Duke / Alabama

Now on to Alabama!  (In the blog post sense and in the pack-my-bags-and-fly-to-Alabama sense!) :)

Duke/Bama was a weekend with Rachel and Jeff and Martha and Dexter, if I can even call it that.  It was a weekend for Ryan and more like a fun 12 hours for me, since I spent the first half of the weekend at home for Tina's wedding, but the time we did have all together was fun!

And Crazy...

And Exhausting...

And the game ended with a big fat ugly "L"...

But it was still lots of fun.

Let's back up a bit so I can explain why it was so exhausting...

So first, I flew into Atlanta on Wednesday night, got to my grandmother's house around 9:30 PM, met up with a good friend around 10 PM...one of my college roommates who lives in the same suburb of Atlanta as my grandmother/cousins that I hadn't seen in way too long and had lots to catch up on...and turned out the light at 3:30 AM.  Night 1 of less than 5 hours of sleep...

Then, I had to get up at 7 AM on Thursday to run some errands and get to the Bridesmaid's luncheon.  Then ran errands with Tina all afternoon...picked up her dress from getting altered, booked their massage for their honeymoon while she tanned, etc...ran with Tina and Wes to Belk on the way to the rehearsal to have the sensor removed from her dress (emergency crisis!)...then rehearsal/rehearsal dinner (Jamie arrived from Athens, woohoo!), got back to Joyce's around midnight only to stay up until the wee hours of the morning hearing all about lil sis's college life only to have to get up again at 7 AM.  Night 2 of less than 5 hours of sleep.

Up early Friday morning, wedding day.  Wedding/Reception, get to Joyce's after midnight.  Shower, pack up, go to sleep at 1:30 AM.  Get up at 5:30 AM to head to airport.  Night 3 of less than 5 hours of sleep. And bless my poor grandmother's heart who also got up at 5:30 AM to drive me to the airport!

Land at RDU at 10 AM, get picked up, stop by the house briefly (have I mentioned we bought a house on here yet?  oops, sorry!  We bought a house! :) ), then head straight to campus for 90 degree game day...EXHAUSTED!


We did a little tailgating and watched the Georgia game, then headed toward the stadium to catch the Devil's Walk.  Ryan and Jeff (bro-in-laws) are talking football in their opposing team colors. :)

Devil's Walk!

Wes, Matt, and Banks' eyes peeking over Hatcher's shoulder

Bama fans had to check out Cameron Indoor.  We went in with Rachel and Jeff and there were a ton of Bama fans in there...they even started the Roll Tide chant...like 3 times. 



Alumni players on the alumni deck!  Fun to see some of the guys we don't see too often.

Where's Jeff??  I'll give you a hint.  He's the one in the red shirt. 

Still can't find him?  He's the one waving...

Game time!  Here comes the team....

Pridemore trying to pull off a mohawk lol.  Can you see it?

Love this pic.  Egboh taking down Mark Ingram! Go Egboh!!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that this was the first time that Rachel and Jeff have visited Durham since we've been married.  Unfortunately, because it takes 10 hours in the car to get here and we didn't have enough tickets (or so we thought...ended up with extras at the last minute though), they didn't bring the kids with them. 

So this weekend, we're returning the visit!  We're headed to Tuscaloosa for the Florida/Alabama game and killing lots of birds with one stone!  This will be our first trip to Tuscaloosa visiting Rachel and Jeff since they have lived there and we'll get to see the kids this time (yay!), we'll get to see Ryan's aunt and uncle and grandmother in Birmingham, hopefully get to see his cousins that are in school at Bama, and of course, get to finally see TJ and a Florida game...and a good SEC match-up at that!  

Tina's Wedding...finally!

Now after both those blog posts about Tina and the big Duke/Bama game, are you wondering where the pictures are? :)

Am I an inconsistent blogger or what?

Yes, I definintely am.

So, I thought I should get those things taken care of before moving on because this weekend, we are headed to Tuscaloosa Alabama for the Florida/Bama game and if I don't blog about Tina and Duke/Bama before we leave, then when I return, those things will be a thing of the past that I'll never end up revisiting, ha!

