The Whitney

What else do you do with your sister on a random Tuesday in New York when you're waiting for Beyonce? Go look at modern art in the Lower East Side of course.

Check this guy out. He's a giant candle!

Life is like a candle...fleeting-ness of life...ephemeralality...and other stuff like that...

Tradition!

Carrie and I have this thing that we do now where we make a crazy trek through hell and high-water to see Beyonce. We've done it twice now and though it's crazy, it is also awesome.

Ivy Park Subway Selfie

20,000 feet in the air

All hail Queen Bey!

I'm Coming For You, Bey

The Charlotte Observer headline read "Beyonce turns storm-interrupted show into something beautiful".
I'm sure she did, Charlotte Observer, I'm sure she did. #lemonade #slay

If you don't know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Beyonce, then you don't truly know me. It was all I could do to not say "F-it" to our newly established budget and purchase a last minute ticket to the show in Raleigh last night. Instead, I will have to wait until June 7th, when I got to New York and see her with my trinity sisters, which will be well worth the wait. Carrie, Bekah, and I will be in Formation for damn sure,

Precious Moments

Great Minds Think Alike...and so do theirs

It's a special thing when your best sister-friends can get along with your man and have a great conversation no problem,

It's even better when the sister-friend and the hubby can share a beer and laugh at how crazy they both are and make fun of the other sister-friend/wifey for being the polar opposite to their anxiety.

Girls on the Run...

...So much fun!

This past weekend was the Girls on the Run 5k. 2500 girls from around the Triangle participated in the 5k event. Some of them, like my team, ran their first 5K ever!

Gathering in the grass before the race

My lil' running buddy

Fayetteville Street Team

Awesome husband who came out to support by running with a girl

Awesome sister who came out to support by running with a girl

Linda's

Or "the place where we used to get drunk on cheap beer in college and then again in grad school".

It's still very much the same.

It us us who are different because now we drink cheap wine instead of cheap beer and get called "mam".

We're so mature.

And this guy comes along:

Love them.

Nieces and Nephews

I am an only child, which means I have to make my own sisters or inherit cool sister-in-laws from my hubby (hi, Jessica!). Of my grow your own sisters, only Alex has given me nieces and nephews thus far. Despite the fact that one of them is a caterpillar larva, one is a tiny, hellacious minion, and the other is a tweener, they're pretty cool and I love them.

This one is Phoebe, she already likes to be read to by her Auntie Blaine, which is a plus. She also likes to say "No!" to just about everything else. I think I know now why they call it the terrible twos.

This is Max. He's a chill little guy. He's either doing this, eating, or sleeping.

 Max has cute smiles, and acid reflux.

And this is Charlotte, my original niece, who is now oh-my-god-how-can-it-be-we-are-so-old 11. Every time I see Charlotte, it's like she gets cooler and cooler. I can't wait till she's able to drink wine and laugh with me...legally, of course.

When it comes to Charlotte, I got things on lockdown. We can pretty much have intelligent conversations, play games, and be silly. But with the other two, it's a little trickier. They pretty much just sit there and stare or scream "No!" at you.  At this point, I think the only thing they are good for is taking selfies:

More fun from New Years

If you've been greatly anticipating my annual New Years reflection/looking ahead post, have no fear, it is coming.

But for now, more picture from when good friends come play for the new year.

We made a giant New Year's Day feast consisting of:

Fried chicken for health

Mac and cheese for good luck

Sautéed kale for wealth

Biscuits for happiness

And cobbler for kindness (yes, I realize that these are not the traditional New Year's Day foods, but it's what we wanted to make, so there)

We then drove an hour and a half to find snow and waterfalls:

It was a great couple of days. Yay for friends!

New Years Eve in the bag

I notoriously do not have "good" or "great" New Years Eves. Most often they are nights filled with questions of "what are we doing?", "Is it cool enough?" "Who's going to be there?", "When is it going to be midnight?", and "When can we go home and go to bed?"

This year was quite different and I must say I was due for a great New Years.

Bekah and her man-friend, Morrison (or James?) came up to Oregon and we all celebrated with hiking, tiny beers, tacos, arcade games, whiskey by the fire, Cranium, and some good laughs. I'm hoping last night was a foreshadowing of all the laughter to come in 2015. Quite a happy (and great) New Years indeed!

Bekah and her man friend:

Just kidding, this is Bekah and her man friend:

Bekah takes pictures of her tiny beers while I do:

Glasses:

Beyonce and Jay Z On the Run Tour

Live, it was what Carrie and I referred to as "the Beyonce-pocolypse". A confoctation of a cluster-f*ck involving thousands of people, planes, trains, cabs, 40$ tank tops, and several near death experiences.  As a tiny ant packed into the top level of a 60,000 seat stadium, and all I got to see was this:

What? I don't know. Exactly.

So, you can understand why I would be more than excited that the full concert is airing on HBO tomorrow night. Seriously, ya'll. I can not wait to see:

This!

This too

And this

And definitely this!

Next time, save your money on concert tickets and use it to pay for your HBO subscription with DVR. Lesson learned.

She came, she saw, she conquered

Bekah "gimme a doughnut" Brunstetter

"Is your rose sweet?"

Oregon sisters

Tasting wine

Swirl, sniff, sip

Just running a little 10k

Bekah was here this weekend and we had quite the blast. I do believe the themes this weekend were wellness and adulthood as we spent much of our time doing healthy and grown up things like running, hiking, doing yoga, and chatting before very reasonable bedtimes.

We did manage however to drink a little too much wine and acquire a small amount of sunburn, proving to ourselves that we still "got it".