March 29, 2013 - Post #2

ATLANTA, GA

December, 2011

 

For Christmas in 2011, my awesome boyfriend (at the time) who is now my husband, bought tickets to see Zac Brown on New Years Eve in Atlanta!!!  Atlanta is Zac's hometown and we were so excited to see him there.  He had actually played a show the year before in Atlanta on New Years Eve and we had talked about going that year but it was our holiday with the kiddos & the first Holiday living together so we passed.  Just for fun, here's a little circa 2011 from our first New Years Eve together, which was actually our 1 Year Anniversary!

 

 

That was such a fun New Years!  They were so young, it's crazy to think about.  Anyways, back to Atlanta, 2011/2012 our 2nd Anniversary!  I was sure this was going to be the trip that Creag was going to propose....I had my hoped up high and my family & friends didn't help because they thought the same thing!  The proposal didn't happen, but we had a great time.  We had dinner at a revolving restaurant that looked over the city downtown on New Years Eve.

 

 

After dinner we headed to the concert. We had floor seats & got pretty close to front row! We could almost touch Zac Brown and it was amazing.  He closed the show with a Rage Against the Machine song and he blew it out of the water!  He is so diverse with his music and can sing anything and that right there is why I love him so much.

 

 

 

We rang in the New Year, right there with the Zac Brown Band and that's something that I'll never forget!!

***This sequence of vacation posts are going perfectly because the next trip is New Orleans for our wedding and Monday is our 1 Year Anniversary!! 

 

 





March 29, 2013

Randoms

 

It's been a great week & I'm looking forward to this weekend.  We have so many fun things scheduled that I'm really looking forward to!

 

Earlier in the week, Hank brought home little scrap pieces of paper from school.  Written on each piece was one of his friends names & a snack.  For instance, Miles-Popcorn.  Another one was, Braden-Dog.  The largest piece of paper said - All Boys Easter Party.  I saw it and thought it was the cutest thing, EVER.  He & his friends had put a lot of thought into this party, so how in the world could I ever say no?  We decided that on Saturday night, he could have 4 friends over.  We'd supply pizza, popcorn & cotton candy!  Tuesday night, we got on the website Evite & designed invitations.  We got them made up, but couldn't figure out how to print the darn things, so I ended up drawing them out with sharpie & he colored them.  I let him know not to be too upset if no one showed up because it was short notice, but we got our first RSVP yesterday!!

 

 

 

Wednesday night was the only night that I worked out this week at Silverlake.  I'm taking a small break from going to the gym every night & trying to focus more on cooking more meals at home and getting the kids to bed earlier.  I was getting way too overwhelmed & tired so hopefully this little break helps.  That day, the Easter Bunny visited Silverlake & Wyatt was really excited to show off his basket & eggs along with his bunny ears that he made in school that day when I picked him up after my class.

 

 

Hank's baseball practice was cancelled because of the weather, so Creag was going to take Hank & Wyatt up to the batting cages at his office while I went tanning.  The High School JV Team was practicing when they got there, so they headed home to start dinner.  While heating up our leftover pork loin from the night before, Creag got a call from Michael saying that he caught a bunch of Trout fishing that day & he was gonna bring them over to throw on the grill for dinner.  The boys cleaned and prepared the fish & Wyatt was watching their every move!  It was a very welcome surprise & dinner turned out really good.  We loved having Uncle Michael over and being able to sit, relax and catch up on everything.

 

 

 

 

Tonight, Sammie has soccer practice & Skylar is sleeping over at a friends house.  I'm going to spend tonight getting ready for the All Boys Easter Party tomorrow.  Sammie has a soccer game in the morning and then hopefully we'll make it to Silverlake for their Easter Egg Hunt and then we have our first ever Professional Family Pictures scheduled for 2PM.  I cannot wait!  Sunday, we're hosting both of our families for Easter dinner.  We have so many great things going on in our life at the moment that I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of happiness and I must say, that's the greatest feeling in the world.

 

 



 

 

March 28, 2013 - Post #2

CLEVELAND, OH

September, 2011

COLUMBUS, OH

October, 2011

 

I'm on a mission to finish up with our past vacations/road trips before we leave for vacation.  Not only am I writing two posts today, but in this post, I'm going to write and share pictures from two different road trips.  Both of these are football related, and were one right after the other, so it works!

 

2011 was our 2nd Browns/Bengals game with my family in Cleveland.  We drove up the night before & this time we drove up with my parents & brother.  On the way there we did the typical stop at Kmart to try to find Browns gear since it's so hard to find it around the Dayton area.  We got into Cleveland, checked into our hotel & then went to dinner and the Winking Lizard per usual.

