BYU vs. Ole Miss

Labor Day weekend was a blast! Besides the hours spent in the car driving. :) Rory and I had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time! Finally the start of college football was here!

I picked up Rory at work around 11:30 in the morning and we were off to Mississippi. About 2 and a half hours later we were in Nashville. We stopped by the airport to pick up Rory's parents and then we went for a treat. :) They have this really good popsicle place that we'd been wanting to try out since the last time we were in Nashville. They were delicious! Then we stopped by McDonald's to pick up lunch since we thought we should get some real food. :) Once we got our food we hit the road again. Just under 4 hours later we finally arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi.

We quickly checked in to our hotel and changed into Sunday clothes and headed to the BYU football team fireside. We arrived about 5 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. We were unprepared for the crowd we met. The whole church building was packed. We were told later that the church has about a 700 person capacity and there were over 1100 packed in it. Every seat was taken in every room and hall in the building. So we made our way to one of the front doors into the chapel. Polly asked if we could come in and sit on the floor. After getting permission from someone else we were told that we could. So we ended up sitting on the ground right in front of the pulpit. Front row seats! :) Not the most comfortable, but we were just glad to be in the chapel. The meeting was great and we really enjoyed it.

Afterwards we met Carter (In case you don't know his last name is Mees and he's number 15 on defense. He plays safety and is on special teams.) and talked to him for a while. He and Rory are like brothers so it was good to see him and talk to him since we haven't seen him in forever. We also saw a few other players who are from St. George that the Housley's know. As we were walking out of the building with Carter someone yelled from behind us, "Hey football player!" He turned around and they asked him to autograph their football. It was pretty funny. She said she didn't know how else to get his attention. :)

After the fireside we were starving so we tried to find a BBQ place to try out. You can't go to the south and not have BBQ right? Well we tried a couple places, but both were closed. So we headed to Outback instead. After all the talk about BBQ I had to get their ribs to satisfy my craving. :) Rory got a really good steak and fish plate. The meal was delicious! Afterward we shared a chocolate brownie with ice cream for Mike's birthday treat.

Saturday morning we headed down to breakfast and were met by a lot of BYU fans. They weren't hard to spot since everyone was dressed in BYU attire for the big game! We actually ran in to a group that had come down from New Albany, Indiana. They go to the other ward that shares our same church building! And Mike and Polly knew one of the couples because they used to be in their ward in St. George. What a small world?!

We had a few hours to kill before driving to the game so we took advantage and headed over to see where Elvis Presley was born. I learned on this trip that Tupelo, Mississippi is where Elvis was born. We visited the two bedroom house he was born in and lived for a few years. We visited the church Elvis used to attend. They also had a small museum about him we walked through. It was kind of fun to see where he began his life and love of music.

After Elvis, it was back in the car and time to go to University, Mississippi for the big game! It was about an hour or so away. When we arrived we had a lot of fun driving around trying to find parking. There were so many people! Mostly people wearing red, but we were surprised to see more BYU fans than we expected. We finally found a place to park and then we made our way to the stadium. We were a couple hours early but we were so excited to get our tickets and see the stadium. We went to the Will Call for BYU players friends and family and got the tickets that Carter had gotten for us and we were inside! We met up with Carter's Dad at the gate who was even more excited than we were! :)

We had amazing seats right next to where the BYU team came out and on the 13th row! We got some lunch and sat watching the teams warm up. I'd never been to a football game that early before and it was fun to watch. Luckily it was overcast all day because the day before had been SUPER hot and humid. It was still humid, but without the sun beating on us it was bearable. I didn't have to worry about heat stroke. :)

Carter is the one standing in the middle.

Just before 4 the game finally got underway! We were so excited to see how our team looks this year. We were sorely disappointed as the first half ended. We'd had such high expectations and things were not looking very good. We were only down 3 to end the half and neither team had played well, but that did not make us feel any better. To begin the 3rd quarter we hoped for a turnaround and were again disappointed. When BYU QB Heaps threw a pick on the 3 yard line only to have Ole Miss run 97 yards to return it for a touchdown we thought it couldn't get any worse. Then on the next drive we blew it again when we missed what should have been an easy field goal. We were still only down 10-0, but it felt like so much more.

Carter playing on special teams.

The 4th quarter began and we were quickly losing hope. We'd come so far to see such a disappointing game. Less then a minute in and Ole Miss got another field goal which put them up 13-0. Luckily they didn't get a touchdown off that drive. We were sure that would have been too much for BYU to overcome. After all the disappointment, BYU finally put together a long drive ending with a touchdown! We couldn't believe it! We jumped for joy! We had hope again!

