When I was pregnant with Elle, Dave and I went to England to pick up my brother from his mission (along with my whole family).

And I have a giant confession to make about our trip: we snuck into Wimbledon.

Dave, sick of standing in line with the masses to see if we may possibly be able to get in, and being the master of getting into where he wants, found a way in through a maze of workers’ quarters. It was a total labyrinth and I have no idea to this day how he figured it out, but he miraculously found himself right in the practice court with all the bigwigs.

Samprus was there. Martina Hingis. Stefi Graf.

He acted like he was supposed to be there, shot a few gun-fingers at his fav. players, and promptly figured out a way to get not only pregnant me along with baby Max in a stroller in through the maze, he got my whole family in.

And as you know, we are no small crowd.

As we sat there basking in the perfect weather and soaking in one of our favorite sports to watch, Dave and I made a pact: some day we were going to get to all the grand slams.

**note: My Dad, being the honest guy that he is, and in a little bit of guilty retrospect, did end up writing a really nice note to the good gentlemen at Wimbledon to let them know that indeed, their security may have a few glitches along with a check to cover the amount we would have had to pay had we stood in that long line for long enough.

So when we were in New York we went to the U.S. Open.
We had to.

Mostly because of our pact.

But also because Dave found these cheap tickets on the internet.

And really, is there a better way to spend the day than to go hang out watching tennis? Seriously? I don’t think so.

Now that we’ve done the U.S. Open we have two down, two to go.

The U.S. Open is way more crowded than I remember Wimbledon being. It was packed.

Plus it was much more “American.” Waffle fries and the works. At Wimbledon it seemed like they just had crumpets and tea cakes. And American announcers just don’t sound quite as proper as they do at Wimbledon.

A little different flavor. But we loved it.

We watched the Bryan brothers play doubles in the Arthur Ashe stadium. Man they got that ball moving. But they lost in a tight tie-break.

We watched the women’s quarterfinals.

We watched some old-timers like Billy Jean King play on another court.

We rubbed shoulders with Nadal.
It was a near-Paparazzi experience.

My brother had the guts to push through the crowds and get this shot. I’m proud.

I liked this one too…his fingers all taped up from all the play.


So, Paris and Australia, here we come (we may have to be walking around with walkers and false teeth by the time we get there, but you can bet we’re going some day).

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9 Comments

  1. Hi,
    It really touched me about what your Dad did. I'm a huge fan of your Mum & Dad's & love their great examples.

    I'll write again soon & explain why they are so special to me.

    I love your blog.

  2. WOW! Love these pictures. It's just so darn hard to realize how very much fun you're having until you see it in pictures! Hope you don't mind if I lift a couple of these for the Eyrealm and Valuesparenting blog. Trust you to remember to snap EVERYTHING!

  3. Man! You guys do a lot of cool stuff!
    When you plan your Australia trip, we want to come with you!
    So, what exactly do you mean by assignment for our class??

  4. I love tennis but have never been to a pro match-it looks fun! I was glad to meet you at the Stake Baptism day this Saturday. You are even more beautiful in person. I am glad you enjoyed NY 🙂 Michelle

  5. Looks like you had a blast! We went to the US Open last year and it was so much fun. Garrett and his brother spent most of 3 days there. The rest of us just went for the day, but it was quite the experience. We watched the Bryan brothers too! We even got to see Roddick in Arther Ashe–of course we were pretty high up, but it was still great!

  6. Hi,
    I read your blog all the time, but never comment. I had to today because your hubby sounds SO much like mine! First off, he would give anything to go to Wimbledon, and he is also the king of getting in random places, and getting things for free all the time. I even read your post to him and we both had a good laugh about it.

    Plus, a few days before you even posted this, he said next year we should take a trip to new york, just for the US Open. Let me just say, he's jealous now!

    Your family is absolutely adorable!
    April

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