My Birthday

I had a great birthday on Wednesday!

My day started off with a call from one of my favorites.

then I came home to find this

Steven and I went out to eat that night to a new place and it was great!  No pictures from that night :(

the next night we celebrated with the fam...gluten free birthday cake and all

to say that Fulton loved the cake would be an understatement :)

then he helped me open my gifts

after he told us about the picture of Adam and Eve he had colored

then a little birthday kiss from my buddy

we did a little more celebrating over the weekend with friends

cookie cake...my favorite

To round out my birthday weekend, Steven's parents came on Sunday and we had a great lunch at one of our favorites...Firebird's!

Sadly, we did not get any pictures :(

Thanks to all my family and friends for helping make my day so special!

Spring Break

Even though my Spring Break days are long over, we still acted like we had one and took a long weekend getaway to Gatlinburg,

First up...Dollywood.

It was opening day and was a wee bit crowded but we were still able to do everything we wanted to.

Fulton loved all of the kid sized rides too!

We overheard a few people talking about the parade which we had heard nothing about.  Turns out Dolly, herself, was actually in the parade.  So we staked out our spot to get a good glimpse of her.

After going to Dollywood over 25 years of my life we have never seen her, so this was a nice little surprise!

Nothing like sitting your camera on top of the garbage can to get a group picture :)

We had perfect weather for Dollywood...the next day not so much.  It was rainy and cold.

So we checked out one of the local arcade and wasted donated some of our money to their facilities.  We all pooled our winnings together for Fulton a cheap little plastic toy.  

someone was loving their dessert after lunch

The rain finally tapered off, so we stopped at a park for some fun.

These two are having a serious discussion right here...probably about trains, cars or tractors if I had to guess.

We headed home the next day.  I think it is safe to say this little guy was worn out.

Fancy

We had the opportunity to get all fancied up to attend the 50th anniversary celebration for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (from the Univ of AL) at the Wynfrey Hotel Saturday night. 

The had a silent auction before the event started.  There were some mighty fine stuff to bid on...anything from a beach umbrella and chairs to a nice trip to Italy.

All dressed up

Long time friends of Mom and Dad's, Mike and Debi

Friends of our, Jen and Eric

"which one of these forks I am supposed to use?"  --Kristen 

Of course our table was on the front row, so we have to behave

After dinner and the speakers, there was a live auction, with a real auctioneer...something I had never experienced before.  

It was a really great hearing Barrett Jones, one of the Bama coaches, as well as others and how the FCA has impacted their lives on Alabama's campus.

Snow

We have had some major cold weather around here lately.  Kids (and teachers) have missed more school this year than in the last 10 years combined.

They cancelled school on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday just to watch it rain.  Then finally on Wednesday night this started around 7:00... 

and it continued to come down...

until our front yard and the road in front of our house was completely covered

the snow at Fulton's house melted pretty quickly the next morning, so he came over after I left for work so he could build a snowman

 Unfortunately, by the time I got home, there wasn't much left of his snowman :(

Enough with the cold weather!  Bring on the warmer weather!

40

This year was a big birthday for Steven!

We started out with presents a few days before his birthday

Steven wanted to go to Nashville for the weekend for his birthday.  So we traveled half way on Friday afternoon and spent the night in Huntsville.  Two of Steven's friends that he grew up with (who happened to be married to each other) were also in Huntsville celebrating her 40th birthday on Friday night.

We ended up eating dinner with them and had such a great time!

The restaurant even treated Steven and Lisa to creme brulee for dessert!

We hit the road after breakfast Saturday morning for Nashville.  Even though it was Steven's birthday weekend, we couldn't pass right through Mere's town without stopping to say hello to one of my dear friends!

We had a nice quick visit...but it was so great to see Mere, Justin and the girls!

Next stop was downtown Franklin, where we walked through the town, in and out of a few shops and eventually stopping for lunch at an Irish Pub.

The main thing Steven had on his to do list was go to a Predators hockey game.

These folks are serious about their hockey.  They were all decked out in jerseys and all...like we were at an Alabama game or something :)

The hockey game was tons of fun, but I'm not gonna lie...it was cold in there.

After the game, we hit up a local honky tonk joint and listened to a few bands play for the rest of the evening.

When we got home Sunday afternoon, we walked into a fully decorated kitchen for "Uncle Pete's" birthday.

Mom and sister were so nice to do this for Steven while we were gone.  It was definitely a fun surprise!

We had dinner that night at Mom & Dad and Fulton was wanted to help Pete blow out his candle.  Although he was having a little trouble, and kept blowing straight up in his hair, instead of toward the candle :)

He did get it blown out though.

The celebrating continued through this weekend with dinner with friends at a local Mexican restaurant

Steven loved wearing the hat...can you tell?!

Last birthday shindig was lunch yesterday with Steven's parents at Village Tavern.