The fastest weekend in Mobile, Alabama!

We spent the quickest, most refreshing weekend in Mobile, Alabama! My bff Natalie and her husband Darin operate a Chick-fil-A there (if you live in Mobile, go see them! 3244 Dauphin Street!), and I really wanted to visit and see her life there. We have grown up together and remained close since we were 12 years old. She's one of my oldest friends and the dearest kind of soul - she listens so well and keeps an incredibly open mind about things, which is something that is a rare treasure in a friend. She always gives a balanced opinion and sound advice, and has been a steadfast friend through the ups and downs that the years have brought. Over the past year, I think I had more surprise Amazon deliveries from her than I ordered for my own family - because she knows that gifts are my love language. What a thoughtful, generous, loyal gem of friend she is. And I'm not an idiot; if you have a friend this good, you hold onto her for dear life! I am grateful grateful grateful for her sweet self.

Everett fell head over heels for Miss Natalie when he was a baby. He always looked at her with these big puppy eyes and would actually stop crying when she was near him (which is more than I can say about myself - oh, the years of crying Everett...) So he was super amped to visit her. He loved her cats.

We had grand plans to explore Mobile over the course of the weekend, perhaps even trekking over to the blessed town of Fairhope (a southern treasure, and most certainly worth the drive if you ever get the chance!), but it ended up pouring rain the whole weekend. Which you know what? Was kind of wonderful. Her home is on the water and is the kind of place that has that dreamy, lived-in, warm southern charm. A brick archway, woven rugs, distressed furniture and carefully chosen antiques - her home should be photographed! It's truly a wonder. I loved curling up on her soft couch and clutching my coffee cup and listening to the rain fall while catching up on everything going on in her heart. Our husbands wrangled my children (and a few cats) while they played ping pong and talked dude things.

I am usually a hard-core traveler, eager to see (and eat) as much as possible that is local and charming. But this was a different trip, a time to revel in the goodness of a well-worn friendship and feel at home with the heart of my dear girl.

I will say that when the sun came out for a few hours, we had the chance to wander through the famed Charles Phillips Antiques, a local dealer that imports his goods from all over Europe. It was mesmerizing, being taken back in time and surrounded by thousands of flourished french doors and heavy steamer trunks, cases of glass bottles and stacks of letters from World War II. Every item is steeped in history, emanating stories from a past age. It was rather intimate, rifling through someone else's jewelry boxes, torn recipes, tool bins and office supplies. I was overwhelmed by the experience, and found myself tearing up as we walked to our car to leave. I couldn't even buy anything, I didn't know how to choose. It's definitely the kind of place that you want to visit if you're furnishing a house. But bring a trailer on the back of your car, this stuff is amazing.

I'm feeling more and more like myself everyday. My postpartum experience this time around has really challenged me, and I am grateful that people like Natalie have been patient with me as I've come back to myself. Spending such a rich time with this girl who is truly family to me made my heart happy. It's a rare thing, to have a friend this good. If you're reading this and one of your dear girlfriends comes to mind today, send her a text or a quick letter in the mail! Who doesn't love hearing from their dear old friend, just for the heck of it? Lots of love to all of you today, friends! xox

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Unfortunately my romper is sold out and my kimono is past season, but I linked to a few similar styles :)

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Nashville for the Night.

Stevie and I took the quickest road trip ever to Nashville two weekends ago for our friend's wedding. It was our first time leaving Everett over night, and I was super nervous about it, but we all did GREAT! In fact, Everett was so happy the entire time that I'm thinking we need to make some more plans to leave him again soon. Not too soon, obviously, since his leg incident. But in the near-ish future, when everyone is healed and happy. :) My parents were amazing to watch him for the evening, thanks Mom and Dad!

So, Nashville! I wish we could have had more time to explore! It felt a little bit like a tease of a trip, because we were only there one evening, and we spent that evening at the wedding. We had the most whirlwind experience but SUCH A BLAST. I'll share the few things we did, but honestly, my list of things I wanted to see/do/eat is longer than ever. I guess it just leaves lots of hunger for another trip!

