Saturday, September 8, 2012

Beach with My Family

The first part of June we took a break from packing and headed down to the Flagler Beach with my family!  Mom, Dad, Cuz, and Jim got down there earlier in the week and Kevin and I left after work on a Tuesday.  On the way down we picked up our last minute guests Tiffany and Hayes in LaGrange - I'm so glad they could join us!  As you will see from the pictures it would have been a completely different trip if they weren't there, since I spent half the time being Hayes' paparazzi :)  

It was a little rainy while we were there but whenever the sun came out we seized the opportunity!  So we spent our time hanging out on the beach, relaxing inside when it was raining, and eating great food.  I also happened to turn 27 years old while we were down there so we celebrated with some beach time, dancing inside while it rained, drinking fun drinks, and eating delicious bacon wrapped shrimp, grilled Mahi Mahi, yummy desserts and Jim's homemade chocolate ice cream.  

The following pictures capture a lot of the memories, but here a few others I don't want to forget:
  • On the way down, Hayes wanted some more milk and Tiffany told him she was sorry but we were out of milk.  His logical response was "well we need to go to the grocery store mama!"  He is just over two years old and cracks me up!   
  • Jim wore his shoes and socks to the beach.  Hayes promptly asked his mom why that man had his shoes and socks on and asked him to take them off.  Jim complied, and thanks to Hayes I bet his feet felt better!
  • "I thought I saw a big ole dog..."  
  • Running in from the beach to the Tahoe with the rain busting out from the sky so hard it hurt. Then seeing Cuz and Jim pedaling past us on their bikes looking pitiful!  Needless to say they didn't quite make it to the comic book store.
  • Eating at Hull's and Flagler Fish Company for dinner
  • Eating at Oceanside Beach Bar & Grill for breakfast (most mornings), lunch, AND dinner
  • Hearing the stories of Cuz and Jim dancing to "Keevohn" the night before we got there.  He enjoyed their dancing so much he gave them his CD and we got to experience their dancing too while listening to his CD one rainy afternoon :)


Forgot to get a fork at Chick-fil-a on the way down, Hayes' beach shovel came in handy!
We stayed at my parents' good friends Ken and Ellen's beach house.  Their house is right on this awesome canal!

Fearless!

Two kids playing in the sand :)



This is the life!









Love my parents!



Thumbs up!  Hayes loves his Uncle Scott and playing the guitar!

Listening carefully...


Hayes got so excited listening to Dad play the guitar he all of the sudden did a flip! (and several more followed :) )


Hayes loves his Mamie!

Tom Cat!

8:00am running through the door "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATAWEE!" loved it!

Cooking my birthday dinner!

Making some birthday drinks!








My two favorite boys

Braving the waves


Ha!









Friday, August 31, 2012

Fun Day with the Riggs

Kevin's parents and brother came up to our apartment a couple weeks before we moved to help us get started on packing - thank goodness they did because we got so much done!  After a few hours of all five of us packing what felt like mostly endless amounts of glasses, we decided to go to Stone Mountain!  We grilled out, hiked the mountain, and watched the laser show.  It was a fun day and one that I want to remember - made me feel very thankful to have such great in-laws who want to help out and spend the day with us!










Sunday, June 3, 2012

A Festive May!


Kevin and I have really enjoyed doing fun things on the weekends this past month!  It has been so nice to be free to pick and choose what activities we wanted to fill our weekends with.  The past couple years have been filled with many wonderful weddings, and while I have cherished those times, I must admit I'm happy our weekend schedules haven't been as dominated by wedding activities lately!  So, here's what we chose to do in our "free" time:

1. Art-B-Que in Avondale Estates (near Decatur).  An art festival and bar-b-que competition with live music?  We're in!



2. This was a work conference in Orlando - which was actually pretty fun, but I also got to see my friend Courtney and two of my favorite kiddos!  (and I got a great dress at the J. Crew outlet thanks to Courtney taking me off the hotel premises)



