Another Christmas Dinner

We had too much fun on Christmas that the morning after yielded a few bad hangovers. Kevin made a ham, I made a couple veggie dishes, Andrea brought a broccoli cheese and rice casserole, and Becky came with her "ugly" balls. Then there was Sean who didn't stop pouring lemondrop shots made with rosemary infused simple syrup...

Tailgate

Also another tradition is the Michigan - Wisconsin game. Unfortunately because of changes to the Big 10 the two teams don't play each other. At least it was victory for both teams and Michigan finally beat Ohio State!

Tofurkey Thanksgiving

Tony hosted his 7th(?) Thanksgiving in the Sunset. Good food, good people and Tofurkey made for a great Thanksgiving.

Honeymoon

We spent an amazing 2+ weeks in around the island of Phuket, Thailand. We spent the first 4 days in Khao Lak at the JW Marriot. This resort had 3km of pool! We also visited Patong (whoa!), Phi Phi Islands, and Krabi penninsula. Our lazy days were filled with gigantic breakfasts, naps, more food, more naps, beaches, kayaking, swimming and hiking. More details and pictures someday!

The Wedding

We did it! It was such a wonderful and absolutely stunning weekend in Tahoe. So much to write about I'll have to do an update at a later time. Thank you so much to all our friends and family that made our the weekend so fun and memorable.

Silverton & Ouray

For the last full day we drove the Durango-Silverton-Ouray route through the mountains. It was so green compared to the orange and rust colors of Canyonlands.

The road was crazy curvy and really narrow at times!We stopped at the cute towns of Silverton & Ouray and checked out some of the stores and sights. There was also a motorcycle rally that weekend.

A steam train runs from Durango to Silverton.

It was such a fun trip and was so glad to be able to spend such an extra long weekend with Lisa & Erik!

More pictures...

Canyonlands & Mesa Verde

We hiked the 6 miles round trip trail to Chesler Viewpoint had some outstanding views.

After the hike we drove about 2 ½ hours to Mesa Verde and caught a tour of the Cliff Palace.

The Four Corners & Canyonlands

The ranger at the Aztec ruins inspired us to go to Canyonlands with a detour at the Four Corners.

The drive leading up to our camp site took us on top of mesa and through so many different landscapes. Our red Nissan Sentry got hit by a rock when we passed a trunk on a gravel road. Two cracks traveled almost halfway through the windshield. That was the only hiccup to the road trip.

We set up camp and blew up our pool floaties as our camping pad which worked fairly well for $2 a pop.



We took a couple short walks near by to admire the bright sunset.

Kokopelli’s Cave B&B

Manager, Gayle and Terrell, guided us to the amazing 300+ acre property on top of a cliff. The cave was originally meant to be an office for a geologist but later turned into a B&B.

We explored the property and were awed by the beauty and privacy of the place. Each step brought us to more and more amazing views. A sunset, some lightning and even a sunrise!

The managers encouraged us to feed the ring-tailed cats and chipmunks who came to visit us. They had containers of cat food for them.

Durango Road Trip

Lisa and Erik both got to Durango earlier in the day and picked me up from the airport a little before midnight. Erik had endured a 36-hour Amtrak/Grayhound journey to get there. During the day they bought our trip food which included many of my guilty pleasures: Little Debbie oatmeal pies, Spaghetti-O’s and Velveeta Mac & Cheese!

We woke up early the next day and headed to Farmington, New Mexico. We checked out some Aztec (not of Mexico) ruins.



More pictures on Flickr.com

Kim & Brian Tie the Knot at the Hide Out

We spent an amazing weekend celebrating Kim and Brian's wedding at the Hide Out located in the Sierras near Kirkwood. Congrats you two!!

The entire weekend was so much fun and the location was stunning. We camped on the property with several other friends.


The 30+ person hot tub built into the granite rocks.



» More photos...

Happy Birthday to Me

To take care of wedding stuff we made another trip up to Tahoe around my birthday. Once again it was a super fun weekend. Sharon, our wedding coordinator, filled our bellies and got us boozed up for our tasting, giving us a healthy start to our weekend. We took the tunnel tour at the Cal Neva which was pretty interesting but we didn't see any ghosts.



There was also a mini cooper rally going on during our stay.

Led Zepagain happened to be playing at the casino next door and we were glad we checked it out. They were a fun band and great to watch. We even left the casino with a little extra money in our pockets after a successful run on the craps table.

For my birthday, Kevin took me to Soule Domain, a nice restaurant inside a log cabin. Everything was delicious and we split a two giant scoops of vanilla ice cream at the end of the meal.

During the weekend we also had a chance to take the happy hour cruise on Lake Tahoe.

For my actual birthday I came home to an ice cream cake.

A week later I got another surprise from Kevin, an iPad!!

Kevin's Parent's 45th Anniversary

We flew to Minnesota to celebrate Roger and Bev's 45th anniversary. Kevin's brother Jim hosted a bbq. The next day we went out on their boat and Kevin caught a bass.

Happy Graduation, Kevin!

Kevin finally finished his MBA program from Golden Gate University. We had a fun bbq to celebrate. It was also our one year anniversary of living in the house.

Kevin rewarded himself with a new lawn.

Yosemite Winter Wonderland

Over President's weekend Kevin and I finally made it Yosemite again. The first night we stayed a couple miles outside the El Portal entrance at Yosemite View Lodge. We got upgraded to the a river-view room with a balcony. It was a little too chilly to fully enjoy but this is the view from the balcony!

The next day we drove into the park and did the obligatory stop at Tunnel View.


We drove up the snowy Glacier Point road to the Dewey Point trailhead. We strapped on our snowshoes and started the 3 1/2 mile trek to the point. Luckily a path was already blazed into the deep snow.

The trail wasn't too crowded so we were surprised to see about 80+ people at the end of the trail. Not too surprising when we reached the view though! From Dewey Point you can see all the way to Half Dome and the valley and you're directly across from El Capitan.

On the way back our legs started to hurt and at one point we took a break to stretch our legs on trail.

And then mid-stretch Kevin dropped to a knee and asked me to marry him. And I said yes :-)
» See more pictures on Flickr.

Palm Springs

The whole family met up in Palm Springs for my cousin Dorothy's wedding. It was a pretty quick trip but the weather was amazing and I even got to jump into the pool for a little bit.

There was a photo booth at the wedding which proved to be pretty amusing.

January Fun

A little belated but we had our annual crab fest at Andrea and Sean's house. Followed by a few rounds of flip cup and jello shots :)


A couple weeks later Kevin and I organized an East Bay bar crawl. We started at Albany bowl and got a couple games of bowling in.

After a quick dinner at Al's Burger we hit up the Hotsy Totsy, Ivy Room and the Mallard. Fun night!

New Year's 2011

Kevin and I rang in the New Year at a house party in LA. The next day Kevin and a group of his friends watched Wisconsin lose to TCU in the Rose Bowl. I nixed going to the Pasadena and watched the game at a bar with some of his friends and did some shopping.