Ari, Author at Ari's Menu

Our First Wedding Anniversary

March 19, 2012 · by Ari ·

I have to admit, having celebrated 7 date-a-versaries before we finally tied the knot, I was not super excited about the idea of starting over at 1. In fact, I asked Steve on several occasions if we could just keep going. As of January, we’ve technically been together for 8 years, so couldn’t this be anniversary 8.1? Well, I surprised myself and ended up totally little girl giddy about celebrating our first anniversary. Turns out it’s kind of fun to start over 🙂

Steve was able to make a short trip home for the weekend, so that we could celebrate together. We began Sunday morning by heading over to Inside the Bungalow, where we got married. When not being used for weddings, it’s actually a super cute coffee shop. Unfortunately they were closed, so we moved on right away. We went to Cartel to get coffee because so many of our friends have been raving about it.

Any place with foam designs wins my heart.

And they don't mess around with their cappuccinos!

The coffee was great, but the atmosphere wasn’t really my thing. Too much snobby hipster, if that makes sense.

Before we knew it, it was time for work (Yes, I worked on my anniversary…on a Sunday. Sometimes my life is not ideal). Steve drove up to Scottsdale with me, then spent some time with his mom while I was in rehearsal. Once I was finished, we shopped around some furniture store lusting after all sorts of things we would love to buy, then headed to White Chocolate Grill for dinner. That’s where he proposed almost 2 years ago 🙂 We didn’t even bring the camera in, just enjoyed being there together. It was perfect.

After dinner, we came home for the moment we’d been waiting for–the cake!!! Did you know it’s tradition to freeze the top tier of your wedding cake and eat it on your first anniversary??

Is it also tradition to remove the flowers first? Because opening up a box and seeing dead flowers definitely did not enhance my appetite.

I’d actually never heard of this until we were in the planning stage, but I thought it sounded interesting, so that thing has been sitting in our freezer for a year.

We cut out a huge slice from the middle to sample.

"What does year old cake taste like?"

"Who cares?!?! I LOVE CAKE!!!! I will take sugar and carbs of any age please."

The result? Not great. Not terrible. The cake part tasted better than the frosting, but it definitely did not taste….fresh. I was surprised at how soft and fluffy the cake still was, but we definitely did not finish our piece, or what was left.

Steve is all present-ed out until Christmas (this past Christmas, his macro lens counted as Christmas and birthday, and I got him the balance on his bike after his 3 year old gift card to get his bike as his early anniversary present), so all I had to do was get him a card, but he surprised me with an amazing gift!

This isn’t just a photo album.

Yes, you are allowed to make fun of our ridiculously dorky nick names for each other. It's okay. I can take it.

We both really loved the movie Up, and when we were in Disneyland, I got him the grape soda pin, and now he got my an adventure book. It starts with a couple pictures from the wedding, and one from Boston with the note that this is just the beginning of our journey. Yeah, I cried. I love him. And I love this gift enough to post this picture even though I’m pretty embarrassed to admit to everyone on the internet that in real life I call him Loey and he calls me Loette. We’re special.

Unfortunately, before we knew it, it was time for me to take him to the airport 🙁 He’ll be back for good in two weeks though, so we’re more than half way through! Hooray!! I’m just really glad we still got to spend our anniversary together. Regardless of how busy or rushed the weekend felt, it was still pretty amazing, and we have many more down the line to look forward to.

Did you/would you eat your wedding cake a year later??

One Year Ago Today

March 18, 2012 · by Ari ·

Happy first anniversary to the most wonderful husband in the world!

Mac Visits: Day 3, Hiking Camelback

March 16, 2012 · by Ari ·

When I decided to take Mac on a hike, I immediately consulted my amazing friend and hiking expert, Diana. Girl has done pretty much every hike in existence, and she gave me lots of great suggestions! Ultimately, I ended up choosing Camelback. It’s probably the most famous, it’s really pretty, and the one time I did it before, it totally kicked my butt.

This morning, we got an early start and begin our hike on the Echo Canyon Summit Trail.

"YAY, hiking!!!"