The wedding was at Vine Street Christian Church (such a lovely spot - an enormous wall of sun-lit windows!) and the reception was at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden, which I hate to say, but puts Atlanta's to shame. It was SO STUNNING. And I tried to be a good wedding guest and not tote my enormous camera along for the evening, so all I've got are a few shots of us all pose-y, pose-y. Needless to say, we had a ridiculous, almost epic kind of time. This wedding was bonkers fun. Congratulations, Justin & Jade!

The next morning, we took a hike for wake up java, which we found at Just Love Coffee. We wished we could have been crazy late-night party animals and hit a few of the rad restaurants/bars on Demonbreun Street the night before, but you know, Intentional October has me falling asleep like a grandma these days. Mental note - come back! We pranced around The Gulch, a newer LEED-certified development, gawked at the line outside of Biscuit Love, decided not to join the crowd, and just kept walking.

I heard Sambuca is cool. But I've only heard it.

We wanted to drive by Vanderbilt on our way out, and we couldn't resist getting out on the open lawn and pretending we were students. I don't know what it is about big campus lawns, but I just love them. I want a book and a blanket and I want to lay out there reading Steinbeck all day, bettering myself just because I CAN. Actually, I can't. We illegally parked, jumped out of the car, checked out the central area of the school (we think?) and then jumped back in the car and blazed outta town before anyone could nab us for being STUDENT IMPOSTERS. Vanderbilt is just lovely in the fall, sidenote.

One of my favorite parts of our trip was actually just the road trip part. I know that might seem silly, but to have like 4.5 hours in the car with Stevie BOTH WAYS was just such a decadent, rich amount of time to talk and laugh together. We don't get that kind of time when we're just doing day-to-day life, and it reminded me of our road trip days when we were in ministry school in California. We drove back and forth from Atlanta to Redding four times, and there is just nothing like a multi-day cross-country road trip to give you an opportunity to really get to know your person. This little trip to Nashville was a sweet reminder of "the good old days", and the thing is, I think we are still living in the good old days. I know I will look back on this season of life with a smile and the warmest kinds of memories, because even though life was freer before we had Everett, it's immensely better with him.

The views of the Tennessee countryside on the way home were stunning. There weren't words. We got out a few times and just stared at the mountains and the water. Because when do I ever take the time just to stare at mountains and water? I feel like they are always telling us something, if we're listening.

So Nashville, we might not have seen your fine bars or listened to the next big country star or toured your epic distilleries - but we had a refreshing, meaningful, ridiculously fun time. Thanks for giving us a night of your time. xox.

Happening Lately.

Happening Lately.

After a month of almost non-stop travel, we are finally back home! My little family has experienced a lot of adventures since the end of April, and we have had SO MUCH FUN, but we are seriously ready to get back to normal. Babies thrive on routines. Heck, I thrive on a routine. It's back to grocery lists and scheduled naps and, oh yeah, this thing happened while we were gone - SUMMER!!!

I am still in the process of compiling all the photos from our trips to St. Simons Island and Rome (I found a few more Madrid photos and added them to the previous post, in case you're interested in seeing a few more) and I will have those up for you over the next week or so. One trip that I have almost zero photos from is the one from this past week - I was in Florida with my husband's family, where we basically go back in time and pretend that technology doesn't exist. Which was fitting because, this year, none of our technology worked anyway! The service on the beach that we love seemed to be worse than ever, so it wasn't hard to forget about owning a phone or computer. We just relaxed by the ocean and watched our babies eat sand while we ate grapes and sandwiches. I actually read a book. Well, part of a book. Okay, I read two chapters of a book and it was spectacular. I forgot how desperately much I love to read. It's been a long year of very little reading, but now that my baby is getting older, I feel like some of those pastimes will make a comeback in my world. Fingers crossed. Anyway, all that to say that I actually have very few pictures of the family beach trip (except for the few snippets above), because I needed to take a break and check out from my usual over-photographing, and that is quite alright. I got the memories!

