St. Patrick's Day

Being Irish and all I need to do a shout out on St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, this year I was kinda sick with a cold and a little bit miserable. It also fell on Sunday; which made it seems less awesome than usual. My girls were prepared though. They dressed up and had stickers ready to go. I'm glad I was able to at least snap a few pics of them. Claire was proud of herself for dressing as the Irish flag. (Green, white, and gold). Chris and I did try out a soda bread and a colcannan recipe to bring to our Irish family feast. They turned out good, and everyone had a fun evening. Maybe we need to break out the Irish food more often. I know it's belated and all, but Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Vegas 2.0

Vegas again, you say? Yeah baby! This time it was just me and my honey. We jetted off without our kiddos for a fun few days in the sun. The weather was absolutely beautiful; sunshine and 70-80 degrees. If you are interested here is the play by play....it seems as though we are becoming Vegas connoisseurs.

After arriving in sin city our first stop was to the famous 4 Kegs. It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives a while back and we got the must have stromboli. Although it was tasty, I wouldn't waste the gas or time to drive out there again. It was a sketchy neighborhood and the food was only ok.

The next day was our featured event...the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Nascar race!! We weren't really sure what to expect, although we did drive a big F150 truck hoping to blend in. We fueled our tummies up at the Bagel Cafe; which was super delish. Chris got their smoked fish plate, and I had more traditional homemade cinnamon french toast. We made it to the track in time for pre-race entertainment and driver introductions. The sun was out, the bleachers had backs on them, we saw Marie Osmond sing the National Anthem, and the Thunderbirds  did a few fly overs. Then, the cars came out. They were so stinking fast and loud! Part of the reason I wanted to go was to see in person how fast they really were. It was pretty amazing to watch them start the race. All those cars accelerating so fast just inches from each other. Crazy! I thought that it would take forever since it was a 267 lap race, but the time just flew by. We did need earplugs after a little while, but we had a blast!

Afterwards we stopped for tacos and empanadas at Tacos de Los Toritos; which was tasty. Then later that evening we went with a bunch of Chris's family to the most amazing place ever: the Lotus of Siam. It is hands down the best restaurant ever! It is a Thai place off the strip and in a strange out of the way location. If you even sorta like Thai food, you need to go here. I like super spicy food, and I ordered my curry as a 7 on their 1-10 scale. Let's just say, I could barely handle it, but totally worth it.

Our next day was more good food and fun. We started the day out right at Babycakes for creative and tasty pancakes. I got the rocky rhode pancakes which were seriously chocolate piled high with marshmallows, nuts, and whipped cream on top. Chris had a more normal carrot pancakes with eggs benedict. Afterwards, we went to go burn off some of our accumulating calories at the Red Rock Canyon park. It was our second time there exploring and it was great again. There are many, many hikes to do and the desert scenery is gorgeous. We even went off the trail a few times to scramble up higher. It was lots of fun to do together without worrying about kids trying to keep up.

After our hike we stopped for a quick treat at Nielsen's Frozen Custard. It was tasty, and perfect after our hike in the sun! Then we made our way to the Monte Carlo to check in.
The hotel lobby was nice, and the pool was already open for the season. We went up to our room, which was nice, but kinda older and a bit outdated. The bed was comfortable, but our shower would not get hot. That was the only real bummer about our stay there.

We got cleaned up and dressed up nice to head to dinner at The Capital Grille on the strip. It's a fancy pants steakhouse. Our food (steaks, asparagus, truffle fries) was really tasty, and it had a great view, but probably too spendy for what we got.

After dinner, we walked across the street to the Venetian for the show Human Nature's Motown. It was 4 white Aussies singing all sorts of motown hits. It was in a small theater so we got a really great show! It was pretty entertaining. Look up human nature on youtube for a clip of them.

