Oktoberfest...

Is pretty much the greatest party ever. We had a blast- what a great thing to check off our bucket list!

Abby's first visit to Nashville

We're having a great time showing Abby around town! She especially enjoyed her first trip to the Honky Tonks.

Crouching stories, Hidden blog posts

So I finally became motivated enough to take a plethora of pictures off the camera this weekend. The result? Back-blogging! Have fun searching for some-what (for me) abbreviated posts highlighting a few things I did this summer! :)

Abby's Baptism

The whole family got together in Houston over Labor Day weekend to celebrate baby Abby's baptism. The weekend was chock-full of baby-snuggling, eating, drinking, and being merry.

And everyone was excited: I was pumped to have all my nieces and nephew in one spot; Andy and Sandy were excited to show off their beautiful baby girl; Mom and Dad were ecstatic to finally meet their newest grand-daughter; Molly and Shaughn were happy to meet their newest niece; Liam and Ella were elated to meet their first cousin, the great-grandparents and great-great grandma were excited to have all their grandchildren in one spot...overall, everyone was just happy to get together.

The belle of the ball

Pretty girl in her fascintor

Liam playing the part of Moses for the afternoon

Uncle Shaughn and a happy niece

Daddy's girl

It's about time!

I would like to thank Will for this momentous occasion. Finally, after nearly 3 years of living in Nashville, I had my first celebrity sighting!

Usually, I leave my car at my office garage, and Will and I carpool to and from work together. Tonight, however, Will had to work late so I drove myself home. Now, if both cars are at home, one of us has to park on the street, and street parking comes with rules. Parking on the street means that the car has to be moved before 7 AM, which in turn means that Will has to go into work super early the following morning.
(This whole scenario is one major downside to downtown living- parking is inconvenient with 2 cars and only 1 parking spot.)

(I swear this tangent has a point...)

This evening, Will informed me that he did NOT want to go into work before 7 tomorrow morning, so he convinced me to drive my car back to my office tonight and meet him at PF Changs for a drink. (My office building houses a number of restaurants- PF Changs, Flemings, Moe's, etc...) It took a lot of coercing on his part to get me out of my PJs and back into normal clothes, but I obliged. We enjoyed a couple beers and headed to the parking lot towards Will's car. And guess who we saw, waiting for their car at the Fleming's valet stand...


Wait for it....

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert!


This is Nashville, and we are super cool around our celebrities so I didn't go all psycho fan on them. I barely even acknowledged them...at least not until we were a good 20 yards past them, when I non-chalantly pointed out to Will that we just walked by Blake and Miranda... And then I may or may not have made him drive by them again. Not in a psycho fan way, mind you...but just to see what kind of car they drive. For the recrod, it was a Ford Expedition...but something tells me it wasn't actually their car (they had a driver).

So, thanks to Will for making me drive my car back to my office, meet him for a drink at PF Changs, and therefore having my 1st celebrity sighting in Nashville.

For the Kids...

Today is Miracle Treat Day! Buy a blizzard and a portion of the proceeds will go to helping your local Children's Miracle Network hospital. What a tasty way to help out the sick and injured children in your area!

As if you needed an excuse to treat yourself, today you can legitimately say, "It's for the kids".
Calories don't count when you're doing something for a good cause. My rules. Enjoy your blizzards!

From Nashville to Asheville

We ventured to a new state for us this weekend- Will and I spent a couple days in Asheville, NC. What a fantastic little mountain town! We knew very little about Asheville and didn't have a big agenda aside from spending Saturday checking out the Biltmore and its surrounding land. But we lucked out and stumbled upon a festival that takes place in downtown Asheville every year called Bele Chere- how serendipitous! The festival offered some of our favorite things: live music (Rebirth Brass Band, Marc Broussard, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were among the musical highlights), street drinking (we got to try a few new-to-us brews), day drinking (when paired with street drinking, it's especially magical), art, and amazing people-watching. Asheville is full of colorful characters, from the patchouli-smelling, Birkenstock-wearing hippies to the megaphone-talking, bible-carrying preachers, and every spectrum in-between. I could have sat and watched these people for hours and hours: they are reason-enough for me to want to return to Asheville again sometime!

We took the "scenic" route through Great Smoky Mountains National Park on our way to Asheville...and saw a black bear inside the park!

Not quite as majestic as the Rockies, but really pretty, none-the-less

Gorgeous evening in Asheville

Marc Broussard

Rebirth

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

How cute is that coffee shop?!

As I mentioned, our main reason behind the weekend was to visit The Biltmore. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was hoping to be blown away, given the admission price (over $45/person! And that was with my Vanderbilt discount!). I can honestly say, though, that the admission price is completely worth it. What an incredible home- and the grounds surrounding the estate were amazing as well. You are given a guidebook upon entering and allowed to wander the house at your leisure. Will and I consider ourselves to be "power" tourers. We can get through museums pretty quickly...but even we spent several hours wandering the massive home. Since our admission was discounted, we splurged and took a supplemental guided tour that taught us about the architecture of the home. It was quite informative, and allowed us to tour parts of the home that aren't open as part of the normal admission. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the home, but the outside is certainly nothing to scoff at!

Impressive driveway

Not a bad-looking back yard, either

Impressive details

Token self-portrait

Back of the house

We headed back to Nashville via Gatlinburg. What...a difference there is between Gatlinburg and Asheville. At the risk of sounding rude, I'll just leave it at that. I will say, though, that I don't foresee myself going back to Gatlinburg anytime soon.

Gorgeous views en route to Gatlinburg

Our chariot to the top of the mountain

With more beautiful views