I hope you all have some wonderful summer plans on the horizon. Since we stacked all our summer travel at the beginning of the season, come July and August I will probably be itching for another trip! But that's okay. I will just live vicariously through all of your vacation photos :) In the mean time, I hope you have a marvelous Monday and soak in some of this warmth!

6 Tips for Road Tripping With a Baby

Tips for Road Tripping With a Baby.

We took a family road trip this week down to St. Simons Island, Georgia. Stevie has a work conference, so Everett and I decided to tag along and enjoy a mini vacation somewhere that we've never been before. We are never ones to turn down a new adventure, especially when there is a beach involved. I'll post more about the trip next week, but I did want to go ahead and share a few things that have worked for road tripping with this little guy. He's only 9 months old, but he is developing into a lovely road trip companion. I'm sure there will come a day where he just won't tolerate sitting in his car seat for so long, but right now, we are able to convince him to ride along with us as we hit some drive-able destinations. I'm not saying he is perfect during the entire trip, but we have found some helpful hacks for coercing him to be a pleasant ride-along car buddy. In light of summertime and everyone's upcoming travels, I thought I would share what has worked for us.

1. Leave at the Crack of Dawn.

I learned this one the hard way. I left at 10am for a 7-hour road trip, and my little babe was awake for most of it. Which meant he was bored, which meant he was LOUD, which meant everyone in the car was exercising their patience. For the next road trip, I decided to leave at 5am, in hopes that he would sleep for a good portion of the trip. And that is indeed what happened. Hallelujah. Here's how the 7-hour trip broke down: I woke up at 4:30am and got myself dressed and ready. The car was already packed the night before. I gently woke him up, changed his diaper, kept him in his pjs and placed him in his car seat. I did all of this in the dark. I was on the road at 5am, and he slept for the first three hours of the drive. At 8am we stopped at a Starbucks, fed Everett in the parking lot, then grabbed a coffee and breakfast sandwich to go. He fell back asleep until about 10:30am or so, and I started handing him toys in the back. One by one. Which brings me to my next point...

2. Pack Toys. A Lot of Toys.

Pack more than you could ever imagine you would need. An obnoxious amount. Once the novelty of riding along in the car gets old, those toys are your lifeline. I purchased this set of toys specifically for roadtripping and it has proven to be a worthy investment. The other thing is, everything can be a toy! A plastic water bottle, toilet paper rolls, Styrofoam cup, plastic sunglasses, you name it! I've started passing the strangest things back there to him, and it amuses him for a bit. My kiddo is a curious soul. Why wouldn't he want to stare soulfully into my hat? Sure.

Gotta stop to feed and change. But these stops are actually kinda fun! LOOK AT MY BABYYYY.

3. Pack Travel Food.

I make Everett's baby food for whenever we eat at home (which is most of the time), but when we travel it's a different story. I admire those ladies who lug around their canisters of homemade blended baby purees - but I just cannot do it. I've tried and it's just too much mess to pack up and take home, to then clean up again later. No thanks. Not for me. I stock up on easy travel food when we hit the road, and Everett LOVES it. I think he feels like it's a special treat :) Our favorites are these by Earth's Best, these by Happy Baby and these by Plum Organics. He is also really loving his appetizers by Happy Baby :) (I've been reading that French parenting book that recommends feeding children in courses, so Everett gets fancy these days with his appetizers).

4. Pack More Clothes/Diapers/Wipes Than You Think You Will Need.

Some weird things have happened on our road trips. Some weird, weird things. Blowouts, showering urine, gassyness that leads to... solidness. I'll leave it at that. But I always pack Everett THREE changes of clothes when we go anywhere. Three. Yes. Three.

