North Carolina Visit

This past weekend I got to visit the best boyfriend in the world! He is in Cary, North Carolina for the summer doing an internship with John Deere. I headed to Raleigh on Friday after work and got in around 12:30am. Mike picked me up and when I saw him he had flowers in his hand. It was a beautiful bouquet of all different kinds of flowers. He has given me flowers before and every time I am amazed how well he is at picking out bouquets. I am not sure where he picked this ability up, but I like it!

We drove to his apartment and chatted with his roommate, Tyler, for a while. Both of our birthdays have come and gone while he has been in North Carolina so we both decided to exchange gifts when I got there. I asked if he wanted to give each other our presents tonight or just wait until tomorrow and if you know Mike, you know exactly what he said (Yes, he knows he needs to work on his patience). So for the presents.... Mike told me over the phone that I would have to "earn" one of my presents. This made me very curious, but I was up for the challenge. He made me close my eyes and held out a picture that he drew. He told me that I had to guess who it was. I knew immediately that it was Nolan Ryan on the mound winding up to throw a pitch. He said I was exactly right. :) (He should've know I would get it, I know my Rangers!) He also got me a puzzle! He knows I love puzzles. This puzzle was cool because it was of all the ballparks around the US. I can't wait to put it together and frame it. It was his turn next to close his eyes. In my mind I thought he would really like one of the presents and laugh at the other one and the other two were just average. I bought him a John Deere A&M hat, an Amazon gift card and a car decal that said A&M. He really liked those. :) I also got him a trash grabber. It's that metal long thing that when you squeeze the handle it grabs the thing that you are trying to pick up. He kind of got obsessed with them at the Texas Trash Off we did a couple months ago. I heard him say that he wanted one, so I got him his own! This was a mistake. He kept playing with it and grabbing everything in sight, including my Michael Kors purse! Uh. I got a small picture of what he was like as a kid. :) The next morning we got up and went to a garage sale that John Deere was putting on. We got there around 10:30 and basically everything was already gone or picked over. We weren't allowed to go into the building, but we did get to see the lawnmower that Mike has been working on. He showed me what piece he was trying to improve and explained his projects to me. I like knowing what he is working on, it helps me picture it when he is trying to describe it over the phone. After the garage sale we hit up a restaurant called Joyce and Family. It is known for it's North Carolina soul food. Man, was it soul food. Fried chicken, corn, collard greens, mac and cheese, ribs, black eyed peas, cornbread and lemon meringue pie.

It was a buffet style, so it goes to say that we were pretty stuffed by the time we were paying Joyce and heading to the car. After lunch we decided to go shopping. Mike wanted some sunglasses and he bought some awesome Oakleys. I think they look great on him. Don't you? 

After shopping we went to see World War Z. It was actually pretty good. It was intense at times and I had to tell Mike that we shouldn't hold hands since he was jumping at every zombie that popped out in front of someone. :) We headed to the store and picked up some things for dinner after the movie let out. I was craving a salad (which I have hooked Mike on too!) We picked up some yummy things to go on the salad and I cooked up some chicken and we ate a yummy home cooked dinner.        

                              

While we were out we rented Broken City so after dinner we watched that. We turned in early that night since I had gotten in so late the night before. The next morning Mike said he wanted pancakes so while he showered I whipped up some cranberry pancakes. They ended up being pretty yummy (he thought so too). 

After we put on our Sunday best we went to Mike's church he has been attending, Grace Fellowship Church. It was about 90% black, and they had amazing worship and a great message. Mike told me that they liked to worship out loud, and he was right. It was a really good service. The people there are SO welcoming too! I met about 20 different people and everyone remembered Mike's name. I see why he goes back week after week. After church let out we went to eat lunch at the neat Greek place called Greek Fiesta. It was very tasty! 

We thought about taking a nap after lunch, but then Mike suggested we hike around a lake that him and Tyler had biked on before. I was definitely up for that, even though sleep did sound pretty good. We drove over to the trail and it was way more beautiful than I had thought it would be! It was like walking through a forest. There were trees everywhere! 

The trail had hills and dips and bridges and even a pipeline that Mike decided to walk on. That little daredevil!

We got to a section of the trail that was secluded and it overlooked the beautiful lake that the sun was setting on. The trail makers decided to put in a bench at that spot (very smart decision). I sat down on the bench and Mike got on one knee and.... itched his mosquito bite. What did you think I was going to say...? Anyways, we just sat there and talked about how glad we were that we got to see each other even if it was for a short weekend. It was so relaxing just walking the trail and talking to my man. We even saw three bucks cross the path! It was cool. (I'm glad I didn't have my gun on me, the elderly couple near us probably would have given me a long talkin to.)  After our walk we decided to go eat at Panera Bread. We got all the way there and then we both realized we didn't have our wallets! We turned back and went all the way back to Mike's apartment and got some money THEN ate dinner. We watched a couple of episodes of Fringe and then had to go to bed since Mike had to drop me off at the airport at 8am so he could be at work. We got up the next morning, ate and headed to the airport. Leaving him this time was hard because it was just long enough to get used to him being around. I knew I would see him in July in Colorado so I could bare it better than the last time I left him. The trip was wonderful and worth every penny to see my Penny. (Those kind of jokes I learn from Mike).