Fairytale Wedding - Part 2 (Greenwich)

Friday afternoon, Dec 1st, we arrived in Greenwich and checked into our hotel.  We all showered and got ready for the cocktail hour and rehearsal dinner.  Alex joined a country club there, and the festivities were held there.  Steve and I finally met Avery, and that night during all of the toasts, we felt like we even got to know her some.  As it turns out, they seem to be more opposites, but yet the perfect match.  It was a fun evening, but we totally forgot to snap pictures.

Before the wedding in the lobby

Saturday morning, we slept in a little before hitting downtown Greenwich to shop.  It was a darling little area, with a long road of boutiques and a huge Saks, kind of similar to Homewood (minus the Saks).  Steve fell in love with a new men's clothing store there, and we both enjoyed a great deli lunch.  Since the buses to the church left fairly early, we came home and got ready for the long night of fun.  Wedding at 5pm, Cocktails at 6pm, Dinner at 8pm, and the After Party at Midnight!  The night was clearly for the professionals....as that is A LOT of potential drinking!

The church was small and quaint, and their huge bridal party was packed in like sardines on the pulpit.  They had a friend sing, and she did a wonderful job.  It was personal, and short....my kind of wedding!  Since they took photos before the ceremony, everyone was able to head straight to Avery's family home for the rest of the night.

They opened up their home, and had several tents put up to accomodate the crowd and keep everyone moving.  The rest of the night was just A.Mazing!!  The decorations and flowers were gorgeous, creating just a dreamy ambience.

The original Bantas

Cocktail Party

Hard to do this HUGE tent justice....stunning!

Loved my cousin time!

The crowd moved into the largest tent I have ever seen put up (outside of a circus tent) with a clear top around 8pm.  It was a sit down dinner, but they had the crowd up and dancing in between courses, so dinner lasted a few hours.  Rumor is that the band played at Serena Williams' wedding a couple of weeks beforehand.  In addition to the great band, they had two human disco balls out dancing, offering photo ops and putting on a show of their own.

We had a blast catching up with family, meeting new people, dancing and just having a fabulous time.  The majority of the older adults departed around midnight when the reception ended. However, Steve and I were ready to see what the after party was all about.  So we meandered back into the original tent, which now had a DJ spinning fun music.  Again, the alcohol was flowing, and we were still standing and dancing.  It was close to 1:30am before we made it to the bus and back to the hotel.

LOVED all of the candles!

The early morning departure was not fun, but wow....what a weekend!  We were thrilled to be included in all of the fun.  We couldn't be happier for Alex and Avery, and look forward to getting to know her.  Cheers to them and many, many years of health and happiness!

Mr. & Mrs. John Alexander Forrey

Fairytale Wedding - Part 1 (NYC)

St Paul's Chapel in NYC

Sneaking away for a few days without the children is always welcomed, but coupling that with a visit to NYC and a family wedding with all of my family in attendance was just a huge bonus.  Steve and I were thrilled to share in Alex and Avery's magical weekend.   However we kicked off our weekend a day early with a visit to NYC.  Since we hadn't been there since 9/11, we were both eager to do the tour and see all of the new buildings.  Our tour guide was a New Yorker, and experienced 9/11 first hand.  He was able to give us his personal perspective of the events that day, along with an incredible amount of history.

Seeing it, and learning about the thought process that went into every little thing was absolutely amazing.  I have never seen so much symbolism and meaning, and it was all just beautiful.  Of course, I loved the history of the tour too, as I still recall that tragic day perfectly.

Freedom Tower

The financial district has changed dramatically over the past decade.  Most of the financial companies relocated more north, towards midtown.  The new buildings now house more fashion, media and IT businesses.  The Freedom Tower is almost entirely occupied, but is state of the art and considered one of the safest buildings. 

Oculus - the new transportation hub

The Oculus, the new transportation hub, is an incredible building  It appears smaller from the outside, but most of the building is underground and its size is so much larger than you would think.  It was designed to resemble a winged dove, but I didn't see it.  It was however, one of the coolest buildings, with incredible symbolism and architectural design.  This $4 billion dollar building houses many shops, restaurants and of course the trains and subways.  It has only been open a year and a half, but on 9/11 it opened the massive blast resistant skylights at the top for exactly 102 minutes (the time it took from the first plane to hit the first tower, until the second tower fell).  The thought was that it would let the old souls in to mingle with the new souls (bone chilling).

