Summer Vacay

Kevin and I continued my 30th birthday celebration with a trip to Florida back in June. We traveled to Little Gasparilla Island with our besties Chris and Dana who were celebrating their first wedding anniversary that happens to fall on my birthday. I mean, I feel like this could be a yearly tradition. :-) 

 It was the most relaxing, laid back vacation we had experienced in a while and so very needed. 

We spent an entire week on the beach every.single.day. 

At night we would take the boat out to one of the restaurants close by or stay in and all cook together. The weather was fantastic. We had the typical 3:30pm afternoon thunderstorm that would roll through for about 45 minutes, but other than that it was perfect. We witnessed the most amazing sunsets almost every night. It was so refreshing to sleep in every morning with no set schedule each day. 

And most of y'all know about our friendship with Chris and Dana. We absolutely adore them and our friendship comes so natural and easy. I seriously don't know how we did life before them. It feels like we have been friends for years. We will all definitely be going back again soon.!

Smiles from our trip: 

taboo and how intense LJ was with his one word descriptions

"Cathi Knows Nothing"

LJ almost slinging chris off the boat

Dolphins in the bay 

golf carts, the ferry and the boat

"the  incredible snook" around the dock 

our new four legged friend Summer

LG not bringing Cathi her watermelon 

the turtle

the snake 

D's makeup 

Kipp and D's love affair 

Frisbee/beer/pvc pipe game 

twizzler's, pretzels, coronas and skinny girl 

the dryer disaster and D's reaction 

So many good memories!!! 

Our Trip to the SEC Tourney

If you follow me on insta you already know that Kev and I, along with one of our absolute favorite couples, traveled to ATL for the SEC tournament two weeks ago. Kev and I have always been die hard UK fans. Cheering on the Kentucky Wildcats is something we love to do together. This was our first SEC tourney and we have already booked our hotel for the 2015 tournament next year. To say we had a blast is such an understatement. 

We headed down I75 south Thursday afternoon with DANAicka driving us and car packed full of marley lilly, lulu and UK gear. Hubbys in the back. Wifeys in the front. 

From the moment we arrived in Atlanta, there were Kentucky fans everywhere! I am talking EVERYWHERE. We have always heard that the SEC tourney is like having a home court advantage for the Cats, but nothing prepared us for how many KY fans would actually take over downtown Atalanta. So much fun. Kentucky fans are crazy y'all! 

  

Dana and I were already throwing up three goggles in the hotel lobby. The sweet lady at the Marriott front desk got the biggest kick out of us and we made friends with her instantly. 

We settled into our rooms before heading over to the Georgia Dome to scope out our competition in the first round of games.  

And of course Dana and I wore our matching y'all shirts that she had picked up for us. So freakin cute!!!!! 

We scoped out LSU for out matchup on friday. After the game we headed to dinner at  Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria. Was super yummy. I am such pizza and beer gal through and through. 

Day 2 - we had a casual afternoon and headed to the afternoon session of games and met up with one of my college buddies for lunch at TacoMac right by the Dome. 

Dana and Chris did some morning shopping and met up with us in in the afternoon just in time for the morning session games.

We headed back to our hotel to get ready for the first Kentucky game of our trip. Dana slapped some pretty eyelashes on me and I fixed her up in a headband. She's so precious and freakin gorgeous. 

We cheered on our Cats to a big W over LSU.

Final Score 85-67

Kentucky fans literally took over the downtown scene after the game. As soon as we walked into the restaurant after the game, the hostess literally said "here they all come in their blue." 

We had dinner our second night at Legal Seafood and were a little unimpressed with our food and our service. But hey, we weren't gonna let it rain on our parade. 

Day 3 

We had an early lunch at Hudson Grille and decided to head to the dome early to catch the Florida/Tennessee game. 

 We were hoping Tennessee would secretly beat Florida and may have turned into Vols fans for at least the  40 minutes of the game.

We continued our winning steak over Georgia and were so pumped to spend another night in Atlanta to cheer on the Cats against Florida.....a very awaited rematch! 

Our team was finally playing like the team we had hoped for all year. So much momentum going into the championship game. 

The hubbys played along and took Dana and I to Buckhead to do a little shipping at lululemon and Nordstrom. Bless their hearts....they married two women who absolutely love to shop. 

We looked high and low for NeNe, but no luck. We settled for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and it didn't disappoint. Our server also entertained us with some very peculiar stories that had all the tables beside of us cracking up. She was a hott mess to put it mildly. 

Day 4

Sunday morning came and Kev and I were like kids on Christmas morning. Just dying for a win over Florida. 

We cabbed down early to have mimosas and lunch at Dantanna's and the big blue nation was out in full force. 

C-A-T-S cheering erupting about every 10 minutes. It was such a fun atmosphere to be a part of. 

 The Cats ended up loosing by one point to Florida in the SEC championship game. It was a true heart breaker. I think everyone in that dome, including Florida fans, thought we had the game won. We just came up short the last 19 seconds of the game and it stung. It stung hard as we all stood there in shock that we had just lost. (oh and btw -I am so sick of the Florida Gators.....so sick of them)

We pulled up our big guy and girl panties up and held our KY heads high. We were proud of our team. That night we had dinner at Pittypat's Front Porch and drowned our sorrows in fried green tomatoes, cornbread and fried chicken and called it an early night as we would head back to KY early monday morning.