Just like how I never blogged about our family beach trip with Ryan's family (in May!) or our Maine trip (in June!) or our friends' summer weddings (in July and August!)!  Maybe I'll circle back around to those eventually...

It's just hard to stay caught up on it when I spend all day at a computer at work and then come home and have to figure out dinner, clean up from dinner, spend as much time with Ryan as I can, and the last thing on my list is usually getting BACK on the computer.  I do write blog posts in my head sometimes, if that counts...they just never make it to the actual computer screen.

But tonight, I'm getting my priorities in line!  No packing for Alabama until I whip out some blog posts, complete with pictures.  Dedication baby...

As for Tina's wedding, it was BEAUTIFUL and SO.  MUCH.  FUN!! On a perfect day for an outdoor wedding in one of the prettiest outdoor settings I've ever seen, she was possibly the most gorgeous, most excited bride I've ever seen.  Knowing Tina, I had a feeling she would be nervous and stressed on the day of, but she was totally relaxed and even said to one of her friends/bridesmaids at one point right before the ceremony, "why are you nervous?  I'm not even nervous!".

We kicked off the wedding weekend on Thursday morning with the Bridesmaid's luncheon that my mom hosted for Tina at a surprise location that turned out to be...the Swan Coach House in Buckhead!

Here is Tina with her bridal party... me, Andrea - her sister and Matron of Honor, Alicia - her niece and junior bridesmaid, Tina, Carlie, and Allison.  Carlie and Allison are two of Tina's best friends from elementary school. It was a fun group!

Tina with her two moms!  Her mom, my aunt Elaine on the left, and Mama Ellis (Wes' mom, Kathy) on the right.  She inherited an awesome mother-in-law like I did! :)

Then came the rehearsal dinner at the Old Mill in downtown Ackworth(?).  Quite possibly the best dinner I've ever had!

Wes' parents put on the sweetest rehearsal dinner too, with a slideshow all about Tina being the answer to their prayers for their son and a video of all the grandparents giving marriage advice.

Andrea and Wes' brother/best man Daniel had to give speeches at the rehearsal dinner.  Andrea was a little nervous about it beforehand, but did an awesome job!

Rehearsal dinner was the first time I got to see Jamiloo since my arrival to Georgia!!  Stinking love that girl and the party was even more fun once she arrived on the scene!  And then I didn't have to decide between the steak or the salmon.  She got steak, I got salmon, and then we split them... :)  Thank goodness for my other half!

Joycie and all four of her grandgirls!


Dun dun dun

and finally I give you...

...the couple of the hour!  

Christina Baguley and Wesley Ellis.

And Tina with her parents, my uncle Steve and aunt Elaine

We were two goofy kids once who did everything together. 

Occasionally, the kids in us still come out to play...

The next morning, the day of the wedding, Jamie, Alicia and I ran some last minute errands to pick up Tina's honeymoon dresses from the alteration shop.  We jammed out/woke up to some Justin Beiber.  Yeah! Lol

Be sure and pause the ipod on the left sidebar so you can hear it.




A little bit later after meeting back up with Tina, Andrea and Elaine, we arrived at the hotel near the ceremony site to get ready.  Wes and his brother had stayed in the hotel room the night before to play golf the morning of the wedding, and this is how he left the room for Tina.  A three page letter, a dozen roses, and a heart made of kisses...

Tina brought Carolyn in to do our hair, which was so fun!  Carolyn did all the girls' hair for my wedding too and that was the last time I had seen her.  Here Tina's discussing what she wants done to her hair.

Tina wouldn't read Wes' letter until after she had written her own.

Little Nelly Olson brat here! She gave me her best brat face to go with her Nelly Olson curls. :)  

Bridesmaids getting ready!

Her daddy first saw her when we got to the wedding site - the Governor's House in Kingston, GA.

Garter - check!  It's her something old and something blue in one!

