Christmas Craziness!!!

The chaos of all the kids opening presents!!!

The Rileys and the Hakes

My new cowboy boots Philip gave me! I love them!!

Doesn't look like there was much of a recession at my parents house:)

Kevin, me, Stephen and Kati- Cousins at Jacksons!!!

Philip and I had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year! It was a whirlwind weekend but so much fun!!!

Wednesday- Headed to mom and dad's house in Eufuala.

Thursday- Loaded up and headed to Birmingham where we met Bob & JoAnne at my cousin's house for the annual Tubbs Family Christmas. Words cannot even describe the chaos that surrounds this event but that is what makes it so fun!!

Friday (AKA MY BIRTHDAY!!!)- Opened up presents (it took us almost 3 hours!) and relaxed all day. Christmas night dad cooked us steaks and we celebrated my birthday:)

Saturday- We packed up and headed back to Birmingham to spend the night and see some friends. Philip got us a great rate at the aLoft in Homewood so we left little Charlie in Eufaula and away we went! Saturday night we ate at Jackson's for my Cousin Birthday Celebration. This is about the 6th year I have done this with some of my cousins and I love it!!!

Sunday- Went for a run through Homewood and it made us sad:( Met sweet little Ava! Ate lunch at Rojo. Went back to Tony & Britney's to chill for a minute. Ate dinner at Flip Burger for our friend Nick's birthday. Finally made it back to Opelika around 11pm!!! PHEW!

It was a blast and I'm bummed that it's over!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Toodles!

Babies! Babies!

We had two friends have babies yesterday and another that will be coming any day!! Congratulations to Lauren & Allen on baby Ava Elaine!!! So far there's only one pic on Facebook but I'm hoping they'll post some more soon!

Congrats to Paige & Paul!! Their little Porter was also born yesterday!!

And little prayers going out to the Meyers this week! Baby Meyers #2 is due any day!!! My vote is for Christmas Day of course!!! :)

He did it!

I am so proud of this little fella!!! Saturday he ran (and finished!!) the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville. HOORAY!!! It was really cold and windy and his little legs were so red! He said it was the most challenging thing he's ever done but he's ready to train for another one!!! I think we (Me, Lyndsay, Mary & Philip) are going to think about running Chicago Marathon in October. Maybe...

'Twas Twenty Nights Before Christmas...

The girls in their pj's!

Lyndsay & me in our onesies :)

The Snuggie Squad. Brett & Audra were so excited about their blue & pink snuggies!!

"Dirty Santa"- an Iain Stewart original. This was one of the most popular gifts!!

All the boys. It was impossible to get them all looking at the camera at once!

The "Ralphies"- Philip wouldn't wear the bunny suit so I said I would. I think it would have been funnier if he had done it. Instead he opted for some "You'll shoot your eye out!" pj's:)

We had a 'Twas the Night Before Christmas party at our house on the 5th. Everyone had to wear pj's and we played Dirty Santa. Each couple brought a good gift and a "re-gift" and it turned out to be the best game of Dirty Santa I've played!!! The two biggest hits were a two-pack of Snuggies and an original "Dirty Santa" print from our friend Iain. Some of the not-so-popular gifts were a vegan cookbook and a can of Spotted Dick :o) Everyone had a great time and said getting to wear pj's to a party was awesome! Dad wrote a cute poem that I put on the invitation.

‘Twas twenty nights before Christmas
and down at the tracks,
Mer & Phil’s is the place
for holiday snacks

Everyone in their Jammies
is set for the night,
and the exchanging of gifts
makes everything right

Listed below
is all the specifics,
come ready for fun
it will be terrific

Gobble Gobble!!!

Even Charlie had a great time. He looooves running (& digging) in the sand!

A better place than this to spend Thanksgiving...I don't think so!

Impressing Philip with my mad golf skills

Ellen and I at La Cocina

Me, Charlie and Philip enjoying the beautiful sunset

Our whole group at the Red Bar:)

Brian, Philip and me taking a pre-Thanksgiving dinner walk on the beach

Round 2 of the Riley/Hake Thanksgiving at the beach was a hit!!! This year we stayed the entire week- Sunday to Sunday- and had a blast!!! The weather was great and we just relaxed the whole week. I thought we would get a little bored being there for a week when it's not warm enough to lie out but I was WRONG!!! Here's what all we did:

1) Played golf with mom and dad

2) Took some spin classes at Balance Health Studio

3) Read The Help and Bitter is the New Black. They were both great books. If you haven't read The Help, you need to!!! Philip read The Road and said it was awesome.

