Have to Brag a Bit....

Obviously I am biased, but take a peek at what a cutie my little neice Kailey is. She'll be exactly 6 mos. on December 27th. Just love how happy she is in this picture with Santa!! Happy Holidays...

Paul, Make a Wish!!

A birthday cupcake at Salut!

Happy Birthday to the Best Husband a Girl Could Ask For!

Just returned home from a lovely dinner with my hubby for his birthday! Due to my travel we don't always get to spend our actual birthdays together, but tonight we had a great evening walking to dinner at one of the great restaurants in our new 'hood! Today's fantastic weather was an extra birthday treat!! Now we just need to decide where we are going to go for a short birthday celebratory Fall trip before we get into full blown holiday madness....

Fall Winery Fun

A couple of weekends ago Paul and I traveled to New Ulm for a winery and bed and breakfast weekend with our friends Leslie and David. We had AWESOME weather on Saturday and decent weather on Sunday despite horrible predictions for sleeting rain!

We started out at the Morgan Creek Vinyards which was very cute! We did a tasting and ate some yummy appetizers in the sun and then by the huge fire pit before moving on. After a quick check-in and clothes change at the Bingham Hall Bed and Breakfast we ventured out to dinner at the local German restaurant, Kaiserhoff, for some German fare (well, I must confess I ordered fried shrimp while everyone else had German fare, but it was good nonetheless).

We also got to see the end of a fantastic Mizzou Tiger win as well at a sports bar near the Kaiserhoff. It was a full day of fun!

On Sunday we visited a couple of local "attractions," stopped by the Schell Brewery gift shop for some goodies, had lunch at a "wild west" style restaurant in Jordan, MN and stopped to pick up fresh apples and other assorted goodies before heading back to the Twin Cities!

A perfect fall getaway!

Bad Blogger!

Ok, so I must confess... I have been the worst blogger over the past few months. Between our move that seems to be never ending, projects on our new home, trying desperately to try to regain some level of physical fitness, work and general life "stuff" I can't seem to get much posted. However, I am renewing my commitment to blog! Hopefully you'll be hearing from me more regularly going forward! ;-) Cheers! Becky

Congratulations Dani and Josh - Welcome Mallory Ann Boehm

Ok, so the 2010 baby fest in my family is fully underway!! My cousin Dani gave birth to a healthy, darling baby girl this week, so now my new niece Kailey will have a playmate. Just a couple more weeks until another cousin, Emily, has her second baby, so Christmas will be tons of fun with three babies and Bella (Emily's toddler) crawling around!

To add to the intrigue are guesses about whether Emily will have a girl or a boy. On my mom's side of the family there are four daughters (including my mom) and a son. They produced 8 girl grandchildren altogether. My sister and 4 other cousins that have children already have produced 9 grandchildren with 7 girls and only 2 boys. Looks like the girls rule by a landslide so far!

Introducing Kailey Reese Robb - 5 lbs 4.8 oz

I am so excited that my sister Katie's baby girl, Kailey Reese, arrived while I was home for her baby shower on June 27th! We had joked for weeks that having a shower so close to the delivery date (1 week before due date) was a bit risky and that if my sister went into labor we would just celebrate without her... but we never really thought it would actually happen. But, it did! Congratulations to Katie and George, she is just perfect. Good things do come in small packages!! More pics to come...

Fab Weekend in Philly with Dear Friends

You know you are getting old when you can say you've been friends with someone for over 25 years... but on the bright side, it is an absolutely wonderful feeling to have such dear life-long friends that you are still in touch with and enjoy spending time with. So, in celebration of wonderful friendships several of my good friends (Swati, Mariam, Holly and Kate who lives only 30 minutes from Swati coincidentally) from Junior High/High School got together with our spouses in Philadelphia May 14-16 with the hope of making it an annual tradition! For the first annual, Swati and Claudio hosted us all at their lovely home in Gladwyne, PA. They definitely set the bar very high for the rest of us with all of the great food and spacious accommodations!!! We had an absolutely amazing meal Friday night and an equally amazing birthday cake dessert to celebrate Mariam's birthday (May 13th). Saturday the boys checked out a pub and the historic area of Philly while the ladies had a trip to the spa for pedicures, a wonderful lunch at a French Bistro Cafe and did some window shopping. Saturday night we went to a fab Asian fusion restaurant "Nectar." The weather was amazing too and we can't wait until next year! Rumor has it we may be going to Berkeley, CA to Holly and John's and maybe even a little trip to the wine country???

