Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Family, Friends, Friends who are like Family: Part I

If the title of this post was any indication, Blake and I were BUSY yesterday!  Since Blake and I were there, I'll tell you that the post title was not lying--we were busy yesterday!  We are making the most of our days off, and yesterday was about as perfect as it could be!

We started out with brunch with Blake's parents in Knoxville.  Now, it was early enough that it was actually more breakfast than lunch but still had a brunch-y feel to it.  We have termed in Brunch-Kast.  Feel free to start using that term :)

Contemplating Life :)

Such a sweet picture.  And the fooooood was so savory!

 We showed such restraint in taking these pictures before digging into the food!  All of the sake of the memories and the blog! Haha. It was all so good. I had a turkey sausages, fresh fruit, juice, coffee, and an egg white omelet with ham and broccoli!  Blake's was a crab cake breakfast type deal. Oh man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

We drove to Nashville and had plans to meet Becca there for lunch, but we got in to town a little early, and she was busy eating lunch with some kids at a local elementary school (seriously, how cute is she?!), so we went to our old stomping grounds for a quick tour!

Beaman Library.

 This library. *Sigh* I can't even tell you how many times I walked up and down those stairs during my four years here.  This place brings back such great memories.  Blake and I first started hanging out in this library over 5 years ago.  Shoot, let's be serious, I started hanging out in this library 5 years ago in hopes of running into the cute guy from Knoxville who was pre-med!  It's not like my gen ed classes were really all that difficult first semester of freshman year!  :)

I used to work at the library when I was in college too, and I ran into some of the people I worked with too!  They informed me that they are avid blog readers--special hello to them today!!  It was great catching up with them and being all sentimental with Blake about our past!

We did a little tour of the campus while we waited for Becca.  We spent some time in the Science Building where Blake ran into several of his old professors.  I was pleased to see that Blake's abstract and research poster from a conference was still hanging out on the 4th floor! 

I must brag: Blake totally got 1st Place at the research conference.  I always knew I married a winner!

 Next, we met up with Becca for lunch at Panera's!   Afterward, we checked out the Container Store, which is new in Nashville.  We decided we needed to get a picture (doesn't tupperware inspire you?!).  I've talked about this app on my phone before, but you take a picture on one side and then the other side and it puts the two together! I took the picture of Blake and Becca and then Blake took the picture of Becca and me!  It didn't quite work this time... Becca's got a growth and second face!

It worked much better the second time... except poor Blake's eyes are closed!

 We finally gave up and just had a worker take a picture of us!  There were about three crowded around in front of us anyway, trying to figure out what we were doing! :)

After that, my best friend, Heather, called us and said she was finished at work for the day!  She's an art teacher (and one of her students informed me that she is the coolest teacher at the school, which I can totally understand!) at a local school.  We headed over to her apartment to hang out!  Blake decided to make some coffee... which of course needs an apron to properly do the job!  I gave Heather that apron as a bridesmaid gift from our wedding!

Bahahah it looks better on Heather, sorry Blake!

 Then, it was time to open Christmas presents!  Heather got a kick out of her "heat her" Christmas gift!

 And she got us something fun too!  I'm not sure why I was feeling so pose-y yesterday... who am I kidding? That's like the story of my life!

I just love her so much!

Blake got presents too!

 Oh man, and they were awesome presents too!  Heather got me "Law School in a Box" and got Blake "Medical School in a Box!!!"  They're so cool!  The boxes even come with a little diploma inside the box that says we're a graduate from Mental Floss University.  There are flashcards and a little review of what you learn in the schools inside! Hahahah what clever gifts!!

 Does this mean that I can drop out of school now?!  I mean, between the box and the 3 semesters of law school, I'm pretty much done, right?

Courtney came over to Heather's apartment too to hang out!  I love them both, and that they're matching! haha

 Note: How do my toes keep getting in these pictures? I specifically tried to hide them. This girl is in serious need of a pedicure!

How cute is she? And check out that Rudolph behind her!

Blake took some candid shots of us girls gossiping and giggling.  I love having girlfriends.

 Heather's apartment is literally almost twice the size of ours in DC... AND she doesn't pay as much per month! LAME.  Haha I guess that's what we get for moving to DC. 

 This is Blake telling us about a medical condition we heard about.  The poor guy never gets a break, but he's just so knowledgeable it's hard not to ask him to explain stuff to us when a weird medical thing comes up!

Well, I decided that this monster of a post deserves two posts.  This was only part I!  Be on the lookout later for part II!
--Catie