a lake side weekend.

Fifteen hours after I returned from a 3-day work trip to Cincinnati, Sam and I left early Saturday morning to drive down to Lake Martin to meet Mom for Ashley's wedding. A few weeks ago, Mom and Dad asked the Lolley's if we could stay at their lake house, and they graciously gave it to us for the weekend. It was the perfect spot to step out of the daily routine for a weekend. The Lord could not have given us better weather for a weekend away....even though it was a little chilly in the shade...there was not a cloud in the sky most of the weekend. It was so refreshing. 

Our view from the Lolley's back Porch.

Since we got up to the lake a little early, Sam and I decided to go for a little hike around the area and see what we could find. I haven't been on a "hike" in I can't remember when....but it was fun. It was a little strange to see the water so far below the normal level....probably 7-8 feet, but it made for some interesting discoveries while walking on the shore line...things you wouldn't normally be able to see. We then starting realizing that some of the odd things we were finding in the sand beds, i.e. pillows, baskets, car parts, roof gutters, were a direct result of the April tornados ravaging through the area. Al...there were houses not far from where we were staying that were completely demolished by the tornadoes.

It was really sad to see...but the rebuilding process has started, several homes are under construction. Sam and I found a house on a peninsula being built and decided to do a little exploring. (Although dangerous, I love going into houses under construction for some reason..maybe because I feel a little mischievous?) We walked into this house Al, and were blown away by the view they will have right in their living room:

This is the view they will have from the upstairs great room:

So beautiful. Well...after our little adventure, it was time to head back, eat lunch and get ready for the wedding. I would like to add that our sweet brother, Austin, did make a quick appearance at the lake, long enough to eat some food, watch the last part of Avatar, and then decide to peace out because he was "afraid" that our t.v. wouldn't be able to pick up the AL/LSU game. (We were having some spotty coverage issues with the dish.) I try to show little brother some love but this face doesn't really say "I love you" back. haha.

Ok....so we actually did go to the wedding. It was very sweet and simple. They had it in a little white chapel in Lake Martin called "Children's Chapel." It was so good to see Ashley, Morgan, and Kallie.

A little lighthouse was in our view as you walked out of the back of the church....I could not get over how beautiful the sky was as the sun was setting. From there we drove about 10 minutes over to a beautiful restaurant for the reception.

(I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a better picture....the iphone camera is not great in low light...and the red-eye corrector went a little crazy here. apologies.) However, Mom and Ashley looked beautiful!

Mrs. Basset, Mrs. Viki Mitchener, and Mom

Morgan, Me, and Kallie

The reception was great fun and it was good to visit with old friends and see Ashley in her wedding dress finally married. Morgan and Kallie are all grown up and in college! Crazy how fast time flies. We wished all of the family could have been there to visit with them too. Maybe at the next wedding! 

By the time we got back to the house Saturday night we were exhausted, and cold...so it took me about 5 seconds to get in my pj's and fall asleep on the couch. We slept in a little this morning and got to take in the view on the porch for a minute before it was time to pack up and head home. 

all naturale in the morning.

All in all....it was a great weekend. We missed you, Dad, Lindz, and Logan. We look forward to seeing you soon! I want to hear about your Island adventure with Naomi!

Love you!
Whiggle

My favorite fall things.

Al...no worries. I'm still here. With a new job, new schedule, new work friends, and not a lot of free time in the afternoons....alas, the blog suffers.

I thought I could at least tell you about some of my favorite fall things right now....we are definitely enjoying the beauty and coolness of a little fall weather over here, and you better believe right when that sweater has to come out, a warm coffee based drink is what I start craving...One of my favorite things right now is:

yumm.

Oh. yeah....I do feel a little bad about the fact these babies are $4 bucks, so I have to get them sparingly. But they are soo good:)

Second are the colors of the trees changing right now......

And third, is sitting on my porch on my little couch on the weekends and reading a book while drinking a pumpkin spice latte. I do not have a picture of my porch handy at this moment, so I found one that I like even better:

Yes, please.

Lovely:)

Well...enough daydreaming....I'm going to Cincinnati, OH with 4 other work folks to visit a project site. I'm sure it will be an absolutely crazy enjoyable 8.5 hour ride up to our hotel. I have never been to Cincinnati before so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing a different city.

I'll have to give you updates when I get back:) Maybe you could tell me three of your favorite fall things in the meantime!?!  Looking forward to seeing you soon!

-Whiggle

Fall happenings

Hey Whiggle, it seems as if I've been very bad this time with posting. So again... I'm going to try to make up for it a little bit.  I'll try to get you updated on our fall so far:)

A few weeks ago Bjorn's mom was in town for a conference and treated us to a nice dinner at a restaurant called AG. It's a place know for it's selection of meats, so we decided to try something a little different.

It's called a Cochinillo and is sort of a roasted pig that they separate to serve. Very soft and tasty, but not sure I was totally sold on it. I had sort of a pig eating moral dilemma/crisis that involved flashbacks of Maggie the pig.

