Mendoza, Argentina & Santiago, Chile!

In early September, Brent and I were enjoying the outdoor patio weather at Katy Trail Ice House with one of our good friends Taylor. He's an international consultant that travels the world so much that he puts my 35 passport stamps to shame! I was asking him where his next adventure was and he told us he was going to Mendoza, Argentina for business and then flying to Santiago, Chile for spring skiing. His upcoming business trip has been one of my dream trips since Brent and I went to Buenos Aires in 2007. Since then, I knew that Mendoza was known for one thing and that's really good wine! Malbec to be precise, but in any case Mendoza is the Napa Valley of South America and since 2007, I had yearned to go back to Argentina and visit Mendoza and then ski the Andes mountains in Chile. So with only a week and half notice, I checked the flights to Santiago and luckily they were wide open! On September 19th, we lucked out with first class seats for the 10 hour, overnight flight to Chile and then boarded a LAN airlines jet to Mendoza where Taylor picked us up and the wine tastings began!

Belasco De Baquedano has a great lunch with views of the vineyards that are to die for!

Achaval Ferrer was my favorite winery!

Outside the Mayan temple inspired Catena Zapata winery

After a few days of wine tastings in Mendoza, we flew back to Chile to spend the next three days discovering and partying in the beautiful and modern city of Santiago!

In Santiago, we stayed at The W Hotel and were upgraded to an amazing corner room with a huge balcony!

On Sunday, we drove out to the beach and had the funniest "lost in translation" lunch ever!

Although we missed the snow skiing by just a few days, we discovered the swanky city of Santiago, the laid back town of Mendoza and another dream to return to South America again soon!

Chelsea's Mustache Baby Bash!

Almost two years ago, I was a bridesmaid in Chelsea's wedding outside of Austin, Texas. She is the next Martha Stewart and her wedding had so many personalized details like the fact that she made her own couture wedding dress, had a cute pink lemonade stand and even homemade cake balls that were made by her sister! Fast forward two years and she is expecting a baby boy in May! Along with the Poodles and a few of her other close girlfriends, I offered to help host her baby shower and immediately started perusing Pinterest for baby boy shower ideas. Because of her husband's love of hosting mustache themed parties in May like "Mustache Mayhem" and the fact that Baby Bell is arriving in May, the mustache theme was solidified and planning for Baby Bell's Mustache Baby Bash quickly began!

A week before Chelsea's shower, I flew to Utah to ski and see my family. Luckily, my older sister is the Senior Online Editor for Paper Crafts Magazine and she helped to bring out my inner craftiness. We spent the weekend together eating, shopping and crafting and by the end of my stay, we had crafted mustache props out of black and brown felt, mustache straws and other baby shower goodies. On Saturday, March 3rd almost 25 of her nearest and dearest girlfriends and family gathered in the private room at the T Room at 4510 in Dallas to shower her with gifts of love and advice. We dined on yummy paninis and salads, laughed with our mustache props and in the end, I think everyone had a "staching" good time!

The beautiful mother-to-be!

I bought these furry staches, punched a hole in them and then slid them onto straws for drinking fun!

The paninis and salad were so good!

The Oreo and Banana/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Society Bakery in Dallas are divine!

Amen!

An empty frame became an instant photo booth!

"I mustache ask you for new mommy advice!"

One "stachetastic" group of ladies!

Baby Bell is going to be very well dressed!

Me and the mother to be!

Ah, Greece!

In September, one of my dreams became a reality when Brent and I left for a fantasy vacation to the Greek Isles. I remember my mom gave me a book about Greece ten years ago for a Christmas present and ever since then, I knew I had to go there one day! Well, on September 6th we left for a nine day trip to Mykonos, Santorini and a day in Athens. Although getting to the islands took about thirty hours, all the jet lag in the world was worth the scenery that awaited us. Cobblestone streets, white-washed buildings and blue-domed roofs dotted the landscape of the Greek Isles. But Santorini, ah beautiful Santorini was like living in a postcard. Perched high above soaring cliffs and overlooking a deep blue caldera, the island of Santorini has moved to the top of my list of the most beautiful places in the world (almost tied with Bora Bora). There is a reason why almost everyone we met was either on their honeymoon or getting married there. I have never seen such amazing pink and red sunsets that contrasted with jagged brown cliffs that overlooked the deep, blue water or infinity pools that made it seem like that blue water went on forever. After nine days, I was not ready to say goodbye to sleeping in, yummy gyros, breathtaking views, but above all fun in paradise with my boo. I hope some of the pictures capture the beauty of what we experienced.

California!

Although summer in Texas is fun, it's also really HOT! So hot that sometimes I feel like I'm going to melt. So in July I was actually looking forward to our national sales meeting in St. Louis because at least there it was only 85 degrees! So while I was enjoying the "cool" weather in St. Louis, Brent was busy creating magic like usual in his edit suite in hot Texas. That is, until he got a call on Thursday morning asking if he would be so kind to fly to LA that night to help produce the JET concert at The House of Blues that weekend. So when he called me to tell me about his last minute business trip to California, I got so excited! You see, since I was already on a business trip, my company will fly me "home" to anywhere. So instead of returning home to hot Texas on Friday, I flew to sunny California aka "home" for the weekend. In a way, it is home for both of us, because Brent was actually born in California and growing up, we both spent many summers and holidays visiting our grandparents in Northern California. So on Friday night, I flew into LAX and took a cab up to the House of Blues in Anaheim aka Disney Land just in time to enjoy the concert with Brent. The next day, our free vacation began! We jumped into his rental car and cruised down the California highway to LA with the cool breeze in our hair, but first stop, In-N-Out Burgers! After our stomachs were full of of yummy burgers and shakes, we checked into our fabulous hotel along the beach in LA and hopped on some bicycles that the hotel provided. We rode almost 13 miles along the beach and water down to Manhattan Beach, stopping for Brent to take a dip in the ocean and then luckily stumbled upon the AVP volleyball tournament. After our day of fun in the sun, we got dressed up for a night out in LA and had the best pizza ever at Mario Battali's Pizzeria Mozza. The only reservation left was at 11:00 pm, but we didn't mind, we eat late anyways! The next morning, but not too early of course after our late night, we drove to Santa Monica to go shopping! Well actually, Iwent shopping and Brent people-watched. :) We weren't too worried about catching our flight home though, because American Airlines called me earlier that Sunday morning and asked if I wouldn't mind taking a flight an hour later and they would put me in first class. Of course I said I would as long as they upgraded Brent as well. So after a weekend of fun in sunny, beautiful California, we hopped on our flight home- first class of course!