The evening would not be complete without more food, so we went to the Grand Luxe Cafe for the most amazing dessert ever! We had the beignets. That was our first time getting them. If you don't know they are a cross between a donut and a sopapilla. I should have snapped a pic, but when they came out  we devoured them immediately. There was powdered sugar sprinkled on them, and they came with 3 dipping sauces; raspberry, chocolate, and glaze. MMMMMmmmm. Sooo good!

We tried to sleep in the next day, but with the time change and our usual routines, we ended up awake at 8am. We hit up the casino's buffet since it was included in our stay. It only reaffirmed our desire to never pay for a buffet. Not worth it at all. After that we headed out on the strip to walk, people watch, and shop. It was fun to explore new places. We found the world's tallest chocolate fountain at Jean Phillipe's Patissere at the Bellagio. Of course, we also needed a small treat of gelato and a key lime tart while we were there. When we had walked forever, we stopped at Gordon Ramsey's BURGR restaurant at Planet Hollywood. I had the Hell's Kitchen burger, and it was tasty. I don't know if it was worth $13, but it was good, and we can now check that place off the list.

After lunch, feeling super full, we opted to head to a movie. It felt good to sit and relax for a couple of hours while we digested. We had a dinner reservation that night at Todd's Unique Dining. We ran right from the movie to dinner even though we were still a little on the full side. :) The food was good. I had short ribs and Chris had a meatloaf. The salads were amazing, and Chris really liked his tuna appetizer.

We headed back to the strip after that to walk around. We explored the M&M store and the Coke store. It was pretty fun to taste samples of soda that they sell around the world. Some were good, but others were difficult to even taste. One tasted like fizzy scope. Ewww!

After that, we actually went to another movie! Yep, two in one day. Hey, we were on vacay! And since Vegas never sleeps, guess what we did at midnight when our movie got out? Yep, we headed back to the Grand Luxe for more tasty apps and beignets! Wow, we really ate soo much. I feel sick just typing all this. We made it back to our room about 2am. Party animals!

Our last day in Vegas was spent eating more at the Bagel Cafe again, and then exploring the National Atomic Testing Museum. Apparently, they were still testing lots of nuclear bombs in the Nevada desert while we were kids up until about 1989. Craziness. It was neat to talk to some of the older men that actually worked there. Kinda fun and nerdy activity to kill a couple hours before our flight.

Overall, you can see that we packed in our fun and our food while on our trip. We had a fabulous time, and can't wait to go back. Although we are taking suggestions on perhaps trying out a new place  for our next getaway. Thanks a bunch to Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles for making it all possible. Chris and I are grateful!!

Valentines

This year we have been trying really hard to eat healthy most of the time. Chris wants to get in shape for all sorts of races this year, and I want to help him out and maybe get skinnier too. Anyway, I've found that I really crave chocolate, especially when I don't have it around anymore. All I wanted for Valentines Day this year was for some tasty chocolates to stash away for my late night treats. Thankfully, Chris came through. See's to the rescue. He also brought me and the girls some tulips. They were super excited to get flowers. We celebrated on the weekend with a date downtown for some tasty dinner at La Buca, followed by milkshakes at Moonstruck. It was a great Valentines this year!

All dressed up

Chris was nominated for another Nike Maxim award this year. We had the chance to get all fancied up and go have a catered dinner downtown. It was nice to actually know a few people this year that we could sit by. The food was really good. There was salad, super tender steak, and some kind of strawberry custard dessert. The best part was that he won! That makes 5 years in a row that he's won an award. That's crazy awesome. It's pretty hard to even get nominated. I'm so proud of him.

I decided that for this fancy party that I was going to go all out with my hair and makeup. I spent an hour on you-tube watching videos on eyeshadow and hair styles. :)  (I know I am a little bit crazy, but hey, it was fun) I was finally able to pull off the smoky eye look. It actually worked, and I was quite pleased with it. I ended up curling my hair and then pulling it into a low side pony, and then pinning the curls all around to make a curly messy bun. The pictures don't really do it justice, but we had a great night, even if my girls thought I looked "weird".

Vegas anyone?

