Kelsey= Birmingham, Ryan= Memphis

So this past weekend Ryan and I both did some traveling. Ryan had to go home to Memphis to get his car tags renewed and his emissions tested. He took the day off and left Friday morning so that he could get to Memphis in plenty of time to wait in the awfully long lines at the emission testing place. See Memphis is really smart and they only have a few places that where you can do this, in Atlanta there are places to get your car tested on like every corner. I think Memphis has a few things to learn from Atlanta, or maybe Ryan and I should just buck up and finally get GA tags. We just can't bring ourselves to do it! Anyways, Ryan got to spend some time with his family and hang out downtown and go to Memphis Basketball Game with his Sister and Brother-in-law. He always has such a great time with them. He took both of the dogs with him, but dropped Lulu off at my parents because my mom can't get enough of that little girl.

While Ryan was in Memphis, I was in Birmingham for a girl’s weekend with 12 for my wonderful sorority sisters. In attendance was: Julia, Chelsea, Christen, Meagan, Casey, Annie, Jessica, Sarah, Stephanie, Samantha, Alissa, and me. We where so shocked that we could get that many of us together at the same time in that same place cause it is very very hard for us to do. We had a great time though. On Friday night, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and had a few drinks and just caught up on each others lives. After dinner we decided to come home and play the game Apples to Apples, if you have never played this you totally should, it is so much fun, and I loved seeing what people come up with. Saturday we had lunch reservation at this cute little cafe called Olexa's. They had the most amazing chicken salad I have ever had and their desserts are to die for. After lunch, we did a little shopping around the area in cute little boutiques and home stores. I got some one really cute top and some stuff for our house. I will take some pictures once I put them all up. Saturday night for dinner, we went to a great restaurant called 26. Dinner was so much fun, I love being able to hang out with my girlfriend because we hardly get to do it anymore. We all live in different places and have very busy schedules and it is just so great that we got it to all work out that most of us could come to Birmingham this past weekend. Ladies if you read this, I had the best time ever with you this weekend, I can not wait till March when we can see each other again, I love and miss you all very much!!! PI LOVE!!!

I had to do it!!! HAHA!!!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!

So this past week I got to go to VEGAS for work. I had never been to Vegas before, so when I found I was going, let me tell you I was pretty excited. Now this was not all play as some of you may think, I did work a lot over the 3 days that we where there. We where attending Magic, which is Retail Apparel Trade Show. Now as many of you know I work for AmericasMart, and we are a Retail Apparel Trade Show as well. So why would I be going to a different Trade Show? Good Question, we do this as a way to bring more vendors to our show. We go to all the different trade shows over the US, like Chicago, New York, and Dallas, to try and get more vendors to bring their apparel lines to our market, so that the buyers that attended the market at AmericasMart will have a better selection of product available to them. We had great success at the show and have a lot of new vendors interested in coming to Atlanta.

Now for the fun stuff, we arrived on Monday afternoon and checked into our rooms at Caesars Palace. We wondered around the hotel for a bit and got a bite to eat, then made our way over to the Bellagio to check out their AMAZING fountain show. I have never seen anything like this before, it was so beautiful. That night we went to dinner with all the people I work with, there where 12 of us total there for the shows. We went to an amazing steak place called Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris. I had Steak Frites, and it was so good, I could not get enough of it. We where so tired after dinner, from all the traveling and time changes, that we went to bed since we had a long day the next day.

Pulling Up to Caesars

Lobby

Ladies I work with, Krista, Me, & Tamesha

Fountain Show

After work and all on Tuesday, we had decided that we all wanted Sushi, so we made reservations at the place called Yellow Tail in the Bellagio. I had an awesome sushi platter that was some of the freshest I have ever had. I love it.

CELEBRITY ALERT: I had stopped in the bathroom on the way out of the restaurant and was washing my hands and all of a sudden I recognized a voice behind me. I turned around, and what would you know it was Audrina Patridge from MTV's The Hills. I was in shock, I had been saying since we got to Vegas that I wanted to see a celebrity and I got my wish. She was super nice and looks just like she does on The Hills. She also took a picture with a few of the girls I was with. For those of you that don't know who she is here is a picture.

Ok so anyways, after dinner we decided we wanted to do a little gambling, cause you can't go to Vegas and not try and win/lose some money. We started out with slots and I have decided that after playing them a few times I will never do them again because they are all a waste of money. My new game of choice is Roulette. Ryan had told me to play it and so I found a table sat and watched and the dealer and people at the table showed me how it is done and then tried my luck. I guess I am one lucky girl cause I won $70 by playing it. I think I'm a natural, so if you need any tips just let me know.

