Connecticut in September

My annual trip to Connecticut is usually in March for the Big East tournament when it is cold and grandma and grandpa are not there. However, this year I got the opportunity to go in September when Fall was coming (I wish I could bring the weather home with me) and Grandma and Grandpa were still there! I came to see the USA women's basketball team play against Australia (ranked #2) on Friday night and Spain (ranked #3) on Sunday afternoon. But I also got to bake and shop with Aunt Jeanne, have dinner with the CT Radcliffs, got to play Trouble (and loose terribly, Oh, and did you know there was a generic brand) with Jeanne, Barbara, and Kurt, and visit the ladies at Radcliff Wire! It was a great trip! Thank you Aunt Jeanne for taking such good care of me from the yummy breakfasts to driving me all over shopping to taking me to the games to being patient with me while teaching baking (the easy and the complex). Thank you Uncle Charlie and Aunt Barbara for the yummy dinner and opening your home to us! Grandma and Grandpa- it was sooo good seeing you and spending time with you! I cherish every moment we have together! Grandpa- remember to use your oxygen and walk inside your walker, not outside. I love you all very much!

USA vs. Austrailia (we had great center seats and we beat them by quite a lot)
The very tall (6'8") Austrailian player who is only 19

Lindsey and Renee getting ready to go in

Coach Geno with his current/former players

Shopping at IKEA (always have a blast with Aunt Jeanne here!)

Maya was very scared of me but I got a picture because she was on her leash (love those green eyes)


Saturday night Aunt Jeanne and I baked (and baked and baked and baked and baked) cookies for the Women and Girl's fund Dinner that is coming up (Aunt Jeanne is in charge of desserts)

Cherry Blossom Cookies (before they were frosted)

Aunt Jeanne taking over the pressing job

Yummy cookies... which one do you think I pressed?

Marshmellow cookies that tasted really good but did not look like we thought they would


USA vs. Spain (very close game... Spain is awesome but not quite as good at USA!)
We had the BEST seats (row F behind the team)

Diana (former UConn player) looking straight at the camera! (yep, our seats were that good)

Time out huddle

Coach Geno's daughter and granddaughter

Ball going into the net! :)

Tina-love her smirk and Renee (both former UConn players)

Kara Lawson (former Tennessee player, works for ESPN on tv) and Renee- love her smile

Team celebrating after barely beating Spain- they are really good)

Coach Geno and his wife

The raspberry white chocolate tart we took to Uncle Charlie and Aunt Barbara's (was so hard to make but tasted so good... so it was totally worth it)

The best corn salad EVER (we took this to dinner too)

Grandma (wearing the shirt the grandkids got her for Christmas) and Grandpa

Gretchen and Aunt Alice tossing the softball back and forth

Kurt with his very cool soccer ball

Gretchen with her adorable pig tails (who knew rubberbands for braces made great ponytail holders)

Barbara reading to Gretchen as she shows off her farm animal sounds

Loving our goodbye hugs