One of two fountains at 911 Memorial - "Reflecting Absence"

There are two fountains at the 911 Memorial, and the names of every person that was killed during the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks are inscribed and back lit to be viewed at all times.  However, they aren't in alphabetical order, but rather grouped with friends, co-workers or plane mates.  There are computers for people to use to find their loved ones too.  The fountains aren't just that though. The one pictured is in the location of the former north tower, and the water in it is constantly flowing (like life), and connects with the water in the second fountain, which is in the location of the former south tower.



The Survivor Tree is another crazy story.  This little pear tree was the only tree that "survived" the 9/11 blast.  It was severely burned and only had one branch that still had leaves on it, but they decided to relocate it and plant it up in the Bronx.  Over the months and years, that little tree healed and started to regrow.  Then a hurricane hit the east coast, and uprooted the tree.  However, this little miracle tree continued to thrive, so they replanted it at the 9/11 Memorial.  It is the only different tree, amongst a swarm of swamp white oak trees, and it a great symbol of hope and rebirth.

In front of "Survivor Tree"

After an incredible two hour tour, we rushed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.  That night we met Uncle Jim, Aunt Sue, Debbie, John, Rob and Jimmy for dinner at Sardi's before going to see the musical "Come From Away."

Dinner was great, it just wasn't long enough.  I didn't even have time to finish my yummy dinner.  We were all so busy catching up, we forgot to order right away, and had to dart out the door to make it to the play on time.

Of course we did, since we were so close and already had our tickets (thanks to Uncle Jim).  I didn't know what to expect, but the play was funny, entertaining and very fast moving.  Our seats were terrific, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  It meant even more coming off the 9/11 tour, since the play was all about a number of planes that were rerouted to Newfoundland during the attacks.  What a fun night with those I love.

The next day, Steve and I slept in before grabbing breakfast and catching a subway to Central Park.  Though I have been to NYC several times, I have never taken time to go the huge park, and it was a beautiful day.  Thankfully Steve agreed to go with me.  We started off walking, and eventually made our way to the rental bikes.  We then hopped on those, and rode around the park, and ended at the subway station that took us back to our hotel.  We had just enough time to grab a quick lunch before piling into our ride with the rest of my family up to Greenwich.

It was a fast day and a half in the city, but the 4am alarm on Thursday in Birmingham was worth it since we were able to do so much in such a small amount of time.  Stay tuned for part 2......

So Many Things to be Thankful For

Every year at this time, as Thanksgiving comes and goes quickly, and Christmas ramps up earlier and earlier....we try to remember all that we have, and all that we are thankful for.  This has been a good year for our family, even with Walker's accident this summer.  We are healthy, we are employed, we have each other and God, and a wonderful network of family and friends that we can rely on when needed.

Since Christmas will be here before we know it, and our children are already trying to write their Christmas lists, we decided we needed to slow down for a minute.  This year we literally had NOTHING to do for Thanksgiving.  We weren't celebrating with our family, and it seemed like all of our friends were out of town this year.  Rather than making a big "to do" out of our Thanksgiving meal, Steve cooked a big breakfast, and we had a casual late lunch.  We worked on a 2000 piece puzzle, took a family walk and watched a movie.  It was a very low key, yet pleasant day.

2000 piece puzzle only took us 3 days to complete!

Helping make the breakfast casseroles

However, one thing we did do this year was elect to serve breakfast to First Light Women's Shelter this morning (the day after Thanksgiving).  When we found out they had a full house (75 women and children), we enlisted the help of a couple of friends (to help with the cooking and storing of the food).  We divvied up the responsibilities and all met up at 7am this morning.  We were in charge of the sausage balls, fruit and two breakfast casseroles.

Once we arrived at First Light, everyone found a role, and we served breakfast.  Everyone there was grateful for the warm breakfast (since the shelter was technically observing a holiday, and warm meals are not served on those days).  Our children got to participate, and give back, and we all walked away feeling even more grateful for our blessings (because we all know that can change on a dime).

We served with Brett and Malin Terry and Wade and Kelli Martin and children.

Though this was our first VERY low key holiday, we wouldn't have changed it.  We hung out as a family, talked about family goals and enjoyed each other's company...for most of the day :).

Bama Game!

