Weekend Re-org

This past weekend we tackled an issue we've been facing for quite some time. Especially since said issue finally became unbearable after bring home all of Marielle's Christmas loot. The problem is that her room, with a queen-size bed in it for guests, just isn't big enough to serve as a good playroom. The solution . . . get rid of the bed and no more guests. Just kidding :)

In a slightly less drastic move, we opted to move the guest bed into the room that we have been calling our office. We finally came to the realization that Viv doesn't use the office for work, I don't bring work home, and I will never really be able to turn it into the man cave of my dreams. As a result, it is now the office/guest room. Moving the bed set off a chain reaction of events that included taking our bedroom set and moving it to the office to go with the guest bed and starting to rearrange our room, which we've been thinking of doing for months. As you can see from the photo, we didn't get too far in our room because it got late. Viv didn't even want to wait for me to put sheets on our temporary mattress setup.

Once we secure us a new bedroom set and finish things up, we'll try to get some more photos posted. Marielle's room is awesome without the bed in it. She's got a nice open center area and room for a table and chairs as well. The office isn't too bad either with both a desk and bed in it.

P.S. Just for grins, here are some photos of Blizzard 2.0 which was not near as bad in the Denver area is Blizzard 1.0 was.

Sophie's New Toy

Sophie got a new playmate for Christmas. You may recognize this individual from the PetsMart commercial. If not, follow this link to the commercial. We thought this wiener dog was the coolest, and we went ahead and got them as gifts for some of Sophie's doggie friends.

(Christmas) 2

I implemented my first HTML tag today. You'll find it in the title of this post (see superscripted text). Without it, the title just wouldn't be the same.

Now that I've finished showering praise upon myself for my rudimentary HTML skills, Merry Christmas everyone. We hope that this holiday season has found you all well, and we wish you all a great New Year as well.

As the title implies, we have kept busy today by celebrating not one but two Christmas "Mornings." It has been a lot of fun. We mentioned in a recent post that we love having so much of our families close at hand, and it's nice that, on relatively short order, we can see all of them. Furthermore, I've found that Christmas Morning typically ends with that bit of sadness that it's all over for another year - the decorations, the music, the gifts, and the friends and family. By the end of the morning it feels like it's all gone by so quickly. Getting to do it all over again later in the afternoon, for that second time, is definitely fun. This year, we woke up to Christmas Morning with Viv's side of our family, and we later ended the day with another Christmas "morning" with my side of our family.

This was Marielle's second Christmas, and it has been a riot! The concept of gifts has certainly not escaped her, but Viv and I are glad we can celebrate with all of our friends and family to ensure that she learns that this is one of the most important parts of the holiday season. For days she has been saying, "presents?" and "open it?" This morning she even woke up fairly grumpy but cheered right up when she heard that the gifts would finally be opened. As excited as she got over all of her new things, I thought the best part of it all was watching her spend time with all of her aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends.

The Blizzard (or as Marc Would Say "Blizzity Blau")

So my day started off by having 5:30 a.m. witness interviews. The employees I was interviewing worked the night shift so I had to interview them at either that time or 12:30 a.m. I choose 5:30. Anyway, when I left the house it wasn’t snowing, so I put on my suit and my strappy shoes. When I left the interviews at 7:00 a.m. several inches of snow had already accumulated on the ground. The drive to the office though wasn’t all that bad. When I got to work everyone was talking about the weather. I should say when everyone else got to work, since no one else was there at 7:15 a.m.
It just kept snowing and snowing and snowing. I could tell from my window that it was getting bad, but I had something due so I just kept working.

At about 1:30, after everyone had already left because of the snow I finally decided that I was just going to have to turn in my brief later. After all, the agency that I had to file with had already decided to close until Friday. Thankfully, on my way out I saw a friend of mine who noticed my non-blizzard friendly strappy shoes. She said she had an extra pair of boots that I could borrow if I wanted. “Yes please.” When I got to my car I was sooooo grateful for my friend’s boots because I had to kick snow from behind the back of my car so that I could back out.