5. Budget Extra Travel Time.

The days of blazing down the road, NO STOPS, is over. Man, me and Stevie used to tear up some mileage on road trips. I reminisced about my favorite all-time road trip with him the other day, when we used to drive from before the sun was up until late in the night. Those days. Are over. In the new era, with a baby and gear and breastfeeding breaks and diaper change breaks and YOU NAME IT breaks, we stop often. There's just no way around it. So budgeting extra travel time is a must, especially if you're super type-A and you like to "race" your Googlemaps estimate. Not like my husband does that or anything. Needless to say, we've had to make some expectation adjustments.

Sleeping baby. Makes for a very happy mommy.

6. Enjoy it!

This is so important. I'm continuously learning about how much life has changed with Everett's arrival in my world, and everything is truly, infinitely better with him. It is. Everything is also really truly different. Vacations look different, my idea of rest looks different, and certainly the way I roadtrip is so so different. But he is also so much fun, and I find myself staring at him wondering what I was doing with my life before he came along. Like, why did I wait so long to have him?? Well, actually, I know the answer to that. But still! My baby is the best. So grateful that I can take him along for journeys and adventures!

And bonus tip - Coldplay does wonders for putting a baby to sleep in the car. THAT CHRIS MARTIN. Okay, there it is, folks. All my road trip tricks in a nutshell. For all of you planning to road trip and travel this summer, I hope this helps!

TBT to That Time I Roadtripped Across The United States.

TBT to That Time I Road-tripped Across The United States.

Well, the first time.

I've mentioned it before, but I thought I'd share the story. And the ridiculous photos. So here it goes.

Nine years ago, during my senior year of high school, I was all set to go to college like a good little girl. I even had a roommate lined up. We were discussing our dorm's color scheme in between classes. But then something happened. Through friends at church I kept hearing about this wild and crazy cool ministry school in Redding, California where students were getting their lives changed and having their faith in Jesus ignited in a way I had never experienced. I was intrigued. Something inside me leapt at the thought of abandoning all good reason and just going for it. Moving to California. Having this experience for myself.

So. I decided that if there were ever a time to completely changed the course of my life and try something outside the box, being 18 and straight out of high school seemed like the best option. It took some major convincing to get my parents to okay such a bold move. My dad wasn't pleased. California was far. And he had worked very very hard to provide for all his kids to go to college, and here I was... asking to instead to go an unaccredited ministry school as far away as possible within the U.S. I mean, I kind of get why he wasn't thrilled. He's such a good father and he just wanted the absolute best for me. But I explained to him what I had heard about this place and all incredible things that were happening at this school and church, and after we both visited and spent some time out there, I felt absolutely sure. It was definitely a place that I wanted to immerse myself in and a program that I wanted to experience for myself. Dad consented. Mom bought me laundry detergent. It was decided.

The thing is, the more I talked to other people, my friends and family members who were also interested in the school, the more we all got excited and there was a bit of groupthink going on and suddenly - I found myself in the middle of a wonderful, vibrant gang of outside-the-box souls who were, indeed, on board for the adventure too. Before I could even finish laughing about the irony of it all, my sister and her husband, a couple of my friends, a couple of my cousins AND my boyfriend (yes, in case you're wondering, that's STEVIE) all decided that we were in on this gig together - we were going to trek across the country and go to ministry school. Together. We were going to take out loans, find jobs, invest in some camping gear and just do this California thing. It was an enormous risk. It was probably going to change our lives forever. It was very possibly going to ruin some of our best-laid plans for stability, security, savings and career trajectory. It was going to abandon all of our hopes for the American dream. Abandon all normal.

It was going to be SO. MUCH. FUN.

I can't tell you how many people thought I was joining a cult. The college advisers at my private high school couldn't really figure me out.

Why an unaccredited school? Why??

But I had my safety net of people and I had my goals and most of all, I had that incredible feeling of peace that trumped all the whispers and judgements of those who didn't understand.

That's a really long way of saying that in August of 2006, I hopped into my '97 Honda Accord with Stevie by my side, and we (along with our 4-car caravan!) began the road trip of a lifetime: from Georgia to California. Two weeks. All the states. And ALL the awesome stops in between.

