We're 2 1/2 weeks in to our Houston adventure, and it seems more like 10. We were so blessed to be thrown not 1 but 3 going away parties before we left Bham! Here are the pictures to recap:
Our first going away party was at Amit and Shilpa's house. It was the "lab party". All of the PhD's, MD's, medical students, grad students, post-docs, etc... that work(ed) or were affiliated somehow with Matthew's lab. Amit and Shilpa had catered authentic Indian food, and it was incredible!
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| Old Roomies |
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| Love me some Shawn! |
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| For so long it was just us 3! |
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| Going away presents. |
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| Doctors Brown and Wells...or Mike & Mikes :) |
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| Pat |
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| Phillip |
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| They framed Matthew's first paper and had everyone in the lab sign it! |
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| Thank you Amit and Shilpa! |
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| "The" Ed and Shawn |
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| Katherine and baby Samuel |
The night after the lab party, we had dinner at Ed and Shawn's. Shawn made our absolute favorite meal he's ever made: prime rib (roasted for hours!), potato gratin, English popovers, and asparagus.
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| Ed and his favorite grad student. |
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| Backyard renovation! It's more gorgeous in person! |
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| The view from their new deck. |
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| Slow roasted to perfection. |
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| Here it is in all it's glory. |
The night after our 5 star meal at Ed and Shawn's, we had our church going-away party thrown by the Newtons, Bootons, Guesses, Harrises, and Elliotts. Due to our move to the Wild West, our theme for the party was "Cowboy".
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| SID brothers :) |
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| Cupcakes made to look like the Alabama State flag... too cute! |
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| Our favorite toddler.. T-Bone! (Thomas) |
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| HBH and Stonewall |
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| Sweet Cara |
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| We love the Elliotts! |
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| The Ashley's |
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| Our Lextown buddies, the Newtons... and Baby Newton #2 on the way! |
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| Anyone who knows us knows that our FAVORITE restaurant in Birmingham is Chez Fonfon. It is owned by Frank Stitt (a James Beard Award winner), a famous chef who is the owner of Highlands Bar and Grill (voted top 5 restaurants in the U.S... and it deserves it!), Bottega, and Chez Fonfon. Our friends in Birmingham have heard us incessantly talk about our obsession with Frank Stitt, so they surprised us with his cookbook and had signed it with sweet notes throughout the pages. Something we will hold dear for years to come. |
It's hard to sum up 3 (5 for Matthew) years in one post. As you can tell from the pictures above, it was very hard to leave a place where we felt so loved. We really began to view Birmingham as our true home, and we are so glad that the Magic City was where our marriage began. We miss our friends everyday, but we know that we will share many more life events with them! While we may not physically be there, they will never be far from our hearts and minds, because thanks to Lynyrd Skynyrd it may be years before M and I hear the lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama" without a little mist in the eyes :)
1 comment:
Manager of Happy Acres Farm
Surely is nice to have so many nice friends. Thank you for sharing your pictures and good times with us.
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