Football Season

As you all know, fall means several things: apple crisp, pumpkin everything, cooler weather, shorter days, and football!!!!  We enjoy watching football most of the time.  I like having the games on while I do things around the house and we cheer for the Maryland Terrapins and the Washington Redskins.  I am very thankful I married a man who cheers for the same teams as I do!

My dad and brother are Baltimore Ravens fans and my dad has season tickets so when we saw that the Redskins were playing the Ravens in Baltimore this year, I quickly volunteered to go :)  My parents, Ben and I were going to go but unfortunately Ben got sick last minute and had to stay home so one of my best friends Kayla was able to come last minute!  She drove from Virginia to go and it was her first professional football game!

We had a lot of fun at the game.  Many things in the stadium were pink (including the paper towels in the bathroom) for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the Ravens' two bird mascots (real ravens) even had pink colored on their wings for the occasion.  I tried to get a picture of them but the birds went inside before I could get one.  The game also honored many of the Maryland Olympic athletes that competed in Rio this past summer: Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, and Brad Snyder.  Michael Phelps came out with the team during the warm-up and Allison and Brad were honored at other times throughout the game.

 

Friends since freshman year at college!

 

Allison Schmitt being honored on the field

 

And after adding the pictures I realized I never got one of me and my parents!  Sorry Mom & Dad!

The last two minutes of the game ended up being a nailbiter with the Redskins scoring and then letting the Ravens basically walk up the field to try to score.  With twenty-some seconds left, the Ravens scored a touchdown, which would've tied the game, but upon review the player didn't have both feet in the endzone and it was ruled incomplete.  The Redskins managed to hang on and win!  I of course had a great time celebrating the win but the Ravens fans were not very happy!  We really had a fun time though and I enjoyed going to the game and appreciated that it was in October, not December.

Special shout-out to Brian, Kim, and Chessie who watched the girls for us so Ben could rest and I could go to the game!  Thanks Poppy, Nana, and Aunt Chessie!

Wedding #3

We had our third wedding of the summer this past weekend and I was in this wedding too!  We got to celebrate the union of one of my best friends, Kayla and her now hubby, Tom.  Kayla and I met freshman year at UMD when we lived on the same floor.  We lived together sophomore year and part of junior year.  Kayla and I are kindred spirits and she is one of my favorite people!  I was so happy to be a part of her special day, just like she was a part of mine six years ago.

I took the girls to my parents Thursday so that I was free all day Friday for anything Kayla needed.  We ended up getting our nails done and then having lunch with her family.  Kayla is part Norwegian and her relatives from Norway came all the way over for the wedding! It was fun to meet them after I have heard so much about them.  After lunch we went back to her house to get ready for the rehearsal and the dinner that followed.

The rehearsal was pretty quick and afterwards we went to a nice restaurant for dinner.  I actually didn't feel all that great because my girls had been sick the week before and had lovingly given me their cold.  I made it through dinner and went back to Kayla's house with her where we hung out before hitting the hay.  I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 9:30pm and it was fabulous!

The next day was wedding day!!!  We woke up and had breakfast while waiting for the other bridesmaids to come over.  One of my other best friends, Hannah, did my hair and she made it look amazing!  Hannah and I know each other from high school and she did my hair for all our homecomings too...she's a natural with hair!  Then one of Kayla's friends came over to help with make up.  I am not very good at makeup so she did all of mine and made me look fabulous!

 

The beautiful bride getting ready!

 

Me and Kayla

 

Kayla and her mom

After we were ready we headed over to the wedding site, which was at a CASTLE!!!!  It was a real castle!  We did our pictures in between the torrential downpours and then waited anxiously for the ceremony to begin!  I don't have many pictures from the actual ceremony since I was standing up at the altar (the few I do have I stole from Facebook haha) but I do have a few from the reception to share.  I forgot my real camera so the pictures aren't the greatest since they're on my phone.  Since I was battling this cold I of course had to keep coughing during the reception.  I kept eating cough drops but they didn't help at all!

 

Our castle for the evening!

 

Tom was waiting for his first peek at his bride!

 

Waiting for pictures to begin

 

I thought the seating chart was so pretty.

 

This was the guest book.  One of Kayla's friends drew this (how talented is she?!?) and we all put our thumbprints on it.

 

The gardens out back.

 

Becca and I

 

Kayla's family

 

My bestie Hannah!  She lives in TX now and I hardly ever get to see her.

 

hehehe I love her!

 

So beautiful!

 

Here comes the bride!

 

 

I love this picture!

After the ceremony we went straight to the cocktail hour while they moved the chairs to create the dance floor.  Then it was dinner and dancing!  The DJ was fantastic...he played the piano during the ceremony then turned to his laptop for the reception. 

 

My handsome date!

 

Listening to her dad give the toast.

 

Dinner was in the library so we did some light reading while waiting for our food.

 

And somehow the photographer got this picture printed and framed THREE HOURS after we took it!  He came onto the dance floor holding it and Kayla and Tom were shocked!  We all were!  It was like magic!

After the reception some of us headed over to a bar in town to continue celebrating the happy couple!  A funny story about the bar...we all got there before the bride & groom so as we were waiting, Kayla finally came in to tell us that they wouldn't let Tom in!  Apparently he had left his wallet with his parents and he didn't have his ID to prove he was over 21.  No matter what we said they wouldn't let him in so we had to wait awhile while his parents brought it over.  He finally made it in and we all just hung out and caught up with each other before heading home!

It was a beautiful wedding and I am so happy I got to be a part of Kayla & Tom's special day.  I looooooved the dress and I'm hoping to wear it to my cousin's wedding in the fall.  Three weddings down, one to go!