Kiss Miss Gilliam Goodbye!

Just this past weekend we headed to Charleston for a girls weekend in honor of Miss Kandi Gilliam...soon to be Mrs. Kandi Hogue :) It was the first of a few bachelorette parties for me this year!

After arriving and getting ready for a night out on Friday, we headed downtown to have dinner at Leafe Cafe & Bar.  

Here is the bachelorette with her first shot of the night! 

After dinner we decked her out to get her ready for a night out on the town!

 

After dinner we headed to Rooftop Bar - the atmosphere and weather was perfect for rooftop drinks :) 

Kandi was challenged to several dares, this is the guy that gave her his socks!

After Rooftop we headed down to Wet Willies where we had more delicious drinks and more ridiculous dares!

The next day we spent most of the afternoon laying out poolside and recovering/relaxing! Saturday evening we got ready for a lingerie party for Kandi followed by a Passion party - I took plenty of pics but def won't be sharing ;) 

  

 

We had a great time with lingerie party games and the Passion party!

The next morning, the weekend was sadly coming to an end too quickly as most good times usually do.    Brunch at Cracker Barrel was definitely the best way to end the bachelorette weekend :) It was such a great weekend with great girls, great times, and great memories!

I can't wait to stand beside you when you become Mrs. Hogue on 7/14/13! Love you Kandi!

The Mishra/Misra Family's Newest College Grad

I will be catching up on my blogging over the next few days I've decided.  So much has happened over the past couple months and I just couldn't keep up but I'm hoping I can make up for it now, even if it means I blog out of order a litte bit.  

Almost 3 weeks ago, my little brother graduated from college.  It is crazy just how quickly time flies!  UVA holds so much tradition and history, so one can only imagine how much this influenced the graduation events.  My brother became very involved in student organizations from the very beginning and he served as the Class of 2013 Vice President all four years he was at UVA.  Due to his participation in class council and a group called trustees, he was able to "hook us up" all weekend.  

Saturday morning started with a special breakfast, also attended by the valediction speaker who was none other than Stephen Colbert!

After patiently waiting for what seemed like forever, Rup finally snagged a picture with the man himself! 

As the C/o 2013 VP, my brother had to give a special speech in front what seemed like thousands of people!

We took one last picture on Saturday before heading back to Richmond while my brother attended some of his friends' graduation parties and other events. 

The next morning, we did not get rained out thank god and the final exercises took place on the historic UVA lawn, a very rich tradition!

I spotted my brother in the crowd only because once again he had gotten us into a VIP seating area.  It's kind of like playing Where's Waldo? to find him. 

Congrats to the Class of 2013 of the College of Arts & Sciences (Basically all of the BA and BS degrees!)

And here is the newest college grad in the family :)  A bachelors degree looks good on him if I may say so myself!

A very proud Mishra/Misra family :) 

Post graduation lunch at Bella's was amazing Italian food!  Of course Miss Bella loved that we were eating at her namesake. 

After lunch we went to the major ceremony where Suraj would finally receive his "diploma"...or rather something that at least looked official.

Congrats Suraj :) 

Here he is with his advisor

And here are all of the human biology graduates from the C/o 2013

My brother has taken a research position with NIH for a year and will start in July.  We are so proud of him and can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Spring Travels - Part II: Texan Adventure

Only a month late in sharing our adventures from Texas! Phew, I know I keep saying I'll get better about blogging but I keep lying apparently.  I feel like life has been moving in fast forward recently but not in a bad way.  And can I just state for the record that I have officially had this blog for over a year now! Anywhooo...back to Texas!

We went to Texas for several reasons: 1) We wanted a vacation! 2) We wanted to catch up with good friends! and most importantly 3) Rup turned 30!!!!

We started our trip out with our first Texan meal in Austin, TX at an authentic mexican restaurant recommended to us by our hotel.  Can I just state, I was in heaven the entire time we were in Texas because the Mexican is just phenomenal and I'm pretty sure I was Mexican in my past life...I can eat Mexican an infinite number of times per day, 365 days a year. 

