Three Posts in One!!

Okay...I've been really bad about not blogging lately, and I'm kind of getting tired of looking at the same post each time I open my blog! So, in an attempt to catch up, I am going to post three different events all in one! Beginning from the most recent happenings...

We've had so much fun this past weekend, from family and friends visiting, to attending a beautiful wedding, and then ending it with a celebration of Blaine's birthday. This was our last weekend of a very long string of busy weekends filled with guests coming to us and us being out of town. Of course, we wouldn't trade any of that for the world!

To begin our fun-filled weekend, Blaine's Uncle Jim and Aunt Louise visited Thursday (Nov. 7th) and Friday (Nov. 8th). Blaine enjoyed a perfect-weather day of golfing with his uncle on Friday while his aunt and I strolled around downtown Charleston to take in some sights and shopping. Our dear friends, Aaron and Jessie, arrived late Friday night and stayed through Monday. We all attended the wedding of our friends, Will and Alisa, but not before Blaine and Aaron made time to tailgate The Citadel game while Jessie and I pampered ourselves with pedicures! The wedding took place at The Citadel, followed by a beautiful reception at Magnolia Gardens. We had such a great time!

We celebrated Blaine's birthday on November 11th (yes, Veteran's Day), but extended the celebration into the 12th since we spent most of his actual birthday repacking our storage unit. We did make time to have dinner at Tsunami's and dessert on Market Street, but I insisted on making a meal at home, complete with a birthday cake (cupcakes), the following night. Happy Birthday, Blaine!!

We spent Halloween weekend in Nashville for the Airlift/Tanker Association convention. The convention takes place over four days at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The picture to the left is of just one of their atriums...the place is massive! I imagine this hotel has it's own zip code. The real reason we were invited to the convention for the second time is because Blaine was on the championship "Crud" team two years ago. If any of you don't know what this made up game is, let me just say that it involves a pool table, two pool balls, and lots of seriously dangerous person-to-person contact. Just ask Blaine about his injuries from this year's tournament! And some of these guys are serious about their crud!! Unfortunately, Team Charleston did not set the record and win for the third year in a row, but we all still had a blast!

And, of course, the Razorback Rumble must have face-time on our blog! This year was the third annual rumble, taking place the weekend of October 16th-18th. This rumble was special as we celebrated Will and Alisa's upcoming wedding (see first event within this post) with a wedding shower. They already had several showers, so we had quite a unique shower for them...an "Outer-Inner Space Shower". Guests showered them with gifts for their home, as well as for the outdoors. And the theme? Outer space, of course! We went all out with "outer space" foods, and I made a "moon cake with alien cupcakes"! We also had a darts tournament and a beer tasting event the same night. We had 14 different beers, brought by different people. The labels were covered and each beer was numbered. Contestants rated each beer on taste, texture, and smell. They also had to identify the type of beer. There was a tie for favorite beer between Mothership Wit and Tsingtao...and Blaine won the trophy for identifying 10 out of 14 beers correctly!

We tailgated the Clemson game on Saturday, although the weather was not very nice. It was so cold and rainy, but we made the best of it. You know the weather must have been bad if I didn't even bother to take out my camera to capture memories of this day! :) As always, there was a cornhole tournament that went so long we had to finish it at a friend's house later that night! We usually end the Razorback Rumble with an Oktoberfest celebration in downtown Walhalla, but decided against it this year due to the rain and mud. I think having homemade chicken noodle soup at Parker and Will's mom's house while the guys finished playing cornhole was a much better choice anyway! Thank you, Ellen, for the yummy food!!

Now you all know that we have been alive and well for the past several months! Stay tuned for more posts (I will do a better job of keeping up) throughout the holidays!!