I'm ordinary...
My ascent level on Frontier Airlines has expired...  Sigh.

I hadn't realized the depth of my ordinariness till I attempted to book a flight with hubby.
So sad. So ... ordinary.
No more early boarding. No more free direct tv.
No more purple ribon on my luggage.

Sniffle...

Luckily hubby had enough business trips last year so that he has obtained the coveted Ascent level, so i can tag along with him most of the time.
I would be a bit bummed if i was still traveling for work... 

Sofar we have 2 trips booked on Frontier by Feb 12, if i keep up thislevel of travel I might get there! Cross your fingers for me!

Ella has left the building...  :(

Ella has a new destination and a new place to explore! She is departingin the big brown truck and should arrive by the end of the week!

So i guess i need to make my own fun now!

The house is almost back to my normal amount of mess. That is part ofour new process for the new year. Keep the counter clear (fingerscrossed on that one!), and keep all the flat surfaces on the firstfloor clear of clutter. Again... cross your fingers.
I'm thinking that lack of "mess" will give me more of an easy feelingso i can again dable in the arts - a.k.a the garage studio.

New years was pretty low key again. We like it that way!
We visited a friend's local for make your own pizza's, yummy wine, and this horrible came called pain point- catch phrase.

Basically it's like 40 thousand dollar pyramid. but with this machine you have to hold that beeps and continues to beep faster and faster and then times up!! ARG! I did not want to play. I prefer watching games like that. Or at least be with people i know so i can use clues that we have a common thread on. But i had no choice due to my gender, apparently it was decided boys against girls was a fabulous idea... (yes i am being a big old baby!)

Hubby tried to help me (he wasn't one of the chosen since they had enough of his gender),but he was too busy laughing at my inability to speak. We made it through plenty of rounds of that and then rung in the new year! Cheers,champagne and kisses! Yeah!  We left pretty soon after to beat the drunkards home.

Tuesday morning the family headed to the mint!

There were a ton of restrictions. That basically boiled down to – just go in naked!

Nothing with a camera, nothing that might even have a point, no bags, no big wallets…  nothing!

We hid everything in the car and headed to our assigned location for the tour!

We were allowed in at precisely 15 minutes prior to our tour time!

It was a kick butt tour!!  We had a fabulous time! Really interesting, really cool to watch the coins being made and really to the minutes – at precisely 30 minutes we were at the end and being ushered out the door!

Definitely made a trip if you are in the area!

After our learnin’ morning we decided to keep it going!

We headed to the Science Museum!

The family decided to check out the dino movie on the imax, BIL went for the planetarium hoping for less motion to alleviate his motion sickness! Alas we think his movie was better!! It was called Black Holes and you got to dive into one! I’ll have to make a trip over there to check it out!

We cruised around the museum will ella seeing all that there was to see!

After our visit to the museum it was time for our final meal with the family. Can you believe it was time for them to go home? Wow does time fly!!

We hit up one of our favorite sushi joins! Hapa Sushi!

We ate and ate and ate! Mmmmm! It sure was yummy!

We spent some more quality time together after din din and then it was time to let everyone get some rest before their long day of travel! I miss them tons!

Sunday we attempted to take part of the family skiing…

We got most of the way there when I freaked out about the snow and the condition of the roads… So we headed back home…  I’m sure the kids hated me!

That night I partook of some yoga and then the family and I had some super yummy Chinese!

Monday was the exciting day …  Our new fridge was arriving! Woohoo!

They were exchanging our other new fridge for the new new fridge!

That was a fun time! We got to remove all the food from the first new fridge and put it all on the counter. Then we had to wait for them to install the second fridge. They were wondering what all went wrong with the first delivery… They were very surprised that they had such trouble with something so easy!

They were very nice, got us all set up, told us how to clear the water lines, and left us ready to go!

After the delivery we grabed the family and headed up north for some night skiing!

For hubby and it turned into an impromptu date night, and itwas fabulous. (We did ½ a run, then had a nice beer at the top of the mountain,then took the gondola down to the bottom of the mountain, had another adult beverage and a snack)

For the family it was kind of a suck butt night.  L

It took them over an hour to rent skies. It took the niece and hour and a half to get from the top of the mountain to the bottom. So we received her with open arms and found a place to hang out.

After another round of drinks and some chips and salsa we got another call that the nephew was ready for a break!

After one more round of drinks, another thing of chips and cheese, coffee at Starbucks and the BIL was ready to head on home!

All in all it was an ok day. Everyone got to hit the slopes, hubby and I had quality time, and the drive was on dry ground!

Tuesday we head to the mint!!

Saturday the gals headed to boulder for some tea!

We started with Celestial Seasonings. We arrived around 10:40 and were able to get on the 11am tour! Woohoo!

We tasted their new coffee – which was pretty good! Vanilla Hazelnut!

Everyone had a great time on the tour. The mint room cleared everyone’s sinuses.

And luck of all luck the automatic pallet maker robot was running! Woohoo!

Basically it is this cool machine that created pallets by combining boxes of boxes of tea in a tetris type action! I was so excited!!!

After the tour we had fun in the gift shop! I got a case of my favorite Madagascar Mango Orange herbal tea and some other new flavors I had not seen! Mom got me a cute sign for my kitchen –“ I cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food” I love it – it’s already hanging in the kitchen!

When we finished fooling around there we all had grumbly tummies. So I called the Dushanbe tea house – a 1 hour wait… well, ok.

We arrived with about 40 minutes to wait – unfortunately they overlooked our names on the list, so we waited much longer. And then when we were seated we were basically right in front of the door… Ugh!

