Downtown Denver during the holidays: one of my favorite things

December 17, 2013 By

Last weekend, my daughter Hadley and I had what felt like a” New York Moment” in Denver. We’re suburbanites and venture downtown every couple of months but usually for an express purpose–not to just wander and explore. We walked for miles, only slowing down to eat, shop and savor the many, many Colorado moments. A few of our favorites included:

Christkindl Market

Visit the 13th annual Denver Christkindl Market in the heart of downtown Denver on the 16th Street Mall. Once upon a time,  I served an 18-month-long LDS mission in Switzerland and this quaint German Christmas market’s music, food, holiday lights and old-world vendors made me relive the fairy tale. Hadley and I bought handmade Christmas decorations, drank cinnamon-spiced hot chocolate, devoured cinnamon-sugar pretzels as big as our heads from Styria Bakery and sampled gebrannte mandeln (roasted almonds) that had been perfected in a copper kettle important from Germany. We vowed to make a return trip to try maronen (roasted chestnuts), weiner schnitzel and for the line-up of events. Before we left, Hadley bought a horse from one of the glass artisans, proclaiming “This will help me remember this fun day,” a minor miracle for a kid who isn’t exactly the sentimental type.

Skate Southwest Rink at Skyline Park

For years, I’ve written about this free skating rink in the heart of downtown Denver on 16th Street Mall  but I’ve  never done it. Located right across from the Denver Christkindl Market, Hadley and I shopped ’til we dropped and then dropped a few times as we whirled around the ice with the Christmas-tree backdrop under a canopy of white lights. Open daily now through Feb. 16, the skating is free and rentals are only $2 (though every Sunday is a free day for kids). Learn to Skate is offered every Wednesday from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. and every Saturday 8 a.m.-10 a.m.

Downtown Fun

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked for miles around downtown. We bought umpteen stocking stuffers at Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop on Larimer Square (it was tough to narrow it down the literally hundreds of choices), tasted and bought gourmet olives oils and balsamic vinegars from nearby EVOO Marketplace’s sampling room and loaded up on high-quality spices, herbs and seasonings at Savory Spice Shopon Platte Street.

Anyone else sensing a food theme here?

My favorite memory of the day was as we were leaving Christkindl Market, a street performer was playing “My Favorite Things” on his trumpet. My daughter and I recently watched this classic movie together and we both spontaneously started singing and laughing at the top of our lungs.

Downtown Denver fun with my favorite girl? That day was definitely full of my favorite things.

Filed Under: Hadley, holidays, Humor Tagged With: , ,

Let the Christmas Insanity Begin!

December 16, 2013 By

What a great weekend! On Friday, my friend Amie and I volunteered at our city’s Santa House which collects and distributes toys to low-income families. I helped unload and stock shelves but by far my favorite was being a “personal shopper” and helping those in need select toys for their kids.  I’ve donated plenty of toys to toy drives in the past but being behind-the-scenes and seeing the wonderful people who are struggling gave me a new resolve to do more in the coming years.

After school, Bode joined some of his classmates to perform several Christmas songs at a local retirement home  How to score hot second grade chicks: land the coveted role of Rudolph.

Old ladies will also dig your nose and reindeer games.

Jamie’s sister Lisa generously invited the kids for a sleepover on Friday so Jamie and I could have date night at the Denver LDS Temple, which is a pretty darn awesome way to celebrate the season.

Saturday was a frenzy. Boot camp, picked up the kids, cleaned the house and had Hadley’s final volleyball game of the season. I have been the assistant coach for her cute team and they’ve improved leaps and bounds. Most gratifying is she has finally found her sport and constantly  has a volleyball in hand around the house.

It’s only a matter of time until she breaks something.

After that, we raced over to see the highly-anticipated Hobbit and Bode is already counting down ’til when the third movie in the trilogy is released on his birthday this summer. Translation: they loved it.

Upon arriving home, baking insanity ensued. Whenever Christmas rolls around, I start baking. And then bake some more. I have so many great recipes that I want to make them all so that’s exactly what I did. But I’ve gotten smarter over the years and don’t kill myself by cramming it all in on one day and started baking weeks ago. That’s what freezers are for, right?

