My Little Girlie Starts Kindergarten

Five and a half years ago I gave birth to my little girl, and today I sent her off to Kindergarten. She is still my little girl, despite the fact she continues to tell me she is a big girl now. I will add that the first time she told me this she was about two and a half and we were discussing the fact I didn't want her touching everything in the tea store in Annapolis. I think the conversation went like this, "Piper don't touch those cups they will break. What I say goes, I am the mommy and you are the little girl." Piper, "big girl, I am the big girl." I can laugh at it now, but there she was, sitting in her stroller on the sidewalk arguing with me. Where was Brad? He was standing behind her LAUGHING at me!! Here is my baby as a baby; and here she is today. So grown up and ready to go and learn, make new friends and embrace life.


We have to drive her everyday and this week we can walk her into the gym and drop her off. After that it's stop at the curb and she gets out and walks in on her own. For me, it was totally overwhelming in the gym, there were so many kids from all the grades waiting to be escorted by their teachers to the classrooms. But, as overwhelmed as I was, she was totally unfazed. Here is Piper with her very proud Mama and Papa. There was no crying, not by Piper and not really by Brad or myself but it was more a feeling of sadness because she really is a big girl now and not my 'little little baby baby girl' like I always tell her.
She sat down with her classmates and started making friends right away. I was never like that, I am sure you are surprised but I was always very quiet and shy until I got to know you. She is clearly not like that, at least with her peers. And there she goes, off to class for 4 hours and we got a smile and a wave. Next week it will be full day, who will chat with me and have lunch with me??


The morning was filled with some odd retail therapy with Brad; we went to Lowe's and picked up toilets, vanities, lighting fixtures, grout, 2x4's...not exactly the retail therapy I probably needed. Thus, after we unloaded all of that, I had to replace my workout watch at Target, luckily I saw an end cap filled with honey BBQ chips, so I ate 2 small bags...then I felt better. (And worse all at the same time, I should have just insisted we go to Nordstroms)! However, when I saw her smiling face I knew we'd chosen the right school for her. Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Barrick. Here is another picture of Piper with her good friend, Noah. He was in preschool with her last year and this year he is in the other kindergarten class. They will all get to play together and see each other at lunch, recess and church and who knows, maybe next year they will be in class again together.


All in all a good day and after lunch she and I went swimming one more time at the pool. We spent a good hour in the deep end, and most of it underwater. She is more like Ariel at the moment but I am keeping my fingers crossed for another Dara Torres or Natalie Coughlin. I love her.

Visiting NY Yankee Stadium

It occurred to me that I should give proper props to the 'new' New York Yankee's Stadium since I raved about Citizen Bank Park a few weeks ago. Here is my story on the New York Yankee's stadium. It started a year ago when we originally had tickets to see the NYY in the new stadium but it was rained out. So we saw Shrek the Musical for the second time that weekend. A big hit in our household.
This year, since I turned the tickets in early to get replacements I was able to choose the Seattle Mariners, which was great, except I think I was one of eight fans there cheering for the Mariners. All eight of us were happy with the results though, 6-0 win for the Mariners!! Piper, on the other hand cheered for the NYY and this guy, Derek Jeter. The first place we walked though when we entered New York Yankee Stadium was the 'Great Hall' talk about spacious compared to the old stadium, very nice. We then went straight to Monument Park so see the Yankee greats and their plaques. It was awesome, it will bring tears to your eyes even if you aren't a Yankee fan that bleeds blue and white pinstripes. Here are a few of our favorite shots from Monument Park.

Interestingly enough I had no idea the NYY logo had an origin so closely related to the police in New York City, nor one of my favorite stores Tiffany's. Here is a plaque that is on the ground in front of a NYY Logo in the middle of Monument Park.


This is a great shot of all the numbers that have been retired by the New York Yankee organization. Mariano Rivera is one of the few players that still wears #42 since he was grandfathered in, prior to the entire MLB retiring Jackie Robinson's number.


Finally the game is beginning, here are some shots from our seats. I admit they were not down close to the field, but the view out over the Bronx is kind of cool and watching the sunset from there was neat as well.

Here we have a view of an impressive scoreboard and Piper's favorite player on it.


I almost forgot, they had a giveaway as we entered the stadium, it was a pinstriped Ford Fiesta. It tied in with a BIG giveaway that night where one fan WON a life size real pinstriped Ford Fiesta. Derek Jeter gave the winner his keys to the new car, and then jumped in the passenger side and signed his name on the dashboard. Then it became a really cool car!




Finally, here is a cool statue in the Great Hall. There was also a few of these 'seats of history' around the stadium. They are bleacher seats from the former New York Yankee Stadium across the street. I loved them, we have a set from the old Mile High stadium in Denver; they are currently sitting under a tree in Conifer, CO., but someday they will be on our deck and we will enjoy them.



Last but certainly never least, a tribute to the George Steinbrenner, who passed away earlier this summer. He will never be forgotten.

Enshrinement Ceremony and Floyd Little's Party

This is the really good part of the trip, and the real reason we were there too. We attended a pre enshrinement buffet and enjoyed standing inside the white picket fence watching all the 'littles' (and by littles I refer to those fans that were not inside the the fence and tent, therefore not as lucky as us, as Mr. Tony Kornheiser would imply), walk by and try to figure out who we were and how we got in there. In there we enjoyed great food, drinks and people watching. Some retired players were spotted but I needed Brad and Jeff to help ID. Here is what Jeff felt the highlight of the buffet was.








