Friday, December 2, 2011

Tyler Thanksgiving

Whoa, time flies, better get this out before the next holiday...

We spent Thanksgiving in Texas this year. We typically drive down, but that is a long drive through some pretty boring parts of the country. However this year we got lucky and found cheap tickets into Tyler, so we flew out Sunday morning and the festivities began. We stayed at my Grandma's house and stayed for about five days.

Here is a recap.

We did at least five puzzles while we were there. We had at least forty pounds of potatoes made. We enjoyed three apple pies made by Amanda! Mikey was on the news twice. And we had one great trip! Welp... see you later...

Just kidding, I guess I will give more details. Our days were planned to spend time between both of my Grandparent's houses. We alternated very well! On Sunday and Monday not too much went on, just hung out with our family. I got to go see a movie with Claire, Mikey went and saw a movie with Katie, and Uncle Mike got to see a movie by himself! We got to go back to Greenberg and pick up the Lamb's Thanksgiving Turkey! This year Jim and Amanda came along, but we all passed on the free hot dogs. Jim, Amanda, and Mikey were on the news while Aunt Carol and I were busy getting the turkey. That was most of the excitement for Sunday and Monday.

Picking up the turkey:


One morning Mikey and I decided to go for a run, so we headed up the road and ran around the UT Tyler Campus. It seemed like a good idea for the first ten minutes of the run, and then it started raining. They had two lovely ponds and a few archways that we enjoyed so we could get out of the rain. And then we even sneaked into the school's gym to avoid the downpour. It finally let up a little bit and we decided to make a run for it and head back to Grandma's house. We ended up cutting through a field that was full of puddles, and we got a bit muddy. I think Mikey's favorite part was when I said that I didn't know I signed up for adventure running.

Getting soaked on campus:


Anyways on to the food... on Tuesday night, we had our annual Texas Tamale Dinner! It was wonderful as usual and Uncle Gary even sent us home with some of Mrs. Rodriguez's homemade tamales. We also snagged my Aunt Donna's sopaipilla cheesecake recipe to make at home too. It was a wonderful dinner!

We also had to have our annual Texas BBQ. We always go to Bodacious. It was delicious too as always! In fact we liked it so much that we grabbed a few bottles of sauce to take home with us, can't wait to eat some of that!

Had enough about food? Well, let me jump to Wednesday. We headed over to the Lamb's house for our first Thanksgiving dinner. It was also a delicious lunch and there was a ton of food. I got to help out in the kitchen getting stuff ready this year with my Grandpa and my Dad and my Aunt Carol. My mom was even cooking stuff up in their camper! I think the total head count on lunch was 24 people. It was a great time to see all the family! And we also got some details for my cousin Rachel's wedding in June! It was a great day spent with family!

Then the last real day we were there was Thursday. Our flight left early Friday morning. So we started off our second Thanksgiving with the Tyler Turkey Trot! We found the local gym in Tyler that sponsors a Turkey Trot last year and promptly signed up the whole family again this year! Jim and Mikey ran very quick races this year, Jim ran a 21 minuter (I think) and Mikey ran a 22 minuter. He ran his pr! Too bad the race doesn't record official times, guess we will have to find another sea level race for him! Aunt Carol and I ran together and we had the occasional visit from Claire and Uncle Mike. They ended up beating us in the end, but they slowed down to jog with us a few times! The Turkey Trot was also the SECOND way Mikey got on the news in Tyler!! I am still a little baffled how in five days he got on the local news TWICE! I guess we were doing all the news-worthy things while we're there!

The gang pre race in the chilly Tyler air:


After the race we spent the day at Grandma Reed's house and had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner number 2! My Uncle Gary smoked the turkey for lunch and my Aunt Janet made a delicious Tiramisu for dessert. Mikey was also a fan of my Aunt Donna's Orange Jello recipe and he was very surprised to learn that the secret ingredient was cheese! I mean everything was delicious. Mikey even ate Aunt Janet's stuffing and he never eats stuffing. After lunch we of course worked on a puzzle and took our family picture.

That really about sums it up! Are you hungry yet? I think I am still full! Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Eggs and wind!

Today is an especially windy day, the forecast calls for gust over 80 MPH, and so far we've seen gusts over 70 MPH!!! Crazy nuts. We have one small section of our fence already down, and I'd be quite surprised if more of it didn't tumble before the wind leaves. It is supposed to die down around midnight tonight, so it could be a long day.

So far we've seen a neighbor's basketball hoop fall over, a nice looking bench tip over, and more than a few bags of trash/leaves tumble around too. We'll check back in if anything more interesting comes rolling down the street.

