Christmas Spirit.....

I don't know what it is this year......I can't seem to find my Christmas Spirit.  Every once in a while I get a glimpse of it, but then it's gone.  You would think that the cold, snowy weather in Denver would help, but it's doesn't.  I don't know if it just comes with the territory, ya know....turning 30 and all ;-).  Or if it's that we are staying in Colorado this year instead of heading to Iowa, which is going to be so VERY different especially for my dad who has never spent a Christmas in Colorado because he has spent the last 60 in Des Moines.  Who knows......all I know is my Christmas Spirit is MISSING.  

I am hoping to find it this weekend.  Maybe tonight we will go look at lights, while listening to Christmas  music and drink hot chocolate.  Tomorrow I am getting a Christmas-y manicure and pedicure with Candace and then heading to a couple's Christmas Party...... that's gotta do it right???  Sunday we will head to church in anticipation for the celebration of the birth of Christ.  And hopefully that is exactly where I will find my missing spirit.  It will remind me of the true reason we celebrate Christmas.  We also get to spend time with dear friends we haven't seen in awhile and their little baby girl Olivia, I bet she will help me find the spirit as well.  I will let you know how the search for missing spirit goes....I have a good feeling all will be fixed after the weekend!

Merry Christmas!!

The Hubby Turns 30!!

This post is almost a MONTH over due.  My wonderful husband, Jason, turned 30 on November 11th.  So I figured, what better way to celebrate the big birthday than with a surprise party.  Now for any of you who know Jason, surprise parties aren't really his thing.....well, quite frankly, birthday celebrations aren't really his thing ;)......so I planned a party!  There is this great little bowling alley/bbq joint that was perfect for the party and made it easy to get him there without too much of a struggle because he loves bowling and BBQ!

Our good friends Luke and Candace helped me out with the logistics of the surprise.  I made sure that Jason knew they were picking us up at 5:30 to head out.  I didn't want to risk Jason delaying our departure because one of his favorite college football teams was in the middle of a huge game....we needed to be picked up at a precise time with no excuses to be late!!

Well of course the days leading up to the surprise were full of anxiety for me.  So many times I thought Jason knew about the surprise.  I was sure I had slipped and said something, or that he would think I was acting strange.  I kept telling him we shouldn't go over to mom and dad's at any point over the weekend because dad was sick......when the real reason was because Kate, Kacey, Rossi, David and Daria were all at the house!!!

At 4:30 Luke and Candace came over for a beer before we headed to the bowling alley, and I sort of felt like I was acting like a crazy lunatic.....lucky for me Candace was nervous too :).  We headed to the bowling alley, and I started to realize that he might not have a clue! We pulled into the parking lot and of course I saw cars I recognized, but as I found out later Jason didn't notice a one.  As we walked up to the door I saw EVERYONE standing waiting for us to walk in, and again Jason didn't see anyone.  As soon as we walked through the door everyone yelled surprise, and what came out of Jason's mouth??? "What the bleep?????".  Yup that's right....his first reaction may or may not have been a bit of anger :)  After he got over the initial shock he saw the biggest surprise of all (to both of us!).  His best friend Nic came all the way from San Francisco for his birthday.....I don't think Jason could have asked for a better present.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of his face as he walked through the door, but I don't think I will ever forget it! It was such a fun evening. Everyone bowled, drank beer, ate wings and had a great time.  We headed over to our favorite restaurant afterward for some drinks at the bar.  And of course since Jason is getting old, we called it a night much earlier than we did when he turned 20!

Here are just a few pictures from the night:

Our great friends Luke and Candace:

Jason's friend Nic who flew in from SF, one of his best friends James and the birthday boy

Jason's Mom and Julian

David and Daria

Dad, a wing, Kate and Kacey

A few more from the evening:

If you look very closely you can see my bowling injury on my index finger :)

Happy 30th, Jason!!

Thankful.....

As one of my favorite days of the year approaches, I have been thinking about all of the things I am thankful for.  Here are just a few that come to mind:

• My loving, supportive, hardworking, dedicated husband
• My family-couldn't make it without them
• Our little Zito burrito
• Our jobs
• Our health
• Our home
• Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Lattes
• Long runs (especially the ones where nothing aches!)
• My dad's red pasta-YUMMO! :)
• Laughing on the phone with my sisters on a Sunday wishing we all lived closer
• Saturday mornings with my book, a cup of coffee and not a thing to do!
• My girlfriends and our fun nights out
• Hearing a favorite song on the radio and turning the volume up ALL THE WAY
• Christmas music
• Holiday Traditions
• My Grandparents-even when my gramma tells me my hair looks better longer ;)
• The Lake-hope I actually make it up there this year
• Thanksgiving.....it is by far my favorite holiday because it is about family and friends and time spent together....no gifts, just a lot of delicious food and wine with the ones you love. 
• The list could go on and on............

