delightful trip down south

my birthday was last wednesday and it was one of my favorite ones. i celebrated on tuesday by purchasing a macbook pro. i'm completely in love with it and have slowly been figuring out its little secrets.

jake also took me out to celebrate my birthday on tuesday. unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of our picnic scene. a picnic that i was less than prepared for by wearing the most absurd outfit for the outdoors (the one above, actually). it was a surprise though, so how was i supposed to know? when we laid down our blanket to begin our picnic, there was this random stalk of asparagus sticking up out of the ground. it was pretty fascinating, i didn't know asparagus grew in the wild? besides the picnic, jake bought us tickets to see fleet foxes in kansas city. i'm so excited! especially since they just released their second cd, which you should probably check out.

for my actual birthday jake, my parents, and i went down south. it has been a while since we've visited my dad's parents in hunstville, alabama so we took the opportunity to do so. my grandpa has been through a lot as of late as he was recently diagnosed with lymphoma cancer, one type of blood cancer. we had heard how rough his condition was but we didn't realize it until we saw him. my grandpa has always had medical problems but cancer might have to take the cake for being the worst. he is an amazing man who, despite all of his physical ailments, never fails to trust in the Lord and give Him glory.

all in all it was a successful trip. great time with the family and my man, who might as well be family. pictures below!

stopped in st. louis for some ribs! yum!

birthday cake my grandparents got for me. it was interesting trying to cut it...
pretty sure my dad used an electric knife (typically used for turkeys)

had to stop at the unclaimed baggage center!
this place is amazing. i wish i had more time to comb through everything.
i did manage to get an incase laptop cover for only $6, usually they're $40 or up.

we ate at wintzell's.
my grandmother is not that adventurous...but she ate two raw oysters for the first time in her life. my dad was proud.

jake had fun testing out the panorama feature on my camera.

i was not so thrilled to have my picture taken.

thanks for reading! :)