It all started with Chris. One day he said, "I want to go snow camping with friends." I was thinking, um ok...avalanche, slick roads, hypothermia, getting lost, bears, etc... you name it, I didn't really like the idea. He was super excited though and promised that he'd return, so he went. They had a blast! They even found a snow cave and slept in it. Although it sounds super crazy to me, I have to admit it was pretty manly.

Anyway, I was home with the kiddos on my own, so we ended up hanging out with my parents. They were busy getting ready for a trip to Las Vegas. My dad was traveling there for work and my mom was just tagging along for fun. They were like, you should just come with us. I was thinking that sounds fun and all, but it's TOMORROW. Flights are usually crazy expensive last minute. Sure enough when I checked the usual airlines it wasn't even an option. Then I looked at Spirit. It ended up working out perfectly. I texted Chris as he was coming home from the mountain...."um, honey...I want to go to las vegas." He replied, " okay, sounds fun, when are we going?" "Actually, I'm just gonna go, and you are gonna stay here with the kids...and it's tomorrow." I have a truly great hubby! Not only did he agree to this madness, but he encouraged me to go and live it up.

It was a great little trip. I got to travel with my parents and stay with them in their fancy suite at the Pallazo. We went to fancy restaurants and spent lots of time just talking and having fun. It was freezing cold there, which is strange for Vegas. There was even ice in the fountains. My dad had to work most of the time, so my mom and I shopped and ate our way around the strip. The best was the nightly trek for dessert. I can't wait to go back and try out a few more places!

(view from our 34th floor room)

(brrrr)

(yeah, totally hung out with The Rock)

Christmas 2012

We've had so much fun this year over our Christmas break! On Christmas Eve we had family over to our house for some dance central fun. We also enjoyed a rousing game of chubby bunnies. Yep, we all stuffed our faces with marshmallows. My dad was the clear winner with a total of 11. I did surprise myself by taking second place with 10. It was surprisingly awesome. Next year we will have to come up with another equally fun game.

 

On Christmas morning we opened our gifts from Santa and from each other. It was nice to have a little quiet family time. Then we were off to the Phillips' house for breakfast and more gifts. We spent a relaxing day playing games, watching Brave, and eating food. The next day was Christmas 2.0. We headed over to the Moyle house to eat another tasty dinner and do more presents. The kids had a great time, especially since my sister's puppies were there. They really like playing with them.

The rest of our break was spent mostly just hanging out and playing around with our new stuff. We got the new Dance game with all new songs...so get ready to bust a move if you come over. We also played lots of games, and got together with lots of family.  We went and looked at Christmas lights a few times. Even made the trek to Peacock Lane. I had to work on New Years Day, but we did have a tasty brisket dinner when I got home. It has been so nice to have Chris home over the last week and a half! It will be a bummer to have him go back to work tomorrow. Today we were planning on heading up to the mountain for some fun in the snow, but the girls woke up sick so we had to bag that idea. Oh well. We've had plenty of fun this winter break!

Uncle Ben's big day

My kids just adore their Uncle Ben. He has been the fun uncle, always being willing to play and tickle even when the other grown ups were too tired. Last weekend we were happy to watch him be sealed to his beautiful bride Jill in the Portland temple. It was a crazy weekend, full of family, food, and fun activities. We sure did live it up, and we are still recovering.
Lots of family and friends were able to make it up for the occasion, and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. The guys all partied hard on Friday, spending most of the day paint balling. Then they were off to Fire on the Mountain for 359 wings, and then bowling until late. We ladies were of course working hard getting all the finishing touches ready for the big day.
Calvin (also known as Ben) and Jill looked amazing! We packed a large sealing room, and it was special to be there with the whole family. They got super lucky with the weather. It was chilly, but stayed dry long enough to take pictures outside. There was a luncheon and reception in Gresham, and so we spent the rest of the day and night out there. We had a great time socializing, eating, and dancing! Congrats Cal and Jill, we are all so happy for you both!

 

 My two handsome Men!!