Our caravan consisted of 7 people and we all took turns picking out destinations that we wanted to see along the way. We did some of the obvious sights, like the Grand Canyon and Route 66. And we did some super weird ones, like catching the dancing ducks at the Peabody Hotel and driving through the Petrified Forest. Logistics were crazy. If we stayed at a hotel, we would all hunker down in one room (to save on cash!), which included two dogs and all our bikes. Because we couldn't very well leave our bikes hitched to the back of our cars in the parking lot - there are looters lurking! But hotels weren't the norm, we also did a good bit of camping. KOAs became a friendly stop, especially as we entered the West. And I'll admit that we bathed in more than one body of water. I told you- we did some super weird things. And kind of quickly slumped into hippie life. And when I say that, I mean it. I found mud in my hair weeks later from the Colorado River "bath".

I could talk for hours and hours about this trip, but I might as well just show you.

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The Peabody Hotel, Memphis. Famous for the ducks.

Beale Street strolling, Memphis.

Blues City Cafe (BARBEQUE!!!), Stevie giving me a wet willie in front of Wet Willies (he's a gross boy), and BB King's Blues Club. We did Memphis pretty darn well.

Oh yeah, we went to see the King, too.

Most of my "on the road" shots were something like this.

That's my bro and sis-in-law's vehicle ahead. Along with their dog Abby. And their cooler.

Kansas is full of hay. Just full of it.

Entering Colorado. It was the first time I had ever seen the Rocky Mountains and I FREAKED OUT.

We hiked a 14er up to Kite Lake (no we didn't hike the whole thing - we drove to the trail head), but it was one of the scariest things I've ever done. Because we didn't take the trail, and instead FOLLOWED THE DOGS up the face of the mountain. The rocky part. The dangerous part. The top two photos should give you an indication of the terrain we covered. All I can say is that I was praying and crying through parts of the hike. And then we got to the top and saw people taking the trail down the other side of the mountain and we were all like, WHAT THE.

We made it! Along with my Kelty backpack, Stevie's graduation gift to me that year. I still use that bad boy.

We had a lot of time to chat. Like, a lot. We played the game of , "tell me something I don't know about you!" and by the end of the trip, we pretty much knew everything. EVERYTHING. About each other.

Rainbows are a good indicator on a road trip.

That's my girl. My first and best car, Audrey. May she rest in peace.

I mean, yeah.

I remember this because everyone ordered beer samplers and I COULDN'T. Oh the days of underaged-ness.

I remember Stevie remarking that he had never seen the speed limit set to 75. I'm telling you, the West is WILD.

We camped and mountain biked in Moab, Utah visited Arches National Park, and I was kept awake by coyotes those nights. These are the things you don't forget people.

Isn't it crazy how fake this looks? It was real. REAL I TELL YOU.

And then we made the obligatory stop at the Grand Canyon. You can take a moment here. I know.

We found ourselves on Route 66!

From there we hightailed it through the rest of the stops, including a brief visit to Las Vegas. For some reason I didn't have any photos from Vegas... I guess what happens there truly stays there.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Redding, California? Ate at In and Out. I was convinced I would live there forever. Right there. In the parking lot of that glorious fast food joint. HAVE YOU HAD THE MILKSHAKE?!!

Across the Country.

I lived in Redding for two years, and had the privilege of forever altering my life for the better. Stevie and I still believe that our time in ministry school was the best investment we could have ever made in our relationship and marriage (8 years in June! Crazyyyy.) And my bond with these incredible people that I trekked out there with? To this day, it's pretty rock solid. Nothing brings you together like sharing bath water in Lake Powell and brushing your teeth together in a crappy hotel bathroom at 4:30am. I have taken this drive several times since 2006. In fact, I have trekked back and forth across this country 4 times now. But nothing was quite like that first time, when I took the Kerouac cruise with this incredible group of friends and we devoured the sites and cities that make this nation great. And every time I think about this trip, I want to do it all over again.