Weekend Recap in Columbus

And so another weekend comes to an end. I hope you had a fun and relaxing one and all the Mom’s out there enjoyed their Mother’s Day on Sunday. I had a fantastic weekend in Columbus celebrating my friend Kelly who just graduated as a nurse practitioner from Ohio State. She has done amazingly well. We are all super proud of her because we know how hard it was for her at the beginning. In fact, at one point, she nearly didn’t go. Thank goodness that she did, and now she can be proud with her diploma. We may even get her something from her university (like how a friend of ours got a ring from https://www.jostens.com/apps/store/productBrowse/1071674/The-University-of-Iowa/Standard-Ring-Collection/colringsub_1071674/CATALOG_COLLEGE/ for theirs) to help her remember her time there. Still, when it came to her reluctance it took us a while to learn the reason for this, and when she eventually told us why, her answer didn’t come as a shock. It was the dreaded student loans.

Without having any student loans, college applicants like Kelly would find it really hard to navigate college life, and as she wanted to be a nurse practitioner, it was imperative that she have them because of all the equipment she may need. Luckily, there was someone else on her course who was in a similar situation, and she said that somewhere like SoFi and their Student Loan Help Center could help to answer all the questions and worries that they had about this process. Low and behold, she felt much better after reading the information, and there she started this amazing journey. And now, we get to celebrate her achievements. Woohoo!

All weekend I was together with my college girlfriends whom I only get to see a few times a year. Here is a recap of all the fun, food, and drinks we had while I visited Columbus.

Upon our arrival to Columbus we had a fabulous lunch at The Knotty Pine. I seriously had the most delicious salmon salad alongside a class of sauvignon blanc. The salmon was cooked perfectlyyyyy and I had never had tomato chutney before, but it made everything so delicious. I love giant salads when you don’t even need dressing to enjoy the flavors.

After lunching we walked back to Kelly’s house to catch up and later get ready for the graduation party her parents were throwing her at their new house. Wine, appetizers, pizza, celebrating, it was a fantastic evening.

And the house was beautiful too. I knew that they had wanted to move for quite a while but just weren’t able to find a home worth buying. They said they wanted to be absolutely sure that their new home would be perfect, and it is. With the help of professionals like these Lynchburg realtors, they were able to place all their focus and attention on the house-hunting process. Low and behold, it didn’t take them long to find this home and now they were able to host their first memorable party here. It was really quite amazing.

Wine bottles Kelly’s mom had made for her, how cute!

My college girlfriends and I. We all became very close our junior year of college when we met at a party and realized we lived across the street from each other, funny how that works ; )

One with the boys minus two hubbies.

Late night Catch Phrase. Anyone else constantly play this game in college when you were tired of card games? So fun! Plus we added a nice twist. Kelly came up with the idea where we had to speak in a british accent when giving the clues. I was not very good at the game to begin with, adding this into the mix just made me constantly laugh every time it was my turn. But it was hilarious listening to everyone, I seriously haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

O-H-I-O School of Nursing Graduation on Saturday morning.

Congrats and so proud of you Kelly. I can’t believe how fast three years has gone, even though I’m sure for you it dragged at times. But you have so much to look forward to as you now begin your career as a nurse practitioner, so much love for you!

Brunching to celebrate at Pint House!

Breakfast wrap with eggs, cheese, potatoes, peppers, and onions. I have never thought to make a breakfast wrap like this with potatoes in it and let me tell you it was delicious. So was the salad and strawberry basil lemonade cocktail =)

After brunch we stopped at Giant Eagle Market District to pick up some grill items and drinks for later that night. We don’t have Market District’s in Maryland so I made everyone get a drink and shop. I’m weird and already love going to the grocery store, add beer and wine and it’s even better!

Back at Kelly’s house we prepared to watch the derby with some snacks and fabulous mojitos and mint jubilee’s made by Kelly’s boyfriend Ben.

Then it was backyard grilling, corn hole, and sitting by the fire for the rest of the night. It was so great to catch up with my girlfriends and have so much to celebrate. But weekends like this unfortunately always go by way to fast.

Sunday I flew home early afternoon and later cooked dinner with the hubby. We made chicken kabobs and veggies and had some leftover for lunches for the week. Then we relaxed and got into some of the shows on the DVR like Southern Charm before I fell asleep super early from all the fun all weekend.

How was your weekend?

When was the last time you got together with a group of close girlfriends?

And thanks to Meghan for this weeks “Week in Review” link up.