Thanksgiving Weekend

Kyle and I enjoyed a 4 day weekend at HOME. We were at home 95% of the time with Tucker and it was awesome.

Thanksgiving Day we made our first turkey. All 8 pounds of it. It was my first turkey and Kyle's first time carving a turkey! Overall, I think it turned out great and am happy for it being my first!

I know I didn't really need to post a picture of the bird, but I had to document it! ;) I set the table using a lot of our china and things we got from the wedding, overall I was very pleased at how it turned out! We had A LOT of leftovers, when we were finished it didn't even look like we had touched the food! But, I am totally OK with that, it means no cooking for a week for me! We did, however, finish up the pumpkin pie last night. It was the first pumpkin pie that I had made or even ate since my grandma passed away a few years ago. It was an emotional and very, very delicious pie!

On Friday we went and got some deals on outside Christmas lights and a tree! We spent the entire day putting up lights and listening to Christmas music. Kyle and I were both really in the Christmas mood, and we both LOVE our lights on our house. I think our neighbor was worried we outdid him...he put up his lights that night and had to go buy more even! Oops! Tucker was outside with us in the front yard the entire day as well. What do you think? I think they turned out excellent for our first time putting up Christmas lights!

Tucker did not like Kyle up on the roof. 

I have since added a wreath on the front door and candy canes on the window, but overall, this is it!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with friends and family and enjoyed the rest of the Holiday weekend!

Happy Turkey Day

Just want to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Kyle and I will be making a (smaller) thanksgiving meal this year. I've never made a turkey by myself, and never made a pumpkin pie without my grandma, so here goes nothing! If all else fails, we have Rudy's BBQ right down the road...

In addition to Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Kyle and I will be enjoying a weekend at home with Tucker. Yesterday Tucker underwent "boy surgery." Last night he was so groggy and loopy it looked like he was drunk! Hopefully with every pain pill we give him he will spring back a little each time. :) So besides taking down thanksgiving decorations and getting Christmas things together, we will be babying Tucker (even more so than usual!)

So, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping to all Black Friday shoppers! (There were people already camping out at Best Buy here last night. CRAZY!!)

6th Street

This past weekend we had originally planned on going to the University of Texas Longhorns game versus the Kansas State Wildcats in Austin. Tyler was going to fly down and it was going to be like last year when he came down for a game, remember that blog post? Well, plans changed and he couldn't make it down at the last minute, so we decided to go anyway...and see the OTHER side of UT football in Austin.

We met a couple down here where his wife is from Kansas and an alum of K Sate. So back when we saw they were playing in Austin this year, we made plans to go. We got an early start for a 7pm game. 6th Street in Austin is like the "bar scene." It is literally bar after bar after bar, filled with college age kids and football fans (on game day). Since we had yet to experience that, we checked that off of our "TX Bucket List" this weekend.

Here are our friends. Stephanie is originally from Kansas, and Curtis from Austin. They live in San Antonio now and we have become good friends.

Our Friends Curtis & Stephanie

Like I said, we started the day early. Especially for our friend Dan, a HUGE Nebraska Huskers fan. And they just happened to be playing a huge game against Michigan. So we found the first bar that had College Football playing and ordered a tall beer. We had no idea just HOW tall it was. When the waitress came with them her shirt read "Home of the Big @$$ beer" Then I realized just how big they were...

So the day had started off great! After the Huskers game (which, sadly, they lost) we bar hopped along 6th Street. A ton of purple was floating around- it was fun to see. We went to mostly all roof-top bars because it was 70s-80s and gorgeous out. I pretty much love roof top bars and am very sad there are not more in San Antonio.

6th Street with the Frost Building in the upper left hand corner. It was super pretty lit up at night time

 Then we were walking and saw this sign...and could NOT pass it up! For only .50 more we could have Crown. Yes, please :)

We enjoyed our Crown on the roof top as well!

Then game time rolled around. Since Dan's girlfriend was in town (visiting from Fargo!) they found some discounted tickets and went to the game. Curtis, Steph, Kyle and I found a roof top bar with a huge projection screen to watch the game. After the game we went to a few more places before we CRASHED. The drive home the next morning was a little slow, but it was a super fun day. With Austin only being an hour away, I would love to go back and do it again!

The screen on the roof top bar.

Dan, Heather, me, Kyle, Stephanie, and Curtis on 6th Street. We stopped at a place for K State Alum and were outfitted with some purple

 

Wurstfest

You are probably thinking, "What in the world is Wurstfest?!" It's a 10-day festival full of German culture and food, plus Texas food as well. We went yesterday with some friends and had a BLAST. It also made me super anxious to go visit our friend in the REAL Germany!

Here is the sign to welcome us in!

We started off by getting some drink tickets. Can't eat sausage without beer! So we got our first pitcher of beer (3 people were sharing!). After that was taken cafe of we went to the huge building called the MarketPlace. It was basically an enormous building full of food and souvenir vendors. So many places to choose from, but we ended up getting a "sample stick" from the Smokehouse. 5 different types of sausage on a stick!

Our friend Dan. And one of our {many} pitchers of Shiner!

Kyle and I with our sausage on a stick!

The picture is blurry, I apologize, but it gives you an idea of the size of this "hall."

The picture above is where we ate, and there was a dance floor right in the middle. It was connected to the market shops, so it was packed. They had a polka contest there as well, which was super fun to watch. They had this one, a portable one set up outside a little bit smaller, and another air-conditioned dance hall built just last year. All three huge and all three packed. So many people out enjoying the German culture and the beautiful weather (it was a sunny 85º).

Here are some other pictures of the day. We met some super nice folks that were from WA state but living down here working. We also had fun people watching.

