A trip to visit Lindsey!

Most of you either know Lindsey or know about Lindsey (or ARE Lindsey, because Lindsey reads this too! Hi Lindsey!), but if you don't: She and I have been best friends since 6th Grade, and she lives in Norfolk, Virginia... which is now a 6 hour drive from where I live.  It's a rough drive because I have to deal with Philly traffic, Baltimore traffic, AND Washington DC traffic on my trip there and back... But it's so worth it to get to spend some time with Lindsey!

I drove down very early on Saturday morning (Friday evening traffic in those cities could possibly double that 6 hour drive... so it's better to just wake up super early on Saturday), and I brought my very belated birthday present for Lindsey with me!  Lindsey's birthday is at the end of February, and in late January or early February we decided that we were going to make gifts for each other from now on, rather than buy gifts.  So, my first thought was, "What do I know how to do?", and then it hit me that I know how to cross-stitch, and it's been many many years since I've cross-stitched.  So I started browsing online and I found a cute bird project that I thought Lindsey would like, because she loves birds and always has an abundance of birds in her backyard, and she knows what types all of them are which always impresses me. It was a big project, but I thought I could finish it in a month if I worked really hard, or MAYBE two months worse case scenario... so it might be a tiny bit late. Well... I am an idiot.  It had apparently been so long since I'd done cross-stitching that I'd forgotten how long it takes!  I was 8 months late with her birthday present, and I think I spent more time on this project than I spent on my thesis in grad school.  It was a labor of love though!  I just felt terrible that it was so late. Here are some pictures of it:

The weekend at Lindsey's house was tons of fun, and it was so great to catch up with her!  It had been way too long since my last visit (we figured out it's been a whole year!!).  Lindsey and her family and I all went to a pumpkin patch, and it was awesome! We went for a hayride and there were lots of activities for the kiddos, and we all picked out pumpkins!  I picked out one for me and one for McGee, and you'll get to see more detailed pictures of those in another post (after I FINALLY decorate for Halloween... work has been way too hectic).  We had an awesome day, and that night Lindsey and I did lots of catching up and had one of our Yahtzee marathons.  It was such a fun weekend, and I was so sad to leave on Sunday.  Our time together went way too quickly!  Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend!

Lindsey and Reagan

Lindsey's husband (Mike) trying to help Colby navigate the rope net

Reagan had to have a turn on the rope net too! 

Colby and Reagan as cute little bugs!

There were tons of cute animals at the pumpkin patch!  My favorite were the pigs.

Colby and Lindsey on the hayride.  It was very windy!  

Mike and Reagan on the hayride.

Lindsey and her pumpkin!  

Our collection of pumpkins!  The two for McGee and I are in there too.

Here's me and Lindsey!!  Best friends for about 20 years!