quarter of a century.

yesterday, austin turned 25! we're getting way old. and to think, we met when he was only 18 and i was 17. whoa.

in order to celebrate austin's big birthday, we decided to take a trip this past weekend. friday afternoon, lindsy picked up austin and me and we hit the road.

austin was asleep within the first ten minutes of leaving.

five-and-a-half hours later, we arrived at rar jay's house in memphis, our stop for the night. after a quick change of clothes, we jumped back in the car for rj to show us the town. we ate dinner at the hard rock cafe {we were looking for something that wasn't a chain, but bar food was all that was available}.

but at hard rock, i had some of the best mac and cheese ever. really.

rj and lindsy.

you can't really get a good picture of austin and me together. we're like children, can't sit still.

after dinner, we walked around beale street to find a place to grab a drink. beale street reminds me of a tiny new orleans. the streets are blocked off, so there's no traffic. music is blaring from every bar. people are everywhere and they walk around with those three foot tall neon-colored cups of whatever they're drinking. oh, and there's neon lights everywhere. it'd be really cool to just wander around there and people watch. but, of course, while we were there it was snowing and the wind was blowing me over, so we quickly found where we wanted to go: silky o'sullivan's.

and that is where we got this:

a bucket. of. drink. apparently, the "dive" at silky o'sullivan's is what you have to get. it's literally a bucket of drink. it looks like a whole whole lot, but we all four split it, so it really wasn't much.

saturday morning, it was up and at 'em to make the hour trip to tunica, mississippi to hit the casinos. i've never been to a casino before, but everyone else in the group had.

we stayed at gold strike, but we hopped back and forth between their casinos and the roadhouse casino.

the gold strike hotel {taken on our way out sunday morning}.

the four of us at the roadhouse casino {we had to ask for permission to take a picture inside}.

it was nice that we could go back and forth between the two, but it was reeeally cold on the walk. rj let me borrow his vest to try to keep warm. it only slightly helped.

overall, we had a pretty good weekend. austin and i didn't win any money, but that's ok. rj won lots of money {that lucky jerk}. but it was fun.

we finally got back in town just in time to catch the fourth quarter of the superbowl. and even though i was rocking my steelers jersey all day, the steelers didn't win. but that's ok, too.

and finally, last night, austin blew out the candles on his birthday cupcakes.

he wanted a german chocolate cupcake, but they didn't have one. so i got a chocolate one and a coconut one, it was the best i could do. and i got a vanilla one for myself.

the birthday boy {looking very sleepy after a long weekend and a long monday at work}.

of course julie boo was present for the birthday party, too {and i think she tried to eat my camera}.