Ready to Roll with the Tide!

After a relaxing afternoon we got ready and headed down to the Scarpetta for our meal on Sunday night.  It was with the group we were traveling with and was made up of lots of signature dishes served in each course that were shared with the table.  It was a neat way to dine and we got to sample lots of items which was nice.  My favorite had to have been their famous spaghetti though.  I never would have ordered spaghetti at a restaurant like this, but if you're at Scarpetta you should because it is divine!

We stayed in the lobby for as long as we could keep our eyes open on Sunday night trying to see some celebrities that were coming into the nightclub Liv.  Apparently over the weekend various celebs like Lady Gaga were there but we just couldn't make it until it's midnight opening to watch the people lining up.  We did have fun singing Rammer Jammer and Sweet Home Alabama in the lobby though with everyone else! Times like that are extra fun to be staying in the team hotel!

On Monday we slept late again and went to take a walk on the beach.  We picked up some pretty shells for Charlotte, although as I'm typing this I realize they're still sitting on my chest and we haven't given them to her yet.  Oops!  The beach is definitely different than the gulf and it was busy but it was nice to have the sun on our backs and have warm temperatures!

The view of our hotel from the beach.  We stayed in the curved building.  Mom and Dad stayed in the tall building.  I think there were two or three other buildings with rooms in them in addition to these two.

We got down to the lobby a little after 3:30 to catch our bus to the stadium.  It was odd being ready to leave over FIVE HOURS before game time, but we enjoyed catching up with some of our traveling companions while we waited to depart.

We headed down to our seats with about an hour left until kickoff.  The anticipation was high and we were ready to get the show on the road!

Thankfully, we weren't disappointed with the game!

The biggest downside to the vacation was that we didn't get back to the hotel until 1:30 am and had to have our luggage ready for luggage pull at 7 am.  We managed to get a few hours of sleep but we were pretty exhausted by the time we headed for home.  And with two little's waiting on you at home there's no catching up once you get there!

We stopped and picked up the last Tuscaloosa News in the box on our way home.  It's beautiful!

This little one was happy to see me and I was ecstatic to see her.  You can see one of her surprises, which she named Pink, in the top corner of this picture.  She also got a brown puppy dog which she named, aptly, Brown.

Traveling is fun but nothing beats coming home to your babies.  Thank you again, Kay and David, for graciously taking care of our kids while we were gone.  That gift was amazing and we are so grateful for the chance to get away and relax for a few days!  Now I guess we'll just wait and hope for another trip to The Rose Bowl!

Headed to Sunny Miami!

We were so excited to be heading to Miami at the beginning of the month for the National Championship game.  We dropped the kids at my SO GENEROUS in-laws on Friday for them to start their fun with KayKay and GrandDavid!  I want to start this post out by thanking them and will probably end it with thanking them too! Without their willingness to keep the kids we couldn't get away and we really needed to get away.  So thank you so much Kay and David for being so generous with your time! We really, really, really appreciate it!

The biggest uncertainty about leaving Charlotte and James was that James had a fever.  Yes, Mom of the Year over here left her son to go out of town for fun when he had a fever.  But in my defense, Charlotte had had the same fever virus the weekend before and James' had run on the exact same track as hers.  The doctor didn't want him to come in because of the flu and there wasn't really anything that we could do anyway.  So we just loaded him up with tylenol and sent all our meds to Kay and David's.

Leaving on Friday was painful.  It included watching Charlotte try and open up the storm door to run after us while screaming.  Not a pretty sight.  But, like I knew she would, she had a great time with Kay and David and so did James!  We started our vacation off with dinner at Full Moon....yum!

We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to get everything ready and get to our plane.  We ended up leaving Tuscaloosa around 11 am and had a perfect flight to Miami.

When we landed the skies were so blue that we almost didn't know what was going on.  After all, we hadn't seen a blue sky since before Christmas in Alabama!  Once we got home and didn't see blue sky for another few weeks I was even more thankful for our trip down south!

We started our vacation in Miami with a welcoming reception at the hotel and some wonderful cocktails that I forgot what the name was and what was in them (sorry!) but they were good.

