Christmas Alabama Style

This year for Christmas, we traveled down to Mobile, Alabama to visit Chris' family. We haven't been down since we were engaged (3 years ago!) so it was a long overdue trip.

My goofy husband playing at the airport. "Final boarding call for flight 254 to Boston."

Beverly and Forrest bought a lot in Alabama to build on once they are retired. Bev has 1 1/2 more years of teaching and then they are on their way to retirement. The houses down in the area are so fun...all on stilts and right off the water. Not a lot has happened on the lot as of yet but soon they will start clearing the brush to build a house!

This is what Bev and Forest will see when they look out their back window each morning, minus a few of the trees. They will have a dock similar to the one next to them to get in their boat and go!

This is a little further down the road in Dauphin Island. They are on bay side and just a quick boat ride to the gulf. There are rocks everywhere and the view is GORGEOUS.

Don't swim!

The next day we traveled to the gulf side (Gulf Shores) to visit Forrest's friend Roy and his wife Susan. They have a condo off the Gulf that is absolutely beautiful. They had another condo off the Gulf that was destroyed by the hurricane. These are some shots from the beach a hop, skip, and a jump away from their new condo and right next to their old one that was washed away.

Beverly picking shells for some fun artwork to have in the new house. We spent most of our time down there helping her find pretty shells.

Chris is sneaky! He took this picture of his mom handing his dad some shells. I think it's a framer!

Family photo.

Us on the beach.

Brotherly love. Check out those sun beams! It was 75 degrees at the end of December...can't beat it!

After spending some time on the beach we headed to LuLu's which is owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister. On the way in I noticed a funny ashtray that said "Put your butts here." I told Chris and Justin I would have to take their picture "putting their butts there." Before we could stop him, Chris SAT IN THE ASHTRAY. He thought I really meant to put his butt inside it! He didn't know it was an ashtray!

If you look closely you can see Chris' butt imprint in the sand. What a goofball!

This is more along the lines of what I meant!!

Chris' grandma Jewel is in a nursing home so Forrest and Bev stayed with her on the fold out couch. Chris, Justin, and I stayed with Beverly's cousin Vicky. She is a WONDERFUL hostess. We had so much fun with her, her husband Mike, and their daughters Meredith and Lindsey. Vicky took us with her sister Debbie shopping at all the fun stores in Mobile. They have such a fun relationship and we laughed all day long! Meredith and Lindsey had every game system imaginable and we spent HOURS playing on the Wii and Guitar Hero.

Chris teaching Forrest to golf on the Wii. I can't believe we got Forrest to play! He liked it so much he's thinking about buying one. I think we're going to have a family game night with our Wii and make some brackets up....

My husband, the Guitar Hero rock star. He lifts up his leg and really jams out while he plays...it's hilarious. I'm so addicted to this game that we bought it as soon as we landed in Dallas!

A night at the McMansion

Friday night, after a long week of school Christmas parties, crazy kiddos, and pure exhaustion, we thought it would be a good idea to calm down with our friends the McCloskey's and the Curry's. I brought our camera to get some pics of Taylor and it ended with the boys having WAY too much camera fun.

Taylor...her hair looks red here!

Bath time with Taylor. She loves the water!

All bundled up after her bath.

Here's where it gets interesting. The boys take over the camera.

Andy taught Chris how to leave open the shutter to make cool things with lights. You know those pics where the car headlights are blurring by? This is Chris's name written with a candle lighter.

Grant stood behind Andy and wrote his name with the lighter. I told you it was ridiculous!

Fire fun.

And of course....Poop spelled around Andy's head. This is what grown men do for fun, right??? All this was happening as the girls sang every Mariah Carey song imaginable. Regardless of how completely ridiculous this night sounds, we always have a blast when we are with our dear friends. Life in Texas would be awful without them!

Thanksgiving in St. Louis

I'm way overdue on this! This year was the Georgevitch year for Thanksgiving so we packed up Tuesday after school and headed to STL. Flights were outrageous so we decided to take advantage of the low gas prices and drive. It was so good to see everyone! My mom decided to give us our Christmas presents while we were there so all of these pics are taken with our fancy new Nikon D40. I'm SO in love with it!

Me having fun with our new Christmas present!

We are dorks.

My sister was leaving the house and I ran downstairs asking her if she could leave my jacket here. She said it was hers. I ran upstairs to make sure and sure enough, we had the same jacket and shoes. TOTALLY NOT PLANNED! We used it as a photo op.

Mom and Dad totally not excited to take a picture.

Ann and Brian who I haven't seen in SO long! We went to dinner at Tumo's so I could see all my friends there too.

Old roommates, good friends.

Yes, they are standing under mistletoe. Kinda weird.

Jared, Chris and little baby Alex.

Milo, my parents' pet rabbit. They bought it to take my place when I moved to Texas.

Spending time with my Grandma and Grandpa.

Jared and Dana's baby, Alex. He's sweet!

Picture fun with Alex.

On the way home we stopped in Springfield and had lunch with my old roommate Ashley, her husband Brandon, and their little girl Nora. I haven't seen Nora since last July when she was 3 weeks old! It was so good to spend time with them.