With the weather being windy, we decided it would be a good day to try some egg bake things we've seen around the internet recently. The idea is you take a piece of ham, put some veggies in over it, cover that all up with an egg and some cheese and bake it for a little while. So we did just that.

We started with the ham and some Cherub tomatoes:


We added asparagus, and I am bad at cracking eggs, so my yolk broke on me unfortunately:


Top it with a nice helping of cheese, and bake!


The final products, they were tasty!




Hopefully we don't end up in Oz after this windstorm, but if we do we know just who to talk to!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Randomness

Well when we took the pictures off the camera for the Halloween blog, we noticed there were some other pictures that told a story or two of things that have happened around here lately...

First we ran the Fans on the Field 10K in Denver. It is a 10K that goes through the three major stadiums. It went through Sports Authority at Mile High, the Pepsi Center and Coors Field. Mikey ran it with Brian, and I walked it with Kim and Adrienne. I even got a picture with Rocky! We all had a great time!


We also went for a hike up Blodgett Peak. We didn't make it all the way to the top, but we did enjoy a great view of the Springs. And I might have gotten a little off the trail... maybe in the spring we will attempt it again!


Then the other exciting thing that happened in our neck of the woods was that my dad came over and he and Mikey cut down our dead Aspen tree in our backyard. It was a pretty big tree and it has been dead ever since we moved in, so it was time for fantasy lumberjack camp in our backyard. My dad brought over the chainsaw and they went to work! After it was down even Reagan and Breckin helped us pick up the sticks!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

It's November!

I can't believe it's November already! A girl that I sit next to at work said that Christmas is only 54 days away. It seems a lot further away than that. Guess we need to start buying everyone's lumps of coal!

Last night we had some really cute Trick r Treaters stop by our house! Just wanted to share!


And last weekend we went to Manitou Springs for the Annual Emma Crawford Coffin Race. People build their own coffins on wheels and get a team of four people to push one person in the coffin down the main street. It was something! Everyone was dressed up for Halloween! Here are few team's entries! I think the Squirrels were one of the favorites... too bad their coffin broke with their first push off the line, whoops! Here are a few pictures of the Squirrel team, the JFK team, the St. Pauli guys, and the Crows movie team.



Hope everyone is starting to think of things they are thankful for!




Wednesday, October 26, 2011

NYC - Day Three

For our final full day in New York, Jim, Hoff and I decided that we needed to go for a run, and what better place than Central Park. We got up earlier than we probably should have, and found our way on the subway up to the park. The subway stopped us at Columbus Circle, right next to Time Warner Cable center (I work for them!) and Trump Tower, exciting stuff.



During our 8 mile run in the Park, we ran by a large amount of cool stuff, including that bridge they show in every romantic comedy, a race (if only we'd known) and almost beat some bikes up a hill on the North side of the park. Our run went a bit longer than expected, so we figured the ladies would just be sitting at the apartment waiting. Fortunately for us, they had decided to go get breakfast on their own, and get a little shopping in. They went to the H+M store, which I'm told is The Place to get your fashionable clothes. Each of the ladies made their purchases and we were off tourist-ing again.

Since the ladies hadn't seen Central Park, we all headed back up there to check it out. There were quite a bit more people than there were for our run, which made it look more like the tourist destination that it is. Jim and Amanda decided to rent bikes and take the tour that way, and they said it was pretty awesome. I am terrible on bikes, so Julie and I took off towards the fountains and bridges, and the Hoffs took off to much the same place, just in a different way!





We reconvened in Columbus Circle again and then got some well earned snacks. Before we got to NYC, Julie had found a place that sells waffles covered with Nutella, so we picked up some of those, and Amanda got herself a cannoli. Quite fantastic all around.



Even after those snacks, we were still quite hungry, and Amanda had heard of a trendy new place to eat near the Empire State Building called Eatly. I thought that Amanda just forgot how to spell Italy, but turns out it was a real place (and was even a category on Jeopardy! this week!). The place is an Italian Market and has several restaurants in it, and it was crazy busy. Fortunately they had an open table for 6, and we took it.



The Hoffs then went to check out the Feast of San Gennaro, which is a crazy big festival of Italian food. Come to think of it, we all should have spent a lot of time there. Next time I guess! The Lambs and us went to check out the area around the Empire State Building, and sat in a park for a little bit, and got some drinks at a nice bar down there.



Again the group got back together, and we headed to the Empire State Building. There are now two levels that you look out, one is the typical Observatory and they now have one on the 102nd floor. We planned it to be up there right around sunset, and we timed it perfectly. The lines were relatively short, and once we got to the observation deck, we were just minutes from sunset. We stayed for quite a while, taking pictures of the city at dusk and after dark.