Lots of German options...food and drink!

The band. They were awesome! And fun to watch ;)

Doesn't this look appetizing?! One of the options to get your sausage on a stick!

Since it was hot out, and we were getting hot, we went into a bar/house close to the market building. It was a VERY cool place. A man that was originally from New Braunfels started collecting beer bottles at the age of 17 (somewhere around there). He collected bottles his entire life, no matter where he went, including overseas. He either filled up his suitcase, car, or shipped them back to his house. One time, he had no room for his wife so he flew his wife home and drove himself and the bottles back from CA! In the end he collected over 2,000 bottles; no 2 alike. He donated his entire collection to this bar where they put them up for display. It was really neat!



Overall I had a blast. It was fun seeing everyone dressed up in authentic German attire, watching polka dancing, and eating good food. It was fun hanging out with friends and experiencing something new! Here are a few more pics from the day:

People, inculding kids, were dressed up. So much fun.

I have no idea who these people are, I just thought they looked awesome so I asked if we could take a picture with them!





In the end, we had a GREAT day and did some damage with the pitchers of Shiner. Our friends: Kasi, Matt, Dan, Me and Kyle. Wurstfest 2011 was a success!

I can't wait for next year!

11.11.11

Happy Veterans Day, 2011! Anyone doing anything special?

Just wanted to send a very special THANK YOU to all the retired and active military people. They do awesome work for our country and I am very, very grateful.

My Dad and Grandpa are both veterans, and I am so thankful for both of them in my life!

And, in addition to it being Veterans Day, it is also November 11 of '11. At 11:11 am or pm today, what will you be doing? Anything special? If you follow the tradition, a wish is to be made on 11:11...hope its a good one! I'd tell you mine, but then it wouldn't come true :)

Kyle's "Man Cave"

Kyle and I both know this house is not our "dream home," but we both love making it into something we want, helping it become the best house it can be. This weekend, Kyle went to work on something that had been bothering him since we moved: The Garage.

My work had an enormous annual sale, so I had to work the whole weekend. I was able to sneak away on Saturday for an amazing lunch with Kyle...we went for sushi! (Yum). Anyway. back to the man cave. Saturday I come home from work and pull into the driveway to see the garage door up, 2x4s  across the floor of the garage, the saw over to one side and our furniture give away pile out in the front yard.

Kyle was building.

It is a hobby he would love to get more into, but he knows enough of it to build basic things. On Saturday alone he built a work bench, storage for the rakes and shovels, etc, and put up peg board (so he can neatly organize his tools!) Most of you know how anal Kyle is about organization and 'neatness' so this was like a big therapy project to him.

Here is what it looked like at the end of the day Saturday:

  Its true. Tucker was there in the garage with Kyle all day long :)



Sunday was left to finish up odds n ends and build the shelf. Again, I was at work, so Kyle worked away with nothing else to think about or do besides the garage. It really was a therapy weekend! After a night of organizing, here is the final product. All the tools are in line. All the coolers are finally tucked away neatly in place. Tuckers kennel is finally out of the way. And Kyle even built himslef a "sports shelf" that contains all his golfing and softball equipment. I forgot to take a picture of that...sorry.

We still have all the built-in cabinet space in the garage as well, so now we have more than enough storage in the garage. Excellent job, Kyle! This will for sure be a place he can "retreat" to if he ever needs it...I can see him tinkering out here for hours, with Tucker at his side, of course :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is adjusting to the time change!

Blue Angels

While Kelly and I were getting ready for the Halloween party on Saturday we heard jet after jet after jet fly over our house. I didn't think too much of it since the Randolph Air Force Base is about 5 miles away, but this went on for HOURS. Finally it stopped and I put it out of my mind.

Sunday, after I had taken Kelly to the airport, it started again. Jet after jet. I was ignoring it again, until Kyle and I decided to take Tucker for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous day so I grabbed my camera (thank goodness I did!). Turns out, the Blue Angels were putting on a show at the base and we could see most of the action! How many people can say they watched a Blue Angels show from their backyard?!

It kind of turned into a game of "spot the jet" and "even though the sound is over here...where is the jet?" Turns out the jets they fly just under Mach 2, almost twice the speed of sound or about 1,400 mph. Yikes. The pilots consist of US Navy and Marines, and they put on these shows to more or less to enhance recruiting. The name was founded back in 1946 before the first show; one of the pilots saw an ad for the Blue Angel Nightclub in NY Magazine.  One of my thoughts were how the Blue Angel pilots got be the pilots? Turns out you have to apply and you need to be career orientated; career-qualified; active-duty Navy or Marine Corps tactical jet pilot with at least 1,250 miles flight hours. They also average 33 years of age. Females are allowed and the number varies each year. This year there are 11 females on the squadron. The pilots are also not payed anything extra for being a Blue Angel pilot; it is all volunteer - it is very honorable just to be associated with the team.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of the loops and nose dives and formations they did. It was unreal to watch them maneuver such a massive machine with such finesse.

Some of them were so close to the rooftops I felt like if I stuck my arm up I could touch them. Of course I couldn't, but they were flying low enough that we could clearly see the blue and yellow and the words on the jets. On more than one occasion I got goosebumps (not sure if it was the site or the sound!)

I was able to capture a coupld short videos of the jets doing nose dives and what not, but of course Blogger is not cooperating. Maybe I'll get them posted to Facebook...

Either way, it was jaw-dropping to watch the jets lfy around so close to our rooftop...and then to realize there was a human being flying. I suddenly had an urge to watch Top Gun. ;) It was awesome, and if you ever get a chance to see a show, I would recommend it! Maybe I'll keep a watch on Randolph Air Force Base to see if they will every perform there again...