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!

Ravioli Time!

We wanted to have dinner with John and Paige, so we decided on a house dinner on the front porch-- probably the best thing about getting along so well with our neighbors! Jeremy invited Nandan and Anu over and we had a make your own ravioli party!

Paige gets excited about her first ravioli!

Jeremy's up next!

Curried potatoes, butternut squash, spinach, bacon, gruyere cheese, ricotta cheese, and walnuts were on our ingredients buffet-- YUM!

Nandan and Anu sample the options

John takes a gander

Paige and I toast to a lovely evening-- that's the kurta Nandan brought me back from his last trip to India. Ignore the random lady in the background...

Violet was obsessed with Jeremy's marathon medal

AND my high heels! We had to distract her just to get her to leave them here!

Sushi Sushi!

We would normally never go somewhere this expensive but, in an effort to have the best birthday ever, we hit up Nori Nori, the all you can eat sushi buffet which was AWESOME! I'll save the strict review for Yelp, but I highly recommend this place for your group sushi needs!

I normally have really horrid birthdays-- everything from people picking fights to folks flat out not showing up when they said they would. I was, as always, cautiously optimistic about my birthday...

A lot of folks showed up, which meant a great deal to me since people don't usually come in droves to my birthday, and everyone seemed to really enjoy mingling with everyone else-- I had lots of different groups of friends, and it warmed my heart to see everyone getting along :)

Best Birthday Ever. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner was a hit this year and, as always, went off without a hitch! I know everyone has some exciting story about Thanksgiving, and I guess I do have one but it always slips my mind-- I'll throw that in after the pictures.

In addition to us, mom, David, and Casey, mom's friend Sharon and her son Alex came, as well as Michael and the kids and Emmy-- a fantastic crowd! We spent the day cleaning, cooking, and watching what ended up being a mini-Rourke marathon with Iron Man 2 and The Expendables. I cooked a sweet potato casserole (which everyone said was the best they'd ever had!), and did the turkey and stuffing/dressing, plus the cranberry sauce-- all of these were first time experiences for me and they all came out amazing!

Pictures, of course, for your viewing pleasure:

Belle perked up when she saw mom with ham

So we treated her-- it's Thanksgiving after all!

The tongs from the ham fell on the floor-- guilty much?

mom's pretty mantle. Even if the teensy lightshade is tippled...

Jeremy and Sharon work the logistics of getting the bird to the carving plate

VICTORY!

I carve the turkey!

Everyone waiting for dinner

Violet used my old records as weapons of mass distraction

"I can have some, yeeeeeesssss?"

FOOD! (without the sweet potato casserole, that was warming in the oven)

Pretty table

Violet instructs Uncle Jeremy on the finer points of what will eventually go in her belly

Michael's been beaten and Violet realizes that there's food on Aunt Meg's plate to steal now!

We shall see this mischievous look more than once in her life!

It was a great meal and great company, I'm so glad we all got to come together!

My fun Thanksgiving story, for posterity:

It was my first year at the airline and I was living in Memphis. I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so I'd flown in to Atlanta a couple of days before and flew back on Thanksgiving day (fantastic day to travel, btw, business class was just me and another FA!). As the plane was taking off in Atlanta, I realized that I had not bought a turkey or even turkey breasts! When I landed, I called Amy to see if she knew of anywhere that would still be open and the only place we could think of was the Middle Eastern market so I went and got chicken breasts. We were having Jeremy and Ashley over for dinner, and I think Zac as well, and we'd been cooking up a storm when Ashley called to say she was there-- I went out to meet her and then Jeremy got there and I completely forgot about the chicken in the oven! It was sooo dried out it was nearly inedible, and we dug through the fridge and covered them with BBQ Sauce and Ashley opted for ketchup. It was still a great Thanksgiving, though!

My best friend's wedding!

From Girl Scouts to Married Ladies!

One of my nearest and dearest friends from childhood got married today! Jill Marie, I love you and I'm so honored I was invited to join you for your wedding! All our love and best wishes!

Memphis and Analia

Of course I wrote about going to see Ana and Valerie in Memphis, but since I left my camera there I couldn't share any of the few pictures I got! There aren't really any pictures of her, me, and Jeremy which is what I really wanted, but you know...

"Come on, Aunt Meg!"

Jan and Ana

Ana and me

I thought this one was pretty cute

She loved eating the ice cubes out of Jan's mug

And playing with my Blackberry and Jan's iPhone!

She's such a sweet girl, I really wish we got to see her more often. Hopefully, Matt and Valerie will re-use their plan to leave Ana in the States when they go pick up the boys in Africa so we can see her some more!