Backyard Bash Part Four - Our last Night

Sunday was our last day in Taos. We woke up that morning and had yummy breakfast burritos at El Taoseno. Then Judy, Joel, Ang and Django all headed to the airport. That left Bernd, Thea, Tim, Shara and us. My parents made another delicious dinner. We had steak Diane with mashed potatoes and really yummy wine. It was a pretty mellow night. We played cranium and watched the Olympics and then headed to bed early since we were getting up bright and early to start our drive back to Austin. It was an amazing weekend and we can't wait for next years backyard bash.

Another gorgeous sunset!

Dad giving Brody his first wine lesson.

He took his lesson very serious.

Yay I think he likes it :o)

Mark and I.

Me and my favorite little boy.

Backyard Bash part three - Friends and Family

So the actually party was a blast. Like I said it did end up raining right before the party started and about and hour into the party. But it worked out just fine. In fact we even got a beautiful double rainbow following the storm. I was really excited this year because a bunch of my friends came in for the party. My best friend Angela who I met in college and her fiance Django came, this was their first time to Taos. Bernd and Thea returned for the second year in a row and Tim and Shara drove up with us from Austin, it was their first time to Taos too. Mark's parents flew in from California and my little sister came in from the east coast. It really was an amazing weekend with almost everyone we love. My other sister Sydna is in South Africa and wasn't able to make the party, she was definitely missed.

You can just barely see the other rainbow but there were definitely two.

Mark, Brody and I right before the party started.

We all drove out to the gorge bridge for the sunset.

Mark and I.

Beautiful Taos sky.

Kelley and I toasting to Syd.

Me and Shara.

Tim and Shara.

Bernd and Thea.

Ang and Django.

Me and Ang.

Both of our parents are still so in love, we are so lucky!

Backyard Bash 2008.

Backyard Bash Part Two - The Food

Ok so Saturday we woke up and the guys actually went to play golf. Ang and I finished up the lolly pop cupcakes and we continued to get ready for the party. The weather was looking a little gloomy so my dad only played nine holes and then came home to start setting up the tent in the backyard in case it rained (which was a good thing because it did end up raining for the first hour or so of the party). Anyway nothing too exciting happened just got all set up for the party, lots and lots of food prep. We had really yummy Frito pies from Montes for lunch and then everyone left to get ready for the backyard bash. This years theme was Spanish wines. My parents made the biggest pan of paella I have ever seen/ They made their famous shrimp and some amazing lamb lolly pops. There was a huge variety of cheeses and meats. I saw mussels and fried calamari and of course Shara made her famous queso, it was all so delicious. I'm sure I'm leaving out more food but I think I got most of it. Here are all of the food pictures. There are so many pictures from the weekend that I will have to do another post with all the pictures of our friends and family.

Making the cupcake lolly pops.

They were so good I think they were gone in like five minutes.

The cake, not my best work. I had trouble with the elevation.

Food, food and more food.

Dad at the grill.

All the chef's helpers hard at work.

All the yummy stuff getting ready to go in the paella.

Paella in the making.

The finished product.

And a big thanks to Shara for all of the pictures. I took hundreds of pictures over the weekend but of course didn't get any of the food. Thank goodness Shara was on top of it.

Backyard Bash Part One

So last weekend we went to New Mexico to see my parents. Every year they have a huge wine themed party that we have named the backyard bash. We left on Thursday and didn't come home until Monday. It was a jam packed weekend with lots of fun and friends. I took a ton of pictures so I'm going to have to do a few different posts to get it all in. So Thursday we got up, our good friends Tim and Shara had spent the night because they knew we were leaving bright and early. So the four of us piled in the car and started our 12 hour car ride to Taos. The trip went very smoothly. Brody did so good. We only stopped twice and made it to Taos in a little under eleven and a half hours. We went to dinner that night with my parents and some family friends and then called it a pretty early night. Friday we got up and started to get things ready for the party. I made a wine bottle cake and some cupcake lolly pops ( an idea Abbey emailed me that I just had to try). Mark's parents, my best friend Angela and her fiance Django and our good friends Bernd and Thea all arrived on Friday afternoon. We had lunch and just kind of hung around the house in the afternoon and then everyone left to get ready for the tequila party. As part of the backyard bash tradition my uncle Pete has a tequila at his house the night before the party. They have really yummy Mexican food, beer and of course margaritas. Brody was really wiped out so Mark, my dad and I all left a little early to put Brody down and then everyone else met us back at the house and the prep for the party began. I wish I had taken pictures of all the food. It was quite the site. All of us were put to work with our own little jobs, we were like a well oiled machine by the end. Here are a few pictures from the first couple of days. The sunsets were amazing all weekend.

The sunset our first night.

Tim and Shara's first Taos sunset.

Dad and Tim.

Thea, Django, Ang and Bernd at the tequila party.

Mark, Shara and Tim.

Django and Ang.

Grandma and Brody.

Mommy and Brody.

The sunset our second night on the way to the tequila party.

Mowing the Lawn with Daddy

So Brody got this really cute lawn mower for his birthday. Mark was mowing the lawn last weekend and Brody wanted to go outside and watch. At first he just kept running from side to side watching Mark mow, then he found his mower and decided to do what daddy was doing. It was so cute he kept going back and forth on the patio just like Mark.

He had his little shoes on with his pajamas, I thought it was so cute.

Again he took it so seriously.

Daddy stopped to watch him working hard.

Naked Mopping

This was so funny. Brody wanted to go outside and were in the middle of changing his diaper so we let him go outside naked. I figured that was the best place in case he peed. The mop was outside drying by the fireplace and Brody ran right over to it and picked it up and started pushing it all around the patio. It was cracking me up. He had seen grandma Judy mop the patio a few days earlier so I think he was copying her. Of course when she did it she had her clothes on :o) I also got a video that I will try to add to the post later.

He was so serious about it.

Back and Forth.

Look at that cute tooshie!

Pineapple Party

We had a really nice weekend. Friday we stayed home and watched a movie. On Saturday we had Ashley and Justin over for dinner and played cranium. Then on Sunday we headed down to Matt and Abbey's for a pineapple party. I guess they started the traditions a few years ago but basically it's just a fun party where everyone brings there own pineapple and they core it for you and you get to drink yummy drinks from a pineapple. Of course my pineapple was faulty and started leaking all over the place but it was still a lot of fun and I just drank my yummy drink out of a cup instead. I forgot to take pictures until the very end of the party but I did manage to get a few.

My leaky pineapple.

Matt, Abbey and Kinsey.

Christa, Abbey (Kinsey), Mark, Brody and Matt

Christa and Dusty

Chillen on Dusty haven a bottle.

Brody played hard!

This lawn chair was just his size.

Brody was so dirty, Abbey let us use Kinsey cool bath tub. I think Brody liked it!