Laurel and Kevin: Vacations

Showing posts with label Vacations. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Mobile Trip

Let me start off by saying, Happy Belated First Birthday, Noah Bradley Nicholson!!! Uncle Kevin and I love you so much!!!

Mom and I took a trip to Mobile last weekend for Noah's first birthday. We were having a pretty tough week when we left for the big celebration, due to the fact that Shanie and Randall had just told us they were planning on moving to the beach to live. I will spare you the details and just say that THEY ARE NOT MOVING, thank the good Lord, but we were in turmoil, to say the least during the first part of our trip. We tried not to let that get in the way of celebrating sweet Noah's first birthday. Britni did SUCH an amazing job with the party, I definitely will be calling on her services when Kevin and I have a child of our own one day. The party was nothing short of spectacular!! I will do another blog post very soon with pictures of the party.

So, until then, here is my favorite one! I love you sweet boy!!!

Kevin and Daddy decided to try and cheer mom and I up by coming down to the beach for a couple of days after the party. We received the great news from Shanie and the kids on the way back across the bay the night of the party, just in time to pull in and meet Kevin and Dad. (They had just arrived at our hotel!) We enjoyed a day of family fun in Gulf Shores, did a little shopping in the rain and went out to eat. The guys left the next day, but we had fun anyway.

Mom and Kevin at King Neptune's

I was so happy to see him! I love you!!! (And yes, I had been rained on here!!!)

My sweet Mommy and Daddy

When we checked into our room, it was such a disappointment. It was not clean, the linens smelled like a thrift store for lack of a better explanation, and Kevin had to sleep on a bunk bed and me on the couch because the linens for the pull out bed were stinky!!! Here he is, bless his heart.

His foot hung out of the bed like that all night! Mom and I of course were not ready to go to bed at 9 pm when they were, so Kevin made him a "tent" to keep out the noise and light from the living room. I still do not know how he fell asleep or stayed asleep there for that matter, but he did. He never ceases to amaze me. We were so upset with the room that we packed our stuff up after the boys left the next morning and headed to Meyer. I acted a little bit like my dad, I hate to say, and demanded a refund. I was given a credit for our second night and we headed out.

Mom and I spent the day shopping in Spanish Fort and then decided to visit Britni and Noah since Justin was working and they were home alone. We had a great time talking about the party and just catching up and then we went out to eat at a fabulous restaurant close to their house, called Zea. It was a rotisserie restaurant and was amazing.

All in all, it was a great trip. I definitely enjoyed seeing Britni, Justin and Noah and am looking forward to them coming home next weekend as well. Hope I can squeeze some time in to visit while they are home if I can work it around my work schedule!

More pictures from the party to come....

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Trip to Mobile

Ok, so I know I have been away for a while. I recently spent some quality time with my super blogger friend, Britni and my other friend, Jill started her own blog, which led me to realize, I really need to blog more!!!

So here goes...

Mom and I took a trip to Mobile to see my best friend, Britni, her husband, Justin and their precious baby, Noah. We travelled down to spend some quality time together and to go to the Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival. We did go to the festival, but due to the extreme heat for this time of the year, we didn't stay too long. I did get a few cute things. The majority of the trip we spend visiting and laughing with one another. Britni's mom, Kathy, made the trip with us and it was so good to spend some time with her, as well.

Once I got home Sunday night, I realized that I only made pictures of Noah. I hate I didn't get more of all of us together, but I guess I was so excited to see the sweet baby, I focused all of my effort of getting some cute shots of him!!

Noah swinging in their backyard. He loves being outside and almost fell asleep in the swing!

After his bath!

Bathtime at the Nicholson's is a family affair. We were all crowded in the bathroom watching Noah get his bath. Isn't he precious???

Kisses from Granna at bathtime!

This was made after we left Fairhope. It was so hot and little man was sweating up a storm! Britni thought it would be funny to style his hair!!

Beautiful building in downtown Mobile..

Beautiful cathedral in downtown Mobile...

Isn't it pretty???

Downtown Mobile

Britni's favorite restaurant. It was absolutely delicious!!!!

In Spot of Tea

Our "welcome basket" we found on our bed when we arrived. Britni is such a great hostess!!!

Thank you Britni, Justin and Noah for letting us spend the weekend with you guys! We had so much fun and can't wait for our next adventure! We love you!!!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

My wonderful Aunt Robin is always my "hook up" when it comes to Alabama football. I have been to bowl games, had amazing seats to home games and been to various University functions because of her. She is such a cool aunt and has the best connections. She asked me a few weeks before Christmas if Mom and I would want to go with she and Carly to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Of course, my answer was an ecstatic, "YES!" (At that time, I had no idea how badly the game would turn out.) We kept the secret from Carly until Christmas and if you have seen my Christmas Eve post you saw that she got the tickets from her parents for Christmas! (Look back at the post to see the neat way she got the tickets.) We immediately started gettting excited about a girl's ROAD TRIP!!! Carly and I have gotten so close over the past couple of years and she has become like a sister to me. We have the BEST time together, and we knew the Big Easy wouldn't be an exception!!

