thankful thursday # 34

my mom is coming to birmy to see me!!!

i am so excited.  she hasn't been here since she moved us into our loft.  & we didn't do much fun then.  we moved & moved & moved & unpacked & unpacked & unpacked.

but this time we are going to have a ton of fun!  girly weekend, here we come.

we are going to eat lovely food; we are going to get pedicures; we are going to go shopping; we are going to cook; we are going to walk around the beautiful botanical gardens...

& the weather is supposed to be lovely & cool for all of this wonderfulness.

i am so excited.  & so thankful.

see you soon, mom!!!

i hope you can think of something for which you are thankful today.

love love,
kjp.

apalachicola oysters = the best.

that is pretty much all you need to know.  apalachicola oysters are a.freakin.mazing.

so we ate them a lot.  it was awesome.

the first night, we went to a fun open air restaurant called eddy teach's.  the raw oysters were definitely the best part.  that & the florida state fan that lent us bug spray.  thanks, dude!

{classy.  loved it.}

we drove across the bridge to the town of apalachicola for lunch one day & ate at up the creek raw bar.  it is a fabulous restaurant right on the bay with all sorts of interesting seafood.  i had an alligator burger - ground up alligator with a fancy slaw.  so different from anything i've had & so good.  we will absolutely head back to this place if we are in the area again, which i really hope happens soon!

{beautiful food with a beautiful view!}

in addition to the great restaurants at which we ate, we cooked a fantastic amount of fresh seafood at our beach house!  there was a local food truck that sold all the fresh seafood you could want.  food truck + fresh seafood = a wonderful wonderful combo.

have i told you about our little cuisinart fryer?  it has become one of our most fun kitchen tools.  we love bringing it on vacation when you are totally ok with eating ridiculously fattening & delicious foods.  {see...you want to go on vacation with us!}

so we fried a lot of foods...

{fried shrimp!}

{fried oysters & fried onions!}

{fried okra!}

on our first night in, we made the most lovely of all beach meals: the shrimp boil.  it was peyton & my first time to do a shrimp boil ourselves, & i will say we did a mighty fine job.  {one tip: cook the shrimp for a very short amount of time!  the instructions we were following had us cook it far too long.  bright pink after a couple of minutes is all you need.}

{yum!}

{my wonderful husband being artistic during our meal.

so cute.}

fabulous food.  fabulous vacation.  let's go again...soon :)

love love,

kjp.

oysters & boomer sooner & the beach.

for blakey's fall week of vacay, we met up with his brother & sister-in-law for a few days at the beach before the fan-freakin-tastic ou vs fsu state game.

one of my favorite parts of traveling lately is the road trip there.  since blakey works his butt off all of the time, it is nice to get to sit down with him & just chat.  we talk & talk & talk for hours about God knows what... blake's recent random obsessions {currently: building a house on multiple acres with a "man barn" & buying a super fast sports car.  ask me how likely these things are to happen in the next couple of years.}, trips we want to take, what our family & friends have been up to...

the drive to st george island is on smaller highways or even streets through alabama & florida.  {hey, alabama.  take a trip to texas & learn what an interstate is please.}  the last hour of the drive was through the apalachiciola national forest.  it was so pretty!  super tall & super skinny "naked" trees surrounded the little road.  & a bear ran across the road a few hundred feet in front of us!

st george island is gorgeous!  we lucked out again & had the sun & the sand & the water all to ourselves.  so most of our days were spent with the girls sitting in the sand getting a nice little tan, while the boys talked sports & medicine in the waves.  it was quite perfect.

on our last day, we took a stroll down the shoreline.  each couple picked out which beach house they wanted.  justin & peyton - the new england cottage.  blakey & me - the southern wrap-around porch with big columns.  love it.

& then the boys' hunting skills took over our walk.  a crab ran out of the water right in front of blake, so blake decided he had to have that crab.  it.was.hilarious.  blake would try to scoop up the crab with a slap coozie {oh yeah} & the little guy would fight back.  over & over & over again.  but b's persistency paid off & he caught that crab.

so on our trek back to camp with crab-in-cup, we found a big ole jelly fish that tumbled ashore.  blake had to have that too, so he conned justin into carrying it back for him.

