I heart my college BFFs (+ Jess)!

We had a blast this weekend at our friend Sarah (who we all call Bitting)’s wedding!

Bitting was on my freshman floor in college, and so were most of the gorgeous ladies above We shared a house this weekend with some other unpictured friends (and significant others) – so fun! I heart weddings that also serve as big reunions.

Freshman year floor photo (ignore our hand motions… inside joke heh):

Sorority photo (we were in Kappa Alpha Theta):

Not only were all my college bffs there, but our entire DC crew was in attendance as well! Awesome. Here I am with a few of the girls Sadly we neglected getting a photo of the big group!

It was so fun being at a wedding where we knew… everyone. The wedding took place in Keuka Lake in upstate NY; the weather was AMAZING on Friday when we arrived, so we decided a little swimming was in order! I love lakes.

Romantic photo with Turner

There was even a raft to jump off of!!! Love.

The wedding location was gorgeous, too – here’s the view from the front porch of the mansion where they had the reception!

Amazing views of the lake, right?!

On Saturday before the wedding, a few of us did a 5 mile trail run and then we all hit up some wineries! It was a bit overcast but nice and cool – such a welcome change from the oppressive heat in NC and DC recently!

Check out the shirt my friend Hunter was sporting! Hehe.

Why, it’s a fANNEtastic t-shirt! Love

This morning, before heading out, all of us in the house made a big breakfast. My friend Kris made an amazing baked french toast (recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman):

And I made scrambled eggs with goat cheese, tomato, and spinach. Yum!

The other food highlight of the weekend (but not for breakfast, heh!) was amazing homemade peach ice cream courtesy of my friend Lu!

Yes, it’s in a pan… that’s how we roll

Whew – what a weekend! It went by so quickly and I was very sad to say goodbye to everyone this morning. I miss my girls already. We all live too far away

Matt and I spent today roaming the Rochester area – including a nice long walk along the beautiful Erie Canal! (thanks for the recommendation via Twitter, Jenna!)

We even got to see a real working lock in action! Very cool.

It’s now after midnight and we’re driving home from the Raleigh airport. To say I’m exhausted is a bit of an understatement… really wishing I didn’t have orientation round 2 at UNC tomorrow starting at 7:30 a.m. Then classes start Tuesday, gah.

Stay tuned for lots of fun dinner recipes this week – we are pretty sick of going out to eat (not to mention broke) after the past few weeks of crazy travel and moving.

Goodnight!

The wedding last night was AMAZING! I mean, check out their church:

SO epic. The Washington National Cathedral is insanely beautiful and SO big! I felt like I was back in Prague looking at the Prague Castle or something.

Love it. Here I am with my handsome blue-eyed date

Matt and I wandered around the outside of the cathedral before the ceremony exploring, and while we were on the side of the building near a back entrance, a nice car pulled up – and look who got out!

The bride! Isn’t Hilary beautiful? We were the first ones to see her – I loved the sneak peak!

The inside of the church was beautiful, too. Since it was in the National Cathedral, there were a ton of random tourists gawking during the wedding, hehe.

Congrats again Hilary and Brent! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness together

…

The beautiful weather continued into today!

This morning, I headed into Georgetown to meet up up with fellow healthy living blogger Theodora and her friend Tamsin for a running date

Aren’t Tamsin’s bright yellow sunglasses the most awesome things ever? I want.

Theodora lives in NYC and is town visiting friends this weekend. It was wonderful meeting her as we’ve been email/Twitter buddies for awhile now Her story is very inspiring – she’s lost 50 pounds over the past couple years!

She said she was tired of being unhappy and uncomfortable with herself, so she decided it was time to make a change. I am so impressed with how far she’s come – now she’s training for her first marathon!

Theodora had to run 10 miles today, so Tamsin ran the first 3 with us, I stayed on for another 3 (we ran the 6 miles in just under an hour), and then Theodora finished the last 4 on her own. It was a great run and fun chatting with both of them

I heart Georgetown.

And now I’m off to a friend’s for place dinner! I’m in charge of an appetizer – I’m thinking my Hummus Guacamole…

Enjoy the rest of your weekends, friends!

