After 2 weeks of not seeing each other, I was a puddle when Brian got here on Saturday. We just spent this weekend watching football, eating good food and relaxing. Just what I needed!

(Hey, do you know sign language? Brian is actually making a sweet sign in the picture above! :D)

Saturday we went to Carolina Brewery, stopped by Target, then went to Champps at Southpoint to watch football and I took part in my first ever beer tower. We tried watching the movie The Expendables when we got back to the house, but it was too terrible, haha.

Sunday we relaxed after having breakfast with my aunt. Before he left we stopped by our new spot, Ming Garden. We love the food, the fact that it is quiet and never crowded, and I love the dim romantic lighting.

As is always the case – I can’t wait until next weekend!

This post is a part of ‘Weekenders’ (our weekend adventures together until we are reunited hopefully in our first house), a temporary series on this blog. Find all ‘Weekenders’ posts here.

Although Brian and I didn’t get to see each other this past weekend it actually worked out fine, because he had a golf tournament and it was Erika’s birthday weekend for us girls. Yay! This is a bit of a dedication post to my Erika, so it’s going to be a little lengthy. Prepare yourself!

Erika has been my best friend since we were 11-years-old. That’s 14 years of epic friendship. Isn’t that awesome? I think so. We met in the 6th grade and she has been a blessing ever since. During my middle school years (and afterward), my home life was in pieces, but because of her I had a childhood. I consider her my angel, and a soul mate. We were pretty inseparable up until both our families moved away. I was so sad. I was taken to the panhandle area of Florida, and Erika’s family moved to Virginia. Considering how easy it is to lose touch with people, I am super proud of me and her. Throughout our high school years we wrote to each other (I’m talking actual letters here people, stamps and all – who does that anymore?), we called, emailed… Then came our college years. We didn’t write as much, but we still called, and thanks to the digital age, we emailed and kept in touch through online social networks.

Even though we’ve been apart all these years, I still have fond memories of us throughout all of them, just as I have great memories of us when we were still goofing around in middle school, talking about our secret crushes using code names. In high school we talked about our first serious relationships, and as we moved into college we encountered our first heartbreaks. I remember I called her once when she was at a hotel with her family. I was upset about something, but she stepped into the hallway and talked with me until I was okay. I don’t know too many people in my life now who will drop everything to be by my side even when they’re hundreds of miles away. That’s just who my girl is.

After she graduated college she wrote me a long letter, just like the old days, and then in 2010 we were reunited for the first time since middle school. It was completely unplanned which made it even crazier. My Aunt and I were taking a trip to Washington D.C., and she asked me, “Doesn’t your friend Erika live near here?” When I realized what this meant, I texted Erika to make sure, and yes! Erika was only 45 minutes away. When I met her outside of our hotel, it was so cheesy and funny, because as soon as I saw her walking up, I started running, so she started running, and as soon as I hugged her I started crying, which was a little embarrassing, haha.

So when I got engaged 2 years later I, of course, asked her to be my Maid of Honor.

Now that we’re older, we actually have the means to be in each other’s lives more. In high school we just didn’t have the freedom, transportation or the money, and in college we just didn’t have the money or the time… Things like that can really make or break a friendship, but we lasted through all of it. As Erika said to me after this weekend, “The hardest part is over!” And as one of her friends said to her recently, “It’s so cool how you guys have kept in touch like this for so long. You guys will be able to be like this forever.”

Now on to the festivities of this past weekend!

Saturday I was packing and getting ready all the way up until the time Ashley arrived. We hopped in the car, and 3 and a half hours later, we arrived at Erika’s in VA around 8:30 p.m. We wanted to get to her friends’ house to pregame around 9 p.m. so I was like a tornado getting ready, but Ashley and I were still able to get some food in before we headed out.

Since we were already behind schedule when we got to her friend’s house we had to make our pregaming “fast and furious.”

We took cabs to a club called Eden in D.C., and just before we headed inside I made sure I found our Jenna. (Leaving her after that fun night was awful. She started crying which made me start to cry, but we all eventually got it together, haha. I miss her very much all the time.)

It was such an amazingly fun weekend.

Other highlights: Spanish mass on Sunday, shopping at Tysons, Korean BBQ (OMGAMAZEBALLS), Korean dessert (BING SOO!), and kayaking! (Kayaking was especially hilarious, because me, Erika, and her Little, Katie, were just rowing our little hearts out while going nowhere thanks to the intense wind, hahaha.)

This post is a part of ‘Weekenders’, a temporary series on this blog. Find all ‘Weekenders’ posts here.