saying yes!

one of my favorite things to ask engaged couples is, "how did he pop the question?"

i've always loved how each story is so different and unique, much like the couple that is telling their story.

well, it's finally my turn. so, here is our story.

i knew this was going to be a big year. i would be hitting a major milestone....30.

or as i like to say, 29 again. :)

tim had asked me months before my birthday what i wanted. more than anything, i wanted something i'd always remember. my love of travelling never seems to fade, so i mentioned a trip would be a good gift and left it at that. i'm sure i mentioned other things, but wanted him to make the final call on his gift for me.

around mid july, he had made no mention of a trip, so i just figured he was going to do something else.

on wednesday, july 18th, i got home from work and made my usual walk to the mailbox.

as i sorted through mail, i noticed a pottery barn catalog and then came across a plain white envelope with my name typed on it. since moving to my new place in may, i have been getting tons of mail, so i didn't think much of it.

once i got inside the house, i opened the white envelope and pulled out its contents.

the new yorker magazine.

huh. that's weird.

there wasn't a return address on the envelope. i thought to myself, "has anthrax made a comeback? any white powder in that package?"

i joked with my roommate, callie, about it and threw it away. no big deal, right?

the next day flew by as work was really busy; the mysterious package i received the day before didn't even cross my mind. as i was walking out of the office to leave to go home, i glanced down at my phone and saw a new email.  here's how it read:

subject: newyorker
from: baylor.bear@ymail.com

did you get my package? check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PHOeXIPNZE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

what is going on?? as i stood there, i forwarded the email to both tim and callie wondering what they would say.

a swirl of emotions were going through my head. i was planning on heading the next weekend to dallas, maybe my family was planning a surprise trip to nyc. does tim have anything to do with this? what's up with new york?

callie called me and she mentioned that i should go home and dig the magazine out of the trash in case it is a stalker and i need evidence. she also mentioned she was going to have the i.t. department where she works look into the email and try to track the sender. ha!

as soon as i got off the phone with her, i looked down and another email arrived from the same baylor.bear@ymail.com sender. it said the following:

got your bags packed?

shortly thereafter, tim called (unfortunately stuck in traffic....he wanted to tell me in person), and said that we were leaving the next day for a birthday trip to nyc!  he even had called my boss to ask if i could take that friday off!

on friday morning, our flight left (very early) and we arrived in the big apple by lunch. 

we spent friday by going to grand central station, crumbs (my favorite bakery), st. patricks catherdral, rockefeller center, grabbing delish nyc pizza for dinner, and ended the evening by getting drinks at the marriott marquis overlooking times square. it was a perfect 1st day in the city.

on saturday, we spent the day roaming the city. we covered alot of ground! we went to greenwich village (my new favorite area), chelsea, brooklyn bridge, world trade center memorial, wall street, little italy(we we had an amazing italian lunch there), central park, and 5th avenue. that evening we went back to greenwich village and had a great mexican food dinner. 

unfortunately, sunday came too quick and we had a 4:30 flight to catch that day. that morning, tim and i grabbed starbucks and he suggested we go and sit and enjoy our drinks in nearby bryant park. bryant park is a beautiful park behind the new york public library.  

as we sat down at a little table in the park, we began chatting about the trip and how sad we were to leave. tim looked down at his backpack and looked through it and said he couldn't find his wallet and asked if i would look. when i found his wallet, i handed it back to him and glanced down at the table. 

on the table sat a blue box with the most beautiful diamond ring i've ever laid my eyes on. 

tim said, "i was thinking new york may be a place we might want to come back to visit when we're married. that is, if you'll marry me?"

to be completely honest with you, i don't really remember what i did. i was so overcome with emotion that i got up and ran to hug him saying, "yes".

it was more than i could have ever dreamed. he is more than i ever could have dreamed. 

it was the most wonderful day. 

tim mentioned that he waited to propose until the last day because it would give us something to look forward to when leaving. he was right. 

i am so thankful that this is our story. i'm amazed how God answers prayers. i can't wait to live life beside him. 

love,
the bride to be

p.s. here's a funny story. for those that know me, you may know that i secretly love puzzles. you can just call me an 80 year old woman. :)

with that said, i rarely will ever purchase a puzzle. 

however, earlier this summer, tim and i were shopping at barnes and noble and i found this one, bought it and completed it....little did i know a month later i'd be getting engaged 3 blocks away from this times square location.

march madness

i love spring.

it is, by far, my favorite time of year. for this month, i decided to do a picture a day blog post. so get ready, this is going to be my longest post yet....enjoy!

