We were long overdue for a vacation!! We had originally hoped to do it over our anniversary weekend, but life got in the way. We were so busy taking care of Chief and renovating the kitchen, that spring turned into summer, which is now quickly turning to fall. But luckily we managed to squeeze in one, albeit quick, getaway to North Carolina for Labor Day weekend.

It was a whirlwind trip, it was always going to be short, but then got even shorter when we left a day later than we intended. We left the Thursday before Labor Day to go visit Justin in his new apartment in Raleigh. We were there only for the night to deliver some additional items from home, and to of course meet his girlfriend Jessica, who we were very happy to meet. We did get to have two meals with them, so that was nice.
I discovered the wonder that is Instagram during this trip, and I incessantly bothered pretty much everybody I came into contact with, but Justin and Jessica were good sports about it, and posed for a picture or two. 🙂
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Friday morning we got up and headed to Hickory, North Carolina to see Joey’s college, Lenoir Rhyne University.
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It was a beautiful campus, and fun to see where my Smitty spent his college days. I took about a million pictures here.
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I also forced Joey to take me to a local dive for lunch, he chose the Village Pizza and it was a delicious choice, and took him down memory lane for sure.
We also spent a good amount of money in the bookstore on LR apparel, but figured it would probably be awhile before we were back, so we stocked up 🙂 And how I have a pretty cute LR shirt.
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I think one year when we have kids we’ll try to come up around Homecoming time in October, so Joey can visit with old pals, and we can see the leaves change.
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Later that afternoon, we headed to Charlotte to do a quick Ikea stop (perhaps the fastest one of our life in fact), and then to spend a couple of days with Joey’s Aunt Carol and Uncle John. They had just moved into a beautiful new home that they had built, and we were in awe of all the gorgeousness. The layout was really smart, and the details in the home were really quite incredible, it was inspiring. Also, I think that all the beautiful details in their home might have finally convinced Joey that we should commit to a few things around our house that I’ve been saying we should do all along, like adding wainscotting and carriage hardware to the garage doors, among many others. So it was win-win for me 🙂
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Joey’s cousin Lisa and her husband Jason (and their six-year-old son Ian) came over for dinner, and we had a great time socializing with them. Ian beat us all at his own version of Survivor Style Candy Land, so that was pretty cute, and we ended up staying up late chatting with Lisa and Jason. It was nice catching up, and Joey and I were reminded how nice it is to visit with family for happy circumstances. So much lately, it seems the Meyer family has been gathering for sad events, and it reminded us how we need to make more of an effort to stay in touch and get together to celebrate happy times as well.
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We spent Saturday with Uncle John and Aunt Carol, they showed us around downtown Charlotte, and we mostly just spent the day chatting and watching football. And eating, don’t forget eating! John and Carol used to own a restaurant, and Carol even went to culinary school, so these folks know how to cook!! I spent a lot of time sitting at their island and watching them cook, mentally taking notes. Everything was delicious, and I know I came home weighing much more than when I left. 🙂 But that’s vacation right?

We came back after breakfast on Sunday, and made good time on the road. We got home around 6pm, and were able to relax and sleep in, before we had to go pick up the dogs from “summer camp” aka the boarding facility. It was their first time being boarded, and we were careful to choose one that was highly recommended by people we knew, and that had lots of room to run and play. I think they had a blast, they came home exhausted (seriously, they are still tuckered out two days later!!) and with a cute “report card” that summarizes what they did during their stay with pictures. It was super cute, and we were glad they had fun and were well cared for!

Why yes I did hang our dog’s “report card” on the fridge…lord help our future human babies! 🙂

We finished Labor Day weekend off with a win for the Seminoles, so really it was the best long weekend we could have asked for!