It's the OFF-SEASON!!!

It's over....the Broncos 2008-2009 season that is. For some tonight was a sad, disappointing, humiliating loss and for others it means we can get our players healthy, get ready for next season, and get our husbands back!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Selfishly, I am very excited it’s over. I don't really know that much about football, but what I do know is that tonight is the last night my wonderful husband will have to work 60 hour weeks, deal with last minute "to do's" on Friday afternoon, work 7 days a week, and come home at 4:00, 5:00 or 6:00am after a game. By the end of December, it has been a long 6 months, so ending in the regular season is fine. It's not what we want, but this is just another year to improve upon.

So, to all the wives, girlfriends, kids and parents of footballs players, congrats!!!! It's the off-season!

Big Birthdays!!!

We are so excited for the healthy and surprising birth of Miss Haylei Ann Tabb. Andy and Melissa we in Missouri with Melissa's family for the holidays and little Haylei came about two and a half weeks early. She was born in Springfield Missouri on December 25th 2008! She is a cutie, and looks just like her brother. Congrats to the Tabbs!!!


In other big news, Caroline turned 16 and got her license yesterday. She called to tell me she had passed her test, and was on cloud nine. She wants to meet up for coffee in the next couple of weeks. I can remember how liberating it was when I got my license. The Cramers are in for a whole new world!


Happy birthday to Caroline and Haylei, both Christmas babies!!!

Our Savior is born today

What a wonderful time of year!!!! Christmas Eve we spent at CC's house. We had a big group this year, or a big group in comparison to the last few years. The Eve attendees: CC, Aunt Marge, Mom, Kelly, Dan, Andrew, Kyle and me. It was delicious, fun, many laughs, thanks Aunt Marge, and we were blessed with Andrew's hilarious presence. This was Christmas Eve, not an ugly Christmas sweater/outfit party......Oh how he keeps us laughing! Kyle and I spent the night at Mom's and woke up to a beautiful, unfortunately sunny, Christmas morning. Snow is always preferred on Christmas!!! We knew Kyle had to work about noon, so our morning was planned around him being apart of the celebration. While we were getting ready for the day, he got a call saying coach had pushed up practice, and he needed to be in earlier. We pushed up breakfast, so he could enjoy, and it was wonderful. We started opening presents about 9am, and it continued until about 10:30. It was the same group from Christmas Eve, but Aunt Marge joined us for breakfast only. Kyle left for work, which was hard.
Many people have asked me what we were going to do for Christmas...."it’s your first Christmas as a married couple." I honestly hadn't thought much about it. Well, other people did, and it was a very emotional day. Mom Randy and Dad Frank sent gifts that were VERY sentimental. We all got chocked up a few times while opening gifts from them. Truly wonderful gifts that you can't buy at a store. It was awesome. Needless to say this was the beginning of what made the day so emotional, and then Kyle having to go to work.

After he left, Kel, Andrew and I headed down to my dad's house to celebrate. It was nice we had an early dinner with Dad and Marlo and gang.

Since we were eating early at Dad's house, and Kyle wouldn't have a Christmas dinner, I was going to start our own Christmas dinner tradition. I made New Mexico enchiladas. It is something we learned from Ganny, my Dad's mom, and absolutely love. This would be our tradition on Christmas night. It was still a little emotional, but we had a wonderful time the two of us. I made enchiladas and we watched a movie. Glory to God!

Christmas Tea

This is my all time favorite thing during the holiday season. We make reservations nearly 12 months in advance, (made January 2nd for a December tea). The Brown Palace is a beautiful, classically historic four star hotel in downtown Denver. It is gorgeous on its own, but when the holidays come around and the decorations are up, it is truly breath taking.

They serve high tea through the year, but with Christmas all around, it is warming during the holidays. This was our 14th year, just the girls, and as always was a very enjoyable afternoon of delicious tea sandwiches, scones, Devonshire cream, and sweets. Of course we also had tea. We have learned what we like over the years and all get the same, Black Currant. I know it doesn't sound great, and I honestly don't even like currants, but it is so good! We also enjoyed a little bubbly! It just makes the entire occasion so much fun and special. A wonderful tradition I hope to continue.

