Long Weekend in Photos

A four day weekend sure can make you feel like a refreshed human being. After the weekend it felt like I'd been on vacation for a week, and I felt totally relaxed and charged up when I got back to work this morning.

Early Thursday morning we left for High Point State Park for a camping trip with my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Justyn. We ate campfire food, we relaxed, we swam, we played games, we fell asleep to the sounds of crickets and bullfrogs, we enjoyed the wildlife and the great outdoors...pretty much all the things you should do when you're camping. Amanda and I grew up camping and we love it. There's nothing quite like being outside in the woods for a couple of days, away from technology and TV and the distractions of life, to set your mind right.

We had originally planned to stay at the campground until Sunday, but last week we decided to cut the trip a bit short for a few reasons. We're going through a crazy heat wave and it was about 94 degrees out (if you've ever slept in a tent, you know 94 degrees is not the optimal temperature, yikes), our friends Heather and Kevin were having a BBQ pool party at their house on Saturday, and I figured 2 nights was probably long enough for Riker's first time camping. I was right. We had a great time, but by the time we left on Saturday we were all ready for a nice real shower, a pool and some AC.

To the BBQ we went!

The party was such a fun time with friends and I was really glad we went.

We ended the weekend with bagels & lox and more pool time Sunday at Matt's parents' house. It's been ages since I've had a real bagel, and I enjoyed every last bite.

Whew, now that's a lot of pics for one blog post. I just got home from work after a long day, so I'm grabbing a protein shake for dinner and curling up on the couch for last night's Next Food Network Star. Hope your week is off to a good start!