Savannah, Georgia

To celebrate our 5th year anniversary, Paul and I thought it would be fun to do a short trip since there are so many locations close by that we have never seen.  We decided on Savannah, GA after I got a great "groupon" deal for a bed and breakfast.  This was the perfect location for a short getaway.  We woke up at about 6 am Friday morning and headed south.

We drove Paul's car and it was great to see how much gas we saved :)

It only took us 4 hours to get there, so we drove around for a bit and then decided to see if we could get a seat at Paula Deen's restaurant.  Normally you have to go at 9 am and get your name on a list for lunch or dinner.  Some of our friends in Atlanta told us they just sat at the bar so we asked if bar seating was available and got right in!

 Paul's restaurant is called The Lady & Sons and it was not what I expected at all.  It has three floors and each floor had it's own buffet attached to it.  It was decorated very country, I guess I expected it to be nicer.

 Paul with the famous "pot pie" dish.  He loved every bite

I got the crab cake burger, but my picture with my food was not blog worthy!  We both enjoyed or lunch choices and loved the biscuits that our server routinely brought around.  I even tried a fried green tomato!

After lunch we headed over to out bed and breakfast and checked in.

 We stayed at the Forsyth Park Inn and it located right next to Forsyth Park which was absolutely charming and beautiful!

 This is where breakfast was served the next morning

 The garden area in the backyard

Pictures of our room

Sitting area in our room

After getting settled and relaxing a bit, we headed out to Tybee Island, which is about 20 minutes from Savannah.  We hung out at the beach, body surfed and relaxed!  Paul hates pictures like this at the beach, so I had to take one to tease him a bit.

That night we got all cleaned up and headed out to get a real barbecue dinner.  Wiley's has been ranked the best barbecue in Georgia multiple times and has ranked as one of the best barbecue restaurants in the country.  The food really was amazing, I don't think I have ever had such good barbecue.  We got the sampler plate, so we got to try a little bit of everything.

After dinner we walked around the park by our bed and breakfast and walked around the streets of Savannah for a bit.  We also found the square where "Forest Gump" was filled, although the bench is now in a museum.  It was located at Chippewa Square:

Most Southern towns all have a town square, well Savannah has tons of them at every block, they are beautiful and their trees are covered in Spanish Moss and it just looks magical.

When we got back to our hotel room we found bath robes on our bed.

The next morning we ran in the park (and man was the humidity so much worse and hard to run it) and then ate a delicious breakfast consisting of orange juice, fruit bowl, banana french toast, eggs, and bacon.  The rest of the day we spent walking around downtown Savannah and getting a feel for the city.  We did our own ghost tour with a book from the hotel.

 They say this graveyard is very haunted!

 Forsyth Park

I wish I had a camera that could do the streets of Savannah justice because the colors, the architecture, it was all so beautiful.  Paul could not stop saying, "this is amazing, this is so beautiful" the entire time.  

We ate lunch at Vinni Van Go Go's, which is a pizza place and rated the best place to eat in Savannah.  We shopped and walked for awhile longer and then headed home.  

We had such a great time alone, but definitely missed our little Hayden.  Whenever we would see a child we would think of Hayden and all the fun she would be having running around the parks and squares.  Maybe when she is older we will take her on a trip to Savannah! 

Visitors

Last Thursday my friend Susannah Sanders and her daughter Payton came to our house to stay until the following Tuesday.  Susannah was kind enough to babysit Hayden while Paul and I went to Savannah, Georgia.  This worked out great because Hayden L.O.V.E.S Susannah.  I don't know if she remembers her from Cheyenne or what, but Hayden lights up when Susannah is in the room.  It's crazy, anytime Hayden plays with my phone, she usually calls Susannah.

We got home late on Saturday night and I was able to spend Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning with Susannah and Payton.  Paul had to go out of town, so they were great company for Hayden and I.  Tuesday afternoon, Susannah was finally reunited with her husband Jason who has been in training for the Air Force for 4 months.

Hayden was beyond excited the first day they arrived talked and marched around the room non-stop for a couple of hours.  Here is a video of the the two of them later that night.  They sat next to each other eating a cookie and tickling, to cute:

Here are a few more pictures of the two little girls:

They loved sitting on this bottom step and talking

 

 Hayden and her silly grin!  She is saying "cheese"

 And of course they loved playing on the stairs

We had so much fun swimming, playing at home, and sweating (our AC unit froze), we will truly miss them.  They are moving to Colorado Springs next week!  

Father's Day

As I was saying in my previous post, Paul and I have slacked off in doing cute things for one another.  So I decided to step it up for Father's Day.  Luckily I had a gift card to Marshalls for quite some time and was able to use that to purchase Paul a new tie, workout shorts and a t-shirt of one of his favorite baseball teams.  Then I got a cute tin and made "tokens" for him and also got him Diet Coke since I NEVER by the stuff for him.  Poor guy!  I made one of his favorite dinners: Mediterranean Turkey Pasta and one of his favorite desserts by Paula Dean.