 

We met up with our friend Seema in Austin for lunch, it was so great to see her! Although, we missed her husband Vaibhav who was working in San Antonio where the newlyweds live. 

After lunch, we set out for our first tourist stop of the trip...the Texas State Capitol! Rup is a big history buff so he was especially excited :) 

The cannons reminded me of my old stomping grounds at my alma mater William & Mary!

The Texas star was EVERYWHERE. 

Our next stop had to be the Whole Foods Headquarters because we absolutely LOVE Whole Foods, it was pretty amazing!

The next day we had an "active" day so that we could reward ourselves with lots of wineries & BBQ.  We started our trek with Mount Bonnell, it provided a great skyline view of Austin but the photos aren't as good due to the clouds.  Naturally we had to do yoga poses :) 

After a quick drive up to Lake Travis to look around, we came back to Lake Austin and kayaked for a while.  It was so relaxing and peaceful, not to mention a great arm workout! 

After cleaning up, we headed out to 6th street for some lunch and explored.  

One of our stops was the historic Driskill Hotel which was gorgeous! 

Shortly after it was time to reward ourselves with our Texas winery tour, one of the highlights of our trip! We stopped at a total of 4 wineries before dinner and were very impressed by the quality of the wine we tried at each one. 

We ended our day/winery tour at the famous Salt Lick Cellars which is both a winery and a famous BBQ joint. The BBQ in Texas is just as phenomenal as the Mexican. 

The next day, we packed up our bags, picked up our rental, and headed to Dallas, the second stop during our Texas tour.  Of course our very first stop was Arlington where the famous Cowboys stadium sits.  I highly recommend a VIP guided tour for anyone who tours the stadium, even if you aren't that into football! It is an amazing facility. 

 

 

 

After touring the Cowboys stadium we grabbed a bite to eat and headed into Dallas itself.  We stopped by the JFK museum to look around before meeting up with one of my best friend's Prutha for happy hour and dinner. 

It was neat and kind of eerie to be at and see the site of Kennedy's assassination.  Above is the view the snipper had before shooting him and below is the spot of his death marked by the X on the pavement.  

My best friend Prutha told us we had to have Chuy's while we were in Texas knowing my love for mexican food so we met her there and caught up that evening.  We had not seen her in a year and a half...too long!

This year I get to see her THREE times (Texas included!) Thank god for bachelorette parties and weddings ;) 

The next day while she worked, we headed to Fort Worth where she lives and went to the FW Zoo and water gardens before meeting up with her again. 

We finally met her at the stockyards in Fort Worth which was so fun, even though the weather was not cooperating! 

We happened to be around for the twice daily cattle drive and that was an awesome experience! 

After Rup bought his first pair of cowboy boots (yay!), she showed us around downtown Fort Worth that evening and the next day we said goodbye to Dallas (not for long!) and hello to Houston, TX - our third/final stop and where her finace Raj lives. We surprised Rup with birthday tickets to the Tigers vs. Astros baseball game which he was excited about! It was such a fun night and of course the Tiger's won :) 

Thanks to Raj, we had awesome front row seats!

The next day we hit up some more tourist spots and went to the Lyndon B. Johnson space center.  We are such nerds because we were having so much fun there that we felt like we didn't get to stay long enough! There is always next time :) 

After grabbing tasty Greek food with Prutha & Raj, the gals split off to go shop at the Houston Galleria while the guys relaxed (Raj actually had to go into work boo!)

That night was our final night in Texas and the eve of Rup's 30th birthday! We went out to Gloria's for a nice Mexican meal complete with Sangria of course. 

And I got Rup cupcakes for his birthday from the world famous Sprinkles bakery! For all of you Cupcake Wars fans, Candice Nelson knows how to make a good cupcake! 

We had a great last night in Texas and were sad for it to end!

Happy 30th birthday to my amazing hubby :)