I’ve actually only been hiking a couple of times. It’s not something I would want to do solo, but I really enjoy it with friends, and we have tons of trails here in Arizona.

Summit Trail is well known for the beautiful views, as well as the challenging climb. There was lots of all fours action, and on the way down, I even chose to slide on my butt a time or two.

Mac was super popular on this hike! All the guys kept commenting on his Kentucky shirt.

We took lots of breaks to take pictures and enjoy the views.

Sipping from my camelback on Camelback.

Yeah, we climbed those.

"RAAAHHHH!!!!! I climbed a mountain!!!!"

That's me, and my butt. Climbing rocks.

The Summit Trail is also known for the panoramic view once you make it to the top. You overlook the entire city, and it is really beautiful. Being on the top of a mountain is a pretty freaking sweet feeling. I love looking down and seeing what I’ve accomplished!

Check us out! We are tough!

You know what I do not prefer? Going down the mountain. Seriously, I would rather go up twice than up and down.

The hike ended up taking us a little over two hours, which is a little slow, but fine by me. We certainly weren’t our for time. I only brought little Garmi around to keep track of mileage.

We promptly returned to my house (after stopping for coffee, obviously) for some Maple Bacon Buttermilk Pancakes and eggs which were devoured long before I even thought about taking any pictures. We were hungry!

Tonight we have big plans that include Barrio Cafe and margaritas! Have a great Friday everyone!

Mac Visits: Day 2

March 16, 2012 · by Ari ·

I hope you realize that if you ever want to come and visit me, a few things will happen.

I will cook you lots and lots of food, most of which will be “Skinnified”.
You will get dog hair all over you. The thing is, unless I vacuum every surface of my house 10x a day, followed by some good old lint rolling, Winston’s hair will win this battle, so I have just kind of learned to live with it. Things to consider before taking up an offer to hang on my couch/air mattress.
You will get ~~forced~~ encouraged into workouts you p~~robably never wanted to do~~ have been dying to try! A few friends can attest to this.

Mac and I started our Thursday morning with spin class! I snuck him into the gym while rude girl wasn’t looking. Take that rude girl! HAH! Then we did some strength training (that’s twice in one week, friends!!), and went into class. I used to take Amanda’s Thursday class pretty regularly, but then I started taking Thursdays as a rest day and became pretty dedicated to Linda, you know my spin teacher bff that doesn’t even know my name, but I think she’s so cool! Well, I was surprised when a new teacher walked in and announced she’d be subbing.

This teacher, Jenna, was ridiculous! Awesome. but ridiculous. Imagine 80s workout video (ie: Suzanne Summers) meets spin class. She was overly enthusiastic, but it was cracking me up more than annoying me and her class kicked my butt! The only thing that bothered me was that she never told us where to be gear wise. She just kept saying things like “Bump it up!” “More gears!!” Well I realized pretty quickly, when I was at gear 24 (the highest the bike goes) and she was still telling people to add gears, that perhaps I wasn’t quite understanding what she meant. Part of my brain spent a lot of class stressing about how I couldn’t be sure if I was doing it right, but tried my best to just enjoy the class and not worry about being “right”. Easier said than done for this type A personality. I ended the class a sweaty mess, and I definitely felt like I got a great workout!

After class, we cleaned ourselves up then went to meet my dad and Hermano at Golf Land for some mini golf! I am so bad at mini golf, but I’ve always really loved it. Mac and I started talking in the parking lot about how neither of us are very good at mini golf, so we’re not as competitive as usual–we only like to actually put forth competitive effort with things we are skilled in, otherwise it can be embarrassing 😉 I also mentioned how my dad and Hermano are both super competitive just like us, and within minutes of playing my dad was haggling me like the opposing team at a sports game!

The funniest part is that my dad is actually really good at mini golf, but he looks absolutely ridiculous! He gets in this deep squat and takes what feels like hours to make his turn. It was cracking me up, but apparently it worked because he won with a 45! I came in second, then Hermano, and Mac got an honorable 4th place 🙂

The dragon!! This hole used to scare the crap out of me as a kid!

I used to hate this one! Hermano took about 15 swings hitting it everyone except where it was supposed to go. Then I schooled him and got it on my first shot. 😉

Tick tock, tick tock.