march 1

for the month of march, i decided to take better care of myself. so what does this mean for me? it means my alarm now goes off at 6:30 am rather than 7:30 am :( this pic was taken early in morning after running/walking on the treadmill...impressed? me too!

march 2

unfortunately, alabama has seen it's fair share of tornados in the past 12 months. beginning friday morning, we were warned we may see them again that day. my new roommate, chelsea, who recently moved to alabama from oregon, went shopping early friday morning and came back with all these goodies to go in our "safe place".

yep, that is a helmet....:)

march 3

as much as i love doing makeup, i don't get to do it as much as i would like. unfortunately, with a full time job comes a 5 day a work week schedule (who knew?)...and by the time saturday comes around, i'm too tired to work another day.  but i do love makeup AND my discount at the store. so this saturday consisted of me working and doing 3 makeovers...

march 4

i love sundays. if it weren't for monday being followed by sunday, i would say it is my favorite day of the week. i digress... after a late afternoon run with tim, he told me to lay on the pavement and he would hold my leg to stretch it. i saw this lovely view in front of me and ran and got my phone for a picture. perfect sunday.

march 5

almost 8 years in the making. when i graduated from baylor in 2004, i took an internship in birmingham with southern progress company (known for southern living, cooking light, health magazine). i needed a place to live and called a number on the intern housing list....little did i know, 8 years later i would still be living with the girl, kate, who picked up the phone that day. kate's roommate at the time, caroline, and i instantly became friends as well and have remained very close ever since.

over the past 8 years, i've seen caroline get married and now kate is moving to new orleans! so tonight we celebrated with dinner.

march 6

welcome to my nightmare. for those of you texans out there, let me introduce you to hwy 280. my comparison to this in texas, is I-35 in dallas on texas/ou weekend. you'd be better off walking than sitting in this mess. i have yet to understand how calling it a "highway" is legitimate when there are traffic lights positioned every mile.

luckily for me, i rarely have to deal with this disaster in rush hour. however, today i ended up going to tim's place after work so i unfortunately ended up throwing away 20 minutes of my life in a span of 3 miles.

march 7

today a group of us from work went to lunch to celebrate a coworker. as we piled into cars, mary francis asked if i wanted to ride with her, so i agreed and got into her car. as mary fran was turning onto a street to get to the restaurant she mentioned that her wheel felt tight.

then, all of a sudden, her car died.

in the middle of the street.

not in a good area of birmingham.

i couldn't stop laughing. two extremely girly girls stuck in the middle of the street with no clue what was wrong with the car they were in. we both glanced around and 20 feet away was a car and body shop! who has this kind of luck? the men who worked in the body shop pushed our car into the garage (we were still in the car....ha!) to check out what might be wrong. i think they got a good kick out of the two of us. initially, they thought we ran out of gas. but apparently, there was a sensor that was off that shut the car down.

although a little late, we made it to lunch...with a good story indeed.

march 8

get ready all those that love pinterest. this is the day for you.

it's time to get your creative juices flowing.

not really.

i just want to show you a fun, inexpensive idea that was presented to one of my coworkers. how cute is this?? a glass full of orange and pink jellybeans, strawberry candy, and pink gummies. i want to throw a party just so i can give these as favors!!

march 9

welcome to my work area....some may call it a cubicle....i prefer to think of it as an office with no door and low walls.

as you can see in the picture, i have a calendar on my wall titled "356 days of shoes". let me tell you, i have had more conversations over that calendar than over the fact that i'm from texas. so if you're ever in need of a good conversation peice at work...this little jewel of a calendar will keep those conversations flowing.

march 10

as you can see this is a blank picture.
why you ask?
because it was the most beautiful day ever here and i completely forgot to take a picture. i woke up on sunday morning in a panic remembering that i had completely forgotten.
so let's use our imaginations, shall we, and think 75 degree weather, beautiful blue skies, and alison beating tim in tennis....great, you've captured my day!

march 11

back in december, my sister, jennifer, said one of her goals for this year is to read the old testament over the course of the year. i thought that sounded like a good goal and told her i would do it with her (technically not with her, i live in alabama...she's in texas, but you know what i mean....) at this point, i've read through genesis and exodus and am about halfway through leviticus. i've read the bible through before, but have been reminded this time around that if you are looking for a the best love story ever written, this is the book to read.
it will change your life...in all the best ways.

