A Weekend with the Mugs

February 15th-17th

This weekend we headed north to visit some friends in Lancaster, PA. It had been too long since we had a chance to hang out.

Friday night when we got into town, we met up with them and some of there friends at a local hotel for drinks and jazz music before moving on to a local pub, Molly's. We spent the evening laughing, making new friends and catching up with old ones.

The next morning we headed downtown to their market. It is a super great place with fresh meats, veggies, fruits, breads, etc. It is inside so we could avoid the snow and cold. We were even treated to a Flash Mob while we were there! After we purchased a few things, we each got a donut and headed up to the crows nest for some people watching.

After our trip to the market, we headed back to the house to make breakfast before we headed out to America's Coolest Small Town of 2013, Lititz, PA. We had a fantastic time exploring this town and it just so happened that the day we were there was their Fire & Ice weekend. We missed the fire part (chili cookout that morning) but were able to catch the ice part (ice sculptures). They also had an amazing smelling chocolate factory, Wilbur's, the first commercial pretzel bakery, Sturgis' and a really good restaurant that we got lunch at called Tomato Pie Cafe. (Jed & I have already tried to recreate the sandwich we got there twice! So good!)

After spending the day in Lititz, we took a few hours back at the house to relax by the fire, play an old game that we all just love, the name game, and snack on our other goodies from the trip to the market that morning. Before long, it was time to head over to our dinner reservations at Jethro's.

What an incredibly memorable dinner! Our waitress was very unique with a hilarious laugh that we all (everyone in the restaurant) couldn't help but laugh at and continued to try and make her laugh so we could all hear and laugh too. Jed got a very creepy shoulder massage from another lady working at the restaurant and the food was pretty good too. We heard that the party was going to continue at the local bar, Tally Ho but we decided to call it a night and head home.

Sunday morning we were up ready, cooked breakfast, cleaned up breakfast and at church on time! That was pretty impressive in our book. After church, it was time for us to pack up the car and start the trip back home. We had such a great time this weekend and look forward to the then opportunity to go back.

And what is a trip through PA with out our stop at the Hershey's Chocolate World. And boy was it a crazy there! We figured in the middle of February we would be safe from all the tourist but it was CRAZY!! We saw a Hershey's marching band and all the chocolates came out for a parade and to greet the crowd of kids & us. :) So fun!

A Charlotte Wedding

February 8th & 9th

This weekend Jeff & Christy got married! And what way to better tell the story of this weekend, then with pictures...

The wedding was in Ben & Shannon's house. It was beautiful!

Wes, Jeff, Justin, Joel

 After rehearsal, we chowed down on Price's Chicken Coop for dinner and spend HOURS playing "name that tune" with the thousands of songs that Shannon had downloaded for the dance party they had planned for tomorrow night.

After a beautiful wedding, we celebrated there for a little while and then moved the reception to The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery.

Congratulations Jeff & Christy!

I put a deposit down on a dog

February 1-3rd

This weekend we took off to Lynchburg to go skiing with Joe & Lisa. Lisa had a great idea in December and we purchased a groupon to the Liberty Mountain Snowflex. It included ski's (or snowboards) & a lesson. Which is great since some of us have never skied and others it had been a really, really long time.

We set off Friday night and made a pit stop in Roanoke. We found a super fun BBQ place in downtown Roanoke called Blues BBQ Co. It started as a food truck in Frederick, MD and some how found Roanoke, VA. It was a tiny little place but the food and drinks were great. It was the perfect way to start the weekend.

We ended up getting into Lynchburg pretty late so we headed straight to the hotel to just relax, catch up and laugh. We had a great time.

Saturday morning, Joe and Lisa were up early and we met them down at breakfast. It was freezing outside, a perfect(?) day for skiing, cold and windy. We knew it was going to be cold but 19 degrees was feeling a little bit much.

While at breakfast, Lisa had learned that an animal shelter that they were looking to check out dogs on Sunday was going to be closing for good after Saturday. There were these 2 dogs that they wanted to check out and when she was tell us about them and then showing us there pictures, we knew we had to go. (Besides, it was 19 DEGREES outside!!)

So off we went to Giles County Animal Shelter. Let me tell you.... the drive to this shelter was one I will always remember. It was out there, down dirt "roads" and "roads" that didn't have names. It was just so funny! After a while I was being to thing our GPS was playing a joke on us and then we saw the sign. We were so excited and couldn't help but laugh at the adventure that we were on.

