Sweet Home Alabama

 

Alabama has a lot of my childhood memories in it and I know a lot of people don't expect me to have family there haha. Montgomery is not a top destination to visit but my grandparents always made it a cozy welcome when I was little. :) It's true what they say about southern hospitality! I remember having family gatherings during the holidays, playing with my cousins, enjoying each others company, especially my Granny.. her cooking and the white chocolate covered peanut butter Ritz cracker sandwiches she always use to make during the holidays. :) I really miss her. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of  beautiful parts of Alabama!

 I haven't gone back since 2008 and decided it was time to pay a visit. So I went this November.. and it just so happens that my birthday would come during this trip! I thought this was great because I haven't spent my birthday with my dad's side of the family since I was a little girl. Oliver couldn't come with me this time because of... you wanna guess?? :) A lot has changed since I've been gone.  I got to spend quality time with my sister who is growing up. My dad and step mom had special plans for us so I didn't get to see all of my family with a short trip but I did get to spend time with my grandpa of course and see my aunt and uncle and one of my grandma's sisters. I'm not complaining about the plans though! I was really happy to spend quality time with my dad that I rarely get to do and it was important to me. There were a few "first" on this trip. First time I met my new step mother Kelli who is a beautiful woman inside and out, first time I met my new step brothers, first time my dad and I worked out together, first time I stayed in his new house, first time I went to the beach in Alabama, and the first time my dad brought me there. Here are a few pictures:

Pictures with my sister, step mom and dad

   

                    

 
Out to dinner

 

         My Dad & I

     

Hanging out on my dad's porch with a fire pit and drink

                                   

                         

  Where we stayed for 3 days and our view from our room!

                         

                 
        
                        
                                                           
                                    
                                                                    Isn't this pretty?
                                           

                                                       When in the south... eat grits :p

          

 

             Florida was only 7 miles away, so we decided to visit the popular bar Flora-Bama...They were actually having a church service there LOL.

 

At the State line between Florida and Alabama

As we headed back to Prattville, (Where my dad and step mom live) we celebrated my birthday at their house for dinner with family. We had a good home made southern dinner. Country Fried Steak and mashed potatoes with red velvet cake to finish with.

 

                                             

                                                      With my Grandpa and Dad
                                      

                                                          Being goofy with Kelli
                                      

 I got some really nice birthday gifts and I am thankful for all of them but this is one I'd like to share. Kelli had her co-worker who's an artist do a painting that represented Oliver and I. I loved it because it was so original and made just for us. This is so sweet and so special to Oliver and I. Thank you sooooo much Kelli!! This means a lot to us and we both love this! Tell your co-worker thank you!

 

 

                        

I'm really glad I got to visit because time is precious especially when you don't see certain family that often. My dad mentioned a few times before how nice it would be if we could all go to the beach and I'm so happy he made it happen! We made a lot of great memories and next time Oliver will join us. I'm going to make sure the next time we visit won't have a 4 year gap. However, I was happy to fly back into San Diego. This view is always nice to come home to:

 

I just want to say thank you to my Dad and Kelli for giving me a memorable time and everything that you've both done for me. I can't thank you enough and can't wait to see you both again. I love and miss you already. Kelli, you are amazing and I'm so happy my dad has you in his life. I can see how happy you make him and that makes me love you even more. Until we see each other again, we always have Facebook!

