Goodbye November and Goodbye Football!

I wish I would have blogged in November because November is such a fun month to me. I celebrate my birthday and my sweet nephew's birthday and of course all the family time with Thanksgiving and gearing up for the holidays.

This year for my birthday Brad surprised me with a dinner with several of closest couple friends. I think he had a little help from one of my besties, but I was so surprised! I had no idea and it was great to see everyone. I don't have any pictures since I had no idea I was going out to a special dinner that night but it was so special to me that they all came and I wish we did that every year for everyone's birthday!

My nephew Grayson turned 4 this year and I cannot believe it! I know everyone always says that about the children in your family but it does seem like they grow so fast. He had a small party at his church with his friends and we went to support (and get cake).

Here is our birthday picture for this year. We always take a picture together because my birthday is on the 18th and his is on the 19th.

Here is our picture from last year. He looks thrilled, right?

Finally, I am SO HAPPY today because today is the first day of the rest of the year to me. It is honestly like a New Year's type feeling at my house because Football Season is over today!!! Whoo-hoo! Brad works at a high school that dominates their Div 1 4A division and every year they usually make it to the championship game. We could not be more excited to end this phase of the year and officially begin celebrating the holidays and enjoying more time together. Although it's nice to work for a winning sports team, it's different when your team wins every year (it's exhausting) and it's different when you are the Sports Med guy and not the coach. Coaches have some time off to regroup and rest before the next season. But right now the trainers have actually already been working double-time at keeping up with not only football but the rest of fall sports and dealing with the start of wrestling and basketball season. Trainers show up several hours before practice and games and they are the last people to leave the stadium after practices and games. Plus, when you work at such a large school it's not unusual for almost every team to make their state playoffs. So, when a major sport like football ends - you celebrate! Today is a happy day for us, and whether the team wins or loses, there is always next year. We'll feel the same way after basketball and baseball so don't worry winter and spring sports - we have equal disdain for you too :)

I just can't believe that most colleges have already ended their sesasons as high school football starts for us way before college! It's just crazy. But, at least we can enjoy the remainder of college ball from our cozy couches and maybe we can start eating dinner at a normal hour again! Yeah! It's the little things.

Truth is, as tired of it as we get, we both actually love football and just like always we did end up going to several college games this season and here's a flashback at some of our adventures.

First Brynes home game back in August. I only went to two home games and they lost both of those so I didn't go to anymore and they won the rest. Go figure. Team must have mutual feelings towards me - ha!

We try to go to at least one UNC game each year. It makes for a long day, but it's worth it to go reminisce and eat at our fav spots. 

We also try to go to at least one South Carolina game a year and this year we went to the away game at Georgia. We easily had the worst seats in the whole stadium but they were still plenty expensive! I must have been a bad luck charm for Georgia too because they also won out the rest of their season after this loss to SC. 

See you next year football - I'm taking my marriage back :)

Orange You Glad

After our crazy trip I was so glad to be home and I had a lot of things on my to-do list. First thing was to decorate and paint my bonus room. All year long I have been into the color orange and after we bought a brown couch for the room I knew orange would look great for the walls.

 

I don't really have any before pictures, but the room was basically tan and had random junk sitting in it. This is the only picture I could find and it was taken right after we bought our home three years ago. Just imagine a bunch of junk in it and that's what it looked like. Minus the curtains.

I have to recommend this painter's tape that we used on the ceilings. Because I'm crazy I cannot stand to see mistakes in my painting and because of these slanted ceilings we have in the room we splurged on this new painter's tape that is a little more expensive than the blue tape that most people use. It's called Frog Tape and it's AMAZING! I had it up for almost a week while I finished the room and when I took it down the ceilings were spotless. I totally recommend this tape for anyone who is doing any type of painting because it WORKS!

So here are the final pictures. Not everything is perfectly matched, but with a new ceiling fan and a little TJ Maxx love, the room is now a much more comfortable place to relax. We spend a lot of time in here now, especially at night. I'm so happy with my orange room!

Denver

So, I know this sounds crazy, but immediately from Chicago we flew to Denver for my brother in law's wedding. Brad flew out early in the day, but I met him there later that night after work. It was a long day but we had a couple of fun things planned so we were ready to get the trip started.

When we woke up the next day it was a little crazy because our niece had gone to the hospital during the night and no one really knew what was going on. They really didn't want a lot of people at the hospital and Brad and I were sort of sitting around so we decided to go on with our plans and thankfully we got word an hour or so later that everything was fine and it was just a little bug that had caught up with her. We were relieved and it made the whole trip better because we knew she would be okay.

