A (very) Pretty Place

Memorial Day Weekend is always one of my favorites every year. I mean, who doesn't love patriotic holidays?!

This year we spent our MDW in Asheville, NC and in Greenville, SC. Our trip to Asheville was a graduation and anniversary present to us from my parents. The trip to Greenville was more of a last minute decision due to a family situation but it was so good for the soul.

You want to know when you're really enjoying your time out of town with your hubs? When you take two pictures in one of your most favorite places and one of those pictures is from your favorite brewery/soccer bar there. But seriously y'all, Asheville is a hidden gem that I think everyone should discover once in their lives.

Green Man Brewery

Marriage is about compromise and doing things that will make your spouse happy. My hubs is happy discovering a new town, when he's in the mountains, discovering new beers and enjoying good food. Asheville is the perfect place for him.

Asian food puts him in one of his happy places

Pat and I are both huge fans of being in the mountains. The mountains always include boiled peanuts which makes them heaven on earth for this girl. Seriously drooling even just thinking about boiled peanuts now. Excuse me while I drive back to North Georgia for a quick trip...

Caesar's Head, SC

My cousin Brooke was such a wonderful tour guide and even put up with my husband's antics. Like that one time he decided to show us an off course drop-off where we both slid down half of the mountains. Hashtag fun times.

Oh, we're going to need a giant stick to climb back up the mountain?! Sounds fun...

I will be forever grateful that she took me to one place that I have always wanted to see. I mean that place is named "Pretty Place." Who wouldn't want to see a place named that?!

I lift my eyes to the hills... Psalm 121:1

Pretty Place, SC

Pretty Place, SC

If a view like that can't get you to visit the south then I'll just have to bribe you with my momma's fried chicken. I am always in awe of the Lord's creation every single time I go to the mountains or whenever I travel around the south. Seriously, come visit. We have the mountains, lakes, swamps, oceans, wonderful food and amazing people. What's there to not like? Maybe you'll even get to visit a (very) Pretty Place...

#26- Have our friends over for a Crawfish Boil

I did something I have never done this weekend. I cooked something that used to live in water. You see, I've always tried to eat seafood but it has always made me sick. Food making me sick = I have never had the desire to try and cook seafood. Well, enter a husband who loves food that comes out of water and you find me stepping out of my norm. 

When Pat and I started dating I introduced to him one of my favorite food groups, Cajun Food. Listen, Cajun Food deserves it's own section on the pyramid. Period. It's just so dang good and I want to cry for anyone who has never tried it before. When Pat told me he had never had any sort of Cajun food before my mind was blown. To pieces.  Cajun food was a main staple of foods around my college experience. I mean, we had a date party dedicated solely to the pinnacle of all Cajun foods, Crawfish.

A little throwback for y'all. Crawfish Date Party circa 2010

SO all of that to say/bore you with, we decided awhile ago that we wanted to have a Crawfish Boil at our house this spring (aka Crawfish Season). Pat had never been to one before and that was just not acceptable. 

All crawfish boils should include Abita beer. It's like a law or something.

 I somehow forgot my friend's boyfriend is an actual Cajun and really knows a thing or two about crawfish. I was slightly freaking out.

Can I get a Hail State and go Phi Mu?!

  Well, well, well. Whaddyaknow?? The girl who can't eat crawfish kicks butt at making crawfish. It's true. A real cajun told me so!

Chloe might've loved the crawfish too. *Disclaimer: we never feed our dog from the table. This was a treat*

Pat probably ate about 15 of the 30 pounds that we had. I might be exaggerating just a little bit, but he loved it!

Hubs loved it so much that he took my suggestion and made himself quite the lunch today...

Man, I am probably the luckiest girl ever. My hubs can cook!! 

Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone and made something you never thought you would before? I think it's safe to say we'll be doing this again next year!

Weekend Shenanigans: Graduation, 1st Anniversary and Mother's Day ... oh my!

What up weekend with so many life events at the exact same time! We got to start off the weekend by watching my baby sister graduate from high school.

And then I left there extremely jealous of all the fun times that she is about to embark on. I loved college and everything it had to offer. I even loved going to the library (nerd alert!). She has decided she wants to go through Rush and I'm even jealous of that (I can say that now that I'm 4 years removed from Rush). I really just miss living in the same place as all of my friends. Oh, and naps. I really really miss naps.

