Matt I headed out of town this weekend and ventured out into the middle of nowhere (literally…they give latitude/longitude coordinates instead of a real address to get to the campsite) for a little camping with some friends!

Our campsite was right on the bank of the Yuba River, which made for a very beautiful view and soundtrack for the weekend!  

Friends, campfires, not showering, beer pong, horseshoes, a bald eagle sighting, kayaking (which really turned into floating), a lot of Catch Phrase, cooking outdoors, and sleeping outside made for a very fun weekend!

BUT here are my top 4 reasons why it is nice to be back home:

1. Plumbing…the sites had no running water whatsoever. 
2. Bathrooms…it is not the easiest thing to have to traipse through a campsite in the dark of night, with the threat of bears, to get to the restroom!  I always wake up in the middle of the night and have to go, so this makes it quite a bit more difficult than walking across the bedroom!  Not to mention the fact that this bathroom was an outhouse (hence the no running water)!
3. Ice chests…I love camping and spending time in the great outdoors, but I never appreciate my refrigerator more than when I come home from camping!
4. Huge ants…I literally had a gigantic ant crawl up my pant leg while sitting by the fire!!  It was disgusting!!  So it is nice to be back home where there is no threat of invading ants!

I feel like I have been rather absent the past few weeks on both the writing and the reading front on tumblr.  Between all of the stuff that has been going on, including the last month of school push, I haven’t had the time or the energy to keep up!  Well I finally had the chance to catch up  on the reading side, and here are the last few weeks in pictures (and some words)…

After spending Spring Break in Long Beach with Ellen, 

 we traveled back home to attend Alice’s Bridal Shower!

The bride and me!

The lovely ladies that make up the bridal party!

I saw Water for Elephants, and I loved it!  

 (image via)

My family and I celebrated Mother’s Day weekend at the beach,

with Rummy Cube and Dominos.

with the most amazing brunch at the Harbor Cafe in Santa Cruz,

and family photos above the beach!  It was a cozy weekend filled with grandmas, laughing, cocktails, food, and sharing a room with my parents!! You know you are traveling with elderly people when you put a walker in your trunk, a cane in the front seat, and the car conversation consists of coupons, doctor’s appointments, vitamins, and sweats with pockets!  If I had a dollar for every time I was asked, “Do you need a kleenex?” I would be rich right now!  I love my nans more than I can say, and to be able to spend a whole weekend with them and my family was a tremendous blessing!

Matt and I went to our first ever Brewfest in Sacramento:

Aren’t they a dainty bunch of men with their coasters and pinkies!

The crew!

And finally we went and saw Bridesmaids

 (image via)

and it was absolutely hilarious!  It almost reminded me of a female Hangover!

This previous weekend was a little different from our usual weekend.  This weekend we spent time with families.  Not our own families, but some friends and their families.  

Friday night was for dinner with a very close friend (that Matt went to high school with), her husband, and their two kids.  It’s not very often that we hit up a restaurant with kids in tow, especially not two under the age of five!  But it was great!  Besides the normal catching up, since busy lives have kept us from getting together since November, it was great to see “real life” with kids…screams, bathroom trips, silverware on the floor, piles of napkins, spills, smiles, laughs, and fun. It was a perfect reminder that just because we will be having kids our social lives (and what makes us who we are) will still be there. Albeit different (with car seats, diaper bags, bottles, bibs and earlier bedtimes), but definitely still there.

On Saturday we joined a couple different families and went to a hockey game with friends from work, along with their spouses and children.  Again, it was different, but still a complete blast!  It was refreshing and educational to spend time with a different group of people, particularly people that have such different priorities than our usual group of friends.  I love seeing Matt spend time with fathers of young kids (especially when Matt and the dads took all the kids to the snack bar!) and seeing him become a welcomed part of my work circle of friends.  

I realize that life will dramatically change in a matter of years (and in some cases months), but the changes will all be worth it.  Life changes, people grow, priorities shift.  The people that want to be a part of those changes will be there no matter what. The people that are not worth it will be absent, and new people that understand those changes and new stages of life will be welcomed in.  

We had a very low-key Superbowl viewing party.  Matt and I were joined by my sister and the Yelton family (Liz, Justin, and their 3-year-old son, Ben). Justin and Matt have been friends since high school, and a part of my life for 10 years!  

With the long day I had with my student council friends on Saturday, I was not in the mood to really party-it-up on Sunday.  

I grocery shopped in the morning so that there would be some food in the house so my husband can actually eat this week and picked up a few take-and-bake pizzas for the game (Papa Murphy’s de-lite crust pizzas are the bomb)!

Here are some of the things that made Superbowl Sunday awesome:

1. Hanging out with friends we do not get to see enough and be able to actually talk and chat.
2. Packers winning the game!!
3. My mom winning $300 bucks in a Superbowl pool!
4. Homemade homestyle baked fries made by Justin (wedge-slice some russet potatoes, sprinkle with Montreal  Steak Seasoning, coat with some EVOO, and bake until golden and soft, about 20 minutes total, flipping the fries halfway through. Sprinkle with a little cheese when they come out of the oven and you have heaven on a platter!).
5. Homemade salsa and guacamole made by Liz.
6. Not having to wear any make-up, real clothes, or shoes all day! 
7. Spending time playing and watching cartoons with one of the cutest little boys on the face of the earth, who called me “Aunt Lindsey” all day!  It completely melted my heart!
8. GLEE after the game!

Things that were less than stellar during Superbowl Sunday:

1. Hearing the National Anthem botched at one on America’s biggest sporting events.
2. The halftime show was pretty bad.
3. The commercials did not knock my socks off…there were a couple funny ones, but overall I thought they were on the weak side this year.

All-in-all a relaxing and much enjoyed way to spend Superbowl Sunday.

Thank you, thank you to all of my friends that have lovingly celebrated my birthday on their blogs! I am reblogging many of them because I absolutely L-O-V-E them, and all of you!  Friends are what make birthdays special and what makes them worth celebrating!  I love all of my friends, and I hope that you all know how much you truly mean to me!