When I got into my car I knew that I would have a long drive ahead of me. I thought it would probably take at least a couple of hours to get home. Ok, so my dream of a couple of hours was quickly dashed when I spent two hours traveling one mile. Every few feet
another car was stuck in the snow. The worst was the on ramp to the highway. The on ramp had a decent hill and several trucks/cars had gotten stuck on it. Once a car/truck would get unstuck, another one would get stuck.

Marc says this blog is running long, so I’ll cut this story short. Basically, I was on the road for five hours. The whole time was spent swerving around stuck cars and going between 0 and 5 miles an hour. There was even a couple of buses that had turned completely sideways. BTW the only reason I got home in five hours versus seven or eight is because I got off the highway by following a group of cars driving down a ditch and up onto a road beside the highway. I did make it home safely, which I was thankful for. I was so glad to see Marielle and Marc's face. I did feel bad for our nanny who, along with her son Ethan, had to spend the night at our house. By the time we had gotten home it was too late and too treacherous for them to try and make the trip home to Denver. We made it a slumber party though. Lots of cookies and milk! Anyway, I’ll stop now and leave room for Marc. ; )


All I really have to add is that each time I talked to Viv on the phone while we made our separate ways home was, "this car (the Forester) is so Bad @$$." I was glad that her car was treating her well on the treacherous roads. For the most part, my drive was uneventful but loooonggg. Near the end of my drive I chose a few roads less traveled in an effort to side step the traffic. It worked, but I found myself in a few hairy situations. My Legacy's all-wheel-drivedness did well also although I did find myself stuck in our alley, 20 feet from our garage. That sucked. Thirty minutes later, with no help from neighbors, I was in the garage.

Aunts and Uncles

One of our favorite things about Colorado is the fact that so much of our family lives here. From Fort Collins to Colorado Springs we've got relatives holding things down all along the Front Range. Between the locals and frequently-visiting out-of-towners, we love that Marielle is growing up getting to know so much of her extended family. Here are some pics of her having fun with Aunts Jenn and Sarah, and Uncles Ryan and Josh.


We are also excited that my Grandfather and his wife have just recently moved out to Colorado. Marielle is his first great granddaughter, and she is always excited to see him. She has taken to calling him Opi. I guess that if Opa is Grandpa, Opi must be Great Grandpa.

Hopefully, this is Cooler than it Sounds

OK, I'm not thrilled with the idea of making our blog a forum for poking fun at people, but this deserved mentioning. Think of it as more of a warning to us newer parents to really think through the situations we plan to put our children in. A contest for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese sounds harmless enough, right? Wrong.


Somehow, when Thomas gets older, I don't think he will be thrilled that in 2006 he was "One of the Cheesiest Kids in America."

"Cherry Creek Breakfast"

Last weekend we went to breakfast in Cherry Creek. We had a really hard time keeping the kiddos from playing with their food.


Note the boy in the red shirt who falls off the waffle.

Thanksgiving in the Springs

It seems like November was a light blogging month for all. Lisa and PC did OK, The Clintons have caught up here in the beginning of December, and the Pierz Family blogged about no less than two Thansgivings. I think it's time for us to follow suit.

First of all, we had a great Thanksgiving. We headed down to Viv's Mom and Al's house. Believe it or not, this was the first Thanksgiving that I didn't spend with my side of the Family. It was a little weird not being at my parent's house, but, as always, I had a great time with Viv's side of our family. They always take good care of us. The whole day was filled with cooking, and it all built to quite the feast. All of the ladies in the house contributed to the cooking while us guys ran support. I made a run to the grocery store and Al and the kids helped look after Marielle. Al also took care of mixing up one of my favorite things Viv's Mom makes which is a sherbet punch. Vivian debuted three new recipes that were a total hit. One was a stuffing with apples, another was a potato au gratin, and lastly a pumpkin pie.