Saturday night was about compiling all our goodies. This year’s haul included caramel toffee squares, gingerbread men, white chocolate snowball cookies, cream cheese cutout cookies, whipped shortbread and almond rocha.What I did kill myself with was packaging everything for our friends and neighbors then the massive clean-up. But didn’t they turn out lovely?

Bribery is how we make and keep our friends.

The cute kiddos made and decorated gingerbread men for their Primary class at church.

If you need us, we’ll be the ones passed out in the corner in a sugar coma.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor

Johnson Family Newsletter 2013

December 4, 2013 By

In typical bipolar fashion, I decided to do a holiday newsletter, then opted out and then upon receiving newsy holiday  newsletters from friends,  decided it should be back on. After all, the world must know what the Johnsons did in 2013!

Overall, we had a great time full of family and friends, travel and minimal hospital visits (our gauge for a good year). We took plenty of fantastic ski vacations all over Colorado and a week at our favorite, Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. Last summer, the kids and I spent almost a month in Canada on a 3,000-mile trip that covered two countries and six states (Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah). Jamie was only able to join us for a week of our trip, citing  “someone has to work to support your playtime.” Wise man; I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s a quick glimpse at our happenings. Click on the links for more details!

Atop 14,265-foot Mount Evans

Hadley

Hadley (9 going on 19) is in fourth grade at her Waldorf charter school and continues to love their arts-based academic education. Our free-spirited, fun-loving girl has been on several camping trips with her class and keeps busy with piano and volleyball. She’s also a stellar skier and for my birthday, we had a girl’s weekend of mogul-busting, snowshoeing, lake-skating and sledding. Hadley is a huge fan of horses and was delighted to spend a week at overnight Camp Chief Ouray last summer. She loves Fat Kitty, swimming, hiking, crafting, gardening, cooking and she was the top-performing girl in her grade at her school’s Fun Run. I should know. I ran beside her the entire way until our fifth mile when she blazed past me and I walked with a limp for a week. Her love for Scooby Doo has been replaced by mind-numbing shows on the Disney Channel like “Jessie” and “Dog with a Blog.” It looks like we have a tween, folks.

Hadley’s first scary leap into the Rooster Tail at the lake house in Vernon, B.C.

Skating at Copper Mountain

Summer hiking group at Mount Falcon

Bode

Our resident geek, Bode (age 7) loves all things space, educational and ensuring everyone is following the rules all the time. He is moderately obsessed with being the best-behaved kid in his second grade class (yet somehow is also among the most well-liked), thrives in academics, is a great little soccer player, skier, hiker, cook, master pumpkin grower and lives for his bi-weekly WiiU and technology sessions. For the second year in a row, he and Hadley were my child models at the 9News Back-to-School fashion show and he put Zoolander to shame. He and his sister went to Avid4Advenventure’s Survival Camp last summer and I now feel confident they can survive exactly two hours solo in the great outdoors. He never shuts up on the piano loves to play the piano, enjoys to read Calvin and Hobbes, bike down to our neighborhood skate park and play with LEGOS. His current obsession is constructing dream mansions for us out of giant wooden blocks and creating intricate maps of his designs. We strongly encourage this as a future profession.

First solo flight to see Grandma in Utah!

A snowy hike in Evergreen=joy

First fish fly fishing at The Ranch at Emerald Valley

Jamie

The Pumpkin Man had a great year. He grew his biggest pumpkin ever, 1,220-pound Stanley, and we landed a picture of him in The Denver Post. A professional carver drove down every day from Fort Collins for a week to chisel a marvelously creepy face into the giant gourd. And then Stanley and Jamie went on tour visiting both of the kids’ schools and harvest festivals, thereby cementing his status as a local celebrity. In other news (though really, is there any other news?), Jamie’s web development business Pixo Web Design and Strategy continues to grow, he has a few employees and is always busy. We marked our 10-year wedding anniversary last February and he surprised me by recreating the magical night we got engaged that included a limo ride to the swanky Briarwood Inn. He was recently released from the Bishopric at church and not even five days later, he was called as a stake clerk over technology, a real stretch.

