More San Fran Pics

Home Sweet Home

While it's great to be able to occasionally get away for a relaxing weekend, it's always nice to come home! Our trip to San Francisco was not exactly relaxing, but it was a memorable one to say the least.
We arrived on Thursday before noon and were able to meet friends for lunch, walk around the city, and rest before a nice dinner out on the town. We all turned in early while still adjusting to the new time zone. This was a good thing, because we were pretty well rested when Jay awoke around 5 am in a great deal of pain. This pain escalated until we finally called a cab and rushed to the hospital. It turns out that Jay had 5 kidney stones! Luckily his pain was easily controlled with an IV of something wonderful, because within minutes of receiving it he was talking football with the doctors and making sure they would have him "fixed" by kick-off time the next day. I will spare you all of the other details, but he was feeling much better by mid-afternoon and was able to enjoy the rest of the weekend. I could write an entire other blog on the things I witnessed at San Francisco General Hospital's emergency room. Let's just say that about 80 percent of the people who entered were hand-cuffed or homeless. They were thrilled that we were not on drugs and had insurance!
Unfortunately our trip to the ER was in place of our day in Napa Valley. We missed the wineries, but our friends who went had a great time and bought us some wine to have shipped home. Saturday was football time! Despite Tennessee's loss, we had a great time. We got to catch up with lots of old friends. The UT turn out at this game was incredible! Check out Jay's pants in the pictures. We were excited about these new gameday pants, but had no idea the attention they would draw. Cal and UT fans alike were constantly commenting on them, and three people had their picture taken with him (well, with the pants). Who knew!
The rest of the trip was spent sightseeing...mostly Fisherman's Wharf, riding the trolley, etc. If you haven't been to San Fran before, it's a trip definitely worth taking!

2 days and 35 minutes until kick-off!

Jay and I are in San Francisco for the Labor Day weekend cheering on the Vols, shopping, touring the wineries, and taking in the city. We'll have great pictures to share when we return, and hopefully news of a WIN for Tennessee!!

Football Time

Today was the Central Florida UT Alumni Association's annual family picnic to kick off Football Season. We had a great time and met some new alum's that are our age and in the Orlando area. Elle and Brooks enjoyed the Smokey blow-up's, and as you can see...Brooks loved his orange and white cupcake!

We're looking forward to a fun football season beginning with our trip to San Francisco on Thursday that will include the UT vs. Cal opening game on Saturday. Go Vols!

Vacation Pics

Here is a glimpse of our vacation! There were so many great pictures, I've done my best to narrow them down without boring you to death. We got to spend the week with my entire family and even got to spend the day with my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins one day at the lake house in Santee. I got to spend one morning at the spa getting a massage! The guys played golf at the Ocean Course on Tuesday while Elle enjoyed Kamp Kiawah. Wednesday morning, Jay and Kyle tried out surf kyaking and found that it was harder than it looks! Libba, the kids, and I enjoyed walking down to watch that! Overall, it was a great week! A little hot to start off, but it became bearable as the week went on. Hard to settle back into reality after a relaxing week away, but we're home and in the swing of things and look forward to going back!

Back to School

Elle started Pre-K 4 today and Brooks is going to the Mom's Day Out program at the same school. It actually started last week while we were at the beach, but today was thier first day. Elle will be going three full days this year and Brooks will go two. The big challenge for Brooks will be that he is now in a "big boy" room and will have to nap on a mat on the floor. Yeah right! I'll let you know how that one goes!

Stay tuned for beach pics! We forgot the camera, so Mom is having to mail them all to me.

Kiawah Island

Just a reminder that we're on vacation and haven't dropped off of the face of the earth! We are having a blast. Jay is playing golf on the Ocean Course (see pic) as we speak. Elle went to Kamp Kiawah this morning and had a blast. We saw two sharks this morning within feet from the shore! All of this and it's just Tuesday! We'll be home on Sunday and will have great pictures to share! Check back soon!

CHOCOLATE!

The kids and I did something new (to us) and a lot of fun yesterday! We went with some friends to a local Chocolate shop that makes all of their own chocolate in the store, and the kids were able to make some of thier own. It was adorable! They put on aprons and hats (well, everyone but Brooks, who refused), dipped marshmallows, decorated a chocolate pizza, and more. Brooks was really a little too young for this activity, but he goes where we go....so I thought we'd give it a try. He really did surprisingly well. The only problem was getting him to participate in decorating and NOT eating. That was a fight I quickly decided wasn't worth the energy, so you will notice that for every picture of Elle sweetly decorating and dipping her masterpieces there is one of Brooks eating his! Honestly, I wouldn't mind going back without the kids for a chocolate playdate of my own! I think part of the reason I gave in to Brooks was that I really couldn't blame him for wanting to dig in! (I made these pictures smaller so that I could fit more in, so just click on the picture if you'd like to see it close up.)

Finals time is here

No offense to the wonderful runners, but it's time I update the blog picture. We've been so busy and I haven't taken many pictures to share recently, but thought I'd add a new picture of Jay with the kids. Jay went out of town for a boys weekend in Tampa this weekend to see the Red Sox play the Devilrays (?). Brooks especially has grown very fond of his Daddy lately and as you can tell, they did not want him to leave! Despite daddy's absence, we had a great weekend full of a Disney birthday party and playing with friends (whose daddy also went on the trip with Jay)! Now it's back to the grind for ONE MORE WEEK! We are then off to the beach and will have lots of pictures to share. I take my last final on Thursday and am finished with school....well, for two weeks anyway! I am, however, finished with my cinical work completely and am very excited about that. I am definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Thanks for checking in, and for bearing with us during this busy time. I promise lots of great beach pictures soon!

Crazy 8's 8K

Each year Kingsport has a race that kicks off Fun Fest called the Crazy 8's. It's a huge race, and the world record for an 8K (5 mile) was actually set at the Crazy 8's in 1996. People come from all over to participate. The winner this year was from Kenya. He came within seconds of breaking the world record, but it didn't happen this year! Jay and some of our other friends participated and all did a great job. Jay has only been running to prepare for a couple of weeks and set a personal goal of 45 minutes. So, we were very proud when he finished in 40:54! We will probably make this an annual event. To find out more about the Crazy 8s and/or view the results you can check out www.crazy8s.org. Here are a few pics of everyone, including the winners for "best supporting wives"!