Mountain Memories

I've had some dear friends get married recently, and it's made me reminisce about those days for Kam and I. [Especially the idea of being able to get away for a week on your own!]

For our honeymoon, we rented a cabin in Sevierville, TN, about 30 minutes from Gatlinburg. This past May, we were able to head back to the Gatlinburg area and enjoy a much needed vacation [Haddon mentioned this trip in his 9 month blog].

A fellow Lakeview intern and his wife, Tim and MaeLee, joined us on this trip, which gave us the added bonus of babysitters! They were gracious to let us go out one night, sans Haddon, and enjoy a nice little date.

We headed to a lovely little restaurant in downtown Gatlinburg that we were rather familiar with— The Peddler Steakhouse. Kam took me here on our honeymoon and there were too many memories [and some really good food] that we couldn't resist going back! I even wore the same dress for old times' sake :)

The view from our table. We liked to think that we even sat at the same table :)

So there we were— 3 years, one kid [and one on the way], and lots of growth later...

Still happy and very much in love :) Sitting at this table as newlyweds, we couldn't imagine what was ahead of us. I'm thankful for every bit of goodness [and not so good!] the Lord has brought our way since May 22, 2010. A lot has changed, but there's one thing that I pray never will... in the wise words of Kameron's dear grandparents, "Honeymoon for life!"

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Yes, I went there. I let Shakespeare put into words what I experienced today. We sent this handsome man off today.

No, not Haddon :) I dropped Kam off in Atlanta today for his METS orientation. For those of you that don't know, Kam is going on a Middle East Travel seminar (hence, "METS") for three weeks. This is a trip that involves students from a handful of seminaries and our Kameron was selected to be one of those participants!

He's now in Stone Mountain, GA for a couple of days of orientation and then will fly out on Monday. This trip will include time in Jordan, Israel, and Greece. It really is the trip of a lifetime, but we'd be silly to think it won't be hard around here without him. Pray for our family! We do want to redeem the time and know the Lord has ordained these next three weeks, just as He has every day of our life. No pity parties allowed!

We were blessed to be able to have some vacation time in Gatlinburg this past week, so we were very thankful for a sweet family getaway before Kam headed out. [Shout out to the Speths for their timeshare hookup!]

Haddon and I will both miss snuggling with this guy, but at least we get to reconvene in Paris! For those of you that don't know, as a part of Kam's internship at Lakeview, we'll be spending 3 weeks in Paris. Haddon and I will fly over and meet Kam on June 3rd and we'll return on the 24th. So I can't complain too much ;)

When I googled the Shakespeare quote to make sure I had the wording right [so I wouldn't look like an idiot trying to sound romantic], dictionary.com provided me with this fabulous definition:

A line from the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare; Juliet is saying good night to Romeo. Their sorrowful parting is also “sweet” because it makes them think about the next time they will see each other.

Paris certainly will be sweet, Mr. Pugh! I'll leave you with another cheesy line...

P.S. I realize a certain someone's 9 month birthday has come and gone. There will be a post from that cute little guy, just not sure how timely it will be!

2 Years of Marital Goodness

May 22, 2010: Day One! So technically we weren't Mr. & Mrs. just yet, but I just liked this smooching one :)

May 2011: Year One! Anniversary weekend in Birmingham, before heading to dinner at Bottega.

May 22, 2012: Year Two! This was last night before we navigated the subway system by ourselves for the first time on the way to our surprise dinner destination. Good thing we gave ourselves plenty of time to get there :)

I finally guessed the surprise destination when I caught a
glimpse of this plastered on the side of a building one block
from the restaurant!

So how fortunate were we to be spending our second anniversary in New York? My sweet husband took the initiative in planning our evening and I must say, he did an amazing job. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a carnivore. Don't you dare take my meat away from me. Now that we're one, Kam knows this about his wife. So he goes for the kill by taking me to a famous steakhouse in Brooklyn— Peter Luger Steakhouse. [I think my mouth watered by merely typing the name...] If sweet Haddon didn't love meat prior to this experience, then he definitely does after his mama devoured the best steak she's ever tasted...

This is from their website, but it gives you a better idea of the
steak's structure. My before picture below doesn't do it justice.

So the way it works at this place is you order "Steak for Two"— a.k.a. a 42 ounce USDA Prime Beef, family selected, dry aged in their own aging box Porterhouse. This [medium rare], as well as their highly rated German fried potatoes and creamed spinach [I know, right? But everyone recommended the spinach] served as our meal. Oh did I mention the bacon appetizer? That's right. Bacon. One fat $4 slice of bacon as an appetizer. If we tallied points in the KamPugh family, my husband's definitely went off the charts with that one...

Pre-dinner. They, of course, had their own special steak sauce. That they wouldn't let you put in your to-go box...

Our waiter was a wonderful little Austrian man named Alouicious. Like "aloe" + the "icious" in delicious.

Don't worry, we didn't have two plates of this monster, I just gave you a couple of angles. They actually served some to us prior to this picture, so this isn't a legitimate "before" but it will do. In case you're hungry, you can click on the images and they'll get larger :) If available, I would buy a bottle [or a bucket] of the steak juice that comes on your plate... that, with a tiny bit of their steak sauce was crucial for the best bite ever.

After we recovered from this meal of a lifetime, we headed to Carvel to finish the evening with dessert. I put Haddon in a coma with this beauty— a Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie Sundae Dasher... No big deal. Just layers of chocolate soft serve, mint soft serve, crushed thin mints, and hot fudge topped with a nice helping of whipped cream. Have you noticed yet that this girl loves food? My husband sure has :)

Here concludes our anniversary eating festivities. I know there's so much more to an anniversary than a dinner date, but I just wanted to show you one of the many ways Joseph Kameron Pugh is so great. What a blessing to be his wife for as long as we both shall live, or until our King returns!