First Anniversary Getaway: Colts Game!

It just so happened that the Colts had a home game the same weekend as our anniversary!! Who KNEW?!? So since Ryan was kind enough to attend the Gaither concert with me...I went to a Colts game with him! {I actually don't hate football, you know.}

 The day before the game, Ryan treated me to an NFL-approved bag. They have to be clear and about the size of a postage stamp. I am not even kidding - my MAKEUP bag that I carry TO WORK every day is bigger than this bag. Eyeroll. But thank you, Baby, for getting this so I didn't have to carry a ziploc bag to the game.

We got there JUST in the nick of time to get our faces painted prior to the game. We were the last two they let into line before they shut it down!

 We made our way in to the stadium and found our seats...

I made sure to find Andrew Luck right away, since last year I never even saw him.

 He's number 12 there in the middle with his hands on his hips. {Just in case you're football challenged like me.}

The game itself, in the land of football games, wasn't a nail biter. In fact, the Colts didn't even score a touchdown until THE LAST TWO MINUTES OF THE GAME. But we won, and that's what's important, right?

Here were some of the non-football interesting points of the day:

Ryan and I shared a hot dog and bag of popcorn...so this was our his n hers hot dog. LOL!! Ketchup is my half. Mustard is his half. A marriage made in hot dog heaven.

 Interestingly enough, Sandi Patty sang the National Anthem. Yes indeed. Day three of seeing Sandi!

 I LOVE love love the big flag.

 During one of the commercial breaks, we enjoyed watching a surprise proposal. She said yes! And about half a second later, they were booted off the field so the game could continue. :)

 Our lone touchdown.

 And less than two minutes later....

Anniversary game complete!!!

 We had a great afternoon - so thankful he was able to get tickets from one of his co-workers! This completed our weekend!!

First Anniversary Getaway: Gaither Concert!

It just so happened that the same weekend we went away, the Gaithers held one of their Christmas Spectacular concerts at Bankers' Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. You know - right downtown near our hotel. So Ryan was the best husband ever and agreed to take in a Gaither concert with his southern gospel crazed wife. My first Gaither Christmas concert. His first EVER Gaither event.

We had seats up high enough to get a view of everything...and we were almost the youngest people there. :)

In addition to the regular Homecoming singers, they had a 2000 voice choir made up of church and college choirs in the area. This is half of that crowd - all in white shirts and red scarves:

Bill welcomed everyone...

Charlotte Ritchie sang...I think she is BEAUTIFUL.

And the Martins. One of my favorite groups:

Since she was in town, Sandi Patty popped in to sing a solo. We call this, Sandi Patty, Take Two. I had a feeling, when we saw her the night before, that she'd be at this concert too!

 And then....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Time for the Vocal Band!!

Mark is only with the Vocal Band through the end of the year, so it was good to get to see him again before he's out of the tour again. :( And Michael English has already left the group, so for this night, Adam Crabb sang that part. He did a great job! {Hope they keep him!}

David may or may not have done a little Nessun Dorma...

And here are some other random shots of the night:

Ahhhhh it was a sweet night of worship and celebration. Loved it so much. Thank you, honey, for coming with me!

First Anniversary Getaway: Circle of Lights

Ohhhhhh how we wished we could have gone back to Florida to celebrate our first anniversary! Alas, we didn't have enough time off work or the desire to buy plane tickets, so we decided to celebrate a bit closer to home.

We decided to go to Indianapolis for our first anniversary because it's where we went on our first date...and we thought it would be fun! As time went by, more and more fun things "just happened" to be taking place that weekend, so we were glad we'd picked it. Thought I'd start with our "big events" and then tell you random other tales later.

Because of how the calendar falls...last year Thanksgiving was a whole week before our wedding. This year, Thanksgiving and our anniversary were the same weekend. And so...that meant the lighting of the giant Christmas tree on Monument Circle in Indianapolis fell on the same day as our arrival. And since we just happened to be staying in a hotel on the circle, it seemed only logical to attend!!

We found a hotel right there on the Circle and checked in about 4 p.m. Right around five, we headed out to the middle of the action. The Monument was all ready to go...

 So we made our way around the circle to the stage area and staked our ground!

