Mom's Vacation to Alabama

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a week with my mother and sister in Alabama (where my sister lives).

My sister's birthday was back in August.  Her boyfriend (whom she lives with at Ft. Rucker) decided to fly my mother out to visit for a week for her birthday.  Unfortunately the timing wasn't right and my mom couldn't take off work for her birthday to come that week.  After comparing schedules at her work, with my sister, and I, we decided the last week in October was the best.

We had a great time!!!!  Our days were spent shopping, indulging in Enterprises' finest eats, crafting, making new recipes, and drinking tasty adult beverages.

Mom arrived Sunday and Nick and I met them halfway between Pensacola and Enterprise and off we went back to Alabama!  We spent the rest of the day just hanging out.  We went shopping for some groceries and watched the Cardinals game.  Then we ended the evening on the patio, around the firepit making s'mores.

Monday we headed downtown.  Downtown is really just a few blocks of cute unique shops and places to eat.  We first headed to All About Art, which is one of those places where you can paint pottery/ceramics, canvases (you can host canvas painting parties), and they also have mosaic art you can do.  After much indecisiveness, I decided to join my mother and sister and do the mosaic art.  And because we're all winos, we decided to make wine glasses for our houses.

Afterwards, we met Kyle at this hole-in-the-wall diner, Annie's.  It has the most amazing, greasy food!!!!  It reminds me a place you'd see on 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.'

We then headed home for more drinking (wine) and watching the Cardinals lose the NLCS (more on that later).

Tuesday we headed back downtown for some shopping.  They have a lot of super cute stores with really unique decor, jewelry, clothes, etc.  Definitely not the type of stuff you'd find in a mall.  One of our favorites was the The Shoppe on Main.  I encourage you check out their site.  They had some amazing Christmas decor!!!  They also had some super cute jewelry and I snagged these adorable earrings consisting of my favorite fall colors!

We also hit up a consigment shop.  I found a GORGEOUS red formal gown I wanted soooo badly for the next formal event that rolled around, but like always, the dress was too short.  Even standing barefoot, the dress was 3 inches off the ground.  Tall girl problems =/  Mom had some good luck though!  She found an adorable dress for Mike and Alex's wedding and some sweaters.  At the Thrift Store, Leah found some awesome entertaining serving dishes that will greatly help her out since she's hosting Thanksgiving at their house with Kyle's family.  We also hit up another super unique store and scored some alcoholic mixes called 'Bitch Bags with Attitude'.  We got the Bitchy Blueberry-Pom, Dirty Bitch Cocoa-Tini, and Peach Bellini Vino Innovations.  You just mix each with the type of alcohol is recommends and freeze it!
The Blueberry-Pom & Peach VERY delicious!!!  I'm usually not a fan of Blueberry things but this did not taste like blueberry, but instead like heaven in your mouth! 

Then we headed to Cupcakes Y'all, the most adorable little bakery.  We ordered lunch: delicious paninis with amazing tortilla soup and pasta salad. 

After lunch on the patio, we went back in and ordered 8 cupcakes:  {two} Death by Chocolate, {two} Mocha, Key Lime Pie, Red Velvet, Vanilla, and Cream Cheese Poundcake.  Oh.my.goodness.  I cannot describe how delicious these jumbo cupcakes were!!!  Especially the Mocha.  It was the perfect blend of espresso and chocolate in both the cake and the frosting!!!

Then it was home for dinner, drinks, and lounging.

On Wednesday we woke up and slowly got ready for the day.  When Kyle came home from work, we all headed to Milky Moo's for lunch.  Their specialty is ice cream but after our delicious lunch of soups in bread bowls, we were way too full for ice cream.  We decided we'd venture back there one evening this week for ice cream. 

After lunch Kyle headed home for some gaming without interruption while we girls headed to Dothan, the closest town with real stores.  We needed to hit up Hobby Lobby and Michaels for some craft supplies for our craft day the next day.  Being women, we also couldn't pass up Ross and TJ Maxx.  We each left with some good finds, while spending very little money.

Little girls sweater!!!  Ivory and navy blue paired with navy blue leggings

I have these in black and they are my absolute favorite boots ever.  I've been searching for four years for them in brown but never found them.  Until today.  For only $20!!!!!

Then we headed home and walked into the house to the wonderful scent of our chicken taco chili in the crockpot.  There's nothing better than walking in the door after a long day of shopping and just being able to stuff your face with dinner.  No preparing or cooking!  Crockpots are the best!  And with it being perfect weather, we ate outside on the patio.

After dinner we began making hot cocoa on the stove.  Once it was ready, we added Mocha Kahula and made ourselves what we call 'Dirty Hot Cocoa' and headed outside.  We enjoyed an evening of lots of laughs and inappropriateness around the fire pit while enjoying our drinks.  It was the perfect end to the day.

On Thursday we just a had a day at home.  We crafted, dyed hair, and watched lots of our favorite channel, HGTV.