An Old Fashion Halloween Party

                                    

When I think about Halloween, I think of the movie Hocus Pocus and how Halloween is really a celebration. The weather is cooler, trick or treaters, and traditional Halloween parties.. That is my ideal Halloween! I never been to a traditional Halloween party where it's at a house full of decorations, scary looking food, everyone dressed up, and games like bobbing for apples. I really wanted to go to something like this. I was determined! Not the "excuse to get drunk, wear lingerie college type with little to no food party " I'm talking about the REAL Halloween spirit party with friends and family. This year I was really gung ho about it. Perhaps it was because we didn't do anything for the passed few years. So when our friends Mike and Michelle were willing to throw one at their house, I got really excited! The best part was that they were just as excited, if not more excited to host it and doing it the old school way also. They were really creative to.  ;)

The turn out was better than expected! Though we didn't do bobbing for apples but we did have costume contests and raffle prizes and a lot of food and decorations! Oh and of course alcohol! Oliver definitely had a good time but I won't go into detail with that LOL. One thing I do have to say is that alcohol is definitely confidence juice.. because I was dancing everywhere and didn't think twice about how I looked. I was trying to sweat off the alcohol I consumed! I didn't want to miss the party that we've been planning for 2 months. I can say we definitely had a REAL Halloween party and we got a lot of compliments on how it was!  Almost everyone who came was in a costume and looked great and we had a lot of people show up! I would have to say at least 60 people. Mike, Michelle, Marie and I had a great time planning this. It's bittersweet because it's over but it was so much fun and we're happy to know it was a success. Thank you again Mike and Michelle for having it at your house! You guys are awesome and great hosts. Definitely was a good time! Possibility next year? ;)

Our Costume

Mr. & Mrs. Addams

                                 

                                               Mike & Michelle with their pretty baby Khloe

                                                

 

 

The Hosts: Me, Marie and Michelle plus Lizel about to eat me

Our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary!

                                      

I can't believe it's been 1 year since our beautiful and amazing wedding day! Married life is great especially when you know it's with the right person.

Of course celebrating our first year as husband and wife is a MUST! We couldn't really do anything like go out of town for the weekend or spend a lot of $. We've been laying low and not going out as much this September. Definitely a change from August! Oliver in the Nursing Program is like being a full time parent. It's that serious! Even weekends are taken over by studying. I'm glad to say it's paying off though! He's been doing very well! Anyway, I was really happy to hear we could spend the WHOLE day Saturday celebrating our union. Our anniversary falls on a Monday this year, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday due to... you guessed it! School. Here is how the day went:

We first started the morning by going to Coronado for brunch at this little cafe called Crown Bistro. The crab egg benedicts were delicious! AND they used real crab meat! AND it was only around $13!

After brunch we decided to go and relax on the beach. We picked the best spot which was the shore. It wasn't busy, the weather was nice, and our view was Down Town SD. This is where the ferry comes in.

Oliver fell asleep

A little while after, we decided to look at shops and then go to a wine bar called Wine Styles. It was really nice out so we decided to have our drink and snacks on the patio and people watch.

After the drinks, we walked the streets and made our way to Hotel Del Coronado's beach. This place is beautiful. We didn't lay on this beach but we plan to one day!

We decided to kill time by going back to down town SD and looked around in Horton Plaza Mall. Of course we had to stop for Starbucks!

Thanks to Livingsocial.com, I got a really good deal on a sunset cruise in Mission Bay. It's called Whale Watch San Diego but we didn't see any whales that day. However, the sunset was very pretty and romantic!

After our cruise, we had reservations at a restaurant across the street called Firefly which was at the Dana Hotel. Everything we ate was great and I actually recommend this to anyone in the area even if it's part of a hotel.

                                                   
                                                             Ended the day with dessert!

We had to celebrate at least a little bit on our actual wedding anniversary, so we had red velvet cake (what we had on our wedding day) that I made with a bottle of Perrier Jouet Champagne that someone gave us at our wedding and we've been saving for this day.

We enjoyed celebrating our anniversary like this so much I think we might make this a tradition when our anniversary comes up. Instead of just dinner, we'll do an all day activity date. I honestly feel the memories together are more important than things like anniversary gifts...not saying gifts are not nice to get! :) This was our gift to each other. Happy Anniversary Babe! I look forward to spending many many more days like this together. You are a wonderful husband and I feel so blessed to have you in my life. Thank you for all you do. I love you.