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.

Quick Post #2

In addition to grocery shopping, we have been doing mad amounts of laundry. Marielle and I were folding some laundry last night when something in one of the yet-to-be-folded piles caught her attention. She ran over to the pile of clothes, pointed, and said, "me bug." She repeated it a few times, so I went to see what she was looking at. Buried there in the pile was her ladybug Halloween costume from last year. Although the sentence leaves something to be desired from a grammatical standpoint, I am amazed at how our little ones are starting to grasp sentence structure on some level and pronoun usage. For example, when I say, "You did it Marielle." She responds by saying, "I did it." It's awesome.

Anyway, she spent most of the evening in her ladybug costume.

Quick Post #1

So I will keep these short and to the point. Viv wants to blog about our past weekend and these posts have nothing to do with the weekend. Check them out and stay tuned for Viv's post-weekend post. This one's really for Lisa and PC.

The other day we decided to thin out our kitchen cabinets after returning from grocery shopping. In the process, I came across a box of Taco Rice. For those of you who do not know, Taco Rice is huge in Okinawa, and yes, this is the box of Taco Rice sent to us from Okinawa some months ago by Lisa and PC. At first glance, this doesn't seem like a big deal. Especially since most boxed rice-type meals have a respectable shelf life. Shortly after receiving this stuff from Lisa and PC, however, we got a frantic email from them stating that there was actually meat in this box! Despite the manufacturer's guarantee that said meat was OK to sit, unrefrigerated, on a shelf, they begged us to throw it away. We are finally heeding their warning.

Multimedia message

I am sending this from my cell. Now I can potentially blog about things as they happen. Although it took me 5 minutes to send this with only my thumbs.

More Halloween Hulabaloo

Every Halloween, my brother, Ryan, comes up with the best costumes. He definitely gets this from my parents who always outdid themselves on our costumes growing up. By the way, Jossie, his girlfriend, is no slouch either when it comes to Halloween. This year the two of them went as Mario and Princess Peach from the Super Mario Brothers games. As an added twist, they made little go karts to hang over their shoulders a la Mario Kart.

If anyone has no idea what I’m talking about, I am sad that you have missed out on the Super Mario Brother video game franchise and video gaming in general.

Anyway, either Princess Peach had already crossed the finish line or she spun out on a banana peel because she didn’t make the photo.

Boo at the Zoo and Halloween Too

We decided to really amp things up for Halloween this year. Last year, we skipped going out to trick or treat with Marielle. It was a bit cold last year and we didn't think that Marielle would know what was going on. This year, in addition to keeping our Boo at the Zoo and Bump & Grind (see the Pierz Family Blog) tradition alive, we took Marielle out for a round of candy-tax collection in my parents' neighborhood. All together the Halloween weekend has been a lot of fun. Boo at the Zoo was a lot of fun this weekend. It was definitely an improvement over last year even though the parking situation still sucked. It was better because Marielle and Alex really knew what was going on this year, and it was much warmer. They had a blast watching the animals. The elephants and bears were big hits. Marielle calls them "el-fants" and "bearies." In addition to checking out the animals, Marielle and Alex spent the day finding new places for sitting next to each other.


For Halloween proper, we headed up to my parents' neighborhood. Where our neighborhood is all but devoid of trick-or-treaters, my parents' neighborhood teems with them. Marielle really liked walking to the front doors of homes with all the other kids that were out. she'd stand there in her mouse costume with the ninja turtles, princesses, vampires, and soldiers and wait her turn for getting candy. Omi walked the block with us so that she could show off her grand daughter while Opa (in Where's Waldo garb) stayed back to hand out candy. By the end of the night, Marielle was definitely getting the hang of things. She yelled for one household to hurry up when they didn't answer the door right away and in another instance she tried to take candy from a bowl on her own. A little bit of trick to go with the treats I guess. She had a lot of fun.