Probably gloating his victory.

After mini golf, we grabbed some fro yo, then headed back to my place so Mac could watch the Kentucky game and I could get some work done. Then, I went out to rehearsal, and the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We had an other super late night with a 10:30 bed time. Ummm yeah, we’re old. I should maybe be embarrassed, but I’m totally okay with it!

Mac Visits: Day 1

March 16, 2012 · by Ari ·

I don’t know about you, but I have had the most fantastic week! Work has been fairly light due to Spring break, and Tuesday night I got a visitor! My amazing friend Mac came all the way out from NYC to ~~watch tons of episodes of Seinfeld~~ hang out with me 🙂

Wednesday morning we tried to hit up the gym, but the very unhappy and rude front desk lady told Mac if he wanted to use a guest pass, he would have to pay $15 per day. Seriously??? Don’t most gyms offer buddy passed? She was so rude too. So instead, we drove down to the lake with the duckies and did a 3 mi run/walk. It was beautiful out, so I think we both ended up being pretty happy about taking our workout out doors.

After our run, we grabbed coffee, had some breakfast, did a little shopping and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We went to Pita Jungle–one of my favs! Mac got the chipotle black bean burger.

Yummmm. I've had this before, and I love it!

And I had the broiled chicken salad.

Obviously I was a big fan.

Then we took some down time at my house before I had to head to work. Mac and Clemmie became BFFs.

“Love me.”

When I came home we had some Chicken “Pad” Thai.

Spaghetti squash in place of noodles is one of my favorite swaps ever.

Yummmm

Then we proceeded to watch Seinfeld until bedtime. We’re so crazy!

Happy Tuesday

March 13, 2012 · by Ari ·

Today is the best day. You wanna know why? Well for one thing it’s my brother Charlie’s birthday–happy birthday Charlie!! For an other thing, I have the day completely off. WHOOOO!!!! Also, I started my day off in Linda’s spin class with Kara.

While we’re on the subject of spin, check out this awesome one from Sunday’s 90 min class!

After class, we got coffee from my newest love, Dutch Bros, and headed back to my house for a day of baking!

Definitely a much better start than I got yesterday. Sooooo, yesterday I went to meet Jason for a run, and he was running a few minutes late. I could have gone out and gotten an extra mile or so in, but instead, I sat in my car going through my google reader. Good job, Ari. Way to know what’s important. So Jason comes to my window and says “I guess you had a rough morning too.” Huh???? What??? I mean I’m not really awake yet, and I definitely did not brush my hair, but how is this any different from every other Monday we meet at 7am?

There’s a first time for everything. Luckily, I had only just gotten gas about a mile back, but holy crap–I can’t believe I did that!

Sometimes I suck at life, and that's sad. So is my sunburn.

Ohhhh, life is hard when you’re unobservant like me. Anyway, today has been fabulous, and totally chill, but still productive–exactly what I needed. I have a birthday dinner to head to tonight and then I get to pick up one of my very favorite people on Earth from the airport!!!!

Mac, you were planning on stuffing Sylvi in your Diana Ross suit case, so we could recreate this moment right? Okay, good.

Okay, lots of getting ready to do. Have a fabulous day everyone!

Blogger Meet Up @ Piestewa Peak & La Grande Orange

March 12, 2012 · by Ari ·

Saturday after our bike ride of near death, Nicole, Carolyn and I met up with Diana, Marisa and Estela for a hike at Piestewa Peak. After the bike ride, I honestly was not really in the mood to hike anymore, but once we got going, I stopped being lame and started to enjoy myself. I’m no expert on hiking, but this one seemed…nice? You know, like a nice uphill walk with cacti 🙂 Haha, if you want to actually hear anything legit about hiking, you should just go to Diana’s blog because she’s basically an expert. In fact, she even knows all of these weird hiking rules–did you know there were rules??? Like she knew what to say to all the people we passed, and talked about things like right of way that I didn’t even know existed on a mountain!

Look! Nicole and I are hiking! And there's a mountain.

