Red Wine Tasting Party and Ashton Turns 2

Last night, Mike and I were up late catching up on Rachel's blog and taking turns laughing at her hilarious stories and sarcasm. We cannot wait to get over there in next April and just recently finalized our dates for the trip: April 7th-17th. It will be my first time in Europe and when I mentioned this to one of my (apparently well-traveled) students recently, he spent about 15 minutes giving me recommendations on experience I needed to have while abroad.

I know next Spring will be here before we know it, because we're staying busy on the weekends and trying to savor some special moments at home. 

This past Saturday, we got together with one of my coworkers who happens to live a 10 minute walk from us. She invited us for a very grown-up wine tasting with plenty of food, games, and...a dog! The dog ended up laying on Mike's lap even though she "doesn't like guys that much" and now he really wants one. My coworker has promised to convince me of how much work dogs are, though. 

Sunday we ended up going home for this guy's birthday!

The big two-year-old in his fire truck pajamas (that we got him) and his new cleaning toys (since he always takes Courtney's real cleaning supplies).

Mike going through the Peanut character with Ashton. Obviously, he knows all of them.

Courtney did the BEST job organizing a Charlie-Brown themed party. I mean...there's just no way I would be able to put this much effort into anything....but Ashton really appreciated being surrounded by his favorite characters all day.

Ashton playing with his tennis racket that my mom and Rick got him.

I have no clue what's going on in this picture.

He's such a good sharer with his friend Kenley! (Also: no one really wanted to play with Franklin when Snoopy was around. I felt bad for him.)

This is where I took his hat because I was being the super hilarious auntie that I am. 

And then that time Ashton and I had too much fun trying to communicate through a glass door. 

Mom and dad and the Charlie Brown cake that Courtney made.

Mike had two coworkers who were promoted this past week at Robert E. Lee's house, which has a view of the Washington monument. Perks of being promoted in DC. All I can think of is "Soon, all this will be yours." Mike will get his turn in February.

Job Updates: 

Mike started his Command Services rotation which means (and this is the Kelsey-translation) that he does a lot of administrative legal things and one of those things reviewing rules about important things at his base. This can mean traffic and parking codes.

I've been loving my 'new job' that I'm officially about 4 months into. It's challenging, busy, and I learn new stuff every day, but I feel like it is the perfect blend of teaching, counseling, and strategic big picture thinking. Last week, I got to teach two freshman classes back-to-back about career development and this week I had a student I directly helped tell me that he got his dream internship with the American Red Cross. 

Veteran's Day is tomorrow and Mike gets the day off, although I don't. His plans are mostly to play around with finances, probably make waffles, and then go to a show in the evening.

Hope everyone is having a good week!