Atop McConkey’s lift for the first time as a family at Park City Mountain Resort

Stanley the Pumpkin

Stanley’s scary carving

Amber

I’ve had a busy year working for the newspaper and various freelance opps in the travel industry. Our favorite gig is writing for AAA Five Diamond The Broadmoor’s magazine because they pay their writers in trade, which amounts to an opulent, indulgent vacation like no other in Colorado Springs.  I love hiking every week, skiing, boot camp, volunteering at school and in the community. I received an award in recognition of journalistic excellence as a community blogger from Digital First Media, The Denver Post’s parent company. But my real prize was when I was at a media luncheon hosted by the Maui Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and my name was drawn as the winner of a trip to Maui (we’re going in February). At church, I was sad to be released from the Young Women (favorite calling ever) and now serve in the stake’s Public Affairs where I work with community leaders and media.  I’m also the volleyball coach and our ward’s Primary pianist and have mastered The Look from across the room, which quickly corrects the behavior of any misbehaving kids. We all have our talents.

Solo hike to Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, Colo.

9News fashion show

Girl’s only birthday ski trip

Fat Kitty

He’s still fat, snuggly, sleepy, sweet and lives for his backyard adventures of stalking mice and eating grass ’til he pukes. We often walk in on him licking himself in Cirque du Soleil-esque positions but it was this shot I took of him on my bed that convinced us all that he’ll be America’s Next Top Model. Look for him on a Kitty Litter advertisement coming your way soon.

America’s Top (Cat) Model

We feel infinitely blessed this holiday season for wonderful family, good friends and the gospel in our lives.

Merry Christmas!

XO

The Johnsons

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Family travel, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie, LDS, Marriage, outdoors, pumpkins, skiing, travel, Utah

Thanksgiving 2013: Turkey Trotting and Bursting with Flavor!

November 29, 2013 By

It’s been a busy few weeks and this blog of mine has suffered. I literally have a month’s worth of updates and with the holidays upon us, it’s likely I won’t ever get caught up. I have some career changes I’m trying to navigate that, right now, are causing an uproar but in the end I’m hoping they’ll be good things. When a door closes a window always opens, right? At this point, I’m hoping for a skylight with a heavenly messenger telling me what the heck I’m supposed to be doing.

We’ve had a great Thanksgiving week. We skied Copper Mountain (details forthcoming), played a lot and ate even more. Jamie’s wonderful mom Linda is in town to help his sister after back surgery so we’ve been busy juggling everything.

I’ve stated before that Thanksgiving is probably my least favorite holiday because of all the gluttony and football but it’s  growing on me. We started out with our 7th Annual Turkey Trot Hike. It was a gorgeous day and I can’t believe how much my kids have grown since the first year we did it.

Please disregard the finger of the dude who took our picture in the top corner. He didn’t appreciate being asked to do it so I’m hoping it wasn’t his middle one.

The hike was as steep as always but these kids of mine are becoming intrepid hikers.

Plus, I gave the pitch as an excuse for Bode to hold my hand to give me balance on the way down. Gotta soak up these moments while you can!

Even in late-November, the views at the top were gorgeous.

We couldn’t fit our fat heads in this selfie but we had to try

Hadley has to free climb every rock wall or boulder she sees

Hiking Turkey Trot is always a great lead-in to our meal. We each had food assignments. Jamie’s brother Chris smoked the turkey (thankfully he gave in to my pleading NOT to do a deep-fried one), we did the sides (garlic-mashed potatoes, jalapeno sausage stuffing, pomegranate-pear salad, green bean casserole and cranberry salsa), while Linda made her famous rolls and was in charge of desserts.

Complication: The day before Thanksgiving she called to say poor Lisa was in the ER in pain so could we please pick-up the cheesecakes from Cheesecake Therapy and run to Costco for some apple pie? The cheesecakes weren’t a problem and Jamie grabbed egg nog, gingerbread, pumpkin and white chocolate raspberry from this darling bake shop.