Marisa, Carolyn, Estela, Diana, Nicole & Me

**Hike photos courtesy of Marisa**

After the hike, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to La Grande Orange where we met up with Emily, Megan and Stacey. You better believe after a 30 mile bike ride I was ready for some wine! Emily and I split a bottle of pinot.

I have way too many pictures that look just like this...

As soon as we sat down, the manager sent out an appetizer for us to sample. Whooohooo, I think it was my first special foodie blogger treatment! And all thanks to Nicole for slipping that into an email to the manager 🙂

Guac, salsa, and pimento dip. All super delish!

Emily and I also split a salad with oranges, goat cheese and avocado (that I inhaled before it even occurred to me to snap a photo) and a pizza with goat cheese, tomatoes, roasted corn and avocado. Ummmm, yum.

OMG!!!! It's real pizza!!!! Probably my favorite food, but I very rarely eat it, unless it's at home and all skinnified. This was ahhhhmazing.

They even had gluten free crust!

Carolyn got the same pizza on the gf crust. I almost wished I would have ordered mine that way because I love a thin and crispy crust!

Then I insisted we take funny pictures. Naturally.

YAY!!! I got Emily to agree to a silly picture!!!

I also have a lot of pictures that look like this one.

I had such a great time with these girls! We have such an amazing group of AZ Bloggers!

Emly, Carolyn & Megan

Stacey & Nicole

Marisa & Me

Carolyn, Megan, Marisa, Stacey, Nicole, Emily & Me

**Photo courtesy of Marisa**

During dinner, Nicole and Emily announced that they have been hard at work at a super awesome new project!!!

The AZ Bloggers Network!!!

The Arizona Bloggers Network will be a place to organize, promote, and connect with other female Arizona bloggers. You don’t have to be a food/fitness blogger to join–just a woman who lives in Arizona and has a passion for blogging. You can head over and register your blog for free! So all you bloggers out there, come and join us! We like people!

After an amazing evening, Nicole’s husband Lance was kind enough to pick us (and our bikes) up @ LGO, and then we convinced him to that a Yogurtology stop was a necessity.

Husband of the year award--picking up his wife and her 2 crazy friends that were silly enough to bike from Mesa to PV.

Oatmeal cookie, salted caramel and butterfinger with graham cracker, butterfinger and nutella on top. I usually stay away from the candy toppings, but after the riding and the drinking I totally caved, haha.

fro yo shirt.”]fro yo shirt.”]Then we tried really hard to take jumping pictures…for a change.

SUCCESS!!!! Except, apparently Lance was zoned out during my lecture about how snapping a photo at any moment in time where it looks like I may have a double chin is unacceptable and grounds to end our friendship forever. Buuuuttt, we were all in the air, so I am posting my second and third chins for the world to see.

And my chins make an appearance here too, but this picture cracked me up. I don't know what I'm doing or why Nicole is a Charlie's Angel, but I find this picture to be pretty awesome.

I can’t say enough what an awesome time I had!! I’m so excited for the new AZ Bloggers Network, and thanks so much to Emily & Nicole for setting it up, and to Nicole especially for putting this whole meet up together!

Fro Yo Cake with Nutella Cookie Crust

March 12, 2012 · by Ari ·

Remember this birthday cake gem that Steve got me from Yogurtology?

That cake was perfection. More delicious than ice cream cake, but fro yo, so that makes it healthy, right? Riiiiiight.

What’s even better than a perfectly prepared oatmeal cookie fro yo cake made with love by a Yogurtology employee? One made with more love by ME!

With a butter cookie crust, layers of Nutella and TJ’s Cookie Butter, and topped with Yogurtology’s pretty much famous oatmeal cookie fro yo, this may not be the healthiest cake I’ve ever made, but when you compare to a typical ice cream cake, it definitely can at least hold up to a healthier title, and let me tell you, I would choose this over a regular ice cream cake any day of the week!

Fun fact, ice cream has always been my favorite dessert. I *almost* never eat it now, because I love fro yo so much and never really want to spend the extra calories, but I am of the opinion that if it doesn’t at least include ice cream, it’s not really a dessert. Plain cookie? That’s a snack 😉 Cookie a la mode? Mmmmm….dessert! Fro yo with cookie, Nutella and cookie butter? 3x a day for the rest of my life? Okay….If you insist….

