No Problem, Mon

A five day all-inclusive vacation to Montego Bay, Jamaica? Not a bad way to start off the Christmas holiday!

My parents always told Ryan that when he graduated from college, they would take us both on an awesome vacation. We picked Jamaica because we had both been to Mexico multiple times and I loved Jamaica the one time I visted there many years ago. We stayed at the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall, which was spectacular! The food, service, and sheer relaxing atmosphere were all wonderful. I have never been on a vacation where I wasn't doing something, visiting something, etc. This time, other than playing some golf, we just sat, relaxed, swam, read, napped, ate, and drank. It was the life!

We golfed at Cinnamon Hill, which had some great holes down by the water, as well as some holes situated up in the hills. Here is a picture of us on hole 5, which was right on the water. Breathtaking!

I thought I would hate just relaxing and not visiting things, seeing things, doing things. Boy was I wrong. This is one of the best vacations I have ever been on! Thanks Mom and Dad! No problem, mon!

Disney World 2012

Finally, we were able to go back to Disney World to celebrate our three year anniversary. We stayed at the Yacht Club, since we love Epcot and it is within walking distance. We signed up for the Deluxe Dining plan, being the foodies that we are. We went on the perfect week to capture four, overlapping events: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, The Tower of Terror 10-Miler Race, and Epcot's 30th Anniversary. I don't know how we could have timed it better to pack in more fun events! We had an excellent time and now have many memories that will last a lifetime. Pictures and stories to follow!

Cooling Off in Evergreen, CO

Last weekend Ryan and I finally got the chance to visit his parents in their new home in Evergreen, Colorado. His parents moved out the Colorado a little over a year ago and had been looking for a permanent house ever since their first day there. They started off by living at a rental property in Evergreen and finally, just about three months ago, found the house of their dreams that they wanted to retire in. My mother-in-law is still working for Chuck E Cheese and my father-in-law took a job with Einstein Brothers Bagels, but both plan on retiring in the not too distant future.

My favorite room of their house, if I was forced to pick, would be their beautiful kitchen. It was a dream kitchen!

You should have seen this space before the renovation. It was a disaster!  This is the perfect addition to their lovely home.

Anyway, we flew out of Dallas late Thursday and got into the Denver Airport at around 8pm. Their house is about an hour away from the airport up into the mountains. When we got into the car, it was in the low 80s, but by the time we reached their home, it was in the upper 60s. It was the best weather ever! We stayed up talking for a bit, but then headed to bed in preparation for a fun filled Friday!

We all got up early on Friday so that we could head out for some time together in Downtown Denver. First up was a tour of the Denver Mint. We got to see the production machines and learn about how coinage is made. It was a neat little 30 minute tour. After that, we walked all around, and I do mean all around Denver. We primarily stayed on the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall, as there was plenty to see. Once we made it from one end to the other, we stopped for lunch and had some of the best food ever. It was a little place called Tokyo Joe's. I think of TJ's as a Genghis Grill with much better food with a better atmosphere and better service. I wish they would come to Texas. I would eat there every day.

Next up we did a bit more walking and headed to the REI store. It was HUGE! We then quickly headed off for the next activity, the Denver Microbrew Tour.

All I can say is the Microbrew Tour was one of the neatest things I have ever gotten to do! The tour consisted of visiting four local brewpubs to taste test a variety of beers, ten in all. We also learned some about the history of Denver. We went to Rock Bottom, Wynkoop, Falling Rock and Breckenridge.

1. Hefeweizen - 3/5
2. IPA - 1/5

1. Patty's Chile Beer 5/5 - A light German-style beer made with Anaheim chiles and smoked Ancho peppers. A 2006 Great American Beer Festival Bronze Medal Winner in the Fruit and Vegetable Beer category and a Wynkoop specialty.
2. B3K Schwarzbier 2/5 - This German-style black lager has a deep color and gently roasted flavors balanced by an understated hoppiness. A thirst-quenching version of dark beer. A 2008 Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal Winner in the German Schwarzbier category.

1. Avery White Rascal 4/5
2. Odell 90 Shilling 2/5
3. Dry Dock Double IPA 0/5

1. Agave Wheat 5/5 - This true American-style unfiltered wheat has something a little special – the nectar of the great Salmiana Agave. Agave complements the refreshingly light quality of our wheat and adds a subtle note of flavor that expands this beer’s uplifting taste profile. It is familiar, yet creative.

2. Lucky U IPA 2/5 - We like to think this is an ale for everyone who believes you make your own luck. We sure did. And the result is a well-balanced, soulful IPA with just the right amount of hoppiness. An even keeled ale that goes down clean and refreshing, but still lets you know it’s been doted on by the Brewmaster. It's true to it’s IPA heritage, but also highly drinkable. Lucky U. And we seriously mean that.