That evening we all went out to a Japanese Hibachi grill.  I loooooove these restaurants because the food is sooooo good and I love watching them cook it all with all the fun tricks and whatnot they do.  The only downfall is that it's waaaayyyy too much food for me.   With my cancer surgery, one third of my stomach was removed.  My stomach has stretched quite a bit since then, but it's still not where it was pre-surgery.  Because of this, I can't eat huge meals.  So when I visit a Hibachi grill, I end up taking more than half of my food home.  Good thing I like leftovers!

After we got home, we watched more HGTV and indulged in the last of our cupcakes and our peach wine mix we bought until it was time for bed.

Friday we woke up and got ready and headed out.  Mom and Leah got pedicures while I ran to Wal-Mart and walked around a pet store (I can't help it, I'm obsessed with dogs!).  I opted out of the pedicures because I had already spent more than I should have on this trip.  My mother kept insisting she would pay for it and had planned to pay for our pedicures all along but I couldn't let her.  She had already paid for so much with some of the groceries, lunches, dinners, etc.  I am less than a month away from being 28 years old and I don't want my mom paying for things for me.  I can be responsible and realize I've spent my "fun money" from our budget and that's it.  On top of that, I wanted red toe nails for my Halloween costume, but don't want red after that.  So I didn't want to pay for red polish to just remove it after the party on Saturday.  I know my mom was sad but it gave her and Leah some time alone together, which was the entire reason my mom was down here....for Leah's birthday.

After the pedicures, we went back to this store JoJo's in downtown and I bought a bib necklace and earrings set.  I love bib necklaces but have none!!!!  I couldn't stop thinking about this one I saw and I even dreamt about it!  It wasn't all that expensive ($26 plus 10% military discount) and it would be perfect with the black dress I'm wearing for Nick's cousin's wedding next month.  Not to mention I love supporting small businesses.  So I bought it and I'm in love with it!!!  I love the pop of color it gives the outfit too.

We then went home and crafted some more.

Nick was getting out of class at 4:30pm, going home to get the dogs, then driving the two hours to Enterprise.  We expected him around 7:30-8:00.  But at 5:15pm, we're sitting in the living room and I hear a bark and thought "Hmm, that sounds like my crazy ass Weim."  Sure enough, my little family had arrived early!!!  Nick got out of class early and didn't tell us.  I was so happy to be reunited with my puppies!!!  And boy was Yadi happy to see me!  (I'm surprised she doesn't die of anxiety when I'm gone with her unhealthy obsession with me).

now THAT'S a happy dog!

told ya....crazy!

We ate dinner and then headed out for ice cream at Milky Moo's.  We took our dogs because Nick didn't bring their crates and they can't be left to roam free (well Vino can but we crate her because Yadi would go CRAZY (moreso than she already does) if she saw Vino out and she was locked up).  We sat outside eating ice cream and it brought back so many memories of when Yadi was 50 pounds lighter and sooo much smaller and we'd have family nights out in Annapolis.  We'd walk around downtown Annapolis and get ice cream and everyone would gawk over our dog.  And the same thing happened this night.  The two couples outside just loved the pups.

you can put pins where you're from

(Nick was more concerned with getting the witch hat on my head (unbeknownst to me) than making sure my eyes were open)

When we got back home, we drank some wine and sat around the fire.  For a perfect last night with my family.

Saturday morning we all sat on the patio enjoying the warm morning sun.  We spent the rest of the afternoon just lounging around, enjoying out last few hours together, and watching the pups get in some last minute play time.

Vino loving her attention from her "grandma"

The girls, minus Vino who I'm sure was in the yard doing her Dora the Explorer thing, like always.

I am so happy Kyle offered to fly my mother down to Alabama.  And I'm happy my sister didn't mind me crashing their fun this past week.
I truly value my time with my family.  I miss my mother like crazy but I'm lucky.  It sucks to miss her but I'm blessed to have a mother like her that I do miss.
Not a day goes by that I don't realize how fortunate I am for my relationship with my mother.  Not all mothers and daughters are as close as we are.  Mom is truly my best friend and I don't know what I'd do without her.  I most definitely do not see her as often as I'd like (let's be honest, I wish I could see her every week) but I am very, very fortunate because I get to see her quite a bit given this lifestyle we have.  I saw her in August when I went home for three weeks, I just saw her for a week, I'll see her again for a week over Thanksgiving, and I'll be home again for Christmas.  I know I won't always be this lucky so I definitely make sure to cherish every second.  And when I get upset over living away from home, I just remember that some don't have a family like mine with more love and support than anyone could ever wish for.  I truly, truly am blessed.


Kyle, thanks for Leah's birthday gift ;)
Leah, thanks for letting me spend the week with you.
Mom, thanks for coming to visit, letting me crash your week with Leah, paying for all you did, and for loving me!!!