surprise!

well, it's been 2 1/2 weeks since levi left. i think we are surviving well enough, no one is permanently scarred, mentally or physically. ;) but still, a month is a long time. nothing like realizing you take the one day a week he's home for dinner for granted until you have nothing for a looong time. 

in any case, we have been traveling to fresno {that's a separate blog post}, online window shopping way too much after bedtime, and watching trashy movies that really should not have been made. but, i did manage to squeeze time into our busy schedule to surprise my spouse, mid connection in washington dc, on his way to raleigh. 

it. was. awesome. my dad actually suggested it, which he probably regretted after i asked him to watch the beasts for the weekend, but he did so, so willingly, i might add. one of my fabulous friends is a flight attendant for united, and she got me some ridiculously cheap standby tickets to leave friday night at 10:30 and get in to dc before levi does and then ride together to raleigh. 

side note: standby is the worst. soooo nerve wracking! luckily, i made it just barely onto my flights, we're talking dead last on the plane, praying people miss their connections so i could have a seat. ugghh! i will not do that again!

i landed there at 3:00 our time, which was unfortunate, because i was just so excited/nervous/praying he got on his standby flights, that i didn't sleep at all. 

so anyways. i waited for levi at the tram in between gates, because i could stalk him with "find my friends" i knew where he was. unfortunately for him, he didn't see me standing there, so i went up behind him and grabbed his butt. it was hilarious. and took him about 10 minutes to recover. 

we made it to raleigh, sitting next to each other even, and got our rental car and immediately went to cracker barrel. only the most amazing restaurant on the planet. i have a lot of memories there from going with my family on our way down to myrtle beach every summer. it was great. i'm pretty sure all of my clean eating done while he was gone was wasted on our two days eating out at amazing places. {love me some southern cooking!}

cracker barrel breakfast spread. nom nom nom. 

i could not believe how cheap everything was there! all of our meals cost us less than $10 a person, and that included drinks. it was crazy. and delicious. but mostly crazy. 

we spent the weekend slowing falling in love with north carolina. or quickly. whatevs. but it was uh-mazing. when we applied to dental school, i kept telling levi to apply to the east coast, and he would respond with "ehhh" or "hummm... maybe". so he didn't. i'm so glad i got to show him what an amazing place it really is, because i absolutely love it. 

the hospital where the residency program is. it promptly dumped buckets on us as soon as we parked. warm rain-- it's amazing!! 

it didn't take him long to love it either. the green, the open space, the cheeaaaaap housing market, the amazing ward, the less crazy hours of the residency program, the boating lake very close, myrtle beach 3 hours away, the thunderstorms. ahhh. for the first time ever, i think we mutually agreed on a place we absolutely would love to live. i think it's become our first choice actually. it was great. i don't have enough good things to say about that place. 

as for our weekend, it was like our honeymoon, except better. i can't tell you the last time we went away alone, you appreciate it so much more when you don't get to do it often. unfortunately, levi had two weeks left, and i had to go save my dad, so it was a quick quick trip but a good break from two weeks alone talking to babies! now if only the rest of it would go quick!

don't mind our/my hideous face/hair in these pics. man, i hate my haircut! i'll blame it on getting off the airplane. but at least my spouse is hawt. 

it was an amazing weekend, hopefully it's a sign of what's to come, because i want to move there stat!! accept my husband oh mighty residency program!