Go Bronco's

You might be wondering why I would have Go "Bronco's" as my blog title. The answer is : Coach Kyle aka Yogi

My brother is one of the varsity baseball coaches at our old high school. The team had a awesome year with a 22-2 record. They won the DFAL, and are now on their way to play the NorCal championship game at the Oakland Coliseum tomorrow!

Good luck to all the players and coaches. It's times like this that I would love to live in the Bay Area. I hate missing out :(

Windy City Weekend

Shawn and I spent Memorial Day weekend in the great city of Chicago. I love Chicago in late spring and summer. Shawn's brother and sister both live up there now, so our weekend was filled with fun activities around the city.

We spent Friday afternoon/evening with my cousin Bill and his wife Laura and their 4 kids. It was great to catch up with them, and see all of their kids! From there we headed into the city. Shawn's sister, Amy's husband Todd works at an awesome restaurant called Bin Cafe. If you're in Chicago and like wine and good food and service, this is your place. There is a bigger Bin downtown, but we were at the smaller one in Wicker Park. Todd is the GM, and runs a great ship. The wine flights are well priced. You can also buy wine there. Check them out on the web:
http://www.binwinecafe.com/

From there we headed to a bar that had an awesome DJ, here are some pictures:

Saturday was filled with my favorite activities, sight seeing and shopping. I was lucky enough to be in town during the Nordstrom Half Yearly sale, so for a west coast girl with no Norddy's that was pretty much made my weekend.

Chicago Tribune Building

Taking a picture of ourselves in "The Bean"

Looking towards the city from the California stop on The L

Shawn in front of the newest member of the Trump family

Beautiful tulips were all over the city

After a long day of shopping we headed to Adobo for dinner. The food, margaritas and service there were also very good. They make amazing fresh guac at your table.
Check them out here: http://www.adobogrill.com/wickerpark/index.aspx

Sunday we headed to brunch at the Flying Saucer, then headed to Humbolt Park for the 1st Annual Windy City Wiffle Tourney. We played 4 on 4. My team won! We turned an tennis court with no net into a wiffle paradise.


From there, Shawn's brother Phil, hosted a bbq at his house. It was a great way to finish out the weekend.

PS, thanks Todd & Amy for letting us stay with you!

Memphis In May BBQ Fest

We spent four days on the Mississippi River for the Memphis In May International BBQ Festival this weekend. The Grizzlies had a hospitality tent that was huge, and we were lucky enough to be next door to a team that went to the finals and ended up placing 2nd in the ribs competition. It was so fun to watch them get judged and see the excitement on their faces when the judges left.....they knew they nailed it!
"Sassy Sows" 2nd place ribs

BBQ Fest background: For those of you who live outside of the Memphis area, here is a little bit of info about BBQ Fest. Teams come from all over the U.S. to compete in the biggest BBQ Pork competition. They set up for 3 days before the gates open to friends and family on Wed. The park is open to the public Thursday-Saturday. Thursday and Friday are just fun party days, filled with the smell of BBQ & beer. The teams get serious around midnight on Friday, and Saturday is all business. During the judging on Saturday, you can hear a pin drop in the park. It's all about presentation, quality & taste of the food and the cleanliness of your tent. The tents themselves are pretty amazing, here are some pics of some of the most creative tents: Grizz Tent

"The Shed" Winner, Best Booth

Winner for the past 6 years

WST #1

I was having a bit of a bad day yesterday. I headed to the gym after work and was starting to feel better. When I was leaving the gym and heading for my car I saw something I haven't see in years. Kids doing swimming land drills. It put such a huge smile on my face, and made me think back to my days of land drills. Swimming for the Woodland's Swim Team for 10 years was great. I wasn't the best swimmer, and I actually didn't like competing in swim meets very much, I guess that's because all of my friends and my brother and sister were way better than me, but it was the best way to spend the long California summer.

We lived across the street from the pool, and we literally were there from 7 a.m. on. It was great socialization and an amazing way to keep in shape. I now know why my parents insisted that I stick with it. The trips to Raging Waters, 4th of July, talent/lip singing competitions, spaghetti feeds and shaving my legs for the first time with a group of my girlfriends are memories I will never forget.

I wish I had some pictures to post of us in our green and white swimsuits! I'll try and find some to scan....they're truly priceless.

Here's to the start of swim team season! WST, WST, WST #1!

Tunica, not the Vegas of the South!

Shawn and I headed 45 minutes south of Memphis on Friday to the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, MS. They claim they are the Vegas of the South. I think one of their tag lines might be "Vegas Action, Southern Style." Really? I wonder if any of those people have been to Vegas. The only similarity is gambling is legal! Vegas has amazing shows, ultra hip clubs, beautiful hotels and killer pools (just to name a few differences.) The one thing that was great about our one night get away was the food a Jack Binion's Steak House. We'd been there is the past, but from the second I sat down, I could tell something had changed. The service was better then in the past and so was the food. Now, don't get me wrong the food was good before, but it was GREAT this time around. Turns out they got a new chef about nine months ago! I had sea bass cooked to perfection with a Cesar salad that was made to order at our table. Shawn had the surf and turf. His fillet was cooked at the perfect temp and the lobster was wonderful! We even splurged and had a chocolate trio dessert!





I would go back for the food, but as usual I lost all my "gambling" money on the black jack table in about 10 minutes, you just can't win when the dealer gets 20 every hand!

Long Lost Twins?

Shawn went to lunch with a girl that used to work for him and her 1 year old baby. A lady in the sandwich place came up to them and said, "Oh my goodness, I though you were Michael Buble and you were eating lunch with your young wife and baby." He said this is the second time in recent month that this has happened. I think it's absolutely hilarious.....Do you think they look alike?

Beale St. Music Fest

We had a wonderful music filled weekend here in Memphis. This is one of the weekends that I really look forward to. This year, like most, started out with rain on Friday night. When I say rain I actually mean thunder storms, massive downpours and crazy wind. We were able to catch one show before the rain really started coming down. We left and went to a party to meet up with some friends, then we were going to head back down to see Ben Folds and The Roots. Well, when we got there it started to pour so hard that my Gap anorak jacket circa 1997 didn't keep me dry at all. To boot, I was pushed by a ticket taker who was yelling, "SECCCCUUUUUUUURRRRRRRIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTYYYYYYY," like I was doing something wrong. She took me by both shoulders and pushed me off of the sidewalk into a the street which was more like a river. It was pretty funny considering 1 minute earlier she told us we could stand there! Worst part was, the rain didn't stop and Ben Folds and The Roots both cancelled. Johnny Lang and Sheryl Crow both ended up playing, but I wasn't about to stick around in the rain. When they came on I was half way home!


With all the rain comes lots of mud!



Shawn had a protopup everyday.....kind of sick



The rest of the weekend was beautiful and drama free. We saw the John Butler Trio, Buddy Guy and Matisyahu on Saturday. I have to admit that I was totally impressed by Matisyahu's show. He played a really long set, and during the last song he was pulling fans on stage. Our friend Mat, scaled an 8 foot fence and jumped up onto the 6 foot high stage to dance around! It was so classically hilarious!


We were pretty close to the action

Mat on stage with Matisyahu


Sunday we caught a little bit of the Aretha Franklin show and The Black Crows. Both were good performances and a great end to a crazy fun weekend!


Thanks to CC, Suniti, Mat, Bridget, Tony, Jen & Shawn for making the weekend so much fun!