Yum!

Last night's meal: baked chicken, fried squash, and grilled okra.

The First Week at the Beach

  The last two weeks, P, the Wrigster, and I were able to spend time down at the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Oh, I love the beach so much! As soon as we hit the BP station off the interstate, I start getting super excited. Patrick thinks I'm crazy, but I can smell the beach from there. My whole mentality changes and I know I am at the beach where I can simply relax. I very much needed this vacation, but of course, I wasn't ready to come back home yesterday.
  The first week, P and I were at my parent's beach house enjoying each other's company. Now, we really didn't go down to the beach very much because every day the clean up crews were down on the beach. And I'm sorry, but I don't really like to be stared at in a bikini, so we stayed by the pool for the most part. I was impressed that Patrick was able to stay out with me every day as long as he did. Poor Wrigster though as we had to keep him in the house for the most part. But don't worry, my parents came down to spend the weekend with us and they brought Tucker with them.

  Patrick and I enjoyed dinner at The Oyster House the first night we got down to the beach and were pleasantly surprised when we were able to walk right in with no wait! Now I know many people have decided to forego their beach trips this year due to the oil spill, but it still didn't explain the walk-right-into The Oyster House on a Sunday night. Thanks to the trusty iphone, we found out that Jimmy Buffett was playing a free concert down on the public beach at the T. We saw some snippets of him on the tv and it seemed like a great concert.

  We also ate at a place called Cosmo's, but once you've had crabcakes from Louisiana Lagniappe, you can't really get crabcakes from anywhere else. Like I said, my parents and sister came down for the weekend and we ate at The Oyster House again and we introduced my parents to Louisiana Lagniappe. Mmm, so good!! Ever since we went there last year with Kat and Dave to meet Kat's dad, it has become my favorite place to eat at the beach. They bring out hushpuppies first and then a salad and all the entrees come with a twice baked creole potato. P had the lobster tails and shrimp Étouffée while I had the crabcakes though I could only finish 3 of the 4 (yes, they give you FOUR fantastic crabcakes). Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about them!! Take me back to the beach now!

                                   

                                   

  Tucker came down with my parents to the beach and ever since he has been a wee little pup, he has always traveled to the beach with them. So once they arrived, Tucker was itching to get down to the beach. This being the first time the Wrigster has ever been down to the beach, he had no idea what the beach was. All he knew was that he would follow Tucker and especially my mom (his Grandma-ma) wherever they go. I mean, look at the picture below. Both Tucker and Wrigley are waiting for my mom to take them to the beach.
                                  

  We are about to go down to the beach and are so excited!! We asked Tucker if he wanted to go down to the beach and he took one look at us and bolted out the door and down the sidewalks. He didn't stop walking until we made it all the way down to the boardwalk. Wrigley was just following along behind Tucker and my mom. He really had no idea about the beach yet, but was just running right along with Tuck.

  My mom really didn't want to take the pups down onto the beach due to the oil, but once Tucker reached the pier, he wouldn't stop. My mom was trying to hold Tucker back, but my sister and I convinced her to let the pups go down to the sand right off the boardwalk.

  And once we got onto the beach, this is what Tucker did. Yup, he just sat down on the sand and stared out at the ocean. That little fatty wouldn't budge. He was probably the happiest corgi I've ever seen. I'm so glad that we allowed the pups down on the beach. Now we only let them chill out on the beach for a while, but while Tucker could have stayed there forever, Wrigley was seeking out people to love on him. He is such an attention hog! He was lucky to find a lady and her two kids who had had a corgi and loved Wrigley. Tucker could have cared less that anyone else was around; he was on his beach watching the waves and was perfectly content. 

                                  

                                  

  That pretty much sums up our first week at the beach! Next up, second week recap to come!

We're Baaaack!

Exhausted, but we are all back in Atlanta. More to come about our
whereabouts this week after I've recovered from my vacation!

Overwhelming

Yes, that would be a table full of pictures that I have yet to put in albums! I have decided that I am going to organize all of them this week. This morning, I laid them all out and have now dated all of them with the help of Patrick. (I have no idea how the man remembers dates, but he is good and I'm lucky to have him!!)

The one small problem is that I only have 4 albums and somehow, I don't think all of these pictures will be able to make it into those albums!! Whew, here we go, September of 2007...

What did you do on the Fourth?

  After watching our friends, Kat and Dave, run the Peachtree at the crack of dawn, we ate a delicous

breakfast at J. Christopher's.

Almost to the end

                         

Kat and Dave after finishing!

Then we lounged on the couch and watched about four hours of 24. Next, we headed over to meet some of P's friends at their pool. I greatly enjoyed talking about all of the guys sporting speedos that we saw there! You've got to love Ansley!

After P got tired of the pool scene (I simply don't understand it!), we ended up going back to our

house and these two below fell asleep as I caught up on all my trashy

tv shows.

 

  Once Patrick and Wrigley woke up from their lazy nap, we watched Valentine's Day before watching one last dvd of 24. We had to pause the movie once the fireworks started because Wrigley was terrified and started barking. Oh, how I just love that he has now learned about his inner bark! Thank goodness the show at Lenox didn't last very long at all or we wouldn't have been able to stand it. I was also very glad that Wrigley finally settled back down once the fireworks ended and he was able to go to bed. I was a little sad that we didn't at least drive over to one of the nearby parking lots to watch the fireworks, but I was simply too tired. If our house wasn't down in the valley, we would be able to see the Lenox show, but I was glad we stayed home with the Wrigster so he wasn't by himself during the show. How did you spend your fourth?

Frozen Goods

  Last night after I got home from work, Patrick and I decided to walk to the new frozen yogurt store, . And, yum! There's a place similar to it in Mississippi that we went with Cameron and Kilby and I'm glad we now have one that's so close to us! I am normally a pretty plain girl and ate the chocolate with strawberries while Patrick had at least 2 different kinds of yogurt with a ridiculous amount of toppings. Sadly, his gummi worms froze while his yogurt melted. Ha! We have been waiting all spring for the store to open and I'm glad it is now open for the hottest part of summer? One of the girls said everything kept getting pushed back with the store and she decided she would just work there for the summer because she was so excited it was opening. I loved it. The only downside is that there aren't enough tables inside or outside for the amount of people who are wanting to enjoy the yogurt. But we were fine just eating it while standing outside. It might become a regular occurrence for us. Yogurt is low fat, right?

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