Iowa Weekend

Matt and I made a quick trip to Iowa this past weekend to help Henry celebrate his 7th birthday and Olivia help celebrate her 4th birthday.  After getting to Kathy's late Friday night, we did what sisters do and talked until 2am.  This made for an early morning when Henry jumped on our bed at 6:30am!  But, it's the best way to wake up.  :)  Henry was excited to see Uncle Matt and they immediately started playing games on Matt's tablet.  I'm not ashamed to admit that Henry is much better at me so I'm sure Matt liked the increased competition!

At 11am, Henry's friends arrived and we all took off for Denison for a birthday party at the hospital.  Yes, hospital.  We were skeptical too, but it ended up being a blast!  They had pizza and drinks ready for us when we got there.  Then we went outside for games that included a pinata, scavenger hunt, frisbee throw, and shoe kicking contest.  The kids were excited because their goodie bags were full of goodies by the end of the games!  After cake and ice cream, the kids went to see the ambulance and had a lot of fun honking the horn and turning on the lights and sirens.

We made it back to Kathy's around 3pm and immediately went to prepping for Olivia's party.  Her friends showed up at 4pm and the next two hours were filled with tiara making, bracelet assembly, decorating papers with stamps, frosting their own cupcakes, and a lot of playing outside.  Everyone had a blast and took home a purse full of goodie bags.  (Kudos to Kathy for making the purses from scratch - she has more crafting talent in her little finger than I do in my entire body!)

Since it was nice day out, Kathy and Jordan invited some friends over to grill out for dinner.  I'm counting that as our third party for the day since that's when Henry and Olivia opened presents from the family.

I got talked into sleeping with Henry in the top bunk.  I wasn't going to (because I don't think the bed is very comfortable), but then he threw out "Auntie Kristin did!".  I couldn't let Auntie Kristin be a cooler aunt that me.  :)

Mom and Dad came over for breakfast so we had a great family breakfast.  Matt and I had a 1pm flight, so we took off for Omaha when the rest left for church.  We both took naps when we got home (3 parties in one day is a lot), but then had a relaxing evening by grilling out with Naomi and Ryan.  We all hit the hot tub for a half hour to top off the night.

It was so much fun to be in Iowa - even if only for a short time.  I can't wait until the summer when I can spend a longer time there!

Guys & Girls weekends

Karla's Weekend
I had planned a weekend in Austin with Menko for a while.  We headed there Friday afternoon, checked into the loft we rented, and then hit the town!  Our first stop was Guero's for some good TexMex and margaritas.  We followed that up by drinks at Hotel San Jose.  We were walking toward the lake and figured we were right on time to watch the bats.  There's a bridge over the lake that houses over a million bats that fly out at dusk.  It's amazing - the string of bats just never ends!  We then walked to Rainey street for some drinks and a late night snack from a food truck.

On Saturday morning we walked to get in line for Franklin's barbecue.  We had heard it was the best and were willing to get there at 8:45am to wait in line for the 11am opening.  We were lucky enough to get some chairs and made friends with the guys next to us.  The CVS next door made good money off of us since our group ended up buying 3 bottles of champagne and a bottle of orange juice!  The brisket, pork ribs, and pulled pork was well worth the wait!  The ribs were fall of the bone tender and the brisket was melt in your mouth yummy.  After eating, we took ourselves on a walking tour of Austin checking out the capitol area and 6th Street on our way back home.  After a mid-afternoon nap, we headed down to the 2nd Street area and went boutique shopping and hung out at a wine bar for dinner and drinks.  We finished up the night at a place on 4th Street and made its own ice cream and had some adult milkshakes!

Sunday morning was sleeping in, brunch on South Congress, a little more shopping and then off to the airport.  A really fun and much needed girls' weekend!

Matt's Weekend
I, on the other hand, planned a last minute trip to Chicago.  In part to meet with a realtor to look at selling our condo, but also to hang with the guys, Patrick & Gil.  After the awesomeness that was bow tie night at Jason's wedding, it was determined that the bowties had to make a comeback.  A night of steaks, booze and bowtie ensued.  I had gotten up at 3:30am on saturday for a 6:15 flight, and didn't get to sleep till well after 1am the next day.  It was a fun and exhausting weekend.

Matt fishing with Clint

A few weeks ago I went camping and fishing with my long time friend Clint.  The plan was to camp in 11 Mile State Park, and then get up and go fishing in the reservoir and the Platte river along 11 mile canyon and into Deckers.  We made it to the state park fine, but the reservoir was still frozen over!  It was cold and windy, and we decided to hike 10-15 minutes from the car around a cove and to a sheltered campsite with some trees.  On our way there we saw a sign that said 'beware of mountain lions'.  We also looked down and saw what we believed as fresh mountain lion tracks.  needless to say we were a bit more alert at night sounds than we usually are.  After some beverages and quick campfire activities we crashed and hunkered in for the cold night.  We definitely won the polar bear camping award for that night.

The next day we made our way to the canyon, which is a part of the Platte river.  The location was great, but I was ill equipped with my fishing gear to really catch anything.  I had a spin cast rod with bass bait, in a river that is made for fly fishing for trout.  Clint on the other hand looked like Orvis threw up on him.  he had every  piece of fly fishing attire and accessories you would ever want.  He did not catch anything.  We made our way up to Deckers, a 'town' that consisted of a bait shop and a liquor store.  I got some trout bait, and actually had more fun fishing there for the 45 minutes we were there.  We made it back to the city around dinner time and called it a productive scouting trip for when we go down next time!