3. Vanilla Porter 3/5 - Who would have thought deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and Madagascar grew the perfect ingredient to build an extraordinary Porter in Colorado? An ale that has all the chocolate and roasted nut flavor of a classic Porter, with an enigmatic surprise thrown in for good measure, real vanilla bean. Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter. A vanilla kiss in a rich, dark sea.

Here's Ryan and me at the Falling Rock Brewery. As you can see we had a great time!

After the Microbrewery Tour? More walking around downtown. We must have walked over 4 miles! We walked past Coors Field and took some pictures, then we walked around and looked at a few more downtown buildings before jumping back into the car and heading to dinner Keys on the Green, the restaurant at the local Evergreen golf course.

After dinner, we headed home and went to bed. We were all exhausted!

On Saturday, we woke up early. Ryan and Wayne went running and cycling respectively.

Then, when they got home, the whole family went golfing at Evergreen Municipal Golf Course. It was a difficult course for me, but Wayne and Ryan played a great game. Wayne had the lowest score overall.

After a long, five hour round of golf, we went home, sat on my in-law's porch and had a beer and a home cooked meal of grilled lemon BBQ chicken and corn. A great end to the day!

Sunday we didn't have anything planned. So we woke up and, on a whim, decided to head to Golden, Colorado for the Golden Arts festival that happened to be going on. We walked around for a bit and looked at a few of the booths, but soon decided it was way too hot for us. So we decided to head to cooler ground at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. There, we looked out on multiple mountain peaks from Panoramic Point and then had a lovely picnic lunch in the woods.

After the picnic lunch, we headed to my in-law's favorite local brewery, Golden Brewing Company. I had the best Hefeweizen beer ever from this dinky home grown pub, if you can even call it a pub. It is pretty much drinking beer in this guy's bak yard. Amazing beer though!

Monday was our final day in Colorado. My mother-in-law was packing up to head to their condo in Durango, Colorado, so that left Ryan, my father-in-law and me to find something to do. We decided to pick up Ryan's grandfather for lunch at Breckenridge Brewery. It was great to see Ryan's grandfather as he is so sweet and I really feel he genuinely likes spending time with us. After lunch it was off to the airport. We had a fantastic vacation and we can't wait to head back again soon!

30 Day Challenge: Day 5

Challenge: Five places you want to visit

FIJI: an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, France's New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas, France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast and Tuvalu to the north. The majority of Fiji's islands were formed through volcanic activity started around 150 million years ago. The country comprises an archipelago of more than 332 islands.



THE MALDIVES: an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls stretching in a north-south direction off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about seven hundred kilometers (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and (250 mi) south-west of India.



SOUTH AFRICA: The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary democracy comprising nine provinces which is located at the southern tip of Africa, with a 2,798 kilometers coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory. South Africa is known for a diversity in cultures and languages.


CHINA: With nearly 4,000 years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations.Prior to the 19th century, it possessed one of the most advanced societies and economies in the world; but through successive dynasties it then missed the Industrial Revolution and began to decline. In the 19th and 20th century, imperialism, internal weakness and civil wars damaged the country and its economy, and led to the overthrow of imperial rule.


DISNEY WORLD: The Walt Disney World Resort, sometimes shortened to Walt Disney World or Disney World, is the world's largest and most-visited recreational resort. Located approximately 21 miles southwest of Orlando, Florida, USA, the resort covers an area of 30,080-acre and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels (excluding 8 that are on-site, but not owned by the Walt Disney Company), including a campground, two health spas and physical fitness centers, and other recreational venues and entertainment. It opened on October 1, 1971 with only the Magic Kingdom theme park and has since added Epcot (October 1, 1982), Disney's Hollywood Studios (May 1, 1989) and Disney's Animal Kingdom (April 22, 1998). The resort was inspired by the dreams of Walt Disney and his creation of Disneyland in California. Its original theme park, Magic Kingdom, is designed similarly to Disneyland. Walt Disney created "Disney World" in order to have a vacation resort that was much different from Disneyland's one-day visit; this includes a much wider variety of sports, recreation, uniquely-themed resort hotels and entertainment.

Austin Down to Kerrville

This past weekend Ryan, Ryan's sister Laurel and I all piled in the car and headed for Austin. We decided to stay in Austin, two hours away from Kerrville and then drive in on Monday morning for the funeral. The main reason we wanted to stay in Austin is so that we could stay at Barton Creek, a ClubCorp property. When we got to the resort, only one room was ready, so Ryan and I decided to go look around the resort. We ended up finding a large chessboard and decided to play. Ryan won, of course, but it was a lot of fun!


After going back up to our room, the sun was just setting, so Ryan and I pulled up a chair to watch. It was so nice to be able to see for miles, unlike when we're in the city.