The apple pie was a problem. I hate crowds and finish most of my shopping before Thanksgiving in an effort to avoid them (and yep, I don’t like shopping, either). So come hell or high water, there was NO WAY I was going to go to Costco the day before Thanksgiving and stand in line for an hour for just one item. Another complication: Jamie loves Costco’s apple pie but I came up with a solution to bake our own. I just added it to our list of items I was already making that also included several dozen cream cheese cutout cookies. Basically, my kitchen looked like a bomb went off. But Hadley was an excellent helper.

Jamie was incredulous. “So, you’d rather spend all this time making a pie just to avoid going to Costco?” Yup.

I retorted. “So you’re actually whining that your wife is making you a homemade apple pie instead of a store-bought one?” Touché, my friends.

In the end, everyone was happy. We had an amazing spread of food, Linda’s rolls were better than ever and Chris smoked some unbelievably delicious gouda cheese in the smoker.

Rolls, pomegranate pear salad and our appetizer spread

Chris smoked his best turkey ever: moist and bursting with flavor

The kids did a wonderful job setting the table with my mom’s china and grandmother’s beautiful utensils. My heart was full of love for this wonderful family of mine, the life we’ve created and the miracles that surround us.

I’m sure Jamie feels the same way regardless of the fact that every picture I took of him that night he looked like was going to burst.

Just chalk it up to an overabundance of culinary blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Foodie, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie

Halloween 2013: A wig-fighting, sugar-coma-inducing great time

November 4, 2013 By

Confession: I often look enviously at families who dress up to a theme at Halloween because that likely ain’t ever going to happen. I mean, just look at my friend Lisa’s clan as the Adams Family.

Her husband is a plastic surgeon. I can only imagine the transformations they’ll undergo in the future. :-)

Jamie isn’t the dress-up type (besides his lame pumpkin hat) and my kids prefer mainstream (read: boring) costumes.  But I guess I’ll take what I can get with Luigi and Harry Potter’s Bellatrix Lestrange, right?
I won’t mention the “creative differences” Hadley and I had regarding her wig she begged me to buy but then later deemed “too big.”
Girl wouldn’t last even one day with my ‘fro.

With the kids in two different schools, I’m normally racing around to their different schedules but Halloween worked to my advantage. Bode’s party was in the morning.

While Hadley’s was in the afternoon.Note the lack of wig. You win some, you lose some.

I made oodles of tasty pumpkin treats all week including pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pancakes with caramel apple cream cheese syrup. Papa John’s was advertising their pumpkin-shaped pizzas and I admittedly have become a pizza snob, refusing to buy the disgusting sodium-drenched frozen ones and only occasionally indulging in greasy restaurant pies for our family’s traditional Friday Pizza & Movie Nights. Our homemade ones are so much tastier with our backcountry honey pizza crusts.

Basically, my goal was for us not to eat anything healthy on Halloween. Mission accomplished!

Our neighborhood is about as family-friendly as it gets and Halloween is a non-stop party! We met at the fire station a stone’s throw away from my house for treats, drinks, pictures and friends.

Fun at the fire station

Then set out on a parade that was led by one of the fire trucks.
Two different kids, same Minecraft costume. Can someone please explain to me how that was one of the most popular costumes this year? “Look how cute Timmie looks. Oh wait. His head is a block.”

Jamie and I usually swap off taking the kids trick-or-treating and staying home to hand out candy. But this year, my feet were killing me so Jamie was on Operation Get Candy duty.  They came back after only 20 minutes with half-full buckets. Good mom that I am, I sent ‘em back out ’til this babies were full. Mama has an Almond Joy sweet tooth to fill.

Judging from their sugar coma, I’d say Halloween ’13 was a success.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie Tagged With:

The Ward Halloween Party: A Doughnut-eating, Jell-O Dunking Great Time!

October 31, 2013 By

Every year, our LDS church congregation puts on a gangbusters Halloween party with carnival games, trick-or-treating and lots of tasty food.  This was the year of Harry Potter–we read the books and watched the movies so Hadley’s costume de choix? None other than the evil Bellatrix Lestrange. Bode begged to be Mario for the third year in the row but I put a kibosh on that. Kind of.

