Being burnt, being bitten and being AT THE BEACH!

Last week Chad and I got to enjoy an amazing vacation with his family! We have been looking forward to this for MONTHS and it was so much fun! Tuesday I had to work, and Chad was suppose to too.... however, that was before we found the moldy nasty-ness in our CLOSET. That is right. Gross wet mold in the back of of closet that had gotten on a backpack and a bag of ours (The original way we found it). So Chad got stuck at home calling the office and getting them to bring a huge fan blower thing to get it all dry. AND if that wasn't enough (right before we leave for vacation) there were also termites all over the wood when Chad lifted up the carpet to dry it. What a great start!!

Ok...now the exciting stuff. Monday night I packed everything I needed so that Tuesday we would be ready to driiiive. Chad came to my work and picked me up as soon as we finished- and we were off! It took about 4.5 hours to get to the beach but road trips are always so much fun. Now get ready to be shocked...I, Cristy Burris, did not sleep AT ALL. Not even a power nap or anything. Can you believe it? I can barely believe it myself....

See? there I am, wide awake and ready for the trip. That was right after work ... and no, I'm not bleeding, I just ate a red starburst that is all.

So we finally got to the beach and unloaded everything...then got to go to the beach!! We went out, flashlights in hand, ready to hunt whatever may be out there...crabs, sand fleas, clams, whatever came our way. It was gorgeous and the sound is just one of the best in the world. We walked down the beach and I of course would let out a squeal every time a crab unexpectedly ran anywhere near me and I didn't see it ahead of time. We came back inside to relax and to my,dismay, I realized I should have definitely put on bug spray. Now, some of you may know this, some of you may not, but my blood has a magical ingredient that, for whatever reason, attracts any and all bugs that bite. Now you may be laughing being like aw, she gets a few bites here and there. No. Anytime I am outside for any length of time, I WILL get bitten. Fact. Anyways I got 7 bug bites just that night. Yep. The rest of the trip i was fully prepared with my bug spray in hand at all times.

We woke up the next morning, ate breakfast, and then headed to the beach!! When I have been at the beach before it usually consists of me laying out for a little while, maybe reading a book or talking with Mom, but then we head in and maybe go out a little later but usually my family heads out to check out the town, fine a cool place to eat, do some shopping, etc. However, going in the water is something I usually just don't really do. I may get my feet wet, or cool off quickly, etc. This beach trip, I believe I spent more time in the water than a combined total of every beach trip I have ever taken...and I loved it! We had rafts and stuff out there that we just hung out in, fighting off the waves and creating games that to anyone else watching I'm sure looked incredibly dorky but to us, we were having a blast. We came up and Doug and Chelsie started building a sand sculpture. Now, you may be imagining some little house that you turn a bucket over and wah-lah, there is your sculpture, but may I remind you that my father-in-law is an architect, and his daughter is following extremely close behind with the creative...ness. SO they set out and ended up building a HUGE alligator that had only his head, back, and tail sticking out of the water. It was incredible! They just saw it in their mind and went for it. I, on the other hand, sat off to the side with Sherry and watched as they built this masterpiece right in front of our eyes. I did contribute and made 2 scale/fin things on the back. They were great ha.

That night I got to make dinner for everyone!! Chad talks about my enchiladas so much that they wanted me to make them one of the nights at the beach. We doubled the recipe and started to it with only a few bumps in the road (an incredibly annoying cheese grater being one of them) but they were finished and turned out great!

That night we watched the All-Star game (baseball) and hung out and then headed to bed! Chad got pretty burned as did I, but along with my burn I also had the wonderful reaction to whatever it is that usually happens to me. Yep, one more thing to add to the weird list of me haha. I had red bumps all over my stomach, chest, and back. It went away by the next day though and we went back to the beach fine! We were getting more and more burned (no lectures...please :) ) so we would put T-shirts on whenever we couldn't stand it anymore. It was just so much fun hanging out with everyone. His family is so much fun and just very inviting and great overall people. I am so thankful that I get to be a part of them!

Thursday night we went out to eat at The Original Oyster House. This place was PACKED and we got our beeper and were prepared to wait. There were several stores around though that kept us occupied for a little while. We were all lookin nice and took some pictures though ...

