New Year's Eve was a riot. Chris and I put our Top Chef skills to the test by making a delicious dinner at home. Then, I put on my best blue jeans, straightened my hair, and called it a fancy night. The local bar was graced by our presence for at least 1.5 hours before the booze and thoughts of stretchy pants danced in our heads. At that point, there was no turning back. We rung in 2012 asleep on our couch. Judge as you may, but we did wake up at 4:30 am to re-enact the real thing. If Chris didn't think I was crazy before, I'm pretty sure that sealed the deal.
A couple days later, I flew to Utah for work. The jackpot (for those of you that don't know already) is that my favorite brother happens to live there! Of course the conference I was attending was super riveting, but I'll spare you those details. We'll skip right to when Chris and Brandon joined me for 5-star service we were super immature about (see below pics for samples). The trip was a blast... a little snow, lots of sibling love, and entertainment galore. We did remote control bowling, arcade gaming, farkel domination, and sipped on a few cocktails throughout. If you're not familiar with farkel, google it and get familiar. (Hm, I feel that I deserve an advertising payment from both farkel and google. I mean... at least 8 people are going to read this including me.) There is never a dull moment when you get the middle and youngest Gwaltney children together, that's for sure. If I told you more, it would be a cheap blogging version of the best reality TV show you've never seen. No one wants to see "Coffee with Coffee" go there.
We thought we should do a photo shoot in our robes, being sophisticated and all. You might think I'm drinking champagne... it's Coors Light.
What a view!
The weekend after UT, my dad came in town! He flew into SF, and we had a great day touring the city and Alcatraz. Unfortunately, it rained the ENTIRE time he was here. Looking back, I'm pretty sure it's the only full weekend it's rained since we've been here. It didn't stop us from having a good time though! In addition to site-seeing in SF, we hung out in LG, went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and watched a marathon of crime shows. It was sad to see him head back to TX, but I think he had a good time doing our work outs and eating cupcakes. I know those activities might seem like opposites, but I like to think of it as living a balanced lifestyle. Which is a great transition to the next weekend, because...
Mom comes in town! Wine, cheese, flat bread, beer, hummus, more flat bread... oh, you wanted to hear about more than just what we ate? Hmph. Ok. We hung in San Francisco and it was a beautifully perfect day. We did a trolley tour of the city, hung out at Pier 39 and walked through the Ferry Building. The next day in LG, we hiked at least 60 miles (right, mom????) or something close before going on a wine-tasting tour at the local wineries. That landed us in our stretchy pants having a dance recital until all hours of the night. Completely normal, right? Then on her last day, we did some birthday shoppng and built a stuffed Chris. Stuffed Chris pics included below, dancing pics intentionally not included.
We bought Chris shoes and clothes for his b-day and decided to give it to him early while Mom was there. This is how we wrapped it.
Thirsty anyone?
And now we're to the "next" weekend, which was last weekend. I really wanted to skip writing about it, but it felt somewhat dishonest. Let me sum it up for you: food, wine, sleep, football, work, and more food. What's missing you ask? Activity. Don't judge. It happens to the best of us.
While I honestly feel this is too much for one blog, what is a girl to do??? I have to get caught up before the best option is to give up! So... we'll press onward through the current weekend. Friday night we saw The Vow. Chris asked if I thought Channing Tatum was hot, and my response was less than suave. I'm pretty sure the blank deer-in-headlights-stare withdrew from the love account. I will say though, I feel a little set up. Did he not know the answer after the rounds of applause the audience handed out anytime he showed some skin during the movie?!?!! Booty trap. Pun intended. Saturday consisted of a Thai massage (nothing sketchy... I have proof below), frozen yogurt, 5 cent wine bonanza, Valentine's homemade dinner and movie night. What a weekend!