4) Shopped! (but not on Friday)

5) Watched the Iron Bowl

6) Ate at RED BAR!!!!!

7) Rode our bikes a lot :)

8) Spent some time on the beach

9) Polished up on my Wii skills

It was glorious and we can't wait to do it again next year!!! Thanks moms and dads for taking us!!!!

Toodles!

"Art"

The new piece of "art" in the study...

Rivalry Weekend!

It's rivalry weekend at the Hakes!!! This year should (hopefully) make for an interesting Auburn/Georgia game since both teams seem to be hit or miss from week to week. Philip's got his red pants ready! He's been itching to pull them out of the back of the closet for a year now!

To get ready for the upcoming game, I think I'll decorate my Christmas tree tonight!! :) Everything else is already up so I might as well go ahead and decorate the tree!

Toodles!

and War Damn Eagle!!!

Hiatus...

I guess I took a little blogging hiatius. We've been pretty busy since our weekend at the beach with the UGA boys. I won't go it to detail because most of it is not that interesting...
- On the Tracks 2 Fridays ago. So much fun, as usual!!!
- Watched Auburn lose twice:( At least this past weekend we got to see it from the scholarship seats!
- Celebrated some birthdays
- Helped mom decorate 2 Christmas trees!
- Philip has been running his little heart out! He's training for the Huntsville Marathon in December and doing great so far. Tomorrow he's got to run 18 miles, yikes!!
- Signed up for the Seaside Half Marathon in March. Going to run 3 half marathons in 3 months. Mercedes in Feburary, Seaside in March and Country Music in April!
So that pretty much catches you up on what we've been doing!

Tonight I'm off to Birmingham with Merry-D and Lyndsay to see Tim Brantley at Workplay. I can hardly wait!!! We're staying at the new aLoft hotel in downtown Homewood and eating at, you guessed it, ROJO!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow we're going to shop around Bham before we come back. Then Philip leaves Sunday morning for a conference in New Orleans. I think he's excited but a little bummed b/c he's going by himself. He's definitely glad he doesn't have to do a presentation this time!! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Toodles!!

The Boyz Get Together

Scott & Marianne at the Old Florida Fish House. Baby Boy Pfitzer will be here in December!!!
Carson, Davis (19 mos), Justin, Caroline (4 mos), Philip & Scott
Pretty much sums up what we did all weekend:)
Philip and Davis in their twinkie shirts!
Sweet baby Caroline
Davis looking cool in Uncle Philip's shades

We had a WONDERFUL weekend on 30-A with the Georgia Boyz!! This trip was a little different than our last reunion as we've added 2 and another one will be here in December! We didn't really do too much, which is probably what made it such a great trip! Philip and I rode our bikes down to Seaside Saturday morning and we all spent a lot of time on the beach.

As for the new job, it's going great! So far I am loving it, especially the whole walking to work bit:)

Toodles!

This Week: New Job and a Beach Reunion!

I start a new job tomorrow! It's very strange to me that I won't be driving to Auburn and working with all my ladies at the Chamber/Tourism Bureau!!! Now, my commute will be about 4 minutes on foot, 2 minutes if I ride my bicycle:) That part I am really excited about!!

I'll be working for a law firm, Samford & Denson. They have been in Opelika for close to 100 years! The lawyer I will mainly be working for is on the Board at the Chamber so I have known him for a while now. He's a super nice guy, born & raised in Auburn.

I honestly can't say exaclty what it is I'll be doing b/c I honestly don't really know:) Lawyer stuff, I guess:) But I'm excited about a new challenge and learning about something that is really foreign to me.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Philip's parents came down with Grandpa Texas and we tailgated and went to the game yesterday. Crazy weather again this weekend and we had to hunker down in the minivan for about 30 min. But the rain came a lot earlier in the day so by game time, it was just drizzling a bit.

We stayed until almost half time then headed home to check on Grandpa Texas and get in some dry clothes!

Today has been nice and relaxing! A pedi and sushi!!

I'm looking forward to the new job and our Britton Ave beach weekend!!! Thursday right after work we're heading down to Water Sound with Philip's roomies from UGA. Should be a great weekend!