Bellatrix Lestrange versus Luigi

In keeping with tradition, I present the pumpkin and his widow.
Is there any wonder why I’m crazy about this guy?

The young women in our ward manned the booths and I attempted to assist the poor, stressed-out gal reattaching the doughnuts on a string. Until I realized she was replacing the entire string for every person. When I told her that wasn’t necessary, she primly cited hygienic concerns.

Bellatrix needed her wand for this one.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the slobber-fest-that-is-bobbing-for-apples of my youth.

Monitoring the Jell-O eating contest was more my speed and I was proud when Luigi won not one, not two, but three in a row.

The pie-eating contest a few weeks ago must have served as a great training ground.

Of course, the party wouldn’t be nearly as fun without our besties. I got a bit teary-eyed at church last week as I looked at the many fabulous friends my children have and what stellar, righteous, fun and hard-working families they have. All of them are tremendous examples to us.

Bellatrix and Cinderella; Luigi and the boys; Bellatrix vs.Hermione showdown

Really, the only fail that night was my refreshment. I’ve been pinning oodles of creative treat ideas on Pinterest but when push came to shove, I only had 15 minutes to pull something together and so this is what we concocted.
Many friends complimented me on my puking pumpkin but I brushed them off. Obviously they do not know the grandeur that is Pinterest. Better luck next party!

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor, LDS Tagged With:

A Frightfully Fun Hotel Stay at Nightmare on Curtis Street

October 30, 2013 By

After a while, Halloween memories start to blur together. Dress up, trick-or-treat, gorge on candy. Lather, rinse, repeat. But last weekend, my family experienced a Halloween event we will never forget. We attended the Nightmare on Curtis Street at the Curtis – A DoubleTree by Hilton. Each year during the month of October, the Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado transforms its 13th floor into a haunted house for a most memorable Halloween.

The Curtis – A Doubletree Hotel

This family-friendly, pop-culture hotel is dedicated to all things quirky. Case in point: last summer’s pop-up, inflatable room that rose 22 feet in the air.

The hallway of each of the 16 floors boasts a different theme, like One-hit Wonders, Big Hair, and Dance. The playful lobby hosts impromptu hula hoop contests and offers board games for check-out as well as a small book-filled library.

The 13th floor’s theme is Horror. I’m not the ghost-hunting type and at ages 7 and 9, neither are my kids. I’d think twice about staying somewhere that claimed to be legitimately haunted but I took a gamble that my family would love Nightmare on Curtis Street.

Click to keep reading our fun experiences and why my children may have clown issues after this.

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Family, Family travel, Hadley, holidays, Humor Tagged With: ,

Our Out-of-this-world Indepence Day

July 5, 2013 By

I usually look forward to the Fourth of July. The fireworks are shot right above our neighborhood so we shut our street down for a huge party. However, this year, our fellow partiers all went on vacation so I feared our celebrations would be a bust.

The Ice Cream

We decided to make our own fun, starting with a holiday tradition that would be an even better tradition if we remembered to do it every year: homemade ice cream. The night before the holiday, Hadley and I made the most unbelievable snickerdoodle ice cream but here’s a tip: the recipe only made 1.5 quarts.If you want to keep your man happy, you will go back in the kitchen and make two more batches. Good thing we all benefited from it.

While the ice cream was churning, we had the best time playing on the front lawn and doing shadow puppet plays with the flashlight on the porch. Hadley and I went for a walk around our neighborhood in our PJs.

Because we’re those kind of neighbors. #SunglassesatNight

The Breakfast

We always start our July 4th by waking up early for our church’s stake pancake breakfast and patriotic program.Gotta love the tongue in this one. Pancake-eating takes a lot of concentration.

The Day at the Museum

Then, because we had no plans, Jamie suggested we go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Bode is obsessed with space so Jamie bought him a Living Social deal. Little dude was in his element and we were shocked that the normally cram-packed museum was nearly empty. We raced from exhibit to exhibit without any lines and delighted in the Planetarium’s Cosmic Journey: A Solar System Adventure.

