Lextown Visitors

The weekend finally arrived for Matthew's parents to come visit us in Birmingham! We had prepared for their visit all week. After multiple grocery store trips and a good deep clean of the apartment we were ready for their arrival Friday evening. They rolled into town around six fifteen. Jonathan was working, but he came and met us for dinner at one of our favorite Birmingham eateries, NEWKS! We LOVE Newks. If you come and visit us, we will most likely take you there, plus a million other places. Hands down, I think Bham has better places to eat than Nashville (Who would've thought!?)



Friday night we enjoyed a late night tour of the Fox news station with our very own expert. That's right....I have a famous brother-in-law :) Here he is....



J gave us an insider's tour about the ins and outs of newscasting. It was WAY too involved for me. By the way...if you are ever in public with Jonathan he loves it if you walk up to him and ask him if he's "Jonathan Hardison from FOX 6 news?!" I promise it doesn't embarrass him AT ALL :)


Saturday we went to lunch at one of our favorite downtown spots, AL's. It is Mediterranean AND American food...and it's awesome. Matthew and I love it, and it's conveniently right beside the nursing building :) I got my normal cheeseburger and Matthew got some weird gyro plate, that was goat meat and gross. I don't think he will get that again. After lunch we went to the McWane Science Center to see Night at the Museum II on the IMAX. Movie was funny, a worthy sequel in my opinion. Regardless of the fact that we all needed to take large doses of Ibuprofen afterwards to get rid of the terrible neck pain! Who would've thought you would have to look up the whole time at an IMAX?

Dinner was at our place. Matthew and I made chicken enchiladas, various sides, and my mom's awesome chocolate pecan pie and chess squares for dessert. After dinner, everyone graciously headed over to J and K's apartment so I could get some much needed studying done. Unfortunately, I think I made it about an hour in before I dosed off, and Matthew found me an hour and a half later asleep with my notes in my hand...woops :)

Sunday we went to church at J and K's church Shades Mountain Baptist. And I definitely got to meet Rick of Rick and Bubba and definitely got to shake his hand in the meet and greet :) For those of you who don't know, Rick and Bubba are radio show hosts in Birmingham and are local celebrities here. I listen to them most mornings on the way to school, though I will confess that it does not fill the Gerry House shaped hole in my heart...miss you Gerry!

We went to Olive Garden for lunch to celebrate a belated Mother's Day for Sandra, and it was of course super yummy. We then headed to Edgewood Elementary (where Kristen is a first grade teacher) to take a clicker quiz about J and K. The clicker works so that the kids can answer questions on their own remote and the statistics show up on the board for the whole class to see. It's really neat! Anyway, we took a quiz on Jonathan and Kristen, and I think you can guess on who came in last! No, it wasn't Benj, it was me! I claim that it's because I have been around the least amount of time :) Although I would probably think that K would win if Matthew and I did a quiz...all those late nights talking :)

Saturday night we had dinner at J and K's and it was absolutely delicious! Parmesan chicken, mac and cheese, mandarin orange salad, etc.... highlight of the meal was definitely the strawberry pie, incredible! We enjoyed several board games after dinner, including Jonathan's favorite Family Feud. Who doesn't love a little John O. Hurley!




Overall the weekend was a lot of fun, we love entertaining! Hint hint...anyone who reads this blog and has not come to visit...your turn is now!