Can we also talk about how this cake takes all of like 20 minutes to make? So easy, and ridiculously hard to mess up! Trust me, I can usually mess up anything 😉

Fro Yo Cake with Nutella Cookie Crust

yield approx 16 slices

1 package Chessman cookies (or any buttery shortbread type cookie), finely crumbled
1/4 cup apple butter
1/2 cup + 2 tbs Nutella, melted & divided
1/3 cup TJ’s cookie butter (or Biscoff spread), melted
1 quart + 1 cup fro yo of choice, softened but not melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a spring form pan with cooking spray, then wrap tin foil around the bottom to avoid fro yo dripping out.
In a medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs (reserving 1-2 tbs to sprinkle on top) with apple butter. I suggest just using your hands and getting in there.
Press cookie and apple butter mixture into the bottom of the spring form pan and bake for 8-10 min, until set.
Cool for 10-15 minutes, then spread Nutella on top. Let sit for a minute before brushing cookie butter on top of Nutella.
Use a spatula to evenly spread the fro yo on top.
Drizzle with Nutella and sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
Freeze for 2-3 hours until set, then serve and enjoy!

Girls Night & Biking Through Death Hills

March 11, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hello little blog! Long time, no see. I missed you. Unfortunately, up until this weekend, my week was pretty boring, so I decided to wait until I had cool things to talk about, and now I do. 🙂

I had a pretty fantastic weekend. Friday morning I got off to a rough start, but with the help of some amazing friends being super kind and thoughtful, and giving me some time to get my act together, by mid afternoon I was feeling more like myself. Nicole joined me as my date to see my show, and then we met up with Carolyn for our long awaited girls night. We walked to Macayo’s for dinner and margaritas–they had skinny margs which always makes my heart happy! We had a delicious dinner outside by the lake, then walked back to my house. We were all exhausted, but proceeded to stay up talking until 1am when we finally all started falling asleep mid conversation.

The next morning, we got up, I made them my weird breakfast that I eat pretty much every morning (Greek yogurt + canned pumpkin + chia seeds + fruit + cinnamon + cereal) and we made gluten free blueberry donuts. They came out delicious, but you know what did not? The glaze I tried to make. I read that you could make your own powdered sugar in a blender with sugar and corn starch. Ummm, the glaze tasted like dirt. Carolyn and Nicole called it “earthy”, but that is a nice word for dirt. That’s okay, because I only glazed 3, so we had lots of good ones left over and glaze free!

So for the past week or 2, I’d been trying to convince Nicole and Carolyn that we could ride from my house in Mesa to our blogger meet up at Piestewa Peak. Nicole was pretty doubtful, but I twisted her arm and refused to let go until she said yes. I thought this was going to be the best thing ever, and at first it was! We had this awesome game plan and the first few miles of the ride felt great, and I was feeling so proud of myself for my cross city biking, until we realized it was 3pm–the time we were supposed to be meeting all our fellow Phoenix bloggers–and we were still 10 miles away. Whoops.

Then we finally got close to Piestewa Peak and the hills took a turn for the RIDICULOUS! I kept telling Nicole that we would be totally fine, because I had never felt so tired from biking that I thought I would need to stop. Okay, so maybe if I’m on a flat road and there’s no wind, and I can go 12 miles an hour that might be the case, but these hills were KILLING me! I think I even used the words “AHHHHH!!! This is harder than a half marathon!” Nicole and I were dying while Carolyn just kept going like it was nothing. At this point I was sure my friendship with Nicole was over and she would never forgive me for making us almost an hour late to our blogger meet up and then almost killing her on the death hills.

The good news is we arrived, not dead at all!!! And Diana, Marisa and Estella seemed to not hate us too much for being super lame and late. Either that or they are just really great actors, and they should be in my next play, because I am totally buying that although I was totally lame and made us all late, they still maybe want to be friends with me 🙂

I am so so sad that we didn’t get any pictures of us on our biking adventure, because in the end, I would still say it was a pretty awesome experience, and I felt like we were pretty awesome for doing it! Lots more to say about the blogger meet up….coming soon!

