Ryzzie's Advenutres in Wonderland

So I got to go on what I affectionately call a work sponsored vacation last week.  This time they sent me to Las Vegas.  I must say that I genuinely prefer to go places I don't typically go...and this was no exception.  I always come home with this aweful, anxious, twitchy feeling about me, and this time was no exception.  Well.... except in that it was MUCH MUCH WORSE this time.  Typically we drive, so I thought flying would be BETTER.  Boy was I wrong!  By the time they pulled in to our gate I was ready to crawl over people to get off the plane.  Then the fact that no one was meeting me at the baggage claim made it even worse =(.  I had to wait alone, and cut off from the world (my phone was not adjusting to the switch from airplane mode to 3G very well) for my bag, in an extremely edgy and anxious state.

Plus I thought the whole world was going to come crashing down around me when I got back to work.  I was dreading it from the moment I sat in my seat on the jet on Saturday.  Know what?  Today wasn't so bad!  We had chocolate cake before breakfast, and then as I was having my strawberry snack later, one of the girls came around with cheesecake.  It was meant to be!!!

So I spent the week at Nellis AFB with a group of excellent people doing jet stuff.  3 days in the meeting room, and 2 days in the hangar.  I know Nellis can be miserable, but it was positively beautiful while we were there.  I wanted to take pictures of the mountain ranges surrounding the flight line, but operative word there being "flight line", meaning no paparazzi (or mamarazzi) allowed.  BUMMER!  No I didn't get to go for a ride-a-long either.  BOO!

I did end up being the event/dinner coordinator, since I go to Vegas all the time and seemed to know where all of the reasonably priced foods were.  We ate at several great places:

• Margaritaville
• Harley Davidson Cafe
• Cheesecake Factory
• Spice Market
• Viva Zapata's

Lunches were much less exciting, we ate on base twice, skipped lunch one day, and Olive Garden on another day.  Oh we hit some BBQ place too, that was pretty good.

Everything went super well, and in fact we had such fabulous support from the team at Nellis, I can't thank them enough!

Wednesday we went to the Hoover Dam.  That was a TON of fun, and beautiful.

Friday night I met up with a friend from a previous AFB adventure (who is stationed at Nellis) and we did like a supermarathon barhop.  I think this list encompasses where we went:

• NYNY - Irish Pub
• NYNY - Roller Coaster
• NYNY - Piano Bar
• MGM - Studio 54
• Walked all the way over to Mandalay Bay
• Drove up to Venetian

By the time I was dropped off (I only had 3 drinks other than copious amounts of water) it was 5am, and time to load up my car.  I had time to meet everyone for brekkie at 630 before sharing goodbyes and getting to the airport.

I forgot to mention that Kiefer decided to plan a fun weekend for us at Catalina first weekend in May.  I'm really looking forward to the trip, and it will definitely be unique.  I'll explain more later, but for now, it's CIAO!

Exploring Colorado

Dear Readers I am sorry I have not posted in a while.  I have been having issues with my commuting bike, so my blogging time has been spent exploring those.  Additionally I just spent a week in Fort Walton Beach Florida for business travel (I'll have to backdate blog that in).  But for now, expect regular updates, as I am off of work, and on vacation!

Kiefer and I decided it would be fun to visit Colorado before Christmas.  So I contacted my dad's brother and sister and let them know we were coming to visit, and planning to stay in a hotel.  My Aunt emailed me back as soon as she heard, and informed me that Kiefer, my daughter and I were all invited to stay with her and her family (my uncle, two cousins, and my grandmother) on the farm.  They own a beautiful farm on about 40 acres (which I'm always going on and on about to my friends and coworkers) where they keep the following menagerie of animals:

• 24 goats (+/- periodic boarders)
• 4 Horses
• 2 Dogs
• 5 House Cats
• 2 Barn Cats
• "some" fish

Kiefer was positively delighted that we would be staying with them.  So we bought our tickets, and packed our bags and here we are!!

Friday, December 17th, 2010
I spent the morning doing mundane pre-vacation chores like washing the bedding, and folding laundry (we were already packed) until it was time to pick up my daughter.  This is where the true fun began!  We had spent the week prior to this baking cookies and packing so we would be prepared for our hectic schedule, so when I picked Kate up we were all ready to go.....deliver cookies at my work!  Katie put on her best Christmas dress when I picked her up, and we made our rounds at my office delivering Christmas cookies and Christmas cheer.  Everyone was very cheery to see her in her little red dress with white fuzzy trim.

