Justin's birthday week-and-a-half.

My husband managed to get us to not only celebrate his birthday two days early with a picnic at Centennial Park, but he also somehow finagled an extension of the festivities a whole week after the big day had come and gone with a trip to a winery bed & breakfast. What a lucky duck!

Justin was working the weekend of his birthday, so we got our parents together a couple of days early and we tried to recreate his childhood by celebrating with a good old-fashioned picnic in the park.

Good 'ole southern-style hot chicken, corn, potato salad, and, of course, rice, to round out our tasty meal.

Gotta have a yummy birthday dessert! Homemade strawberry shortcake - delish!

Walking with Lola.

Swingin' with Lolo.

Happy early birthday to both Daddy and Lolo!

On Justin's actual birthday, Lissie and I trekked up to his workplace to bring him a lovely sandwich from our newfound favorite place, Penn Station. We continued to celebrate the next day with his requested birthday dinner: tacos and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake!

Fast-forward a week later, and we said our goodbyes to Lissie as she enjoyed quality time with my mom and dad while Justin and I drove top-down in our Saturn Sky about an hour and a half away on the beautiful Natchez Trace to a quaint little town that has several lovely wineries and a fabulous bed & breakfast. Sure, the trip would've been more fun if I could enjoy the wines (which is why we ended up bringing several bottles home for later!), and it would've been nice if we didn't decide to go on what was a record-breaking hottest day ever, but we definitely enjoyed a nice little weekend getaway!

These grapes are destined to be a tasty merlot one day...

We happened to be there the same weekend of a big crawfish festival! Justin was having a little too much fun with the all-you-can-eat crawfish!

A HOT game of crawfish cornhole.

A gal can at least pretend, right?

Enjoying a carriage ride to the winery.

Our quaint little log cabin accommodations.

On the deck where we had breakfast before heading back to reality.

Happy birthday, Justin! Now you can start planning mine...haha.

A Mother's Day Recap

Mother's Day 2012 will go down as a wonderful, relaxing celebration of love and family in my book. We decided to make a vacation out of the weekend and headed down to Panama City Beach. My parents and Auntie Susie drove down Wednesday, while Justin, Lissie, and I followed via plane the next day. Now THIS was the way to travel! My parents brought down most of our luggage, including Lissie's pack n' play, car seat, and toys. PLUS, we had the added benefit of a multitude of baby-sitters, as well as a plethora of chefs for mealtimes! It was definitely a win-win situation for everyone.

I was initially nervous about Lissie's first plane ride, especially since it fell so close to her bedtime. Yet, everything went super smoothly throughout the duration of the one-hour flight. She took it like a pro and only got fussy during landing, but it wasn't anything that a few bites of dried apples couldn't cure! (The trip home was a little more stressful, but thankfully it's a quick flight, and there were other fussier babies around us!) My folks picked us up from the airport, and we were en route to our beachside suite for the weekend!

Friday marked Lissie's first beach experience. We've been told that babies either love or hate the sand and the water, and I was pretty positive that Lissie would fall in the "love" category, especially since she loves her weekly swimming lessons. Mama's instincts proved right, and after an initial hesitation, Lissie proved that she is, indeed, a water baby. We spent the morning enjoying the sand and the beach, and after lunch and a nap (both for Lissie and me!), we headed to the kiddie pool to show Lolo and Lola her swimming skills. Afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely seafood dinner at a beachfront marina. After putting the baby to bed, Justin and I enjoyed some quality time at the resort's bar. It was only a slight bummer that I wasn't able to imbibe in a nice summery cocktail!

The rest of the weekend was cloudy or rainy, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some fun at the pool again. We had a great time simply relaxing and de-stressing, relishing the memories we were making as a family. We laughed a lot, ate a lot, and overall just had a fun time at the beach.

By the end of the weekend, we even upgraded our own timeshare to ensure that we'll be able to take many more vacations together in the years to come! Hmmm....where should we go next???