 

 

The next morning we got up early for breakfast & then headed to the Stadium.  This time, the game was a little earlier in the year & actually fell on September 11th which was awesome!  It was opening weekend of NFL Football as well so everyone was pumped.  This game, I noted that the Browns fans were even nastier than the previous year!  I was called quite a few choice words just for walking into the game with my Bengals gear on.  It was very awkward & that was one of the factors that made us decide to take the following year off from Cleveland.

 

Opening Ceremony honoring September 11th. 

This was followed by a Fly-Over.

 

 

 

 

Shortly after this trip, Creag bought us tickets for an OSU game.  It was actually a night game, on his birthday.  We had had both of our families over earlier that day for brunch.  We smoked a ham on the smoker that turned out amazing, and I had bought an apple pie since he doesn't like cake.  After everyone left, we headed North towards Columbus & I was pumped.  I had never been to an OSU game and had always wanted to!! 

 

 

 We got in, checked into our hotel & then headed to the stadium.  The area around the stadium was awesome!  We didn't have much time to stop & get dinner before the game so we grabbed a sandwich from one of the food vendors on the street.  They played Wisconsin that night & it was homecoming!  There were lots of Badger fans in their weird, striped pants & a lot of people in costume too for Halloween.

 

The birthday boy, downtown before the game:)

 

 

The game was soooooo close!  We were standing I think the whole time & the Buckeyes won with like a second to spare.  It was so awesome to see, and after the game, the students stormed the field!

I had never seen anything like it.  It was definitely a great experience!!

 



 

 

 

After the game, we stopped at Eddie George's Bar and Grill for drinks.  It was a cool little spot & we closed it down.  After that, I was hungry and there was a Taco Bell.  We ended up standing in line for close to an hour and I ordered one Cheesy Gordito Crunch.  Creag didn't order a thing and I didn't find out until after I started eating my taco that he was pissed that I made him stand in line for that long & ended up ordering 1 taco!  Let me just be real here and say that we ended up in a fight and I ended up wasting that whole 1 taco that I ordered by THROWING IT ON THE GROUND!!  We still laugh about this to this day!  Which brings back the memory of making these type of tacos one night for dinner and him getting me back by winging a taco at me in the kitchen....the kids stepped in and we ended up having taco shells ALL OVER THE KITCHEN from a taco fight!!  Fun Times & great memories! 

 

 



 

 

 





March 28, 2013

CHICAGO

July, 2011

 

Chicago, The Windy City, oh how I fell in love with you my first time there in July of 2011.  We went over the 4th of July weekend and had an agenda before we went.  A Cubs game @ Wrigley Field, The Taste of Chicago, a City Running Tour, fireworks at the Navy Pier, Chicago Style Pizza and so on.

 

We left on a Thursday morning and drove the truck.  When we got downtown, driving through the city was a challenge.  Traffic was backed up, pedestrians were everywhere.  I'm not going to lie, it was a little overwhelming for someone who had never been to a busy city like this before.  I was in awe, taking it all in & then all of the sudden, Creag looks at me and says "holy shit, did you see that, a car just went down the street the wrong way & hit someone!!"  Before I could answer, he was out of the truck and running down the sidewalk to catch the person in the car who was now driving up on the sidewalk.  I'm sitting there in the passenger seat of the truck, the light turns green & I have people in the cars behind me honking!  I don't even like driving downtown Cincinnati, so I was panicking.  Worried about Creag, and worrying about how the hell I was going to drive in Chicago, by myself, not knowing where to go!  I managed to find a spot along the side of the road to park and wait.  He eventually came back to the truck & was really shook up.  There was actually 2 pedestrians that were hit, and the person driving the car was an old lady who I guess blacked out.  We weren't positive what happened for sure.  No one was.  We were just hoping the people who were hit were going to be OK.  We went on from there to check into our room.  After we checked in, we headed out for a beer!  Creag definitely needed one after all of that & so did I.  We stopped in a little restaurant & had a beer with black & tan onion rings that were delicious!  We checked the news on and off to see if there was an update on the accident.  Everyone involved made it out OK, which was great.

 

After dinner, we walked to the Sears Tower and paid to go up to the top.  It was a very fast elevator & that's where I learned of Creag's fear of elevators:)  It was a gorgeous view and we had a glass of wine on the top floor and looked out over the city.