Jersey Boys

An awesome...."Must see" show!!! We all absolutely loved it. Kyle came down with something like the flu yesterday afternoon and didn't go to the show. I was really sad because out of this group, he is the one who really wanted to see it. So....we, Mom, Kel, Dan, Mom's friend Jim and I started the evening with a gourmet Mexican dinner then headed downtown. It was a great show, fun, fast paced and singing along. "Oh What A Night...."

Hustle and Bustle!

Our weekend was great but VERY busy. Friday, I did a little Christmas shopping, and then met Mom, Kel and Grandma (CC) for dinner and The Nutcracker. It was so much fun. We had a great dinner at The Corner Office, a very cool place across from the theater. I have come to really like ballet! As a kid, I think we went nearly every year in elementary school, but I haven't been since. A great show for the holidays.

Not far from the theater Kyle was enjoying an Av's game. He got tickets from a friend and Andrew and two of his friends came down for the game. It sounds like they had a great time.

Saturday morning we were up and running. I had a full day of things to do and Kyle was off to North Carolina for the game. Saturday night I had my company holiday party, it was nice. I don't think I enjoyed it as much with out Kyle there, but that is life.

Sunday we had a baking day over at Mom's house. We had about 10 items on the list and believe it or not, got them all done in about 4 hours. It was a lot of fun. I ran home to get ready for holiday open house and another party that night. They were both fun, although I was so tired by the time I got home at 9:30pm. I had a cookie exchange at work the next morning, so I began my biscotti baking at 9:30....and went to bed WAY after my bedtime!

This is another busy week, with something almost nightly. Yeah for the holidays!

Zoo Lights

Last night knocked out two of the holiday events. First was a Gingerbread house contest. A few of my reps at workput this on. It is great fun and all the houses go to Children's Hospital for the kids, and are then auctioned off. Last year I went all out, decided on a building to replicate, drew up plans, make a ton of gingerbread and then assembled. Two weeks later and "over" the gingerbread house, this year I decided I just don't have the time, so I did the kit. We, two of my co-workers, and I did embellish a bit, but for the most part, it looked like a standard gingerbread house.

It is amazing what design firms come up with.....I guess that is the mind of a designer. Truly amazing. The rules are simple, all of the ingredients must be etible. There were about 25 houses and lot of creativity! I completely forgot to take a picture so that will have to come in a few days.

Last night was also the Zoo Lights preview!!!! It is such a fun event and they changed it up a bit this year, and we all think it was great. This is a preview for donors and sponsors, with food and drink. We took it in for about the 5th year now, walking around the zoo, looking at animals with lights, listening to music, and stopped at almost all of the food and drink stops along the way. A few of the exhibits that are inside are open, the packaderms a.k.a. elephants, hippos and rhinos and the giraffe house. We all had a great time!Kel and Dan in the hippo's mouth

Mom, Kyle and me with a great Ape!

A LONG drive home

Thanksgiving was awesome! We spent it at mom's house and had a few new guests this year. It was an enjoyable day cooking, cleaning, football and Christmas music.

Friday, Mom, Kel and I headed up to Aspen. It was an easy drive, no traffic or weather conditions to deal with. Once there, it didn't stop snowing. Such a beautiful site to see. It has been so warm around here that it didn't really feel like the holidays yet, but with three days of snow, it finally felt like winter. We didn't do much, played cards, ate, drank, and watched movies. We decided to get going early on Sunday, as we all had things we wanted to accomplish at home. We took off at noon, and I arrived home at midnight!!!!! YES, this is winter in Colorado. The holdup started at Vail, and cleared about 25 minutes outside of Denver. The highway was closed for a number of hours, and thanks to Erin, Tom and Patty, we parked at their place in Frisco while we waited. Thank you again Hoffmans!!!! We enjoyed a few more hours of card playing, and when the highway opened, "back on the road again.....". It was a long exhausting 11 hour drive, record time for us!

As usual, we have been busy with various events that the holidays bring. The next two weeks are very busy with fun events....zoo lights, The Nutcracker, Jersey boys, and Christmas Tea. I'll write more as they unfold!