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Gobble Gobble!

Where does the time go?

The past few months, alright let's just say it, the past year has flown by. I cannot believe we are one week away from Thanksgiving.  As I have been looking back through pictures from 2009 for our family calendar, I realized just how busy we have been.  Weddings, vacations, trips to the mountains to see Jason's family, wedding showers, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, Kate and Billy's wedding, Dad's 60th, Jason's 30th.... and now the year is almost over.  It makes me think about something my Dad has always said to me, but until recently I didn't fully understand.  He always says the older you, get the faster the years go.  He is so right.  I feel like I literally closed my eyes at Easter, opened them and voila....Thanksgiving!  I am so thankful for all of the pictures to remind of just how blessed we have been this past year.

I am hoping that I can slow these last 6 weeks of the year down and really enjoy the holidays with family and friends.  And well let's face it.....my 30th birthday is in 35 days (but who's counting).  I am totally ok with drrraaaggging out the days before it arrives. :)

Dad's 60th Birthday Weekend!! (Day 3)

Saturday was another fun day in Napa.  We started the day with a tasting at a beautiful winery called Fantesca.  Duane and Susan Hoff are the owners of the vineyard and her father actually STARTED Best Buy in Minneapolis (it was originally a single store called "The Sound of Music")  They are such kind, welcoming people, and we enjoyed every minute of our visit there.  Especially the amazing King Richard Pinot!  I could definitely relocate to Fantesca Winery!

After we left Fantesca, we walked around St. Helena and did a little window shopping.  This trip was for wine-ing, not shopping! Jason, Billy and Rossi went golfing for the afternoon and Dad was stuck with his girls for the rest of the day. I am pretty sure he really enjoyed his time alone with us :)  We grabbed lunch, tasted at another winery where my mom's sister met us for a bit, went to the grocery to get the steaks to grill for dinner and headed home to relax at the house.  Here a couple pictures from the afternoon......

As the weekend came to an end, I started thinking about how blessed we are.  We are all healthy, we are all happy, we all truly love to spend time together and never want our trips to end.  Sometimes we get caught up in the everyday stress, the mundane chores and obligations, and forget how blessed we truly are. I know I am going to stop and think about that a little more often.

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!! I know that there are so many more to come. Hope you had as much fun as we all did!

Love you!!

Dad's 60th Birthday Weekend!! (Day 2)

What a gorgeous day this was!  We planned to have the limo pick us up 9:30 to start the day because our first vineyard was about an hour away from where we were staying.  And of course we had to start "tasting" our wine early! Junior, our driver, picked us up and we were on our way. 

The ride up to our first vineyard was nice and the scenery was GORGEOUS.  I had no idea that the vines actually change color during harvest season. They were beautiful.  Our first stop was Frank's Family Vineyards.  A friend of my dad's from Junior High and High School set up this private tasting for us and it was perfect.  Pat was our tasting guide and boy did he pour some delicious wines for us to taste!  He had great stories to tell and we spent almost two hours there. I guess it was pretty fitting that we were there for Frank's 60th birthday at "Frank's Family Vineyards" :) Here are just a few shots from that stop:

Frank's Family Vineyard is owned by the ex-president of Disney, Rich Frank.  It just so happened that he was in Napa for the weekend and arrived at the vineyard while we were still tasting.  He came in to join us for a bit and shared a few stories.....wow what a life that man has lead!  The pictures below are with Rich Frank and Pat who did our private tasting.....such a GREAT way to start the day!

Oh and I forgot, Rich Frank collects old cars.  Check out his ride...... :)

Our next stop was the Silver Oak Winery.  Dad's law partner Bill set up another private tasting for us, and of course once again we enjoyed ourselves and tasted some DELICIOUS wine. We were able to tour the functioning winery at Silver Oak. We saw the process of the wine making from beginning to end.....the sorting of the grapes, the pressing of the grapes, the HUGE cylinders where the wine was fermenting before it was barreled, the barrels where the wine was aging and finally the bottling assembly line itself. It was so interesting to see the steps it takes to make one of our favorite cabernets.  Please disregard any pictures in which we look intoxicated, it was not our fault! Our guide Madeline brought a bottle with her on the tour and kept filling up our glasses ;)

We stopped for lunch after this ( it was MUCH needed) and then headed to our last stop of the day, Round Pond winery and estate. Round Pond is a beautiful vineyard and farm. They grow all organic produce and they have a chef who prepares little gourmet tapas to try while tasting different types of wine.  The idea is that when pairing wine with food you are able to detect different flavors in the wine that you may not otherwise notice.  Not only is the wine amazing, but they also make olive oils and vinegars that are all infused with different fruits and vegetables.....yum!!  We could have sat here for the rest of the day it was truly gorgeous.  These next pics are our "couple" shots from the weekend, our own little photo shoot......come to think of it, we probably should have done these a little earlier in the day :)

