Life lately

I think we all know by now that I'm pretty much always a busy girl. But here lately things have been way more busy, exciting and fun than usual. I guess life has just been handing me one heck of an end of summer party.

It started three weeks ago with a cookout at Nick and Ashley's for his birthday on Monday night. Then later that week Joy and I had dinner at the new Todd English Pub downtown followed by seeing the Red Mountain Theater Company's production of 42nd Street at the new Dorothy Jemison Day theater at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA). Such a great time!

The next night, J and I went to the Green Seed & St. Paul and the Broken Bones show in Avondale. (oh btw, St. Paul & BB have been chosen as "the best of what's next" from Paste magazine!) Then Saturday I made german chocolate cupcakes (from scratch!) for my dad's bday and a going away cookout at Joy's house that night. Sunday J & I went home to spend some time with my fam in honor of the aforementioned bday. My nephew and I were able to coax a tiny kitten out from the storage area under my parents house. What a cutie! Not gonna lie, was tempted to keep the kitty, but I know better so I managed to leave it behind.

That following weekend was spent pretty much with J at Secret Stages, which you can read about in it's entirety here. For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a great idea to get up on Saturday am (after maybe 5 hours of sleep) and run the Peavine Falls course with Patricia. I have no idea how I survived but I did and for some other crazy reason, I want to go back soon and do it again! Sunday of this weekend was again spent at home with fam that morning for church and then I hurried back to Bham to make peach ice cream for my framily reunion later that night to welcome Peach back home.

This past week was spent seeing Peaches and Matt (along with the rest of our gang) since they were in town for Torry & Nicole's wedding. We had dance parties, long discussions and frequented some of our fav restaurants like Mugshots, Five Bar & of course, Moe's. I also went to a panel discussion at Alabama Outdoors on Thursday night to see my friend Kyle speak about running the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, but sadly I had to leave before I got to hear about his experience.

Friday afternoon brought Emily in town, which meant the gang was finally all back together again (well, minus her husband Blake) so I ended up taking a half day and meeting them at Moe's for lunch. Later that night we met at Ashley Mac's for the rehearsal dinner (yum!) followed by karaoke at Starz. Saturday was packed with an early run, a coffee meeting/catch up sesh at O'Henry's with Lauren (of Something Blue Events) and her husband Sam and their three kids, then pedis with the girls, lunch at Urban Cookhouse, dessert at Pastry Art Shoppe and then finally, the main event—Torry & Nicole say "I do" (#foreverpattons).

The ceremony was perfect, the bride looked stunning and the reception was a redic good time. We also even managed to surprise Torry at the reception with a flash mob dance routine. My fav part is when he went to join in and dance with her and someone had to grab him and tell him 'nope, you have to watch.' It was awesome. Don't worry, when we've got the video finished, it'll be posted on the blog.

Top off this incredible weekend with some time spent at Peaches' lakehouse yesterday and you've got one happy girl sitting at her computer today. I just wish I got to see these people all the time! One day... maybe one day.

Life lately

It's been a while since I've last done a "life lately" post. It's probably because I seemed to have gotten in a bad habit of not taking as many photos over the past few weeks. There's actually been a decent amount of things I've done so that's kind of a bummer. But I do at least have a few pics to share.

A couple of weekends ago we got an early start with a birthday dinner celebration in honor of Heather at the J. Clyde on Thursday. So glad she appreciates and shares my love for that place. The next night I went with Katie, John and Kyle to the Alabama Outdoors Party on the Porch event that supported Ruffner Mountain. I wish I had taken a pic of my truck fries that I got from the Cantina truck. But obviously there's no time for such shenanigans when you're holding steak, queso and pico on top of garlic fries. We also even made it to Marty's to see a second band play for the night.

Since J and all my friends seemed to be out of town, I spent the next day devoted to entirely too much physical activity (11 miles of running and an hour of horizontal conditioning...who am I?!) and then promptly returned to the YMCA pool for some afternoon sun worshipping. That Sunday was Father's day so I went home and hung with the fam and played with the kiddos, and took my usual power nap, too.

This past weekend was jam packed with a whole lotta fun. Friday night was a going away dinner at Cocina for another couple from church (seriously, why is everyone leaving?!) followed by catching a few bands play at a benefit for Gip's Place, including getting to see Henry "Gip" Gipson actually play. You haven't lived til you've seen a 92-year old man play the blues on guitar. Just sayin!

Then Saturday I particpated in my first ever indoor climbing competition (more on that in another post), followed by a well deserved lunch at FIVE and then to cheer on John at the skeeball finals. Then Sunday after church, J and I hit up the afternoon showing of The Princess Bride at the Alabama Theater. Somehow I had never seen this movie and he had never been to the Alabama, so it was a win-win. Afterward we stopped for ice cream at Edgewood creamery—clearly the best way to end an already amazing weekend.