Weekend Recap

March 5, 2012 · by Ari ·

Happy Monday, friends! I’m flying high on about 4 hours of sleep. WHEEEEEEEE!!!!! To be honest, I haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep since Steve left for LA and I am simultaneously slap happy, grouchy, bitchy, and delirious. I also have a week filled with long days, and my extra grouchy time may or may not be quickly approaching (you’re welcome), so Jason and I basically decided this morning, that I should do the world a favor and just hide out in a cave for a while to avoid offending the masses. Unfortunately, that is entirely impossible, so I’m going to try to focus on the moments of slap happy ridiculousness, because those are the best part of exhaustion!

To be honest, aside from feeling like I want to take a week long nap, the past few days have been pretty fantastic. Saturday I had a super full work day, then Deann came over and we worked on some stuff for her wedding. I am pretty much the least crafty person on earth, but when it’s not super complicated, and I know exactly what to do, I actually find simple craft activities strangely therapeutic. I made us a delicious dinner of cornbread crusted chicken tenders with a creamy maple mustard dipping sauce and kale chips. You better believe that when the fancy camera is back, I will be recreating this because it was AMAZING and I can’t wait to share the recipe! I also made some more donuts for dessert. Let’s just say it’s a good thing Deann took most of the rest home because I probably would have eaten them all that night! Yum!!

Here is a crappy picture from my android. And now I want to eat more donuts.

Yesterday, I met Christina and Diana for my fav spin class! Linda kicked my butt, like usual, but I was especially excited to drip pools of sweat yesterday for some reason. Must be the week off from running ( 🙁 )!

It was so awesome to finally meet Diana too! She is just as hilarious and awesome in person as on her blog, and it totally felt like working out with an old friend! I seriously can’t get over the awesome friendships I have made through blogging!

After spin, Christina came over for brunch. I made my own southwest version of Caitlin’s Spinach and Goat Cheese Cornbread Quiche.

I miss the fancy camera. Waaaahhhh.

It was probably the most delicious non dessert item I have made in a long time. Again, can’t wait to get some actually good pictures of it so I can post the recipe for my version!

This morning, even though I was super exhausted, when my alarm went off at 6 to go run, I was still pretty excited. I have been in quite a bit of pain lately–enough that I actually took KT’s advice to take a week off from running, so I was very anxious to get out there this morning! I got there early and did just under 2 miles on my own at a 9:20 average pace, then Jason arrived and mentioned that he was ready to move up to longer intervals! We had started using the Galloway method, running 3 min, walking 1 min. We were up to a 5:1 ratio, but today he wanted to move up to 1 mile intervals! You don’t have to ask me twice!!

Not only did Jason totally bump up his running time, but his overall pace improved and this was the first run where he had all negative splits!!! I am so proud!!! I never imagined I would be helping anyone with their running! I remember feeling shocked when people started to ask me for food and weight loss advice, but I just never in a million years expected to be pushing others to run and helping them train. I mean I’ve always been one to drag someone to a group fitness class, or suggest a gym date, but I just really can’t believe how much has changed in such a short amount of time!

There is honesty no better feeling than helping someone else achieve their goals. I mean, that’s the entire reason I blog in the first place, because I want to inspire others, and I hope that someday something I write makes a difference in even one person’s life, and that they are better because of me. That would honestly be the greatest gift. Sorry for being so cheesy! I’d like to say it’s temporary, but I was absolutely born this way and intend to stay cheesy and sentimental forever and ever. 😉

Nacho’s 30th Birthday

March 4, 2012 · by Ari ·

Last Saturday, Steve and I went up to The Talking Stick Resort to celebrate Nacho turning 30. Jason went all out for Nacho’s birthday, getting both of their families in town, and planning an amazing surprise party. He wanted to have an “out of town” feel, so he rented a beautiful suite at the resort and we had the party there–so fun! Steve and I got there early to help get everything set up. Jason and Christy don’t consider themselves to be very artistic, so I was put in charge of decorating, and I was thrilled to ~~be in charge of something~~ help out.

