Trip to Fayetteville!

Mike, Jackson, Cooper, and I made a trip to Fayetteville, NC this past weekend to visit Corey and Claire Mullen. The Mullens are good friends from the dental school days. They only lived about a mile away from us during dental school and we spent several nights a week together, especially during American Idol season. :) After graduating, they moved back to their hometown Fayetteville. We've missed them dearly over the past two years but have been fortunate to get to visit each other on occasion.

Corey and Claire have a yellow lab Annie B, who is about the same age as Cooper. She and Cooper are BFF! I'm pretty sure that they miss each other even more than we humans do. They were inseparable all weekend! We always crated Cooper when we left the house and each time would find Annie's blanket by his crate when we returned. Isn't she sweet? Cooper did not want to leave their house - he stood on the porch and just looked at us with the saddest puppy eyes while Annie watched through the window. Finally, Mike carried him to the car. Shortly after leaving, Corey and Claire messaged to say that Annie threw up after Cooper left (a bunch of stuffing from one of the numerous toys they destroyed). Poor pups! We need to get them together more often.

Anyway, back to the trip. It was great catching up with the Mullens. After arriving Friday evening, we had a delicious dinner prepared by Claire. Saturday morning we took a nice stroll through the neighborhood and had breakfast. They took us to their country club for lunch that afternoon. We then got to visit with another dental school couple, Justin and Callie. It has been almost a year since we last saw them, so we were glad to get to catch up with them as well. We ended up ordering in Saturday evening so that Jacks could sleep. Sunday we went to brunch before watching Corey, Claire, and Justin play soccer. We then all got together to watch the Master's. Jackson did not travel very well on Friday night, so we thought it would be best to stick around until his bedtime that way he could sleep in the car. This worked out much better! We may have to travel this way from now one....

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Unfortunately, I did not take many but was able to steal a couple from Claire and Corey:

Jackson's first time behind the wheel! Don't worry, we made it safely. :)

Annie has never been around babies, I'd say she did pretty well for the first time! We only lost one hand...haha. She loved licking Jackson's fingers and toes and he thought it was soooo funny!

Here's Jacks with Aunt Claire! They got to spend a lot of quality time together. 

Oh you know, just reading our bedtime story. Annie appreciated it more than Jackson. 

Enjoying some time outdoors! 

Now one with mommy. Love my boy! 

This was taken right before we left. Wish I had a picture of them both as we were leaving. They are too sweet together. Cooper loved Annie's bed and she was very kind to share. Love these two! 

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend! We always have a blast when we get together with these two (three). We will be seeing them again soon at our friend Nate's wedding this summer and then again when Callie and Justin get married in the fall (and hopefully some in between as well!). Love you guys! 

We've also been getting to spend a lot of time with another Dental school friend Drew. He is in the process of relocating to Charlotte from DC and has been staying with us some over the last few weeks. He officially moves this weekend. Mike and I have really enjoyed getting to catch up with so many friends lately and are happy to have one moving closer to us! Cooper loves Drew a lot too and thinks that Drew is his visitor....I'm sure he will be sad when Drew is no longer staying here! haha Drew also has a dog, Finley. It will be nice to get the dogs together some now. Cooper has missed his doggy friends as much as we've missed our friends!