At the end of the season, there is always an "easy win" for Alabama, which is the perfect game for children to attend.  Steve was excited to bring the entire family to the Bama-Mercer game.  He had a cousin in town from Florida who he hadn't seen in over 10 years, and he was going to be at the tailgate too.  I was confident that Walker wouldn't make it past halftime, but as it turns out....he did awesome!  We tailgated with the Tanners at Steve's parent's tailgate and Walker was so excited to be apart of the excitement.

Walker eventually got sleepy, since the game was during his naptime, so he took a little catnap during the third quarter, and then enjoyed watching the entire fourth quarter.  Preston is totally into Alabama football now, so he had no desire to leave either, even if we were killing the opponents.

Steve and Mike

Boys had fun climbing trees at tailgate

Mary Case, Caroline and Bennett

Pres and William

One of my favorites: Walker holding up his tiny fingers for 4th quarter

Overall, it ended up being a fun day with friends, family and Alabama football.  Roll Tide!

Flag Football Comes to an End

Preston had another great flag football season.  He was on a team with several friends, and had a great coach.  He absolutely loves the sport, and is pretty good.  He has speed, and hustles more than most of the other kids.  It he misses a flag initially, he goes back after them again and again....falling, diving or whatever it takes.

I always enjoy watching him play, and it was awesome to see him score a touchdown in almost every game, pull lots of flags and even get a few interceptions.  Thankfully he had lots of family come to watch him over the season too.  It was a fun couple of months, but they lost their game in the second round of the playoffs tonight.

Isiah, Dennis, James, Travis, Ty (back row)

James, Rivers and Pres

Dream Kitchen

Steve and I bought our house about 10 years ago, and though we were the first to live in it and everything was brand new....it was not completely my taste.  However, it was all "current" for 2007, so we moved in and made it our own.  Things about the house had to grow on me, but eventually it did, but now that 10 years have past I have outgrown things about it.

We are living in a time where it seems like "all of our friends" are building new homes.  Of course this isn't true, but it has fired me up about wanting to update our house, and truly make it our own.  Steve isn't particularly bothered by anything in the house, so it  took some persuasion on my part, but he eventually agreed to let me remodel our kitchen.

Goodbye busy counters, brushed nickel faucet and heavy lights!

Thankfully we liked the layout, and the appliances are all top notch, so there was no reason to change those out.  It was really just a cosmetic upgrade: new counters, back splash, fixtures, hardware, sink, faucets, cabinet colors and bar stools.  So we put together a budget, and I began shopping (the fun part)!

See ya plain hardware and back splash!

Thanks to websites like Pinterest and Houzz, ideas are easy to find.  I had some thoughts of what I liked, but I still needed to see items in person.  So I set an appointment with my decorator and off we went to look at counter and tile ideas.  Then I went to a local hardware store, Brandino Brass, and looked for hardware.  Who knew that would end up being the most difficult choice I made.

Good bye dated splash guards and tiny cabinet pulls

See ya dining chandelier!

After spending a couple of hours shopping, I knew exactly what I wanted...I just had to wait for my fabricator and tile guy to measure and quote the job.  It didn't take long to realize that we missed the boat with our budget....Steve was not happy.  Everything I fell in love with cost more than we thought it would, so I needed to make some adjustments.  We changed our counter from quartz to marble, which helped our price dramatically!  The rest was just non-negotiable so we bit the bullet and ordered it.

Of course the remodel process didn't go exactly as planned....subs took longer than projected, our painter quit our job the day before he was to start, so we had to find a new one and then wait two weeks to get on their schedule, our tile guy was short a little on his tile measurement, so we had to order more from California and wait for that to arrive, our first two slabs of marble got cracked, so I had to choose new ones, one of our lanterns was broken so we needed to return it and wait for the replacement.  However, with all of these hiccups, I am still happy we did it.  I just realized that I could NEVER build a home from the ground up.  We LOVE our new kitchen, and hope to love and enjoy for at least another ten years!

Loving my lanterns, faucet and bar stools

The mirror backsplash and new faucet changed the bar

Large pulls make me smile

Love my marble behind the range with navy tiles!

New rug and recovered seat cushions

New Dining Room Chandelier

Overall, I am most happy with our splurge on hardware!  I love the colors, and how everything just looks fresh and current.  We look forward to years of entertaining in our new space.