Mississippi to Atlanta via Birmingham

Last Wednesday I headed south to pick up my nephew, and made a few stops along they way. Wednesday I went to Spanish Fort to stay with my sweet friend from high school Courtney. We had so much fun catching up! I almost never make it over to that area which means I rarely get to see Court. I LOVED IT!

Thursday I headed over to Mississip. I hit ALL my favorite spots. I started with lunch at Manhattan Grill! It was AMAZ as always. Then a stop by Realizations and Lee Tracy (had to get a little shopping in). Thursday night I had dinner at Scranton's with more sweet high school friends Ashley and Brandi. It is crazy to see how our lives have changed in the past 14 years (I know I am dating myself). I love these girls, and when I am with them I feel so myself. It makes me so happy!!!

I spent the night with my brother and his family Thursday, and it was great to catch up with the fam too. My niece, McKenzie has changed to much in the past year, she had really opened up from the shy little girl she was. Not to mention she is absolutely beautiful! Wish I had a pic. Friday morning I played with Kenzie and Drew (nephew), then we headed to my all time fav for lunch, Edd's!!! If you are ever in Pascagoula or surrounding area you MUST go to Edd's. Best chili cheese burger EVER! After all that shopping, visiting, and shopping, Drew and I headed back to Bham. He told me his favorite food is fried rice, so Rick and I took him to P.F. Chang's Friday night then we rested for our big weekend in Atlanta. Saturday we woke up and headed to Atl, checked into the hotel, walked around the city for a while, hit up Rick's fav place, Taco Mac for pre-game wings, then it was time to get ready for the Braves game. Drew is a very talented baseball player, and LOVES MLB. So Rick and I being the super cool aunt and uncle we are took him to his first MLB game! We had great seats and he loved it.

Sunday was Six Flags day! It was sweltering hot, but SO MUCH FUN!!! This was Rick's first trip to Six Flags, and he may have enjoyed it more than 15 year old Drew.

Doesn't he look just like me? I can not believe he is so big!! He was born when I was in 11th grade, and it makes feel so old that he is 15 now and going to my high school.

Rick and I really enjoyed spending the weekend with Drew. He is a GREAT kid, very polite, thankful, and absolutely beautiful! We had so much fun with him, and are so proud he is our nephew. Needless to say I had a much needed week of great family, great friends, and great food! This all made my heart happy!!!

While I was gone....

In my absence from the blog world, here is what you missed:

I went to Destin with my mom and her girlfriends to celebrate her very special birthday. She has the sweetest, most fabulous group of friends, most of which I have known my entire life. I absolutely adore them all. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with them.

Some of the Bham girls and I went to a Friends of St. Jude event while Rick was traveling for work.

We also went to a couple weddings. One of which was my family friend, Renee's wedding in Bay St. Louis, MS. Renee is my best friend my entire life's older sister. She used to TORTURE us as kids, and is more like a sister to me than just a friend. This was a family affair and we couldn't be happier for Renee & Sam.

Rick, me, my bestie Traci, and my new bestie Paul, at Renee's wedding.

We became members at Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood, and this was our 1st Easter as official members (and our 1st married Easter). We've been going to Trinity for years, and are so excited about our new Trinity family.

We also attended Cathleen & David's wedding here in Bham at The Club. Good times were had by all, but I didn't get a pic of the bride and groom.

The girls...

And the guys.

Early May we went to RailRoad Park to celebrate our FABULOUS friend Talty's birthday. It was a BEAUTIFUL day with kids, dogs, beer, BBQ, and most of all GREAT company. We had so much fun, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALTY!!

It was also my WONDERFUL father-in-law's birthday, so in McKibbin fashion we headed to the lake to celebrate sweet John. We got him a kindle from all the kids and he was pretty excited.

Last but not least, we decided last minute to go to Hot Springs, AR to visit my parents for Memorial Day weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend. As you can see Lilly LOVES the boat. My parents friends Bill & Penny took us out on their boat to watch the fireworks, and Rick and I agreed they were the best fireworks we've ever seen. So nice to watch them from the water, LOVE IT! So, that's what we've been doing. Nothing too exciting, but we enjoyed it all.

Honeymoon, Provo, Turks & Caicos

8 1/2 months after our wedding we headed to Provo, Turks & Caicos for a much needed honeymoon. Let me tell you this place is AMAZING!!!! We stayed at the Regent Palms and it too was AMAZING!!! Let me start by saying the travel to T & C is SUPER easy and fast, and if you are looking for a tropical vacay, you should definitely check this out. Our flight left from Bham @ 6:10 am CT, after a quick layover in Miami, we landed in T & C @ 11:55 am EST. We took a 15 min cab ride to the resort, and were in the pool by 1:00 pm! THIS IS FABULOUS! So, after 5.5 short hours we were in paradise. Here is our trip:

Our first full day, a guy walking down the beach called Rick out on his Auburn hat (he was a BAMA fan), and we stopped to chat. We instantly made friends, and soon realized he and his wife were from Mobile (and also on their honeymoon). So we made plans to grab dinner with them, and another honeymooning couple from Atlanta at a local dive called Da Conch Shack. Rick and I tried the conch, checked it off our list and will probably never eat it again. Conch is BIG down there, and on pretty much every menu you find in T & C. We had so much fun with our new friends minus the conch.

This was the view from our room, have I said AMAZING yet?

This was dinner @ the Veranda Resort (where our honeymooner friends stayed and 2 resorts down from ours). We loved the Veranda, and they offer an all inclusive package. We pretty much hung out here and our resort. We loved both resorts, and when we go back we will probably try to stay at the Veranda.

Our resort, the Regent Palms, did however have a swim-up bar. Can you say AWESOME!!!??? This came in very handy, and the staff was very nice. They served tasty food and drinks.