A&B at AG

Then we went to Kopparberg. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, has only about a few thousand people living there, but manages to be somewhat recognizable by name here in Sweden for one reason- they are a major producer of cider in Sweden and to many other countries. Years ago it was a big mining town, but that's been mostly shut down.

Here's an example of their pear cider. You should check for it in the US, it's quite tasty.

Kopparberg as a town was pretty interesting. Although a sleepy country town, it's full of really neat old buildings. The town has been around since a little before the US existed as a country, so they really are old. This is the Courthouse.

And the post office.

Bjorn reading a little about the history of the town.

One of the main things we did while we were there was go mushroom picking. I know, it just sounds Swedish and I've probably never felt more like a native than when I was out there stomping around in the damp forest inspecting different varieties of mushrooms. You know, trying to find the ones that wouldn't kill us. I tried to be more observant than usual:)

Bjorn having a snack before the picking began.

Pretty to look at, bad to eat. 

Hard at work.

 The first day we went picking we just wandered out into the woods ourselves. After a little bit of searching we left with this: 2 chanterelles (the good, edible kind)

 The second day Bjorn asked some of the locals at his work where we should go and they gave him directions to a particular spot. Much more successful:)

We took a nice long walk through the countryside one day when it was nice outside. It's not a bad area at all if you want some peace and quiet.

 One of the few stores in the town. It's and antique store called "Old and Antique."

Our last day in Kopparberg was beautiful. It was blindingly sunny so before we left we went to the cafe in the middle of town to enjoy it.

I meant it when I said blindingly sunny. This is the best we could do. 

Next we went to Norrköpping for the baptism of little Harald Persson. He's the son of one of Bjorns med school friends, Kalle, and the mom's name is Maria. Seriously though, he's one of the cutest babies I've seen. And you know I'm not so easily impressed...:)

 Kalle, Maria, and Harald

Part of the family after the baptism

 There was a lunch at this beautiful house afterwards for those at the baptism. It had a great view over part of the town towards the lake.

Not a bad view for a really pretty house.

So that's about all I've got, consider yourself caught up:) I did take this picture of Naomi today after I picked her up from school. She didn't have a hat with her and it was cold so I rolled up the hat I got from Dad last year(which is wonderfully warm) and made a slightly odd looking kid hat. I think she looks pretty cute though:)

Thanks for posting pictures from the birthday weekend, I wish I could have been there! It looked like fun to be home with everyone. Annnnd, in LESS than a month I'll be around for the next family get together. Seriously can't wait.

Hope your job started off great, I want to hear about it!

Miss you Whiggle,
Allie

doing some celebrating.

Hey Al:) I'm assuming your still in Sweden (haha j/k. Blog when you can:)... Anyway....I thought you would like to see some of the festivities from the big birthday weekend we had at the beginning of October. Within three days, Abbey turned 20, Dad had the 22nd anniversary of his 30th Birthday, and Sam turned 27, (not to mention Sam's Dad, Mark, had a birthday the same day as Abbey.) That's a whole lot of birthdays in one weekend. We had already planned to go home for the weekend, so it worked out nicely that we could celebrate on Saturday for all three...but mostly for Dad.

Here are some pictures from that weekend. I will say we had some GORGEOUS weather, perfect for washing the big tank that dad borrowed to take his bike up to Birmingham to sell. Dad fell in love with this massive thing. I will say it's probably the nicest truck I've ever been in:)

After 10 hours of detailing, it looked brand new:)

While dad was washing, I played the guys in a friendly game of "HORSE" and pretty much whooped their tails....Austin was such a baby.....he cheated the last minute and made me lose. I had them crying almost the whole game though:) It was awesome.

Then Saturday night, Dad, "the Grilling King" as his birthday card read this year from me, cooked a delicious meal of BBQ chicken, and Mom made her famous Macaroni and cheese. Sweet Mr. John and Josie came over to help celebrate....they are such a great couple. Mr. John is still having treatment for his cancer, but you would never know by his attitude that he is sick at all....The Lord has definitely blessed this man with peace and they are always a joy to be around.

Mr. John and Mrs. Josie

Dad talking to you on the phone.

Abbey picking something off of Austin's face? 

The Grill Master on his Green Egg

After Dinner we made some time for cake, coffee, and Cards with Dad's favorite dessert, red velvet cake. It was soooo good Al! I could definitely go for a piece right now:)

Thank you Mary Katherine Smith:) You are quite the baker.

Abbey getting a birthday card.

And the dogs definitely liked the cake....although the DeHaven's didn't help that. They were basically feeding them cake the whole time..haha. It was hilarious.

All in all....it was one of the most enjoyable weekends we've had in Dothan in a while....we definitely missed you and Lindz though.... Can't wait to see you in a month! So glad you booked your ticket!

Love you,

Whiggle