Another Football Weekend

Since I've written about the super FUN Packer bar in San Diego before, I thought I'd take pictures and even a video this time to show you what I'm talking about. This view is what you can see right out the windows of the bar - amazing sunset the night we were there! This game was the most crowded we've seen the bar yet - it was crazy! And of course, fun as always. You can see in the video how excited all of the fans get and therefore the reason that I absolutely love to be a part of it! The game was a very close one, so it wasn't happy excitement the whole time, but most of the time it prevailed, as did the Badgers against Iowa 17-13.




We went out and met up with a new running friend of mine (the tall one on the right) and her cute red-headed friend from NYC. Charlie - this pic is for you. ;-)






And today was a super fun game of the San Diego Chargers against the Green Bay Packers. We always root for both of these teams when they are not playing each other, but had to pick one to root for during this game. It worked out really well because both teams played extremely well and gave us excitement throughout the game, but the Packers won in the end. On top of that, quarterback Brett Favre had his record tying touchdown pass so that he is now tied with Dan Morino in the most career touchdown passes! We were excited to see him reach this because he is awesome and though I don't know him, I just think he seems really sweet. :D

Weekend including babies and fishes

We visited Monique and Josh again last weekend and Houston was already cuter after only 2 days! I know that less than a week old is a little early for a baby to smile, but just look at this picture - I think he was definitely smiling at me!

On Sunday, I went to the Scripps Birch Aquarium here in San Diego for a fun Green, Earth day. San Diego Gas & Electric had a booth there all about how to conserve energy and gas and there were a lot more booths with people, organizations and companies helping people to be more aware of how to live greener and what products you can buy to make your life more green. It was very interesting and I learned a lot!













I also got to see the aquarium, which I hadn't seen before, so that was fun. Here are just a few of the cool creatures that I saw. They had a seahorse tank, but even more interesting were the sea dragons! This one picture probably just looks like a plant to you, but it's actually a sea creature - very cool! The leopard sharks were swimming all around in the great big tank, so I watched them for a while - each shark had a different design on it, probably like our fingerprints. The Moray Eels were pretty freaky and made me think of the bad guys from The Little Mermaid. :D I'll never grow up. And I absolutely love watching jellyfish. The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga had a great jellyfish exhibit a while back that I could have watched for hours - very cool creatures!

Houston Oliver Kline in the house

Monique and Josh had their new adorable little baby boy yesterday morning and named him Houston Oliver. Scott and I went by to visit tonight and he's SUCH a cutie! Instead of really crying, he makes these little squeaky noises that just make you smile. Monique looked beautiful as always with even a little more shine to her eyes now and Josh was so cute as a new, very proud dad. He was doing an especially good job on poop control at the white board. I think he may want one for Christmas this year for the new daddy daycare he'll be creating. Congrats guys!

Badgers in Vegas

Scott and I headed to Vegas for the weekend and met up with his parents. They took us to see the Cirque du Soleil show inspired by the Beatles called "Love" and it was awesome. I always love the Cirque shows, but having the Beatles music and theme really made the show that much more amazing - very well done - I highly recommend it!


On Saturday, after watching some football in the morning, I went walking around and shopping with Scott's mom. I haven't been to Vegas very much and don't even remember which casinos I've been in when I have been there! I realized I had been in New York New York only after seeing that Zumanity played there, which I saw with the girls a few years ago. My favorite was going to MGM and seeing the lions sleeping - so cute! Scott's mom actually saw them when they were first put there as babies! You can see Scott's mom and I here ready for the game in our matching purses that she made - how creative!




That afternoon, we went over to the UNLV stadium for the Wisconsin Badger pre-game party. There were over 15,000 people at the tailgate and that is almost 2000 miles from their home! I am more and more amazed all the time at the lengths that Badger fans will go for their teams - awesome! I did hear that Vanderbilt is selling out their season tickets this year, which is way better than when I went there - so that's good news for us, though I won't mention that game. :( Back to the Badgers, this tailgate party was a lot of fun and we saw the craziest fan there that we even knew. You may recognize him from a previous running picture, but he had no mask there. Elvis was even at the tailgate and had fans chasing him across the field - never know what you'll see in Vegas or at a Badger Bash.



The game was a lot of fun and though very close, the Badgers did pull it off 20-13. The stadium was packed with red since both teams have red as their colors. The Badger fans definitely made up more than half the crowd - and more likely about 2/3. Their band was MUCH larger and more impressive than the UNLV band and it actually made me feel sorry for the Rebels! The view from the stadium was very pretty since it's a bit outside of the city. Watching the sunset with the sea of red in front and the peaceful views behind was great.

And now for my inner thoughts. Although I had a good time and enjoyed spending time with Scott's parents and liked all that we did in Vegas, I definitely realized that it's not a city for me. Just flying in and seeing this sea of green, watered yards in the midst of shades of brown was so unnatural. Arriving and seeing everyone getting ready to go out and party, bet, shop, swim, eat, drink and drink some more made me want to get away to a much more peaceful place. The shows are great in Vegas and the casinos are a lot of fun to look at, but there's not a whole lot there for me. Vegas is the kind of high-stress, busy, artificial, materialism that I was so surprised to see again when first coming back from our Latin America trip. This put me right back into the culture shock of a year ago and made me very uncomfortable. Of course, I understand why a lot of people love Vegas and I'm not trying to be judgmental of anyone else, but for me, I think I'd rather be camping. :D

College Football is Back!

Usually, this time of year is no fun for me and I dread Scott having plans every Saturday for the next few months to watch games. But now, I'm becoming much more interested in the games myself and am excited for this season of football!

The biggest news was the win of Appalachian State (a I-AA team) against Michigan. This has never happened in football history. A I-AA team has never even beat a top 25-ranked team, much less a number 5 ranked, like Michigan. So, good for you guys - keep on rocking, Appalachian State!

Next, my Alma Matter, Vanderbilt kicked the butts of Richmond, 41-17 - big win! Hopefully we'll have another awesome season like we did last year and maybe even better! Maybe now the students can go to the games not as a date night, but as actual fans of the sport and really cheer for the team!

But the most fun yesterday is my new found team, the Wisconsin Badgers. I've been trying to become a fan since this is Scott's Alma Matter, but until this year, I was just a bystander. We went to the new San Diego Badger bar yesterday and had the MOST fun watching the game as the Badgers beat the Washington State Cougars. And watching their hot quarterback Donovan wasn't so bad either! I have a Badger shirt from when Scott took me to Madison, so I fit in with the fans there, but I also realized that these are my kind of people! Chanting, singing, dancing, cheering and having fun throughout the whole game - loved it! I am now a definite Badger fan and will have more updates for you throughout the season - especially since Scott and I will be going to two games live!