2010 Transfer Wine Party

I have no idea how May flew by so fast, but we kicked it off with a fun night at Leslie and David Niemoeller's for the 2nd annual JLM Transfer Wine Tasting Party. Had so much fun, forgot to take many pics but here is a fun one of me with friends Leslie Niemoeller (host) and Gail Colonna.

Spring Fling 2010

Last night, Paul and I headed out to the Wayzata Country Club to attend the Junior League of Minneapolis first annual Spring Fling fundraiser. It was a terrific time and we had so much fun seeing so many friends, meeting a few great new people and supporting all of the wonderful Junior League projects. The night just flew by. I am already looking forward to next year! Unfortunately we were having so much fun we forgot to take many pictures! (Sorry mom, I know you wanted to see my dress!) At least we got one good one of the two of us.

I Gotta Feelin'....Black Eyed Peas Rock St. Paul

A few weeks back, Paul and I had a date night with dinner and Pop!! St. Paul followed by an absolutely rockin' concert at the Excel Center. Ludicrous opened for the Black Eyed Peas and it was an awesome show!!! We also were pleasantly surprised at how some of our pics turned out given we were pretty far back from the stage! Next concert on the horizon, U2 in June...we can't wait...

Easter Sunday Brunch with the Brown Family

This Easter Sunday we hosted Paul's family for brunch like last year! Paul out did himself this year with an awesome egg casserole--a recipe we will definitely use again--and many other yummy treats!! Thanks to Heather and Pat for bringing the tasty coffee cake, cupcake and banana cream pie! This will be our last holiday celebration in our current home! We look forward to hopefully hosting again next year in our new home...

Third Annual Bunny Brunch

The Saturday before Easter we took Spenser and Abbie to the Junior League's annual Bunny Brunch! As always a good time was had by all! Spenser and Abbie enjoyed all of the games and prizes even though they were geared toward younger kids. Abbie also made a craft necklace and colorful puzzel with our little friend Bea Bassi. It was also fun to see many of our good friends and their kiddos! (Pictured Geri Datus-Ward and Brody)

Happy 4th Anniversary!

When April 8th rolled around this year Paul and I could hardly believe we have been married for 4 years and have known each other for nearly 8!!! We celebrated with our first visit to Manny's Steakhouse downtown in the swank Foshay tower. The restaurant has a great vibe and we loved it, but as I mentioned in my prior post if you aren't looking for an obscenely huge piece of meat (see the infamous Manny's bludgeon of beef pictured) and don't mind driving a bit further, we discovered you get the same quality at Pittsburgh Blue for about 25-30% less money. For example, the exact same filet I had at Pittsburgh Blue was $10 more at Manny's...the same fab hash browns and asparagus each several dollars more, etc....shocking, I know! Who would have thought? We knew both were Parasole restaurants of which we are big fans, but had no idea the menus would be so similar. The downtown location and fast passed vibe at Manny's along with the nearby W Library Bar are still worth the trip downtown, however! Cheers to many, many more anniversary celebrations in the future!

Celebrating 75 Years!

In celebration of Marv's (Paul's dad) 75th Birthday (and also to thank Pat and Marv for all of their help while we were on vacation in February (dog sitting for Ace and SHOVELING the mother load of snow we received while we were gone), we went to Pittsburgh Blue and had a way-too-big, but fabulous meal. If you have not been to Pittsburgh Blue or Manny's you MUST try the hash browned potatoes and the asparagus. On a related note, if you aren't aware, Pittsburgh Blue might as well be called Manny's West as the menu is remarkably similar! Not realizing this, we got a double dose of excellent red meat with a trip to Manny's one week later to celebrate our anniversary! Not necessarily heart smart or wallet friendly but yummy!

Busy Spring!

