Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in Wisconsin with Jason's family this year and we have so many things to be thankful for; wonderful family, good food and good health.  Oh and early Christmas presents don't hurt either ;-)

Snuggles with Grandma Peggy

Snuggles with Grandpa Bryan

Dora swim suit- all ready for the hot tub!

Zonked out after turkey with Daddy

Loves of my life!

Let the age of Barbies begin

Baby dolls are a girls best friend

On our way to the park

Wheeeeeeeeee

We went to the mall to have photos taken and Eva has a chance to stop and play a bit

Fawn teaching Eva how to jump on hotel beds!

Eva, Isabella and Emma - yay (2nd) cousins!

"I wanna go higher Daddy!"

Dance party to Justin Bieber

Uncle Mark's turn to play the throwing Eva game

Someone looks like Grandma!

mmmmm bacon

Snow!

It has arrived!

November 19, 2011 is the first snow fall of the season and while it's exciting (because snow = winter and winter = Christmas) it ruined the plans we had for today.  This will be the second year in a row that snow has canceled my dad and grandpa's combined birthday party.  But the roads are really bad and we'd rather be safe than anything else so we'll see the whole family for Christmas.

Tyson

I feel like I've been slacking on photos of our Tyson so here are a few of him and Jason being goofy on the couch.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace." ~ Milan Kundera

Wrestling

Breaking Dawn part 1

Many of you know my obsession with all things vampire and this week was a biggy in the vamp-lover world.  The 4th movie of the 5 movie series based off of the Twilight books came out today so myself and 5 other awesomely geeked out friends went to the midnight show last night!  I wasn't able to take too many photos since I didn't want to get in trouble with the theater staff but I did snap a few of us throwing a few back before the movie started.
Vampires + booze + staying up way too late = I'm trying to stay 17 forever! :-)

LaRae

Maria & Tina

Linnea & LaRae

 

Katie + Denver = Unforgettable

My best friend from college Katie, is a total saint and has come to visit me every year since we graduated.  I, on the other hand, am terrible and had not been out to see her in Denver in 5 years! So I took the long Veteran's Day weekend and spent 3 wonderful days with my bestie.
We spent Thursday night catching up and since Katie had to work a half day on Friday, I got to sleep in until.... wait for it.... 12:30pm!  It was glorious!  I have not slept in that late since Eva was born, and I probably won't again for another few years, but it was so nice to re-charge my battery.  Sleeping in led to skipping breakfast and heading straight for happy hour with some of Katie's friends.  Plenty o' beer was had by all- see photos below!

Thursday I woke up at 6:40am and could not, for the life of me, get back to sleep.  Probably my body getting back at me for sleeping so long the day before... so we grabbed some breakfast, gossiped and talked about life, took a nap, got a couples massage and then began the college years traditional of pre-drinking before actually going out.  This saves on your bar tab when you're in college, when you're an adult all it does is get you smashed by 8:oopm but hey, what are vacations for!?  We had dinner at a great Mexican place and I got to meet Katie's elusive boyfriend; elusive because he's like Jason in that he hates crowds, people, loud noises, social settings... just about anything where he has to talk to new people ;-)

After dinner we went to the two most opposite bars in existence.  One was a super posh steakhouse and martini bar with dim lighting, a server who was wearing a bow-tie and drinks that cost as much as a whole bottle of booze at the store.  After that we headed to a total hole in the wall karaoke bar.  When we walked in the front door we took the number of white people in the entire establishment from 0 to 5.  It was easily the greatest bar I've been to in ages- dancing, karaoke, all types of music and cheap drinks.  We closed the place down and finally made it back home around 3:00am.  

And then I was up at 6:40am the next morning! Must have been some cruel joke my body was playing on me but I was not laughing.  After bugging Katie to wake up and entertain me we made our way to Lucille's for a Creole brunch and then stopped and saw the Red Rocks Amphitheater before heading to the airport.  The weekend was over all too quickly and I miss Katie already.  I am so grateful to have such amazing friends.  I love you Katie!

View of the mountains from Katie's balcony

Please note the snow next to the bright green grass.
Only in Denver can it snow so bad they have to have a snow day and close schools and a few days later it's all melted and it's 60 degrees outside!

Happy Hour!

100 oz of Blue Moon

Shots! 

Katie = not sober
And I'm the one not used to the altitude!

Zombie Apocalypse drink!
Ryan and I bonded over our affinity for all things zombie so when this showed up on the bar menu we jumped all over it

This nice young lady thought I looked like I needed a dancer during my karaoke song.... how thoughtful of her!

My beautiful Katie

Girlies + Ryan = hotness

<3 birds

More Blue Moon

Vanessa got her grove on with me

Mimosas at brunch

Red Rock at night- city in background