charlottesville

two weekends ago, we made our first big trip...normally 3.5 hours sans baby...4.5 hours avec baby to charlottesville (and that takes care of all the french i remember after 2 years in high school).  my friend brad was defending his dissertation....i'm so proud of him, now Dr. Brad. we came into grad school together at nc state.  we actually sat right next to each other at the recruitment dinner before either of us had committed to a graduate school.

pictures taken during orientation from our Fall 07 grad student catalog

so, we had been through the trenches together from day one.  brad is the only reason grad school was fun most days. after a particularly long day of making something affectionately known as sodium barf (and breathing a little too much ether), i caught brad shaking it like a polaroid picture. he let me have an 80s hour on our pandora lab radio....some days we would listen to a movie in your mind....some days would be michael jackson/johnny cash/movie theme only days....anything to take your mind off  of being a student at 27 years old!!!   our silliness is best illustrated in this group picture (at my defense last year) where we are the only ones who know how to be really really ridiculously good looking...so many fun times and great memories!

blue steel

we stuck around the whole weekend so that we could introduce Will to all of our favorite people.  we hung out with the chandler/durrer crew as much as possible...scarfed down tacos together and, as usual, i got a little weepy because i miss them so much! robin taught my boy how to fist bump...pretty good right?  yeah, she's awesome like that.

we also crashed the brill household for dinner on saturday...we pretty much invited ourselves. Will loved being held by angie and katie.  thanks for letting us hang out with you dwight, angie, and katie...the food was incredible...WAY better than outback ;-)  we love you guys!

katie is a professional baby holder...she's way better than me! and she's almost a doctor.

Will got to meet other friends from The Point on sunday.  this is his "i'm ready to go to church" face...very serious, that boy.

it was so good to see everyone there....sort of like we had never left. i didn't get nearly enough pictures there....too much visiting to get done!  i finally got to meet pastor gabe and kari's sweet baby miriam...i miss you (and singing with you) kari!

by the end of the trip, Will was sick of his car seat...but he hung with us pretty well.  however, we may have ruined one of our go-to's for quieting a crying baby...midnight trips in the car don't seem to be working anymore! AH!