Five Years!

We celebrated our fifth anniversary this past weekend! I really can't believe it's been five years. It feels like it went so fast, but at the same time, so much has changed in our lives so it kind of feels like a lot longer.

On Friday night, our actual anniversary, we went to dinner at Hot and Hot Fish Club. We really like to celebrate, and for us, that usually means a lot of food. ;) We had appetizers, our entrees, *and* dessert! Everything was so, so good.

Emery was spending the night at my sister's house, so we got to pretend like we were dating again and go to a movie at 10:00. I totally fell asleep for a few minutes...I'm not as young as I used to be.

Since five years is kind of a milestone, we wanted to do something extra to celebrate, so we went to Orange Beach for a few days. We've never left Emery for more than one night, so we didn't want to be gone for too long. She was in very good hands with my parents, though. I don't think they wanted to give her back to us!

We left on Sunday morning and as I've mentioned before, to us celebration = food! We had ourselves a little breakfast appetizer at Krispy Kreme {sour cream cake donuts!!!!} and then had a Croissan'wich at Burger King. I seriously had a Croissan'wich almost every Friday morning before work when I was pregnant. :)

Now that is a great way to start a trip!!

Then we were on our way to Orange Beach! We couldn't check in to our hotel until 4:00, so we had planned to go to lunch somewhere and also do a little shopping at the outlet mall in Foley. When we got closer, we started seeing billboards for Lambert's and I knew we had to stop. I've heard all about how they throw rolls. Normally, I'm not really into people throwing things at me, but when carbs are involved, go right ahead. We placed bets on our way on how many times I'd get hit with a roll. We thought they'd just be flying nonstop, but apparently there are designated times for the roll throwing.

Daniel strategically sat against the wall so he could see them coming and warn me to duck if needed!

He caught two rolls for me! My hero! :)

Once we checked in to our hotel, we headed to the beach for a couple of hours before dinner. I just love the sound of those waves and that ocean breeze. There is just nothing like it.

We went to a restaurant called Cobalt that night. We really wanted to go somewhere that had outdoor seating and was on the water and this was perfect. They had a huge outdoor seating area with palm trees, lights, and live music. It was right on the bay so we got to watch boats go by. It totally made us both want a boat.

Monday was our only full day in Orange Beach, so we spent a lot of time on the beach! We rented chairs and an umbrella and took little catnaps all morning while we listened to the waves. It was perfect. We took a quick break for lunch and a quick walk around the marina, then headed back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

We had so much fun on Monday night. We went to dinner at The Gulf which was probably my favorite restaurant we went to on our whole trip. The whole place is outside with a beautiful view of the beach and they have lots of picnic tables and outdoor furniture set up right in the sand. We loved it!

There were piers really close to The Gulf, so we walked down one of the piers to watch the sun set and got to see a dolphin! I tried to get a picture of his fin sticking up out of the water, but that guy was too quick for me. It was really neat to see, though! You can just barely see it in this picture.

After a quick trip to Publix to get a couple of things for breakfast, we headed back to the hotel so I could change because we were going to race go karts. Yes. You read that right. We're really just big kids.

Too busy buckling up to pay attention for a picture. Safety first!

Daniel claims that he just had a slow go kart, but I totally beat him. ;)

It was pretty late by then, so we stopped by The Hangout for some midnight snacks and souvenir shopping. The food there was just okay, but it was a really fun place!

We had to check out of our hotel the next morning by 11:00, so we really didn't have time to go to the beach. Instead we slept as late as we could...which is about 8:00 these days and ate powdered donuts in bed while we watched Royal Pains on Netflix. Pretty perfect morning...

We packed up our stuff and headed to lunch at Lulu's. We knew we wanted to go here because we've heard a lot about it {and we've seen tons of those t-shirts!} and it was definitely a fun place! It worked out well because it was on our way home.

We were in and out of there pretty quick because we were ready to get home to our little sweetheart! We weren't even gone that long, but we missed her so much!! We got to my parents' house around 4:30 so we had a few hours to play with her before it was her bedtime. The little stinker teased us and didn't even act excited to see us for a minute or two. :)

She loved her little purse we got her at The Hangout and wore it for a while. When it would slide off her shoulder, she'd swing her arm so it would go back up! Haha!

We had such a great time celebrating five amazing years and can't wait to go back to Orange Beach with Emery later this summer!

  

Babymoon in Nashville! {January 31, 2014-February 2, 2014}

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for the weekend for our babymoon...one last little getaway before our sweet little baby gets here. It was the week of the first round of snow and ice in Alabama so I didn't have school that day and Daniel worked from home. It was so nice that it worked out that way because we were able to leave earlier in the afternoon instead of waiting until after work. More time in Nashville! Of course, I woke up with what I thought were just allergies but then turned into a cold...which is why I look pretty pitiful in these pictures.

Oh, and just a heads up...we ate. A LOT. That's one of the best things about being on vacation, right? :)

Once we got to the hotel and got checked in, we found our room {no small task in this *giant* hotel} and immediately opened the balcony doors to check out the view. We loved it so much that our balcony doors pretty much stayed open all the time unless we were sleeping.

The first night, we stayed at the hotel {you never really have to leave} to eat dinner.