The day was perfect and most importantly my dad had a great day! We got home and Kate started making her famous white pasta with hot italian sausage, artichokes and sundried tomatoes.  It was delicious! Clumsy Kacey did have one minor setback.....she sliced her pinky finger open on an artichoke can!  Rossi and Dad performed some serious surgery (and by surgery I mean they closed the "wound" with a butterfly bandage and some sports tape) and she was healed! We always need a little drama to keep us on our toes!  As you can probably guess, we all headed to bed shortly after dinner.  Big plans for day 3!

Dad's 60th Birthday Weekend!! (Day 1)

About 4 months ago my sisters and I started thinking about what our "POPS" would like to do for the big birthday.  We knew he wouldn't want a big party (we have definitely had our share of those lately)! We also knew if he had it his way we would just ignore it.  Well if you know us at all, you would know that ignoring a birthday is NEVER an option.  So after careful consideration of a few options, we planned a trip to Napa with the fam.....Mom, me, Jason, Kate, Billy, Kacey and Rossi.  What better way to spend your birthday.....drinking good wine with the people you love the most! :)

DAY 1:

We left Denver, New York and Nashville on Thursday the 29th of October (Dad's Birthday) and almost didn't make it.  The gang (minus Rossi and Billy) were flying out of Denver at 9:00am in the middle of a HUGE snow storm.  Denver ended up with over 2 feet of snow from this crazy fall storm, and we were the LAST flight out to San Francisco on Thursday morning.  We thought Billy and Rossi were going to enjoy the wine in Napa without us!  We arrived about two hours late and the shenanigans began.  Kate had arranged for 2 rental cars instead of one big SUV because the price of 1 SUV was double that of 2 smaller cars (smart girl!).  Of course, Dad went up to the Thrifty Rental Car counter with Kate and our plan was instantly changed.  We ended up with a PASSENGER van.  Yup, that's right, 12 seater.  We were riding in style.   I do believe this is the ONLY photo we took of the lovely rent-a-van.

We drove up to the wine country by way of Sausalito, a quaint town on the water on the other side of the the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.  We had lunch at a little restaurant on the water, complete with clam chowder, lobster bisque and a delicious Ahi Tuna sandwich (ooh and better not forget the sweet potato fries!).  We arrived shortly after lunch to our home for the weekend in Napa.  Billy's mom was kind enough to reserve her company's house in Silverado for her new daughter in law and family! Thank you Michelle for such a perfect place to spend the weekend!!

We got settled in to the house, made a quick trip to the grocery store and then headed out to dinner for Dad's birthday.  Dinner was full of great conversation (minus the 20 minute rant about passing gas and how it truly is the funniest thing ever.....I don't believe everyone at the table agreed.....and I am preeetttty sure our server overheard the whole thing!), wonderful wine and fabulous food.  We headed home early because we had BIG plans for day 2 of our trip.  Here are just a few shots from dinner.....

However, before we could head to bed it was time for cake, ice cream and a card party! I stole this idea from my cousin Holly and it was a HUGE success.  The card response was overwhelming and everyone sent such wonderful, kind words about our father.  Dad loved it!

This next card was the FUNNIEST card he received.  It became the entertainment for the weekend.  It may go down as the BEST card EVER.  You would think by the expression on Kate's face that she purchased the card.....nope.  The card was from Rossi's parents and it was a CLASSIC....Star Wars theme music and all.

Day 1 was a SUCCESS! Off to bed to get a good night's sleep because we had big plans for Day 2.

Half Marathon.....

Yup.  It's official.  I have decided to run a half marathon.  Today was my first training run and I must say it went well.  Now don't get too excited for me.....it was only 2 miles.  But I sure am proud of those first 2 miles! The race is on February 7th, 2010 in Huntington Beach, CA.  I figure if I commit now ( and by commit I mean fork over the cash for the entry fee) I won't be able to give up.  AND I am telling as many people as possible so I will have to see this through.  I wouldn't want to have to admit to all my family and friends that I suck :)  I tried to convince Jason to run with me, but that didn't go over well.  In fact I think his response went something like this: "Kara, why would anyone WANT to run 13 miles???".  I took that as a NO.   However, via Facebook, I have managed to round up a few friends to run with.  I even found out a friend from San Francisco was already planning on running the race, so I have an email buddy to keep me motivated.  Half marathon here I come.....let's check this one off the bucket list!

Check out the race info at http://www.runsurfcity.com/

Wish us luck!