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

I LOVE Thanksgiving!!!! My love stared years ago, although I can't pin point an exact year. I guess it has to do with the tradition of what we do. I will say it has changed over the past few years, and that is to be expected as our family grows and changes. It is the one holiday in which my family does the exact same thing every year. We spend the entire weekend with family and friends in Aspen, enjoying food, drinks and laughter.

It is heartening that the original celebration is nearly the same of which we celebrate today. "The very first Thanksgiving celebration, was in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops." Isn't that what we do today? We have added some American flair, sure, but we get together to celebrate and give thanks for food. There are food drives, people open their houses to share their food with those who may not have the means for a warm meal. We celebrate with food with others and give thanks.

For many years, at the dinner table, someone reads a prayer my mom cut out of the newspaper years ago. Throughout the meal , we go around the table and say what we are thankful for. Some times it is hard to think of things, other times, I have so much to rattle off my thanks. This is one of those years.
I am thankful for.....

• Kyle, my wonderful husband who I love more every day
  
• Family and living so close to be apart of big and small events in each other lives
• Friends
  
• A warm place to live
• Ice cream
• Good health
• A job!!!
• Optimism, in this state of economic unknown

I wish for you a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and a full belly!

Chicago in November

Kelly and I had an absolutley awesome weekend in Chicago with Erin. We arrived Thursday night to a mild November evening. We stayed up entirely too late for a school night talking, no surprise, considering Erin had a few hours of work on Friday.

As some may or may not know, I am not a fan of public transportation. Why? I'm not really sure, I have had a few bad experiences, so I just perfer not to go there. Chicago is one of those towns that you HAVE to take public transport to get anywhere. So I proudly announce, Kel and I made it all by ourselves touring around Chicago.

We started our day at this adorable little breakfast place called Julis Meinl. It is an Austrian eatery and so European considering its location. We had a delightful morning, and headed out shopping in a cute little area I call Armitage. I found this spot about two years ago when I was there for work. There are so many cute shops, and my favorite, All She Wrote. This is the place I found my "blizzard" cups for our wedding. So, I seem to head back to this area each visit. I wanted to show Kel, and I think she would agree, it is a must! We took the brown line back toward Erin's place, got off and shopped our way back. Erin got home from work and we had some wine, and headed out for some dinner and Erin's chill hang out Guthries. Sadly, Guthries was entirely too busy, and not a empty chair in the place, so we headed back to Lincoln Square for a neighborhood beer.

Saturday we had a packed schedlue. It started at about 8:30am and out last event was at 7:00. We, again, shopped our way through the city from H & M to Old Town Oil. Kel and I took an architectural boat tour that was really cool. It would have been awesome if it was about 30 degree warmer. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially in the warm months. We attempted to keep warm with a hot drink, but just riding along in the elements, it wasn't enough. A mix of touristy sights, eating shopping and drinking, it was a great day!!!

Along with our boat tour, we went to Secondy City for a show. I have to admit, I have never really watched SNL, so I wasn't faniliar with this place. Erin hadn't been either, so we thought it would be fun. We had two show options. First was Le Coch Plastiue and The Audacity of Dope (pardon the spelling). Now, what exactly is the first title implying and is that dope as in drugs or awesome? Based on the schedule we had for Saturday, the first show worked better. We were quite concerned that this was going to be racey, vulgar, offensive, anf possibly down right uncomfortable. We sat down, chatted for a minute and Erin's spots a stage prop......no other then a 4 foot high candle stick with a plastic penis atop! We nearly fell off our chairs. I have to say, it was the only thing we laughed at. The show was completely strange, not funny, confusing....etc. Bottom line, we went, I can say I have seen a show there. CHECK!

Sunday we went to church, grabbed lunch and headed to the airport. It was such a fun weekend, and I was exhausted when I got home.

On the Bronco front, we won last weekend, which was needed more for morale than anything. As I always say, it is bittersweet to win.

Happy and Sad news

I am a ball of mixed feelings....A lot has gone on in the life of friends this week. Erin's dear friend Missy had her third child. She is adorable, and I am so happy to hear all went well for the Starr family. Congrats to J and Missy on being parents again. Congrats to Addie and Eli on having a baby sister.