Saturday night Pat and I ate where we had our Rehearsal Dinner for our nice anniversary dinner. I might still be full. It was that good. You don't like French food? This picture will change your mind-

That right there is my biggest weakness. Mousse au chocolat ... I meeeean, I could kiss the person who came up with that recipe so long ago. 

Sunday was spent celebrating one year and our mommas. I love that we got to attend church where we got married exactly one year before and got to enjoy a wonderful lunch with both of our moms and the rest of my family.

One year later and back at the church. And I need to cut my hair. Moving right along...

Pat and his mom

Three generations: Moi, my mom and my grandmother

And then the moment we had all been waiting for. A whole years worth of waiting for the most magnificent cake in all of the land...

Bam! Look at how beautiful she looked even a whole year later!

And to continue on with this picture dump of a post here are a bunch of pictures of us with the cake. You get to look at all of these because they are approximately 1000x better than the cake cutting pictures of us on our actual wedding day.

Pat isn't even looking and this picture is STILL better than the ones on our wedding day

Awkward squatting and it is still better than our wedding day pictures.

Freakish face and ... well, you get it. Basically my mom should have been our wedding photographer.

Was it still good, you ask? Well, I believe this picture says it all...

Yes, it was still fantastic!

And just so I can prove that I did indeed get my own piece this year...

Noms.

What did you do to celebrate your 1st anniversary? 

I hope you all had amazing weekends! For all the mommas out there, I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day and got pampered like you deserved!

Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was simple. The kind of weekend you crave every once in awhile. This post will be a little bit of a picture dump. Sorry in advance!

Friday was spent at home, going to our 10 year old neighbor's first soccer game down the street, grilling out, and seeing progress in our little herb garden.

Recipe

Someone tried out the "puppy dog" eyes on dad for the first time. Didn't work, but they do say that practice makes perfect, Chloe.

Saturday was a day spent at home getting our chores done and going for a walk around Stone Mountain.

Sunday started off as any normal Sunday would ... at an Irish Pub watching a soccer match. Oh, you don't do that? Weird.

My mother-in-law's favorite team was playing and she asked that we join her for breakfast. Who were we to tell her no?

We finished off the weekend with another lap around Stone Mountain. The picture at the top of this post is the first time you really see the mountain when you pull into the park. We go to the park to walk all the time but it always awes us the first time we drive over that hill and see the mountain.

This is the definition "dog tired." Chloe has been quite the hiker these past two weeks. She has twenty miles under those 4 little legs of hers.

Have you found fun ways to get out and enjoy the weather now that spring has decided to stick around? I really am loving all of this amazing weather on the weekends. We can't seem to spend enough time outdoors. Got to soak it up before summer arrives!

Weekends are for celebrating

This weekend we got to celebrate so many different things. Some big, some not so big.

1- We celebrated the life of Pat's grandfather. He was such a wonderful man who was kind to everyone he met. You always left him feeling like a better person. That motivated Pat and I to want to be that kind of person to others around us.

2- We celebrated my dad's birthday. We got to go out as a family and enjoy a great dinner. Those times are few and far in between with Pat and I juggling our crazy schedules, then add in the schedule of a senior in high school, a Delta pilot, and a Delta flight attendant. It's a miracle we can all get in the same place at the same time!

My sister and I

3- I have the most wonderful in-laws in the world and they gave us our 1st anniversary present this weekend. They said they wanted to pay for half of the camera we have been saving up for, so we got ourselves a pretty new DLSR camera this weekend. I am so so excited! Pat and I both have been playing with it already.

In. Love.

4- I have been celebrating my cousin Brooke and the other runners running the Boston Marathon tomorrow. This has been a life long dream for Brooke and she was spurned on even more after the events at the marathon last year. I'm afraid to say I won't be getting a lot of work done tomorrow because I'll be watching to see the moment she crosses the finish line.

5- My mom and I celebrated something that has been 3 years in the making. My mom is a master gardener, and she planted two peony plants for me three years ago. She finally got her first bloom this year and it is a beaut!

6- Last but certainly not least, we celebrated Easter and the resurrection of our Savior. It never fails, I always tear up at some point of Easter service. It is so overwhelming to know that someone loves me and everyone else enough to give himself up for us. What a wonder, wonderful love! I pray that I become more like Christ every day and that those around me can see Him in me.

Post Easter service with Pat and my brothers

I hope y'all had plenty to celebrate this weekend. Celebrating even the smallest things makes life so much more exciting! Have a great week y'all!