We were right by the stage, right there in the front - with the perfect shot of the ginormous light switch they flip to light the tree!

The news chopper circled overhead....

And the crowd...well...it got pretty big.

It began to get dark, and I started getting COLD. Ryan was a sweetheart and went to get us both some coffee from the lobby of our hotel {as the line for Starbucks was into the middle of the street...}

Like the girl photo bombing us back there? She was much nicer in real life than she looks in this photo! LOL!!

They started the show at 6:00 - so we'd already been standing outside for an hour at that point. Lots of singing and dancing by different performers, and then at 7:00, they began the "real" show - the one for TV. Here's a sampling of the shows:

The house band was from a church, and the lovely lady in red is Kim Tabor, who has been a guest on Mid-Morning before. {That's her husband, Brian, playing the keyboard.} She did a SPECTACULAR job.  The band did several songs - including every TV commercial break once the live show started.

I confess I do not remember these people's names, but they were really good singers!

And then there were the Von Trapps. The rigging pole got in the way for my picture - but nothing got in the way of their sound. Amazing family harmony.

And then...Sandi Patty took the stage. Please take note...this is what we like to call Sandi Patty, Take One. Just wait.

Then some dancers who HAD to be freezing...

Finally, after almost 3 hours outside, Santa arrived via the US Mail...

One of the buildings on the Circle had a lighted countdown in its windows:

And then they flipped the switch to light the tree!

Lights AND fireworks!!

By this time, we had been outside for THREE HOURS and I could not feel my feet. At all. No exaggeration. SO I clung to Ryan's hand and stomped my way back to the hotel, hoping I wouldn't fall down!!

Check out the crowds leaving the circle, as seen from our hotel window:

Not gonna lie: we were pretty grateful to already be back in our room, not fighting traffic in parking garages and on one-way streets!

It took us a while to warm up, but we finally regained feeling in our fingers and toes!

And that was the first night of our weekend away! So much fun. I hadn't been to a lighting of the tree since about the third grade - and Ryan had never been, so it was a great memory to make together!

And if you'd like to enjoy a few minutes of our evening...we made a little video for you!

Our "First" Thanksgiving

Last year, we celebrated Thanksgiving together as our first official holiday to be a couple. But it was right before our wedding, so THIS year was our first "officially official" Thanksgiving together. Thought I'd let you peek in on the day!

I told Ryan...when you sleep until 8:30 in the morning and in so doing, get up four hours later than normal, you really don't get enough sleep on a normal basis! But that's what we did - and we made scrambled eggs for breakfast before working on cleaning and organizing the house. We headed out for our first stop of the day: my parents' house!

It's not Thanksgiving without Mama's homemade chocolates!!

 She had a beautiful table set for us...

And we had such a good lunch - WAY WAY WAY more food than we needed. I actually hate turkey, so here was my token piece:

So. Here was our story for the day. A few days ago, my mom called to ask if I was pregnant. WHAT?!?!!?!? Apparently there are rumors circulating that I am, and more than one person had congratulated her on being a new grandma. So Ryan and I created a little NON-pregnancy announcement:

It says, "We have a special announcement to make...there are still just two of us. Tell all your friends."

I framed it and wrapped it up - and when we were ALMOST to Mom and Dad's, I asked Ryan where the gift was. Answer? At home on the table. Fortunately I had more than one print made, so I "borrowed" this frame from Mom's shelf and made a new model of it. Funniest part was she did not even recognize the frame!!

Here they were after opening the gift:

We got some gifts too...for our anniversary! And it seems my Mom and sister have similar tastes in anniversary cards:

Our Kansas family couldn't join us, so my niece came up with the idea to FaceTime. My parents don't even know what FaceTime is. So I surprised them with a chance to see everyone. Watching the two of them FaceTime was, well, HILARIOUS.

My favorite part was when Dad started using the phone as a walkie talkie - holding it up really close to his face. I can only imagine the view on the other end!!

A few family photos....

After our day with my parents, we headed in to the celebration for Ryan's mom's family. Sweet bunch of people - I really love them!

They played games...

 ..and shared their latest craft projects, including boot cuffs...which Ryan immediately repurposed...

We had a great day...so grateful to have such a wonderful family!