Spring Break Part III

Birmingham:
Ribs.

Atlanta:
Aquarium! The Georgia Aquarium has the largest tank in the world; home to four whale sharks, a bunch of giant manta rays, black tip sharks, and more. The rest of the aquarium was great (aside from a painfully cheesy dolphin show complete with a wannabe broadway singer and a sparkly cape), but we were mesmerized by that main tank.  

After the aquarium we had chicken and waffles at Gladys Knight’s restaurant. Delicious. Fattening. Probably good that we don’t live in Atlanta or I would want it every day. We also went to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention…you know, from Contagion?) and saw the museum there. Matt is really interested in studying infectious disease, so he was looking forward to this. I decided that if he ever gets a job there I would be fine living in Atlanta. It was a pretty cool city!

Montgomery:

Rosa Parks museum. Dreamland BBQ. Best pork sandwich I’ve ever had.

And then it was on to Florida!

Spring Break Part II

Chattanooga, Tennessee

I let Matt plan this trip. We ended up going to 3 different Civil War battlefields/historical sites. I love that guy! They were pretty interesting, and when I maybe started to get bored there was beautiful scenery to keep me occupied. The first site was Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We camped out there the night before, enjoyed fine local cuisine for breakfast (Waffle House), then drove up the mountain. It was gorgeous! Cloudy and rainy, but I didn’t realize Tennessee was so scenic. The battle field was cool too. After Lookout Mountain we went to the site of the actual battle of Chattanooga, home of the best visitor center film (which is saying something because we ended up watching 4 on this trip).

 

Sneaky-sneak.

Spring Break Part I

Matt and I just returned from a week long road trip. We drove 2,000 + miles, hit 6 states in 7 days, and had a marvelous time. I've decided to break this post up because, lets be honest, most of you will just skip to the pictures if I post a week's worth of adventures all at once. Am I right? :)
New Orleans
Matt’s number one stop in New Orleans was the WWII Museum. Mine was a sandwich. I saw a Man vs. Food episode awhile ago where he had to eat an entire muffuletta by himself. These sandwiches are the size of a large plate. They consist of “a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, capicola, mortadella, salami, pepperoni, ham, Swiss cheese, and provolone.” So naturally I’ve wanted to try one ever since. I was not disappointed; luckily Matt was a good sport and drove in circles while I bought it since the French Quarter has no parking.
 The museum was almost as good as my sandwich. Just kidding. It was a pretty amazing museum. They had a lot of personal accounts and artifacts, which I liked, and they really focused on the war in the Pacific. That’s a part of the war I didn’t know as much about. But the coolest part, by far, was the hangar with all of the planes. Real planes! That actually flew and fought during the war. Consider us impressed, New Orleans.

Deep Fried Date Night

I have been blessed with a husband who has an eye for trashy-looking food places that will actually be good. It's his sixth sense. He noticed J&J Seafood Market from the freeway awhile back and couldn't believe I hadn't ever noticed it . . . (because who wouldn't want to eat at a place with a broken down sign and bars on the windows?) But lo and behold, we went there last night and my mind was blown! It was filled with people, there were tons of fresh fish and shrimp, and I loved the little grocery area with cool Cajun/Southern ingredients and spices. I'll tell you what, it was the best catfish I've had since moving out here. Y’all should be jealous J The shrimp was delicious, and the hush puppies tasted so good they were gone before I thought to take a picture. Houston, you're alright.

Thoroughly Inspired Part II

Awhile back I did a post about feeling inspired. That feeling has been back this week! Here are some things I'm loving right now:

• Houston weather. I love this city and I love this weather. 70 degrees and sunny? In January? I could get used to this. (This is a picture of the Texas Medical Center. We live less than a mile from here)

• A fun culinary adventure--Houston food trucks. I had a life changing fried avocado taco last night from this one...

• A new blog oliviaraejames.com

• Good books. These are a few of my favorites from the past couple months:

Taste What You're Missing: The Passionate Eaters Guide to Why Food Tastes Good

(I'm not finished with this one yet, but it's fascinating)

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

The Hobbit

(Nerdy, I know, but it's so good! Give it a chance.)

