Non-Beer Tour

There's a new-ish brewery in Franklin called Turtle Anarchy and they put out a groupon last fall for a tour and tasting. We love trying new brews with our friends the Berger's, so Keith purchased the deal for the tour but kind of forgot about it until this past month when we realized that the coupon was about to expire. Obviously... some things have changed since we made those initial plans (like my ability to drink beer...) but in an attempt to get our money's worth, we met with friends Saturday night to go on the tour. The atmosphere at the brewery was pretty ehh... along with the middle of nowhere location, and a lackluster tour guide BUT from what everyone else said, the beer made up for all of that. All I can say is it smelled DELICIOUS, but I drank some dr. pepper instead. It was a great evening adventure with friends... although I think everyone agreed that instead of driving all the way out to Franklin again, we'll just drink their beers at the bar down the street haha

Cookeville Trip

Last weekend Keith and I had considered the idea of driving over to Knoxville to see a couple of his bands that were playing together, but quickly changed our minds when we were invited to tag along with friends out to Cookeville. Brittney and Brandon had both gone to college there and Brittney actually grew up on a farm not too far, so we were excited to do some sight seeing and see some of their favorite local spots! We started by dropping by the farm to meet Brittneys parents and say hello to some of the animals before we drove up to Cookeville and had dinner and drinks at a new spot in town. The boys enjoyed their happy hour beers and I try to work off some unfortunate car sickness I developed on the way out there :/ The rest of the night we explored the Tennessee Tech campus, drove past a new park, got some coffee, had a second dinner (since I was too sick to eat with them earlier) and then finished off the trip with some doughnuts. Mmmm! We got back to the Berger's house in Smyrna pretty late, so Keith and I stayed the night there and had a great breakfast with them Sunday morning compliments of the boys! We are thankful for great friends and great weekend adventures!

This was actually the night before, the boys went to a concert together in their weirdo matching coats

Keith tasting Brandon's latest brew of beer

On the road

Passengers

At dinner

Goofballs

Brandon and the Golden Eagle at Tennessee Tech

Climbing things they don't need to be climbing

Like little boys

Pretty girl

Guess while ones are mine?

Late night doughnuts

Our morning breakfast makers!

Birthday Karaoke

Saturday night a great group of friends got together to celebrate Bennett's birthday at a couple of his favorite spots. We started at a bar just down the street from us called 308, and the night eventually (after many shots by the men) led us to a local karaoke bar where we sang until our throats hurt. It was such a great evening with lots of laughs, and something we haven't done with friends in way too long. I will say, this is the first time since I've been pregnant that we spent the night hanging out in bars, and despite having a great time I found myself much more tired without a drink in my hand as well. Regardless! Thanks Bennett for getting older and giving us all a reason to celebrate you! (ps- ignore the terrible quality of most of these photos :/ I was having trouble with the flash settings on my camera, and my phone made everything blurry in the low light, oh well!)

If you're wondering whats going on in these first photos, Trent and Jordie got Bennet a gag gift: bacon and cheese flavored CRICKETS. The boys all had quite a time trying them out, ick haha

A Few Snaps

I've been a teacher for quite awhile, but this is the first year that I've been the lead teacher of my own classroom (and not teaching in the projects). I had never even put any thought into these lovely things known as... TEACHER GIFTS! It was a wonderful surprise and left me feeling lots of love from the parents of the kiddos that I spend all my days with. I made out with a TON of baked goods, and a nice handful of gift cards. We went back and forth on what we wanted to use them for, but in the end it seemed most appropriate to buy something that could be practical for us AND practical for the classroom. And THAT is how I got my hands on a brand new digital camera (I haven't had one for nearly two years, boo!)

Here are some photos that I snapped of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Ball Ground, GA:

New toy

Watching muppets on the couch

Everyone gathered around

Not even ALL of the presents!

"testing" out some cookies in the kitchen ;)

Mom and I

The boys getting ready to take a Christmas shot

Himself and herself

Some Christmas wonder

Christopher opening gifts

Tami and her fancy new scanner

JoeDad's sister Colleen opening gifts

New zombie skeleton gnomes for the yard haha

Christopher trying out Papa's new helicopter toy outside (and crashing it haha)

25

This is more than a month late, but here it is...

This years birthday was a great one! It happened to fall on the day before Thanksgiving, and knowing that most of our friends would be headed out of town we decided to celebrate a few days earlier. We started with dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Mas Tacos with lots of great friends and then we moved the party to a new brewery on our side of town, Fat Bottom. It was a fun night of chatting and catching up with friends, enjoying great food and great beers. Just what I wanted! On my actual birthday, I had to work but Keith had the day off so he brought my lunch at school and got to meet some of the kiddies and coworkers. We finished the night with a really delicious dinner at Lockeland Table and just relaxed and got ready for a quite Thanksgiving weekend together. It was wonderful! Thank you to everyone who got together to celebrate with me :)

Some before pictures from before we left the house haha

my husband's cute :)

Brittneys panorama from the restaurant

Getting us tables and food, and arranging everything for the night!

Brittney and Brandon

Isaac and Tytus

Bennett and McKel

Jamie and Cory

When we got to Fat Bottom we had a table reserved for us, but I must admit, the waitress and others that had read the sign were just a LITTLE disappointed to find out it was a different Keith Richards who showed up haha

Friends

Keith with the Butchers

Autographing the reserved sign at the end of the night, the waiter insisted haha

Jamie, McKel and I at 308, our last stop for the night

And just for fun, here are some of my birthday posts from years past: here and here