Birthday Weekend

My birthday was last Friday. This birthday wasn't anything special in number, but it was special in that my mom and dad are home and could share it with me. It has been several years since I have been able to spend my birthday with them, and it was such a treat to have them at our house for the weekend. We had such a great time together! Of course, the time wasn't long enough, but it never really is.

Friday started with breakfast from D. She knows I love pumpkin, so she brought a pumpkin doughnut, a pumpkin muffin, a pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin spice K-cups, and regular Dunkin Doughnut K-cups. I do love pumpkin, but she was killing me with all that!! She also gave me a card with a birthday badge in it. I wore it all day (on the reverse side of my hospital badge).

 The badge said, "It's my birthday! Wanna Spank me?!" She is crazy, but I love her!!

I only work half days on Fridays, which is super nice. This meant that we would be able to go out for lunch on my birthday. One of the best things about our birthdays when we were growing up was our birthday lunch. My dad would get us out of school and let us pick where we wanted to go. This year, I picked Ford's Oyster House and Cajun Restaurant in Downtown Greenville.  Leigh Ann has been telling me about this place for a while but I wanted to save it until my parents came. Boy, was it worth the wait!!

My mom and I ordered Shrimp Po'Boys. Hers was regular, and mine was buffalo. She got fries, and I got cheese grits. My dad and David both got the Red Beans and Rice. Everything was SO GOOD!! If you live in the Greenville area, you MUST go! If you don't live in the Greenville area, it is worth the drive! We are already talking about when we can go back. Mom actually mentioned eating there again before they left, but we didn't.

After we ate lunch, we walked up Main Street to the Mast General Store and made a stop by Marble Slab on the way back to the car. I'd rather have ice cream than birthday cake any day!!

Saturday, of course, involved football. We watched some games on TV and then went over to mine and David's Alma Mater, North Greenville University, that evening for their home game. We had a great time - until the coconut casserole arrived. It sort of went downhill from there!

Sunday was probably the busiest day we had all weekend. My dad preached at our church Sunday morning - and did an excellent job, I might add. After church and Sunday School, we went with some of the team members from our Guate trip last year to lunch at Mr. Salsa's for lunch. We then headed to Easley to David's grandparent's house for a little fellowship and dinner before we went to their church that evening. Some friends of my parents's friends go to that church, so it was neat for them to be able to visit with them this weekend as well. It was a long day, but we enjoyed getting to spend time with everyone.

After the long day on Sunday, we all slept in a little later than the days before. I had fixed a breakfast casserole in the crock pot, so we had that and took our time getting ready. We also had some "get to know ya" time with Strykie. He is still in the process of learning to make friends, so he gets to wear his muzzle - just in case the spiders that live in his head and make him crazy cause him forget that they are indeed friends. He loved all the rubbing and scratching that Dad was giving him though! :)

That afternoon, we headed up to Flat Rock, NC to Skytop Orchard. We grabbed some baskets and headed into the orchard to pick our apples. The weather could not have been more perfect for a day in the orchard - overcast and cool. We had so much fun walking through and sampling the different varieties of apples - oh yeah, and the apple doughnuts too!

 Dad got out his trusty pocket knife and peeled our sample apples.

 I love this picture of "The David's" carrying our baskets.

*This marks off one more on the Fall Bucket List - Picking Apples*

After picking, we headed back down the mountain to Ryan and Leigh Ann's house to visit with Ben and Anna Grace. **I just realized I haven't blogged much about LA. I may have to fix that in the near future.** Momma G and PaPa D (as they are known to LA's kids), of course, came bearing gifts. There were DVDs, candy, and toys for both of them. In addition to the gifts, there was a lot of play time! We stayed longer than we probably should, but it was hard for everyone to say "Good-Bye!"

Ben loves to "hunt" animals. PaPa D played the bear, and Ben was the hunter. That poor bear didn't have a chance!

Tuesday was the worst day of them all, because that was the day they left to go home. On the way out of town, we stopped for lunch at Dickey's BBQ. Dad loves some good ole BBQ, and he hasn't had much since he has been in the States. Dickey's was great because we all got to have BBQ and ice cream - two of Dad's favs.

I sure hated to see them go. We had a great weekend!! I'm so thankful to have parents that are fun to hang out with, as well as a husband that likes to spend time with them too. When we sat down Tuesday night in an empty house, David said, "I sure hate your parents had to go. We had a good weekend." I felt the same way! I sure hate they couldn't stay any longer!!