2012 By City

Each of the below cities includes a one-night stay in 2012. Cities denoted by an asterisk include multiple visits.

2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006.

• Scottsdale, AZ
• Las Vegas, NV*
• Denver, CO*
• Vail, CO
• Albuquerque, NM*
• Anaheim, CA
• Topeka, KS
• San Diego, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Rome, Italy
• New York, NY
• Lake Tahoe, CA

Thanksgiving Festivities

Catching up...I feel like I am always trying to catch up on here. And I still haven't posted anything from Rome :(

On Thanksgiving Eve I went with some friends to Montelucia Resort in Paradise Valley. I never celebrated Thanksgiving Eve before but it was a fun night.

Me, Jackie, Tim, Erin, Megan and Olivia

This is supposedly the wedding door. The wedding hall was beautiful there...and I am sure REALLY expensive.

 The next morning, Heather, Kellyn, Kathryn and I ran the Lifetime Fitness Turkey Day 5k (#td5k). I finished with a time of 25:53 which was an 8:19 min/mile pace. Directly from the run I went to Bikram Yoga since I was in the middle of trying to get the most use out of a Groupon - lots of working out so no guilt in eating a big Thanksgiving dinner.

 Brussels sprouts - I love these! I make them roasted rather than steamed and they are so good that way.

 Thanksgiving dinner was at my parents with both sides of the family and friends too. Above is my friend Erin who is from the Philadelphia area and did not get home for Thanksgiving so I invited her over. After living in NYC, I am much more cognizant to invite people to holiday family gatherings when they have nothing going on.

(Most of the) Group Picture!

33

A couple of weeks ago, I had another birthday (they come around way too fast these days). I ended up going to dinner at True Food Kitchen with some great friends - it was totally low key, but it was with the perfect people.

Feryal & John

 Kyle

 Kyle, Jackie, Me, Olivia, Elizabeth and Skyler

 Jenn and Kelly

 Aubrey and Montana

 Tim

 Kellyn

 Dianna, Ellie and Feryal

 Jenn and Kelly

 Kellyn made a red velvet cake (and I had a cheat night on the diet).

 The group.

After dinner a few of us ended up going to Toby Keith's. I wasn't going to go out since it had been a long week with my grandma, but we finished dinner a little before 10 and I didn't want to go home that early. We had fun there and I am glad I went out.

Apple Picking 2012

Still trying to do some catching up. A few weeks ago I flew to NYC for the weekend to go apple picking with my church there because I really enjoyed the previous years. I flew to NYC on Friday after work, went apple picking all day Saturday and then went to church Sunday before flying back to Phoenix.

Our apple picking group.

 An odd looking yellow pumpkin.

 Gourds.

 Dina and I - trying to get the yellow/orange trees in the background.

 Apple doughnuts - cheated that day and had one. So good.

 Eric - we waited in line for almost 2 hours for these doughnuts.

 Another group shot.

 Eric and I - eating apples that are not organic and sprayed with pesticides. I was bummed when I found that out :(

Sunday after church I walked back to Dina's apartment on a bit of a detour route up 1st Ave and then across 81st Street. It felt odd being in NYC and not going to my apartment.

Thanks Dina for letting me stay at your apartment for the weekend!

Neon Run!

This is out of order, but since I have not yet edited all my Rome pictures, nor have Kellyn and I even swapped pictures, I thought I would at least blog some more recent events.

This past Saturday night I ran the Neon Splash Dash with some friends from bootcamp. This was more of a fun run as it was not timed, and there were a lot of walkers. Kellyn, Amanda and I pretty much ran the entire way, except in the splash zones. There were 4 different splash zones, and those were just like what they sound like - splash zones :)

Finish line - this was taken before we started.

 Amanda, Kellyn & I - pre-race

This was our entire group pre-race. Notice our white shirts.

Amanda, Kellyn & I just after we finished. 

 The four different splash zones were yellow, green, blue and red.

 Everyone is colored - Dianna, Ellie, John, Feryal, Me, Kellyn & Amanda.

It was a fun run and I am excited for running season again! 

Grays and Torreys

While I was in Denver, we also hiked two 14ers. These were #2 and #3 on my list of 14ers - Bierstadt was #1. Brian Austin and his family was in town as well, so they joined us for the hike.

Alex and Tommy at the trailhead ready to get started.

 Group picture at the trailhead. We were on the trail and ready to go by about 8:30am.

 Grays Peak is the the left, and Torreys is to the right.

 There was a mountain goat at the top.

 Kyle tried to get my picture with the mountain goat - this is the only picture we got though. I guess he didn't want to be in a picture with me.

At the top. Sun, Tommy, Kyle, Me, Alex, Brian and Eva. We didn't think Sun, Tommy or Alex would make it, but everyone kept telling them they were almost there. Took us 4 hours to get to the top, but I was happy that everyone pushed through and made it all the way.

After Grays, Brian, Sun and the kids started making their way down the mountain. Kyle and I decided to go ahead and summit Torreys as well since we were right there. This is Kyle with the path up Torreys behind him.

At the top of Torreys.

It is is pretty at the top of these mountains. Love looking out at the Rocky Mountain range.

Brian needed a break from carrying Eva, so Kyle took over for most of the way down.

After dinner, we went to some of our other cousins home for dinner. Alex, Laci and Tommy on the trampoline.

The kids dinner table - Megan, Tommy, Laci, Alex and Samantha.

 The bid kids dinner table - Kyle, Sun, Eva, Brian, Kristi and Scott. Dinner was really good (thanks Kristi for cooking) and it was nice to sit on their patio and visit.

On Sunday morning, Kristi, Samantha and Megan were running a 5-mile race. We found out that the start line was at Cheeseman Park which is a 5-minute walk from Kyle's apartment. I decided to run with them - Cheeseman Park to Wash Park. Good start to Labor Day.

After the run, I went back to Kyle's and got ready to leave for the airport. I barely made my flight because the rental car had a flat tire, but Kyle put some air in it for me and I made it to the airport ok. Good thing for my employee badge to avoid the security line.