3. Taste of Alpharetta!  I flew in from Orlando Thursday afternoon after my long work trip and weighed the options of going home vs. going to Taste of Alpharetta, and I'm glad Taste of Alphartta won.  A few of Kevin's coworkers joined  us and it was one of the best "Taste of's" I've ever been to - it featured really good restaurants and it was actually a deal (not overpriced) on trying tastes from their restaurants!  Really excited to be moving closer to this area :)


4. Dunwoody Beer Fest!  Well this is the last year we'll be able to go to this and walk a quarter mile home, so we took advantage of it once again!  Kevin's coworke Steve joined us and we enjoyed walking around and tasting all the beers.  Two favorites included: 1: jalapeno margaritas (not sure who was giving tastings of this but they were pretty good) and 2. Cripser Cider - (recently bought by Miller, but still pretty darn good!)



5. Beer and Pancakes in Decatur - you really should read more here


6.  Mother's Day.  My parents came up for church and then they and my grandparents came back to our apartment for a lunch that Kevin and I prepared (it was delicious I must say!) and then Kevin and I headed to Newnan to hang out at his grandmother's house, go to church with his family, and go to dinner at Zaxby's!  Very thankful for all of the mothers in my life! Especially (of course) my mother and my mother-in-law :)

Kinda forgot to get a picture of the most important people, but I did get a picture of the food!  Kevin grilled delicious steaks (like seriously, he does them better than top restaurants, in my humble opinion) and I made a pear and goat cheese arugula salad with homemade caramelized onion salad dressing!


Floyd, dressed in his Mother's Day best (I even got a Mother's Day card from him!)

7. On our way home from Beer and Pancakes, we notice something going on in Perimeter Mall's parking lot - Kevin (being a tranportation engineer) remembered that they were running a demonstration of the new/upcoming DDI (Diverging Diamond Interchange) for the Ashford Dunwoody 285 exit (our exit) - so he talked me into stopping by and we got in a golf cart and practiced, and I got a cookie and a t-shirt :)



8.  Party in the Park!  Of course The Flaming Lips can get me to sign up for anything!  This has been one of my favorite bands since college and I've seen them several times now, but it was really fun to see them for the 2nd time with Maggie and for the 1st time with Brianna! What?!  I got to see one of my favorite bands with by two best friends?!  Finally!  And even ran into one of my best friends from college (who failed mention he would be coming to this concert, ahem) and got to meet his girlfriend!


We hung out and ate dinner at Park bar while listening to AWOL Nation  and then joined Party in the Park in time to see Young the Giant and of course the Flaming Lips

Pre-concert tradition :)  



The husbands came, too :)




For all the people dressed as hippies at the concert, you would think there would be less trash afterwards...make me cringe!
9.  Day in the park to celebrate babies!  You should read more about this fun here!


10. Of course there was a Braves game thrown in there!  Kevin asked me one Friday afternoon if I felt like going to the Braves game that night, so we called up friends Zack and Katie who said they could join and it was a done deal!  (thanks to tickets from Kevin's mom that we got in our Easter basket).  And we got to see Kevin's brother Keith there too, which is always entertaining :)




11.  Memorial Day Weekend!  We celebrated Memorial Day weekend with some packing  and pool time!  Memorial Day was certainly a little more meaningful for me this year.  Can't believe I know people who have been so personally impacted by war...my heart just hurts and I really have the upmost respect for not only what their loved ones have given for this country, but what my friends (as girlfriends, wives) have given and continue to give.

Pool time with Maggie!

So, it was a very eventful May!  And I really need to go on a diet now :)  Just having too much fun.  The first weekend of June we really began packing, as we will be going to the beach with my parents this Tuesday, and then closing a week later on Wednesday 6/13, and then moving in a week later on Saturday 6/16, and then going to the beach with Kevin's parents the next day!  Yikes, how did June get here so quickly?!  Really excited for June, but really glad we spent our weekends in May doing exactly what we felt like doing :)