3rd Saturday in October - Fun but definitely not Fall!

As many of you know, the 3rd weekend in October is significant for Alabama and Tennessee fans. My friend and co-worker, Brittany, and I have been planning this "rivalry" weekend for months and it did not disappoint... unless you are a TN fan (I'll only make 2 of those comments, promise!). TN has been trouble for Bama for quite a few years so we were all brimming with anticipation!

We drove over to Birmingham on Friday afternoon to do a tour of our Brownell home office for Brittany and had a great dinner with both friends and co-workers. Bang-Bang Shrimp at Bonefish is always a treat and even better when shared with friends!

from front to back on the left - Clif Naron, friend of Sheri's; Brittany Bingham, works in Atlanta office with Sheri and yes, she's a brunette now, Tara Beckwith, Director of Operations at Brownell
on the right - Sheri, Sue Shaffer, Director of Accounting and HR at Brownell, and Tommy (hiding behind Sue), Sheri's friend from college.

Ahhhhhh. The sweet smells of Game Day - tailgating, stadium food... and unfortunately, sweat from the 80 degree day. We should have taken a before and after shot so you could see the sun burn - Oh my!

So much fun!

Ok, prepare yourselves. We picked up some men at the game. Special men. Quality men. Fight over which one we want men. We even had perfectly coordinated outfits. Do we need to say more?

(Tommy didn't think that was as funny as we did but he was already in game-on mode!)

Now I just wouldn't be a true TIDE fan if I didn't post this last picture...

Can't wait for next year's trip to Neeland Stadium in Knoxville... ROLL TIDE!!

Sunday Rainy Sunday

Seriously? I get to spend my last day in Seattle with rainy, chilly weather? Seriously?
YEA!!!!

Doesn't this just look like the perfect Seattle day? :-)
(See the Holland America ship in the middle about to depart on their 18 day Panama Canal cruise?)

So our Sunday was jammed packed with fun. First, Francesca and I were off to Pike Place Market for some shopping and sightseeing...

Then it was off to the Seattle Mariners-Texas Rangers game at Safeco Field - maybe my 2nd favorite thing all weekend next to reading by the fire with the bear ottoman and ferry boats driving by!

Safeco Field is awesome! Retractable roof so rain's never an issue but still open on the sides so you can enjoy the chill!

Ok, if you're not a baseball fan, or more specifically a Mariners fan, you'll probably want to skip the next 50 pictures... just kidding, but there are several of them and I just couldn't bring myself not to include each one.

First up - It was Fan Appreciation Day so there was a lot of action including Super Heroes every where you turned. Here's Oxy-Gene - he wanted us to keep the stadium clean!

And Oxy-Gene posing with Nick and Francesca. There was some debate about how quick Francesca was to rub on Oxy's muscles!

Bottom of the 2nd and it's Ichiro up to bat!

Even the hot dog vendors sit down to watch Ichiro!

Adam Jones' triple play - very exciting!

Jose Lopez's homer in the 6th -

An important part of the game that I'm leaving out? Ballpark snacks. Let me say that I'd never had Garlic Fries before and oh my goodness - they are good! As demonstrated here by the cute couple!

(please notice all that's left is the garlic!)

How cool is the scoreboard with the Space Needle in lights?

JJ Putz comes to pitch it out in the top of the 9th and the place went CRAZY!!

And he is walking onto the mound - really, seriously, the place was rocking!

And finally? WE WON THE LAST GAME OF THE SEASON...

(but aren't in the playoffs so still a little disappointing.)

We didn't want to leave Safeco - they were cleaning up and still we hung around -

What to do after an exciting game? We went to GameWorks and had fun playing Dance Dance Revolution! Here's Francesca doing her thing -

Nick and I played too but Francesca beat us hands down! Then it was off to see Bourne Ultimatum (they hadn't seen it yet!!) and finally, off to dinner at my FAVORITE Seattle restaurant! Elliott's Oyster Bar!