I think there was about 8 minutes left at this point and we knew BYU had to hold Ole Miss in order for them to get a chance at winning. After multiple penalties and bad play, there was 5 minutes left and Ole Miss was on their own 21 facing a 3rd and 27 attempt. We were screaming so hard! We had to hold them! Then BYU could get the ball back with over 4 minutes to try for another touchdown. Out of nowhere Van Noy got into the backfield and forced the Ole Miss QB to fumble. The ball bounced around a little before Van Noy was able to grab it and run it into the end zone for a touchdown! We were stunned! The entire BYU section exploded into cheering and jumping up and down. The rest of the stadium was silent as they realized what had just happened. They thought they had the game. They had been winning the whole second half. And just like that BYU pulled ahead 14-13. We couldn't believe it! The rest of the game we were on the edge of our seat hoping BYU could pull it out. When the clock finally hit 0:00 we cheered some more! The game was horrible until about the last 10 minutes, but it made it all worth it!

Carter is #15. This was the team coming over to cheer with their fans after the game.

We got to see Carter again after the game. It was great to see him after a win and not a disappointing loss. At some point in the first half someone stepped on Carter's too and dislocated it. He said when he took his shoe off at halftime it was sticking straight up. They popped it back in and numbed it up and he was out playing again. It was nasty looking! All black and blue! I hope it heals up quick!

Polly made Rory a Mees jersey so of course Rory had to get it signed!

After the game we decided to not face the traffic leaving the city and we stopped for some dinner at Chili's. After dinner we drove about 40 minutes or so to a little city where we were staying for the night. There are no big cities around Ole Miss so all the hotels were sold out for quite a ways. But this just gave us a head start on our way to Memphis the next day.

Sunday we dropped Rory's parents off at the airport and began our long trip back home. We had thought about sticking around in Memphis and going home Monday, but after hearing about Tropical Storm Lee we thought we should head out before the storms rolled in. Little did we know we were going to drive through a lot of nasty rain anyway. Multiple times we could barely see the road because of the sheets of rain coming down, but we made it home safe and sound! It was nice to be home and done with all the driving. :)

We had a great weekend! BYU's win made it all worth it! We're now making plans to go to the BYU vs. TCU game in Texas in October and can't wait!

Phillies vs. Reds

Last Saturday we realized that the Phillies were coming to Cincinnati this week to play the Reds so naturally we had to look into getting tickets for one of the games. :) We found cheap tickets on the 5th row a little past 1st base and we couldn't pass them up. So Monday night I picked Rory up from work at 4 and we headed off to Cincinnati. Here we are just driving up to the city.

Outside of the baseball stadium.

Howard stretching.

Rory got a great picture of Hamels and Ruiz walking by. Hamels pitched 6 innings and they only scored one run on him.

Phillips is a Reds player, but he's pretty cool. He's really popular with the fans. Before the game he came out and took some pictures and signed some autographs.

We got a kick out of the rookie pitcher walking by. :)

This was our view of the game. We had amazing seats! We had a great view of the jumbo tron. We had a few foul balls come our way. We were so close to the field!

We had a blast at the game! Hopefully we can make it back out there next year when the Phillies come to visit again!

We're Having a Baby!!!!!!!!!

I'm 18 weeks along (just over 4 months) and feeling pretty good right now. I spent about a month or so being nauseous all the time, but it has been a lot better the past few weeks. As long as I eat enough to keep me and the baby happy then I feel good. :)

Rory and I are super excited for our family to grow! We can't wait for our little addition! I'm due January 26th. So we just have about 5 more months to go! :)

Earlier this week I finally realized that I was feeling the baby move! I'm pretty sure I've felt it before and just didn't realize it. But it's pretty crazy knowing I have a living baby growing in my stomach! If I sit in the right position I can feel the baby move all the time. It's one of the coolest things ever! I wish Rory was here with me right now. I just felt some good kicks that he would have been able to feel. So far the baby always calms down when Rory tries to feel it kick. :) Maybe he just has a soothing presence. :)

We find out 3 weeks from today if our baby is a boy or a girl. We are getting really impatient! :) I know we have some grandparents and siblings that are dying to know as well! :) We're ready to start buying baby clothes and other cute things for the baby!

Cincinnati Zoo

I love the zoo! So while we were in Cincinnati on Saturday we visited the zoo. I had read a lot of good things about it and we weren't disappointed. We saw lots of cool animals and had a great time listening to trainers talk about different animals. We watched while the trainers worked with this rhino.

We saw some really cute lemurs.

There were some really big apes.

Rory really liked the tunnel of mist. :) It was pretty crazy. You can't see through to the other side so I was always afraid I was going to run in to someone. A lot of little kids were pretty scared to go through. :) If you look carefully you can see Rory coming out of the mist in the picture.

