Happy 14th Anniversary to Us!!

This year we went away for our anniversary. We decided to drive down to Sedona, AZ. It was so worth it!

Ben booked us at L'Auberge. Unknown to me, he booked us into a cottage. It was so cool! It was like a little house... no direct neighbors, outside cedar shower, tons of room... I am so spoiled!

After a lovely drive down to Sedona, we booked dinner at their creek side dining. It was so beautiful. After dinner we went for a stroll. And quickly discovered that Sedona is really a sleepy little town... everything closed at 9 or earlier! So after looking at closed up shops, we headed back to our cottage.

The next morning we woke up very early to hike up the bluffs before sunrise. It was hard to get out of bed, but I'm glad we did. The hike was beautiful and a bit challenging (mostly because we couldn't stop). Unfortunately, the sunrise was blocked by a lot of clouds, so it wasn't exactly the view we were looking for. But it was nice and peaceful. Once others started to get to the top, we decided to head back down. We got back to our hotel and did their stretch yoga class. That felt amazing after our hike! Then it was (finally!) breakfast time.

For year 14, the traditional gift is animal. I bought Ben an adult coloring book of animals. And colored pencils to go with it. After showering, we sat on our deck and colored. It was a lot of fun!

The next morning we decided to do a nice, easy, quick, hike. Things didn't go quite as planned. We got to the trail head and started going the way we needed to get to the trail we wanted to go on. First problem was that the instructions weren't exactly clear. Secondly, the trails aren't marked very well. So, we made our way and kept going, enjoying the views. But then we started to get worried that we wouldn't be able to find our way back. Luckily, we stumbled into a volunteer and she told us to continue on the loop for more views and an easier (marked) way back down. We finally made it back to our car! But instead of an hour hike, it was close to 3, which left us hustling to get back to our cottage, pack up and leave to head home.

I am so glad we had our little escape. It was the first time alone in far too long. Here's to us!

Thirteen Years

On September 15, Ben and I celebrated 13 years of marriage. Well, we celebrated the weekend before, but you know what I mean.

Rick and Mickey came into town for the weekend, so we took full advantage! On Friday we went shopping. I did a horrible job of packing non-maternity clothes when we moved back to Vegas. I literally did not have anything to wear for a nice dinner. Oops. We found an awesome store at Fashion Mall. Can't remember what it's called, but I could have bought just about one of everything in the store and would have worn them all. Only down side of this store is that it is expensive. Of course. So, I settled on one dress for Saturday night.

Friday night we had friends in town, so we met up with them for a drink and a walk around the Linq and the Strip. It was fun to see them and spend time with them.

Saturday afternoon, Ben and I headed over to Mandalay Bay for their day club. Krewella was playing at the pool. We had a lot of fun. The girls rocked it!

That evening Ben and I went out to dinner. It was my pick. I almost went for Steak n' Shake, but decided that since the kids like that place, I should pick a place that they don't like. So we went to Sushi Roku. We had some excellent hunks of fish. So good. They gave us free dessert. So nice!

After that we walked around the mall a bit, mainly to get out of it. But we stopped by a cool gallery. We found a print we both really liked. Turns out it could be ours for the low price of $6800. Hmm... Maybe not. Then we went on a hunt for dessert (don't judge! it was our anniversary!). The first place we tried to go to didn't exist. So we walked to the Mirage. That place didn't exist either. We ended up at BLT Burger. They have awesome shakes. So we got that. So full.

On Monday, our actual anniversary, was busy with laundry and running around getting things for Ben's trip to Peru the following day. We ended up at a Greek restaurant for dinner. The kids didn't really like it, but Ben and I were in gyro heaven! Their pitas so so good!

And thus concluded our 13 year celebration.

Happy 2013!

I realized the other day that I really should blog more. Not for the handful of people that might still be checking in on me, but for myself. I have journals for both kids, but I haven't been recording anywhere what I'm up to. So here I am.

New Year's Eve found us without any plans, as usual. We are so bad at NYE plans. Every year we wait until the last minute to start thinking about what we're doing. This year was no exception. So, I got things for lil smokies in BBQ sauce and chili cheese dip. Figured I'd call that good enough. Well, Ben didn't think that was good enough. So, he went to the store. He came home with shrimp and cocktail sauce, gourmet carrots, French bread, lobster tails, chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne. Not just any champagne, but the good stuff. I am so spoiled by him.

We ended up making the chili cheese dip as an appetizer. As I was getting the kids to bed (after watching Toy Story 2), Ben went to work in the kitchen. He even set the table with candles. When I came downstairs, everything was ready (again, I'm spoiled). After a delicious meal, we headed down for a movie (Coming to America). I lasted about 1/2 hour. I woke up when Odin started to cry. Poor guy has a cold so he's on a bit of a weird schedule. Anyway, he ended up being up with us for a while. Once he was down again, we only had 15 minutes to go before the new year. We turned on the TV and watched the ball drop. Then we went to bed.