 Paul in his new tie

Best father's day picture I could get... Hayden is trying to get the tin open.  Look at her tan little arms!

New t-shirt and his awesome diet coke for dinner!

 "World's Best POP"  And yes, I went online and learned to tie a tie, this is the Windsor Knot (only took me about a half an hour to finally learn:) )

 Hayden's nursery gifts

Fate Burger

Paul and I have definitely fallen into that rut of not dating one another any more, and it really started to bug me this last week.  It's so expensive to hire a babysitter, so I need to start swapping with another couple and soon!  I decided to go online for dating ideas and found some great ones.  This one was a group date and we had so much fun.  We all brought our kids with us, but they just played together and gave us some fun adult time. 

Here's what we did:  each couple brought their own meat and then several burger toppings.  We put all the toppings in a hat and you drew out what you had to put on your burger!  We each drew 5 and then we could eliminate one if we wanted (everyone got cheese).  I got lucky, my burger consisted of: avocados, mushrooms (which I love), green peppers, chips, & mustard.  I eliminated the chips and had a great burger! 

 This guy was pretty worried about what he would draw and really just wanted a good burger.  But he was a good sport in the end!

 Kelly & Ali Mendenhall

 Chris & Brittney Curby

 Sara & Seth McLeod

Paul & I with our "Fate Burger"

We had a great time and a fun evening out!

Feeling Accomplished!

This past week I have been pretty busy and I am finally working a bit!  I have not taught swim lessons in probably about 10 years, but a woman in my ward asked if I would teach her two boys.  We meet at their neighborhood pool every morning at 9 am and swim.  I was pretty nervous about teaching since it has been so long, but I surprised myself by remembering all that I used to do with the kiddos.  It's been fun to get back into this part of myself.

Secondly, I have had my first therapy session and have another client also scheduled for next week.  I was nervous about this as well as it has been about a year since I last worked at Peak Wellness Center.  But just like the swimming lessons, it all comes back once I started up again. 

I am so glad that right now I get to spend a majority of my time at home, but I am also glad I have some skills to give me something to do on the side.  It makes me feel good to be working a bit.

Funny Hayden

Hayden is really starting to have preferences for EVERYTHING and she definitely lets us know it.  Here are a few funny things I want to remember:

1)  After she is done with her sippy cup, only mom can take it away.  If dad tries to take it, she takes it from him and hands it to me.

2)  Only dad is allowed to feed her dinner.  If I try to help her out with her food, she moves the plate in front of dad and hands him the fork.  I actually love this preference!

3)  She has a major love/hate relationship with shoes right now.  She hates any new shoes when she out grows shoes, I have to put on the new pair and let her scream and try to rip them off for about 10-15 minutes.  After that, she loves them and never wants to take them off.  Today I was going through her clothes/shoes and putting the small ones away in bins and she saw me taking her shoes away.  She was so sad and wanted to put on all the shoes and then cried realizing they were too small for her feet.  One pair of boots still fit and she is now taking a nap in them! 

4)  Hayden has an unhealthy obsession with "Glee."  After dinner, she brings me the first season and wants to watch it.  She watches them more intently than any other movie we own!

5)  Loves to dance/spin in circles and then try to walk around, video below:

Lake Allatoona

I have been missing the beach lately so we decided the next best thing was to go to the lake on Saturday.  We had heard good things about Lake Allatoona which is about 20 miles from our house, so we ventured out.  It wasn't crowded at all and we had a great time.  This was Hayden's first experience in the sand and lake water.  She LOVED the water, but sadly HATED the sand.  She is going through a phase right now where she hates it when her hands get dirty.  She is constantly showing me her hands because she wants them wiped off clean.  Normally, I am okay with her desires to remain clean :) but not at the beach!!!  Every time we tried to set her down in the sand she would bring her legs up and "hover" it was pretty funny. If we sat her down, she would lift her legs up as high as she could (good pilates workout!).  Maybe next time we will go with friends so she can see how much other kids like playing in the sand...We had a nice picnic lunch and called it a good day around 1:30pm. Hayden is getting so brown this summer, hopefully I can too!

Here is Hayden doing her normal talking at the beach:

Preparing My Office

Saturday morning started out very slowly.  I had yet another sinus infection due to terrible allergies out here in the south and felt pretty crappy.  But by about 3 pm I was tired of laying around and decided to get my therapy office put together. I got about 3 calls just last week from bishops, the stake president, and a possible client.  I don't know why they all decided to call at once, but I am glad to be able to start my practice. 


