Birthday Week

Another year has come and gone and I am just thankful it has. I thought I would be anxious about entering my mid-20's but really I am more concerned about getting this dang baby weight off. I could go on for paragraphs but I'll spare you the bitching and moaning. For now anyways. I had a great birthday week and the best part is that it's not over yet!

To kick off my birthday Bryan took my to Saul Good on Friday for lunch. We had a great lunch (as I blogged below) and I cannot wait to return. Bryan had a golf tournament all weekend so we really didn't do much.

Meemaw left to go camping on Sunday morning in the Great Smoky Mountains, and I had told her we would join her for a night. Bryan made sure to have a short day on Monday and we left that afternoon. Though I was upset because we ended up leaving later than planned we still got there with enough day light to set up the tent and enjoy the mountain stream.

As a child we went camping most summers up until I was about 12. Then we stopped. I think we stopped because my Great-grandfather got sick, but I have been eager to continue this camping tradition for years. We even reserved a spot at the same campsite we camped at when I was young; a beautiful little site called Elkmont. It is about 6 miles up in the Smokies from downtown Gatlinburg. We had lots of fun hanging out and cooking s'mores over the fire. I bit off more than I could chew by making breakfast the next morning over the campfire. I'm not talking any breakfast, I'm talking eggs, bacon, and pancakes. FYI: cooking pancakes over a campfire is a disaster. I still got it done though and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

We went on a fun little nature hike that afternoon before we left and found the most beautiful old cabin. It had a 2-story tall stone fireplace and was right on the mountain stream. The place hadn't had anyone living in it for years though. It was a shell of a once beautiful house. It actually made me sad that someone had to give this gem up. You would have to drag my dead body outta there! No one has been allowed to reside in the state park since the late 80's, early 90's. Anyone still living there after a certain date had be removed legally.
*I have pictures of the house I promise I'll post soon. I am having trouble d/l'ing them from my email to my MacBook.

On Wednesday Bryan took me to Carrabba's for my birthday dinner. His sister, Kristin, and her boyfriend, David, joined us for the feast. To my delight Wednesday is $10 off bottles of wine and sangria. We took advantage of this deal and shared a pitcher of yummy red sangria. I ordered the pesto basil salmon and he had a sirloin marsala and Chicken Bryan combo. I usually order the Chicken Trio, but I was trying to be healthy(er) by ordering the salmon. Bryan said his meal was one of the best he had ever had and I was pretty satisfied with mine. We skipped dessert so that we could go home and grub on leftover ice cream cake that his parents had gotten me for my birthday.

(Those DANG maternity jeans make yet another appearance)

I wanted to post some recipes in my blog this week but I haven't cooked one time yet! I even had to put some meat BACK in the freezer so that it wouldn't go bad. I'll be back at it next week though. I am going to start making my own baby food tomorrow so I'll let you know how that goes and I'll post some recipes and how-to's. My little guy seems to be picky so wish me luck!

I wanna Happy Meal mom!