Back to Bama

I say this almost every Monday - but - what a weekend!
This glorious weekend, we went back to Birmingham (for the 1st time) for JuJu and David's wedding. We had a lot to do, and a lot of people to see... needless to say, the trip was a whirlwind...

We left Santa Rosa around 11 o'clock on Friday. Much to our surprise, Chappell did extremely well on the drive up. I brought an arsenal of toys in anticipation... as she played... we kept on a-drivin', and we only stopped once. Is that child abuse? She seemed happy so we didn't feel the need to stop. Her cheery attitude finally faded, however, about 20 minutes south of Birmingham. So we decided to make a pit stop at the Summit - and Banana Republic brought her back to life!

After our quick trip to the Summit, we headed over to Marlee's house. Marlee is one of my dear KD friends from Alabama. She has a six month old baby girl, Eleanor... we have a lot in common these days.
Chappell and Eleanor ate a lovely dinner of squash and fruit together. Chappell loved Marla's home grown sun flowers. Like most things, she wanted to eat them.

Eleanor loved her new hat from Miss Chappy.

Some of my favorite peeps (Heather, Mags, Caitlin, Russell & her fam, Hunter, Wes, Stuart & Anna Belle, Charla & Andrew) came over to Marlee and William's for a cook out. Blue cheese burgers... um, yum!

Chappy and Baby Julia had some quality bonding time before Chappell had to turn in for the night. They shared toys, a quilt, and even a bottle.

On Saturday, we visited Reed's cousin Ginna and her family. Ginna took some adorable pictures of Chappy with her cousins, Rhett, Buddy & Laura Lacy.
*As soon as I download the pictures I will post them.

After our visit with the Gardners, we decided to hit up one of our most favorite places for lunch: Nabeels. It's about a block away from our old house, and I can't tell you how many times Reed and I went there. Ugh... it's too sad to think about.

Since we were meeting a few of our friends at Nabeels, and were running a little early, we decided to drive by our old house... I snapped this picture through the window, then decided I should take another one, sans glass. As I held the camera up to my face, the current owners walked out the front door and caught me red handed. It was a little awkward. I'm secretly glad it happened, anyways, because I got to go inside. I realized that I miss that house, and I really, REALLY miss my chandelier.
PS: I think the house misses me and my cute window boxes. :(

Here are a few pics from Nabeels. ReeRee AKA Daddy thought that Chappell would enjoy chewing on a (seedless) lemon...

and she did, until it got in her eyes. Poor baybay!

Hunter Chapman joined us for lunch - and I finally got to meet baby Sims! He's such a sweet baby... he slept through almost the entire lunch. How I miss those days...

When we got back to the house, Chappell took a nap. When she woke up, she had a play date with Marlee's golden retriever, Jayber. He licked her head until her hair was soaking wet. Although it was icky to watch, I didn't intervene because she was cracking up the entire time.

She loved that dog!

I mean... this is pure bliss. I'm a little sad to say it, but I think dogs are in our future. The entire time, Reed kept saying, "I can't wait to get her a dog."
Perfect.

Eleanor woke up from her nap and the babies held hands...

Look at Chappell's face. My mom says she looks like Reed when I get "on to him." Ahahah, she's so right. I should add, however, that this isn't often.

Saturday night, we went to JuJu and David's wedding. JuJu, you looked incredible and the reception was beautiful! We had a great time. I don't have any pictures, because I would've looked like I was a part of the photography crew with my dad's big ole' camera bag.
After the reception, we headed back to Marlee's, and hit the hay.
Sunday, we were all ready to to pack it up and drive home when we saw that tropical storm Claudette would be hitting our house around 4 pm. Since we didn't think we would make it home before the storm hit, we decided to spend the night with Reed's parents in Ozark. Although unexpected, we had a good time. We drove to Dothan Sunday night for dinner with Bryant and Danielle.
Here are some pictures from Sunday night at Bryant and Danielle's new casa in Dothan.

Chappell and Emmy...

Mary Parker and Buddy...

Brody playing some kick ball (?)...

A little floor time for the girls...

All in all - Great weekend.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry. I miss B-ham and our friends so much!