Uglies

• My shows. Slightly addicted to...

Parenthood



Downton Abbey

Parks and Recreation

 

• This talk by President Uchtdorf. I've read it about 10 times!

Of Regrets and Resolution

"The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness, the less likely we will be on a path to regrets."

 

And...it's February!

It's been awhile but I actually felt like blogging again tonight; so here I am with a quick recap!

December:
Christmas and New Years with Matt's family couldn't have been better. Lots of snow, lots of food, lots of movies, sleeping in, sledding, skiing (Matt), Christmas lights, playing with the dogs, and just enjoying time together. We also got to get together with my extended family, hung out with old friends, Skyped with my family on Christmas morning, and talked to Michael on his mission!

January:
Winter break was a good time, but going back to work after two weeks of vacation was a little rough. Mostly because I had a TON of writing to grade from the final exam and felt behind on everything else. It took a couple of weeks, but I got the grading done and got back into my groove. It's nice to be busy and on a schedule. Plus I've got some more funny student stories to share...but that's another post for another day. Things have been going well and we're in our big push now for the state test in April. Pretty exciting stuff!

Matt's second semester of med school has been super hard, but he says he's enjoying it more than first semester because of the subject matter. Overall he's liking his classes and he survived his first round of exams this past week! I'm so proud.

And now it's February. We're back. We're happy. Life's good. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 

The past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind. Lets start with the week before Thanksgiving . . .

Let me start off by saying that this little 4 day trip I took was actually the longest time I've spent away from Matt since we got married. It was way harder than I thought! I never thought I'd be "that girl," but there you go. Loved the trip, but missed my husband every second of it.

On November 15th, Rachel Fay Woodbury got MARRIED! We were roommates our freshman year at BYU and we've been best friends ever since. I'm so grateful that I was able to get a couple of days off work to fly out to Mesa for her wedding. She was such a beautiful bride. It was also the first temple sealing that I've been to, other than my own. It was an incredible experience.

Congratulations Rachel and Dave!

 

 

I also got to hang out with this girl! It had been too long.

 

 

Since I had the next week off, I decided to extend my trip and drive back to California with Em. We took a side trip to see my friend Elliot, who was supposed to have a baby that day. Luckily Camden waited to make his appearance so that I could have a quick visit with his mama. He's here now though and I'll probably have to make another trip out to Tucson asap...

 

And then we drove to Glendora! I hadn't made any concrete plans, but everything worked out perfectly. I got to see all of my people--grandparents, aunt, as well as my "second families." Most of my friends have moved away now, but we spent so much time at each other's houses growing up, that seeing the Spencers, Jacobsons, and Hartwigs was truly like visiting with family. It was very strange to be back there now that my parents and siblings have moved away. It was the first time I had been back since my wedding 2 years ago. Nothing has changed though, and Glendora will always feel like home. I also got my Sergios and El Merendero, so I'm calling it a success.

 

A couple of days after I got home, the Scotts flew out from Utah to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had such a great time! We threw together a fabulous dinner, despite my teeny tiny kitchen, and enjoyed the time we were able to spend together. We saw a couple of movies, drove out to Galveston, went to a Renaissance Festival (quite an interesting experience), ate lots of delicious food, went to the Arboretum, saw Matt's school, went to the Museum of Art, and saw lots of Christmas lights.

 

Thanksgiving morning at the arboretum. It's really hard to be so far away from my own family right now. That will never change. But it would be so much harder without the love and support that I feel from the Scotts! I'm grateful to be a part of this family too.

 

 

And now the Christmas season is finally here. Here are a few pictures of our little Christmas-fied apartment!

 

 

Wouldn't be Christmas without the Simpsons Village, right?

 

 

 

 

We obviously downsized this year when it came to the tree. But I'll be darned if we didn't cram in as many ornaments and lights as it could hold! I think it's beautiful.

 

 

Despite the 80 degree weather, it's beginning to feel like Christmas. Hallelujah. And Houston doesn't skimp on their lights and decorations either. It's going to be a good one!