I was SO excited that we got to keep our plans because they were AWESOME!! We had been planning for months (ever since we found out about the wedding) to go to this huge festival in Cheyenne, Wyomming called Frontier Days!!! Cheyenne isn't that far of a drive from Denver and the drive is actually pretty cool because it's fun to see the mountains of CO in the distance and drive through the plains of Wyomming and all the buffalo farms. I had seriously been sweating this festival for months because both of us are in love with going to festivals and fairs. We can't get enough! Plus, ever since my obsession with "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Little House" I've pretty much wanted to be a cowgirl.

We started off at a PBR event and this is what I was most excited about because, uh PBR is amazing that's why! I got caught up in the PBR Championships on ESPN late one night and decided that I just had to go to a live bull riding event. Well this is the biggest outdoor PBR event in the US so it was the "Daddy of 'em All". There were several roping and riding events and they were all so much fun. The people sitting in front of us were so nice and told us all about each event and what to watch for and that made it even better. They could not believe it when we told them it was our first rodeo - ha! Although I'm not sure how they didn't pick that up since we weren't both wearing cowboy hats, boots and collared shirts tucked into Wranglers like everyone else - no joke. I pretty much sang the Garth Brooks song "Rodeo" the entire time we were there.

It's the gold in his buckle, the white in his knuckles...

It's boots and chaps it's cowboy hats...

The above pic was one of the clowns who actually worked very hard and the below pic are the wrangler type dudes who would chase down the bucking bronco after he threw the guy off. They were very serious-looking.

I don't know how the UCLA t-shirt didn't tip them off. Go figure.

At the end of the rodeo there was an event where a team of cowboys tried to saddle a wild horse and then one of the team members had to ride it around the arena. That was probably the most entertaining thing to watch. It was so crazy the paramedics even came out for one man.

We walked around the festival the rest of the day. It was pretty much like a state fair with carnival rides and lots of booths. There was some Native American dancing and an old timey village you could walk through. We ate some junk food and then went to the Darius Rucker concert that night. It was sooooo great! I know I keep saying that but it was such a fun day. The concert was at the rodeo arena and we had pretty good seats. He sang all my favorite songs and it was just a super nice night.

Kevin Costner was the opening act and that was sort of weird, but definitely interesting. He sang some sort of country-rock style music.

The next day we took a rode trip with some of our family and went to Estes Park in CO and saw some snow. It was definitely crazy to see snow in July and there was tons of wildlife just right on the side of the road.

The wedding was on Sat and of course that was the main event. It was a small wedding but beautiful and of course nice to be with family all together since we so rarely are. I was in lurve with the dress I wore. I also plan on wearing it again to another wedding next weekend and too bad for some of the people who will be there because it will be their second wedding seeing me in it. That's how much I love it.

The bride looked so pretty and her dress was just gorgeous. I really loved it and especially the back of it, but I don't have a pic of that. The one shoulder strap sort of swooped back under the same arm and there was just one other strap that went across so almost her whole back was out. It was very unique!

After the wedding and reception everyone met up in downtown Denver for some food - even the bride and groom! I thought that was so nice of them to spend extra time with the people that had come from all over the country to be with them on their special day. The below pic was another "man" picture I got out of this vacation. Brad and I wanted a pic in front of Coors Field and this is what we got. Geez. I can't remember which brother took it, but it was definitely a man.

We came home right after the wedding and of course I was stoked to see this face when I got home! I counted down the hours until I walked through my doors and saw this baby waiting on me. I missed him so much and in total I think we were gone for 24 days so it was a looooong time to be without my cuddle baby.

For kicks I'll show you what my mailbox looked like when I returned. I had forgotten about this picture but I just found it in my phone. I don't know about you but H-A-T-E going to the post office so I sure enough did make them deliver my mail to me. I'm pretty sure whoever had to stuff all that in was none too pleased because every magazine in there was folded about eight different ways.  Oh well. It was worth it! :)

Chicago & Milwaukee

Immediately after Hawaii I had to fly to Chicago for a business trip and Brad went along because it was only two nights and who doesn't love Chicago? That town is amazing! I really don't have any pictures because I was stuck in meetings the entire trip, but I did go on a run my first afternoon in town and took a picture of the lake shore on my phone. I would try to go running here all the time if I lived in Chicago because it is such a great place to be outdoors and look at all the tourists and just everything! Obviously the winters might be a little rough, but other than the below freezing wind chill and icy sidewalks I'm sure it's still awesome, right!?!?!



Brad went on a road trip to Milwaukee since I didn't have any free time and obviously he went on the Miller brewery tour because he has some sort of weird obsession with these.

