really missing our atlanta pho restaurant today.

how we changed atlanta.

john and i single-handedly rid all the grocery stores of all blue bell red velvet cake ice cream.

we also missed at least ten freeway exits, and wrote google maps about it.

i made the pool manager at our apartment paranoid that i was going to come swimming, even on cold days, and that he would have to be present.

our local walmart now keeps double the amount of monster energy drinks/coke zero in stock.

there is a significant amount of raid outside and around our apartment.  some spiders/june bugs/cockroaches may have developed some tolerance to it.  while many others have died quite horrifically.  sorry, environment.

today is john's last day at the good ole internship.  and while living in atlanta {and making our little mark ;} has been so fun, we are ready to be back with family for awhile.  we are so grateful for our opportunity to have been here, to learn to lean on each other, and to have discovered a new city.

that time i went from ordering medium-well, to medium.

to celebrate john's completion of his internship, we decided to go out for a nice dinner.  and i'm talking nice.  like, so nice i felt out of place.  we haven't been to a restaurant that nice since.... i don't even know.  but we'd heard lots of good things about it, and it came highly recommended from so many people.  so we decided to give it a shot.

and oh.my.f a n c y!  sometimes you forget when you're living off home-cooked meals and $15 date-nights that such places exist.  but they do, and they are fun to go to once and awhile.  

john ordered the braised rabbit, i ordered the duck n' beef burger, medium-well.

i regretted it once i said it.  medium-well, you idiot! they will over cook it and it will be dry!

and it was.

when i mentioned this to john, he encouraged me to send it back, which i inevitably did.  and then, after they brought me back a perfectly medium burger, {i should have known!  from now on i will always order medium, i've made up my mind.}, and i finished it to my heart's content, and my stomach overflowed with delicious duck meat.... they brought us three desserts to compensate.  you heard me.  three desserts.  < insert embarrassed emoticon >

oh man.  those desserts.  that were soooo good.  and i was soooo embarrassed.  but nothing could top my surprise when we got in the car and john said, 

"well, i didn't want to say it in the restaurant but i had read on yelp that if you send your food back they bring you their entire dessert menu."

no wonder he encouraged me to send my food back!  he's a smart man, and i love him.

well, there's no great way to end this story so i guess.... may the force be with you.

last weekend.

our weekend was pretty low-key.  after several weekends of sight-seeing, it was nice to take a break and just relax.  on friday night, john took me out for burritos, then we went home, curled up on our classy blow-up mattress, opened up a pint of half-baked ben and jerry's, and put in burt wonderstone.  perfect date night, if you ask me.

on saturday we went to the frisbee golf park, which basically means these days that john frisbee golfs and hazel and i watch/throw a couple frisbees.  we had a great time.  i think john is really going to miss that course.  after the park we had all-you-can-eat sushi and headed home for a relaxing afternoon.  the rest of the weekend was filled with walks, eating food, church, watching shows.... basically nothing noteworthy.  but it was so great to recharge.  we definitely needed it.  

we head home to utah in only 9 days!  hazel is pretty excited about it.

the triple-bypass burger.

sometimes, you hear about an amazing place to eat in atlanta.  and, because you live in atlanta, you really really want to try it.  so, even though it's a bar, and even though they won't let you bring your baby inside, you go anyway, and get it to go, and eat it in your car.  sometimes, that "triple-bypass burger" is totally worth it.  

^^^^ you also get a glimpse of the mary margaret house, and reminisce of days reading gone with the wind, and being so furious about the ending you could cry.

you then decide to see what's what at piedmont park, because you've heard of piedmont park and you're generally curious.

and then sometimes, in the afternoon, you undress your baby down to her drawers, because you live in atlanta after all, and it's so dang hot outside!

then you call it a day, go home, and eat peach cobbler.

stone mountain!

stone mountain is one of my favorite things in atlanta so far.  {at the time the memorial of "stonewall" jackson, robert e. lee, and jefferson davis was carved, it had been fifty years since the civil war ended and slavery was abolished.  and, although it seems a little strange that people in the south are still "celebrating" the confederacy represented in the memorial, i think it's more of a "southern pride" thing than a south-versus-north thing.  people of every race and ethnicity were at the fireworks and laser show, and the laser show had an overreaching message of equality, love, and american pride.}  basically i loved it because the laser show was freaking awesome.