 

march 12

yes, welcome to my monday nights. i started watching the bachelor in college and have been addicted to the show ever since. just for the record, i call that dedication to the show "loyalty" or perhaps a crush on chris harrison...take your pick.

march 13

once upon a time, there was a tall redhead that took an internship on capitol hill. she loved living in d.c. and learning about how our government works. she quickly realized the importance of educating herself with who is running for office and what they stand for. these politicians make big decisions and we need good ones in there...so today that tall redhead voted in the primaries...

*bonus points were given to those she thought could balance their checkbook :)

march 14

we call them huddles.

4 years ago, i started helping with the youth at my church and got plugged into helping with the 8th grade girls biblestudy. we call the biblestudy "huddles". i've stayed with this group as their leader and now they are 11th graders....they grow up so fast!! let me tell you, they are the coolest group of kids you'll ever meet. the group varies from around 6 girls, but this particuliar night only tate and sarah could come. so instead of biblestudy we opted for yogurt and just catching up.

not only do these two love jesus, they both have incredible voices and are insanely smart....(like 32 and 33 on the ACT smart). i love wednesday nights with these girls.

march 15

i don't think i've ever jumped up and down over getting something in the mail before....until now. i knew i was going to be invited, i just didn't realize i'd get a formal invitation. remember when i did george bush's makeup? well, my friends, this is the movie....and yes, hbo bought it.

 i am stoked!

march 16

for those of you that know me, know that i am slightly addicted to  love mexican food. it looks like i have been a good influence over my boyfriend, tim. when in doubt where we are, just come to chuy's. we are there at least once a week. we love it! on friday night, we wanted to grab a late dinner there and had this lovely view overlooking the summit. not too shabby of a view while dining on the chicka chicka boom boom, chips and salsa.

yum.

march 17

as i said in my introduction, i love spring! one of my favorite things about spring are the beautiful flowers and there is no shortage of them on my street. white, pink, and red flowers are all over the place! unfortunately, with that comes a black car covered in yellow pollen...

march 18

saks-check.

belk-check.

ann taylor-check.

gus mayer-check.

yes, i went though all of these stores scouring for the perfect dress to wear to the upcoming movie premiere. i couldn't find one dress that i liked...too short, too big, not the right color, too expensive (who pays $1,500 for a cocktail dress?)  caroline was a tropper. she found a beautiful laundry dress right off the bat at saks and stuck with me until i could find a dress. that's what i call a friend.

and then for our last store.....bcbg. i found the perfect dress that i absolutely love. pictures to come in april of the dress at the premiere! stay tuned.

march 19

 nothing beats michael buble singing in the background and a bubble bath....can i get an amen?

march 20

i love getting into bed with the smell of downy's lavender scent on my freshly washed sheets. clean laundry is the best! what i don't like is the hours it takes to do laundry. how do the duggars do it?

march 21

for dinner, i made this southern chicken and corn chowder. it was a hit! and by hit, tim liked it so much he went back for thirds. i love finding a new recipe that instantly becomes a favorite like this one. click the link below to see the recipe:
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2011/10/05/southern-chicken-and-corn-chowder-recipe/

enjoy!



 march 22

happy birthday to one of my favorite people in this world!

my sweet, wonderful dad.

today he celebrated his 63rd birthday and i wish so much i could have been in texas to celebrate. (actually it probably wouldn't be the best day to have gone home since he was in presenting a case in court today...but still...)  i love you dad and am so thankful for you!



march 23
on friday after work, tim and i drove to nashville (actually clarksville, tn) and got to see and spend time with this lovely lady. shea (who we refer to as "boom boom") has a new fancy ring on that all important finger. yes, she's newly engaged....to mr. wright.

true story.

march 24

what you are looking at is a very blurred picture of the band the head and the heart performing live in nashville.  for the life of me, i couldn't get a clear picture, so this will have to do.
 if you haven't heard of this band, check them out (a favorite song of mine is "rivers and roads"). on saturday night, tim and i met up with tim's brother and sister-in-law and went to the show. they were great in concert!

march 25

i wish the game would have been different. i wish this guy, brady heslip, with his incredible 3 pointers could have gotten my baylor bears to the final four.

but kentucky didn't let that happen. final score: 82-70. next year, fellas! 

march 26

one of my favorite things about living in the area i live in birmingham are the beautiful homes. there are tons of historic homes! out of all the houses in our neighborhood (and birmingham for that matter) this is my favorite home. i love it! i have walked past it hundreds of times going on walks and every time i look at it, i find something else that i like about it. i have yet to meet the owners, but if i do, i may be asking if i could get a tour.