 

 

Early the next morning, we met Marlin our Running Tour Guide.  We had scheduled a 7 mile tour of the city.  It was a scorching, hot day so we did our best throughout the tour.  We ran by the original Playboy Mansion, the St. Valentines Massacre Site, found out the real meaning behind the nickname the Windy City, ran through the Zoo and so on.  We ended at Wrigley Field, exhausted. 

 

Playboy Mansion

 

 

 

Running through Lincoln Park Zoo

 

Taking a little break!

 

 

97 DEGREES!!

 

Exhausted!

 

 

Running around Wrigley Field!

 

 

WE MADE IT!!!!!

 

 

We stopped at McDonald's and got a drink & some food before heading back over to the Ball Park for the game. We were so exhausted from the run that we didn't even make it through the game. We left early & went back to our room for a nap! That evening, we went to Harry Carry's for dinner & I had the best Fillet Mignon that I've ever had!! Creag ordered the Surf & Turf and loved his meal as well.

 

 

 

The next day, we went sightseeing.  We checked out the Bean and the city a little more and did a little shopping.  This trip is where I discovered & fell in love with Forever XXI.  I got a few things from there, and Creag bought me a watch from Guess.  He offered to buy me a Coach Purse, but I declined.  I just couldn't see spending that much on a purse, no way!  That afternoon, we went to The Taste of Chicago for a little bit then headed over to the Navy Pier for a Sailboat Lighthouse Tour on the Tall Ship Windy.  The Tall Ship Windy was an interesting tour to say the least.  The crew was a tad bit corny & it wasn't really what we expected.  We made the best of it and the Lighthouses that we saw made it worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

The next night was the 4th.  We went to the Navy Pier again to see the fireworks.  We went to Margaritaville for dinner & stood in a very long line to get a table.  After being seated, we ordered a huge plate of nachos and had drinks.  After dinner, the fireworks at the Pier were awesome, it was getting out of there afterwards that was a bear.  It was SO crowded, people were shoving each other & arguing.  I think at one point, there was a guy that said "someones gonna die tonight"!  He was one of the ppl involved in some of the verbal altercations around us, and I was a little worried after I heard him say that.  I was just thinking how crazy all of these people were around me!  It was a scary moment in my life!  Kind of comparable to the Underground in Atlanta!  LOL  Thankfully, we finally got out of there, alive & I was so relieved!

 

 

 

 

Our last day there, we went to the beach for the day & had Chicago Style pizza for dinner.  It was a great trip and we've been back to Chicago since.  That update will be later. 

 

March 27, 2013

Baseball Practice & Grandparents Day

with a few more randoms.

We're counting down to vacation.  9 MORE DAYS until we're in paradise!!  I cannot wait, I think I need to start packing soon so we're not scrambling the night before.  We both started tanning this week to get a base tan so we don't burn the first few days that we're there.  I haven't been tanning in well over a year and didn't realize how much I missed it.

Hank had his first official baseball practice last week.  He's supposed to practice outdoors, but since the weather has been so bad they had it at the batting cages.  They used the machine that the league will use during games & he hit really well.  He hit a line drive straight at his coaches head & he had to duck so it didn't hit him.  Guess the batting cage practice with Creag is working!  He was supposed to have practice tonight, but it's cancelled because of the weather.  Skylar's practices have all also been cancelled.  Poor girl got ready last night for a 5:30 practice & then we found out at the last minute that it was cancelled.  She was bummed for a second but then realized it didn't matter because she could still watch TV.  She is such a couch potato, that child of mine.  Luckily some of the neighborhood kids rang our doorbell & she ended up playing outside for a bit. 

 

 

Last week was also Grandparents Day for the 4th Grade.  Skylar had worked very hard on a poem & volunteered to read it aloud during Grandparents Day.  She was very excited & really looking forward to it.  She was expecting 3 Grandparents & was really disappointed to the point of tears the night before when she found out my Dad wasn't going to make it.  He had other obligations, unfortunately but promised he'd make it up to her.  Grandma Naomi & Grandma Burt both went and I had them send me pictures from school.

 

 

After school, it was the kids weekend at their Dad's, so both Grandmas took all of the kids to Taco Bell before heading back up to Dayton. Everyone had a great day & I'm glad they got to spend this time together. It's important, even though we live a little further away that family still stays involved in their life not only to me, but obviously the kids as well..  

Skylar's words from her poem are below....

 

Just as I imagined your as sweet as can be.

You are my Grandparents,

the best ones I could have.

You give me all I need,

You give me even more.

I love you as you are,

Please don't change at all.

Thank You.