We also loved the infinity pool & hot tub overlooking the ocean.

This was at the seated area of the pool bar @ Regent Palms.

We went on a snorkeling trip that was SO MUCH FUN! They took us to the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen to snorkel for an hour or so. Then they took us to hunt for some conch, I did not participate in this (rum punch and Turks Head beer were served on board). Rick did the conch hunting for the McKib family, and he caught a few, but they were too small to eat, so he had to throw them back.

After all that they took us to a small island off of Provo to hang out, and the water was even more gorgeous than Provo which I didn't think was possible.

The boat captain told us there were iguana on this island, and Rick was ALL over this! He wanted to look for them for hours, but after you see one iguana.....

Can you see how excited he was?

On the way back to the resorts, the capt spotted some starfish, so they stopped and grabbed them. I have never seen this type of starfish in my life, and it was beautiful!!! We had to throw them back as you are not allowed to take these amazing creatures home.

There was some unbelievable sunsets in T & C, so we tried to schedule our dinners around sunset everyday. There's just something about watching sunsets that make me happy.

This was the best honeymoon I could ever imagine! We mostly just relaxed, ate, drank, watched sunsets, took naps, and enjoyed the scenery. I STRONGLY suggest everyone visit the Turks & Caicos if you can. By the end of the trip my outdoorsy, Alaska loving, white water rafting, husband was telling the staff at Regent Palms that we would definitely be back (music to my beach loving ears!). We loved this island, the people, the fact that it is the safest island in the Caribbean, the water, the sunsets, the FABULOUS food, EVERYTHING about it!!! Thank you to my sweet husband for the PERFECT honeymoon, I LOVE YOU!

Catching up with Mississip friends

2 weeks ago I went to Missisip for the weekend to catch up with some of my girlfriends, my family, exchange some wedding gifts, and pick up my new Walter Anderson painting Rick bought me for Christmas. Friday night I stayed in Hattiesburg with Chirissy. We met Bonnie & Taylor for a drink @ Cork. B & T both have 2 little girls that keep them pretty so getting to actually sit down and catch up was FABULOUS!!! Chrissy as always was an amazing host. I LOVE hotel FANCY!

Saturday, I headed to the coast to celebrate my bestie Traic's birthday. It's crazy how many birthdays we have celebrated together. I love her!

After dinner at Manhattan Grill, we headed to the Beau Rivage. It was such a fun night. I also got to catch up with my old friend Leigh.

Sunday I spent the night with my brother and his family. Monday it was back to Bham. It was an exhausting, beautiful, fun, fabulous weekend! GREAT to see everyone. Rick and I will be back for Mardi Gras.

AUBURN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

I am way behind, but Rick went to Glendale, AZ earlier this month for the BCS National Championship game, and cheer on his Alma Mater Auburn. Rick isn't much on details, so all I know is it was AWESOME. They went to an "AMAZING" party the night before the game that Charles Barkley hosted @ the W hotel, and there were lots of famous professional athletes there, Donavon McNabb was one of the many. Rick was pretty excited about this, well as excited as RB gets. The day of the game they parked at the stadium, and ran in to some old frat brothers who were parked 3 cars down from them, that they hadn't seen in years. I did send my camera with him and threaten his life if he didn't take lots of pics. Here are some of the best:

Outside the stadium.
Old college buds.

College and high school buds.

Rick's friend Andy (above) came through with his ticket 3 days before the game. THANK YOU ECHOLS!!!! I am so glad that Rick went to AZ and was able to be a part of AUBURN becoming the NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! WAR EAGLE RICKY BOBBY!!!

NYE 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Rick and I along with our friends Beth, Kyle, and Matthew headed to Atlanta to celebrate the new year. I insisted on doing something fun since last year I did absolutely nothing while Rick tiled the bathroom shower. That was ZERO fun! We had so much fun in Atl for the SEC Championship we decided to go back. My friend Liz is from there and told us about this fab party at Park Tavern, so we all went, Liz included. The deal was a set price for all you can drink (top shelf included), food, party favors, and FUN!

The girls.

Our crew.

The AWESOME band. Yacht Rock, if they are ever playing in your town, GO SEE THEM! SO MUCH FUN!!!! We stayed front row all night!!!!

Pics with the band members were a must!

It was a FABULOUS way to end the most amazing year of my life and ring in a new one! I love Atlanta and I LOVED the Atlanta Loews Hotel. Bring on 2011!!!

SEC CHAMPIONS! WAR EAGLE!

Rick decided Friday about 7pm that we should go to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game the next day. So I jumped online, and booked a room. We didn't have tickets, but felt sure we would be able to find some once we got there. We rode over with one of Rick's friends from Auburn, Healthy, about 8am. Checked into the Melia Hotel (which was 1 mile from the Georgia Dome, and a great deal from Hotels.com $93), and headed to "tailgate." We met up with James (Rick, Healthy, and James were frat brothers),and Abnous, had some lunch and met up with a huge crew of guys from their frat @ Taco Mac. Fun times! Lots of guys Rick hadn't seen in years.

Our friends Burton and Jennifer came to meet us later, and ended up having 1 extra ticket for us. So we looked for 1 more ticket, and found NONE! Didn't see a single person selling tix anywhere!! So I decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for my sweet husband, and told him to go without me. There wasn't much argument, and I am pretty sure I did not get enough credit for this deed. So, I went to a nearby sports bar, STATS and met up with my friend Kelly and her husband, and watch the game there. We had a blast! The sports bar was AMAZING!
After the game, the crew came back to STATS pretty excited that Aub was heading to the National Championship. Obviously proud they were #1!

Here's the crew.

FABULOUS weekend! Next stop Glendale, AZ! (Rick & James are going!)