They had the cutest little penguins I've ever seen. They were just living in a little pond area outside.

It was hilarious to watch them try and swim around. I'm pretty sure these are babies or young penguins. They would pretty much shake their whole body as they moved around in the water. It was really funny to watch.

We watched a cheetah show. It was really cool. They had the cheetahs run through the cage. It was pretty amazing how fast they went. We tried to get a moving picture, but there was no way to take it with the cheetah moving that fast. They are pretty amazing animals.

I can't remember what kind of cat this was. But it jumps super high. Rory got an awesome picture of it jumping up to hit the ball.

I think this is the first zoo I've ever seen manatees in. Usually they're just in aquariums. In the picture below there is a baby manatee and the mom is nudging it to move. :) There were divers in the tank doing some cleaning, that's why you see the hoses.

This peacock was just wandering around. Rory and I were taking a little break and sitting at a table and it walked right up to us because there were some cracker crumbs on the floor. I didn't zoom in at all for this picture. It was super close to us.

We watched the trainers feed the polar bears. That was kind of fun. I wish I had gotten a picture of the one who kept standing on his back legs to get the fish.

We had a great time at the zoo. Both of us were exhausted by the time we were done. We did a lot of walking and it was pretty hot and humid. But the zoo was amazing and well worth it.

Josh Groban

Last weekend Rory and I went to Cincinnati for the Josh Groban concert. We drove up Friday after Rory got off work. It was about 2 hours to our hotel. Then from the hotel to the concert should have been about 15 or 20 minutes, but it took much longer. The arena our concert was at is located on the waterfront right next to the Reds baseball stadium. Lucky for us there was a Reds game that night. So we got within a mile of the stadium and then we stopped moving. We finally got out of the traffic jam and then trying to find parking was a nightmare. Finally we found something and then rushed to the concert. We made it just before 8 when it was supposed to start.

Elew the rock/jazz pianist opened the concert. He was on American's Got Talent. He's really good and I enjoyed listening to him play the piano. He played for half an hour and then we waited another half an hour and then Josh Groban came out.

He started his performance on a little stage in the middle of the arena. It was cool because he was pretty much right in front of us!

He did a couple songs in the middle and then moved up to the big stage. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't come out really well.

The backdrop was pretty cool and they put different images and things on it for the different songs. He sang some of his new songs and some of his classics.

About half way through the concert Groban came back to the middle stage. He did a couple more songs there.

Josh Groban talked to the audience a lot and a lot of it was pretty funny. He did a good job entertaining even when he wasn't singing. At the end of the concert when he was doing his encore the baseball game started shooting off fireworks. They were really loud. He made some jokes about it and then finally just had to sit and wait while they had the firework finale because it was constant loud booms. It was pretty crazy but kind of funny too. The concert was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it.

Nashville

Last weekend Rory and I decided to take a trip down to Nashville, Tennessee. Rory had a half day at work on Friday so we took off on our trip around 12:30. It is a little less than 3 hours away so it was a quick drive down. We got there in the early afternoon and we headed over to the Gaylord Opryland Resort. It was one of the coolest resorts I've ever seen. Everything is inside, but there are these amazing gardens and waterfalls all over.

They also had little shops and places to eat. We found these outside one of the shops. :)

After we walked around for a while we went over to the Grand Ole Opry. We were too late for tours so we just went to their gift shop.

For dinner that night we tried out Bar-B-Cutie. It was kind of like a fast food BBQ place. It was actually pretty good. From there we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the hot tub for a bit and then played a game and called it a night.

Saturday morning we went downtown to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It's in a pretty cool building. You can see it in the building before.

We saw some great old country performing costumes.

We also saw this car. There were guns all over built into it. It was pretty sweet.

The car below used to belong to Elvis. You can kind of see all the different compartments in the picture below. He had his own little fridge and all sorts of things. It was pretty cool.

There were a few huge walls in the museum covered with these records. They showed all the albums that went platinum or gold.

After the museum we went back to the hotel to rest during the heat of the day. It was pretty hot. Later we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had fajitas that were delicious.

After dinner we walked down Broadway St. where there are a lot of shops and bars. We stopped in at one of the touristy shops just for fun.

I guess this is a famous record shop. At least the sign was cool. :)

Sunday morning we went to church and then headed over to the Parthenon. I was excited to visit the Parthenon. I was just in Greece, but the Parthenon there is falling apart. This is an exact replica of how it used to be. Plus it's in the Percy Jackson movie so I thought it would be fun to see. :)

This is the statue of Athena inside the Parthenon. It was pretty big. It's completely covered in gold flakes.

After the Parthenon we headed home. We had a great weekend in Nashville!