My first mother's day

What a fun and special day! Here I am with the one who makes me who I am...a mom!

I had a great first mother's day spending time with my little Vanessa, my husband and our friends and family. Ben, his dad, his brother and brother-in-law all went in together to give Ben's sister, mom and I a cooking class at the institute of our choice, we're SOOOO excited!

The day was just so great being up in the mountains in God's amazing creation and then being with those that are the closest to us, what a blessing our friends and family are to us, especially my wonderful other mom friends! It's very fun to be in this amazing journey of mom-hood together! I love them all!

May dinner club

Ben's sister, Sarah, and her husband, Brent, hosted May dinner club, they live in Hot Sulphur Springs Colorado, which is up in the mountains near Winter Park. So, the months that we go to their house we all spend the weekend up there usually skiing, hiking or something mountain-ish. This months theme was 'Spring Blast' and was centered around celebrating the end of the ski season, which is a huge tradition at all ski resorts. The last day of the season people spend more time partying then actually skiing...so, we did the same!!

We started the meal with some amazing drinks made of whatever mix of fruit and herbs we chose mashed up in our glasses, then either a citrus or a spice syrup added, and then finished with sparkling water...very refreshing!

One of the most amazing appetizers yet: Fried plantains with a warm cilantro dipping sauce...WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This picture perfectly captures what it's like at our dinner parties...lots of fun and good food, along with wonderful fellowship!

The main was a skirt steak with a red onion mojo...yummy! Along with red beans and rice and also honeyed carrots.

The table was set very fun! There was a very old ski running down the center of the table with rocks, candles, and fresh picked mountain greens...it was such a fun setting!

Sunday morning was full of fun with the little ones! Ben and Brad spent some time reading to the girls...

Vanessa had a very good time playing with all kinds of new toys!

The famous walking Sketchers! Seriously, she walks so well in these shoes!! And they're just so darn cute!

April Dinner Club

For those of you who don't know, Ben and I are in a dinner club and what that means is that once a month we get together with a group of friends for dinner. We rotate houses, the hostess plans the whole menu and mails to each person the recipes that she needs done, then we all bring our dishes and have a kickin meal together. We've been meeting since September of '04, what a blast it's been! We've all helped each other move, we've welcomed in 3 new babies and are going to get another in september, it's just been so awesome doing life with these guys! Anyways, Ben and I hosted April and we chose to do a Japanese theme for our dinner. We picked a menu and setting that was a bit more on the modern Japanese side, it was so much fun doing it together!

When we got married we chose some asian dishes and really got to put them to use on this night!

Ben is really into Sushi, so we set up our own little sushi bar and he made all kinds of rolls and other tasty sushi treats! We bought some fresh caught shrimp and prepped them for rolls...

They had to be skewered so that they wouldn't curl when they were boiled.

The finished product.

The master sushi chef at work.

A beautiful 'Rainbow Roll', which is an inside out roll with salmon and two kinds of tuna on top...nice job Ben!

The table setting...lots of little dishes to fit on!

Enjoying dinner together!

Dessert was amazing! A Plum wine sherbet...Yummy!

While we were enjoying sushi some of the girls made some origami.

Vanessa Maree

Here is a run down on Miss Vanessa:

1. Has decided that all animals are her friends and therefore she should touch them all, so zoo trips are very fun! Here she is with Oma checking out the horse...

2. Her first adventure on the swings was with her friend Ceinwen, they had a blast together laughing the whole time!

3. Then she tackled the slides and boy oh boy did that make her happy, I got quite the work out taking her up, and up, and up...again and again and again...

4. She's quite the little climber, not much gets in her way that she can't get over, around or under...

5. She's a very happy baby who is always laughing at whatever she's doing...

6. Okay, now on to the big things...Walking. Here she is a few weeks ago walking with help from dad. Well, 3 weeks ago she started walking on her own, then yesterday as a mother's day gift, she just took off and is now walking all over the place. She was mostly walking from person to person, now it's room to room, toy to toy...yikes!

7. Loves to point at anything!

8. Is pretty much the most adorable baby of all time!

9. Did I mention the climbing thing? Dad's guitar case is a favorite to get on top of!

Birthday weekend in Vail/Minturn

For my birthday Ben took me away for the weekend to Vail and Minturn! We left early on Saturday the 21st (my actual birthday) and headed to The Sonnenalp Resort in Vail for their awesome brunch. After eating we sat in front of their huge fire place and read books, played a little chess and then walked around Vail on a beautiful mountain morning and then drove around looking at the enormous houses. We checked in at our Bed and Breakfast and I took the best nap ever (as you can see in the picture following)!

Then we headed out for birthday dinner! The weather looked a little yucky, but nothing prepared us for what was in store...

A spring snow storm!

we found some hot drinks and headed back to our room for some cards and just plain old relaxing...alone!!!!!!!

The next morning was foggy and cold, then the clouds lifted and the mountains were just beautiful...Ben went out to capture some of the beauty while I stayed back and soaked in the big tub...AAAHHHHHHH!

This one reminds me of the movie 'A River Runs Through It'

Ben is so good at detailed photos!