Introducing Will!

Will Byrd is here! Luckily, we were in Nashville for the weekend and could venture over to the hospital to meet him. Clair, Rob & Will are doing great!

Baby Byrd

This past weekend, I experienced my first baby shower! Clair, one of my college roommates and friends, is expecting Baby Will Byrd in December. I must say, we did a great job throwing our first baby shower, complete with a "Byrd" theme :)

Old Roommates

Delta Girls with the Mom-to-Be

Minneapolis

Since I am, we will call it "blessed", to travel with my job, Watson sometimes joins me in such locations. Back in the summer, I started traveling to Minneapolis, MN. I really wasn't sure where that was exactly but I have come to learn the area real quick! A couple of weekends ago, Watson flew up to meet me and we, of course, had to hit up the Mall of America along with a Twins Baseball game!

mini-theme park inside the mall

We're Moving...

Ha! Not really BUT if I could move here and not feel homesick or have to work, blah, blah, blah, I would!

ITALY is where we're "moving" to. We just got back, in September, from an amazing, dream trip to several regions/towns in Italy and already want to go back. We visited Rome, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Tuscany Region (Siena, Florence & Chianti) and Venice. As always, we packed a lot of sightseeing during our trip and were exhausted when we left but wouldn't have done it any other way!

Of course, we took hundreds of pictures so there's no way to post them all. Here are a few of our favorites :)

Pisa

Vatican

Rome - The Colesseum

Chianti Region Wine Tour

Hiking in Cinque Terre

Gondola Ride in Venice

Venice

Florence

Spring and Summer thus far...

As usual, it's been quite a few months since I've posted :/ This was so much easier when I started but now I can't seem to just sit down and update. I WILL get better!

Well, since the last post, I believe it was February, we have done a couple of things "post-worthy" - some with pictures and some without!

In April, we celebrated two special occasions: Dad's 50th Birthday (a little early) and Clint getting out of the military. The family came in to Mom and Dad's for the weekend and we ate, socialized and ate some more! (Sadly, this is one of the events that I don't have pictures for. I'm sure someone in my family does.)

Headed down to New Orleans in May for Watson's cousin's (Paige) Wedding! This was my first time visiting NOLA and wow was it fun! Some of the Leonards hosted Paige's Bridal Luncheon on Friday and then we went to the Rehearsal Dinner that night. Saturday was the Big Day, New Orleans style! I have never been to a more authentic, thoughtful, tradition-filled wedding!

Bridesmaid Luncheon

true Cajun food!

@ the Reception

Groom's Cake

Paige & Joe with the 3rd Line Band

This year, we joined the annual 4th of July, Leonard Family Vacation to Hilton Head. We haven't been in a couple of years, so it was about time! Nothing changed much other than all of the people that usually go to Florida, were on the East Coast this year, thanks to the oil spill. So a little more crowded than normal. However, it didn't stop us from laying on the beach and eating well!!

Also, in July, a group of our Greeneville friends rented a pontoon boat for the day on Watauga Lake. Great day to enjoy the sun - no tubing or skiing for us this go around but another trip is very likely! If every lake was like this, I would be there every weekend :)

* take note of the Mullet Low Life t-shirt, which I thought was appropriate lake attire :)

Until next time, have a great rest of the summer!

Winter Trip to DC

Wow..... it's been a really long time since I have posted!! I can't believe March is almost here and I haven't posted anything since New Years!

This past week, I was working in Pennyslvania, yes Pennsylvania (yuck!) and Watson had to go to Iowa, yes Iowa (who goes there?!) for a work banquet/conference so we decided to meet up on Thursday night and head to DC. I have been flying in and out of Baltimore for work, because it's close to my PA client, so Watson flew to Balitimore and we took the train into DC for the weekend. One word describes our trip - SNOW! I have never seen so much snow in my life!

Here are a few pictures of the trip. We also toured the Holocaust Museum, but could not take pictures (if you've ever been there, you know why).

Capitol

Greeneville's finest...

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial - (new since '98) - Awesome!

Lincoln Memorial - (pool in front was completely frozen!)

White House

Needless to say, DC is nothing like I remembered from my 8th Grade Class Trip back in '98! Maybe it was because of the snow or maybe because when I was in 8th Grade, all we wanted to do was socialize, not tour museums. Either way, we had a lesiurely trip of touring the Nation's Capitol!

2010

2010 - really?! "twenty ten, two-thousand and ten, zero ten ..." Whatever it is, I still can't believe it's been 10 years since we celebrated the new millennium!

Watson and I made a last minute trip to the condo in Hilton Head to ring in the New Year! Nothing was going on in Greeneville, so we decided instead of doing things around the house, we would rather be at the beach :) The first day was great weather - 60 degrees. We slept late, ran, ate, hung out at the beach, ate some more then watched the Vols get beat. The rest of the weekend was a chilly 40 degrees, so we went to the outlets and went to see It's Complicated (very good movie). Some would say we were boring but we had a great relaxing 4 days and DO NOT want to get back to the real world tomorrow!

Practically empty beach...

Now, we are back home and freezing!!! Still not wanting to go to work tomorrow and by the way, the house chores are still waiting on us... I guess we can get to that in 2010 :)

Happy New Year Everyone!