After dinner, we dusted off the family's Super Nintendo for a bit of old school, 16-bit entertainment. We all sat down and played a little Tetris Attacks, and yes, I do mean all of us. Everyone loves this game and it is truly addicting. Vivian is the reigning champ and is virtually unbeaten. You play three-match sets, and I, for one can win a single match but have never beaten her best of three to take the set. I have been trying for seven years. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to have everyone pile into the game room to play.

The whole weekend was great.

Aspen Weekend

Marc, Marielle, I, Colette, Geoff,
and Alex all headed up to Aspen this past weekend. Once a year I get to use either the Aspen or Steamboat Springs condo that my firm owns. This year I chose Aspen and I got a slot in November. Since we have little kiddos it didn’t matter to me that it wasn’t quite ski season, although they did open up the slopes last weekend since they had enough snow. We headed up on Friday night and drove through the mountains in the dark. It was actually a really nice car ride. Marielle slept most of the way up there and the rest of the time we listened to “her” music. I am sure that all of you reading this are glad you didn’t have to endure several hours of Marc and I’s singing. Marielle seems to dig it, but what does she know. I think Aspen is such a pretty town, especially at night. They have all the white Christmas lights up and it looks just like an ideal mountain town should look, quaint and elegant. Anyway, we went almost straight to bed since we got up there pretty late.

On Saturday we ate a cute little café and then headed to the Maroon Bells for a photo shoot. There was a decent amount of snow and we didn’t make it that far in, but it was fun to be in that close to the mountains and get to take some pictures with the kids. We spent the rest of the day walking around the town and looking in the ridiculously expensive shops. Marc bought a coffee and milk for Marielle and paid $11.00. I definitely don’t think we could afford to live in Aspen. On Saturday night we ate at a Chinese place and played Scrabble. Colette beat all of us three times in a row. Guess I had better become a better speller.

On Sunday, we ate breakfast in Glenwood Springs. We intended on eating at a place in Aspen, but it was closed (the restaurant, not the town). We thought if we just drove towards Glenwood, where we planned on going to the hot springs, we would find a place. Well there was NO and I mean NO real breakfast places in between Aspen and Glenwood. Even in Glenwood we had trouble finding places that were open. We drove around in circles until we found a breakfast place. We almost went to Village Inn, which I detest, but at that point I would have eaten anything. Anyway, luckily we found a place and it was great. They had the best cinnamon rolls. Marielle ate like half of mine.
We did eventually make it to the natural hot spring pools in Glenwood after breakfast and it was lots of fun. Marielle LOVED it. I mean LOVED it.
Most of the time she just wanted to sit playing on the steps with her toys. She doesn’t really like going where she can’t touch the bottom of the pool. She stood on the steps, bounced on the steps, and sat on the steps.
Alex, however, liked swimming about with Geoff. He too played on the stairs, but was a little more adventurous about where he would go. When we left the pool Marielle had a break down. She just kept screaming WaWa! WaWa! Moma WaWa! Please! WaWa! WaWa! Anyway, you get the idea. Marc couldn’t even get her dressed in the locker room because that was too close to the pool. So he took our little naked tyke out to the car to get her dressed. After Glenwood we all headed back home. It was a fun trip and it was nice to get away from the city and go into the Mountains. I look forward to next year!

P.S. All the group pictures and most of the pictures of the adults were taken by Geoff and Colette so you'll have to look to them for those. : )

Contraband Photos

That's what Leah's calling these pictures. We went out to dinner at the Dragon Restaurant which is a Hanks' Family favorite. We then went to a new place that Emo had heard about called Pinkberry. It's kind of like a TCBY but all modern and chic. Apparently this restaurant concept is sooooo hot that we weren't allowed to take photos inside. I guess they thought we might sell them to a competitor. Apparently, they didn't realize that the majority of the photo was Anjali and me.

I've had a lot of fun getting to catch up with the all of our family out here in California. They've made me feel right at home.

P.S. Anjali wasn't as angry with me as she looks. Once she got settled, she fell right back asleep.

I Love the LA Freeways!

