Everyone is in the ATL!!!!

This past week was a week working from home, catching up on emails and planning the remainder of the year.  It is crazy that it is already November!  Pretty soon it will be the holidays :)  This weeks weather was very much fall weather and it made for perfect pumpkin carving, tailgating, and outdoor activities!

The excitement of the week was Wednesday, when Kellie Ann and Reza came over for dinner and then pumpkin carving.  We had bought the pumpkins while up at Helen so we were finally getting around to carving them, just in time for Halloween!  Dinner was homemade baked sweet and sour chicken with rice and Kellie Ann brought over Joe's favorite buffalo chicken dip that he had been craving all week!  After dinner was done we grabbed some wine and headed to the rooftop to carve our pumpkins!  Kellie Ann and Reza decided to do a ghost while Joe and I decided to do Buzz and a GT in honor of homecoming weekend!  We figured that way we had an excuse to light it after Halloween had passed and we could show off our Tech spirit!  We had such a good time carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds!

Final Product of our Pumpkin!!!

Before we knew it, it was the weekend again and the festivities began.  This was homecoming weekend for Georgia Tech which always means that everyone comes back into town!  On top of that, it was Alumni weekend for the swim team so I knew we had an exciting weekend in store.  Friday, the house was all decorated for fall and ready for all of our visitors!   Courtney was the first to arrive so it was great getting some time with her to catch up and take Rox on a walk since we wouldn't have too much time for her this weekend.  After our walk we got dinner in the oven and cupcakes made so that we were ready for everyone else to arrive.  Joe and I had dinner before getting ready for the evening full of fun.  A couple swimmers were staying at our place for the weekend so we opened some bottles of wine and enjoyed the rooftop on a brisk evening.  Some of Joe's friends came over as well, and Dillon, one of Joe's best friends was in town so he had a great time catching up with him. We then headed out to Ivy for a night of dancing and fun!  We had a lovely NYU BFF reunion at Ivy and it was so good FINALLY getting to see Sarah Anderson even if it was only for a little bit!

NYU BFFs!!!

LOVE these girls :)

Saturday morning came way to quick and we got up  bright and early to head to the pool for the Alumni Meet.  The swim team always has a meet where the Alumni swim the current team and I must say I am quite impressed with the Alumni and their swimming abilities post college!  I sat out this year so that I didn't injure my already hurt ankle any further but it was so good catching up with old friends and being by the pool again.  After the meet we headed to West Egg right by campus where we waited quite some time to seat 16 people, but since the weather was beautiful outside, it wasn't all that bad!  After a long wait we finally sat down and enjoyed an amazing brunch!  Then Courtney and I headed home and took Rox on a walk, took a quick 20 minute nap, and then got ready to head to GT's campus to tailgate!

GT Alumni Meet!

Part of the Table at West Egg

We got to campus and headed to the bridge to see some of the track alumni and then headed to the Swim Team Alumni tailgate.  There we enjoyed catching up with everyone that we hadn't seen in a while and then met up with Joe's parents for a bit.  After eating and catching up with Joe's parents I got to see Sarah Anderson for about 2 minutes before going back to the Alumni Tailgate for a bit.  We then decided to skip the actual game because it was getting to be very cold.  We headed to Big Kahuna where Dillon was was holding a Miami Donor watch party to watch that game and track the GT game as well in a warmer environment!  At halftime we headed home to finish watching the game and get ready to go out for the evening.

Love :)

Best Friend I ever Had :)

Some of my favorite Alum :)

Sun Setting At Tech!

We headed to 5 Paces this time around and met up with a lot of the younger alumni and older current swimmers.  It was so much fun dancing the night away and bar hopping in that area.  Although we got an extra hour at the bars, we were exhausted fairly early into the evening and headed home to enjoy an extra hour of sleep!

Sunday morning we got up and said our goodbyes to everyone that had stayed at our place this weekend and after breakfast went back to bed.  We must have been exhausted because we woke up and it was lunch time.  After relaxing for a bit, Andy and Meredith stopped by so we caught up with them.  We then planned meals for the week and headed to Kroger before eating dinner.  After a long and exciting weekend, it was nice to have a low key Sunday so that we are ready for another week! It was so fun getting to see everyone in town this weekend and I was so sad to see everyone go.  Why can't everyone just live in Atlanta?  Now, an early bed time is much needed to get ready for another week of work!

Enjoying Fall in Georgia...

This past week was quite a crazy week of travel for work, and I must say maybe the busiest of the year.  I started the trip Sunday evening by heading to Ft. Worth, then from there traveling to Brownsville, TX, El Paso, TX, and Phoenix, AZ before heading home.  After a lot of flights, time changes, and beautiful scenery, I was very ready to get home and enjoy a weekend with Joe and friends.

Sunset when landing in Brownsville, TX

Cactus in Phoenix!!!

Sun Setting between two layers of clouds in ATL

Earlier in the week we had made plans to head up to Helen for October Fest.  Saturday morning, Joe had tennis, so after the tennis match, we met up with Kellie Ann and Reza and hit the road to Helen.  For those of you that don't know, Helen is a small town in North GA that is a replica of a German village.  They have October Fest every year and this was a big weekend for people to go.  After checking into our hotel we headed to Helen for a fun afternoon and evening.

We started the day at the beer hall where they sold beautiful ceramic mugs and had live German music and dancing.  After sipping on some German beer we headed too dinner where we had some brats, sauerkraut, Reuben sandwiches, and much more on a small restaurant that sat on the river.  After dinner we met up with Rialda, Elliot, and their friends for some more drinking and dancing the night away.  After we had our fill of dancing, we headed to a small ice cream parlor and enjoyed funnel cakes (yes plural) and FRIED OREOS!  They were so good, and of course after the food was gone, Kellie Ann, Reza, and Joe had a little fun throwing powdered sugar on each other.  After that we headed back to the beer hall for some more genuine German music before heading to the hotel.

Fried Oreos!

Funnel Cake :)

After a great breakfast the next morning (Joe and Reza were overly excited about waffles in the morning) we hit the road and made a pit stop at a farm.  There we found the perfect carving pumpkins and decorative pumpkins.  After getting our pumpkins, we headed to the petting zoo so that Kellie Ann could feed the pony, Short Cake, before hitting the road back to Atlanta.

After getting home it was time to cheer on the Falcons and will now head up too Joe's parents house for dinner before getting ready for another fun week of work.  It was such a fun weekend spent in north Georgia with amazing friends enjoying the perfect fall weather that we are having in Atlanta currently.  So, with that,  another weekend has passed, so Happy Week everyone :)