Art walk and Christmas Store

*Life is Beautiful: Some days I get caught up in the need-to-do's, and the wish-I-could-do's and find myself frustrated that things that used to be so simple become so much more of an affair with a baby.  But I had a thought the other day that has stuck with me.  There's a scene in Hook where Peter is feeling pretty low and can't find a single happy thought.  But then he remembers...He is a dad!  He is living the ultimate dream.  And that's so true!  I'm a wife to an amazing husband and I have the most beautiful baby in the world. There's nothing I want more than this.   I just want to remember this is what I have dreamed of my whole life and to soak it all up with gratitude. 

Derek and I had a really fun date last month  The friend I go walking with told me about Fairhope Art Walk and I knew I wanted to try it.  There wasn't a lot of information online, so Derek and I didn't really know what to expect.

But it was so cute.

When we got to downtown Fairhope we knew that we must be in the right place.  Every single block was filled with cars and everywhere we looked we saw people walking around.  As we wandered, we discovered that downtown is absolutely filled with all sorts of little boutique stores. And during the first Friday of the month the stores stay open into the evenings, there are live performers throughout the streets, and most of the shops offered free wine tasting  (We declined.)

I wandered around feeling like I was in Disneyland.  The pictures I took really don't do justice.  Like at all. But here are some pictures I took through the night.

We went into a homemade soap store. The woman who owns it studied chemistry and decided to make soaps for a living.  So she runs a cute little soap shop.  They all smelled amazing.

We decided to buy this manly soap for Derek.  It's the most yummy smelling thing.  We decided it smelled like a mix between woods and lemon.  Mmmm.

someday I'll get a better picture of this alley.  It was absolutely magical.

We left the art walk just in time to watch the US national team. play.  (Best of both worlds, right?) And we got Zaxbys!!  If you go, get a combo so you can get the fries, and  GET THE PEACH LEMONADE.  Derek and I cannot recommend the lemonade more highly. 

On another day we visited a  couple places in Mobile we wanted to visit.  The first place we went was the state's biggest flea market.    I was so excited, even giddy when we arrived.  Buuut, it was not our favorite thing.  It was pretty dirty and all you could smell was cigarette smoke.  We still got some fun pictures though.

We left the flea market then headed over to a store called Everything Christmas.  

 It's a huge Christmas store, open all year round, and we knew we had to see what it was like.  It was so cute!  We walked around the store, loving the decorations, trees, nativities.  We had a fun time teaching Kennedy why we celebrate Christmas.