Gettin' By

Lucky Thirteen.

Well hooooo boy, I've sure been neglecting the ol' blog lately, huh? It's been for a lot of good reasons, though - among them pre-CHA creating, kid's activities, and a jam-packed work schedule - but the best reason has to be the four-day weekend Mike & took to celebrate our thirteenth anniversary.

After leaving the kids with Nana, we stole away to Avon (just outside of Vail) to the absolutely amazing Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch. We first stayed here two years ago for our aniversary and loved it so much we decided to come back for Lucky Number Thirteen. This place is just stunning with its log-cabin inspired architectured nestled into the ski slopes at Beaver Creek (I should note that I am in no way affiliated with  this resort. And they are not paying me to say nice things. However, should they wish to throw a free vacation my way, I would probably take it. Make that definitely take it. Oh yeah baby!)

Upon our arrival, there were delicious chocolate strawberries waiting in our room (and they later brought another plate of Happy Birthday chocolates. Mike and I declined to tell them that neither of us has a birthday in July. Because we kind of like chocolate. Even when it's not our birthday.)

And this little guy, Bachelor, the hotel mascot (a 16-week old St. Bernard) greeted us in the lobby:

We spent most of our time lounging at the pool:

and staring at the scenery through the giant windows in the beautiful lodge area:

And consuming lots of adult beverages:

Sunday night we drove over to Vail and had dinner at Russell's, a local steakhouse that sits right on the gorgeous Eagle river:

And we took cheesy phone photos while waiting for our meal:

And afterwards, back at the lodge, I had to pose with my fabulous new belt buckle (because even though the traditional 13th anniversary gift is lace, I wanted sterling silver instead):

And Mike posed a bit more provacatively, ala the Britney Spears Crotch Shot:

Which made me laugh.  A lot.  (It's the key to a successful marriage, I think.)

It was a fabulous weekend of celebration, laughter, and love.  And I can't wait for the next 13 years with this guy.  Happy Thirteen, baby!

 

Hope your Wednesday is wonderful!

Five on Friday {Saturday Edition}

1.  Realized about half-way through yesterday that I had failed to do a Five on Friday post.  Knowing I was disappointing all seven of you who read the blog was not enough to make me leave my lounge chair at the pool to come and post.  {sorry}  If I had a shiny new iPad, I just might be able to go to the pool AND blog.  hmmmmmm....

2.  Am currently fueling up with coffee and a bagel and trying to get myself psyched up for the 10-mile run that awaits me when I finish this post.  Listening to Eye of the Tiger and Chariots of Fire and such, because, you know, they make the whole exercise thing seem noble.  And worth it.  Am I buying it?  Um, not so much.

3.  In planning an upcoming trip to Austin, Mike and I have made the brave decision to take the kidlets to the best water park in America:  Schlitterbahn.  Our biggest challenge with the excursion?  Getting our children to stop calling it the ShitBomb.

4. Realizing my mouth is watering just thinking about eating barbeque in Austin, namely at the one and only Salt Lick.  And simultaneously making the important self-realization that while Chariots of Fire does not really inspire me to go run, the promise of a huge slab of ribs does. 

5.  And because you should be rewarded for stopping by on a weekend and reading my drivel, I'll hook you up with the funniest YouTube video I've seen in a long time.  Be warned - after viewing you may randomly bust out singing the lyrics Mullet with headlights! for no good reason. And you'll giggle.  LOTS.  Enjoy! (the video and your weekend!)

It was for a good reason, you know.

I know with the exception of a few scrappy posts, my blog has been neglected lately,  But I had some pretty good reasons for going AWOL for awhile.  It involved a little of this:

 

And possibly some of this:

 

And many, many attempts to get a family photo for Christmas cards:

(Which, as you can see, Riely was not one bit happy about.)

Yep, we bumped our typically February vacation up to November, narrowly missing the tropical storm of Ida as we landed in Cancun last week.  We made the trek south down to Akumal and spent many days doing a whole lot of nothing.  And it was marvelous. :)

We got in very late Monday night, welcomed back to Denver with the reality that winter has arrived, in the form of several inches of snow and a sizzling 19º.  Ack!  I'm spending the week bundled up in sweaters and scarves, sipping my new found coffee love, Honey Nut Drizzle by Archer Farms, and attempting to focus on the 276 emails that landed in my inbox while I was on vacation.  If I owe you a note, please bear with me.  I'm still on Mayan Riviera time.  Happy Wednesday, my friends!

A decidedly non-laborious Labor Day.

To celebrate the long Labor Day weekend, we loaded up the family car and made a road trip out to Kansas to see my grandmother, who celebrated her 93rd birthday just a few days before our arrival:

 

The kids love it there, as there's always lots of fun activities, like fishing at cousin Jack's pond...

 

 

and learning to drive the Green Weenie on the dusty country roads (even though you're only eight)....

 

and blowing lots and lots of bubbles....

 

 

and holding target practice on an unlucky Sprite can...

 

and keeping Grandpa cool in the Kansas heat...