Lisa's sister and the kids all met us out there after a little while. They checked out two dogs, Kilo and S.P.P. (Small Playful Pup)/C.K. (Chicken Killer). They were both great dogs but in the end, Kilo felt like the better fit for there family.

It was such a great time and an honor to be able to be a part of that. We can make memories skiing any time, but to be invited to be a part (and put down the deposit) for a new member of someones family is definitely something I will cherish. Thank you, Joe and Lisa for letting us be a part of that.

We finished the weekend meeting up with a friend in Roanoke for dinner and spending the rest of the evening playing games and hanging out by the fire with Joe and Lisa. What a great time!

VEGAS BABY VEGAS!!

January 25th - 29th

Jed and I were able to steal away to Vegas for a long weekend and we had a fantastic time. Vegas one of those cities that we just love and enjoy visiting as often as we can.

The trip started off a little rocky and spent about 6 hours in the Memphis airport due to plane issues. But once we got to Vegas we hit the ground running. Our first stop...

It has been too long since our last visit to In-N-Out.

We spent the rest of our day walking around the strip, shopping and a little gambling. I even won $6.25 off a dollar! How fun. :)

On Saturday, we found a unique place to eat off the strip called eat. It was a great way to start the day before and afternoon of shopping at Vintage shopping.

 The vintage shopping was pretty much a bust but it was really fun to look at all the old school stuff that reminded us of days of old. We headed back to the strip for more sightseeing and for an adult milkshake at Holsteins and to sit and people watch at one of the newer hotels, The Cosmopolitan.

We spent the evening walking around and hanging out and finished our night with a super late dinner at Trevi at Caesar's Palace.

Sunday we were starting to feeling the pressure to see and do it all before we have to leave on Monday night so we started up and out pretty early. We did a lot on Sunday.

Trevi Fountain - Caesar's

Jed and "Alan" from the Hangover

Fountains at Caesar's 

Taste testing Popcornopolis vs Garrett's

Statue of David 

Tasting different coke's from around the world

The Best Soda

 Before walking down to our show at the Wynn hotel, we found a super fun Beijing Noodle restaurant called Beijing Noodle 9. They make hand made noodles everyday and it is so amazing to watch then do it. The restaurant design and atmosphere was so much fun.

Le Reve Show in the Wynn Hotel

Before the show

Le Reve - the circular water stage

After the show, we headed to the Sugar Factory for dessert before calling it a night.

We set an alarm to be up and out by 7am on Monday morning. We found the BEST deal for a breakfast buffet. We went to Tix4Tonight and purchased 2 tickets to the Monte Carlo brunch for $2 each!! Then when we went to The Big Belly Buffet at the Monte Carlo, we only had to pay $8 each to get it. We basically got 2 for the price of one. We will definitely do that every time we go back.

It was so much fun to be up and out at that hour. It was so interesting to see all the work that goes on in the early more hours in Vegas. A few people were still gambling (most likely just still up from the night before), business men and women were all dressed for conferences, dusting slot machines, and re-tabling the tops of crap's tables and blackjack tables. It was so fun.

After breakfast, Jed played the tables for a little while and then we headed over to the New York - New York hotel. We spent some time learning about how betting on sports events worked and we even placed a bet on the Super Bowl.

After spending the morning playing some cards, walking around and learning about Vegas Sports betting, we headed to Minus 5. It is a bar that is made entirely of ice. It was so much fun! Being that it was only about 2 on a Monday afternoon, we pretty much were the only people that were there for a lot of the time we were in there. Because everything is made of ice they will not let cell phones or camera in the bar since it could "melt" the seats, tables or bars. (We think it was just there way of making an extra buck...they have a photographer that takes pictures and sells them for WAY too much...) But we took a few pictures after the experience. But I would HIGHLY recommend this place and the more friends you can go with the better.

You can see our pictures at the bar here:
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

After one last trip to In-N-Out, we headed down to the old Vegas strip, Freemont Street for the Freemont Street Experience. We had a great time walking around and watching the World's Largest Video board and playing an old favorite Vegas game, horse racing.

After our time down at Freemont Street, we headed back to the Vegas Strip for a quick dinner at Grimaldi's (not as good as the original restaurant in Brooklyn, but pretty good). We couldn't leave without seeing the Fountains of Bellagio so we ran to see them before heading back to the airport to head home. It couldn't have been more perfect and cliche when the fountains were choreographed to "Time to Say Goodbye".

We had such a great time in Vegas and we can't wait for our next trip there.