We could not have had better weather (or a more awesome location) last night for Matt’s company’s cocktail party!

Stunning. (The tents are where the party was!)

This is the arm of the famous D.C. sculpture “The Awakening”! It used to be at Hains Point, but in 2007 was relocated to National Harbor in MD (where we were last night, obviously):

I’d never seen it before – very cool!

The beautiful weather continued into today. I have a fun running date set up for tomorrow, so instead of running, I set out late this morning for a walk! This is my last weekend in D.C. since next weekend I’ll be in Chicago and then I move, so I felt it was only fair to pay the monuments one last visit (from afar)! I set out for a walk on the trail along the Virginia side of the Potomac River.

Enjoy the photo journey

My last stop on the walk was over the Key Bridge into Georgetown! Isn’t Georgetown University pretty? I think it looks kind of like Hogwarts

Once in Georgetown, I met the lovely miss Jacquie for lunch and frozen yogurt at Sweetgreen

I think Sweetgreen has, hands down, the very best (plain, tart) frozen yogurt in the entire world. A bold statement, yes, but one I am willing to stand by. They make it with Stonyfield yogurt!! So tart, refreshing, and delicious.

And now – time to get pretty! I’m off to a high school friend’s wedding. The ceremony is  at the stunning Washington National Cathedral, followed by a reception at the Ritz, so I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty epic. We couldn’t have better weather for it!

Ta-ta, friends!

Ah, wine. How we love thee!

(From top left: Jenn, Lisa, Krista, Janice, Megan, Beth, Turner, Sarah, Beth, Sarah (the bride!), me!)

We all had a blast yesterday celebrating my friend Sarah’s imminent departure from single-dom (she’s second from the right in the picture below)!

The party started bright and early at 11:30 a.m. at Chrysalis Vineyards.

It was a beautiful day to be out in the boonies of Virginia!

Our second stop was Swedenburg Estate Vineyard!

We enjoyed lunch with a beautiful view of the vineyards

And our last stop, and my favorite of the three wineries due to the friendly staff and cool vibe, was a newer winery called Quattro Goomba’s Winery.

Apparently quattro goomba means “four friends” in Italian Cute!

The place was really cool – it felt like we were hanging out in someone’s house! There was also a guy jamming on the guitar, which added to the cool atmosphere.

Plus, they had WINE SLUSHIES!!

Awesome

After our tasting, we bought a couple bottles of wine and some wine slushies and headed out to the picnic tables in the backyard to chill.

(Beth, please open your eyes next time. Thanks.)

Our view:

What a fun day! We continued the party later in the evening with dinner and drinks, although the drinks didn’t last too long since we were all pretty exhausted!

Happy (almost) wedding, Bitting! Can’t wait for the main event

One of my best college friends, Turner (remember her from my Austin adventures?) was here in town for the festivities (we missed you Kris!), and we decided to go for an impromptu run this morning!

The last time I tried to take Turner running on my favorite trail was during the aftermath of the DC snowpocalypse. Let’s just say we barely made it to the trail and after about 2 seconds of attempting to run in 500 feet of snow, we gave up. So she was pretty pumped to see the trail in all its glory today

It didn’t disappoint!

We ran a speedy 5.34 miles in 44:09, for an average pace of 8:16. Yay! I think my speed is slowly starting to come back! (I totally lost it at the end of my half marathon training)

Stats:

• Mile 1: 8:14
• Mile 2: 8:20
• Mile 3: 8:27
• Mile 4: 8:14
• Mile 5: 8:17
• 0.34 nubbin pace: 7:40 (woo!)

Disclaimer: we took a short (untimed) walking break at the turnaround point to stalk a random bridal photo shoot going on

Before Turner hit the road, I made us a quick lunch.

Hummus and veggie pita sandwiches (does anyone else go through hummus like it’s going out of style?!):

And salads! Mixed greens, feta, tomato, green beans:

Topped with a drizzle of hemp oil, fresh lemon juice, and cracked sea salt and pepper. Yum!

Hope you all had great weekends, too! I’m trying to finish up some more BioChem studying before I hit the hay. My final exam is Friday – it’s going to be a long week!