Erin found out yesterday that a friend had died, very unexpectedly. They knew each other through church, and in her words, "he was a man of God." Prayers and thoughts go out to his family and friends.

And lastly, very sad news about close friends in Nashville. Beth and Bryan are in our thoughts as they deal with a very sad situation. I can't imagine what they are going through. It is hard sometime to feel like you are a good friend when you feel so helpless. They are in our prayers!!

I guess this is a good time to express how blessed we are with wonderful family and friends.

Fall

Life has continued to be busy. I guess its that time of year.

Backtracking a few weeks to Halloween, post Nashville. We were both exhausted upon our return to run into a busy week.

Tuesday we carved pumpkins, something I love to do. I get out all the tools, and stencils, carve all the slimy stuff out, and then bake pumpkin seeds. We always did a lot of Halloween stuff mainly because Kelly's birthday is the day before. Call me a kid, but I just love carving pumpkins.

Wednesday we celebrated Kelly's 28th b-day at mom's house. It was a delicious dinner prepared by mom, laughter and family. Andrew even came down from the Fort!!! We all had such a great time.

Thursday we had a quick happy hour birthday celebration at the new location of The Tavern at Wash Park, and then went to Maddie's play at school. She has always wanted to be a star, and my goodness she proved herself! Her lines weren't easy, and she rattled them off like she was having a conversation. We headed to the Cramers for a little wine and cheese afterward. They have recently moved into a goregous new house, and it was the first time we had seen it. I can't believe the little girls that I started nannying nearly ten years ago are so big! Caroline is getting her license in a month, Maddies is 13 but looks 21, and Juliet is becoming a little lady!

Friday was Halloween. I went to the DU hockey game with my friend Peggy. College hockey is great!!! They played CC, their biggest rival, in state and maybe overall. We had a nice time chatting through the game and cheering upon a score. Kyle meanwhile was at home handing out candy. Funny to think of that. Someone wasked me, "Is that what marrieage is like?"

The following weekend was a home game. Mom and I enjoyed the game in the 78 degree November 2nd day! It was abnormally warm, but nice. This past week we played on Thursday night which means.......we had another weekend free of football games. Friday we packed up and went to Aspen. It was beautiful. It was pretty quite, as shops and restaurant are often closed for a short period before the "storm" of ski season. We got our Aspen ski passes, and picked up, unexpectantly, a few needed item for Kyle's big ski season. He is diving in and re-learning to ski this year. I am VERY excited about this!!! It is about the only sport do, and REALLY enjoy. I hope he loves it as much as I do, so when little ones are around it will turn into a family activity.

This week has been pretty quite. Kyle is headed to Atlanta for the Bronco game, and Kelly and I are headed to Chicago to visit Erin. I'm very excited. This has turned into a year fall/winter trip to see Erin. She is in a new apartment in the city and I can't wait to see it. I know we'll have a great weekend, and may the Broncos pull out another win!!!

Nashville Pictures...

Good times in Nashville once again....

Singing a little tune.....Mark is concentrating on his words

The Beautiful Tabb family

Kyle, Mark and Keith after the Preds game

The Girls at Second Fiddle

Eddie and Susan

Rock Band...part of our weekend entertainment

Such great picture takers!

Louisville Ladies

All the girls Saturday night

6 week of craziness

I have had quite the hiatus from blogging, but I am back as life is beginning to calm down. Here is a quick catch up on the last six weeks....

I played like a kid with Amber at Disney for a week in late September. We had such a great time, eating foods from around the world at Epcot, watching fireworks, parades, and kids at all levels of exhaustion at the parks. You wouldn't even know that Amber was crippled by crutches and a knee walker by the pace we ran around at. News to me......it is the slowest time of year and it was awesome. Walking onto rides with no wait is the only way to go! Chryssie, Amber's sister, joined us Friday night for the "Not So Scary" Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. The entire week was so much fun, warm weather and wonderful time with Amber!The Magic Kingdom

Not So Scary Halloween Party
We attempted Pirates....It was easyFireworks at EpcotThis Giraffe was so close
The Animal Kingdom...so cool!