Regardless of the loss, we had an amazing time with Chris and Dana. Traveling with them was so fun and easy. I love how well we all get along. It's always a guaranteed good time. We may have already planned our next couples trip......to sunny Florida in June. Absolutely can't wait!!!  

Family Road Trip

Momma, Daddy, Baby Bro, Britt (aka Baby Bro's GF and better be my future sister in law ahem ahem), Hubs and I had a lil road trip planned for the end of summer.

Back story:
My parents have been through  hell the ringer this summer with both of their mothers being in and out of the hospital. It's been pretty tough to watch and even tougher being 3 hours away from it the majority of the time.
This trip was planned the week before both grannies would be coming home. One permanently living with my parents, the other in her home next door with 24/7 care. This would also be the last week of my parent's summer vacations as both work in the school system.
To say my parents needed a mini vacay is the biggest understatement!

We wanted something easy. A place that we could drive to and back in a weekend.
So we headed to the smokey mountains in Tennessee and would end our trip in Cherokee, North Carolina.

And who doesn't love a lil weekend road trip re-cap.....so here ya go

We met my parents about an hour outside of Lexington. I was so excited that we would be able to share the time together in the truck. It was so much fun.
We played road trip games, reminisced, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.
What better way to start our day than the first official photo of the trip.



Baby Bro and Brittany were able to catch up with us a little over halfway through the trip.
Does he look like a little redneck or what?

First thing on the agenda was to hit up the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge.
Two words: Apple Fritters!
We chowed down on some good country grub and made our way into a solid food coma before going wine tasting on the property.
Kev and I picked up a delicious bottle of apple-peach wine that was so sweet and refreshing.

 

 

That afternoon we hit up the Tanger outlets. Kev and I picked up some new workout gear.
After some brief shopping, we got all checked in at our hotel in downtown Gatlinburg.
We relaxed for a bit before getting freshened up for dinner at Cherokee Grill.

We rode the trolley all around downtown Gatlinburg....and boy was it crowded down there








Unfortunately, the rain put a damper on our friday night plans. So we called it an early night and were up the next day with the chickens for breakfast at Flapjacks.

After breakfast we set out to drive across the Smokey Mountains toward Cherokee, North Carolina.

 

It was a foggy/hazy kind of morning, but we still got some great photo ops.

The mountans are gorgeous!

 

We made it to Cherokee and hit up the local souvenir shops and checked out all the little odds and inns at the village area. But the real reason we were there was for this........

 

Harrah's Casino

I swear my daddy-o was like a lil boy. The man loves casinos in a very innocent (plays slots only) kind of way. Just picture this 6 foot 9 inches tall man sitting at the slot machines smiling from ear to ear. And dang it, he wins every.single.time. On slots!!
I kid you not... we were all still in our hotel rooms and my dad was gone for maybe 45 min and had already texted my mom he had won already won something like 400 dollars on penny and nickle slots.
craaaazy!

 

We soon joined in all the fun.
(and they let us take photos in there! what?!?! yep, as long as there was no flash and the person at the table gambling wasn't taking it. Hey vegas ..did you hear that??)


Our plans to have a nice dinner Saturday night at Ruth's Chris turned into us gambling all day and night in our casual clothes. We refused to go back to the hotel to freshen up, afraid lady luck would leave us. No lie I wore a workout top all day and evening. You can do that on vacay!

The next morning Baby Bro and Britt had to leave early to hop a flight to sunny Florida with Britt's family.
Momma, Daddo, KR and I had plans to stop and see my grandfather who just so happens to live right outside of Gatlinburg in Sevierville, TN.
Grandpa was giving his wife (and my third grandmother- Della) a Christmas in July so to speak.
He bought her an ipad and we picked it up and set them up with wi-fi.
Hot diggity dog! My grandparents are so two thousand and thirteen.

Teaching my grandfather about face time was priceless!
I am so excited about having this avenue to stay connected with him.
His health has been bad for a while and trips to see him are shorter an shorter as he can't tolerate very much activity.
This was a very special moment for me and my momma.  



And Kev was such an incredible teacher in introducing Della to the ipad. The man is amazing at giving instruction and direction and is so patient. Soooo patient. I mean he has to put up with me on daily basis :-)
I love his heart!
and i love this photo!

Della made us an amazing brunch!
biscuits and gravy, hash browns, waffles, bacon, sausage, fresh 'maters - finger-licking-good!
It was a great way to end our three day trip.

Love me some family road-trips!

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my favorite inside highlights and jokes from the trip
-that darn agenda
-my camera in all our faces
- my dad losing his cell phone in the casino
-my dad 's cell phone getting turned in and returned to him
-kev and i posted up at the black jack video machine. we would loose our money, win it all back, and sadly lost it again the next morning
- my dad being the luckiest freakin man and winning at every stinkin slot he touched. i swear it's not fair how lucky the man is at gambling. it's crazy! once he again he out won all of us.
- teaching my grandfather and della how to face time
-kevin rex teaching della how to use her ipad - melted my heart
-playing "adam from arkansas" in the car with my parents
-charlie making buddies with the man from south carolina at the roulette table
- watching someone place a 1200 dollar but at the roulette table and winning something like 7400 dollars. it was craaay.
- the lottery ticket frenzy
- scared we would be late riding the trolley and getting off half way there and deciding to hoof it the rest of the way, only to have the trolley pull up at the exact same time. so much for thinking we could out run it
-planning our lake house for the grandparents' retirement and their grandchildren ;-)