He also went to a Brewers game and it looks like he had pretty great seats! I don't think I've been to a ball park this big before - this one looks huuuuuge!

I don't know who this guy is, but there was about five pictures of him on the camera and Brad wouldn't take five pictures of anything unless there was a reason.

That's about it - the trip was short but a lot of fun (for Brad).

Kauai - Part 2

So I promise this is my last post about Hawaii. It's so sad I try to blog to remember all these things that Brad and I do for fun, but I'm so behind on my blogging that I really can't remember to begin with!

The one big thing we did on Kauai besides look at beautiful sceneray all day was that we hiked to a waterfall that was four miles through the jungle. We had heard a lot of great things about this hike from people who had been on it, but after going on the hike I realized that a) the people we talked to were crazy nature-loving hippies avid hikers and b) that there are too many waterfalls on the side of the road in Hawaii to have to hike 8 miles through the jungle to see another one.

Brad and I actually both love hiking and we planned on doing lots of hikes in HI so we definitely didn't go into this hike planning to hate it. I will have to say there was this strange phenom that the last two miles were ruggedly uphill in the blazing sun when I promise you that we never EVER felt like we were climbing downhill. But the worst part was the hike was mentally taxing because almost every step you took you had to think about where you would put your foot. The trail wasn't always obvious or it was muddy or bouldery (is that a word?) and in some of the more rugged areas I'm sure it took us an hour or more just to go one mile. I think we spent about 6.5 hours on this hike, but it felt like all day!

The trail started off at a beach we had been to two days before so it was all nice and peaceful. I figured instead of posting details about the pictures I would just write some of our commentary that was taking place at the time.

This trail is a little rocky. Hmmm...that's a little rugged for all those kids that we just passed on their way down. Oh wait, do you think they've turned around?!?! Naaaaahhhh....

So beautiful, how can anyone not love hiking???



Wow - two miles in! This is the best hike EVER! No way would I turn around now!

Look at all that cool bamboo!

This hike is like being in a jungle. Or a scary rainforest. I guess we should just pretend we're in an episode of "Lost". 

There's mud everywhere - do you think it gets worse? Naaaaaaah...

I'm pretty sure this is worse. 

MORE BOULDERS?!?!

Wait - we haven't seen any people in a while. Do you think we went the wrong way? Well, this looks like the trail. Actually, this looks like the end of the trail. Maybe it's a trail because everyone goes this way and then has to turn around and go back? Why aren't there any signs! We followed those people because they looked like they knew where they were going! Ugh. Let them find their own way. Let's go back.

Blisters forming.

Of course my whole face itches now that I've slipped and my hands are all muddy. Do we have enough water? I've got a feeling these boulders are going to be even worse on the way down.

Finally we're almost there! I can't wait to jump in!! Me either!

I'm not jumping in that water - it's like 50 degrees! I'll just stand here and sulk in my blister induced rage.

Smile - these are our vacation pictures!

Are you ready to head back? We have to get back before dark. Took us almost four hours to get here. WHAT!?!?!?

I think you get the idea. On the way back we mostly spent our time wondering how all of the people just getting to the difficult part of the trail were going to make it to the waterfall and back through the jungle before dark. Thankfully Brad switched socks with me so that my blister was covered. No we don't wear the same size but mine were really stretchy and they ended up being good enough for him. At the end of the hike we went straight to the one grocery store and bought about $30 worth of food of which we consumed in one sitting that night. I think we may have watched a movie and then slept 15 hours. Can't really remember.

The rest of our trip was super low key. We went on a few short road trips and mostly hung out at our favorite beaches for the next three days. It was a great way to end the trip.

We visited a canyon that looked eerily similar to the Grand Canyon except there was a beach in the background.

I was really getting camera fatigue so I asked Brad to take some pictures and this is what I got. I think men do this sort of thing to get out of doing what we women ask them. Oh well, joke's on you Brad because I used this picture on the Internet and I'm pretty sure it's going in a frame for my cube at work. Of course then it will have a new meaning. (kidding)

We went paddleboarding, or "stand up paddling" at this beach. It was sooooo fun but I was not so great at it because it's much harder than it looks to steer yourself and I was so far out that the people on the boats were asking me if I wanted them to pull me back to shore - ha! I never fell off, though (unlike someone who had a lesson - cough, cough).

I will miss Hawaii and all the beautiful green lush mountains with clouds just touching the very tips. But mostly, I will (and already do) miss the shaved ice. It was to die for. Like nothing you can get in the states. We probably spent a small fortune eating this stuff, especially the last few days when we realized we wouldn't be around it much longer.