Our tickets included an IMAX. We really wanted to see Great White Shark 3D or Galapagos 3D but the show times didn’t work for us so we reluctantly settled upon Flight of the Butterflies 3D. It. Was. Unbelievable. IMAX always does a great job not only telling a story but sharing a journey and this one literally had me in tears…as I marveled over butterflies. Go see it; you won’t be disappointed.

The Party

Though 99 percent of the world bailed on us for our evening festivities, we had our good friends pull through. Bonus: they have six kids so that means it’s an instant party wherever they go. My friend Eva is an unbelievable cook so brought a full spread of food and we threw in our ice cream and made patriotic dessert pizzas (delish recipe here) for good measure. It turned out to be a fun night of great conversation, croquet and fireworks.

And the biggest announcement of all? We slept in the next morning, which rarely happens. I’m usually awake between 5:30-6 a.m. and crashed until 8:45 a.m., Hadley slept ’til 9:30 a.m. and Bode achieved a personal “high score” for sleeping: 10:24 a.m.

It was a winning holiday for all. Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Hadley, holidays

Winter Break: Oh, How Sweet It Was

January 6, 2013 By

I’ll be honest: I love that my kids are almost back in school and I will have several hours to work and play. But when they are home for an extended amount of time, I’m reminded just how much I love being with them without the pressure-cooker of school, activities and homework. I was worried we would get stir-crazy but we had the perfect mix of fun, excitement and R&R. Haddie goes back to school Tuesday, Bode on Wednesday and then it’ll just be Jamie, Fat Kitty and me.

Here’s a quick pictorial summary of our happenings!

Class Party

Our winter break started with Bode’s holiday party at school. I brought my family’s traditional bells and those first graders were about as cute as can be playing Jingle Bells.

And yes, that is Hadley who invited herself along as my very helpful “assistant.”

Everywhere he goes, Bode makes a new best friend and this entire school year, he has been raving about his buddy, Brody. When I was busy helping kids at the party, I heard Bode say, “Excuse me, Mommy.” I turned around and, grinning ear-to-ear, there were two BFFs standing together. As polite as could be, Bode  said, “Mommy, I would like to introduce you to my friend Brody.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Johnson.” And then, because the formality was about killing me, I give him a fist bump as greeting.

Great Eats

To celebrate the kick-off to winter break, we went to see the Hobbit at Harkins Theaters in Stapleton and also hit one of our favorite restaurants, Zengo, which is now offering bottomless brunch on Saturday and Sunday (hail any restaurant that offers Saturday brunch!)

It would appear Bode LOVED their churros with Mexican hot chocolate dipping sauce (as did we all).

What would you think of a restaurant that only survived gourmet, healthy food? On New Year’s Day, we ate at Cherry Creek’s new True Food Kitchen.  Based on Dr. Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet, this restaurant paired popular trends in cuisine with healthy living. Even the kid’s menu was delicious and I’ll be doing a full review on it all later. Bottom line if you live in Denver: GO.

Christmas Treats

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to bake delicious treats for our neighbors and friends. This year’s line-up was caramel corn, almond rocha, sugar-and-spice cookies, snowball cookies, cream cheese cutout cookies, shortbread, coconut penuche and caramel toffee squares. Hence the reason our kitchen looked like this.
And then, of course, we went skiing at Loveland on December 24, had our huge Christmas Eve fete  and a fun Christmas Day.

Evergreen

To burn off a few calories, we went skating at Evergreen Lake (one of my favorite winter activities in Colorado) with our besties Nolan and Rowan. And then we added the calories back on when we stopped at our favorite breakfast place in Colorado: Country Road Cafe in Kittredge. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at that basketball-sized pancake stuffed with raspberries. I took a risk from my favorites and tried something new: their Timber Ridge Tamale Benedict, which was two pork tamales topped with two eggs, pepper jack cheese, pico de gallo, sourcream, red chile cream, avocado and cilantro mojo drizzle.
It was a risk worth taking.