It was a very nice evening. Sure, it would have been fun to go out or something, but with all of our travels, it was nice to just enjoy our family together.

Nine Wonderful Years

This past Wednesday Ben and I celebrated nine years of married life. He didn't have anything really going on at work, so at the last minute he decided to take the day off. We both had donuts on the brain, so the three of us went to Byerly's for breakfast. It was definitely a cheat day* for Ben, so we got a pizza for lunch. We watched Star Wars Episode 1. Then we got ready for our dinner out. My parents came over to babysit Adelyn. Then we were off to Ruth's Chris' for dinner. We totally took our time at dinner. We had some wonderful food and some great wine. This was a real treat for me since I haven't been able to have any for quite some time. We finished off our meal with free dessert. I haven't been so full in so long. And it was so worth it.

*Ben is on a diet. Most days he restricts his calories (the only real way to loose weight) but at least once a week he has a cheat day so his body doesn't get too used to his low calorie diet. Usually he's still really good on his cheat days. Not so much on Wednesday. But thankfully Mr. Scale wasn't too mean the next morning.

In the journal I'm keeping for Adelyn, I tried to find words to express how wonderful love is. I know I did not do it justice at all. I just hope and pray that Ben and I will be great examples of what love is. And someday she will have this type of love too. (I already am tearing up just thinking about her getting married!).

Get So Busy

I'm not sure who sings it, but there is a song that was on a tape that I used to listen to as a kid. The song goes,
Well, I know it sounds funny, but it's true
I get so busy, I forget I'm in love with you
And every now and then
We need to get away to get close again

It is so true! Ben and I were talking last night and we both can't really figure out what we've been doing with our time. Sometimes we are just in our separate worlds. We are making it a point to make sure to spend actual time together on a regular basis. And I love it.

V Day, Then and Now

One of our first Valentine’s Days together there was really bad weather. When Ben was bringing me home we did a 180 on Highway 7 due to the ice on the road. That was pretty exciting. This Valentine’s Day the weather was bad again. On the way to dinner we saw an SUV on its side and several cars in the ditches. But unlike the days of old, we didn’t have any excitement in the car.

We started off the day making breakfast together. The plan was to make waffles with strawberries, whipped cream and some hash browns. Our waffle maker had other plans. The first waffle stuck so badly, that we couldn’t get it out to try again. So we made pancakes instead. Still very tasty.

Since it’s our last Valentine’s Day sans kids, we decided to go out. Ben wanted to try an organic or locally sourced place, so I picked out Brasa Rotisserie in Minneapolis. They happened to have a V-Day special so we went with that. We had guacamole with veggies and chips, shrimp and smoked trout for our appetizer. For our meats we picked pork and beef. Both were so tender and tasty. We both liked the pork the best. We got to pick three sides so we picked collard greens, fried plantains and rice and beans. I wasn’t crazy about the greens, but the other sides were fantastic. We ended our dining experience with dessert… raspberry cheesecake, truffles and lavender caramel. The caramel was interesting. Better than I would have thought. I would recommend Brasa!

All in all, it was a great day. I’m so thankful for my Valentine.

Copper

Last week Ben and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! How time flies, goodness! One of my traditions is to get him a present that corresponds with either the traditional or modern gift for the year we are celebrating. This has proved to be require some creativity on my part. My self-inflicted rules are that it has to be for him, not us or the house, and is reasonably priced.

This year (according to some lists) the gift is copper. Hmmm. Copper. What would Ben like out of copper? A penny? :) It took some thinking and some surfing before I found what I wanted to get him - a copper piece of art. I found a guy on eBay that takes a sheet of copper and treats it with different chemicals to get different reactions on the metal. I thought it was pretty cool, so I bought one.

As for me, there isn't as much of a pattern for gifts from Ben. Sometimes he adds a piece of jewelry to my sapphire collection (sapphire is September's stone). Other times I get showered with roses. This year it was roses. He bought me 40 long-stem roses of nearly every color out there. They are so pretty! I took some pictures, so I'll try to post so you can see them.

We celebrated by going to Bacio's. It was very tasty.

One of Many

I believe that there are thousands of idiots in the world. On Friday, I joined that number.

For those that read this regularly, you will know that I have had some back issues for the past few weeks. Slowly I have been getting better. Thursday night we got some snow (about 5 inches). After my walk on Friday morning, I decided to be the thoughtful little wife and clear away the snow at the end of our driveway from the snow plow. Not a good idea. At all.

I hadn't done too much when I felt and heard a pop in my lower back. I seriously just wanted to collapse in the snow. But since Ben was still asleep and the neighborhood is pretty quiet until 7, I figured I might be in the snow for a long time. I didn't want to add hypothermia to my list of ailments. So I made goals: Make it to the garage. Get in the house. Get my boots off. Make it to the couch. Wake up Ben.

I have never fainted, but I think I might have been close to that. Several times the room went black. I was nauseous and hot. I finally made it to the couch. Laying down helped, but my muscles kept seizing up. I have never been in so much paid before.

