Smiths hit Birmingham!

Well the day finally arrived... my "deadbeat" parents decided it was finally time to visit their daughter and son-in-law in Birmingham! Don't worry deadbeat is a word that is used frequently in the Smith household...fondly of course :) I was so excited for my parents to finally get to visit our home here, that I was looking forward to it for weeks! If you know me, or my mother, you would know that I was cleaning for days! Matthew would say, cleaning what? Mostly because our apartment stays pretty clean most of the time, but I couldn't help it. With my mom being such a OCD cleaner like me, I had to make sure that it was completely spotless...I think I did a great job!

They arrived Friday just as I was pulling Grandma Eva's awesome Heath Bar Cake out of the oven. It was a success, thank you Grandma Eva for the delicious recipe! Little Matthew raved about the whole time they were here. After giving mom and dad the grand tour of the apartment, which took about 1 minute considering our apartment is approx. 800 sq. feet, we went downtown to meet Matthew for lunch at Jim and Nicks. Even though mom and dad have one of these in Nashville, they never think about eating at one unless they are traveling through Birminghan, but we were more than happy to oblige dad so he could get some of his favorite cheese biscuits. After eating, we drove my parents around to give them a taste of the Magic City. We hit up Samford, Mountain Brook, and Mountain Brook Village. Friday night we went to go eat at our new favorite Mexican restaurant Sol Azteca. Knowing how much my mother and I are alike, I knew she was going to love this place...and she did. Unfortunantly, I got one of my pesky headaches that have been plaguing me the last couple of weeks right before dinner, so it was an early bedtime for me. Little buddy was staying with us on the pull out sofa, so big Matthew was more than happy to have someone to play Wii with, while I popped a Benadryl and crawled into bed.

( Beautiful Samford, in my opinion one of the prettiest universities...Go Bulldogs, right Kristen?)

Saturday morning, my mom and I got up to head out to the Summit to get in some needed mother/daughter shopping time. We didn't spend long there, only going into a few stores (maybe causing a little damage to mom's Visa), and then headed into downtown Homewood. I knew mom would love it there, because it is an area with a lot of eclectic shops and boutiques, right up Vicki Lynn's alley. I kid you not...we went into every baby/children's boutique so mom could talk about what clothes she was going to by when the time came (I didn't tell Matthew how she was looking at christening gowns, the ones he hates with a passion, but I have insisted that every baby wears one on their first Sunday, boy or girl!).... Of course she still wanted to go to the bridal shop down the street, it didn't seem to matter to her that I was already married!

(here's just a taste....for Matthew's sake...haha) Matthew insists that no other church of christ church does this except Harpeth Hills, but I politely beg to differ :)

Meanwhile, Matthew took the boys downtown to show my dad and brother the lab where he works. He showed them how to make cigarrette smoke extract and demonstrated how cold liquid nitrogen is....only -160 degrees! Little buddy loved it! We all met up for lunch at our favorite pizza place Davenports in Mountain Brook Village. After devouring two pizzas, dad thought it would be a great idea to get ice cream from Mountain Brook Creamery (and I am proud to say that I declined as well...only to have Heath Bar cake later!) After lunch, we headed back to the apartment to cheer on the Cats to victory!

All in all it was an awesome weekend! Please come back soon!

p.s. My mom throughout the whole trip could never make out Vulcan the statue, only then to insist that it did not exist.... we promise it does mom! here's the proof!