We were very impressed when we got to our room!  We had heard that The Fountainbleau had computer's in each room but we didn't believe it but, sure enough, we found a Mac sitting on the desk in our room.  We also had a corner room which gave us some more sitting space which was very nice since I think we both read at least a few books while we were gone!

We took a trek down to the boardwalk in front of the beach after getting settled so that we could see it.  I wasn't ready to venture into a bathing suit in the middle of the winter so we weren't sure if we would spend any time on the beach and wanted to make sure we saw it.  The boardwalk was crowded with lots of Bama fans which was fun.  And we saw Coach Cochran walk by while we were out there too!

We enjoyed dinner that night at Gotham Steak.  It was a neat restaurant that impressed us with having it's whole bar menu on individual iPad's that they brought to the table.  We don't have that kind of technology in North Alabama yet!  Our food was good and if you're ever there make sure you savor the bread and the mac and cheese side dish.

After dinner we headed up to check out Mom and Dad's room and admire some more of the hotel.  It is a pretty famous landmark and was used in the filming of at least one Bond movie, Goldfinger, and has been used in many other tv shows and movies.

We heard that it was rumored that each chandelier in the lobby cost a million dollars!

The iconic bowtie floor

This was the hallway to our room.  It was curved like the building which was neat.

On Sunday we slept late and then headed to South Beach.  I detailed our lunch at Yardbird a little while ago, but I'll say again that it was a phenomenal meal and I highly recommend it if you're in Miami!

I'm going to stop this post here since there were lots of pictures and lots more to come! The rest of our trip from Sunday night until our arrival home coming up tomorrow!

It's Gameday!

We are having a blast in Miami, but, today it's GAME DAY and we are ready to focus and BEAT THE IRISH!

Roll Tide Roll!

You all know that we're hard core Alabama fans.  We are raising our children to be the same and Charlotte's been singing the fight song for at least a year and James will throw his arm up and wave a shaker any time someone says "Roll Tide!"  But with the crazy month of November, I got behind on my game day posts so I'm going to combine the last three into one post to catch you up.

Texas A&M

A 2:30 kickoff which interferred with James' afternoon nap meant that Charlotte and Jason went to the the pre-game festivities with Memma and Papa.  James and I headed to the game in the second quarter once James woke up.  We ended up leaving in the 3rd quarter due to kids who were tired and wanted to go home.  I'm kind of glad too because had we stuck around for the end of the game after dealing with fussy little one's I wouldn't have been happy.

Highlights of the weekend:

Charlotte got to meet some actual cheerleaders and do the "B-A-M-A Bama all the way!" cheer for them.

I spent some portion of the game with both kids on my lap pushing at each other.  Ok, maybe this was a lowlight but still funny in retrospect!

Some fun family time in Bryant-Denny.

And those blue eyes.  Can't beat them.

Overall, the loss was a bummer.  And made Charlotte's lifetime record at games attended 18-2.  Not bad for a 3.5 year old.

Western Carolina

Jason, James, and I stayed home to pack for this game.  Memma and Papa graciously took Charlotte down to the game and I'm pretty sure they regretted that decision since Charlotte was awake from 3-5:30 am playing and then fell asleep in the car on the way home and was a grumpy bear when she got up.  But the weekend was redeemed for Charlotte when she got to take a picture with some Sparkly Cheerleaders after the game!

Auburn

James and I were still feeling pretty icky so we stayed at home and watched the game on tv.  The super cold temps didn't tempt us, nor did the blowout of a game.  It was nice to win so handily in a rivalry game but, honestly, it didn't even feel like a rivalry game which was kind of sad.  

Highlights of the weekend:

Charlotte Dances in Bryant Denny from Talesofa Peanut on Vimeo.

Charlotte dancing on the swooshy A in the middle of the field, post-win

Another picture with sparkly cheerleaders

Lots of snuggle/bonding time with Papa and James

Lots of snuffle time with my baby boy

And Charlotte seeing a promo for the SEC Championship game after the game and saying (unprompted), "Hey! Those are the bulldogs that we teach to behave!"

Roll Tide!