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!

Thursday Night Out with the Bassis

Last night we ventured to South Minneapolis to try out Cafe Maude with friends Glynne and Lorenzo Bassi. Cafe Maude is a cute little bistro with a French flair to the menu. I must admit I am not really a fan of French food in general, but the menu had some interesting and tasty items with especially great desserts. The real highlight though was catching up with Glynne and Lorenzo. What a year they've had since little Grayson was born at 25 weeks in Italy last July! A big Happy Birthday shout out to sweet baby Grayson who recently celebrated his first birthday!! (Note: I shamelessly got this pick from FB as I forgot to take camera to dinner)

A visit to "The Land"

Well, after putting a significant portion of my pay check toward paying off "The Land" as we refer to it during the first years of our marriage, I finally got to see more than just a drive by view of our land investment over the 4th of July! It really is a beautiful undeveloped piece of land with rolling hills, a small lake, etc.(about 1 hr 15 minutes from the Twin Cities adjacent to the Kimball, MN Golf Course.) Paul, Ace and I did a bit of hiking around the interior of the land, which was an adventure which Ace LOVED, but it was quite hot and sort of buggy so we called it a day and headed back to the Twin Cities. Paul even brought home a few wood ticks unexpectedly -- what a treat!>@?#!

We do not know exactly what we'll eventually do with this land, but in the short run I guess we are very thankful we invested in this rather than putting more money in the stock market over these past couple of years. Also, regardless of the future appreciation potential as my mom might say, if all "goes to Hell in a hand basket" we can pitch a tent and live off this land!!! (Let's hope that never happens as about 3 days of camping is about all I can take and wood ticks are not an acceptable accessory!!) LOL!! We hope to make another trip up this winter and do some snow shoeing or maybe even cross country skiing. Paul has even been talking about maybe having a guys "shooting day" if we can find a time this Fall.

4th of July at the Brown Family Cabin

What beautiful weather we had for the 4th this year! It was a terrific day to spend with Paul's parents, Pat and Marv, Karl (Paul's brother) and Heather along with Spenser and Abbie, frequent stars of our blog. Along with Ace, Paul's parents lab Sammy (Ace's "girlfriend") and Bruno (Karl's family dog) also joined in the fun at the cabin. A few highlights were getting Ace and Sammy to pose for a picture together, watching Spenser climb trees like a true monkey, playing with Spenser, Abbie and Ace by the lake and eating all the good food prepared mostly by Pat and Heather with Karl manning the grill.

Summer BBQ with the Datus-Wards...Fun...Fun..Fun!

Well, summer is in full-swing and I am trying very hard to enjoy every second of it without letting myself get bummed by how fast it is flying by! We have had very good weather pretty much every day I've been in town this summer (I am knocking on wood right now) and I REALLY hope the fabulous weather continues. At the end of June we ventured out to see our friends Geri and Jason Ward, baby Brody, and Emily and Joe Serrano for our second BBQ of the summer. From the pulled pork sandwiches to the YUMMY Cowboy Caviar (we thank Jason for passing Emily's recipe on to us so that we can enjoy again. It was so good!!) we thoroughly enjoyed all the food and ate a belly full for sure. Baby Brody has grown so much since I saw him when he was just a few weeks old. What a cutie!! You can see many more adorable pics of Brody on Geri's Blog (Baby Ward 2009) by clicking on their icon on the right hand side of this blog.

2009 (Belated) Bunny Brunch

I didn't quite get caught up with all my belated posts over the Holiday weekend! This year we took Spenser and Abbie to the 2nd Annual Bunny Brunch at the Golden Valley Country Club. We had such a great time watching the kids pick out their Easter treats, hunt for eggs and interact with the other kids. I might be a bit biased, but they are the sweetest kids! We are looking forward to Bunny Brunch Part III next year!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!! We had a great day at the Brown family cabin today. I'll write more and post pics very soon, but in the meantime, if you are interested in what we've been up to since I last posted (over one month ago, shame on me...) I am finally getting caught up with seven, yes SEVEN, new posts below!!

