Do you hear the roar of the jungle?

By now we are use to packing up for weekend trips after the tour of the Midwest! This weekend we headed west to Omaha to enjoy the annual rivalry game of Iowa State & Iowa with Megan and Brian. The game was an embarrassment but the food and company was wonderful! In writing this blog I'm starting to think we eat too much and that I need to dedicate more time to stay on top of things!

After an embarrassing loss to Iowa and a depressing loss for the fighting Irish we set off for some wonderful sushi at Blu. Blu is my favorite sushi place yet - great atmosphere and amazing sushi! We were all exhausted and somehow managed to make it to bed early (which didn't bother me one bit).


The whole reason why we were in Omaha was to join my brother Ben, sister-in-law Kayla, nephew Bradey, niece Gracey, mom, sister Nicole, aunt Pegi, cousin Kristine and sister Brenda at the O'Henry Zoo to celebrate Brenda's 23rd birthday. The last time I'd been to the O'Henry Zoo was in college to visit the Lied Jungle. We had a great time and visited everything the zoo had to offer in the five hours we spent there. I was exhausted so I can only imagine how exhausted the little ones but they were troopers and didn't drop until the rest of us dropped.

Grandma Pam and Bradey taking in the zoo.

Brenda and Bradey posing by the 'baby elephant'

Aunt Pegi and Bradey

Beautiful elephant

How pretty am I? 

Let me entertain you! 

Kristine with Bradey and Gracey

The exhausted crew! We should've taken a picture at the beginning not the end! 

Team Cocktail - the name says it all!

Since last January Jim and I have been trying to find an open weekend to spend in Kansas City with our dear friends, Steve & Lyndsey. Amazingly we were both open for Labor weekend so we planned a last minute trip to KC. Our three-day weekend started with us turning around about 15 minutess after leaving as Jim forgot the stash of wine. If there is one thing that must not be forgotten in visiting the Higgins it is WINE!

The four of us enjoyed a great lunch on the patio. Oddly we were the only one's on the patio - it was the first day in which the thermometer didn't read 100 degrees so apparently it was now too cold for patios!? The entertainment for the weekend was watching our kids - Hank and Indy pester each other. Both are spoiled rotten and run the house so it was pretty funny to watch them fight over toys, food and attention!

I'm exhausted!

What would end up being a late night started out at this neat restaurant Lidia's in the Crossroad's district. We only enjoyed a drink but the food smelled wonderful and I loved the patio on this renovated train depot. Next up was 801 Chophouse outside of the Power & Light District. All I can now I know why people rave about the food, service and wine at 801 as it was AMAZING!We enjoyed The Well in Waldo and then headed to the 75th Street Brewery where we tasted many different beers! We didn't quite do the pub crawl as planned!

Enjoying amazing food and wine at 801 Chophouse

Cheers!!! 

The first night.. delicious! 

Jim sniffing out the wines - a little chocolate, berry, dirt haha

Cheers!

Great way to end the weekend! 

Oh the Twin Cities

I've been looking forward to this concrete since tickets went on sale last spring - Lady Gaga! Not only did this mean I would see Gaga in concert but I would get to spend time with my old college roomie Nikki and her family and finally meet lil Logan Rolle! We headed up north for a weekend with little plans (which Jim found interesting that I didn't have every minute scheduled). Saturday was a beautiful day so we all decided it was a perfect day to hit the Hastings pool.

For the evening we grill fillets and enjoyed catching up on the latest updates in all of our lives. On Sunday, Jim headed to Hutchinson to see his dad while I enjoyed brunch with the Sinclair's at Levee Cafe in Hastings before Nikki and I enjoyed the last day at the city pool. Jacob was pretty fascinated by the big barge and all of the boats on the big Mississippi River.

It was an interesting couple of hours at the pool - there were two hazards forcing the kids and adults to exit the pool. The first emergency was for poop in the pool and the second for puke! Don't ask me how a person cleans puke put of a pool!!  With the hazards of the public pool, Nikki decided that Jacob should be treated with his very own pool! Not quite the same but at least everyone knows what is in this pool....

We ended the evening by getting a sitter for Jacob and heading out to dinner in Apple Valley at Enjoy. We enjoyed a wonderful bottle of wine, food and laughs. The food was excellent as was the dessert....

For our last day in the cities we had a day full of activities including shopping for a new camera, meeting Angie and Logan Rolle for a nice little lunch in Edina and ending the day with Ms. Lady Gaga! We found our camera quickly leaving me time to check out Title Nine in Edina before lunch at Edina Grill. Lunch was great but meeting lil Logan and catching up with Ang was even better.

Afterwards we headed back for a lil relaxation before dinners and the entertainment for the night. Dinner at Axil Bonfire is always a wonderful experience as they have great food and a fun atmosphere.

Oh Lady Gaga how do I even describe this event!? The people watching was unbelievable and I wished I had taken more pictures of some of the fans, as they had anything from wigs, cans rolled in their hair, crazy outfits (I'm convinced some people don't own mirrors) and plenty of drag queens which were dressed to the tee! I'll let you enjoy the pictures and video as they say a picture is worth a thousand words!

