More Pics of John's Surprise Party

Happy 70th John!!

Ok, while I am finally diving back into blogging...and (gasp) trying to get caught up on about 3 months of fun events, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the other big birthday we celebrated as a family this fall.

My step-dad John turned 70 in October and we had a SURPRISE party for him here in Minnesota and let's just say it was a big surprise! he thought he was going down to the hotel lobby for a casual dinner, but found about 70 friends and family members waiting for him. He was totally shocked! A few friends came that he hadn't seen in many, many years.

Lindsey, his oldest granddaughter did a great job planning locally while my mom got things together and orchestrated getting him to Minnesota for the weekend from Missouri. In addition to providing the cake, Paul and I were the "excuse," John thinking he was coming to MN to look at a house we were thinking of buying.

Happy 70th Pat!!

Paul's mom turned the big 7-0 on December 11th. I hope I can be as active and look as young when I turn 70! We all went out for a nice birthday brunch on Sunday at Majestic Oaks CC and it happened to be a Breakfast with Santa event so I'll have more pics to post shortly.

Third Time is the Charm, Apparently...W San Francisco

After two failed attempts this year to stay at W Hotels in Minneapolis (see earlier post about Valentine's Day disaster) and NYC (my Spring illness causing us to bail on our 5 day trip to NYC), we finally spent a fun filled 3-days in San Francisco at the W Hotel, which we really loved. The interior decor was much more "eco friendly" and different than other W's I've stayed in, but we loved it just the same. One of our favorites was the little light up Buddah in our room. His message, "the greatest meditation is a mind that lets go," was definitely one that we both needed on our short get away!! If you are ever in San Francisco the Blackberry Lemonade cocktail at XYZ Bar is also not to be missed! Cheers!

Go Spenser!!

We finally made it out to see one of Spenser's football games a couple of weeks ago! He played hard and we sure had fun watching him play and playing with Abbie on the sidelines.

Cupcake Break!!

Given the fact I have been too tired/busy/lazy/overwhelmed the past couple of months to blog about anything and given the fact just this week I (again) renewed my VOW to stop talking about getting healthy and getting in shape and actually DO IT, I find it humorous and, I admit, a bit sick that I am taking a few moments to blog about the heavenly cupcake I stopped to pick up on my way to the airport at the famous Sprinkles of Beverly Hills (Scottsdale, AZ location)! The vanilla with milk chocolate cream cheese frosting was so good I think it was worth a couple steps back on my fitness plan. In my opinion, some of the frou frou cupcake places I've been to just don't live up to the hype, but I was impressed with Sprinkles. For some time now rumor has been that they are coming to Minneapolis and I encourage all friends and family reading this to go to www.sprinkles.com and click on locations to vote for Minneapolis as the next city for a shop to open!!!

Last Saturday's Date Night

We had so much fun at Pazzaluna and Kooza, I am ready for another Cirque show asap!! Maybe a winter trip to Vegas is in order... ;-)

Kooza Pallooza!

Paul and I had a fab Kooza-Pallooza date night on Saturday (Well, actually I guess it was a Kooza-Pazzaluna date night). We had a great dinner at Pazzaluna in Downtown St. Paul (pic forthcoming), followed by great seats at the latest Cirque du Soleil show under the big blue and yellow Chapeteaux!!

If you like Gnocchi, definitely check out the tomato basil Gnocchi at Pazzaluna.

It was a great night to be out and about and Kooza did not dissapoint. Being confined to a smaller stage under the tent it was not quite as elaborate as LaNouba, which I saw a few years ago in Orlando (highly, highly recommend if you find yourself anywhere near Disney World) and also different than "O" which Paul has seen in Vegas. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic show. We both agreed the "Wheel of Death" was probably the best part. "O" and The Beatles Love Show are both at the top of my list to see next! Maybe we can find a time to go to Vegas in 2010. I think Kooza is playing through August 8th, so catch a show if you can!

St. Paul Shops, Eats and Sweets!

Last Saturday I met up with friends on Grand Avenue in St. Paul for a great lunch at Cafe Latte (if you have never been to Cafe Latte I highly recommend it for a casual dining spot), ice cream at the Grand Street Creamery (is that what its called?) and fun shopping. One of my favorite shopping spots in St. Paul is Karma, a cute little botique on Grand Aveune. I almost always find at least one cute little gem at a reasonable price point! This trip, a cute little green corduroy cropped jacket for a steal! Can't wait to wear it. Despite the rain, we had many, many laughs all afternoon.

