simply spectacular.

Miss UNA Erica Gholsen

I had one of the best weekends. It was just full of a lot of fun and great laughter. It all started Friday night with a trip to the Miss Alabama 3rd night of Preliminaries in Birmingham. I made the trip with some wonderful girls Beth Parker, Claire Stewart and Mallory Baxley. We were so excited to see our wonderful Miss UNA strut her stuff in the swimsuit and onstage question portion. Beth drove, which made things all the more interesting and exciting, Claire co-piloted and Mallory and I were in the back. The trip was full of snacks, gossip, and great music. We went to eat at Outback before the pageant and got there just in time for the show to begin. Our seats were a few stairways up. Lets just say I was struggling. I am so disgustingly out of shape. When we finally got to our seats Beth decided she wanted a program. I told her I would buy if she would make the stair trek to get it. That's how I ended up purchasing a $15 program. Totally worth it. If you don't believe me you should see some of the ads and photographs.

Our Miss UNA did us proud. Erica is one of the most beautiful and sweetest girls I have ever met. I was priviledged to get to be a part of the Miss UNA Advisory Board this past year due to my role as SGA VP for programming which sponsors the pageant. This is how I got to know Erica. UNA couldn't be represented by a better person. She is fabulous!

Walking to the pageant. Claire, Mallory, and Beth wanted to "Tell'em Where We're From" at Samford. Mallory's N was a little backwards.

Isn't she beautiful? I included this picture because I'm obsessed with her dress!

Opening number with current Miss Alabama Liz Cochran

Erica giving her introduction

Front of the program featuring current Miss America

One of Erica's ads with Leo and Una

Another few pages of Erica

Melanie (UNA Pageant Director) and I afterward

Mallory, Beth, Claire, and I with Erica afterward

This was such a fun little trip which concluded with a drive back to Florence with lively discussions of all the contestants as well as some rockin' out to some fabulous jamz. Fist, snake, and point pumps included.

Saturday I woke up early to go with my friends Darla, Kaitlin and Tanya to see Darla try on her wedding dress. It had come in and she was going to try it on and have it pinned for altering. Darla is getting married next summer but she is already on top of everything. She looked absoloutely stunning in her dress. I wish I could put up pictures of the morning because there were some beautiful ones as well as some funny ones but NOT allowed. After the wedding dressness we went to Cracker Barrell for a little breakfast. YumYum.
The day then lead me to Athens, AL to the home of my dear friend Leah Beth Downs. It was scorching hot on Saturday and I needed a pool so to the Down's home I go. Some other fun ladies were there as well: Dugger, Leigh Ellen, and LB's friend from home Claire. We had a wonderful day of swimming around the pool and laying out along with some great salsa and chips. Later that night LB's mom decides we should have a party so I stayed for dinner and had a fabulous time. Claire and Dugger's parents came, LB's dad grilled, and we ate all the deliciousness. I laughed so much on Saturday. Such a fabulous day. I headed back to Florence around 9pm a little tired, a little sunburned, and a lot happy!
Sunday night consisted of watching the Tony Awards and a random Game night at Darla's apartment with Kaitlin, Graham and myself. I headed over there about 9pm. We played Payday, which is so much fun unless you spend way too much money like myself, had a brief Sonic run for some fabulous milkshakes, and then a few games of Rummy and Spoons. All of this was done while listening to the 90s music station on the TV. Ahhhh...some really great songs there. By 2:30am we decided to call it a night since Kaitlin had class at 7:30 the next morning.

I had such a marvelous weekend. It was really what I needed. Very relaxed and filled with amazing, awesome friends. Also...a lot of laughter.

J