Officially a Grown Up

Last night I attended my first bachelorette party as a grown up.  That's right. I am officially a grown up.

I have never attended a bachelorette party like the one I attended last night.  Instead of drinking margaritas and eating fajitas to kick off the evening festivities we dined at a nice restaurant.  I ordered scallops.  We drank Pinot Noir.  After dinner we lounged at a super swanky bar at Hotel ZaZa.  The bride-to-be sipped on champagne vs the bride-to-be dancing on stage at Sammy's after taking multiple white wedding shots.   I was at home by 11:45 snuggled up in bed with my husband and cute puppy instead of staying out until the wee hours of the morning.  And what makes me feel really old???  I liked it. 

I'm not saying I didn't have an absolute blast at prior wild and crazy bachelorette parties.  I'm also not saying I'm not going to have any wild and crazy bachelorette parties to attend in the future.  I'm just saying that I'm getting older.  And I'm OK with that :)

Nutritional Night

My dinner tonight consisted of a bowl of Special K cereal, two carmel delights, two mini snickers and a handful (or three) of skittles.  Yikes.  I knew I wasn't much of a cook but I have gotten just plain lazy with Ryan being at school several nights a week.  Oh well, even though it wasn't the most nutritional thing I've put in my body at least I enjoyed it :)

Date at the Dog Park

This past Sunday we had a date at the dog park with Alison, Mark and their golden retreiver, Wyatt.  They had recently discovered this gem of a dog park near their house and insisted that we bring Bennett and also insisted that he would love it.  Love is an understatement.  I'm pretty sure Benny was in heaven.... 

The dog park was twenty acres.  Twenty acres with a huge bone shaped doggie swimming pool.  Twenty acres filled with other large dogs, plenty of mud ponds and even an area to do tricks.  Now, Bennett wasn't so much into climbing the ladder or jumping over the wooden beams but he was interested in playing fetch.  And swimming in the pool.  And splashing around in the mud.  Like I said, Bennett was in doggie heaven. 

And the best part about our little doggie date....Bennett slept for a whole day and half afterwards.  Yay!  No more chewing pillows and being bratty because he was sleeping! 

When can we go back??? :)

Benny the Brat strikes again...

Just when I think Bennett is finally growing up and out of his puppy stage he does this....

Chews my couch pillow.  The pillow that came with the couch.  The pillow that was made to match the couch.  The pillow that matches the couch that we bought at a store that is no longer in business.  Oh, Bennett.

We've been leaving Bennett out of his crate for the past six weeks and just letting him roam our house while we are not at home.  I've been talking him up to our friends and family about how great he is doing and what a big boy he has finally become.  Then he goes and does this.  It's the first thing he has ever chewed of value at our house.  Well, I guess you could count the Pottery Barn quilt that Ryan and I received as a wedding gift but that wasn't completely all his fault and is a whole another story...

Anyways, when I came home Sunday to this disaster I found Bennett happily wagging his tail and practically saying, "Look what I did Mom!  Aren't you proud?!?"  I gave him a quick smack and for about two seconds he looked like he might be in trouble.   Then his toungue came right back out and his tail started moving side to side once again.

And just like that, Benny that Brat is back.

Ski Trip Recap!

Ryan and I were fortunate to spend a long weekend skiing with our friends in Beaver Creek.  The last time we skiied was four years ago during spring break our senior year...  That time six of us loaded up in a Tahoe, drove 16 hours and spent a fabulous week in Beaver Creek, CO.  Fast forward four years and now we all have incomes and could actually afford to fly.  However, our vacation is limited as we no longer have the luxury of having a week off for spring break so we must schedule trips around a weekend.  Thankfully, we were able to stay in a super nice condo for free as my Dad always has the hook-ups.  Thanks Dad! 

This time we were missing two of our best friends (Ali&Mark) but we still managed to have a good time as our friends Tyler and Derek were there and provided lots of laughs for us all. 

Please scroll down for a recap in pictures of our fabulous trip!

 

We arrived!  It was quite an early morning as we woke up at 4 am to get ready and head to the airport for our 6:45 am flight.  However, Nicole and I were super excited to be in Denver despite the fact that we had already been up for about six hours and it was still early morning in CO. 

 

Here is our "sweet" mini-van as the valet guy liked to refer to our car . Most people may not arrive in Beaver Creek in a mini but I think we pulled it off nicely :)

 

The boys immediately sat down on the couch upon our arrival.  Actually, I think they spent most of their evenings in this same spot as well...

 

The first night we ate dinner at the Blue Moose.  They have excellent pizza and it's a fun atmosphere.  They even give you crayons to draw on the paper tablecloth which provides for great entertainment :)

 

Nicole and I are ready to hit the slopes!  Please note that Nicole and I were always ready every morning before the boys.  They claimed that they could get ready in 10 min so of course they could sleep in.  Hmmm I don't think you can put all of those clothes on that quick.... 

 

At the top of the mountain on our first morning . The views were awesome as we could see above the clouds from up here. 

 

The boys relaxing and deciding what run we should take down.  I guess we should have studied the map a little harder so we could have avoided that black that first morning...

 

Ryan hanging out in the snow. 

 

 Ryan and I before dinner on the second night. 

 

Aaron&Nicole

 

On the slopes again.  Don't we look good in our helmets and goggles?? :)

 

Some of the boys

 

Beautiful views

 

The last afternoon Ryan, Nicole, Aaron and I came in early to walk around the village.  Well, we knew they handed out fresh chocolate chip cookies at 3 pm so that might have been our main motivation but who's judging us?? 

 

This was another spot we hit up every afternoon after skiing.  When you put your skiies up for the night our hotel had hot chocolate and oreos waiting for you.  And let me tell you, it was delish!  I swear all they do is melt a Hershey's chocolate bar but it was yummy.  Good thing we skied to burn all those calories...

And lastly, here's a cute pic of Nicole and Aaron walking back in the snow.

We truly had a great trip and a good time hanging out with friends. You know we are getting old as most days we would get off the slopes, hit up the hot tub to relax our sore muscles and then eat a low key dinner either in the condo or out, come back, maybe have one more glass of wine and then hit the sack.  Skiing three days in a row is hard on our bodies!  Oh well, we had a great time and it was a much needed vacation!