We stayed on Bourbon Street at the "Inn on Bourbon" which was so pretty and was still decorated for Christmas. It was right across from Pat O'Briens and right in the middle of all the Bourbon Street action. We could literally walk out the front door and onto the street. We also had a balcony overlooking a courtyard and pool in the middle of the hotel. It was very pretty and we enjoyed sitting out on it due to the warm weather during our trip.

This is Carly and I on the balcony before we went to dinner when we arrived in New Orleans.

As I mentioned earlier, Aunt Robin has the best connections. She works in the University Alumni Office and we get to take advantage of all the fun Alumni events when we go on trips with her. On the first night we were there, we walked to the Riverwalk, that runs along the river in New Orleans, and then boarded a paddleboat for a pep rally and party. This was sponsored by the Alumni Association. The paddleboat was so pretty and was called the "Creole Queen." We boarded the "Queen" and had a real cajun dinner and a few drinks from the bar. Then, the cheerleaders came on and entertained us and Big Al even made an appearance. We met a lot of the people that work with Aunt Robin, a few of which I already knew, and had a great time.

This is us on the paddleboat....we passed out shakers for Mark who works in the office with Aunt Robin.

After dinner, we started the 10 block trek back to the hotel. Carly and I had worn heels to the dinner and halfway through our journey, our feet were killing us, and we were in desperate need of an intervention. We found a CVS on one of the streets in the French Quarter and bought us each a $1.99 pair of flip flops to change into. I can honestly say, I have NEVER been so happy to see a cheap pair of plastic flip flops in all of my life. And I didn't feel bad at all about throwing them in the garbage once the night was over!!! Too much nastiness on those streets to pack them and bring them home.
Us on our way back to the hotel.

After dinner and our walk back, we changed into something more comfortable and went back out on Bourbon Street for a few drinks. Carly is only 19, so she couldn't go in any of the bars or restaurants after hours, so we basically walked up and down the street for a while and talked...

Us in the hotel room.

We did hit up a few of the Mardi Gras novelty shops in the French Quarter.

Carly bought this pretty mask to put in her room.

On Friday, we got up and ate breakfast at a local courtyard cafe and then headed to do some serious shopping. First we stopped off at the official Sugar Bowl store for tshirts, caps and souvenirs. I got a shirt that had BAMA on the back spelled out in sugar cubes! It is so cute! After picking up some things, we headed to Riverwalk mall to look around. We had a really good time and got some really cool stuff. My favorite was a kitchen specialty store and I spent most of my money in there. I got a zebra print wine bottle cork, potato peeler, pepper mill, jambalaya mix, cajun peanuts (for Daddy), and cajun spices (for Kevin). I just loved that store and wish we had one here....though I might not have much money! I also bought a very pretty pink purse on my trip. Of course, a trip wouldn't be complete without a purse!!!

After a long day of shopping,we went back to the hotel and got ready for the game. We had plans to meet a friend of Aunt Robin's in our lobby and get a cab to the game.
This is a picture before we left the hotel. We were so excited about the game!

This is me on the street waiting on a cab.

Loved the fireworks! The dome was amazing...it was so bright in there! I wasn't expecting it to look as amazing as it did, but it was great. If the game had only been that good!!!!!

Carly looks like Sarah Palin in this picture!

Me and my girl!!

After the game, we had dinner on Bourbon Street and then walked among the mass of drunk fans and did a little shopping. I got a surprise for my bridesmaids there!!! I am so excited!!! One of the street entertainers made us the balloon crowns to wear! Thought this was a cute picture!

After a long day, we finally crashed and I don't think I woke up once until it was time to get up and go home. We stopped in Meridian, MS and did a little shopping at a couple of specialty shops there and at the mall. We went to a little store called the Spotted Pony that was adorable. I definitely recommend it if you are ever in Meridian. I got a flag with a "C" on it for my new house that has all different color polka dots on it. It is soooo cute!!!

It was a great trip, but I was exhausted once I got home. I slept 12 hours without waking up!!!! (Though, that's not hard for me to do!) Thanks to Aunt Robin for organizing the trip and for allowing mom and I to go. We had a great time!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

I'm BACK!!!

That's right everyone, I am finally back! And boy do I have lots to share. I won't fill you in on all the latest at one time, so the first post will be about the most exciting of the news! As most of you know, I just got back from a cruise with Kevin, Momma and Daddy to Mexico. We had such an amazing time!!! I thought my first post back should be about the cruise. I took a whopping 327 pictures, but narrowed them down to about 45 of my favorites to share. I warn you, this is a long post......

My parents on Bourbon Street....we went to New Orleans a day early and spent the day and night in the city. Most of these pictures are out of order because of this stupid picture uploader,but I will do my best to caption each one...