There is a HUGE snow storm in Denver as I type, and we are supposed to be headed out tomorrow morning for my dad's 60th birthday celebration in Napa.  It has been snowing all day and it isn't supposed to let up until tomorrow afternoon.  Our flight is at 9:15 tomorrow morning, so needless to say I am a little worried our flight will be super delayed or cancelled.  Rossi, my sister Kacey's fiance, is heading in from New York on a 7:00am flight, Kate and Kacey are leaving Nashville at 6:00 am to connect with us in Denver........so all I have to say is this.......SNOW, you better not ruin our trip!! I will be VERY unhappy.  Our alarm is set for 4:00 am.  Wish us luck!

Our Alaskan Cruise-August 2009

 Jason and I were lucky enough to take a cruise to Alaska this summer with some of his family.  His Grandma Schmahl has been battling cancer for many years now and she decided she wanted to take this cruise before she was no longer able to.  So off we went.....Grandma and Grandpa Schmahl, Jason's dad Ray and his girlfriend Catherine, his Aunt Sheryl and her husband Jim, and Grandma and Grandpa's good friends Jack and Dee.

We started out with the typical drill......

We passed the Celebrity Cruise ship evacuation drill with flying colors and we were on our way!  There was so much to explore our first day on the ship and somehow this is where we ended up......martini tasting.

Dinner followed and then off to bed. The next day was partially a day at sea and also a stop at Ketchikan.  We walked the streets of Ketchikan, got an Alaskan non-fat, sugar-free Vanilla latte (my favorite from any local starbucks) and had the most delicious halibut fish tacos. The weather was beautiful-in the 70's-and the views were amazing.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many photos in Ketchikan, but this one of the marina was my favorite.....

We left Ketchikan and started our sail up to the Hubbard glacier.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful, and Jason and I actually thought much of it reminded us of a mix between the Lake up in Ely, MN and the mountains in Colorado. The best of both worlds!

That evening we found a spot on the ship that ended up being one the best memories of our trip..... Michael's piano bar.  He played and sang it all: showtunes, Sinatra, jazz, blues.  Every night after
dinner we had a drink at Michael's and listened to him play.  The room had big columns and was painted Italian style.....Venice canals and all.......perfection.

We arrived at hubbard glacier the next day and there really are no words to describe its beauty.  My pictures definitely don't come close to capturing the size and magnificence of the glacier.  Our ship got unbelievably close to the glacier and as we were sailing towards it visions of the Titantic were popping up in my mind.  There were icebergs everywhere you looked, however, the captain assured us we were never in any danger (so he says!).  It stunning and something we may never see again.

The First "ICEBERG"....

We sailed through the evening and into the next morning to arrive at our next destination...Juneau! We had the morning to explore the city and then we were booked on a whale watching extravaganza.  We walked around the city for a bit and came to realize that these Alaskan port cities are INTENSE.  Every other shop is a diamond/jewelry shop.  They try to entice you with all of these amazing deals.....which in reality are not such amazing deals.  We wondered through a few shops, but figured we were good with the jewelry we had :)  Once again we found a delicious spot for lunch with fresh seafood......fish and chips and the grilled prawns were our favorites.  The view from lunch was beautiful.

And so was the beer.......

After we finished lunch we boarded our tour bus, complete with one cheesy Alaskan tour guide, and we were on our way.  Our first stop was to see another glacier/fjord outside of the city of Juneau before we boarded our sailing vessel to whale watch.  We learned a lot about Juneau on that very infomative bus ride.....including where retired Governor Sarah Palin's house was.  When we arrived at the glacier we walked through a bear park where we were able to see a mama bear and two cubs.  They moved too fast for me to post a picture worth looking at :)  The glacier there was beautiful as well, however, we couldn't get as close to it as we would have liked.

Our next stop was the whale watching part of the tour.  Now to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect and truly wasn't sure we were going to see a whale at all.  It was amazing! We saw humpback whales and killer whales.......such beauty.  We actually saw a humpback whale breach which is extremely rare and of course I wasn't able to capture that with my camera.  A breach is when the whale comes all the way out of the water and sort of flips over......AMAZING.  It was difficult to get pictures of these massive creatures so eventually I gave up and just put my camera away.

Humpback whales......

Killer whales.....

Our trip to Alaska was wonderful.  There are so many memories that we shared with Jason's family and his grandparents. His Grandma had a good trip and it was the last one she could take with us.  Her battle with cancer finally ended on October 14, 2009.  We are so grateful for the memories we have of this trip with her.  From winning name that tune (more than once!), to fancy ship dinners to our family photos with our Celebrity Cruise bathrobes on. She was an amazing woman, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and she will be deeply missed.