First Trip to Mobile!

We drove over to Mobile Wednesday afternoon from New Orleans. We hung out Wednesday night with some of Lauren's new co workers. Thursday, we woke up, Lauren and I ran and then we headed to the Foley, AL outlets. They were AWESOME! I got 2 new pairs of shoes from Nine West and a top and capris from J. Crew. Matt got some work clothes from JOS. A Bank. Lauren got a fabulous Coach bag for work. Then we went to the beach at Gulf Shores. Such a blast! Here we are at Felix's where we ate Thursday night! It was delicious!

Friday morning, we woke up and went on an air boat ride! It was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Here are brother and sister waiting to boat ride.

Here's my man waiting to boat ride.

Here is one of the gators we saw. We probably spotted about 20. This one in particular let us take pictures of him for a while before going back under water.

Sitting at the top of the water waiting for fish to come by so he can eat them.

This is an Osprey next. It's giant! They just had babies.

Here is the family of Ospreys.

These are some American Lotus Flowers that were scattered along the river. There were probably thousands of them (obviously not pictured).

And here is one up close.

Here is our group! We had such a blast! Lauren and Zac have moved to a very exciting place! I can't wait to visit frequently!

Back to work tomorrow!

Lana

New Orleans

Matt and I just got home last night from our week long vacation! My sister moved to Mobile, Alabama last week and we wanted to visit her. So, we decided to go to New Orleans and eat our way through the city on the way to see them. We started Sunday and took our dogs to Memphis so that my parents could watch them for the week. Monday morning, we woke up and headed to New Orleans.

We got there and went to Domilese's and ate some yummy shrimp Po-boys. We had a nice dinner out Monday night at Emeril's Restaurant in the Warehouse District.

Here we are at Emeril's. I had a salad with sun dried tomatoes and pepper jack cheese, a delicious Shrimp and Grits dish with smokey bacon and mango chow chow, and sticky caramel toffee pudding cake. YUM.

Here we are outside. We ate so much that we had to just walk around for a while.

We encountered this fine gentlemen walking into the French Quarter. He came up to Matt and made a bet that said he could guess where Matt "got his shoes". We thought we had him stumped when he said that because we knew he "got" them in Little Rock. However, we he replied that he "got his shoes on the ground", we had to pay him $20 because Matt did, in fact, have his shoes on the ground. Touche, Mr. Shoe Polisher Dude, Touche.
The next morning, we woke up and went running. We ran to one of my favorite places on Earth- Cafe du Monde! AHHHHH!
Here they are- Cafe Au Lait and Beignets. Delicious.

Tuesday night, we met my sister and Zac at Commander's Palace. Mobile is only 2 hours away.

Here is my handsome hubby!

Here is our group. I had their Gumbo, Cherry Lacquered Pork Tenderloin served with grilled Georgia Peaches and Smokey bacon, and their cheesecake for dessert. Heaven.

Here is my sissy. I just love her so much. I don't even have the words.

Here we are huggin!

Had a blast in NOLA!

Lana

Anniversary Gifts

So, it was our 5th Anniversary! We felt like this was a milestone. We discussed that we would get nicer gifts this year than usual. I knew I wanted to get Matt a nice watch because I thought it would look so handsome with his suits. He told me he wanted to get me some jewelry too. However, he totally threw me for a loop. He surprised me Friday afternoon with this beautiful necklace.

Here it is up close. It has black and white diamonds set in white gold. MY OH MY! Well. Needless to say, I was very taken a back. I wore it out on our date and I loved it. However, when we got home, I took a peek at the receipt. It was way more than I thought should have been spent on me. So, I asked him to take it back. I did want some jewelry but maybe not something so expensive.

Here he is- so handsome! He is wearing the watch I got him.

Doesn't it look great on him?

So Matt wanted to get me what I wanted. What I really wanted was some nice sterling silvery jewelry. He got me the necklace that I am wearing in the picture when we got married and I love it! I didn't want to replace it. So, we went to the Brighton store and he got me the rings on my ring finger and the bracelet I am wearing and the earrings that you can't see in this picture.

Anyhoo, I just thought y'all would think we are funny with our gift giving. We really are. Matt hates surprises but I love them.

Can't wait to celebrate many more anniversaries!!

Lana

5th Anniversary!

Woooooo hooooo! 5th Anniversary! We started the day at with a 6 am IHOP run! It was delicious! It was Matt's idea the night before when we were going to bed. Our waitress took our picture and gave me free bananas on my harvest grain and nut pancakes! Yummy!

Sipping coffee. This is a development that happened during the last year. He loves coffee now. Drinks it with me all the time- which I love!

Here we are at Bonefish Grill enjoying a delicious meal. He chomped on a huge burger and I had a delicious Cobb salad with mango and avocado. MMMMMM.

And then we went to a movie! We saw the new X Men movie. For the record, the X Men movies are absolutely my favorite super hero movies. Just saying.