Keystone, Colorado - Day 7

Today was our last day in Keystone so we knew we had to end it with a bang. Jim and I headed out for a filling breakfast before we started our final day hiking. We had read about Eaglesmere so decided to check it out. The funny thing about the backroads of the mountains is that they have multiple names so my dear Garmin (aka Betsy the Bitch) was having troubles finding her way... which was pretty frustrating! The area in which we drove to find the trail was beautiful and remote which made finding the correct roads a bit of a challenge!

We started at the trailhead for the Eaglesmere. We weren't clear on the total distance of the trail but we started around 11 a.m. so we figured we had plenty of time to be explorers.

The trail included a variety as we walked through tall wild flowers and grasses, and an area of evergreens only to land ourselves at a beautiful waterfall and wonderful rock formation. Although the official bridge for the trail was out of working order we still found away to cross.....

The trail came to a point where you could continue on Eaglesmere or take a new trail. Since we wanted to see new views along the way we decided to take a new trail even though we weren't sure how long it would take and were we would official end up as the map wasn't very clear.

After seven hours of hiking we ended at the entry for Surprise Lake trail only to find we had to hike back up to the Eaglesmere parking lot. It was a long hike but a great way to end the week. For dinner we all enjoyed a great meal and drinks at Dillon Dam Brewery.

Keystone, Colorado - Day 6

Today was the day designated as the white water rafting day on the Arkansas river. There were a few newbies to rafting but overall I think everyone was looking forward to the afternoon of rafting. We decided to raft The Numbers (advanced class level III-V) so it would provide plenty of excitement for the newbies and oldies alike. The weather decided to be a little odd today as it rained the entire drive to the rafting spot, stopped only long enough for us to get excited about rafting and of course just as we were loading up on the bus it started to pour. Just as everyone dressed the rain came pouring down which made it cold quickly! So everyone was geared up in a wet suit, splash guard and helmet. Sadly I didn't get any group pics as I failed to bring a waterproof camera! Rats I know as we were looking pretty hot and smelled even better! After all of our work to get the wet suits on the sun came out just as we loaded onto the rafts, which we were not complaining about since it was nice to raft with the sun instead of the rain!

After a fun time rafting we headed back to the condo only to be greeted by a delicious meal prepared by Nicole. Nothing like coming home to a mexican spread! A perk of Keystone is the free yes free shuttle, we took advantage of this great service. So after an amazing meal we loaded up on the bus and headed out to Snake River Tavern for their weekly live music and local entertainment.

Keystone, Colorado - Day 5

Day five started a little slow for us as we were pretty sore after a couple tough days of serious activity! Sarah and Meghan headed out bright and early to hike Quandary Peak while the rest of us decided to take it easy or so I thought. When you vacation with Jim it's not necessarily the type of vacation where you sit on your butt, I tend to do more activity on vacation than I do when I'm at home. I always thought I was in relatively good shape when I am on vacation I feel like completely out of shape! So the easy part of our hike was Lily Pad. This hike is great for any ages and size as it's easy and there is little elevation change and roughly 3.2 miles roundtrip.  

And up we go!

The beautiful lily pads

Jim decided since we were right next door to Buffalo Mountain we should check it out as we had heard good things about the trail and views. We had talked to a few older guys on the Lily Pad trail who claimed the first mile of the trail was very difficult but the rest wasn't too bad. The six of us walked the short distance from Lily Pad to the Buffalo Mountain trail head and started out on our next adventure.

If I had done any research about Buffalo Mountain I would've probably recommended that we find a different trail as it is considered advanced. Considering Megan, Brian and Vogs has arrived the night before it probably wasn't the best trail to pick considering the elevation change was approximately 3,000 feet. The first mile was pretty easy and flat which made all of us scratch our head as the guys we ran into earlier noted how difficult the first mile was. We should've know that it wasn't the first mile but the last mile!

Considering I had pushed my legs and lungs to all ends the last two days I was not overly excited about embarking a difficult trail. My legs were like jell-o and not in shape to hike for a long period of time but Jim wanted to see what this trail was all about so away we went. Unfortunately we sadly didn't get all the way to the top as the last part of the hike was pretty much rock climbing... I knew there was no way my body could handle rock climbing and then getting myself back down the mountain so we turned around. We heard the views were amazing and I can only imagine consider what they were like when we decided to turn around.

Excited we are almost to the end!!

As a treat after our hard work we all headed out for sushi - I know you're thinking sushi in the middle of the mountains?! We made reservations for 9 at Nozawa Sushi and Teppanyaki but arrived to find they weren't really ready for us... a little frustrating but eventually they found us a table as the place was extremely busy and for a good reason. The sushi was amazing and the portion sizes were huge! So after stuffing our bellies with sushi and beers after a full day of activity we were all ready for bed.