Dinner was great! My shrimp scampi I got was phenomenal and you gotta have the hushpuppies to top everything off. Afterwards we went to one of the tourist shops. It was called Surf Style but let me just say these were EVERYWHERE. From standing in the street you were able to see 4 different stores, all within a mile of each other. It was crazy! We picked one and went in. Got the t-shirts that you always have to get and roamed around. After that we headed to the famous "Scoops" ice cream place that was hoppin! There were tons of people there and this has been a long standing tradition in the Burris family come to find out. I got mint chocolate chip in a shake ... my favorite!

See how much fun we're having?? haha.

Friday was our last day :( but it was also the day we were doing the white shirts and khaki pants picture! I was really looking forward to this! We drove to a place where the dunes were perfect and the sky was perfect and it was just perfect! haha.

Aren't they so cute :) So Friday night we played some catch phrase and then finished the rest of Titanic (another Burris beach tradition!). Saturday was our pack up and go home day. SO depressing. We headed out, said our goodbyes (ugh!) and then Chad and I headed back to the wonderful Surf Style to get another coffee mug (because someone forgot it was in the bag and threw the bag down on the tile floor haha) and we also looked at a few more of those sneaky tourist t-shirts (buy one get one free! buy one get this special souvenir bag! etc etc). We ended up going to 3 because the t-shirt Chad wanted wasn't at the first or second one, so we got quite familiar with the lovely store. We finally headed out in the crazy bumper to bumper traffic of EVERYONE leaving all at once. This went on for quite a while but finally cleared up and we were headed home for the 4 hour trip ...so we thought. We got to Montgomery, AL and up ahead as far as you could see was traffic....and not just the slow moving kind, the might as well pull out a deck of cards or get out and stretch your legs we'll be here forever kind. So Chad swiftly pulled off the interstate and thanks to our wonderful GPS ("jeeps" as I call it) headed down an old country road behind a few other cars doing the same. We went about 10 miles down the road and it crossed over 65 to get back on...and we just drove over it in shock to see that it was STILL the same traffic not moving 10 miles further down. At this point we were ... I was ... starting to get a little nervous. Chad had to work that night you see, and depending on how many back roads good ol jeeps could find us, we may be a while. At this point we pulled over, pulled out the atlas, and pulled out our cell phone and called my dad (where would we be without all this technology?? ... probably still stuck in Montgomery). We decided to head towards Auburn and cut across on a road that way. We started out and there was traffic going the same way because apparently everyone else had caught on to that idea as well. SO I pulled out the Atlas again and figured it would take us less time to go the opposite (and less crowded looking) way towards Tuscaloosa and cut up on a bunch of roads that way. Let me just take a moment to say and brag a little on myself that I cannot believe I was reading an atlas and actually navigating pretty darn well. Incredible. Anyways so we headed that way, bunch of country roads, the 'scenic route' if you will. It was fun though because we were laughing and talking the whole way. We maneuvered our way all the way back to 65 at a familiar exit (where we went fishing for 4th of July!) and were completely relieved to see NO TRAFFIC!! We did see many beach-going vans and cars driving though. Wonder how long they sat ... So the 4, 4/12 hour trip turned into a 9 1/2 hour trip (yes, that says 9 1/2, not a typo). Needless to say Chad had to call work and say he didn't think he was going to make it back.

(^thats me incredibly frustrated with the atlas. see.)

On the way back we did stop at a restaurant called Country Cafe and it was one of those places you normally just look at and go "Wow I wonder how they stay in business". We walked in and the people looked like they hadn't seen real customers in ages. We seated and stared at and it was hilarious. The only other customers in there were apparently the daughters or nieces of someone who worked there; they sat down and weren't given menus and just orderd "the usual" kind of thing haha. We split a hamburger steak with mashed potatoes, rolls, drinks, salad, and chocolate pudding. It was actually pretty good I must say. Way to go Country Cafe.

Here's some random pictures from the week!!

Chad made daiquiris for everyone one night - no no, don't worry everyone, they were virgin ha

The girls newly manicured ORANGE toes!

The alligator we made in the sand! You can see his back and tail behind him too.

This is the tent we had set up all week. Came in handy definitely!

Spooky house Chad got an AWESOME picture of!

Our farmers market! Didn't you know?
Sisters!
The famous picture that will be continued EVERY beach trip from now on!

Our condo we stayed in.

**PS. I added the pictures of our Atlanta trip below in a slideshow thing!! check them out!**

Do you remember us?

