Birthday Weekend

I love birthdays and mine is no exception (that's right, I'm not ashamed to admit it).  I just love any reason to celebrate.  Plus, it's fun to have a special day that's all for you.  Although in my case, it was more like three days.  My birthday was on Sunday, but we started celebrating on Friday :)  I'm so spoiled.

On Friday I had a hankerin' for a giant plate of carbs so we went to dinner at Pasta Jay's with my mom, dad, and brother.  Pasta Jay's is one of my favorite restaurants in Boulder because it's got a fun and cozy atmosphere and REALLY good food.  The owner is so sweet too, and he bought our table a round of drinks.  We had fun, but in the midst of stuffing my face and catching up with my family, I forgot to take pictures.  Oops.

Saturday night we went out on Pearl Street with Lindsey, Bert and Joe.

@ Tahona.

French Mojitos at The West End Tavern.  French Mojitos=freshly muddled strawberry, mint and lime with lavender simple syrup, grey goose vodka and champagne.  Favorite. drink. ever.

Dance party at 'Round Midnight.  Check out those moves haha.  It's not a good sign of things to come when the bar is closing and you're scrambling to get one last shot of tequila.

You know how people always ask you on your birthday if you feel any older?  Well Sunday morning I woke up feeling older-like 40 years older than my actual 27 year old self-due to my drinking habits from the night before.  Ouch. 

We had brunch at Lucile's..

And Paul surprised me with these..

Chocolate Bacon cupcakes from Tee & Cakes. YUM!

Sunday afternoon we went to Ben and Rachel's to watch the Superbowl, which then progressed into Wii and card playing until 2:00 am.

I woke up for work on Monday feeling even worse than I did on Sunday ha.  But it was so worth it because the whole weekend was a blast.  I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends and family who love me and who I LOVE spending time with.  Thanks for making my birthday so special!

MEXICO!

Two and a half years ago, on our wedding night, Paul's cousins told us how much fun they had on their honeymoon in the Caribbean (we were leaving for ours the next day) and how they wanted to plan another vacation.  "Wouldn't it be so fun if we all went together?" we said.

Well, last week it finally came true!  Paul and I took a little trip to Mexico-Riviera Maya to be exact-with Paul's cousins, Michael and Katie, and their spouses, Jill and Shawn.  We had SO much fun! 

We stayed at an adults only, all inclusive resort called the Excellence Riviera Cancun.  The resort was gorgeous-nice rooms (all suites), beautiful winding pools all over the property, lush green landscaping, and a beach with powdered sugar sand and clear blue water.  Here are some pics of the grounds.

The resort had everything we needed-we literally layed by the beach and pools, ate, and DRANK all day, every day.  The girls also went to the spa one afternoon which was fantastic!  But before you go hating me, I will say that the weather was not perfect.  We had three days of sun and two days of cold, cloudy weather :( 

However, we managed to make the most of what we got!

These iguanas were everywhere-totally freaked me out!

We did leave the resort one day to do a snorkeling excursion.  We got on a catamaran that took us to the reef (the reef off the coast of Cancun is the second largest in the world!).  We saw a barracuda, sting ray, eel, lion fish, sea cucumber and lots of other bright fishies.  I didn't take any pictures of the snorkeling part, so I snagged these from Jill-Thanks Jill!

After snorkeling, the guides hooked this giant sail/swing thing up to the back of the boat.  You sat on the swing part and the wind would catch the sail and fly you up in the sky and then you could jump off.  I didn't do it because I was too cold, but it looked fun.

The one area of the resort that was lacking was the service.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible by any means, but we all agreed that it could have been better.  Our biggest problem, being a group of six, was getting a table for dinner each night.  We usually had to wait 1.5 to 2 hours, so we would go to one of the bars and have a few cocktails while we waited.

After dinner we showed off our sweet dance moves at the discoteca.

It was seriously such a fun time!  I can't believe that after two years of planning/thinking/getting excited about the trip it's already over.  It went by way too fast and it was really hard to come home, but I'm so glad that it all worked out and we got to get away on such a fabulous vacation. 


I'm ready to start planning the next one...who's with me???


Until then, I'll just have to dream about this....

is it spring yet??



This was the scene on my way home from work today.  The weatherman predicted 1-3 inches this afternoon.  Well that was the understatement of the year.  And for whatever reason (24 degrees outside?) the roads were so slick..even for my four-wheel drive SUV..and also apparently for the King Soopers delivery van (seen in the far left of the this photo).  Home boy was slipping and sliding all over the place which caused a major traffic jam AND a terribly long drive home pour moi.  I'm talking 45 minutes for my usual 10 minute drive.  I hate snow.  I repeat, I HATE SNOW. boo. hisss. grrr.

I am now hibernating in my house under fifty plus blankets with the hub, eating pizza, reading magazines and watching Easy A on Netflix, and I'm not coming out until spring.

Okay? 

things I'm loving right now

• The Auburn Tigers are officially the best team in the whole country after defeating Oregon in the BCS National Championship.  WAR EAGLE!!!  Seriously, what a great game.  I couldn't even sit down for the second half because I was so excited.  Oscar was excited too :)  Congrats to coach Yox (strength and conditioning) and his family.  They are such wonderful people and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more!

• My Hunter boots.  Like most of the country, it's been snowing here the past few days.  We don't have a garage which means I have to shovel the snow off my car in the mornings.  Yesterday the snow was so high it almost reached my knees.  Luckily I had my boots on and thanks to the little fleecy inserts, my feet (and legs) stayed dry and toasty.

• Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion.  This lotion is the ONLY thing that keeps my skin feeling hydrated and not quite so itchy in the extremely dry Colorado climate.  I miss humidity :(

• Lipton PureLeaf iced tea.  I don't drink coffee, but boy do I love me some iced tea (yes, even when it's cold out. I'm not a fan of hot drinks).  I like the unsweetened kind.  Sometimes I add a slice of lemon.  All natural, 0 calories, 0g of fat, 0g of sugar and 180mg of flavonoids, whatever those are.  Yipee!

 

• I got an email from the library yesterday saying that this book was ready for me to pick up.  After hearing nothing but good things for over a year now I am officially jumping on the band wagon.  I can't wait to get started!  I'll let you know what I think.

 

via

• I just found out one of my dear friends will be welcoming baby #2 in August!  This girl is such a wonderful mama and I'm just so excited for her and her growing family.

These are just a few of the things I'm loving right now.  What about you?

Christmas 2010

Wow.  I've been slacking on this whole blogging thing.  I thought about not even doing a Christmas post since I'm so far behind, but it was one of our best Christmases to date so I wanted to write it all down.

This Christmas was extra special for me and Paul because for the first time ever, we got to spend it with everyone on both sides of our family.  Me and Paul, my parents, Buzz (my brother), Sara and Jeff (my sister and her fiance), Bob and Mary (Paul's parents) and Kelley (Paul's sister) all gathered in Winter Park for five
fun-filled days. 

Christmas Eve consisted of decorating the tree...

A bonfire, some Christmas carols, and a fireworks display on the ski mountain..

And Christmas Eve Mass followed by lots of pizza eating and card playing.

Christmas day we lounged around in our jammies, waited impatiently for Sara and Jeff to arrive (she had to work an overnight shift on Christmas Eve) and went for a walk.

When Sara and Jeff finally arrived, we opened presents and enjoyed a delicious prime rib dinner with all the fixins courtesy of the moms.  YUM!

 
Bob's dad/Paul's grandpa used to make muddled whiskey sours every Christmas and since he went to be with Jesus a few years ago, Bob has carried on the tradition.

The rest of the vacation was filled with snowmobile rides, tubing (my personal fav!), skiing, and LOTS of board games. 

It was such a fun vacation and like I said before, one of the best Christmases I've ever had.  There were a few times that Paul and I just looked at each other and acknowledged how lucky we are.  It makes us so happy that our families LOVE spending time together.  It's such a special thing and it's something that we truly cherish and thank God for every day.

All I want for Christmas...

This year, instead of buying presents for each other, Paul and I decided to buy toys to donate to Toys for Tots.  I was just feeling like I have everything I could need or want and I really wanted to do something special this year.  I have always been so blessed in my life to not have financial worries and I wanted to pay that forward.

Paul and I don't have kids yet and we don't even have nieces or nephews so it had been a LONG time since we'd taken a trip to the toy aisles of Target.  You should have seen us!  We spent a good hour wandering up and down those aisles marveling at all the cool new toys and feeling nostalgic for all the old ones we had as kids (I told Paul we had to get at least one Barbie because she was always my favorite when I was little).  There were so many options to choose from, it was overwhelming!  Of course, I ended up picking out the girl toys and Paul did the boys'(he told me the baby doll I picked out was stupid~such a boy!).  We had so much fun and the best part was thinking about those little kids' faces when they open their presents on Christmas morning.  Hopefully we made a few Christmases a little brighter this year :)

What were your favorite toys as a kid?  I loved Barbie, My Little Ponies and Cabage Patch Kids.  Paul loved Leggos.

P.S. check out this Christmas charity sponsored by the US Postal Service.  I think it's such a cool idea, but it's only available in certain cities and states~Colorado not being one of them :(

Read some of the letters and if you can get through them without crying, please tell me how!

feelin' the love

Wow I can't believe Christmas is only a few days away!  We have some really fun plans and I can't wait to tell you all about them, but before I can truly celebrate, I have to get through the rest of today and tomorrow at work.  WAAAAAH! *in my best Snooki voice* 

It's been especially hard to be chained to my desk at work this week when all I want to do is wrap presents, watch Christmas movies, spend time with my family, bake cookies (you get the idea).

I whine about my job sometimes, but I actually have it pretty great and that's mostly due to the people I work for.  They are some of the sweetest people on the planet and I'm SO thankful for that.  It really is nice to work for people that appreciate you and your contributions and tell you so!

I am seriously one lucky girl because I've been showered with gifts at the office all week...

Wine and a Chocolove chocolate bar from Digger.  I haven't tried the wine yet, but I ate the chocolate in about 2 seconds flat. OH MY WORD it was delicious, maybe the best ever!  I love the combination of chocolate and sea salt so I was in heaven. (FYI, you can buy Chocolove  from Whole Foods)

A gift certificate for a pedicure at my favorite nail spa from Botsy.  I can't wait to use this puppy!  

 *pure bliss*

Homemade Kahlua from Erin.  I'm loving the little glass bottle and festive gift tag~can't wait to try it!  (I told Paul to put some in his coffee before work this morning haha)

And the grandaddy of them all~a $105 gift card to the St. Julien Spa for a full body massage from Barbara.  I about fell out of my chair when I opened this one.  Seriously, I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I am beyond grateful and excited :)

Most of all, I am just very grateful to have a job in a time when so many people do not, and they are struggling to make ends meet each day.  Please pray for those people this Christmas.