Monday, December 28, 2009

It's really over??

I still can't believe Christmas has come and gone... Everyone spends so much time decorating, shopping, cooking, traveling and preparing for Christmas, then it ends so fast. Why is it that the older you get the faster time flies??

Last year, Watson and I decided to alternate Christmas with our families and this year was with mine. It was a special Christmas for the Riggs Family because we all were home! Clint has been in Afghanistan the past 2 years so it was a blessing to have everyone home again!

Riggs Family


Jason & Lauren

Clint & Kristin

Watson & I

The coolest brother :)

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Snowy Saturday

We saw the first snow of the year today and woke up to a "Winter Wonderland"!






and had enough snow to build this...



tried to make it life-size but no luck - next time!


and do this...


While I had the camera out, I decided to take a couple of pictures of our house decorated for Christmas.

Our 4th Christmas Tree together

New Breakfast Room

Card Tree/Holder

Monday, November 30, 2009

Been there, seen that!

We can check London and Paris off our "wish list" of travel spots! After months and months of planning this trip, it ended so quickly, as all trips do!. I guess that happens when you have fun! Packing in all of the sites of those 2 major cities, in one week, was not easy but we saw everything we wanted to see and experience. After an all night flight to London, we had a great few days seeing all of the famous landmarks, listening to the British accent and eating the well-known, not so good food. After the train ride from London to Paris, we went to museum after museum, made numerous trips to the Eiffel Tower, ate our weight in crepes and baguettes and walked until our feet fell off! It was definitely an adjustment not being able to read signs or speak French but thanks to Watson's ability to say "I don't speak French, do you speak English?", we made it through the city with our TN accent :) Needless to say, we are jet lagged and are wanting to go to bed at 7:00 pm. Hopefully, we will get back to a normal schedule shortly!

Of course, we took way so many pictures that posting them would be impossible. Here are a few to enjoy...


Houses of Parliament

Big Ben

London Eye

Tower of London

St. Paul's Cathedral

Trafalgar Square

Rain, Rain, Rain

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Kensington Palace


Army Museum & Napoleon's Tomb

Orsay Museum

Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower


Rue Cler Neighborhood where we stayed

Notre Dame

Louvre Museum

Mona Lisa (really is that small & look at all of the people!)

Orangerie Museum - Monet's "Water Lillies"

Seine River

Versailles Palace

Gardens of Versailles

Yummy nutella & banana crepe



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

H1N1

So... I guess I am officially subject of peer pressure, or maybe media pressure. 20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes have all been reporting terrible stories of perfectly healthy people being hospitalized or even dying of the Swine Flu. I have never gotten a flu shot in my life and was determined not to get the H1N1 vaccine either. My reasoning is silly - I HATE shots! That's all. Not because I thought I would get sick or because of the vaccine shortage or long lines. I just didn't want to get a shot that was not "required". In the end, I failed at being stubborn! I made Watson and I get the FluMist last night for H1N1 (not the shot - ha!). We waited our 20 minutes afterwards and are still feeling good today!

Moral of the story - get the H1N1 vaccine (or mist) if you are in one of the high risk groups!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fall is Here!

Colorful leaves, sweaters, boots, caramel apples, football, mums, soups, caramel apple and pumpkin spice lattes .... all remind me that Fall is here!

Here is our house with Fall decorations:



I have wanted to make caramel, chocolate, candy apples for a very long time. This past Saturday, a couple of girls and I got together at the Armstrong's to finally make them, well 22 total! So much fun to act like kids for the night! We had chocolate and candy everywhere!


Apples with Caramel


Finished apples - so proud :)


Here are my 5...

Erin, Amy, Melissa and I after we finished!

Monday, September 14, 2009

West Coast Fun

After being up all day Saturday, flying all night and finally making it home Sunday afternoon, we are back but very sleepy! Just a few of the trip highlights (and pictures):


Sea Lions right off of the pier

Porpoises putting on a show for us

Blue Whale - the largest animal I have EVER seen! It was around 115 ft. long - longer than our boat!!! A little scary when it was right next to us!

Mama and baby Blue Whale




In one of the tasting rooms

Grapes

Tasting at Robert Mondavi