Satisfied with our trip, we returned to the apartment to rest a bit, then went back out for some celebratory hamburgers, beers, and even some cupcakes at the place the girls from Sex and the City go for their cupcakes. Hobnobbing with the stars I guess (and we forgot to get pictures)!

The next morning came too early, and we headed back to the airport and back to Colorado. It was a great trip, and like all trips it was over too soon. But seeing the greatest city on Earth with some of our best friends was amazing. Can't wait to go back!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Ikea

So Julie has been way too excited about Ikea ever since it opened earlier this year, and she finally talked me into going up there back during the cycling event this summer. She found a nice bed frame that she wanted to buy for our bedroom, and had been bugging me about it ever since.

Well, this last weekend we finally made our way back to Ikea to pick it up. We took her parents old Ford truck, even with the old tires all the way to Denver to make our purchase. Debbie somehow got talked into going, but she was prepare and wore her hiking sandals. We picked up a few small things that caught Julie's eyes while we walked through the million rooms full of everything you could imagine. The bed consisted of five heavy boxes of wood, and Debbie and Julie were quite helpful in getting them into the truck after we had paid. Debbie said the warehouse room reminded her of Indiana Jones when they hid the Arc.

The next day we had lunch with my family (just before my Grandpa headed down to Arizona for the winter) and we just couldn't wait to get back home and start putting together our bed frame. We got home and got straight to work... for the next five hours...

Here are assorted pictures from the ordeal, keep in mind that I am programmed to smile for pictures, regardless of my current state of mind. So don't let my facial expressions lead to believe that this was pleasant.

First we had to take apart the old bed:


Then assemble the frame of the new bed:


And finally the headboard had to go up:


All in all, it wasn't as bad as people had made it out to be, but it wasn't fun either. We unfortunately got the wrong size headboard (as you can see in the finished picture below), but we aren't sure if it is worth going back to replace. Stay tuned!


Monday, October 10, 2011

NYC!

For Mikey's 30th birthday we headed to NYC. He always says it is the best city in the world so I figured getting our friends together on a trip for his birthday would be a great way to celebrate him turning the big 3-0!

We headed out on his birthday and got in the NYC around lunch time. We had set up reservations for three bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village and had to pick up the keys after three so we had a little time to kill. We dropped off are bags and headed out to get some lunch at Grey's Papaya.


After our first taste of New York we decided we would check out tickets to a Broadway show. We headed down to Times Square where they sell discount tickets to shows that night, and after about half an hour in the line we decided we wanted to see Billy Elliott! After we got our tickets we got rained on, but headed back to get our bags and then out to find our apartment. Once we were settled in we got ready for a big night out on the town. The show was great and we were all really glad that we ended up seeing Billy Elliott.


After the show we were all hungry so we found a place to grab something to eat, which turned out to be delicious NY style cheesecake!

After the sweets kept us up long enough to get back to our beds we all crashed. The following morning, Jim and Amanda headed out to breakfast with some friends and then Brian, Kim, Mikey and I decided to go grab some breakfast nearby and then walk over to Washington Square Park. We wondered around and then we decided to head over to NYU and look for their bookstore for some souvenirs. After picking out some souvenirs we met back up with Jim and Amanda and headed out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We finally got through the ticket line and then the security line and made it on the boat out to see Lady Liberty. We were running short of time to be able to see both so Jim and Amanda decided to head to Ellis Island and Brian and Kim and us decided we would give it a try to get around the Statue of Liberty really quick and jump back on the boat to get over to Ellis Island. We made a quick trip around the statue and got back on the boat to go see Ellis Island.


After our trip out we walked over to Ground Zero. We couldn't see very much of what they were building and we couldn't get tickets to get in to the Memorial that had just opened. We could see the new skyscraper that is being built and the firefighter memorial. After we looked around we stopped by the fire station that was right next store and picked up a souvenir shirt for Mikey's mom.

After we had walked around we headed over to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) since they are open on Friday nights for free. Since the subway went through Grand Central Station on our way to the Museum, we decided to stop and look around there. After a quick stop we hit the Museum, we all split up and tried to see everything we wanted to see in the quick two hours we had there.


After the MOMA we were all hungry so we decided to hit up Katz's Deli. It has been on the Food Network for their pastrami, corned beef, and turkey sandwiches. It was also in the movie When Harry Meet Sally. We all ordered what she had! Just kidding, but we all left stuffed and exhausted.


Stay tuned for the last day...