Another great part about staying in Austin was that we got to visit our friends Mike and Amanda. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to see them. We didn't get the chance to hang out with them much when they were living in Dallas, but now that we can't just pop over and see them, I miss them! We went to County Line for dinner, which was some great BBQ and a lot of fun!

The next day we went to Ryan's Grandmother's funeral and got to see a lot of his family. We also got the chance to have lunch with most of them and catch up. It was nice to have everyone in the same room since the last time we saw most everyone was at our wedding almost a year ago.


We didn't want to take more than one day off of work, so as soon as lunch with the family was over, we decided to head back to Dallas. Along the way we stopped at the infamous Czech Stop for some Kolaches. As you can see below, they were AMAZING!


Although it was sad to have to go to a funeral, we did have a good trip down to Austin, to Kerrville and back.

Vegas Baby!

So Ryan, my parents and I went to Las Vegas for a few days this past week. It was so much fun! We stayed at the Signature Hotel which was amazing! We had a lovely suite complete with a kitchen, living area and jacuzzi tub. The balcony had a pretty good view of the strip, mostly of the New York, New York hotel.


Day one we just explored around town. Ryan and I have been to Vegas before, but my parents hadn't. So we got the chance to show them around a bit. We started off going to eat at the Spice Market breakfast buffet at Planet Hollywood. It was pretty good. I would say that I had more things I enjoyed than things I didn't. After breakfast, we started walking the strip. We took them to the LOVE Cirque theater. Even though we had tickets to 'O' this time, Ryan and I thought LOVE was a great show and the theater is very neat.


We also got the chance to take them to our favorite restaurant, BLT Burger. They have some of the best gourmet burgers I have ever had and they have amazing spiked shakes.

Late that afternoon we went to the Mirage as it is one of Ryan and my's favorite places to gamble. We are really into video black jack and video roulette. I guess I wish they had been more into us as we ended up the trip about $70 down. Ah, well it was for the entertainment value. Anyway, it was nightfall as we were leaving The Venitian and we stopped to take a quick picture in front of The Mirage.


On day two we got up and around for more hotel and casino exploration. We had breakfast in the room, a calzone from the small shop in the lobby, so we were ready to go. We went to the MGM Grand, Paris, and The Ventian. We also went to the Bellagio for lunch at a place called Noodles. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it! After that we went to the Bellagio gardens. This was the third time that I have been to the gardens and each time the decor has been different. I found a frog this time and had to take a picture by it. (Go Frogs!)


We also spent quite a bit of time at Cesars Palace watching silly shows, shopping and people watching. The weather was great so we picked up some $2 beers at Serendipity and continued around Cesars. The had some of the prettiest fountains out front.


That night we caught a cab to head to The Stratosphere for an amazing happy hour complete with half price appetizers and two for one martinis. I should say two for one STRONG martinis. They were really good as were the calamari, beef carpaccio, ahi tuna, and tomato fondue.


After dinner, we went down to Freemont Street, heard some great live bands, saw a few street performances and got to experience a little bit of old Las Vegas. And, on the way there, the cab driver took us past the pawn shop featured on Pawn Stars.

Day three was probably my favorite because we got to have breakfast the best restaurant I have been to in a long time. It was called La Salsa Cantina and for $3.95 you get scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and homemade tortillas. They also had cheep mimosas that were great! On day three we also went to the Monte Carlo, The Bellagio, Cesars Palace, NYNY, The Luxor, The Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. At the Monte Carlo, Ryan and I picked up a Yard. That means we had a whole 32 ounce Pina Colada to carry around and drink. Quite fun!

That night we had dinner reservations at Shibuya and tickets to see 'O'. Shibuya has the second best sushi I have ever had. Yes, second best. Nothing has yet beaten my favorite sushi restaurant, Sake Toro. Anyway, dinner was amazing. We had some edamame and sushi. Then my parents had soup while I had vegetable and shrimp and vegetable tempura and Ryan had tuna with Japanese eggplant. The service and food were all great!


'O', like all of the Cirque shows I have seen was incredible. I still think that LOVE is my favorite. Ryan agrees. But, I have to say that I did enjoy 'O' more than La Nouba.

Day four was our last day in Vegas. Ryan spent the morning golfing at Bears Best while my parents and I went back to La Salsa Cantina for breakfast. We then took the car that Ryan rented out so that we could explore a bit beyond the strip. We went to The Rio hotel and The Palms. We intended to go to lunch at one of those two hotels, but didn't find one place at either hotel that looked any good. So, what else was there to do besides go back to BLT! More shakes, burgers, nachos and fried mac and cheese. Not too healthy, but I surprisingly lost 5 pounds in Vegas. It must have been all the walking. Anyway, after lunch, we put a few more dollars in the machines and won back a little of our money on Roulette before we headed to the airport.

This was one of the best vacations ever and I can't wait to go back to Vegas!