Roomie Summer 2016

You probably see me mention my roommates a lot. Obviously they are not my current roommates (that would be weird.) but they were my grad school roommates. Actually, they were gracious enough to take me in when my intended roommate got a job in another state and left me roomie-less. At the time, these girls and I weren't very close. They make fun of me now because I tried to impose a "no junk food in the house" rule (poor girls) and I learned later that it was an easy decision to give me the master bedroom with my own bath cuz all the high maintenance tendencies. Whoops. I'm so glad that they put up with me though, because that turned out to be THE BEST year of college and was the beginning of an AMAZING friendship. After grad school, Rachel and I lived together for two years in a cute little apartment in an old Victorian on the edge of knoxvilles historic district. Katie introduced me to Brian, because she "just thought" I would like him. These girls are my people. When we were younger (cuz we're old now), we had big adventures like camping in the bush of Kenya. Now Rachel and I are married with babies and Katie is the most amazing, commited advocate for her ELL students and now we have different adventures. When I moved to St. Charles, we started "staycationing" together. We'd get together at someone house and just be together for a week or so. It's been awesome. But now that I'm (temporarily?) back in the area, we decided to take advantage of our July together and cram as many fun adventures as our crazy schedules would allow. I even made a cheesy calendar. I wanted to take a moment to archive some photos here of those adventures, so without further ado: Roomie Summer 2016
Swimming @ Panther Creek We're not QUITE to the point where we get to sit back and watch our kids play together, but this was still close. It's crazy that a few years ago, our idea of a good time was traveling to whatever new place we could think of, and now we're totally entertained just by watching these three goof balls SIT IN WATER. Seriously, though.
Also, this is an outing I COULD NOT have done without Katie. How do you take a baby who doesn't walk and a toddler who runs EVERYWHERE to a POOL?! I need one of those kid leashes.

Knoxville Zoo The next item on our summer itinerary was the Knoxville Zoo. Why is taking kids out to have fun so much more work on the parents than the kids? This was exhausting, but still very sweet. I felt like such a grown up. Is that weird?

The Muse, Knoxville This place is so cute and perfect for our littles! And I could have just melted watching them all of my favorite people play together.

Of course, while the kids are fun and all, we also needed some grown up only time. So we worked into our schedule a girls night and a grown ups night.

Paddle Boarding @ Black Oak Marina

Have you been paddle boarding? SO. MUCH. FUN! Highly recommend it!! I don't, however, recommend paddle boarding on the lake as a storm rolls in and getting caught in the torrential downpour and high winds. Only us. Good times.

After we barely escaped lightning electrocution in the lake, we had dinner at the marina restaurant. Being with these girls is therapeutic. I could have sat all evening and caught up.

After this evening we decided we need to be more intentional about getting together. Story of our lives, right? Hopefully we can stick with it, because it's legitimately good for the soul.

Smokies Game

I don't like baseball. Neither does Brian. But Katie suggested Thirsty Thursday at the Smokies game and of course it doesn't take much to convince us! I'm not sure Katie even knows what sports are (although she assured me baseball is her favorite), but I will forever be grateful that she recommended this outing. The three of us sat and gabbed the entire game. I watched ONE play. That's not an exaggeration. It wasn't even a good one (I'm pretty sure I would have done better than Mr. Third Baseman). While we chatted, the guys talked about whatever guys talk about, in between beer runs, and it was everything summer should be.