Putting on the dress with the help of her mom and sister...

And the dress is STUNNING!

Andrea helped put her shoes on and Alicia stepped in to admire.  On go the pearl earrings

- something borrowed!  From me :)  I wore them on my wedding day too.

Bridal party picture time!

AJ arrived and Alicia was so excited to show Andrea and Tina how "handsome" he looked all dressed up.  It was the cutest thing ever!  I don't know which was cuter...AJ or the fact that Alicia was so proud of him and wanted to show him off.

Mom and Dad arrived and Dad wore Bob's tie (Bob is our grandfather - Joyce's husband and Mom and Elaine's dad, who passed away when I was 3, Tina was 4) so Bob could be represented on Tina's special day.

Ceremony time!  Christina Marie Baguley walked down the aisle to meet her groom who had 

yet to see her or talk to her the entire day...

Christina Baguley Ellis came back up the aisle escorted by her husband! 

First dance to Brad Paisley's "She's Everything to Me" song that Wes surprised Tina with. 

Fetching the garter!

Bouquet Toss!

At the end of the reception, we ran upstairs to help her change into her getaway dress.  

Snapped a quick picture of the last time I'll see her until Christmas probably!

Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Ellis!

The car got decorated while they were inside dancing.... :)

And they're off!  Headed to the Ritz in Atlanta, then to fly to Jamaica the next morning for their honeymoon!

It was such a perfect day!

(And I took lots more pictures, which I'll post to facebook as soon as I finish sorting through them all!)

Whew, that was a lot of wedding coverage.  I think the Bama game is going to need a separate post.

To be continued...

Bama comes to town

Guest blogger again here.  Erin is out of town for her cousin’s wedding as she previously posted so I thought it was a great opportunity to hijack her blog again.  The last time I posted was almost a year ago so obviously I didn’t get the “blog bug” like a lot of people have.  I was a bit philosophical in the last post so I think I will take a different approach this time with something a little lighter that we are excited about for this weekend!

Things have been pretty busy around here getting ready for this weekend.  We have a pretty big weekend planned and have been looking forward to it for years.  Yes, that’s right, I said YEARS!  Ever since Duke and Alabama announced they would be playing a series back in 2004 or 2005 we have been really excited about them coming to Durham to play.  The first game in the series was played on October 7, 2006 when the stadium was a mere 92,000 (now it’s over 100,000 with the new expansion).  I was lucky enough to play in that game which was a big deal since I have grown up going to Alabama football games my whole life.  

My dad played there from ‘69-‘72 when Bear Bryant was the coach.  Since they just finished the expansions to the stadium and to celebrate the National Championship Alabama had all of the former football players come down on the field before the first game which was pretty cool. 

The Alabama connection doesn’t stop there, however.  My sister, Rachel, went to Alabama for college and met her husband, Jeff, while they were in school.  The funny connection between Rachel and Jeff is that both of their/our dads played together at Alabama!  Rachel and Jeff are currently on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ at Alabama and love living in Tuscaloosa.  Another Alabama football connection is that my cousin, Charles (Dad’s side), played there a couple of years ago.  We actually played against each other when Duke played Alabama in 2006.  My other cousins, William and Julia, also currently go to school at Bama.  So, as you can see there are plenty of Alabama connections in this family truly making it a divided household!

Since Duke traveled to Tuscaloosa in 2006, a return game was scheduled for 2010 in Durham.  My parents, sister, and brother-in-law are all coming up for the game this weekend.  We have a tailgate planned and will be having a good time before the game with all of the pre-game festivities.  We’re hoping for a great game regardless of the fact that Duke is 24 point underdogs!  The game starts at 3:30 and will be televised by ABC.

Some pictures from the 2006 game in Tuscaloosa:

The whole crew before the game (from left):
Dad, Mom, Aunt Lisa, Grandparents, William, Samuel, Jeff, Rachel, Jeff's Parents

Coin Toss before the game

Me and my cousin Charles 

The crew coming up for Duke/Bama part 2!

-Ryan