Here is the view from where we were privileged enough to sit, down on the floor in the Floyd Little section of family and friends. The ceremony itself was great, as you probably saw on television. All of the enshrinees has great speeches, but Floyd Little's was the best with Emmitt Smith a very close and emotional second. After Emmitt finished speaking I leaned over to Brad and said, "I think we should name our next dog Emmitt." Here is a great shot of Jerry Rice during his acceptance speech. Here is a shot of Jeff, he was loving it and so were we!


Then they introduced Floyd Little and the place went a little crazy loud! He gave a truly wonderful speech and I really took it to heart and felt so motivated to keep dreaming all my dreams and to never give up and thank God every day for just being here and being able to live the best life I can. (Props to Dick LeBeau on his pretty great quote too, "be a liver of life").
Just an awesome night and we felt so lucky to be a small tiny part of it.



After the ceremony and the fireworks, (sorry Piper didn't know those were coming), Jeff was able to secure he and Piper a ride back to the hotel with one of the HOF enshrinee drivers. Brad and I went to the private Floyd Little after party and had a really fun time. We were able to chat with Christy (Floyd's oldest daughter)and Adrian Jones, as well as friends we had met over the weekend. We met Marc Little, who presented his dad at the ceremony with a wonderful tear jerking speech, his dad really is an uncommon man. Here is a picture of Marc Little and myself. Here is Christy, Floyd and Billy Thompson, another great Denver Bronco. Wait! Here is Brad, he was pretty excited to meet Tom Jackson but I didn't give him enough warning when I took the picture!











Finally, here is a shot of Christy and myself with some of her cousins. And because as hard as I tried to be a good Bronco fan all weekend, I just couldn't help myself, I mean Marcus Allen was there!!!

HOF Weekend Continues with a Parade!

What is celebration without a fantastic parade? Nothing, where I come from. And apparently the people who organize the Enshrinement Weekend in Canton, Ohio, feel the same way. We enjoyed a fabulous two hour parade that included not just the 7 enshrinees and their families in classic cars, but current HOF members as well. There were more than 15 different high school bands and floats with royalty on board. This parade even had horses and gigantic balloons. Piper LOVED the balloons. Here are her favorites. Who doesn't love Super Grover and Oscar the Grouch, right?

Here are some of my favorite football players that went by. We were in the reserved bleacher seats and it was awesome. I will start with Floyd Little and his family because they are our friends and, as far as families go, the ones that cheered and waved the most. Riding in the car with Floyd is his son, Marc Little, who also did a fabulous job presenting him at the enshrinement ceremony.









Here are a few more of my favorite pictures of players that I think a lot of you will enjoy since many of you are also fans of the game. The former Congressman from Okalahoma and Seattle Seahawk wide receiver, Steve Largent. Russ Grimm, one of the original Hogs and the first Hog to go in from the Redskins. Riding with him is former Offensive Coach from the Redskins and his presenter, Joe Bugel.
Darrel Green is another legend here in DC since he spent his entire career as a Redskin.




Jerry Rice went in as a 49er, but was a pretty good Raider too. They showed highlights of him during the enshrinement in some of his best Raider plays. Plus, in this particular picture, I think he was looking directly at me. Finally, Emmitt Smith with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He was a total crowd-pleaser and smiled and laughed the entire time.


Finally, a shot of me, once again in Bronco gear (two days in a row), with my girlie. She had a great time and loved dancing to all the bands and seeing all the floats, royalty, horses, and, of course, the big balloons.

The Pro Football HOF Enshrinement Dinner

Friday night found Brad and I dressed up for the Enshrinement Dinner at the Canton Civic Center. This is the dinner where the class of 2010 receives their gold HOF jackets. We had special bus passes that many of the guests at our hotel wore and it allowed us to ride in these VIP coaches to and from the events...with police escort that stopped traffic. We rallied in the Waffle House parking lot and there were any where from 5-8 buses each time we headed off to an event. Once we arrived at the Civic Center we enjoyed the big cocktail party until the door opened to be seated for dinner. Lots of people watching, we saw Jim Gray, Billy Thompson (Bronco player) Keyshawn Johnson and Trey Wingo, and that was just where we were standing!


Once we were seated in our little room, we had Art Monk as our HOF host, the class of 2010 came through and said hello. They went off to a larger room to eat and that is where we went after dinner to see the rest of the ceremony. Here is Dick LeBeau and here are a few shots of Floyd Little when he came into our room. Our whole table was part of his group and most of the room too.


Then there was John Randle from the Minnesota Vikings and finally Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith.I won the center piece, a limited edition HOF beer stein. I gave it to Jeff for taking care of Piper both nights and let's face it, his beer drinking days are starting and mine are slowing down, I'm more of a skinny girl margarita drinker these days.


Here we saw Christy Little Jones, my long time friend and Floyd Little's daughter. Brad and me a the ceremony.

The program began with the introduction of each enshrines, and John Saunders read their professional football highlights before they walked out, escorted by one of the princess's on the HOF court. (Why didn't I know about this royal court when I was younger??). Here is Floyd being escorted. Here is Jerry Rice. Here they are all together on the center stage, left to right Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, John Randle, Floyd Little, Dick LeBeau, Ricky Jackson and Russ Grimm (the original Hog)
Then they introduced all the returning HOF members, here are just a few.
Michael Irvin, on crutches with a torn achilles.

Howie Long greeting Ricky Jackson, one defensive guy to another, love it. Here is Joe Gibbs greeting Russ Grimm. Here is Russ Grimm greeting Steve Largent. Pretty exciting line up of former players. It was awesome, and John Madden got one of the biggest round of applause.


After that it was time for them to recieve their HOF one of a kind gold jacket. What a great night and it was incredible to be there.