then it was on to work and eventually out to lunch to see all of my coworkers, including new little riley (with mama stephanie in the background)
and everyone else! so happy to have such a great group of friends there :)
and the other side of the table--we brought a big group with us!
after we finished lunch, we headed back to the office to eat one of the best cakes i've ever had. it was super moist, with the whipped frosting that was really light and delicious.
cutting the cake, including the edge that amber so lovingly tried to repair after it took a tumble that morning. i though she did a great job :)
that afternoon, we headed out to durham after work. my dad had been taken to the hospital the day before and was going to be there at least for the weekend. we rearranged our plans to include a trip to durham and picked up my brother along the way, meeting his wife at the hospital. by the time we got there, he was doing much better and had seen dramatic progress. we stayed for a while and then went out to alan and rachel's favorite place nearby--tyler's taproom.
great comfort food, including an appetizer of fried pickles and the most amazing peanut butter mousse that sported a perfect little candle.
though it wasn't exactly what we had planned for my birthday dinner, it was just perfect. i was happy to be there with my family and to know that my dad was doing better.justin and i had gotten a room for the night, so we were in no rush to get back home. i loved the renovated warehouses in the area--all of these awesome old tobacco warehouses that had been converted into chic restaurants and shops.
you can see the "lucky strike" tobacco water tower and smoke stack that are still around in the area. they've actually added an amphitheater underneath the smoke stack for outdoor concerts and performances. i'm a huge fan of downtown revitalization and have been really impressed by the bright leaf square and american tobacco complex in durham.
the next morning, we got up and saw snow flakes beginning to fall. it wasn't supposed to stick, though, so we took our time and made it over to streets at southpoint. i enjoyed finding some good deal at jc penneys, while justin checked out the newest products at the apple store. before we left, we had a delicious lunch at california pizza kitchen.
we have never been disappointed eating there. we also had to swing by best buy to get another camera memory card (as you may have read about in friday night's post--thank goodness for internal memory that allowed me to take the 12 pictures from friday!) and then we were on our way.the only stop i wanted to make while back in fayetteville was the "big" dollar tree. i think i've written about it before, but since i had my camera (with a brand new memory card!) i decided to capture it for everyone just to show how awesome this dollar tree is.
do you see the rows and rows and rows of lights? it keeps going. it used to be a roses at one point, my mom said, and i remember when it was a belks several years ago. i always stop in to stock up on work items (cheap craft materials and toys) as well as the random stuff that you just happen to find in dollar tree.
and then it was over to grandma's for my birthday dinner and special chocolate cream cheese pie--so good!
we went to see peter pan that night at the local theater. they always have a musical going on around my birthday, so it's become a tradition to go see it when we come in town to celebrate my birthday. i was very impressed with the show, especially the scenery and the "flying" rigs they used.and then it was sunday--super bowl sunday, to be exact--and we were able to get back just in time for the game. i picked up our spring run market order and buffalo wings while justin picked up the dog. he settled in to watch the game while i went back out for our middle school youth group program. we'd missed the previous week with the snow, and then i'd missed tuesday night (our high school night) because of work stuff and sunday morning since we were in fayetteville and i just needed to see my church people! i was home by halftime and watched the rest of the game with justin and his sister while unpacking from the weekend. the animals were certainly glad to see us!
and that's our weekend. i can't believe how quickly it went, but i was so glad to include so many different groups of friends and family into our plans. we are blessed to have them in our lives, and this past weekend just reminds me of that.
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