It was an unforgettable, fantastic, fun weekend and guess what?

Yep! Can't wait to go back! Would November be too soon?

Saturday in Seattle

Oh, what a perfect day! Overcast, chilly, and finally about 2pm... precipitation arrived! What a blessing to get the exact day I wanted!

First, a picture of the back side of the hotel from Friday night - taken from the water, more on that in a minute!
(my room was on 2nd floor, 5th window from the right - I forgot to close those drapes when I left!)

We went to Francesca and Nick's house first thing and it's so pretty! It's at the top of the Queen Anne section of Seattle and here's a sneek peek - cute little garden area right inside the gate and then cute blue house...

With this spectacular view...

See the Space Needle on the left and the water straight ahead?

Ahhhhh!

Then we were off on Francesca's first harbor cruise (where the picture of Edgewater was taken). We had so much fun just riding and looking at all the sights!

Cruise leaves from Pier 56, right next to The Crab House restaurant. See their sign over Francesca's left shoulder? 3 fisherman in their boat!

Then it was off to SPORTS to watch the Alabama-FSU game. Even though the game was dismal and hurt to watch - there was a contingent of the Alabama Alumni Assocation so I made some friends!

(Right when Francesca was taking this picture, they changed the channel on the TV behind me away from Bama. Just not right!)

Then on the way to the hotel, this was the view at a stop light -

And this was the view at the stop light next to the Fairmont - cool building, huh?

(what's that on the car window? Seattle RAIN!!!)

And then? Home Sweet Home for Saturday night. A girl could get used to this!

http://www.fairmont.com/seattle/

Good night...

Please do check back tomorrow night for pics from the Mariners-Rangers game and shopping at Pike Place. Yea!!!

Seattle Watch - Night One

Hello from... there are just not enough words for how much I love this city... Seattle!! One of my friends at dinner last night (pics below) asked me what is that makes me love it so much? My response? The weather (not raining yet but it's coming!), the water, the smell of the water, the ferry boats, all the other boats, the skyline, the island views, I could go on an on!

Here's the link for my first night hotel - So much fun!

http://www.edgewaterhotel.com/edgewater_home.aspx


So let's share pictures today by way of a commercial that we're all familiar with...
(yes, finally broke down and bought a new digital camera on the way to the airport yesterday!)

Cost of walking into hotel room at Edgewater ON Elliot Bay and thinking of the view when the drapes are opened... Priceless!


Weighing the option of watching the Alabama-FSU game on this TV with the view through the drapes or going to SPORTS, a sports bar across from the space needle, to interact with my Seattle people? :-)


Priceless!

Having dinner at Bell Street Diner at Pier 66 with friends FROM BIRMINGHAM and friends that have just moved to Seattle?

Yep, priceless!

from left to right -

Brian and Sharon, Mike's boss in Birmingham and his wife - they are so much fun!

Francesca and Nick, Francesca worked me at Sterling Brownell and they've just moved to Seattle for Nick to go to law school at Seattle University. I may have to visit them every 3 months!

Mike, my great friend from Birmingham that I used to work with at Blockbuster, that's in town for a conference on the same weekend!

Sitting here in this chair, with the bear ottoman, the roaring fire in front...

And this view to your immediate right?

PRICELESS!

More later - I won't be able to help myself!

Luke's Dedication, Mom's Birthday and Football (of course, it's FALL!)

Hey family and friends! Taylor Kate here writing to you prior to the 3rd week of Football Season. Daddy's team (Roll Tide) is 2-0 and Mommy's team (War Eagle) is 1-1 but they'll come back. :-) Isn't Fall fun?!!


I have loads of pictures to share with you this week as we had a big weekend! We celebrated my Mommy's birthday, Luke had his Baby Dedication at Johnson Ferry and... again, it's Football Season!


Here's the picture of Luke on the big screen at church. For Luke's dedication, Mommy and Daddy said to the church that they are making the commitment to raise Luke in a Christian home just like they did with me! Daddy held me so I was there too (and I waved to everyone and said "Hey"!!).