 

and eating lots of nutritious foods...

 

In exchange for letting them have so much fun, the kids repaid us by letting us kiss and pinch their adorably chubby cheeks...

 

douse them with a few water balloons...

 

and use them as end tables when there was no other suitable place to set our beer...

 

And that about sums up our end-of-summer bash.  How was your weekend??

Celebrating Eleven.

Can you see I'm developing a standard blogging M.O. after the weekends?  Monday rolls around and I'm suddenly running around like mad, trying to catch up on all the stuff that got neglected over the weekend (thus the lack of Monday blog posts.)  But the relaxing summer weekends are totally worth it.

Last weekend was exceptionally special, as Mike and I were celebrating anniversary #11 on Saturday. Since we were married up in the mountains (near Devil's Thumb Ranch) we decided a weekend getaway in the high country was in order.  So on Friday and we headed up to to Vail for an adults-only weekend.  We had booked the mini-trip online, and weren't sure what to expect since neither of us had been up there in the summer before.  But when we pulled into Bachelor Gulch where the hotel was located, we were blown away by how beautiful it was.  Seriously.  And we both grew up in the mountains, so we're not easily impressed. But it was breathtakingly gorgeous:

The log-cabin inspired architecture with the huge wood beams and stonework blended seamlessly into the mountains surrounding the property.  And the flowers beds on the property were A-MA-ZING.  They were overflowing with colorful natives (I so want my yard to look like this!) and seeing them totally reminded me of the Tom Petty song Wildflowers, which was played at our wedding (awwww...) Yes, I'm being a cheesy, sentimental romantic. :)

The weekend package included breakfast in the room each morning (a delicious spread that was ALMOST to pretty to eat - almost - there was bacon that HAD to be consumed, people!) and a daily afternoon couples' massage, which left us too relaxed to do much of anything but lounge by the gorgeous pool (and keep the poolside waiters busy by ordering lots of adult beverages!)

Local micro-brews, anyone??

Every evening at dusk, the hotel starts a bonfire on the patio, and supplies huge baskets of marshmallows and roasting sticks.  We grabbed our seats early and enjoyed the scene:

So here's to eleven wonderful years...and many, many years to come.  So happy (and blessed!) to be on this journey with my best friend.

Wishing you all a fabulous week!

Home Again.

We're home and spending the next few days sliding back into a summer routine.  Our Disney trip was wonderful - jam packed with coasters, carousels, characters, and of course, cotton candy.  The few melt downs (by both mama and kiddos) were countered by plenty of magic moments.  All in all, it was a great vacation.  I've got lots of photos to edit, but here's a quick run through of some of my favorites:

Disney entrance (actually taken on our last day at the park)

With Tigger, one of the many icons we got to meet.

Meeting Aurora after an eternal 90 minute-wait.  I think I was more ecstatic than R to meet her - I got all teary-eyed!  (geesh!)

Posing with Mater and Lighting at California Adventure.

One of several rides on King Arthur's Carousel.

The Coaster Cam's shot of Hayden and me on California Screamin'.  (Despite the expression in the photo, he really did have fun!)

Enjoying the best cotton candy on earth.  Seriously.

A serendipitous meeting with Mickey during our last few hours at the park...and even though I had no time to adjust my camera settings for the dark room, getting this (imperfect) shot was the ideal ending to our visit.

So today I'm catching up on emails, finishing up some work projects, and after a trip to the pool, hope to dive into several scrappy boxes I got while we were away:  A big delivery of colorful KI goodness, my July JBS kit, and the Soda Fountain kit from Studio Calico.  Life is good!

While I'm Away...

By this morning, I should be off galavanting with the Mouse (and hopefully enjoying happy, cooperative kiddos and maybe perfect weather, too?  And no long lines of stupid people wearing socks with sandals? I can hope, can't I?!?)   And Typepad is telling me I just spelled galavanting wrong.  Is it galivanting?  No.  Gallavanting?  Nope again.  Well, whatever.  You get the idea:  I'm paying a visit to Mickey and I don't mean Rourke.  (Now that would be a blog entry, there, I'm telling you!)

So yeah.  I'm such a considerate blogger that I didn't want to leave you readers hanging while I'm away so I conveniently scheduled this post to share my last two JBS pages with ya.  Not that I'm trying to say that viewing my pages is like a trip to Disneyland, or anything. But at any rate, buckle your seatbelts and keeps your hands inside the ride at all times.  And enjoy, ya hear?

(On this page, my kit was running low, so I did add a few items that weren't actually in the original kit.  Don't sue me or anything, but the kraft background, the punched scallop edge, and the white buttons were extras I threw in there.)

Again, just a few pieces appear here that weren't in the kit:  the black tulle ribbon (easily found at Michaels), the scrap of burgandy cardstock (punched with the Fiskars Threading Water border) and the vintage button (from an old jar of buttons I scored at a flea market.)

For some more inspiring work with this kit, be sure to visit the JBS Inspiration blog, alrighty?!