Girls Night Out...and In!!

Britt, Jenny, & Me

Britt & Jenny

If I were to say that I am challenged when it comes to chop sticks,

that would be an understatement!

We cracked on Jenny b/c it looked like she was attempting to

make gang sings with her chop sticks! How funny!

Bang, Bang shrimp

my entree...Yum!

Jenny's entree

my dessert...creme brulee

Jenny & Me...this is our wrinkle face, but if you didn't know different,

you would think we were mad...ha ha

This one looks like a pucker pose...

The camera took the pic when I was not expecting it...and as you can see...I was cracking up b/c the Oreo's would not stay on my eyes for nothing and also, Britt was putting the Oreo's on her eyes without eating the cream out first...so she got the creme on her eyes. Too funny!!

Britt's Oreo's looked like half moons b/c she had halfway eaten them!

Being silly

This weekend the girls (Britt & Jenny) and I got to hang out for a change. I have not seen Britt in weeks now (my social life sort of went out the window when I started working 60 hour weeks) and I haven't seen Jenny since Britt's b-day party. So, needless to say the girls and I just enjoyed hanging out and catching up.

We started the night off by heading to Buford to eat at Bonefish Grill...and I cannot stress how much I loved it! Let's just say that posting these pics is making my mouth water! Speaking of the pics...something a little odd happened while we were eating and taking pictures at our table. Our waiter had taken a couple of pics for us and he had noticed that we were taking pics of the different courses but he didn't say anything to us about taking the pics. When we were almost finished with our main entree, the manager came over and said, "ladies do you need anymore pictures?" I just looked at him and replied, "No, thanks. I think we have taken enough...I am a scrapbooker so we always like to document our nights out so that we can always remember everything". The manager then said, "Yeah Kevin, your waiter, said you were taking pictures and as the manager I would like to inform you that we usually do not allow pictures to be taken of our food because of copyrights and things like that." I replied, "OK, we will not take any more pictures". I also apologized and explained that we did not have any idea and it was all in fun. I did lie, though, about not taking anymore pictures...I had to get one of the final and best entree (I conned Jenny into doing this for me)...the creme brulee!! He He!!

So now that I have explained all the mess we went through to get pics of our lovely food...I guess I should tell you what all the fuss was about. We had the Bang, Bang shrimp for an appetizer and it was out of this world. For an entree, I had the Alaskan Salmon with au gratin potatoes and roasted veggies. It was awesome, too! Then, for dessert I had the creme brulee. I don't think you need me to tell you that it was my favorite of all the courses!! Thanks for the recommendation, Mel!! :0)

After a spectacular dinner, we hit up the mall for a bit and then headed back to my house for a sleepover. We had planned on making a dessert but we were all so full that we really didn't see the need. Yes, you heard me right...Ha Ha. So, we decided to give ourselves a facial and halfway into the process, I realized that I had forgotten to get the cucumbers...hence the new invention, the Oreo Facial. :o)

Tennis Girls + Significant Others

Melanie, Chrissy, Me, & Charmin

Mel & Kyle, Chrissy & Chris, Me & Brooks, Charmin & Larry

Another group shot

Charmin & I

Chris & Chrissy

Brooks and I

Melanie & Kyle

Chrissy snapped this one...so, Charmin you can thank her for this shot!

This one cracks me up! I'm sure Larry won't think it's so funny!

Larry & Charmin

So, this weekend we had planned a girls night (EC tennis reunion) and decided that the guys should get in on the fun as well, especially since not all of them have met each other before. We had planned on going to the Braves game but due to the rain we decided that we better hold off and save the game for another night.

We met at Chrissy's house in Atlanta and then headed to Jock & Jill's which is a sports bar/pub. We had to wait for what seemed like forever before we were seated. We waited outside the restaurant in some type of mall or convention center. Anyway, there was some type of Japanese animation convention where people dress up like video game characters and Japanese influenced characters. There were tons of people and they had these strange outfits and accessories and some even had swords and were actually practicing for some type of battle! Who knows?? It was "interesting" to say the least and we were entertained while we waited for our seats. The food was really good and we got to watch the Georgia game there. So, we were still able to get our sports fix even though the Braves game was a wash!