I returned home for a short week at work to leave on Friday morning for the Virginia Tech vs. Nebraska Huskers game in Lincoln. This trip was planned nearly a year ago, and I was so excited. The attendees: Hunter and Aaron, Jaime and Andrew, Teresa, Erin and me. There were many other who were there, but it started with us girls....just another excuse for a reunion. Hunter's Dad, and two brothers, Chris and Matt joined us along with Erin's entire family. It was a wonderful, sleepless, tailgating, college football weekend. Too quick, but I would give anything for a quick weekend with the girls!

As usual, a work trip always pops up around vacation! We left Lincoln Sunday morning, and I turned around and left, again, Monday morning for San Diego for work. The work part was a bit of a disaster, but I had a chance to see my family, so it was great. Tuesday night Kelsey had a volleyball game in SD, so I was able to see her play before she graduates. Wednesday night I had dinner with the Uncle Craig, Aunt karen, Kristi and Mike. It was so much fun to see them and get a little family time in. Thursday before I left town, I had more time with Kristi. It was a great trip.With Kelsey after her game, they won!

Del Mar

It was a little quite for a couple of weeks, although work for me has REALLY picked up. I am on a new project and although I am thankful to have a job, it is really frusterating. A few weekends ago we spent a couple of nights with Kyle's intern's parents. They took us to The Oceanaire. It was a wonderful dinner and they invited us to join them after the game the following night. They are very generous people! We also went up to Estes Park to see the changing leaves and all the Elk. It was so much fun, and Kyle took some great pictures!

The Buck and his ladies



Awesome fall colors!

This past weekend was BYE week! YEAH!!!!! We made our annual trek to Nashville arriving Wednesday night and not stopping to breath until we left Sunday night. We had such a great time, seeing everyone in Nashville as well as a whole bunch of people that came in from Louisville. It is always my favorite fall trip, filled with laughter, drinking, eating, a little sleep, playing rock band, and watching everyone's lives progress. Thank you....Andy, Melissa, Mark, Lisa, Preston, Rich, Penny, Eddie, Keith, Mandy, Laurel, Steve, Taylor and Jaclyn for making our trip awesome!

Like I mentioned, life is finally quieting down, so I promise to blog more frequently. I will also post pictures from Nashville in the next few days.
Hugs

On a Broncos note....lets hope the BYE week was a nice rest so we can get back on track!

Season Opener 2-0!!!

Ah, the Monday after a Bronco win....Denver is excited!!! The first thing you here at the office is, "Did you watch the game?" I was at the game! It was great no matter what happened or should have happened, it's a W.

We kicked off the weekend with a chilly night at the Rockies game. My rep and friend Kenley and his wife Emily invited us to go to the game with them. We grabbed dinner at Falling Rock and then headed to the game. Kenley keeps the drinks coming and sadly, it kept me warm. It was a fun night as baseball comes to an end. They are leaving for an African Safari in a couple of weeks. We can't wait to hear about it and see their pictures. I think we're going to switch itineraries with them...they want to do our honeymoon trip!

Saturday seemed somewhat normal, running errands, goofing around...like it wasn't the middle of the season. Jaime's big 31 is tomorrow, so we celebrated Saturday night. Andrew had a bunch of friends over for a party. We grilled out, grilling season is almost over, played games, watched football and SNL. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAIME!!!!

I am off to Orlando with Amber tomorrow morning. She invited me to be her guest on a trip she won at work. I am so excited! We are spending 5 days at Disney, playing at the parks and laying pool side! After her recent accident, we are taking it slow. No matter what transportation it is...crutches, rolly thing or wheelchair, we are going to play like kids! It is more like Deja vu being at Disney with someone in a wheelchair....last time it was me after running the Disney marathon. Another thanks to Kel for pushing me around for two days!

I will sadly leave Kyle home on a home weekend. Here's to another W!!!!

Brew at the zoo and random Saturday

We had a great weekend that started with Brew at the Zoo on Friday night. It was a collection of 40 breweries and a variety of restaurants that all had small tasting of food, long lines and literally a tasting of beer. Some poured more than others, but over all we never got a full glass.

