Botanical Gardens & Bonsai Exhibit

One Sunday afternoon we ventured over to Birmingham and found a Bonsai exhibit happening at the Botanical Gardens. It was fun to walk through the gardens and then tour the Bonsai exhibit. Who knew that these plants could be trained and a club kept up with how many years it was in training and how many years old it was. Some of them were even older than Mom & Daddy! ;-)

Handsome:)

It had just rained before we got to the gardens so it was a very pleasant walking tour. 

We were given sheets and pencils to vote for our favorite Bonsai. We all had our picture made with our favorites. Isn't it fun to see the different kinds and favorites?!

I loved the stripped wood. Very neat!

After the Bonsai exhibit, we toured the rose garden and the greenhouse.

me & my crew!

What a gorgeous place!

Racin' to Indy...

Or is Indy racin' to us? Or are we at an Indy Race?

Bridal Shows - 1

E and I were engaged in October and I bought a couple of magazines that month or early November. There was a coupon for a free entry into a Bridal Show the upcoming weekend and for whatever reason I could not make it. But, I looked to see when the next shows were.... January for one in Birmingham and one in Anniston. Allllright! I could make those. Luckily, my mom, maid of honor, and a bridesmaid who lives in Birmingham were able to go with me to the Southern Bridal Show.

We left early because I knew it was from 12-5. We picked A up at her apartment and made it to BJCC not too much after 12. We all stayed together but A & H helped me enter drawings so we would end up hitting different booths. I made labels with all of our pertinent information so it was easy to share that task! I tried to talk to the vendors I was actually interested in, and they did the rest. Once we saw all the wedding cake samples, we were all pretty excited to be there! ;) Anyway, this event was total chaos (to me anyway). It was packed out. We had bags FULL of information. Finally, about 2:30 we realized we had been to every booth and I was pooped! We hadn't had lunch, so I was ready to go find some grub. While looking for a Jim-N-Nick's, we somehow ended up by the Vulcan and made a pitstop there. We went to the Jim-N-Nick's and there was an ambulance outside! We sat there for a minute and a fire truck was coming in so we decided to move on to a different Jim-N-Nick's. It was delish. ;-) Fun day!!

EDIT - ADD INFO - I had to come back and add this story... I was very cautious to pack a bag of just what I thought I needed. None of us had ever been to a show before so we weren't sure what to expect. When in the parking lot, the girls where deciding what to take in and starting naming off what all they had in their purses. The both had many of the same items, 2 or more in some cases and finally we decided that they could leave some things behind but take the essentials. It was rather hilarious, and I'm sure a ya-had-to-be-there moment, but we will remember it. ;)

The ultimate blogger struggle... Not getting your pictures to line up. Ahhhh! So, these are quite the adventure but all from the same day.

A finds her apartment on the map while we were visiting Vulcan.

Fun at the photo booth! (Check out A's hat. Yes, it is backwards.)

And more! Mom turned A's hat around for her. ;)

The view from Vulcan. Neither H nor A had been to Vulcan so when we were literally at the foot of it, we swung in for a culture lesson!

Vulcan

Fun girls 

Being silly!

I got a retweet from the Southern Bridal Show! 

Here we are on our chariot!

Mom and me

TSO! TSO! TSO!

Ever seen the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?! We went to the show in Birmingham. It rocked our socks! I can post pictures and videos but it is nowhere like being there to actually experience the show with the fire, lights, and action. We were in the upper level, about 10 rows up. By most standards, not the best seats. However, the TSO team does not forget about the common man in the cheap seats (ha! cheap is used relative to the closer seat prices!) and tailors parts of the show to benefit those in the nose-bleed sections. 

Check out their site for bios, tour dates, and videos!

See the square section at the front of the picture? That's the violinist and guitarist rising up to play for us! There is no zoom for this picture. 

Fire! I was probably too excited to get have a steady hand.

Again, playing both stages.