A great escape!

Pretty sunset from our view


So, two weekends ago Matt and I went on a mini vacation to Florida and it was so great to escape for a bit. We went down to Pensacola to visit my family. Matt & I were lucky enough to get to stay in a fabulous home on the water overlooking the bay. The home belongs to some friends of Katie's who she was house sitting for. Thanks so much Katie! :)


The beautiful home where we stayed


The view from our bedroom!

We had such a nice time relaxing and enjoying each others company!


Matt & Me


Meghan, Me & Katie


Katie & Me


Cute :)


Me & Matt enjoying lunch with Katie at McGuire's


While we were there, we had a lot of fun cooking and drinking wine and margaritas!


The awesome kitchen!

And of course we ventured over to the beach a couple of times and it looked great...no sign of oil! Matt, Katie, her boyfriend Bryan, and I went to this fun little open-air bar on Pensacola beach called Bimini Bar and had mojitos and oysters while overlooking the water. It was great to get to see my sisters, Katie and Meghan...I love when the three of us are together!

Meghan, Me & Katie

Oh, and one last thing, the season four premier of Mad Men was last night! Matt and I love that show and have been anticipating last nights episode since the ending of season three! I thought it was fantastic, as always, but I have to admit it felt weird seeing Don and Betty divorced and living separate lives (even though they sort of always have) but seeing them really apart was different...I want them back together...without all of Don's cheating, of course (but then I guess there would not be much of a show)!

oxox,
lauren

Summer in the City

I hope everyone had a fun & fabulous Fourth of July! We stayed here in Atlanta (we contemplated going down to Florida, but decided against that because it probably would not be much fun since I still had all of my stitches in). We went up to Matt's parents house in the mountains on Saturday and visited with his family which was really nice. My sister-in-law, Amanda's, birthday is on the third, so it was a little birthday/4th of July get together. The weather was amazing and we had a lot of fun. On Sunday, the 4th, Matt and I enjoyed a couple of margaritas and then got together with Amanda and some of her friends in Buckhead for the fireworks at Lenox, which were especially good this year!


Matt & Me waiting for the fireworks :)

Yesterday I finally got all of my stitches out! It took over an hour since there was so many. Whew, glad that is over! I am feeling really great now. :)

Now, time to enjoy the weekend with Matt!

oxox,
lauren

A Visit From Katie!

Katie & Me

Matt & Me

Two weekends ago (the weekend before my last surgeries) my amazing and adorable sister Katie came up to visit! She arrived Thursday night and stayed until lunch time on Sunday and we had such a great time! Katie is one of my very best friends in the whole wide world and we are very close...we talk at least every other day on the phone and we see each other as much as possible! I absolutely love when Katie comes up to visit Matt and I, but time always flies and it feels like she just got here when before you know it it's time for her to leave...boo.

So, on to our trek around Atlanta...on Friday we went to The Grape in Vinings for lunch and a glass of red wine sangria, which was delicious. After lunch we did some shopping in the area. For dinner we made some great Mexican food and margaritas at home and talked and talked a lot!

On Saturday, while Matt stayed home and watched the World Cup, Katie and I went out. We started the day off with Souper Jenny (my absolute favorite little lunch spot in Atlanta, known for their soups, hence the name!) for lunch, which is a given because every time Katie is in town we go to Jenny! Everything is made fresh daily at Souper Jenny with local ingredients and the menu changes every day (which I love because I am all about variety!) Katie had a turkey pita (the pitas are even made there on the days they're on the menu!) and Greek style coleslaw and I had a cold black bean salad with avocado, corn, tomato and diced jalapenos (mmmmm!) with some yummy fresh fruit. We were then off to one of my new favorite garden & gift stores, Boxwoods, in Buckhead. Katie and I were obsessed! The store is deceivingly small looking from the outside; it is an old house converted into the store and and it feels like it goes on for days, which is wonderful because I loved everything in there! They have beautiful furniture and lamps and home decor (which I am obsessed with all of the items I just listed and could look at them forever!) Boxwoods also is a lovely florist and they feature some beautiful flowers and plants in their greenhouse and garden. I managed to have self control and I walked away with just two adorable planters, but I am already planning a trip back! Now we're off to Jake's Ice Cream store and market, which I had read about, but this was my first visit. Ummm, what was I waiting for? I mean this is the best ice cream I have ever put into my mouth! Katie had the Key Lime Piescream (How much do you love that name?) and I had the decadent Holy Cannoli (of course, it is made with homemade cannolis!) Every bite was delicious! We loved Jake's and will for sure be returning! :)

Welcome to Jake's!

Jake's fun road sign

Inside the shop

Mmmmmm!

Our next stop was the Inman Park/Virginia Highlands area and as if we were not already on a big enough sugar high, we stopped at the lovely Cacao Chocolate Shop. Well, let me tell you that Cacao is The. Cutest. Chocolate. Shop. Ever! Everything is made in house and is so pretty. We got some homemade vanilla marshmallows (if you have never tried homemade marshmallows, you must, because the consistency is soooo much better than store bought, they taste so light and so good!) and a box of assorted salted caramels which were absolutely delectable...we took these items home to save for a treat later!

The sign on the outside of Cacao

The adorable sign next to the entrance

How cute is this place?

Such pretty displays

So much fun!

We then window shopped some of the adorable stores in Virginia Highlands. Next, I took Katie to Decatur because that is the one part of Atlanta that I really enjoy to go to that I had not taken her to see (why? I don't know) and we drove around the cute downtown area. And now it is back to Buckhead and exploring Lenox mall once again. Finally, we decided it was time to go home to eat some good Italian food and drink lots of good red wine. We ordered Alfredo's in for dinner (Matt went to pick it up for us). Alfredo's is this little Italian hole in the wall restaurant, but the food is really good! Sunday morning we got up and I made homemade cinnamon rolls so Katie could try them (I made my first batch months ago and have been making them pretty frequently ever since (and I have to say, they are pretty good))! Katie loved the cinnamon rolls and then it was already time for her to go...

She says that she will be back up to visit soon though and I can't wait!

oxox,
lauren