Happy Birthday Stacia

Happy Birthday to one of my soul sisters. My life would be a lot less interesting and a whole lot less fun if you weren't in it. Love you forever!  

Vacation Part IV

Pictures from the Beach

Vacation Part III - 4th of July

I love being on the beach on the 4th of July! And what made it even better this year is that Stacia and Chris joined us for the second half of the vacay! They came over the afternoon of the 4th and stayed the rest of the week with us.

That night I put on my patriotic blue and white star tank and we all walked next door to dinner. After dinner we headed back to the condo. The plan was to have a few drink there and then go out somewhere. Well....we ended up having so much fun watching the fireworks from our balcony and playing games that we ended up not leaving.

On the balcony of our condo overlooking the harbor. 

Stacia and me. Funny story...Stacia told Chris "Come here and take a picture" so he took his hat off and stood next to her. Stacia then said "No! Take the picture of me and Meredith." It was really funny!

Now here is one of Stacia and Chris. I realized I hadn't seen him since their wedding....THREE years ago. I guess that happens when you are off fight a war all the time.

This is "Grizzly Bear: Roooooaaaarrrr!!" Super funny. You had to be there!

Happy 4th of July from the Pettigrews!

Vacation Part II - Our ONE Year Anniversary

We celebrated our first anniversary in Orange Beach and it couldn't have been more perfect! It was our second day and we both got a little toasty the first day so Ryan told me he would take me shopping at the Outlets instead of going to the beach. Of course I jumped right on that! We actually had a lot of fun shopping together. We got several Christmas presents for our family and Ryan fell in love with the Tool Outlet we found. He came home with a new toy.

After the Outlets we decided to go back and get ready for an early dinner. I decided to get sentimental and I wore the dress I wore at my rehearsal dinner. It hadn't been worn since then so that was kind of neat. We attempted about 20 self-timer pictures in the condo before we left. It was quite humorous and turned into a 10 minute ordeal. Below are the 2 best ones.

The restaurant we chose was Louisiana Lagniappe and was right next door to our condo so we were able to walk there. We had amazing food, a great bottle of wine, took our time eating and celebrating and got a free creme brulee for our anniversary. We watched boats come into the Harbour and talked about our year. Perfect!

After dinner we went back to the condo for some year-old cake. As you can see in the picture below, the cake had a rough trip down from Arkansas but I was determined to eat it on that day. Stacia also left us a bottle of bubbly.

I had a few bites which actually weren't terrible. My husband on the other hand, still loved it and took out a good chuck. The rest went into the trash.

We opened gifts next and Ryan got me the best card. As you can see it has fireworks coming out of the chimney of a house which we both though were perfect for our 4th of July wedding. The message he wrote was amazing and made me cry!  

I had decided that I wasn't going to tell Ryan about the traditional anniversary gifts (you know paper, clocks, etc.) just because he gets stressed about gifts and I didn't want him to be confined. Well, being the awesome husband he is, he did that research on his own and got me a "paper" gift which is the traditional one-year symbol. We both love Miranda Lambert and she will be at the AMP in August so the Pettigrews will be in the audience! I also got him tickets but he is going to the NASCAR race at Talledaga. He loves NASCAR but has never been so I wanted to be able to give him his first experience. 



We ended the night by sitting on our balcony, sipping more wine and loving life. While this year had its challenges, I wouldn't change it for the world. God has truly blessed me with an amazing husband and I couldn't imagine spending my life with anybody else. Ryan - I love you MORE!

A MUCH Needed Vacation! Part I

Last week Ryan and I went on a MUCH needed vacation. We went to Orange Beach, Ala. and stayed a week at the beach. The beach is quite possibly my favorite place on earth. It is so laid back and peaceful place. And Lords knows I needed some peace!

We decided that we didn't want to drive the 12 hours there in one day so we picked a semi-halfway point to stop - Tunica! I had never been and never really gambled in a casino before so why not?

This is a picture of us at a dead stop on I-40 inbetween Little Rock and Memphis. Ryan was not a happy camper.

Before arriving at Tunica we went to Memphis to see my grandparents for about an hour. I only get to see them a few times a year so this extra stop was really nice! Nana had Coke floats waiting on us. I hadn't had one of those in YEARS!

We arrived in Tunica on Friday evening, changed clothes and headed down to the casino. We only lost $40 so we decided that was a good night. Below is a view from our hotel room for the night.

The next morning we were on the road by 7 a.m. and headed south. It took us an extra 3 hours, on top of the original 8,  to get there because of the stupid traffic. By the time we got there, were in even more need of some relaxation. We coudn't wait to get the vacation started!