^^^ this is us, enjoying each other's company before the show.  we met up with some friends and even met some byu alums in the crowd.  isn't it great how the church is everywhere, and you can have immediate friends wherever you move?  we love it.

also, hazelnut started sitting up.  on her own.  i think it was the slant of the hill... but still.  where did my baby go?!

our wonderful friends!  they are just great.

that one time we went to chinatown.

oh, how i love the weekend.  ours was wonderful.  it's so nice to get out of the house on weekends, because usually i am confined to our little apartment and anything within a square mile of it.  and you can only do so much walking around in 90 degree weather with humidity to match it, ya know?

on saturday john took hazel and i to chinatown!  at least, that's what we're calling it.  we found it quite by accident one day when we had nothing to do but i was desperate to go on a drive/walk in new territory.  so i typed "mall" into my phone map and it came up as one of the options.  all i can say is, hallelujah!  there are too few authentic and yummy chinese food places in the world.

this place is legit.  john and i had a meal just like what we would have had over a year ago in taiwan/china.  {ie. not panda express}  it was delicious.  and, there's a nice stinky chinese market and live music too!  it made for a fun outing.

world of coke.

newsflash!  i love anything brown and bubbly.  but i especially like coke zero lately.  and coke is just an american classic.  the world of coke is one of the must-see sites here in atlanta, so we made the plunge with some friends last saturday.  i am so glad we did.

some highlights of the trip:

1} learning the history of coke, from when it was first made and how it was first served, to how the secret recipe has been kept secret for 127 years, to the introduction of new coke and its recall, to the worldwide phenomenon coke is today

2}  watching coke commercials from as far back as the 60's  

3}  seeing how coke is packaged and learning about the process firsthand

after w.o.c., we went to anticos!  because hello! yum.

and also, yum.

savannah, georgia.

we had a great time in savannah.  it's such an old, quaint town.  and although it is a popular tourist spot, we reallly enjoyed our little trip.  

after spending the morning at hilton head, we drove back to savannah and enjoyed the most delicious lunch ever.  we then visited the colonial graveyard, several civil-war monuments, churches, etc.

we spent a lot of time walking up and down city market and river street.  we browsed through some delicious candy factories and watched them making turtles and taffy.... and browsed through souvenir shops.... 

savannah, we really enjoyed visiting you.

we went to the beach!

last weekend we went to hilton head/savannah.  the beach is a four-hour drive from atlanta, but we really wanted to go, so we made a day of it.  we drove until 11 p.m. and so hazel didn't go to sleep for the night until late, and then we woke her up to take these pictures so she was grumpy!  that's okay, she's still pretty cute.  {stay tuned for the savannah portion of our trip, coming soon.}

walking dead sites.

about two and a half years ago, my brother sam introduced me to the walking dead, on christmas night.   if you'd like to read that post, you can check it out here.  i couldn't sleep that night, and swore off zombie-movies forevermore.  but then, over this last christmas break, john and his friend played black ops zombies a lot.  i actually played some, too!  and then, i saw a little clip of the walking dead on tv, and was actually able to sleep that night.  so, john and i started watching it again.  i could finally let myself be enamored with the story, and i became obsessed with it, just like all the other amc viewers out there.

now, as fate would have it, we are in georgia!  where they film the walking dead!  so of course we had to venture out to see some of the film sites.  they have a lot of little old towns out here, way older than anything in utah, and it makes it the perfect state to film in.  i didn't think i would find it as cool as i did to see where they filmed in real life.  i got so excited it's kind of embarrassing.  

the georgia aquarium!

the past couple weeks we have really started exploring what georgia has to offer.  the aquarium was at the top of that list, and it was absolutely incredible!  even hazel loved it - she just stared and stared at all the fish.

last weekend....

friday night we hung out with basically the only friends we have in Atlanta - the only other byu mba student here and her husband.  they made us some delicious barbecue and we hiked down to the chattahoochee river, which is beautiful at night.  i also saw my first firefly!

on saturday we went and saw man of steel. {and loved it}.  hazel did amazing during the movie. afterwards we got seafood {we're only an hour or so from the coast, after all....} and i have since been dreaming about that shrimp po' boy.

over the weekend.

over the weekend, we found an amazing pho place and i died from happiness.  then we went to atlantic station and i got superman ice cream.  

on saturday we found the most amazing frisbee golf park.  each hole was over 300 ft....

and our southern belle wore too large of a headband to church on sunday.  {our stake president reminded me of a baptist preacher in the way he spoke.  totally awesome.}

sometimes, we go to the pool.

sometimes, we go to the pool, and get in the water, only to discover that they don't heat the pools here in atlanta.  so even though it's 85 degrees outside and the sun is out, it's too cold to swim.  well, at least your baby looks cute.

our first week in atlanta.

our first week in the south went {almost} without a hitch.  i mean, there were some expected road-bumps such as being without a can opener or cutting board, a vaccuum, and other essentials we needed.  plus, our blow-up mattress that we borrowed broke, so now we are going to have to replace it!  {hazel was pretty upset about it, as you can see below.}  also, we have wi-fi router problems.  and.... we got called the first day of church to unofficially {aka permanent summer substitutes} teach the CTR 7 class in primary.  hmmmm.  we still haven't met the bishop.

we also tried a local chain restaurant that was super crowded and seriously struck out.  but, that night we struck gold on this taco place and definitely will be returning!  you win some, you lose some.

oh, i love this sweet little family of mine.