Toodles!!

More Asheville Pics

Yay!!! We're finished!!!
Group pic at our cottage.
Dinner at Zambra. It was sooo good:)
The Runners. We are wondering where the beer is???
This was after we had driven the course on Friday. These faces are for real, we were freaked out!!!

While I was dodging rain....

The hubs was here!
Doing a lot of this!!!
With these 2 fellas!

Hopefully he'll have the energy tonight to do a little post about his trip!!

War Eagle!!

Jenn's first visit to The Plains in a long, long time!!!
Hiro & Lyndsay stopped by for a bit!
Britney, Tony & me

Well it was quite an eventful weekend!!! Here's what happened:
1) Wingate came to visit!!!! We had so much fun! Dinner at Cafe 123 Friday night, tailgating Saturday, wimped out on the game, watched it at my cousins apartment and at Hiro & Lyndsays, coffee shop
2) Tony & Britney came to visit!!!! They came down Saturday for the game and spent the night. They were not wimps like me and Jenn and actually stuck it out for the whole game. True fans:)
3) Volree and Nick became parents!!!! Baby Cooper was born on Saturday afternoon right before the Auburn game started. I'm so excited for them and hope to meet him soon!
4) Philip went to Colorado with Scott and Matt for a fishing/camping expedition. I still haven't laid eyes on the boy but from our limited phone conversations it sounds like he had a great time!!! He slept for a few (like 2) hours in Birmingham then got up at 4:30am this morning and headed straight to the hospital:( He says he has great pics so maybe once he's caught up on his sleep I can talk him in to posting about it.
5) Yesterday I did nothing and it was glorious!!!! I watched the entire first season of Sex & the City. A fun lazy Sunday:) Lynz and Hiro came over with some leftovers and watched some SATC with me. Hiro was thrilled!

I'm hoping to have an uneventful week this week since last week ended up being super busy!!

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Toodles!

Asheville

Sunday Mountain Bike
At the start, ready to go!!!
Being silly in our race t's the night before.
Victor getting comfy in the mini van!
Heading to Asheville in the mini van! Hooray!!

Asheville was great! We had so much fun! The house we rented was about 5 minutes away from downtown and so cute! We had a hot tub and fireplace that we used all weekend! The best thing was being able to keep the windows open the whole time we were there. That just isn't possible in Alabama in September!

We headed up Thursday afternoon and were so excited when we finally got there about 10pm.

Friday, the boys went mountain biking and the girls shopped downtown all day. We also drove the race course so we'd know what was in store. Let's just say we were all questioning our decision to run this race. The hills looked awful!! That night, we cooked a good meal at our house and relaxed before our big race!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed downtown to the race. The weather was perfect! In the 60's and cloudy, just the way I like it:) The race was the hardest I've ever done but it wasn't as bad as we thought after driving it the day before. Lyndsay and Mary had a great first half marathon!!! They both crossed the finish line with a smile on their face:)

After the race, we hung around downtown and chilled at the Beir Garden for some post race libations. Then we headed back to the house to relax our legs in the hot tub and take naps!

Saturday night we went to a tappas restaurant called Zambra. It was so good!!! We had big aspirations of painting the town but dinner pretty much did us in and we headed home and hit the sack!

Sunday us girls did a little more shopping in Biltmore Village and the boys did one last mountain bike ride. I think they were both worn out because when we got back to pick them up, they were both exhausted and beaten up!

We finally made it home about 8pm Sunday night. It really was a great weekend with great friends!

Toodles!

The Time Has Arrived!

Well, the time has arrived! We leave today for Asheville!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!! I'm really nervous about the race but am looking forward to a lovely weekend and some cooler temperatures!

Hopefully I'll have some fun pics to post when we get back!

Lots of my peeps are coming down this weekend for the game and I'm sad we won't get to see each other. I think we'll have about 6 people at our house fighting for a bed on Saturday night:)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Toodles!

I'm Trying...

To get in the football spirit. Even got a "Join the Chizik Republik" t-shirt. Went downtown again today for lunch. But it's still not working...

PS- Still missing Tubs:( Wonder if he'll come to any of the football games? Maybe he's been invited to sit in Lowder's box....HA! HA!

Football...already??

College Football starts this weekend. I really can't believe it! How did it get here so fast??? I'm having a hard time getting excited this year. I think I still miss Tubbie:(

WDE!!