Matt, I can't imagine life with out you. You are an amazing leader for our family, a Godly man, a wonderful provider and you get more handsome every year! Thank you for being my husband!

I'm a blessed and happy gal,

Lana

PV Four Ball

The first weekend of June is now one of our favorite weekends of the year. I believe I blogged about it last year too. It's the PV Four Ball Tournament! It's a golf tournament at our country club that means 4 days of golf for Matt and our friend Jonathan and 3 nights of delicious meals, cute outfits, and watching golf for me and Rachel. Here we all are on the last night. Jonathon at the tee box.
Matt on the tee box.
Matt and Jonathon on the last day playing golf on Sunday. They got 2nd place in the consolation round of the first flight. Pretty good if I do say so!Me and my sweet friend Rachel just chillin in the gas golf cart. Have you ever ridden in one? It's the WORST sound. Golf carts are supposed to be quiet and these sound like "go" carts. HahaBlogger hates me. I thought I deleted this picture, so I uploaded it again. Then, it wasn't deleted. So now it's on here twice. Enjoy!

Rach and Jonathon watching the shoot out. Friday and Saturday night, they draw names for people to have the opportunity to shoot the last 3 holes that are in front of the club and most of the participants and their "ladies" watch the competitors. Pretty fun- especially when you have friends competing! We hope that one day Matt and Jonathon will have their names drawn to shoot.

These ducks were hanging out on the 18th green during the shoot out and I just thought it was so funny! They didn't care at all that dozens of people were around watching golf.

Goofy ducks!

Can't wait until next year, already!

Lana

Hot Springs and Paragould weekend

Last week, we took a couple of days off work and took a trip to Hot Springs and Paragould. Wednesday morning we dropped our puppies off at the vet for boarding and headed on down to HS. We planned to do the spa thing at the Arlington and eat a nice dinner out and walk around and see the sights. We both got hot stone massages. I have had a few before but it was Matt's first. You will see the giant scald mark on Matt's leg. His masseuse did not cool down his rocks and she totally burned the fire out of his legs. His poor sexy legs. He had 3 of these burn marks on him. They made it right when we told the hotel manager when we were checking out and gave us half of our money back so we felt pretty good about the situation after that. We also got pedicures. It was Matt's first and I'm not sure he was thrilled with that either. We had 2 women who talked to us the whole time which really all we wanted to do was be rubbed and not talk to any one.

Here is Matt the next morning standing by Arkansas' own President Bill Clinton. He was born in Hot Springs and maybe raised there? Really don't know.

Here we are walking around and in front of the hot spring that runs by The Arlington. Don't you just love pictures you take of yourself? My favorite part is my whole arm showing. Oh well. No one else was there to take it at 9:30 am on a Thursday!

Here is one of the hot springs. They had an information number you can call from your cell phone and it tells you about the hot spring. They are not in a volcanic region. It is actually a geo-thermal process that heats the rocks. Pretty cool!

Another spring shot.

Here is Matt at the waterfall at Garvan Woodland Gardens.

And here I am. Please do not be jealous of my pale white legs.

And yay! We found someone to take our picture! That is Lake Hamilton behind us.

Azaleas blooming

More beautiful flowers along the path.

Beautiful/ HUGE sculpture outside of the chapel.

This chapel is so gorgeous. It is hidden in the woods but it's actually glassed in and air conditioned. However, minus the cool air inside, you feel like you are outside. My boss actually got married there a couple of years ago but I had to miss it because I was on call that weekend. I was glad that Matt and I got to see it. I'm sure a wedding would be so beautiful in it.

Matt gave me this idea to take this picture from the altar. Pretty cool!

We made it home Thursday afternoon and spent the night at home with the dogs. Friday morning, we left for Paragould. Juli was nice enough to dog sit for us for the weekend. Matt's dear friend Casey Pratt got married to a lovely lady, Elise. It was so great to be there and be a part of it. Of course I didn't take any pictures! But we had a great time with the Summitts. It's been way too long since we spent a weekend in Paragould so we were really excited to be there. Here is Matt on David's new zero turn lawn mower. (Picture taken after he wiped the drool off his face.)

And this little beauty is the paddle boat that David brought home. Matt and Karan hopped on in, we put it in the pond and that sucker didn't work. Remember when you were a kid and the chain would pop off your bike and you would peddle and peddle and wouldn't go anywhere? That's kind of what was going on with this paddle boat. It was actually pretty funny to watch! But of course, I didn't get a picture!

Anyway, we had a really great weekend. We relaxed and spent basically the whole time together so it was wonderful. We are really excited about the things coming up. Memorial Day weekend, the PV Four-Ball Tournament, our trip to Mobile to see Lauren and Zac when they move and we are going to New Orleans from there. I can't wait to share the experiences when they happen!

I hope you and yours are doing well,

Lana