I use that many exclamation points because ever since Brandon and I moved to Greensboro, we have made approximately 4,000 trips back to the Midwest but have entertained very few visitors here.

I'm not bitter. (Although my dad keeps promising to visit and has yet to plan a visit. You reading this, CJ?) Exempted from my not-bitterness are the people who've made the trip: my best friends Kate and Jess, my in-laws (love them) and, as of last weekend, our friends Tom and Adrienne.

They drove down from Michigan last Thursday, and we were beyond excited to have them here for three days. We celebrated as we do, with copious amount of cocktails. That also led to me getting drunk, which led to me taking approximately 10,000 pictures. Here is the resulting photo essay of our awesome weekend.

THURSDAY: We went to trivia and then to dinner. We sucked really badly at trivia, possibly because instead of paying attention I just took this series of very serious-looking photos of Adrienne.

If you didn't know this was trivia you might think she was closing on a house or studying world history. Unrelated side note, Adrienne is really competitive. Then we went to dinner!

I just photographed the beer. This isn't even my beer. Drunk Kate is occasionally the absolute worst.

FRIDAY: We dropped Maisy Bleu off at daycare and drove to western North Carolina to go wine-tasting. There are tons of wineries about an hour west of us, which is amazing - we started in downtown Elkin, stayed within a 10-mile radius and went to three wineries. We could have (and probably would have) done more but we had to pick up Maisy by 6. We were still late. Because wine. (Drunk Kate is occasionally the absolute worst.)

I don't remember what kind of wine this was, but we probably bought a bottle of it. We bought a bottle of basically everything. Please come over and help me drink it.

I just thought maybe one photo of my lip gloss was not enough?

The last winery, pictured in the final series above, was gorgeous; set by a creek in the woods off the main road. A wedding party was there doing final tastings for a reception the next day. All of us just got married - Tom and Adrienne in September, me and Brandon in October - so we spent a good 10 minutes giving them totally unwanted advice about how it really would be the best day of their lives. We were annoying. Drunk Kate is occasionally the absolute worst.

SATURDAY: We wandered around downtown for awhile, which included book-browsing at Scuppernong (my favorite place in Greensboro) and tacos and margaritas at Crafted (my other favorite place in Greensboro).

Front: classic pineapple margarita. Back: bacon-infused bloody Mary.

After, we played a bunch of board games, and then Adrienne and I cooked dinner while the boys played Halo. We made this pizza, from Adrienne's food blog - roasted garlic and whipped goat cheese with spinach (and bacon, for everyone who is not me) - with this cauliflower crust and it. Was. Phenom. And then we played more games, which ended sort of abruptly after we trounced the boys at euchre and they accused us of cheating. There was much anger and yelling, but we all made up quickly, and then laid around in the living room not wanting to go to bed because it meant the weekend was over but eventually having to go to bed because we are all older than we used to be and midnight is late, y'all.

They left Sunday morning. I am still sad, which is why it has taken me this long to write about it.

I like our friends. It is a big deal that I refer to them as "our" friends, which has nothing to do with Tom and Adrienne - who are awesome - and has everything to do with the fact that I am an only child, and I am very into the concept of Things That Are Mine and Things That Are Yours. To offer a really awful example, it took me a good six months of dating Brandon before I was comfortable with him just going into my fridge and taking a soda, so as you can imagine, it's taken me an extra-long time to feel okay laying claim to his friend group. Brandon went to high school and college with Tom and has known Adrienne for more than five years, so in my mind, they were solidly his friends. But I'm claiming a half-stake now.

This probably all sounds insane to anyone who's not an only child, but on the flip side, I am a super-nice house guest and will not ever touch or use or take any of your stuff unless you tell me it's okay.

Unless I've had cocktails. Then I want to play with all of it. (Drunk Kate is occasionally the absolute worst.)

All that to say: we love you, Tom and Adrienne. Come back soon.

Visitors!!!!!!!