Tavern on France

Last weekend we finally checked out Tavern on France with our friends Julian and Dawn Janes. It was a great casual dining option and I thought the prices were pretty reasonable. It also looks like it has a good Sunday Brunch which might be worth checking out with our "Brunch Bunch" some month and some nice Happy Hour specials! We had eaten on the patio at Via before the restaurant transitioned to Tavern on France and are so glad they kept the patio in tact. It was a beautiful night to sit on the patio and get caught up with old friends. I particularly liked the build your own salad--quite tasty!! If only I had remembered the camera...

Our Brunch Bunch!

Paul and I are very excited to join the Smiths, Wahls and Datus-Wards as part of their monthly Brunch group. Each month a different breakfast/brunch place is picked as a meeting destination, ensuring we can all get together at least once each month! Even though there was a service meltdown at Redstone, we had a great time and are already looking forward to our next Brunch date at the end of August. Next up, the View Restaurant overlooking Lake Calhoun--should be fun!

Happy Friday!!!

I was just all of a sudden feeling very smiley and needed to blog it! ;-) Why, you might ask? I have had a couple of brutal weeks of work, tough schedule, tough situations, clients facing tough recession-driven decisions, etc...but today, I just secured a really big project for third/fourth quarter which is very good for me personally, but also very good for our whole team! What a way to end the week. But before I celebrate, I still need to get back to work for the rest of the afternoon... Have a great weekend everyone!

Colorado National Monument - July 6, 2009

When I was out in Grand Junction, CO for work just after the 4th of July, I decided I needed a mini-vacation, so I spent a couple of hours one evening exploring the Colorado National Monument. It is about a 25-30 mile drive through the park with various "look out" points and trail entrances along the way. I only had time for hiking a couple of the short trails, but would have loved to have had more time to explore and get more exercise. Even in the 95+ degree heat it was a fun short diversion from the work week. I snapped a few pics with my cell phone, not the best way to take landscape photos, but you can get the idea! ;-)

Pork Fest II

Our dinner club dared to reprise the original 2007 Pork Fest last weekend!! We all came to a consensus that we may only be able to handle it once every two years...it takes nearly that long to recover from all that salty meat and gluttony! Emily and Eric Backstrom graciously hosted us along with the Farleys, Doseks and Wilds for a yummy backyard soiree completed with various pork dishes and accompanying side items and salads. The Backstroms outdid themselves this year with not one, but two extra special piggy desserts! Both were awesome, but the piggy cupcake put me over the edge...I should have stopped with the ice cream sandwich pig!! I am rationalizing that playing catch with the kids worked off all those calories....yeah right... ;-)

Our Baby, Ace!

Ace has really been lovin' the slightly cooler temperatures this week since he has his permanently thick coat of black fur! He loves to travel with mom and dad wherever we go!

Bar-B-Q at the Shores for the Youngquists

Last weekend we headed to South Minneapolis for a Bar-B-Q at the home of Wade and Christa Shores to see the Youngquist clan (Mark, Darla, Lauren, Courtney and Hannah the dog) who made their first trek back to the Twin Cities since they moved to St. Louis last summer! Jeff Hames and his two boys, Nick and Alex also joined us, so Paul got some great catch up time with his best college buddies. It was the MOST BEAUTIFUL day and we just hung out all afternoon soaking in the sunshine. We also had some unexpected entertainment from Wade and Christa's girls, Sophie, Olivia and Emma, along with Lauren and Country Youngquist who played dress up for us.

Aftermath of the KY Derby Brunch...

As I mentioned in the previous post, we all thoroughly enjoyed the food at the Kentucky Derby Brunch and some of us more than others...Paul nearly overdosed on BACON...or was it the Bloody Marys????

Kentucky Derby Dinner Club

We hosted the last official JLM dinner club of the year at our house a few weeks ago. The theme was KY Derby Brunch (although we were over a month late with the date) and a few of our dinner club members arrived donning hilarious hats and other redneck "accessories"--unfortunately I didn't capture pics of everything. The food was awesome and we all ate way, way too much!!!

Absolutely Too Cute!!!

My dear friend Kayla Scherder shared these pictures of her two girls Reese and Rylee this morning and they are too cute for words. I haven't seen the girls since Christmas when we stopped by to see their new home in Iowa on our way back from our Missouri visit. They are even cuter today than 7 months ago! We definitely need to get down to Iowa or have the Scherders up to the Twin Cities soon!