Another relaxing weekend coming up!

I'm hoping to have another relaxing weekend like we did last weekend! It will be the last one for a while between football, half marathons, beach trips, weddings, etc. Tonight we're going to try out Piccolo, the new tappas lounge at the Hotel, then get some dinner. Tomorrow morning I've got to run 9 miles then I have NOTHING to do the rest of the day. Should be glorious:)

Tomorrow night I'm looking forward to seeing Tim Brantley at The Bar! Mary P and Lyndsay have a little crush on this guy so I'm excited to see him play! I think we're going to do a little girls dinner first:)

I'm kinda hoping it will rain on Sunday. Not for any other reason than it might force me to hang around the house and rest!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Toodles!

Happy to Report...

That we had a relaxing weekend at home!! Not really much to blog about b/c we didn't really do much, and it was fabulous! Dinner and a drink at the bar Friday night, asleep by 10. Saturday morning 12 mile run, haircut, lunch at Amsterdam, nap, dinner at Fukai Manor, asleep by 11. Sunday morning house cleaning bonanza, coffee shop, Target, laundry, nap, dinner at Durango, True Blood. Throw in some biking for Philip and there you have it! A lovely weekend in Opelika. Add in the amazing weather we had yesterday and it was close to perfect. As soon as we woke up yesterday morning, Philip had the AC turned off and all our windows open. I loved it!!

Toodles!

Shoot the Hooch!

We had a great time in Atlanta visiting the Bradford's this weekend! Philip and I got up early Friday morning and did our long run (11 miles!) so we wouldn't have to do it over the weekend. After work, we hit the road to the ATL!

Friday night we ate at JCT Kitchen. It was sooo good!!! After dinner, we went to the bar upstairs and had a drink and listened to the live music. The restaurant is in a neat, warehouse district where a lot of old factories & buildings are being renovated as stores, restaurants, lofts, etc.

Saturday morning, we got up and ran around getting supplies for our Shoot the Hooch adventure! I had never been tubing before and it was a blast! We tried to buy our own floats to use but everywhere was sold out so we had to rent some:( But Beth used her mad negotiating skillz and got us a free tube for our cooler:) It took about 3 hours from start to finish. We stopped at one point and "beached" our tubes to eat our lunch. It was quite a scene. After our river adventure, we were all pretty wiped so we just went back to their house and lounged around for the rest of the evening. Tyler used his grill skillz and cooked us some amazing sausage and a pork tenderloin. It was so yummy!!

Sunday morning we ate a late breakfast at West Egg, ran to Lenox then headed down to Eufaula to pick up Charlie and have dinner with my parents.

We always have such a great time with Beth & Tyler and this weekend was no different!!! Hopefully we'll get to see them soon at the first Auburn game!

Toodles!

My Lame Attempt to Party Like It's 1999:)

The Boyzz Spouses- Leah, Katie and Forrest
Me and Kristin- her class reunion was Saturday night too!
My most favorite boy ever!! Me & David
At our pre-reunion gathering at Dram
Our pre-pre reunion drink at Ross Bridge

What a crazy weekend!!! Friday night, we went to Panera for dinner and to see Funny People with Lynz, Hiro and Mary. It was a pretty good movie. Not what I expected and really long! But good, none the less.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for another 10 mile run. Damn, I'm starting to get tired of those! Then we hopped in the car and headed to Birmingham.

First stop in Birmingham was, drum roll please, Rojo! We met up with Elmer, Tony, Britney, Scott & Marianne(who just found out they're having a boy!!) for lunch and had a blast. Then I went with Britney to check out our bridesmaid's dresses for the wedding. They are so cute!!! And chocolate brown, my fav!!

Then we headed over to Ross Bridge to check in. We tried to lie by the pool but it started raining so we opted for a daquiri on our balcony followed by a nap!

Saturday night was my 10 year reunion! We met the girls & hubbies at Dram for a pre-reunion drink then we headed over to Workplay for the reunion. It was a blast! There was a good number of people there so it was a little hard to speak to everyone! I'm so glad we went!

Sunday morning treated ourselves to a massage then lounged by the pool! It was a little anniversary present to each other and it was great!!!

We went up to the Fukai's for dinner and True Blood but I didn't make it to TB. I was so tired that we left before the show and I was alseep by 8:30! It was great:)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Toodles!