Thankfully we only lost power for 12 hours. Others were out for over a week! It was Mathis & Nicki's last night before they moved to Texas and they ended up getting stuck in Roanoke for most of the night and Peter, Amy and the kids were stuck at our place for a while. We played Monopoly by candle light until the coast was clear for Peter & Amy to get on the road home and Mathis & Nicki were able to make it back.

The next morning, we woke up to no power and lukewarm water for showers. By 7am, we had said our good byes to Mathis and Nicki and were on the road to Scotty & Jamie's wedding in Fredericksburg. We spent the morning following in the footsteps of the storm from last night. Very few things had power and there were a ton of trees that had been knocked down. We tried to stop for breakfast on the road but most places were closed and the things that were opened had crazy long lines.

Before the wedding, we spent a little time with some old friends, Dave and Kristen. It was great to catch up on life and laugh about the old days. Our time with them went by so fast and before long we had to quickly get ready and head to the wedding. We did make it to the wedding with minutes to spare. It was a beautiful wedding. The church did have power and a/c which was great since a lot of places in this area didn't have power either.

The reception was a lot of fun and it was great to see some old friends. It definitely felt like a Hokie Reception. We spent most of our time hanging out with friends and dancing as much as we could before it was time for us to head south.

The first part of our trip to Duck was great but by the time we were approaching Richmond, we hit another huge storm. At one point there was a storm in front of us and one behind us. Jed had to dodge a lot of trees in the middle of the interstate and many other crazy drivers. He did an amazing job getting us to the beach house safely.

Green Street Reunion

June 22nd - June 24th

When Jed went to Tech, he lived with 4 other guys on Green Street. Over the past five or so years, we try and all get together every summer. This year we were able to meet up and camp at Claytor Lake State Park. We all camped here last year as well so we kind of knew the drill. This time we got one huge group campsite. We spent our weekend cooking, eating, deep frying all kinds of unique creations, swimming, volleyball and spending time together. This year Mathis & Nicki were able to join us for and afternoon and dinner on Saturday. They have met most of the Green St crew over the past 2 years. After we packed up on Sunday and got our group picture, most of us headed to the Homeplace for one last meal together.


Frogmore Stew Dinner





Yoga on the beach





Frying Dinner




Green Street Family Photo 2012


It was so great to be able to take time to catch up with everyone and see how all of the kids have grown. I look forward to this trip every year.

On Sunday evening, we were able to host a "See you Later" party for Mathis & Nicki. Lisa is such an amazing party planner and really made this party amazing. We went with a Texas theme and all the little details Lisa put into it really made it great.

We ended up having a house full of people come and celebrate with us. It was so great to see all the people's lives Mathis & Nicki have impacted here in Virginia. We had such a great time snacking on chili, babecue sliders, corn, chips & an assortment of dips and, of course, cupcakes!

It was such a fun and upbeat way to say, "See you later" to friends that will always be in your life even if they live far away. Good Luck in Texas, Mathis & Nicki. You will be missed here.