march 27

let the games begin...

 i'm not much of a reader. when my sister was raving about "hunger games" last summer, i didn't think twice about it. all i've heard for the last year is people talking about these books, so i decided to see what all the hype was about...

and do what makes the most sense...watch the movie.

leah (my old roommate and matchmaker extraordinaire) met me and tim to watch the movie. what's funny is that the two of them had both read the first half of the book and were attempting to explain things to me, but then had to stop once they reached the point they had stopped reading. ha!

it was a good movie! i'm curious to see what happens next...onscreen, of course :)



march 28

another family member...another birthday to celebrate.

happy birthday to my aunt janelle! janelle is one of the sweetest and funniest people that you will ever meet...have i mentioned that we are often told we are alot alike? i don't think there is anyone on this earth that loves the color purple more than she does. so here's to a wonderful birthday, janelle, filled with all things purple!

march 29

bruised, but not broken.

on sunday....yes sunday...this happened. 

little did i know by thursday this little purple number would still be on my knee. after church on sunday, tim and i went to lunch. as i was getting up to leave the table, i stood up and completely fell over. my foot had fallen to sleep. as i crashed into the table, tim caught me and had to keep holding me so i could get my bearings straight. unfortunately, lots of stares quickly followed. 

march 30

as i was parking at whole foods, i peered out of my front window and my eye caught this license plate. not only am i shopping at a store that started in texas, but parking next to a fellow texan!

man, i miss that state...one day, i'll be back.

march 31

boxes!!

now i know my last post was on me missing texas. i promise i didn't go home that evening and pack a bunch of boxes to move back to texas...but i am moving west. maybe 10 minutes west....one step at a time....one step at a time. actually, i am moving to the bluff park area in birmingham. it's a great area and i have quite a few friends that will be living close by so i'm looking forward to it!

so there you go, that was my month....and all the madness that came along with it :)

love,

alison

climb every mountain

ford every sea....follow every rainbow...

don't you want to watch the sound of music now? 

i thought so.

on mlk day, tim and i decided to take a day trip to mt. cheaha which is located at cheaha state park. tim suggested the trip; he grew up about 30 minutes away from the park and thought it would be a fun place to take me to get out of birmingham for the day. i must say, he's pretty good about coming up with fun activities for the two of us.

as we were driving to the park, tim and i were getting hungry so we stopped in oxford to grab lunch. as we were narrowing down the options of where to eat, he mentioned going to china luck, a restaurant he and his family had eaten at often when he was growing up. i wanted chick-fil-a.

clearly, my negotiating skills weren't what they should have been because we ended up at china luck.

in his defense, it was pretty tasty at the time...however...more to come on that.

next, we headed toward cheaha state park. 

the park was beautiful! 

here's your history lesson for the day: cheaha state park has the highest point in alabama, mt. cheaha, which is 2,407 feet above sea level and is part of the foothills of the appalachian mountains. local creek indians called this place "chaha," which means "high place". 

you're welcome.

at the top of the mountain they have a restaurant, so tim and i got drinks at the top and gazed out at the beautiful view. this was, by far, was my favorite part of our day.

they have cabins there where people can rent if they want to spend more time at the park. in fact, they have a deluxe cabin or "honeymoon cabin" there and we laughed at how unfortunate it would be to stay there...definitely not the four seasons. 

we spent the rest of our time hiking to an area called "bald rock". now when i say hiking, i mean our 5 minute walk to overlook a cliff. regardless, it was still fun to get out of the car and check out the scenery.

as we began our trek down the mountain in the car, i realized that i was in trouble. 

for those of you that know me and the women in my family, you probably know, we are notorious for getting extremely motion sick. last year, i attempted to ride the tilt a whirl....3 hours later i still felt sick.  so you can only imagine adding mongolian beef from china luck for lunch into that equation...poor tim had to hear me complain the whole way down the mountain.

a coke and a few hours later i felt so much better...

i could have done without getting sick, but overall it was a fun day getting to go up to the highest point in alabama...

next up: mt. everest...:)

love,
alison

auld lang syne

yes, my friends, it's the beginning of a new year.

first things first,  i fell off the face of the earth last year and didn't finish my list of to-do's.  4 out of 6 isn't bad, right?  it's clear that procrastination prevailed in 2011.

if i took you all to vegas for the weekend, would you call me a failure?

some may consider that a bribe, but i've got to do something to keep each of you reading my blog. :)

as for this year, the adventures continue.