I made sure to bring my own knife to cut the cake later since we wouldn’t be at a house. Well, after talking about how Jason, his dad and Christy all love to watch true murder stories on television, obviously we had to reenact what that looks like.

Jason's dad,Russ. His is definitely the scariest! Don't worry Russ, I will make sure to NEVER make you angry!

Christy

Hey face, what's up with all those wrinkles? Maybe you didn't get the memo that I'm not actually old yet.

After getting everything set up, we went down to the buffet where everyone was meeting for dinner.

Nacho arrived with his mom and sister. SURPRISE!!!!

Once everyone had arrived, we headed in to eat. Most people seemed to really enjoy the buffet.

You're welcome, Jason. I'm sure you're going to be thrilled about this photo.

After eating, Nacho opened some of her cards and presents.

He still didn’t even know we had a room and he seemed a little confused as to why we went to this resort to eat at the buffet, haha. He also mentioned that he couldn’t believe I hadn’t made his birthday cake. Usually I suck at being sneaky, so I felt pretty awesome that he had no idea about it. We finished things up at the buffet.

Love this one!! So sweet!

Then we blindfolded Nacho to try to keep the room as much of a surprise as possible!

SURPRISE!!!!!

YOU’RE NEXT FOR THE CRIME INVESTIGATION SHOWS!!!!

AHHHHHH!!!!

Just kidding 😉

We opened some bottles of wine and some beers, and all hung out for a bit.

Jason's parents (Russ & Ann). See, Russ doesn't always look crazy!

Steve and Charles--it's a miracle because Charles pretty much refuses to ever pose for the camera.

Tom

Then it was time for BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! Home made fro yo cake to be exact. When I asked Jason what he thought Nacho wanted, he mentioned that he had really loved the cake we got for my birthday from Yogurtology, so I tried my hand at creating my own.

In case you didn't notice, Nacho LOVES Snoopy.

Ohhhhh, that's what knives are for!

Yummmm. It was gone in about 10 minutes. I was so worried about what we’d do with the leftovers, and there weren’t any! Eventually everyone headed down to the casino, but Steve and I were exhausted, so we went home around 10:30. We’re old. 😉

Jason totally outdid himself on the party planning! It was so much fun, and such a great idea!

Saturday Shout Outs

March 3, 2012 · by Ari ·

I’ve decided to try out something new on the blog, and every Saturday send out some love to some awesome friends and fellow bloggers doing awesome things. There’s a few people/events I wanted to draw some attention to anyway, so I figured it might be a cool new tradition 😉

My wonderful, amazing, inspiring, and fabulous foodie blogger friend Nicole just had her appendix out, and is still making her way over to New Orleans today to walk her half marathon tomorrow! Girl just had surgery, isn’t allowed to run yet, and is staying committed to doing what she signed up for the only way she can. I’m so proud of you Nicole! Kick some butt tomorrow, and carry a drink in your hand at all times please.
My cookingspiration, college bestie, and amazingly talented friend Heather just revamped her cooking blog, and started her own professional actor website! Listen friends, if you like musical theatre AT ALL, drop everything, go to her page and watch some of her videos. She is unbelievable, and she just got her first big job right out of college at the 5th Ave Theatre in Seattle which is one of the biggest regional theatres in the country and originated shows like Hairspray and The Wedding Singer that were later transferred to the b-way and became huge Tony award winning hits. I can’t wait until the day she wins a Tony ~~and invites me as her date to the ceremony~~!
My very favorite running blogger Ali was nominated by fitness magazine for an award for “Best Inspirational Blog” and her blog is just that. If you like running, or reading blogs in general at all, I suggest you go over and read some of her amazingness.
Hermano’s band won the Battle of the Bands at Dobson High!! Their best song BY FAR was the one Hermano wrote. He is so incredibly talented and I am so proud of him!!
My best friend Bethany just moved into her house!! She is officially 100% a homeowner, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. She has worked so hard to make her way into the challenging financial field, pushed herself and her knowledge, and it has finally paid off into something tangible that she absolutely deserves! Now she just needs to ditch the kitties, so that I can come over and enjoy her house too 😉