Sunday, December 29, 2013

St. Louis Blues...

Back in November, I had to go to St. Louis for work and Ken decided to tag along.  

He ended up taking me to my first ever hockey game, which was pretty fun.

We ended up having really good seats.  Our seats were just a few rows back from the ice.  



Ken and me.  This was clearly during no shave November.  


I kept telling Ken that the game would get over faster if the players stopped fighting with each other and just said excuse me, pardon me, and I am sorry.  

The Blues won and it was fun watching!




Thanks for the fun night Ken!

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Today was such a wonderful day.

We woke up to discover that Santa did indeed visit our house.

Kya quickly figured out that there were treats left in her stocking.

Then, I forced her to take a Christmas day picture in front of the fireplace.  I am a mean mommy.

All three hooligans received ornaments with their first initial.  

Kya was very excited to check out her stocking!

Kya got some dog treats from Dylan's Candy Bar in NYC.  

Kya loved all of her treats

While Kya was opening her stocking, this was going on:

Theodore thought he should sharpen his claws that he does not have in order to be able to open his presents.  
After the nail sharpening session, this happened:

Clearly, we were boring

Now, Angel is yawning.  

The funny thing about Christmas morning is that Angel refused to join us.  She sat up on the landing and pouted.  She did not participate in Christmas this year.

There is no way Theo would turn down treats from Santa.

Theodore hit the jackpot!

Even more so when he discovered his favorite gift of all, the Christmas bow.

Just a boy and his bow.  Life does not get any better than this for Theo.

And there's Angel, pouting.

I got my traditional husky calendar.

Ken's stocking stuffers


After we opened presents, we had breakfast, which was our traditional pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

They were delicious!

One of our traditions is to go to the dog park.  This is probably Kya's favorite tradition.

We had a tired husky after two hours of playing and hiking around.

Around 5:00 pm, I noticed that someone was over by her stocking and was ready to celebrate Christmas.

Angel is ready for Christmas morning at 5:00 in the evening.

Apparently, we do things on her terms these days.

Angel may have received a lecture from me.

The lecture did not phase her, she carried on and opened her presents.

Ken and Kya built a fire and relaxed out back for a while.

As if I did not win wife of the year with the cinnamon rolls, I also made us a homemade apple pie.


Merry Christmas!


Christmas Eve...

We have our Christmas traditions in this house.  We always begin by going to dinner on Christmas Eve.

We chose to go to Rye in Mission Farms this year.

Before dinner, Michelle and I exchanged gifts, where I prompt re-gifted her the bottle of Sutter Homes Wine that we have been passing around since 2008.

I really should have made her take a drink of it.  We both agree that it most likely will taste better 5 years later than it did when it was new.

Michelle and me

I really wanted to get a family picture of the five of us, but with Kya not being too thrilled about it, I knew there was no way the cats would cooperate.  So, I settled for a family picture of Ken, me, and a irritated Kya.  Oh well.

Michelle and me at dinner

Our neighbors joined us this year, which was a lot of fun.

Kyle and Ken being silly

After dinner, we made our way to On the Border for drinks.  Doesn't everyone go out for margaritas after Christmas Eve dinner?

Joe, Laura, Kyle, and Kaytlyn

Ken and me enjoying our Christmas Eve

Michelle and Rob

Joe and Laura

Kyle and Kaytlyn, there are so cute.

We had a lot of fun laughing and talking and telling stories.  Before we knew it, was time to get home to wait for Santa.


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Live From Studio 1A in Rockefeller Center: Day 4...

Jill and I woke up bright and early on Monday to walk to the Rockefeller Center.

We had one thing on our mind:  The Today Show.



Jill was very excited to see the Today Show!

Just waiting on Matt Lauer!  Yes, it was pouring down rain, again.

When Ken and I went by the Today Show in 2011, I was very disappointed that Matt was out of town doing Where in the World is Matt Lauer.  I had always hoped to go back and be out on the plaza when he was in town.  

Before too long, it was time for the anchors to come out to shoot a scene and say hi.


He looks pretty miserable out there waiting on Matt

Tamron Hall was the first to come over and say hi.  She told me that I was super cute, which was such a nice compliment!  

Before we knew it, Matt Lauer came outside.  This is when my competitive instincts took over.


I may have shouted out "I love a clean shaved Matt Lauer!"

Next thing you know, Savannah Guthrie was busting up laughing at my comment and here comes Matt to give me a hard time.  I was super excited.  Next thing I know, they are lining up for their live shot and guess, what, they are right in front of us.

They were so close, that we could have knocked them over.  

That would be the camera rolling right there.  

When we arrived at 7:30 am, there was not really a good spot.  Never fear, I took care of that problem.  I moved us around and waited for the perfect opportunity and took it.  At the time I had no idea how good of spots we had.  


That would be me (Jill is behind Al) taken by Ken while he was watching the Today Show.

Jill and I about died!  Other people had gotten there at 6:00 am, and Jill and I come strolling in at 7:30 and got the best spots in the entire place!

After the live scenes, they were all hanging around talking to us.  I knew it was now or never, so I asked Matt for a picture.  He gave me a hard time and I may have given it right back until he agreed.

Yeah, that's me with Matt Lauer!

I immediately text Ken and he was not at all surprised that Jill and I ended up right up front.  Ha!


Jill took this picture of Savannah while I was talking to her.  I had her laughing, not surprising at all right!


Operation Matt Lauer was a success!



After all of that, we stopped for a cup of coffee and a pastry.

All warm and toasty with the Today Show right out the window.

We left the bakery and walked around outside for a while.

Jill and me outside the studio.

We were going to go up on top of the Rock, but the visibility was horrible, so we skipped it.  

We did end up going by the tree to say goodbye.



Apparently Monday mornings in the rain is the best time to see the tree.  There was no one there!

Good-bye tree!

Radio City Music Hall

After the Today Show, we walked around and shopped for a while and then went back to the apartment.  We then decided to go grab a little lunch.  We ended up being only a few blocks from Grand Central Station, so we figured we should stop by one last time (especially since we had been there everyday!) and get one last brownie.

Come to mama!

Jill could not wait to get her hands on a brownie!
I love you Magnolia Bakery!

Jill with her bag of brownies, yes we bought multiple, saying good by to Grand Central Station.

These brownies came in handy later on the plane.

Walking back to the apartment to head to the airport.

We ended up getting delayed and delayed some more.  Our flight was overloaded, so they made some people get off to lighten the load.  No, I am not joking.  Then a baby screamed the entire flight.

We finally got home around 12:30 am.  That aside, it was such a fun trip!