So far, we are lovin' the fabulous Spring here in Minneapolis, but boy is it going fast!!! Once again I am way behind on my blog posts, so am going to try to get up to speed this afternoon. Pictured here, Ace our nearly 12 year old "baby," is basking in the sun on one of our 70+ degree days. Ahhhh, to have a dog's life...

Our Next Home!!

Finally, after literally looking at 100s of houses over a long period of time, we have sealed the deal and signed a purchase agreement tonight!!! Closing is set for July 1st! We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will actually be able to take possession on the same day, but if the current owners can't find a home in time to close by then we have agreed to rent back to them for a few weeks if absolutely necessary. They are very ready to move to a bigger home in the same neighborhood with their three boys, so we will be thinking positive thoughts for them as well over these next weeks as they search for their perfect next home!

After all this looking, it is logical to ask why this house over all the others? It is a good question and one that we can hardly even answer. We have asked ourselves this several times over the past few weeks as we are almost surprised at the decision ourselves after some of the wild scenarios we've considered such as huge (massive even) rehabs, building new, unique homes in random locations, etc.! This cozy cottage just feels right for us "right now." I guess it really was a combination of things, but once I got out of the mode of thinking our next house had to be forever the two main deciding factors were: 1) it is smack dab in our favorite area, walking distance to all of the conveniences and shopping of 50th and France, parks, Edina schools (just in case!), close to friends (Can't wait to be able to walk over Rachel and Anna Lee), city lakes and downtown, plus easy access to many other areas of the cities and 2) extremely particular current owners who have lovingly cared for the home since they moved in in 2004. We decided it was worth compromising on size as we can always move up to a bigger house in a few years if we find the perfect one or we've had a builder look at the home with us and the builder felt that it is better candidate than many homes in the Brucewood/Country Club area for an addition off the back if we want to do it because it has good access to the lot. Of course, now we need to get ours ready to sell and my mind is already churning on decorating ideas, etc. ;-)

We can't wait to get settled and have friends and family over!

Noel Coward's Brief Encounter at the Guthrie

This past Sunday night Paul and I went out for a lovely Sunday evening with Karl and Heather, Paul's Brother and sister-in-law. The night was a very thoughtful Christmas gift to the four of us from Paul's parents. We ate dinner at the Level 5 Cafe and then attended the show. We really, really enjoyed the play and the Guthrie sure is simply a great place for theater--we'd been to a concert there before in another theater, but not a play. The play was very well performed and it was also a semi-musical; I was not expecting this, so it added another dimension. There were some great special effects as well. We took time before the show to enjoy the weather on the Guthrie "deck" over the river and snapped a couple of pics. Thanks again Pat and Marv for the great gift!! Paul and I both commented we MUST get out to the Guthrie more often.

Best of the Best Party and Restaurant Week 2010

On President's Day we met up with our good friends Dawn and Julian Janes for our third annual trip to the Guthrie for the Mpls/St. Paul Magazine Best of the Best Party! What better way to sample many of the Twin Cities best restaurants for a mere $35/person, not to mention the featured wine and drinks. We had a great time!! The Best of the Best Party kicks off Restaurant Week every year, so we met up with Julian and Dawn again the follwing Friday at Jimmy's Food and Cocktails in Minnetonka! It was our first visit and we really loved every bit of food and drink that we ordered. We definitely plan to go back.

Chile Part 9: Santa Lucia

It seems as though there were fantastic unexpected surprises each day of our trip. Chile really is such a beautiful, diverse country and we couldn't have been more impressed, especially considering that we had less than 24-hours of planning before arriving! Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Chile as they rebuild and struggle after this recent earthquake. On one of our last full days in Santiago we stumbled across Santa Lucia, an amazing park/monument. We found it to be one of the more beautiful and interesting spots on the trip. It was a winding series of steps and paths leading up a huge hill/mountain within the Park Metropolitano (in a different section of the park than San Cristobal which I posted pics about earlier). It was very hot that day, but we are so glad we did the climb!!

Chile Part 8: No vacation would be complete without a little shopping!!

We had a good time exploring both the traditional artisan market of Central Santiago as the artisan community of Los Dominicos as well as the luxury shopping district on Avienda de Cordova and many shops in between!! I am especially thrilled with the purchase of my traditional Chilean Pig Pot originating from the town of Pomaire Chile.