Low Key Weekend

After traveling last weekend, we decided to take this weekend to relax.  Friday night we tried a new sushi restaurat in Lo Do, Aoba, and really liked it!  Saturday morning we broke out our bikes for the first time this year.  It was a perfect day for a ride and we ended up going 15 miles, which isn't too bad for the first time out.  Naomi and Ryan came over Saturday night to play some Carbles, watch some basketball, and drink some wine.  Sunday was a super chill day - went for a walk, took a drive in the suburbs, watched Skyfall.

While we love traveling and seeing family, we also love relaxing weekends like these!

Arizona

Even though we're working adults, we decided to go on spring break to Arizona this year.  Karla's parents just purchased a park model in a retirement court in Apache Junction (near Phoenix), so we had to check it out.  And, while we're there, catch some spring training games.

I flew in on Wednesday night to spend some quality time with my parents.  On Thursday, we went to Tortilla Flats during the day and then to Organ Pizza Stop for dinner.  Growing up, I would visit my paternal grandparents in Arizona and loved to go to Organ Pizza, so it's a family tradition.  The pizza is okay, but the entertainment is great!!

On Friday, Mom and I went to water aerobics, then met up with Dad for two games of shuffleboard.  The first gentleman I played took it easy on me and let me win.  The second gentleman, after I told him it was okay for me to lose, destroyed me.  :)  Then we were off to the first of three baseball games during the weekend.  We met up with Ken and Nancy (Matt's parents), who had been hiking in the Grand Canyon and came down to the Phoenix area to join in on the fun.  The game was at Brewers stadium, but it's the Cubs that came away with the win!  Dinner was at Mom and Dad's and included a lot of NCAA basketball tournament watching.  Matt's flight came in late Friday night (11:30pm).

Saturday morning was a quick breakfast and then all 6 (both sets of parents, Matt and me) went to the Mesa Market.  It's a huge flea market where I bought some Cubs earrings, Matt bought some fudge, and we both took advantage of all of the free samples.  Then it was off to our 2nd Cubs game (at Hohokam against the Angels).  Unfortunately, it was a split squad for the Angels, so we didn't get to see their big name players, but we got to see the Cubs first team win over the Angels second team!  After the game, we met up with Matt's cousin Adam at a bar in Scottsdale.  He had been there all day, so we're not sure if he remembers seeing us, but we have photographic evidence if he ever doubts us!  After a drink at the bar, we headed back to Mom and Dad's for some grilled steak and more basketball.

On Sunday, we went to church where 70% of the congregation is senior citizen age.  Ken thought Matt and I should have gone up for the children's sermon.  :)  After church we head out to Surprise, AZ for our third and final baseball game - Rangers vs. Reds.  We were joined by my parents' friends Steve, Sharon, and Lyla.  We all did a little tailgating before the game and then saw a Rangers win.  We're 3-0 for spring training games - hopefully that carries into the regular season!  After the game, we all stopped for a Blizzard at DQ and then Matt and I were dropped off at the airport.

After days of 80 degrees and sun, it was hard to come back to Denver where it was 20 degrees and had 8 inches of snow on the ground!!  Maybe next year I'll spend a month down with my parents...  :)

5th Anniversary Weekend

Our original plans for our anniversary weekend were to go to our volleyball happy hour on Friday, ski Saturday morning and then head to Glenwood Springs for a night in the mountains.  However, a winter storm warning had us cancelling those plans.  We love our little car, but it's not made for driving in a winter storm in the mountains.  Matt's parents were in Angel Fire, NM for the weekend so they decided to make the 5-hour drive up to Denver on Friday.  They have a big Tahoe and we figured if any car could make it skiing on Saturday, it was theirs!

Friday night happy hour was a blast.  Good food, good drink, and great friends.  Can't wait for volleyball season to start back up!

Ken, Matt, and Karla got up at 5:30am on Saturday to start the drive to Keystone.  It wasn't snowing in Denver yet, but we hit snow in the foothills.  Traffic wasn't horrible (everyone was scared off by the storm warnings), but the roads were snowpacked.  There were a few moments when we weren't sure if going skiing was a good idea, but ended up making it to Keystone in 2 hours!

The skiing was great - no lines at the lifts, great powders, and Ken got in his Colorado ski trip for the year!!  The trip back to Denver wasn't bad - the worst roads were the last 10 miles, but the Tahoe managed them without a problem.

We went for dinner Saturday night at Osteria Marco on Larimer and then back home for some hotly contested games of Carbles.  (It's not a true weekend with the Gross's unless we play Carbles with Karla and Matt swearing at each other...we're not too competitive at all!)

Sunday is a chill day - which is perfectly fine with us.  Great thing to do on our anniversary!!

February

Since we were pretty busy in Feb, we forgot to update this.  Here's a recap of a fun month.

After getting back from Africa, the month went by in a blur.  We were able to get a lot of skiing in, mostly at Keystone.  We found it's a little closer and not as crowded as Breckenridge.  Matt and Ryan got a good powder day in on President's Day, and even took a snowcat to the back bowls and got to get some great skiing in there. 

The next weekend our friends from Chicago, Gil and Leigh Anne, came to town.  They had a day on their own while we worked, and got to get to some breweries and take in the sights.  About an hour after landing Gil was ready to move here.  We all went skiing at Keystone on Saturday and had a blast.  Leigh Anne had only skied before but did well.  Big shout out to Karla for helping her.  

We also went down to Texas for a quick weekend because the Casselmanns, friends from Cologne, Germany, were in town.  Their son Christian was a foreign exchange student with the Gross family when Matt was a senior in high school.  It was great to see them! No German trip to Texas would be complete without buying cowboy boots and a cowboy hat...Germans.  The same weekend our nephew Caleb turned two, so it was fun to celebrate with the family.

The next weekend we had another 'we love Colorado' moment.  We went skiing on Saturday and hiking on Sunday.  Awesome.  There was a little snow on the trail, but it was fine and made for a good workout.