And we're back with a BANG because I'm going to try and sum-up everything thats gone on in the past several months. You know how you get busy with everyday life and can't remember if you mailed that bill yesterday or 3 weeks ago and time just seems to be flying? Well yeah, its kind of been like that. Time has gone so quickly and here I am, wondering where in the world it's all gone to.
Lets play catch-up!!
- a few months ago Chad and I had the opportunity to go see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Atlanta Braves when they came to Atlanta! We decided it was a good time to do it since they were so close AND I had never been to a Cardinals game before - and of course, this is shameful :) SO I had a Monday off and we headed down to Hot-lanta for the day. First stop was naturally IKEA...one of the greatest stores known to man. I absolutely love this store and just about anything in it, so anytime we are in Atlanta it is an automatic known stop from now on. We got a few candles and an ice cream scoop (a staple item) but it was mainly a trip of ooo-ing and ahh-ing at everything we wish we could afford or fit in our apartment (ha). After that we headed down to the Underground mall that Chad had been to before and said was really great. We got there and apparently over the years...has lost most of its greatness. We walked through the whole thing, stopped one time at a sports store, then left. Very exciting adventure :) We headed to Turner field that afternoon and watched them warm up and do batting practice. I must say, I was very, very excited. I felt like a little kid. See how much Chad has changed me! ha. We won 3-2 and it was so much fun. I really enjoyed it! HOWEVER we got home and got a call saying I had left my camera there - MY CAMERA! Apparently some amazing human being had turned it in but they didn't want to mail it because they became liable for it blah blah blah. SO guess what. We had to drive allllll the way back to Atlanta on Tuesday ( i left work after lunch to beat traffic) and while we were there decided to stay and watch the second game in the series because, why not! We didn't drive JUST to get the camera...whats one more game :) So we stayed and watched that one - made friends with one of the ticket checker people who let us sneak into a better section that was great! So that game we ended up losing 1-2 and headed back home semi-defeated, but incredibly thankful to have my camera in hand. Driving back we kidded about heading back the next day...then the kidding became 'well we actually could'...and that became 'ok we're doing it because we can'. Wednesday after work we headed straight back to Atlanta for the 3rd day in a row. Three game series and we got to see all three! We were a little late but it was ok - we got to see the Cards come back and win it 5-3! Our little adventure :)

-The weekend after that 'someone' decided since we can't get a dog right now that we needed something in the apartment....so we adopted some fish!! Congrats to everyone who are now grandparents and great grandparents of some new little fishies :) Sad beginning to it though...we couldn't quite get our water right at first so we had a rough start but now there are 4 thriving fish that love us so much...haha. Skip, Chip, Larry (all the same kind of fish) and Alpha (our Beta fish...haha get it??).

-2 Weeks after that my mom got her new little puppy - it is called a Morkie (Yorkie and Maltese mix). Her name is Cocoa and she is absolutely adorable. It was so fun going and picking her up - she is black all over with a little white under her chin. When we first got her she was 1 lb and a few ounces. She is now about 3 pounds! A few days ago, however, she was walking down the steps (ONE STEP) and broke her tiny leg! She's gone through surgery and now has one of those cones on her head (the cone of shame for those of you who have seen UP!) and her leg is shaved and looks even smaller than before. How pitiful!

- July 4th weekend Chelsie (my sister-in-law) came to visit us! She got here Friday and left on Sunday. Friday we went fishing up at some of our friends lake and caught several fish! We got to hang out there some then came back, went out to dinner, and hung out. It was so good to see her! I hadn't seen her since we moved! Saturday we spent a lot of time just chilling around the apt. We decided we were going to be adventurous and try to make some home-made Chinese food!...then it got to late so we figured the kind in the restaurants would be fine too :) We drove up to one...closed. Drove to another...closed. Decided to check on 2 other places....both closed. We ended up going to Panera Bread (which i love so it was fine ha) and ate and then came back to the apt! Saturday night was July 4th and our downtown area puts on a spectacular show. We went a ways away from downtown though (so traffic wasn't so bad on the way out) and watched from the top of a parking deck. Chad, Chelsie and I got there about 2 hours before the show started and set up a card table and played Phase 10. 2 of our good friends met us out there later to watch the show! The guy next to us tuned his radio to the one that broadcasted the show and we all watched in awe as the glory began. Beautiful. It was a lot of fun!

-THIS weekend Chad's parents are stopping by on their way to the beach! Tonight they're going to get in and eat dinner, hang out, and then leave in the morning. Next week Chad and I get to join them for a few days though!! I'm pumped about a vaca!

So there you have it. A quick catch-up and I will say, like I always do, that I will try to keep caught up. Hold me accountable!! Text me, call me, scream at me - do whatever it takes to keep me going.