And what did you have?

Our Thanksgiving feast this year turned out pretty well. With some help from my in-laws (thanks Lanny for gutting the turkey) we had quite a spread:

On the menu:

Perfect Roast Turkey (a la Barefoot Contessa) recipe here

Butter, Lemon Zest, and fresh Thyme gravy made from the drippings

Smoked Turkey Gravy (a la Tyler Florence) recipe here

Herbs de Provence stuffing from a La Brea bakery mix

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (another Ina Garten) recipe here

Spinach Salad, Dedra's recipe

Yams, Lanny's recipe

Buttery Bundt Rolls, my mom's recipe (pictured below)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce, recipe here

and for dessert, Pumpkin Cheesecake- recipe here

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Hannah and I flew back to California for a visit with friends. Besides enjoying an afternoon out with my friends and seeing "Twilight" here are some other things we did:

watching The Little Mermaid

Hanging out with friends at Megan's house

Hannah and Sabrina

Watching the surfers on the pier

I missed the ocean!

Weekend Update

We drove up to Fort Collins yesterday to see BYU play Colorado State- we eeked out a win. Lately Hannah has really been into football- probably because we now have cable and we watch all of the BYU games and Ryan loves to play NCAA football on his Xbox. So she has had a lot of it since we moved to Denver. She gets really excited about Cosmo, the BYU mascot, so we had to get a picture with him at the game. She wanted to show him her bear that she calls "Cosmo"- you can see he's holding it in the picture.

Football is so fun! It wasn't too crowded where we were sitting so Hannah enjoying being able to run around and stomp on the benches. She started to cry the first time there was a touchdown because everyone was yelling so loud, but after that everything was fine.

What a devilish little look, like she's thinking "It's mine, it's all mine!"

Waving her glow stick. She kept saying "Hocus Pocus, I'm waving the bats away!"

On a Halloween treasure hunt at a friends house

Happy Halloween!

I'm a butterfly!

Hannah had a great time trick-or-treating. It's the fastest I've ever seen her walk! When she'd get the candy she'd say "The next house" and start off on her way. After about 45 minutes she said "That's enough"- probably because I told her she couldn't eat any of the candy until we got home!

Around town

This past weekend we got out of the city and headed up towards the mountains to see what we could find. We went and explored around Red Rocks (you can see downtown Denver in the background) and managed to get Hannah to ride in the backpack. It would be great to see a concert here because the surroundings are amazing! I got winded in the first 15 minutes of carrying Hannah because I'm not used to the elevation or carrying around 25+ pounds on my back!

Hannah spying on a buffalo herd

Cowboy Ryan

Hannie Oakley

We had to take shelter in a teepee because it was so windy

Buffalo Bill Cody's gravesite

Yum

I made this for dinner last night. Ryan and I both agree that you can't go wrong with a Barefoot Contessa recipe. It's funny because he'll ask what's for dinner and I'll say that I'm making one of her recipes and he'll ask "does it have heavy cream and butter in it?" Inevitably, my answer is yes. That's why her recipes are so good! This one had cream, garlic, lemon, and lots of tasty vegetables.

**A sidenote- while Hannah and I were at the zoo today we went to see the elephant demonstration. It's in a building that doesn't have very good ventilation and when we got in there Hannah immediately said "It's stinky. Let's get out of here." I tried to persuade to watch them give the giant elephants a bath, but she kept covering her nose and complaining.

Our Weekend(s)

Ryan went on a hiking trip to Canyonlands and Arches with a friend. That left Hannah and I to have a girls weekend. It started off with pitching the tent in the living room (we didn't have our furniture yet so there was plenty of room) and watching Sleeping Beauty.

Hannah touched a snake at the zoo (I think that she was more excited about the sanitizer she got after touching it!)

A trail at the Botanic Gardens

Beautiful fall weather

Hooray

So tonight was the night- the night that Hannah and I had to say goodbye to her binkies (she has 6 of them that she always sleeps with)..... I had been telling her for a few months that when we moved to Denver that she was going to throw her binkies away. She seemed fine with it and would respond by saying that her friend Sabrina threw away her binkies too. So right before it was time to go to bed I had her go in and get all of them out of her bed and carry them outside to the trash chute down the hall. I was surprised that she was so excited to do this. She grabbed them all and then practically ran down the hall saying "I'm going to put my binkies in the trash. I'm a big girl." The funniest thing was that before she would throw them in, she had to suck on each one, one last time. When she was done she said "Hooray!" And then when it was time for bed I said to her "Now that you don't have your binkies to sleep with anymore, you get a sippy cup of water!" When I was in the kitchen filling it up I could hear her saying "Hooray! I get a sippy now!" All of my worries were for nothing. She probably could have done without those binkies months ago!

Ketchup

I have some serious catching up to do. The last month has been pretty crazy- from Boise to New York, Tahoe, Blackfoot, and then Denver- we've been living out of suitcases and Hannah's been crammed into a pac 'n play. So here's an attempt, probably not chronological, to post about what we've been up to:

Ryan and I took a trip to New York sans baby. The main purpose of our visit was to go to really great restaurants. We did manage to squeeze in some of the obligatory tourist destinations as well, but the best part was eating the most delicious food. The picture above is of our favorite restaurant we ate at- Per Se. Thomas Keller (of the French Laundry) owns it and it was outstanding. We had the most amazing food and the experience and service were fantastic. Some examples off the tasting menu we had:

"Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar

Golden Beet "Cannelloni", Heirloom Beets, Watercress Leaves and Juniper Berry "Gastrique"

"Blueberries and Popcorn"

Cornmeal "Financier," Candied Popcorn, Blueberry Parfait, Lemon Verbena Gelee and Popcorn Sorbet

Needless to say, after the 9+ courses and endless chocolates and truffles, we decided to rent bikes and ride around Central Park so that we would have room for the other places we wanted to eat at. We also enjoyed our meals at Jean-Georges, Caracas Arepas Bar, Grimaldi's, and Max Brenner for the most delicous milk chocolate milk shakes. Besides all of the eating, we went to Ellis Island, saw The Lion King, watched the opening night gala at the Metropolitan Opera on huge screens in times square (nothing like opera mixed with the sounds of cars and sirens), and went to the Tenement Museum and MOMA. All in all a great trip.

Ryan on the ferry to Ellis Island

Federal Hall (site where G. Washington was inaugurated)

Ryan semi-annoyed that I'm taking a picture of him eating pizza- too touristy for him!

Posing with David Blaine when he was doing this stunt in Central Park- notice the umbrella girl- what a fun job!

Post trip- at my friend Wendy's wedding in South Lake Tahoe. It was the first time I've ever had my hair styled in a salon and it was fun to be pampered like that. It took 41 bobby-pins to get it to stay!

Hannah hunting for animals in Blackfoot with Grandpa.....

You don't need a permit to hunt for this kind of elk!