{boomer sooner, crabby!}

{we decided we had likely pissed this little crab off,

& thus it would not be a good idea to let him run off into the ocean near us.

so blakey rannnnnnn down the shore

with the crab holding onto coozie for dear life
to drop him off a ways away from us.}

you totally want to vacation with us now, don't you?

once we had enough sun for the day, we all headed back to our gorgeous beach house to hang out on the porch.  {note: if you are vacationing at st george island, a screened-in porch is a MUST.  i cannot stress this enough.  long story short: peyton & i each had approx 100 mosquitos bites after our first outdoor dinner.  screened-in porch + camping strength bug spray = 100% necessary.}

the rest of our vacation revolved around food & ou football.  {this shocks you, i know.}

each afternoon through evening, we got pumped up for ou football.  we saw each of the intro videos at least once per day.  the very first "there's only one" video from 2005 has to be my favorite.  {take a look HERE.}  but 2007's "welcome to the house that bud built" is really good too.  {HERE}  &, of course, i love this year's "i swear my allegiance to the crimson & cream" {HERE}.

we played boomer sooner & the fight song & the chant over & over & over.

we watched one of my absolutely favorite football moments of all time - jump around during the ou vs tech game {HERE}.

& if you ever had an option about kevin wilson, please please watch this {HERE}.

it was amazing.  everything we want in a vacation.

thanks, justin & peyton for joining us for the most fabulous week!

stay tuned for the food blog post.  it will be lovely.

love love,
kjp.

a lovely weekend with the hubs.

even though blakey was on call saturday, we had a lovely little weekend.  friday night, we headed to parkside for a relaxing evening on the back patio.  with vintage doors & little light strands hung, it is the perfect mix of casual eclectic.  & with the cool breeze, we were a happy two.

after blakey woke up from his post call slumber on sunday, we took the little t guy for a run at the railroad park.  the beautiful fall afternoon was perfect for an hour outdoors.  he joined me on my trip to urban.  me baking & him watching football is great fun.

our weekend concluded with pizza, beer, & sunday football with our tanky.  my fantasty football team absolutely stunk up the weekend, but a possible win for blake's team & the first carolina panther win in more than a season made up for it.

we hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

love love,

kjp.

happy autumnal equinox!!!

{my pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting!}

happy autumnal equinox, friends!!!

welcome to the cooler temperatures, the fantastic flavors, & the beautiful foliage {also know as "beautiful tree shit" to our dear friend jake uber.  prayers to you & holly & jack as you leave for deployment for the year.  love you all.}

happy friday.  & happy weekend.  do something fun with someone you love this weekend.

love love,

kjp.

thankful thursday # 33.

tomorrow is the autumnal equinox, & i am so excited.

{julie & dad - i win!!!}

there are so many wonderful & amazing things about the fall.  & i am excited about all of them.

i am excited about all things pumpkin.  i downloaded 8 pumpkin recipes last night in approximately 10 minutes that i want to try for work.  i am excited about pumpkin bread & pumpkin scones & pumpkin spice cupcakes & pumpkin and chocolate chip cookies & pumpkin whoopie pies & even pumpkin mac and cheese.

& outside of pumpkin, i am excited about butternut squash & spaghetti squash & root vegetables & cranberries & maple syrup & cloves & cumin.  i'm excited about soup & chili {not stew, dad.  not stew.} & hearty warm meals. oh, & octoberfest.

& believe it or not, i am actually excited about a few fall things outside of food.  i want to wear boots & boots & more boots.  i am excited about scarves & cardigans & comfy non-hooded sweatshirts. & furry moccasins.  i look forward to wearing fall colors like mustard & eggplant & midnight blue.

ooooh, i so want to see the leaves change colors!  i've probably already told you, but there are the most gigantic trees in birmy.  trees that have beautiful color changes of maroons & golds & oranges.  you can drive down one of the big state highways here & be in total awe.  each & every day for weeks.

for the first time in months, there will be a breeze in alabama.  i know you okie folks take for granted the loveliness of cool breeze, but we don't.  there is never wind here.  until fall.  & it will be awesome.

& i am excited about pumpkin spice lattes.  even if i don't make it to the big bad starbucks, i can have one of urban's wonderful lattes with the pumpkin spice syrup i secretly hid at the store for all of us psl lovers to drink.  and...there we are back to the food.

full circle.

i should probably stop now.

but i am so excited.  & i am so thankful it is almost here.  welcome, fall.  we welcome you with open arms.

i hope you can think of something for which you are thankful today.

love love,
kjp.

urban photo shoot.

while ashley & cari were in birmy, we had a little photo shoot at urban.  cari got a new super awesome camera for her birthday, so she wanted to practice.  with fabulous creative eye & the uber hip backdrop of urban, the pics turned out pretty darn fabulous.

{cari shot & edited most of these fantastic photographs.  the lesser great ones - specifically the ones she is in or of the urban details - i took.}

 {the epitome of cari.}

{our kate spade nicklaces!!}

 {how amazing are these vintage boots of my mom's??}

 {GORGEOUS.}

 {one of my favorite pictures ever.}

my mini photo shoot:

the alley behind urban.  yes, there actually is food-related graffiti.

{hahaha}

love it!  love you two.  thank you so much for coming to birmy!!!

love love,

kjp.