In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina...

But only because we were actually there this weekend and had such an amazing time!! My Aunt and Uncle live up there and we used to go all the TIME when I was little-- that place is the best! We drove up Thursday after work and we made the first half in fantastic time since you can average 76mph, and the second half made me want to fall asleep since you can average 45mph...

We drove past a beautiful fair that I would have stopped to take pictures of if we'd known, a couple of places that sounded like cheap strip clubs (but were not), found a Chinese restaurant that popped out of Decatur existence suddenly last summer (hey, they were both named Jin Jin and both had the same sign-- coincidence, I think not!, and arrived unharmed just before Aunt and Uncle hit the hay.

Friday we slept in a bit and then talked Uncle in to taking us out on the boat-- MY FAVORITE THING!

I even "caught" a Spanish Mackerel! Couldn't get any baitfish, of course, but there you go! Afterwards, we went to lunch at the Inlet View which was DELISH. The hush puppies were yummy, then I had a scallop burger with the biggest, juciest scallops I've ever had in my life! They get them fresh, apparently, and you can tell! Before we left, we also picked up some bacon wrapped scallops which I can still taste they were so good!

Me and Aunt Linda before lunch

Inlet View. And a large boat!

Eupogia-- my cousin's idea for keeping bait fish for the many tournaments they fish!

That evening we went to The Cattle Barn and WOW it was amazing. The sushi there was probably the best I've ever had in my life! 

Fresh grouper sashimi-- straight from Uncle's boat!

I ate until I could eat no more, and then Chef Mark stopped bringing food out which was good, because I totally would have kept eating!!

Saturday was a lazy day, we went to lunch at the G-Mac with Aunt, Uncle, and my cousin-twice-by-marriage Stephanie and new baby Blakely-- just pretend like there's a picture of them here that I actually took...

But, there's one of them anyway-- Stephanie is so sweet and Blakely is going to be Trouble (with a capital T!) but cute enough to be worth it!

We ran up to the little farmer's market up the road and picked up some produce, then the grocery store for some wine, and back around to the house for a relaxing afternoon!

Watermelon colored gourds

Stripey gourds

Turban squash

Aunt Linda and her Baby Squash

Later that afternoon, we got to work cooking and then had a great night with my cousin Brant and his family-- the best part? Discovering that all three of the cousins have the same memory of the 4th of July Uncle blew a hole in the beach!!

Guacamole? Check

Pico? Check.

Apple Crisp ready for the oven? Check

Fire pit? Check.

Apple Crisp ready? Check.

Toddler double fisting said apple crisp? Sweet.

Adorable family-- triple check!

Thanks for sticking through this long-- it was a fantastic weekend and we can't wait to get back!

Chickamauga

So we stopped at Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefield on our way back in to town, a civil war site which was a win for the South tactically, though they lost almost 2,000 more men than the North. I was very impressed with the displays they had evaluating the causes of the Civil War (it wasn't just slavery, y'all!) and showing the progression of the war including all the major milestones. The most impressive collection was that of a man who donated his gun collection to the battlefield! The guns ranged in age from 1803-1913! 

I figured out that my phone camera was PERFECT for shooting detail through the glass because I could put the lens up to the glass (thus avoiding the reflection issue) and it was willing to focus on something close up and fairly well. These pictures were re-sized, so if you want a closer look at some of the amazing details on the trigger areas on these.

Republic of Texas Gun

Gun forged at Harper's Ferry, which changed sides 8 times during the War!

I thought this one was quite nice

And this is the butt of the gun!

The one with the filigree is in the middle

Shovel or bayonet? You make the call-- though I think it could be a dual use sort of thing.

British gun from the Civil War

Belt buckles found on the grounds at Chickamauga 

North Georgia

We are back safe and sound from Knoxville, a detailed (but boring) post to follow-- until then, enjoy the scenic view in North Georgia. LOVE my home state!

Holla back internets

Life, as always, has been pretty busy lately-- the transition from summer to after school has almost completed itself and our new checkout system is in place at work so things are going fairly well on that front. We're also getting a chance to relax at home and since after school is on, I get to think about taking a break!

This weekend, we're going to Knoxville thanks to a LivingSocial escape-- I'm DEFINITELY excited for a three day weekend to relax with Jeremy and to see S-K and Chelsea while we're there! The deal lands us two nights in the Presidential Whirlpool Suite, a facial massage at an Aveda salon, and a trip to the movies! I'm very excited, we definitely need a weekend of relaxation. I'll take the computer anyway, but I'm dedicated to not checking work stuff the entire time we're there. Period!

Next month we have a week that we could potentially take off, and we're hoping to go to NC to see my Aunt and Uncle. We'd thought about going up to Memphis, but it looks like Ana won't be there by the time we'll get there. We really hope we get to see her again before they leave the country because we promised we would, but we'll see how long it takes for them to get everything straightened out. We'll also be in Memphis at the end of October for homecoming and then up to Indiana for Thanksgiving. Since all the schools have the entire week off for Thanksgiving, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have enough people to sign up for Thanksgiving break and we'll get the whole week off automatically! What a blessing THAT would be!!

Christmas is here this year with my mom, and she's really excited to have us be at OBC for their services. It's a nice, quiet, peaceful service and even though we won't have a white Christmas like last year I'm sure it'll be beautiful! I need to figure out what we're going to do for our second anniversary, too. I've already decided that I want to have everyone sign the guest book from the wedding at each anniversary. I missed last year, but I can start this year-- there's so much space left in that book, and every year that we're together we have more friends and there's nothing to say that our anniversaries aren't just as special as our wedding!

I'll stop there and see if I can think of anything more interesting to post-- if nothing else, I'll put up pictures from Knoxville when we get back!

The rest of the time

I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do, we were all still a little worn out this week! But, here are a few from our last couple of days together.

Sarah baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies-- they weren't the prettiest!

"Now Muriel plays piano every Friday at the Hollywood." - "Walkin' in Memphis"

The inside was SO cute!

Jeremy had frog legs!

Which, of course, he had to turn in to a sideshow :)

And his first intentional beet eating since childhood!

PEACH COBBLER!

Glittery cupcakes! So yummy!