After dinner we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream (Berry Berry Berry Good is my fave) and then back to Chrissy's. It was so nice catching up with everyone and it was nice to meet Chrissy's b/f, Chris, for the first time! Thanks for the great idea ladies and love you girls!

Labor Day Weekend...In Tennessee

Us at Leatherwood Overlook

Brooks

It was "Comin up a cloud"


Me and my shiny new mountain bike
(although, it didn't stay shiny for long)

Another view from Leatherwood Overlook

Brooks

On the way to Leatherwood Overlook

I thought this was a pretty neat tree, it is actually a lot bigger than in the pic

Brooks at Slave Falls

(there was no water flowing so it looked like a cave...and was kinda spooky....the perfect hiding place for bears and bobcats)

Me

Brooks standing under the falls...beware of the bear den!

Needles Point

These beautiful flowers were EVERYWHERE!

Brooks, checking out the HUGE bear tracks!

Casey and I

Cindy & Casey

Cindy, Jeff, & Casey

Me, Casey, & Cindy

Brooks & Casey

Cindy was staining the porch

On the ride home, we seen a rainbow!

Brooks and I spent this Labor Day weekend in Tennessee at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Cindy's cabin (cabarn...if you want to get technical). It is so neat in that it is a cabin and a barn...hence the name cabarn. They have four horse stalls for their horses which they usually bring with them. The property has several thousand acres which has horse riding trails galore. I did not have a clue we were going until I got home from work on Friday afternoon. I love the outdoors and I love spontaneity so I was tickled to be taking a mini vacay. We took our hiking, biking, and fishing gear because we new that we would be in the rugged mountains and have plenty of beautiful scenery to bask in.

After a 6 1/2 hour drive, we arrived mid evening on Saturday and just lounged around and enjoyed visiting with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Cindy, and their son, Casey. We had seen pictures of thier place, but pictures does not do it justice. It is slap gorgeous! After unloading the luggage, we decided to go mountain biking so I could try out my new bike. There are thousands of acres to ride on, so we didn't try out all the trails. The trails we did ride on, however, were beatiful. When we were at the furtherst point, and on our way back, I heard a noise behind me and when I looked back I noticed two small creatures waddling towards Brooks and I. We just stood there and watched as they came closer and closer. I did not plan on hanging around to find out what they were, so I started peddling as fast as I possibly could and got almost out of sight from Brooks. Mind you...there are bears, coyotes, boycats, and who knows what else in that part of Tennesse. After a few minutes the creatures quit following us. When we told Jeff and Cindy about it, they said the creature may have been a Wombat. Humm...never heard of a Wombat...but ok. Anywho, the bike ride was fantastic! I loved it so much we went on another ride on Monday evening before coming back home; however, this was a much shorter ride due to bad weather (see the dark clouds in the pics).

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the best little place called Coffee Time Cafe. I had the best loaded omlet ever and Brooks had the best country fried steak ever. Needless to say, we will be eating there again.

After breakfast we drove about an hour to get to our hiking destinations. The park was called Big South Fork and it spans two or three states. It is roughly 19,000 acres and you can drive for miles down trails and not see a single person or anything else except for wildnerness. It really amazed me at how beautufil and desolate this place was. We had to get maps from the park rangers because the place was so huge and there were so many options. Brooks and I went on three hikes which were so beautiful and one was a little scary. In fact, it was hard to enjoy it for worrying about bears. Yep, there were signs up everywhere telling you to respect the bears and not feed them...hum...I not going to FEED them on purpose I thought :-) ! When we were headed back from our last hike, we actually saw bear tracks that were huge!!! So, apart from the fear, the hikes were amanzing!

After hiking we headed back to the cabin for some R&R and some good supper. Aunt Cindy cooked up some homemade vegatable soup that was to die for. Oh, and the previous night she had made chicken and dumplins from scratch which were also delicious. After dinner, Brooks, Casey, and I went to the store to get the ingredients for smores. When we got back, we made smores and banana splits...what a combo! Oh well, when vacation is short you gotta cram all your favortie desserts into a shorter time frame. I will say that my favorite part was roasting the marshmellows for the smores b/c I haven't done that in forever!

Thanks to Jeff, Cindy, and Casey we had a great time and great food!