I definitely have a vision for how I would like my office to look, but for now our futon and dining room chair will have to do.  We were very proud of ourselves because the light in the room was missing it's cover and looked pretty awful.  We bought a new light fixture several months ago and had never installed it.  Well, about 2 hours later, we finally had this to show for:

The only problem is that the old fixture had 2 bulbs in it and this one only has one.  The room is a lot darker and I will probably need to use a lamp...wish I had thought that through a bit better :)

Happy 5th

Last Friday, June 3rd, Paul and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  It was a pretty normal day this year with Paul at work.  But once he got home we made yummy Rotel Tacos and then watched our wedding video with Hayden.  She loved watching the whole thing and we are so glad that we spent our money on good photos and a video to remember the special day.  How much life and everyone in it has changed since then...

After dinner we decided it would be fun to go back to the Marietta Diner (where we took my friends last week) and try out their famous desserts.  They did not disappoint.  Paul got Red Velvet Cake and I got a White Chocolate Raspberry Cake.  To see pictures of their amazing cakes go to:  http://www.mariettadiner.net/pages.php?PID=desserts

We each got a slice so we could taste each others and share with Hayden, but we did not realize the size of the slices!  I love dessert and usually always go for seconds when given the opportunity, but it took me 3 days to eat my slice!  It was huge.  Plus, Hayden did not help out one bit because all she wanted to do was eat the bread on the table.  Silly girl.  She was pointing at all the cakes and saying, "yummy" when we looked at them through the glass, but once ours came she wanted nothing to do with it. 

We are going to officially celebrate our 5th anniversary in a few weeks by visiting Savannah, Georgia.  We have been saving our credit card points for a long time now and finally have enough to stay a night and eat out :)

I'm grateful for the last 5 years I have been able to spend with Paul.  We have almost been married as many years as we dated now!  There have been many ups and downs, but there is no one I would rather share them with than Paul.  I love you!

Busy Part II

Two days after our trip to Utah, my college roommate and friend Kimberly Hughey and her boyfriend Matt came to visit us.  Hayden and I picked them up Friday afternoon and took them to The Varsity, which is very greasy fast food, but a historic Georgia landmark.  We didn't waste any time getting right down to business, so we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  It was actually the perfect time to go (despite it being right during Hayden's nap) because it was not yet crowded for Memorial Day Weekend.  It was such a great activity for all of us to enjoy.  Hayden loves saying "fishy" and she got to say it a lot here!  We also went to the dolphin show which was really amazing.  Hayden clapped every single time they jumped out of the water and gasped in astonishment.  At one point in the show they said, "reach your arms in the air to bring forth the dolphins" and she was the first to have her hands in the air, it was pretty funny!

 Hayden thought being up close and personal with the penguins was great, she didn't want to leave!

  Here is Hayden touching some "fishies"  

The next day Paul was able to join us and we took them to Marietta square.  In the south all of the towns have a square and Marietta's is a fun one.  It was also the farmer's market so we were able to walk around the square and market.  Then we went to the Marietta Diner which has been featured on Food Network for their huge menu and good food, although I wasn't to impressed with my food selection.  They're desserts are what they are famous for and we were all too full, so we'll have to go back another time.

That night we got a babysitter for Hayden and we went out to a hip little restaurant in Atlanta called Two Urban Licks.  It is rated #2 for best eats in Atlanta.  The restaurant did not disappoint, the food and atmosphere were amazing!

 Sunday is always a tricky day for Mormons.  They are not Mormon so I did not want to subject them to a full day of keeping the Sabbath.  So Paul and I went to sacrament meeting and came home to visit with them.  I tried to find an activity that would be like keeping the Sabbath and when I found "Stone Mountain" I thought I had found just that!  Being in nature is a good way to spend Sundays, but I did not realize how theme-park-ish it was really going to be.  Oh well, we had a good time!  

 Here it is!  This is a description from wikipedia:  it is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet and 825 feet above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain granite extends underground 9 miles.  The carving depicts three figures of the Confederate States of America: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis.

 We took the tram up to the top of the rock and it was very hot and bright!

Taking a break from the heat in the air conditioned kids play area

 Hayden loved these pigs!

 and this box for some reason...

 Taking the train ride around the rock

 everyone gathering for the laser & fireworks show

 I didn't even think about bringing a blanket or chairs to sit on!  The show was amazing to watch, but made our party feel a little uncomfortable as it showed the south fight during the civil war.  Do people know that the south lost????  

It was a long, hot day, but we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Hayden's hair was soaking wet the entire day, she is such a sweater, just like her dad!  

Monday morning I took Kimberly and Matt to the airport.  We had such a great weekend with them and it got us out and exploring all that our new area has to offer.  We had great conversations and really enjoyed our time with them.