My Winnings

Since I was up $70, I was a good girl and stopped playing, we where back at Caesar by this time and we where ready to check out the night life. We went to PURE nightclub which was in the Hotel. Inside PURE is the Pussycat Dolls Lounge. They where performing that night so we wanted to check it out, cause you also can't go to Vegas without seeing some Show Girls, we had to wait a while for them but we didn't mind. They had great music playing and we where enjoying ourselves. Their performance was really pretty cool, I was a little concerned to watch something like this at first but they really are talented, I know I could pull of any of their moves.

Inside PURE/ Pussycat Dolls Lounge

Me with the Lead Lady

So Wednesday we had to switch hotels because we where only suppose to be staying 2 nights but our boss let us stay a 3rd because we where not able to do everything we needed to do. Caesar’s was too expensive for us to stay the 3rd night so we got rooms at the Venetian, and WOW what a hotel. This was a total upgrade from Caesars. When I walked into my room I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. It will be very hard to get me to stay any place other than the Venetian next time we go. Since, we where so tired form going out on Tuesday night that Wednesday we just wanted to go to dinner. We went to Bobby Flay's Restaurant called Mesa Grill. This was the best meal I had all week. I had steak and mash potatoes and where probably one o the BEST things I have ever eaten. I would HIGHLY recommend this if you are ever in Vegas. After dinner we wanted dessert, so we headed over to Serendipity 3, which is know for their amazing Frozen Hot Chocolates. We each toughly enjoy them and headed for bed. Thursday we finished up a few last things then headed to the airport to go home. It was a great trip, but I was for sure ready to be home.

6 MONTHS!!!!

RYAN AND I HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR 6 MONTHS NOW AND IT HAS BEEN THE MOST WONDEFUL TIME IN OUR LIVES, WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!!!!

Love is in the Air!!!

For Valentines Day this year, Ryan and I decided we did not want to spend a lot of money on presents and a big fancy dinner, so we thought going to a winery would be a very fun thing of us to do and something we would both enjoy. We went to a winery in North Georgia called Chateau Elan, it is about 45 minutes from Atlanta. It was beautiful because it had just snowed the night before and the place was covered, it was for sure was not an easy drive at the beginning. We really enjoyed our time there. We took a tour of the winery where they thought us how they made their wine and where able to get grapes to grow in North GA, since their soil is mainly red clay. We also got to enjoy tasting all of the wines they had to offer and we brought a few bottles back with us. Scarlet 211, which was a the red wine we liked the most, and Spring Blossom, which was one of their Muscadine wines with a strawberry flavor. It was really hard for us to decide what we liked the most, but we both knew for sure the American Port was not at the top of our list. After tasting all those wines we knew it was time for lunch, we ate a cute little Irish Pub they had on the grounds called Paddy's. We got to sit by the fire, out of the cold, and enjoy a wonderful lunch. Lunch and a few beers later, we on our way to a cooking demo that we had signed up to attend. They had an amazing show kitchen and we where able to watch the cooks prepare a great little chicken dish with a spicy coconut curry cream sauce and a really amazing salsa. We where able to taste everything at the end of the demo along with a little wine. Needless to say, we left there with very full stomachs and plenty to drink.

Note: I only have a few pictures because my camera decided it wanted to go psycho and delete all the ones I had taken before these.

The Front of Chateau Elan

Muscadine Vinyard, no grapes on them of course

Ryan and I walking the grounds

Let's Play Catch Up....

Ryan and I rang in the New Year by going to the Chick Fil A Bowl Game with The Byron's, and the Soon-to-be Flemings. Tennessee played Virginia Tech at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, but ended up loosing. It was a sad day for the Volunteers, but we still had a great time tailgating before the game with all of our friends that where in town, even thought it was a little cold outside, and being able to be with people that we do not get to see that often. New Years Day was spent hanging out at our house and cooking a great feast of Crab Legs, Steak, Twice Baked Potatoes, and Asparagus. It was amazing!!!

January ended up being a pretty slow month for us, which was nice. Most of November and December was spent traveling home to Memphis for the Holiday's and work travel for me. There was one VERY BIG event that happened at the end of January. Ryan turned 25!!! I threw him a Surprise Birthday Party at his favorite Sports Bar, Stats. Ryan was totally surprised to see all of his family and friends there to celebrate with him, he only knew that his parents where in town for the weekend and he just thought he was going out for a nice dinner!!! People from Memphis, Knoxville, and Atlanta where all in attendance. I think I did pretty good job if I do say so myself!

Taking off his Blind Fold, So Suprised

Ryan and I

"Power T" Birthday Cupcakes!

My New Venture...

So I am going take a stab at Blogging. I have read a lot of different blogs and I thought this would be a really good way for family and friends to keep up with Ryan and I and all that we do. Hopefully I can keep it up to date but bear with me for a while until I really get the hang of it. I'm going to try and do this at least once a week. So keep checking back for updates.