The guest list included Kyle, Kelly Dan and me, and 10,000 other rednecks from Denver. At first is appeared as amateur night, and then turned into "let’s get wasted on small tasting of beer". How do you do that? We didn't stay terribly long, outside of attempting to get food and beer that was worth the price of our tickets!

We grabbed a drink after we left contemplating the evening, here are the results:
Kelly - LOVED IT, would do it again next year.
Kyle, Dan and Megan - NEVER WANT TO GO AGAIN!

So, I understand it was a fundraiser and all, but there were entirely too many people for the space, lines were too long for a small bite of food, beer pours were minuscule, and not nearly enough "Port-O-Johns". We had a great time with Dan and Kel, but I don't think we'll be attending the 12th annual.

Saturday started off lazy, not having a plan for the day. We wanted to do something, just hadn't come up with exactly what. After all, Kyle was at home on an away weekend....so much pressure to do something. Finally, the light turned on and we got tickets to the CU game in Boulder. Now, as most know, I HATE BOULDER! No need to explain, I just don't care for the place. Aside from my distaste, we had an awesome time at the CU game, played around on Pearl St. for a while and then had a wonderful dinner at BJ's. I love baked potatoes, and they had them on the menu as a main dish! That's awesome and I decided I don't eat them enough. With fall here, it is a perfect time to add this to the dinner rotation! We headed home for a good night's rest preparing for Kyle's all-nighter that he is pulling this evening.

The Broncos have their season opener in Oakland this evening.....GO BRONCOS!!!!! May we bring back a "W"!!!

Awesome seats!!!

What can I say...I'm a native!

End of Summer.....

Another fine Labor Day weekend in Aspen! This is always the sign that summer is officially over. In the past few years it has been just a few of us. This year we had a full house; Mom, Kelly, Dan, Andrew and his two friends Boss and Beck, and me. We were all sad to not have Kyle with us, but duty called.

Friday evening we made pizzas and had drinks around the house. No surprise, the boys went through quite a few beers! Saturday morning Andrew had us moving to get to Devil's Punch Bowl...See pictures below. It is a natural deep pool of water in the river. The rocks are about 40 feet up and you have the excitement of jumping off, but more importantly, into ICE COLD MOUNTAIN RUN OFF......aka, freezing cold water. It paralyzes your muscles as you scramble to get out. We all went to watch Dan, Andrew and Boss jump into the water. Andrew, per his usual, thought he was an Olympic athlete by doing tricks off the rocks into the water. Mom, Kel and I were all nervous. I guess Mom and me more than anything. The rest of the day was lazy. We watched the girl’s volleyball tournament.

Sunday was Mom's 52nd b-day, so we celebrated Saturday night. Our staple is margaritas, chips and salsa at The Cantina. We started there, made a stop at Zane's a little Irish bar where we had a few car bombs while mom sobered up and then headed to The Double Dog Tavern. Its was also 24 hours before Boss turned 21, so we all have a final shot, in which Mom joined us. The last stop of the evening was at Cooper Street, where Beck joined us. It's a local dive bar, cash only I might add, that will definitely bring your night to a close. Mom left, followed by Kelly, Dan and me. The boys left not long after that. Sunday morning proved to be the most difficult on waking up and feeling okay. A few, to remain unnamed, were hung over. It was a really fun night!

I took the boys up to Devil's Punch Bowl to do more cliff jumping into "hot springs". At breakfast, Andrew told Beck, who had not been there the day before; that you jump into hot springs and the water is warm......needless to say, he was shocked when he jumped into ice cold water. It was pretty funny! We returned home, they left to get back to Ft. Collins and then there was quiet! Mom and I went up town to watch volleyball and Kel and Dan joined us later. We were surprised to have our cousin Jen show up to watch with us.

The weekend entailed: relaxing afternoons, PC and NON-PC comments, jokes, tricks, squabbles, drinks, and lots of laughs. College boys are like living in a comedy show.Day one....evaluating how far down it is!

Andrew's first Olympic jump......handstand off cliff into water

Kel and Dan at the Cantina

Andrew and Boss (Alex)

For the first time in our lives, we were out numbered....the girls

and the pestering continues!The whole gang....Andrew's taking the picture
Beck...after the jump into the "hot spring".....haha!