I got my favorite tea – Dragon Eyes. And ate the polenta with mushrooms was amazing! Mmmm! Mom, sis and niece got the chai and said that was very tasty as well.

We had a good time spending the day together and enjoying our tea!!

Time to rejoin the boys!!

Friday we headed south! We showed the niece and nephew the air force academy in case they wanted to head to the skies instead of the oceans! We left hubby and ella home where it was warm to relax!

The website and the fella on the phone at the visitor center lied – they were not open on the 26^th…  There was a lovely hand written sign on the door indicating that they would be closed on the 25^th and 26^th… sigh. 

We trucked on over to see the Chapel – pretty interestingplace.

To me it looks like it might be a space ship! I’m pretty sure it is!

There were 4 chapels for the price of one here!  Protestants on top – within the spikes on top. Catholic directly under. Jewish and Budist temples in the back on the bottom. Pretty interesting way to cover all the faiths – well most of them anyway!

It was pretty cold on campus. So we quickly returned to the cars!

We headed to a location I thought would show us how they brewed coffee and did tours…  Well tour was a pretty much not a tour. The “factory” was everything you could see in the front room. So we tried some coffee, I thought it was ok, mom thought McDonald’s was better.

After that it was time for Cave of the Winds for everyone but Pops and I!

We headed to Dunkin Donuts!!! 

The family had a blast! They even bought the souvenir photo!  Cracked me up!!

After that they were ready for home. So we skipped Garden ofthe Gods and the Broadmore and the Olympic Training center… Next time!

Saturday the girls head out for tea!

Christmas part II

After stocking, wilker presents, and showers it was time to join the family for the rest of the fun!!!

They had stuck to east coast time and were up and ready when we arrived at 8:30!

We starting opening presents!!

Mom got me nordies money, work out clothes, jamies, a christmas bag and lots of great stuff

Sis got me a new cool purse that comes with exchangeable covers, kitchen stuff, and more!!

Mom got salt city candles, pottery, gift cards and some other stuff from me!

Sis got an Ecuadorian sweater, lindt chocolates, and pottery!

Dad had a theme – when I asked what he wanted he said he wanted something that fit in his pocket – so everything I got him, fit in his pocket!! Except for his annual pair of slippers!

The kids got video games and itunes money!

After present time it was back to the Wilker abode for dinner!  Uh oh!!

I brought back mom to help with some of the setup and cooking!

She made the ham glaze and put the touches on the chili sauce for the shrimp! I ran around and did the rest! Honey baked ham store ham and turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, shrimp, meatballs and probably more that I can’t think of right now!

We ate like kings!! We drank yummy bloody mary’s and wine.

We played games! Apple to Apple that sis gave to hubby!

It was a really nice day! We had a great family time!

Now, what to do on friday!

Christmas!!

Christmas was great! I had trouble sleeping – either from the extra caffeine or from the excitement that the next day was going to hold! (and a wee bit of stress – I have never been responsible for a meal for 8 people!)

Hubby and I got up just as the sun was coming up (hubby didn’t really have a choice).

We did our stockings! Hubby did a fabulous job!!  I got a cool thing to hold my iphone headphones, some blistex, cool elephant paper clips, some weird Japanese toys – on that bobs its head and runs via solar power, dali lama book and other cool stuff!!!

Hubby liked his stocking too I think…  He got a finger wrench, a mini wrench, an extendable magnet, silver polishing cloths, reeses trees, and some other cool stuff!!

After our stockings it was time for the main course!!

Hubby got his roomba, his last star wars poster framed (notice ella helping hold it), and some new clothes to make him look fabulous!

I got a cool picture hanging level, new puzzles, a cool new book from the author of the wicked series,  yoga stuff (can’t wait to get to class) and some other really cool stuff cause my husband loves me!

Phillip got a giant tongue toy that of course he doesn’t carry around right.

It was a great way to start the day!

Wednesday morning the family (sans one niece and one husband) headed to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. I had read about it and thought it would be a fabulous thing for my dad and bro-in-law to see! I was correct! 

BIL was happier than a pig in poop! That day happened to be one of the “frigid” days.

Meaning it was about 3 degrees – holy guacamole! We checked out the museum first. Ella had a grand time.

Dad had a grand time.

Then we went out side to see all the trains. There were a ton of them! But it sure was cold!!

It is a great museum and definitely something to explore on a warm day!!

Sorry for the delay in blogging…  It is amazingly time consuming to do Christmas and vacation for 8 people!

The family invasion was all set to occur on Monday the 21^st – hubby’s family was scheduled to arrive at 1:30 pm. As I was picking up the 9.5 pound ham – that is a lot of ham by the way…  Hubby rang to let me know that that side was unable to get out of the house – apparently the north west was having one of the worst ice storms and snow count since the 80ies…  ugh…

We had our fingers crossed that they would be successful in getting here later in the week (alas Alaska airlines was having none of that and would not reschedule any flights, and was only refunding fares…small blessing that they didn't lose their flights at least)

Tuesday my family arrived bright and early! They had started their journey from the east coast around 3am ish…  BLECH!  Ella joined me on the ride to the airport, but the family was so tuckered out, we decided not to make them post for pictures!

We hung around the wilker abode relaxing and getting ready (last minute shopping run) for Christmas! We went the easy route and did digorno pepperoni pizza and garlic chicken pizza for din din. We extended our dining room table with a card table to make sure everyone would fit!

The next day was the Train museum!