here's to 2012!

love,
alison

jingle bell run...

newspaper columnist, erma bombeck, once said, "the only way i would take up jogging is so that i could hear heavy breathing again."

true story sister. 

or at least that was my sentiment before october. 

truthfully, i never enjoyed running. put me in an aerobics or kickboxing class and i can go for hours. but when i would run, i could only jog for several minutes. 

in college, my friend, brice tried to teach me how to run. about 5 minutes into our jog, he said that i had some kind of a breathing problem. i call that "breathing problem" central texas allergies...

lucky for me, i had someone this time around that wouldn't give up on me.

my boyfriend, tim, has always loved to run. in fact, he's run several half marathons and one marathon. yes, my friends, he's one of those people who i consider must have a second set of lungs hidden behind his first set.

in early october, i agreed to give running another chance.

first things first....shoes!  my first task was to buy good running shoes. during lunch one day, i went to the trak shack to browse around for shoes. i think i gave the salesman a run for his money (no pun intended)....i believe i tried every shoe on in that store.

about an hour and $120 later, i walked out with a pair of brooks running shoes.

tim found a running program online "couch to 5k" that told us how much to run and how often. for those of you who have never heard of this program before, it gradually prepares you to run for the distance you'd like to go.

in our case it was a 5k...3.2 miles.

each week we were instructed to run 3 times. over the course of each week, the program would increase how much time we ran.

you would think the first week would be easy. wrong.

truthfully, no week was easy. but, i slowly began to run for longer periods of time without feeling like i was going to die.

as the weeks went on, i slowly worked my way up to running for 30 minutes. i know, i can't believe it either. :)

now i'm not going to tell you that it was a walk in the ballpark. there were days that tim and i would run that i would feel pretty miserable. in fact, one day about 15 minutes into our run, i had to stop because my head was spinning.

for those of you that know me, know that there is rarely a shortage of words coming out of my mouth. however, while i'm running, i try not to talk too much to preserve my lungs. if you want to have any kind of conversation with me, it's usually best to do it in the first 10 minutes.

tim and i would usually talk for the first 10 minutes and then the rest of the time i'd nod my head in agreement when he said something or say, "we'll talk about that later." if there was ever a time that he didn't want me to speak, this was his golden opportunity!

on saturday, december 10th we took part in the jingle bell 5k run. unfortunately, the weather was not in my favor that day....it was cold. i wish we could have made it in quicker time. regardless, i ran the whole thing without stopping!

the best feeling is running hard and actually finishing the race....the latter being a first for me.

i must say i had the best encourager with me throughout this process. after each run, tim would put his hand on my back and say, "good job ginger" and "i'm proud of you." if he ever wants to switch careers, i think he's found his second calling in personal training. :)

love,
alison

welcome to atlanta where the players play....

since moving to birmingham, i've had the opportunity to travel around and see alot of the southeast...including nashville (my fav), savannah, mephis, jackson and atlanta.

out of all the cities listed above, i've probably been to atlanta the most.
it has all the perks of a big city: good shopping, great restaurants, and cool things to do. i've shopped at both perimeter and lenox malls, stayed at the intercontinental in buckhead, attended a braves game and have gotten lost so many times there i've stopped counting.

i, for one, think atlanta needs to work at improving their exit signs.

but, moving on....

at the end of september, tim suggested that it would be fun to go to atlanta and go to a falcons game. i've never been to a nfl game, so i was quick to say yes! and since i'm running a tad behind on my blog this year, this would be a perfect story to add.

tim and i headed to atlanta early on sunday, october 16th and arrived at the georgia dome just in time to park in the lot assigned to us and be in our seats by kickoff. or so we thought....

when tim had bought the tickets beforehand he also given a parking pass to "lot l".  unfortunately, neither of us thought to google "lot l" before getting to the georgia dome.

after about an hour of driving around and asking multiple people for directions, we discovered the "lot l" DOES NOT EXIST!

by that time, both of us were so frustrated we drove around without muttering a word. wish you were there, right?

we finally decided to just park in the nearest lot about 20 blocks from the georgia dome in downtown atlanta.

as we were hightailing to the game, i looked down and noticed my feet were beginning to hurt. i wore my gold flip flops and since flip flops are usually comfortable, i thought they'd be fine for that day. if only i knew....

once we arrived at the georgia dome, tim and i were seperated as he went through the guy's security line and i went through the girl's security line.

typical that the guys line moved faster...

once we got inside, we grabbed a mini pizza to split and headed to our seats. at this point, the game had already started and it was close to the 1st quarter ending.

