First Visit to Soldier Field

What a busy weekend.  After the concert and the Vandy game we arrived at the event Darren was most excited for, the Bears opening day game against the Colts!  I was also pretty excited since I had never in my 31.75 years been to Soldier Field!

The beautiful skyline!

Up close of the sta

We met up with some of Darren's friends and started tailgating before 9:30am!  Thank goodness for bloody mary's and Italian beef!

The Bears drumline made a visit to our tailgate spot.

 The Bears being introduced.

A little hard to see, but the Bear next to the orange flag is Brian Urlacher.

Jim Cornelison the Blackhawk's famed singer sang the National Anthem.  The crowd was roaring!

The flyover was a huge slow flying bomber jet.

We had great seats, super close to the action.  I was so spoiled, I'll never want to sit in the nosebleeds again!

The Bears mascot all decked out in Mr. T fashion!

The Bears kicked butt, 41-21.  Awesome seeing Andrew Luck's first game but glad we shut them down!

Bang Pa-In Palace

Day 14 - Our second day in Bangkok we decided to take a day trip up to Ayutthaya the former capital of Thailand.  There we visited the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace. The complex was built in 1632.  I was unfortunately not dressed "appropriately" and had to borrow a wrap to cover up my bare legs!

Vanderbilt at Northwestern

Before the Vanderbilt and Northwestern game the day after the Springsteen concert, we met back up again with Brian, Kelly and Darby at Kelly's friend's condo in the city.  They had the most amazing rooftop deck that was all theirs and they didn't have to share with the other building tenets.  Seriously I could have lived in a box if I had this view from my roof. Their condo was georgeous too!

Kelly and Darby celebrating their birthday.  We are beginning to make this a tradition.  Last year we visited their lake house over Labor Day and celebrated with them there as well.  Too bad they are Northwestern fans!

The game started off great.  Big flag, helicopter flyover.

Vandy team comes out of the field.

Too bad Vandy played pretty terribly and lost 23-13.  We'll get them next year in Nashville!

Wat Pho

Day 13 - Last page from this day.  Another picture from the Grand Palace, the reclining Buddha and Wat Pho as well as the Marble Temple.  The Marble Temple was made of "scrap" marble leftover after building the Grand Palace!

Grand Palace

Day 13 - As you can see this was an incredibly busy day.  This stop was for a visit to the Grand Palace which housed the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  Everything was so ornate and beautiful.  The tiles just shimmered in the sun.

The BOSS

A couple weekends ago we were heading up to Chicago and Darren's friends offered us tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert Wrigley Field.  Darren really wanted to go so after work on a Friday through pouring rain raced up to Chicago to make it in time for the concert. We were about thirty minutes but made pretty good time. 

We were amazed by how great of a venue Wrigley Field was to watch a concert!

In our section Cubs uber fan Ronny Woo-Woo was wondering.  Draby had her picture made with him.

Darren with Brian who offered us the tickets.

His wife Kelly who was 27 weeks pregnant at the show wit her twin Darby.  The show was in honor of Kelly and Darby's birthday!

Wrigley's shout out to Bruce and the E Street Band.

Amazing view of all those fans!

All cheering for BRUCE!

The girls - Beth, Darby, Kelly, me.

Darren and me.

What a fun night.  Even Eddie Vedder showed up for a couple songs!

Wat Arun

Day 13 - Our next stop that day was Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn.  I wish the pictures portrayed just how colorful it was.  The whole site is adorned with broken China to give it the color and texture. 

Rib America Festival

Over Labor Day when my parents were here we decided to hit up the Rib America Festival. Figured we'd get to try a ton of really good barbeque places from around the country.  The Festival was much smaller than we expected with only 7 or so barbeque places.  Of the 4 we tried only one of them was really good, the others were pretty mediocre.  It was a nice day being outside, with my favorite people, even if a bit rainy but wish the barbeque was better.  At least I got to knock something off my Indy bucket list.

Wat Tramit

Day 13 - Our first day in Thailand we took an insane tour.  We hit many of the highlights in Bangkok all in one day. Our first visit of the day was to Wat Tramit, the Temple of the Golden Buddha.  Our tour guide talked about how this was a temple was built by very wealthy people which is why everything inside was made of gold.

Temple of Heaven

Day 12 - Before our flight on our last day in Beijing we had time for a bit more sightseeing on our own.  We visited the Temple of Heaven and went back to the Zoo for a couple hours.

Daddy Do's

Labor Day weekend my parents were here.  I had a couple items we hadn't gotten to that got put on the "daddy do" list.  Yes that is him standing on my washer and dryer!  We added a 2nd shelf above our washer and dryer.  Love the additional space to put things behind closed doors.

 This is a picture we had purchased at the air fair a couple months ago.  Right now its in our kitchen above the bar but our hope is when we have a house it goes in the "man room".

This is a print my mom gave me YEARS ago.  In Nashville I didn't really have a place for it so I had never had it framed.  I got it framed and its now in our powder room.

Ming Tombs

Day 11 - After the Great Wall we walked down Spirit Way to the Ming tombs.  It still amazes me that each soldier or animal was shown in both awake and sleeping positions since one of each type had to be awake and alert at all times to protect the Emperor.

Kyle's Visit

Kyle, Patrick, Evan and Lily drove through Indy a couple weeks ago.  It was so great catching up with them even for only three hours.  We had just seen them about a year ago and the kids had grown so much.  Evan had just turned 6 and Lily is 2.  They have become so extroverted in the last year and are too cute for words now.

Evan giving his best cheese.

Lily giving her best fake cheese face!

Patrick with Evan.

 Kyle with Lily.  I was so bummed it was blurry since it is really so cute.

After 2 pictures I lost her attention. 

But she had no problem crawling in my lap.  Not sure what happened with the flash, Lily looks like a ghost and I look like greasy mess.  Oh well. Glad to catch up with some of my favorite people.  Can't wait till next time!

Great Wall of China

Day 11 - This was the most anticipated day of our whole trip, the Great Wall.  I wish the weather was more clear the day we were there but it was absolutely amazing.

Priya & Raj's Reception

The ceremony and lunch were from 10 AM to 2 PM.  We had a few hour break where we got to spend some time at the pool.  The cocktail (two) hour started at 6 PM with the reception following at 8 PM.

The cocktail hour had sort of a carnival theme. Aside from this plate balancer, there was a mime and a contortionist.

With Vidhya and Neha enjoying the drinks and appetizers. 

The reception was beautiful.  They had this ice sculpture and chocolate fountain.

And two full sized bars made of ice!

The tables were covered with their personalized M&Ms that tied us over for the two hours of speechs, dances, skits and performances.

Priya and Raj being introduced.  She looked beautiful and her sari was unbelievable.

First dance.

The ladies with Priya.

Darren and me.

What a fun weekend!!