Despite LA being known for having horrendous traffic, I love to drive here. I think that the highway system across the metro area is quite impressive. Even when I do hit traffic, it at least moves. Also, my 45-minutes-to-anywhere theory still remains intact. I love how everything criss-crosses everything else to create this web of alternate routes to anywhere you want to go. Viv's family out here has never given me the same directions twice for getting someplace, and I think that's the norm. Anyone out here has an arsenal of routes for getting anywhere and choosing a route for any one location is dependent on: 1) traffic at that point in time, 2) Time of day, and 3) a gut feeling that cannot be taught to visitors. You may ask, "aren't 1 and 2 the same or at least related?" No. There is traffic associated with rush hour, but traffic can occur at anytime. Getting hooked up with these alternate routes has been invaluable. It's allowed me to get places quickly and learn my way around the city.

Also, everyone refers to the different highways as the "blank." One of my staple routes on this trip has been: the 210 west to the 134 west to the 101. Often, the directions, such as east or west in my previous example, are often not necessary. Instead, your directions will couple a highway with a city. For example, the route above could also be said as: take the 210 towards Pasadena to the 134 towards Burbank to the 101 towards the San Fernando Valley. How come I-25 is not the 25, or how come we don't take the 36 to Boulder? I find it fascinating and right now I'm probably putting you all into a coma.

Oh, I have also only seen one cop out on a freeway. I've seen lots on the surface streets, but almost none on the freeways. There is also a lack of signs clarifying the speed limit. This combinations allows the masses to cruise around at incredible speeds virtually unchecked. I think looking the other way on the speeding is essential to traffic moving at all in this city. It is a thing of Beauty.

Californiaaaaa, Californiaaa

Just imagine the music from Fox's The OC playing in the background as you read the title above. I know, I'm a horrible singer. For those of you who didn't know, I am out in Los Angeles this week for training. Viv has been minding the house and kids on her own, and from all reports she's holding it down just like I knew she would.

My class has been going well. It is all about process improvement, and I'm glad to say that I think I'll be able to apply a lot of it to my team's work flow when I get back.

Although my trip is work related, it couldn't have been timed better. It has allowed me to claim the honor of being the first Colorado family member to meet the newest addition to Vivian's cousin's family. On Sunday, I got to see little Anjali. She slept for most of my visit (and boy does she sleep hard), but I did manage to introduce myself when she briefly woke up to stretch and yawn. She's got the darkest hair, but her eyes seem like they could stay on the lighter side, although not as light as Lacy's. Watching Lacy dote on Anjali was a lot of fun. After hugging the teddy bear we got for Anjali, Lacy took it right over to her crib and sat it down by her. On numerous occasions, she snuck in little kisses for her sister while she napped.

Since being here, I have also gotten a chance to see Viv's Aunt, Uncle, and their respective families. In my first two nights here, I had accumulated in excess of 220 miles on my rental car! Not that I'm complaining. They have made me feel right at home with a delicious homemade Korean feast last night for dinner and a Jamba Juice that Emo still owed me. Oh, and Leah and Cliff fed me as well. Leah, I think the dessert was a success.

The Children's Museum

This last weekend we went to the Children's Museum with Colette, Geoff and Alex. The kids thought it was awesome! Marielle was a huge fan of the play kitchen. Marc and I couldn't get her out of there. I am a particular fan of the apron : )









Both the kids liked the pretend grocery store. It was cute to see them push their little carts around. Marielle shopped like there was no tomorrow. She acted liked she really had to stock up because there weren't any groceries at home.









Marielle also enjoyed the painting. She got a little bit on her shirt, but we are hoping it will wash out. If not, it will just be her artist shirt and she can wear it when she paints.









The kids favorite by far, however, was the lockers. The lockers were in the play gym area and Marielle and Alex thought it was the greatest thing since Velcro. To play with the lockers you have to abide by the following protocols: 1) go into locker; 2) try and shut yourself into locker; 3) laugh; 4) get out of locker; 5) try and walk through locker with door on both sides; 6) laugh; 7) get out of locker; 8) try and shut your friend in a locker coming perilously close to getting their fingers jammed; and 9) laugh.