New Year’s

Remember when I graciously planned a New Year’s Eve bash at my friend Lisa’s house without telling her? It turned out splendidly! Haddie made beignets….And we all miraculously made it until midnight to ring in the New Year (I was the person in question). One of the highlights was winning the Newlywed Game because many of our answers resolved around the pumpkin. I.e. “Name something your husband has too much of.” Pumpkins. “What is something that annoys you about your husband?” Pumpkins.

We even almost nailed the question, “What cartoon character does your husband most resemble?” The other couples were waaaaay off-base, such as Phil’s answer “The Incredible Hulk.” His wife’s? “Homer Simpson.” For Jamie, I immediately thought of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, so wrote down Charlie Brown. Jamie’s answer: Linus.

Me: “Linus. Why did you choose Linus?”

Him: “Because it was Linus who believed.”

Following the game, one of my friends joked, “I had no idea your lives revolved so much around pumpkins.

They obviously do not read this blog.

Harlem Globetrotters

One of Jamie’s bucket-list items has been to see the Harlem Globetrotters so we were thrilled to score tickets. I knew they were funny but I did not anticipate two hours of non-stop, interactive, gut-busting hilarity. Bottom line: We loved them! When I asked Jamie about his favorite part, he immediately said, “Watching Bode.”He nailed it. Though we all loved the game, Bode was out-of-his-gourd excited for everything. The above picture on the right is when he grabbed Haddie to rush the court to do the YMCA, one of only countless fun moments that evening.

Sweet, Sweet Skiing

I have lived in Colorado for 10 years and there are still several major resorts I have yet to ski including Copper Mountain, Steamboat and Winter Park. Last weekend, we spent a few days at the latter. Stay tuned for all the fun details of our Winter Park vacation.

Just let it be known you may not hear from me for a while. After such a fabulous Winter Break, reentry into the real world is going to be bumpy.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Colorado, Family, holidays, Humor, pumpkins, skiing

So long, farewell (2012) and hello to 2013!

January 1, 2013 By

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado Springs

I’m not into resolutions, primarily because I rarely stick to them. I am, however into goals and always have big ambitious for my family and myself. 2012 was not amazing like 2010. It was not horrible like 2011. But it was just pretty darn good. We had great travels, great professional opportunities and great times.

We are sitting down as a family to discuss our goals for fostering our relationships but here are a few personal areas I would like to improve.

Travel less, save more. I know, I know–people usually resolve to travel more but between Disney World and Disneyland (in addition to all our other trips), it’s time to button down the hatches and start saving. We’re not materialistic people who care about fancy clothes, houses or cars (just ask my 10-year-old Honda Pilot) but travel is definitely my weakness. We need to put a sound financial plan in place and do better at balancing it all.

Spiritual well-being. 2012 was pretty good but could be better. Though we’re dedicated to daily family scripture study and prayer, I’ve resolved to delve into my own studies and reconnect with my passion: Middle Eastern study. First item of business–pour through all my old journals and notes from my study abroad at BYU Jerusalem.

Jamie’s health. Though we didn’t have any hospital visits (praise, hallelujah!), he continues to have debilitating rheumatism attacks and, of course, his heart issues are omnipresent. Top priority will be to research alternative treatments and nutrition plans and do something about it.

Make more money. That sounds kind of greedy but at a recent conference I realized I have built a great brand, have a lot of great connections and now it is time to start asking for what I am worth. A friend helped me realize how much I have been undervaluing myself. This will go hand-in-hand with savings. If I make more, we can save more.

Get in kick-butt shape. I say it ever year. And every year I mean it. This summer, Jamie and I need to get back on the climbing 14ers bandwagon.

Remember: It’s Not About Me. I’ve lacked patience dealing with some tough people in my life. When I recently had a conversation with The Man Upstairs about a situation I have been placed in for years to help certain frustrating people, I resolved I was done. Tired. And over it. And I received a very powerful, distinct answer: “It’s Not About You.”

Note taken: I need to remember those most difficult to love are the ones who need it the most. If I can remember that, 2013 is already off to a great start.

Happy New Year! And thank you for being part of my family’s life!

Filed Under: holidays, LDS
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