We ate first {yes, there were two dinners involved} at the Mexican restaurant and had their famous guacamole, and then a few hours later we ate at our very favorite restaurant in the hotel, Wasabi's. I was so excited to have some sushi. It was cooked, of course. :)

Later, we stopped by Bravo Gelato for some dessert. So, so yummy! Then we just walked around the hotel to enjoy all the scenery {and so Daniel could take 378 pictures that I later had to sort through}.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast at the little coffee shop in the hotel. They call it The Cocoa Bean, but it's basically a Starbucks. Even the cups have the Starbucks logo.

The view is just as beautiful in the morning.

Once we got ready for the day, we went to another section of the hotel that has more restaurants and cute little shops.

We ate lunch, did a little shopping, and then headed to the *huge* outlet mall right next door to the hotel.

I've heard people say that once you have kids, you really don't shop for yourself anymore. That's definitely proving to be true! Everywhere we go now, we see things for the baby that we want to buy! We got some adorable little outfits at the Carter's outlet! Daddy was taking it pretty seriously, too. I love this. And no, that's not a purse...it's a camera bag. ;)

After a LOT of shopping, those mall massage chairs were calling my name. I've never actually used one before, but oh my goodness, it was wonderful! Those leg squeezy things were so nice! And of course, no trip to the mall is complete without a visit to Cinnabon!

Once we got back to the hotel, we got ready for dinner and headed out to one of the "fancier" restaurants in the hotel.

We ended up going to Ravello, an Italian restaurant. Umm, let me just go ahead and save you some trouble here...not worth it. It's really pretty and has a great atmosphere, but it was overpriced and just not delicious. :(

Oh well, there's always the second dinner! ;) We walked around for a little while, taking more pictures of the scenery. This place really is just so gorgeous at night.

Then it was back to Wasabi's for one last try at dinner. It didn't disappoint, as usual.

The next morning, we woke up much earlier than we planned {I was feeling *awful* by this time!}, ate breakfast at the hotel, and headed back home. We can't wait to take Emery with us someday!! :)

**Oh, and teacher friends, don't forget that the hotel offers a teacher appreciation rate of $99 a night!! You just have to call a couple of months ahead. :)

  

{Five on Friday} September 13, 2013

TGIF!! Fridays are seriously my favorite. For some reason, Fridays mean that it's totally acceptable for me to go to Sonic on my way to work and get a junior breakfast burrito and a Route 44 strawberry limeade {like every week}. I make all kinds of rationalizations like that on Fridays. I mean, I need some fuel to get through a crazy Friday with 20 eight-year-olds, right? :)

So I haven't done one of these posts in a while...that might have something to do with the fact that I've been going to bed around 8:30 every night here lately. I think I might finally be getting a little of my energy back, though. Maybe I can start making it to 9:00. :) Anyway, here's my Five on Friday for this week.

One.
Daniel went on a business trip to New York City at the beginning of this week. I was super jealous because I *really* want to go to New York City. I seriously hate it when he's gone. I worry way too much. For example, he got to his hotel the first night around 11:30 and hadn't even had dinner yet. He told me that he and his boss were going to walk a few blocks to go to this burger place for dinner. My response: "Honey, be careful. I hate the thought of you walking around at midnight on dark streets." Clearly, I've never been to New York City. He assured me that the streets weren't dark and sent me this picture. I mean, I knew that the streets wouldn't be completely deserted, but I did not think it would be like this at midnight! I guess it really is the city that never sleeps.

Two.
September is a *major* birthday month in our family. Within two weeks, both of my parents have birthdays and both Daniel and I have birthdays. There are so many birthday meals and birthday treats in our future! Yay! :) Daniel asked me what I wanted and I finally came up with this Urban Decay Naked2 eyeshadow palette. I've heard so much about it on other blogs! By the way, does anyone else have a hard time coming up with things you want the older you get?! It seems like it gets harder for me every year.

Three.
I am determined to add some sort of festive cheer to our front porch for fall this year. Every year, I have the best intentions. Then September turns into November and I decide that it's not even worth it at that point. Oh, and just to prove how indecisive I am, we went to Hobby Lobby last week and bought everything I needed to make this moss covered monogram for the front door. Aaaannnd, I'm heading back to Hobby Lobby tomorrow to return it all. I just kept thinking about how mad I would be if I spent the money to make it and it ended up looking horrible. So, I think I'll just exchange it for a wreath that's already made. At least then I *know* I'll like it. :) Oh, and if you want some front porch inspiration, check out this post from Six Sisters' Stuff. It just makes me want to go on a hayride, carve a pumpkin, and cozy up with a big mug of apple cider!

Four.
We love a good game night around here every once in a while...Phase 10 is one of our favorites. Well, our Saturday night last weekend consisted of junk food and a new game. I've been hearing about this game called Farkle and decided to order it when I needed to add a little more to my Amazon cart to get the free shipping. At first we thought the scoring was going to be complicated, but it ended up being really easy to catch on to once you played a couple of rounds. Oh, and I won. :)

Five.
I love it when I have a reason to bake something. The girls in our community group at church are having a Pinterest party on Sunday night. Everyone is supposed to bring something they've pinned but never made. We're also going to make some kind of craft. I'm super excited about it! Now, I just have to figure out what I'm going to make. My dessert board on Pinterest definitely gets the most attention. I have 558 dessert pins! These peanut butter brownie buddies look pretty yummy...and perfectly poppable! Decisions, decisions...

Well, whatever you end up doing this weekend, I hope you have a wonderful one! :)