Blog Worthy Hotel

Just as a I wrote about the Wigwam Resort that I stayed at in Phoenix for work earlier this year, I think the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, CA is blog worthy! ;-) Now, let me be clear it is NOT on par with the Viceroy down the street which is absolutely FANTASTIC and AMAZING, or The Huntley or Shutters on the beach which are both also awesome...but, for a business oriented Sheraton property the Delfina is QUITE nice and has very, very good food (esp. the fresh chocolate chip cookes and vanilla bean ice cream).

Check Please!

Last month I was so happy to be in town for another Check Please event, this time at Rinata, a cute little Italian Restaurant in Uptown. The Check Please concept was introduced by my friend Anna Lee Wahls as a way to try out new restaurants around town while getting together with girlfriends and meeting friends of friends. About 16 of us showed up at Rinata and I had a great time getting caught up with Anna Lee and some of her friends from Target. The food was yummy and the wine refreshing. I'd like to go back to Rinata on a date night with Paul sometime--very quaint and not loud like many restaurants! Only "downside" was the conversation led to a lively discussion about the fascinating ridiculous-ness going on with the show The Real Housewives of New Jersey and now I might have to add ANOTHER guilty pleasure show to my TiVO list (Paul will not be so thrilled! HA HA HA)

Summer Evening at the Ballpark

While out at the ballpark to watch Spenser play ball Paul, Pat, Marv, Ace and I had a great time goofing around with Abbie!!

Our Little Slugger...

Our nephew, Spenser, is playing baseball again this year and continues to show promise as the Brown family baseball star! ;-) Paul and I always enjoy going to Spenser's games and hope to catch at least one more game this summer during the playoffs!

It's Greek To Me!

The title, of course, refers to my rare appearance as a "cook" in the kitchen. LOL! Despite my reputation (well deserved) as "girl most likely to order takeout", I did manage to do most of the preparation for our May dinner club outing. After some scheduling challenges, we finally got together for Greek Night and the menu was excellent! Katy and Dan Farley's very nice new kitchen/dining area remodel was a great setting for lots of good food and laughs. Pictured is our whole dinner club gang and my contribution, the Artichoke Cheesecake appetizer. It was a unique recipe but VERY tasty!! I also prepared a garlic shrimp appetizer that was messy, but tasted awesome!!!

Memorial Weekend Visitors

I was so excited to have the opportunity to squeeze in a quick visit with my dear friends Becky (sorority sister from Mizzou) and Chad Wood over Memorial Weekend while they were in town for a wedding. As a quick side note: for readers who don't know my friend Becky personally (or Rebecca as many people call her these days), she has been the one to design and create all of the FABULOUS Junior League Transfer Committee invitations for me over the past 2 years! She rocks and her custom stationery business, The Plaid Pen www.theplaidpen.com, has been doing great things in Kansas City and with customers all over the country! The above statement is my personal opinion and not an official statement of the Junior League of Minneapolis (<---newly JLM req'd statement)

Paul and I decided it would be fun to meet Becky and Chad for brunch at Hell's Kitchen on Sunday morning. It was so great to catch up with them and it was a good thing we had lots to catch up on because the wait was VERY, VERY long. I think we laughed and shared stories for at least three hours before we got to eat. Unfortunately, the food was not worth the wait. I am sorry to say I was very underwhelmed and disappointed with Hell's Kitchen. I had been so excited to try it out for the first time as I had heard so many people RAVE about it as "THE" breakfast/brunch place in Minneapolis, but I was NOT feelin' it. Our food was average AT BEST. Oh well, the good conversation made up for mediocre food and I suppose it was still fun to check it out. If you are ever looking for a breakfast/brunch spot I swear by The Bad Waitress on "eat street" as the best brunch spot and this experience just reinforced this. You may or may not agree, but I'm just sayin'...Hell's Kitchen is overrated. LOL!