From there we headed for the OC to pick up Kiefer from his mom's house (That crazy man rode his motorcycle to work in the rain so he could leave his car at our house!).  The drive was...dreary.  It was pouring rain all day in Southern California, and it is supposed to continue to do so through Thursday last I heard!  After picking the Kiefer up, and a blessed episode of NO traffic between his mom's house and the airport we made it in time for our 8:08 pm flight....which ended up being delayed by 30 min.  /facepalm

I Had a gourmet veggie sammich, and Kiefer had a deli multi meat sandwich for dinner.  I allowed Katie to have a happy meal, since I know those were pretty hefty ($9!!) sandwiches, so she had "chicken nuggets" for dinner, and proceeded to devour the entire thing.  The flight was 2 hours, and wasn't too bad.  Kate read book 6 of Chugo Chara (Santa apparently heard that she was running out of books to read, and slipped one in her backpack at some point!  What a clever Santa!), watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" with Chris on the mini TVs, and followed it up with some Scribblenauts .  She made it ALL THE WAY to when we were taxiing in to the gate before she started to fall asleep.

Backstory here:  Kate is a VERY heavy sleeper.  She sleeps like the dead.  You can pick her up and move her, or make loud sounds, or turn on all the lights, and nothing will wake her.  I like to say she'd sleep through the nuclear holocaust.

We made it to the rental car depot to find that the 20 Subaru Outbacks that had been there when I was last in Denver on business in April 2010........were all gone!!!  So we looked, in the 25F chilly night air at all the cars.  Chevy Malibu, Chevy HHR, VW Bug (no way our luggage will fit in there!)...and one Nissan Altima...which was already being sat in by another family.  DANGIT!  So we decided the HHR was our best bet, since it has room for us.  Fortunately it gets GREAT gas milage, but I hate it still.  Wussy little car...and the seat is impossible to adjust!  That reminds me... I need to look up the owners manual.  Anyhoo...we headed to our hotel.

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

We stayed in a hotel overnight, which was fantastic, had our delish breakfast, and then watched Four Christmases in our hotel room.  This was a funny/frustrating movie, check out IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes for reviews..as that is not really the premise of this blog!  We packed up our stuff and headed for......TARGET!  Because I forgot my belt! We had lunch at this gourmet burger place called Diego Zhane's, and it was fantastic.  It was a total pain in the butt to find, but we found it, and it was yummy!  I had a tasty salmon burger, Kiefer had his first Buffalo burger, and Kate had unlimited grilled cheese sandwiches.  I also had some of their tomato basil soup.  YUM!

Then right to my aunts house.  We got ourselves situated, and had a lovely dinner with my family.  I had forgotten how much I love spending time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  I think after dinner we visited grandma (she lives in an apartment below the main farm house.).  We finished up the evening by watching Home Alone (which my daughter had never seen before).  This turned out to be an excellent choice, and everyone laughed.  Then we went to bed!

By they by, dinner was accompanied by home made goat cheese.  It was fantastic.  We had a pepper jack, and a chev with honey.  Oh and btw, the honey comes from their friend's bee hive.  Fresh made cheese, fresh gathered honey.  Amazing.

Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Today was very exciting!  We started off the morning with a hot breakfast of cream of wheat topped with fresh honey, raisins, and fresh goat milk.  Yum!  My aunt also makes fresh yogurt, but I haven't gotten around to trying any yet.  I'll have a snack of it before we leave =D.  Next we proceeded to take the goats for a walk!

They are so funny, all you have to do is walk away and they will follow you!  I was feeding them some stalks off the bushes.  Also, apparently goats really like to eat pine trees too.

Even Kiefer was playing with the goats!

We are already getting to know the goats.  This one reminds us of our friend Sean...we call him "One Horn"

My uncle said that us taking the goats for a walk was a big help, because it allowed them to get their stalls cleaned quickly.  Yay for being helpful!  There are a few other things we're trying to help out with while we're here.  I have NO problem with earning my keep.  In fact, I'd like to make dinner for them one night.  Tomorrow night will probably be the best night for that =).  We'll bring taco Tuesday to the farm!

We ended the night by introducing my uncle to Top Gear, and watching the pilot episode of Firefly with my cousins.
The plan for today is to visit the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.  Grandma gave us tickets for it, which is extremely helpful!  Time to make sandwiches!

Look for more posts later!