the game was great! the falcons played the north carolina panthers. for those of you auburn fans out there... yes, i got to see cam newton play.

several things i noticed:

1. unlike college football, there aren't tons of players on the field. i guess with the high salaries those guys make (i wikipedia'd their salaries...insane!) they can't afford too many guys on the sidelines.
2.  football players are BIG guys!  they look so grown up compared to college football players.
3. no benches. i'd like to thank the georgia dome for having seats with a back and 2 arm rests.
4. jerseys. in college football, very few fans wear their favorite players jersey. not true in pro football, jerseys were everywhere.

 is it bad that i don't remember who won? ha!

on the long "hike" back to the car, my feet began to ache. as tim and i were within 1 block of our parking lot, i realized that what was suppossed to be my comfortable flip flops left huge blisters on the bottom of my feet. :( so what should have taken me 5 minutes to get to the car, took me 15. trust me, i almost started crawling...but thought that might cause a scene.

once we finally got back to the car, tim and i headed for fogo de chao for dinner. 

best.
meal.
ever.
if you haven't been to a brazian steakhouse, i encourage you to:

1. save your money
2. go on an empty stomach

we loved it! it was a really fun trip to atlanta ...

it even left a mark...on the bottom of my feet.

love,
alison

the river wild

i know, i’m slow on my blog posts this year and it was recently brought to my attention by my sister that my blog is “so last year”.

excuse me….no part of me (including my blog) is 2010.

i’ve got 2011 written all over me….and maybe a little of the 1980’s since the fashion world is taking most of it’s cue’s from what was popular then, into what’s fashionable now.

but I digress…..on to my second new activity for the year.

whitewater rafting!!!

this has been something that has always been on the list of things i’ve wanted to do. in fact, most people i told about the trip were surprised i had never been before....

we don’t have rapids in texas, people. everything else, yes.

actually the whitewater rafting trip was a very sweet birthday gift from my boyfriend, tim. 

since tim had been whitewater rafting before, I wanted the scoop on what people usually wear and he mentioned that I should get some water shoes.

i scoured birmingham looking for “cute” water shoes…they don’t exist.

and unfortunately they didn’t have any in pink in my size.....

 the first weekend on august, tim and i headed north to ocoee, tn for our fun adventure. 

as soon as we arrived at high country whitewater rafting, i had a flashback to sky ranch summer camp where i was a counselor. all the college kids working at high country, were decked out in their chacos, headband bandanas, and sports watches. 

tim and I went to check in and signed all the “if you die, you will not sue us” agreements. those are always fun to read.

then we sat down with a big group and one of the guides went over the rules of rafting. the main rule, I took from it was if you go overboard, do not put your feet down.  apparently, you are more likely to be drug under or your legs will break. a broken leg….no thank you, duly noted.

we were each given a paddle, helmet and lifejacket and told to board a school bus.  as the bus made it’s way to the river, I could see the rapids out the window and my stomach began to sink.

“wow, those are intense.”

and then the bomb dropped, as soon as we got out of the bus, tim mentioned our first set of rapids would be a “class 4”.

for those of you who are unaware of the classes of rapids (i was too), rapids run from class 1 to class 5, 5 being the toughest.

“what? we’re going on a class 4 the first round?!?!”

apparently, they don’t have kiddie rapids that you can practice on first.

tim and i were partnered up in the same raft with a tennessee family- a mom and dad and 2 college aged girls. apparently, they go whitewater rafting every summer…fun tradition!

the two girls were in the front of the raft, tim and I chose the middle and the parents and guide were in the back.

and we were off!

the first rapids came and went so fast, it wasn’t nearly as scary as I had anticipated…in fact….

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

i loved every minute of it! the weather was perfect and the ocoee river scenery is amazing.

some of the funny highlights from our trip down were:

1. each section of the river has a different name. for example one of the sections is called, “the broken nose”. someone in the raft asked the guide if he ever makes up the names if he forgets them….of course he does. i think i know someone else who did that when they gave tours of the capitol in dc....oops!

2. we got stuck. several times going through the rapids our raft would get stuck on a rock. we’d all have to gather in the front of the raft and try to push it forward. i’d love to have seen a video of that.

3. i didn’t fall out….but tim and i did jump out when they let us go swimming in the river!

we rafted down the river for about 2 hours and then hopped back on the school bus and headed back.

it was a really fun experience and i’m so glad that tim took me to celebrate 21…I mean, 29.

love,

alison