With Zoey's help we woke up Ben (so glad we taught her how to speak). He got me an ice pack and some ibuprofen. He checked to see when urgent care opened. Then we got to go to the clinic. That was a very painful process. Getting in and out of the car brought me to tears. The doctor was very nice. He ordered up x-rays to make sure nothing more serious than a muscle thing was going on. For x-rays I needed to get undressed. Not fun. But thankfully, the x-rays looked good and I was sent on my way with a couple of prescriptions.

I am feeling a ton better. My muscles have stopped spasming randomly. And the pain has diminished greatly. I still have trouble sitting down and standing up.

Through this whole ordeal, Ben has been awesome. I am so incredibly thankful for him. He has been sure to get me everything that I need. He has made sure I am taking my medications on time. He has helped me get to couches. And he has even helped me to get on and off the toilet (that has to be the worse piece of "furniture" to get on and off of with a sore back - it's so low!). He has also been extremely thoughtful on things I hadn't even thought of: he moved my towel to the top rack so I don't have to bend to get it; he moved my shampoo, conditioner and body wash so I can get to them without too much hassle. And the entire time he hasn't complained or even given me a hard time (since it was my fault that I am in this situation in the first place). I honestly don't know what I would have done without him.

The Greatest Thing

We tried to get creative with Valentine's Day, but didn't really succeed. But we did have a wonderful day. Ben slept in (he didn't get home until 2:30 from poker). We had lunch (leftover Cheese and Bean Burritos - new recipe from Rachael Ray). We took a nap. Then we decided to get off our lazy bums and go to the grocery store. We had decided that instead of going out for dinner, we would make dinner. We actually have done this for the past several V Day's. It's a nice tradition. We didn't do anything that required too much work. We went to Byerly's and picked up some pre-made crab cakes and beef kabobs. While the crab cakes were baking, I dipped some strawberries in chocolate. Yum!

After dinner it was movie of my choice. I picked Moulin Rouge. Ben thought it was interesting that I picked a tragedy, but I love the movie and haven't watched it in ages.

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

Seven Years

On Monday, Ben and I celebrated seven years of marital bliss. We went out to lunch with David and Heather (who were celebrating their one year). We went to Bahn Thai. Yum! When I got home there was a huge bouquet of roses waiting for me. We decided to stick with our commitment to eat at home, so we went to Costco and Byerly's to pick up some food. I don't think we saved much money, but we had fun and I'm sure it was better for us. Here was our menu:

1st Course: Fancy pants cheese, raisins and wine
2nd Course: Crab Cakes
3rd Course: Peel and eat shrimp, bread and some more wine (same bottle)
4th Course: Freshly baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and milk

We also watched "Sweet Home Alabama." Ben didn't really like it, but he was a good sport.

Spoiled!

This was a fun weekend. It started off by going to Chino Latino's. A coworker of mine had her birthday party there. I wasn't going to go because Ben was busy and I didn't really know anyone else that was going to be there (the birthday girl just started in my group a month or so ago). I ended up deciding to go since Ben was busy and I had nothing else to do on a Friday night. I dragged Dawn with me (thanks Dawn!) and we had a great time. It was our first time there and we both enjoyed it.

Saturday I went to the tea with my mom. It was very nice. Several ladies brought in their hat collections, so we all wore hats during the tea. Patsy, a missionary in Africa, shared what she is currently doing over there. It was very interesting. After the tea my mom and I went shopping! We started off at Ridgedale. And we didn't find a single thing! So we drove down to Von Maur in Eden Prairie. We found lots of dresses there! We finally decided on one and bought it. We were both super excited.

When I got home I discovered that Ben had done laundry! It was so nice to not have to worry about that. And then yesterday I was running errands and Ben made dinner (steak, mashed potatoes, rolls, veggies and wine). It was so good! I felt like a very spoiled girl.

So Sweet

This morning when Ben and I were getting ready for work he paused and said, "I love waking up with you." Isn't that sweet?

Another thing that is sweet is I got my test results back today. Yep, that's right - I passed! I am so relieved! (Only three more to go!). Ben and I are going to El Loro to celebrate!

A Moment and Dresses

These past few weeks seem to have been crazy busy for us. Last Sunday afternoon when I got back from David's, Ben and I were on the floor and just talked. It was so nice not to have other distractions (except the occasional Zoey kiss). It made me realize again how nice it is just to have someone to talk with. Even if it's about stupid stuff. Those ten minutes or so were the best of the week.

In other news, dresses were ordered last night! We tried them on again at the Wedding Chapel and we both still loved them. My mom was able to come too. She approved. I haven't decided yet if I want to post pictures of the dresses. I have been slated to make the veil for my sister... and possibly jewelry... We'll see how that goes.

Sara and Malachi are coming back to stay with us for the final days before the go back to Texas. I will post pictures of our visit as soon as I remember.