Happy 24th Birthday, Chelsea!!!

This past Saturday was my best friend Chelsea's 24th birthday. Since I'm *ahem* within driving distance from her now (yay!), I packed up little Vespa and we headed up to Macon where Chelsea lives for the weekend.

Firstly, it was sooooooo great to just pop up and spend the weekend with her and Andrew! Because Carlton is in Kansas City on business (since Tuesday the 7th until Thursday the 16th), I've been very lonely here in the apartment by myself with little Puppa. So it was an absolute given that I celebrated Chelsea's birthday weekend with her!

On Friday around 11:30 I stopped at the Moultrie farmer's market to pick up some local peaches before heading out of town to Macon... Chelsea requested a peach cobbler as her birthday present. I was at Chelsea's house by 1:30, just in time for Vespa to meet Chelsea's now-40-pound pups before we grabbed a couple appetizers at Wild Wing to hold us over until dinner. After a little fender bender drama for Andrew on his way home from work (thankfully, everyone was a-okay), we met back up with him at their house before heading out to their favorite pizza place, Ingleside, for pizza and beer with their friends Larry and Morgan Carpenter. I didn't get any pictures of us at the pizza place because the company was so great, but let me tell you: if you're ever in Macon for the afternoon, shopping or visiting, this place is a MUST-EAT pizzaria!

On Saturday (Chelsea's actualy birthday), Chelsea and I were very, very, verrrrrrrrrrrrry lazy. Andrew left us to go fishing for a while. Then we decided to get our booties off the sofa and we headed to get some birthday manicures and pedicures! This was SUCH a great treat for me, because I haven't had a manicure--with all the pottery and glaze I had been around at work--since Greg and Jillian's wedding in October! I am embarrassed to admit this, but I hadn't had a pedicure since a couple days before I got married... that's almost 2 whole years ago! And, let me tell you, both my retail-walking feet and pottery-making hands really needed the extra love and care that day!

Chelsea's got her pants rolled up, her paint colors picked out, and now she's just waiting in anticipation for the best footrub this side of Macon. The massage chairs we sat in were great!

Here are our freshly-manicured hands atop Chelsea's literature of choice... gossip about that glittering vampire boy!

Chelsea's request for a "simple flower nail art design" turned into a Mardi Gras party on her big toes! Hahahahahaha!!!

After the manicures and pedicures, we headed back to Chelsea's house and played with Vespa for a couple hours before dinnertime. The night started off with an amazing dinner at the local Japanese steakhouse. I enjoyed a juicy filet and chicken with veggies and way too much fried rice. It was all delicious! After dinner, we all headed to Chelsea's next requested stop, The Tic Toc Room in downtown Macon. I ordered one of my most favorite mixed drinks, an amaretto sour. Chelsea and Morgan tried a couple different martinis each, and the boys stuck to beer or Crown Royal on the rocks. The drinks were really reasonably priced for such a swanky place. My ticket for two Disaronno Sours was only $10! And the $8 martinis for Chelsea and Morgan were served half-in-the-martini-glass and half-on-a-glass-of-ice to ensure your entire drink stayed ice cold from start to finish.

Here is the whole group! From left to right: Andrew (Chelsea's hub), Justin (a friend of ours going all the way back to grade school whose 7-months-pregnant wife was out of town on business), Larry and Morgan (Chelsea and Andrew's college friends), Chelsea (the birthday girl!), and me.

A closeup, thanks to Andrew, of the three girls: Morgan, Chelsea, and me.

After dinner and drinks, we all headed back over to Chelsea and Andrew's house. The boys stayed up really, really late (Andrew thinks it was about 4 or 5 am when he finally got to bed!) while the girls hung out mostly inside, away from the nasty nighttime spiders and noisy boy music. On our way back from drinks, we stopped by Morgan and Larry's house to pick up their little man Ramsey. He's just a couple pounds bigger than little 6 pound Vespa, so she wasn't afraid of him at all like she was of Chelsea's "big kids" playing tag team behind her back! Vespa and Ramsey hit it off instantly, and became boyfriend and girlfriend after just about 5 minutes of playing tag!

Chelsea couldn't resist taking this video of the playful pair of pups. This time around, Vespa was hiding while little Ramsey man bounced and chased her. So cute! Morgan was pretty much histerical with laughter, and I was happy to have our pups playing like civil little pups should. They were both very well behaved!

Here is Vespa begging sleepy little Ramsey man to jump off the sofa and play some more. "But Vespa, it's, like, 1 o'clooooooooooooooock."

The two really got going when Kitty-Bug came downstairs and joined in by swatting at them. Look at those fuzzy blurs of puppy fun!

After a little more pup romping around, Morgan and Larry called it a night and took Ramsey home for some sleep. Chelsea and I stayed up until about 2:00 or 2:30 am and then headed to bed while Andrew and Justin stayed up until the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday morning came and went. Vespa and I woke up at about 8:30am and walked around outside, and then hung out in bed playing "blanket monster" and watching tv. I heard Andrew get up at about 11:00, so Vespa and I went downstairs to hang out. After a couple more hours of good company in Macon, Vespa and I packed up and headed back home to Moultrie. What a great weekend! I'm so happy that I got to spend the time with Chelsea for her birthday, and visit with Morgan, Larry, and Justin. And, of course, Vespa was happy to meet Ramsey. Happy Birthday, Chelsea!