Isn't he cute?!!

Now it was time for Luke to have lunch so in some of the pictures he's forgotten that he's hungry and is looking at the camera... like this one with my Memo (Mommy's Mommy, Martha) and my Pa (Mommy's Daddy, Russ) -

Here we are with Aunt Natty (Mommy's Great Aunt) and Luke has still forgotten that he's hungry. Isn't this a great picture of all of us?!! (You can click on it and make it BIG!)

Uh oh! Luke remembered it was lunch time in this one! Here we are with Grandmother (Daddy's Mommy, Margaret), Grandad (Daddy's Daddy, Allen) and Great Grandad (Mommy's Daddy, Buford). I think I might have been looking at our great dog, Arletta, in this picture!

And here with are with Aunt Sh-Sh (Sheri, you know the one that lets me use her Blog to keep you updated on us!).

Now immediately after the last picture, guess what we did?

Yep, we fed Luke his lunch! :-)

And what did I do while Luke ate?

I twirled!

And you know what happens when I twirl?

I get dizzy!

And you know what I do when I get dizzy?

I look like this - "Whoa!"

Now all of that happened on Sunday but we celebrated Mommy's birthday and watched football the day before on Saturday. Here's Luke in MY Alabama outfit - that's right, it's a hand-him-down. I've mentioned before that Luke smiles and giggles all the time! See?

And here's one of Mommy and Memo about to light a very special candle for Mommy's Birthday Cake. The candle plays "Happy Birthday to Mommy"!!!! Wow!! We all thought that was funny!

And one more picture of Luke to "Tide" you over until next time. (I just can't help it).

Bye-Bye for now!

Daddy says "Roll" and I say "Tide"!

Hello family and friends! Did you like the last posting by my brother, Luke? I taught him everything he knows (which is not much yet but he's coming along!). He wanted to do this posting too but I explained to him that we have to take turns!

So, something very exciting has happened! I started SCHOOL!! Yea!! Daddy says we can't call it school yet because I'm only 20 months old and he doesn't want to rush me growing up but I'm going to the Wee School at our church on Tuesday mornings and boy, oh boy, is it fun!

Momma and Aunt Sheri said I should show you this picture first because I look so sweet...

But if you know me well then you know I usually pose for pictures like this instead. :-)

I'm still sweet either way but I like to cut up and have fun rather than just looking sweet. Oh yeah, and I like to dance!

Luke's telling me to show you a picture of him so here he is swinging on the back porch at Grandmother and Grandaddy's house. He's getting big, huh? He's still pretty little in the swing though! And let me tell you, my brother thinks that I am funny! He just looks at me and giggles pretty much all the time!

So Momma and Daddy's teams both won their first game of the year. Whew! (Grandaddy's team won too - Tech beat Notre Dame - Wow!!) Momma's game was close. Aunt Sheri and Daddy tried to cheer for Auburn... at least until Momma went to bed... but they must have been cheering for Auburn on the inside because they were awfully quiet.

Daddy's already taught me what to say when he says "Roll". "Tide" of course! Here we are kicked back on the couch getting ready for kickoff. Rollllllllllllllllll. Tiddddddddde. Rolllllllllllll.

And here's a full view of me in my pretty dress that Daddy bought for me and Aunt Sheri's hat that Momma bought for her. Please look at my jewelry! I like to wear Aunt Sheri's watch and bracelet when she comes to visit!

How was your Labor Day? We had a fantastic day! We went to the park in the morning and had so much fun that Luke just passed right out... See?

Isn't my Momma cool?!!

And then we went to Chucky Cheese's!!! Ch-ch please, ch-ch please, ch-ch please - this is what I say all the time now to Momma and Daddy asking them to take me back to Chucky Cheese's. I loved it - it was so much FUN!! I danced, I played video games with Daddy, I rode rides. See?

We'll do another posting later in the weekend with pictures of Luke's Dedication at church on Sunday. See you soon!!