A little catch up…

2013 was a great year, truly memorable.  We traveled to Iceland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, NYC, Ireland, and UT.  Patrick got married.  Mickey celebrated his 70th birthday.  Business was good.  AND  we got pregnant.  Yes, pretty great year might be an understatement.   Here are a few photos that closed out the end of the year.  

THANKSGIVING

We surprised Mickey for his 70th birthday with a big dinner at EDGE restaurant at the Four Seasons.  It was complete with a photo slide show, oysters on the half shell, a night at the Colorado symphony after dinner, and a custom photo book full of diverse photos and memories.  EDGE did an unbelievable job accommodating us, and their head chef gave Sophie and Avery a tour of the kitchen where they made custom banana splits.  

 Ahhh, Christmas.  The most wonderful time of the year.  We celebrated by spending time with the fam in UT, but we certainly enjoyed the holiday spirit in CO before we left.  

 The annual cookie exchange - a blessed event, where we work really hard to be creative while contracting type 2 diabetes.  

 Rocco wanted to be as close to us as possible as we drove to UT so he put his sweet little head on the center console.  

 There were no shortage of presents, holy cow.  

 Matt met his weight lifting squatting goal for the year, just in time.  Yes, it does appear the weights are bending the bar.  pretty typical for this guy.  

 Lauren playing Mary, Megan an angel, and Dane playing Joseph (complete with roll in hand, well… they'd been traveling far, clearly Joseph needed some nourishment) in the cousins kids reenactment of the Christmas story.  

 Where Matt does some of his best work… in the kitchen.  

 Little stud sporting his new outfit.

 Yes, he got an elf outfit from my mom.  We couldn't get him to hold still long enough to get a good photo, but it was quite hilarious!

 Chaos

 Not sure why I don't have more pictures (they're somewhere), but we brought the new year in, in style.    Johnny Cash and S'nead O'Conner did things right at the Annual Jones party.  The Beatles, Adele, the Biebs all made an appearance.  

Limericks and Leprechauns

As soon as we found out we were pregnant Matt immediately decided that we NEEDED to go on a trip (note: within the last 6-7 months we had been to Brazil, Argentina, Iceland, Mexico, and UT).  Needless to say, I obliged and we had a wonderful time!  Ireland was preceded by NYC (see past blog).  We looked for a more chill trip because we didn't know how I would be feeling at 5 months pregnant; not too strange of food, English speaking, easy to get around, etc… Ireland turned out to be the hot ticket - and clearly Ireland knew it was our baby moon, because we didn't get rained on once.  I think it might be some kind of record.  Irish people are lovely, over the top friendly, and the landscape is ridiculously quaint and post card like.  Cheers to going back sometime soon!

We started our trip off in Dublin.

The Brazen Head is Ireland's Oldest Pub.  In the evenings they offer a sit down dinner with a traditional  story teller and music as part of the entertainment.

The Morgan Hotel.  I think this was room #3… we were continually upgraded… couldn't get to a room where we couldn't hear the thumping bass of the night club down below.  I don't think we slept the whole night -  literally.  Then at 3 am, a trumpeter chose to serenade us outside of our window.  I may have cried.

Don't mind the red nose, I did have a cold the entire trip.  

Precious little pubs and live music abound.  

We attended a mass in Christ Church Cathedral in hopes to hear their famous choir.  They didn't disappoint, it was ethereal and beautiful.

Always ready for a brawl.

Loading up on Vitamin C to try to combat the cold.  

Gorgeous library at Trinity College just past the Book of Kels exhibit

on our way to the Adare Manor we made a stop in Kilkenny to tour the town and a few castles.  

Our ginormous hotel room at the Adare Manor - yes, two fire places.  They were just putting up Christmas Decorations in the lobby that were simply stunning.  

Our trusty steed - note the continual sunshine.  

The Adare Manor in all it's glory.  It sat on 800 acres with a river and a golf course.  

The falconry was one of the stand out moments of the entire trip.  These birds were so gentle, and many likes to be pet and snuggled.  After we left Matt concluded that he wanted an owl for Christmas, and wasn't kidding.  

Oscar was the bird with the most sass.  He was hissing at us and pecking Matt when he got too close.  The best part was when our guide told us what a good boy he was being, while he hissed at us.  

Again… watery eyes and a red nose, but look at these fabulous birds!

Later in the trip we visited the Bunrady castle… naturally Matt would gravitate towards the dungeon.  

And all that jazz

The windy cliffs of Moher.  I added the windy… but it was well, windy.  

A little stop off at Galway on our way to the Ashford Castle

Ashford Castle; a true show stopper

When in Rome… er, Ireland

Fireplaces for fireplaces, and thank goodness… it was chilly

Matt had to wear a "jacket" to dinner at the Ashford's restaurant.  He didn't bring one, and they didn't "Exactly" have his size.  

Fresh flowers everywhere

Needless to say there was no shortage of scones and clotted cream

"tea" in the drawing room… seriously