So long 2012, Hello 2013!

2012 was quite an epic year therefore it deserves a nice recap. 

January
Took a great snowboarding trip to Denver.

February
Joined, fell in love, and became obsessed with Crossfit

March
Christy spent her spring break with me in Houston!! We took a trip to the rodeo and enjoyed St. Patrick's day.

April
Lots of weekend adventures Aggie baseball, weddings and such
Followed by an incredible trip to Brugges, Belgium and Paris, France!

 May
Weddings, Christy's 21st Birthday and South Carolina trip

June
 Work trip to Canadia, shooting and rock climbing.

July
 Trip to DC

August
Skydiving and symphony visits

September
Aggie football and a great trip to Costa Rica with good friends!

October
Fishing trip to Lousiana

November
Thanksgiving and family time!

December
Christmas Vacation, Family time, and my 25th Birthday!!

And thats a wrap!! Here is to 2013!!  Hopefully I can stay on top of my blogging

Until Next time...

Costa Rica -Pure Vida

Costa Rica... in pictures.  It would take days for me to write about all the incredible things we got to do while we were there. 

Day 1 - Fly to San Jose, Costa Rica

 

 

In the van on the way to Arenal.  

Our group arrived in Costa Rica after a quick uneventful flight.  We had charted a van to take us to La Fortuna where the Arenal volcano is located.  It was a beautiful ride up into the mountians of Costa Rica.  The scenery was incredible, rolling hills, lush tropical rain forest, and green as far as the eye could see. Along the way we stopped for lunch and fruit stand for a quick snack.  The food and fruit was incredible.

The hotel

The spa

The hot springs at the hotel

Hot springs

Garden area outside of our little hut

 The first day was spent exploring La Fortuna, relaxing in the hot springs and dinning on local cuisine.  The next morning two of girls and I were up early to do some waterfall repelling.  The rest of the group grabbed a taxi-boat-taxi ride to our next destination. 

The ladies

Maya, Myself, Ashwini

First waterfall 109 ft

After the repelling we loaded up our stuff and caught a taxi, to a boat, to another taxi to get to Monteverde. 

The volcano

More volcano

The lake

Our water taxi

 Once we arrived in Monteverde we met up with the rest of the group and had dinner.  We stayed in the this fantastic hotel on top a hill over looking the town.  After dinner at a local hotspot we hit a touristy bar for a nightcap.  The bar was situated in a tree, therefore it was called the tree-house bar.   We had really good adult hot chocolate and dessert.

View from the hotel

Treetop bar

 The next morning we were up bright an early to give zip-lining a try.  Monteverde is know for its cloud forests, so we were able to zip through the clouds. We were able to take a practice run on a small zip line and it was a blast I was ready to get this started!  Then we took a tram up the mountain to the first line as we slowly ascended the mountain my excitement started to wan and turn to straight fear and trepidation. After the tram we had to hike up a 15 story tower.  At this point I was second guessing my ability to make good decisions in my life!! How do I get myself into these situations.  At the top the wind was blowing so hard that the tower and the zip line were shaking, or maybe it was me shaking so hard everything around me was swaying!  I was petrified, I wanted to run back down that tower and never think of doing anything that involved heights.  But I had come too far and paid too much money to walk away from it now, so I decided the only way to get this over with was to go first.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and it was awesome, best thing ever, so incredibly fun!!!!! I just couldnt get enough of it!!

Post zip-lining high

Baby practice run 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After zip-lining we packed up our stuff caught the bus and headed down to spend the last few days of our trip on the beach in Jaco.  We spent the last three days surfing, eating, relaxing, exploring the town, and checking out Manual Antonio. 

Surfing

Riding the baby waves

Manual Antonio

The morning we were heading back to the US and earthquake struck up north of us.  Thankfully we all made it home safely.  All in all it was a fantastic trip and I would highly recommend visiting Costa Rica.
 

Until next time...
Victoria

 

Eating Clean

Good Morning Everyone,
  It has been quite a while since I last wrote and to be honest, I just haven't been motivated to write anything. I was working on writing a post about Costa Rica, which was incredible its just taking time to get through all the details.  I might just do a post of pictures to capture everything we did there.  Anwyho life has been busy as always football season has officially started and my weekends are booked through November.  I bought season tickets again, no matter how bad we are I still love Aggieland on Football weekends.  There is a saying we have at A&M regarding our traditions and there is no better way to put it.  "From the outside looking in your cant understand it, from the inside looking out you cant explain it."  Ahh I just love fall, the cool weather, football season, school is back in session.  I miss those good ol college days.  Ok enough reminiscing, I have some exciting stuff to talk about...well maybe.

Recently the crossfit girls and I decided to do a Paleo challenge. Paleo is essentially the caveman diet, now before anyone gets crazy, this challenge is not for weight loss, but to insure that we are eating as healthy as possible.  The Paloe diet is all fresh foods, veggies, and fruits no processed foods, no sugars, and no Alcohol (what!!).  There are a few things I don't agree with in the Paleo diet such as cooking in coconut oil and meat fats, no eating legumes or peanuts, ect.

We started the challenge last Friday and it has been and exciting road.  Now as most of you all know I eat fairly healthy, but I do enjoy and adult beverage, sugar and processed food every now and again.  Saturday being the the real first day I stuck with salads and seafood and by 7 pm I was starving, cranky and irritated.  I had a date that evening and we went to a bar to watch the UT game, I had no idea how hard it would be to go out and have a normal evening.  Every one was boozing and eating all kinds of nachos, pizza, wings and junk food!! There were two items on the menu that were Paleo friendly a chicken salad and lamb chops.  I had the salad and after an hour or so I was starving again. I was about to order the Lamb chops, but how awkward would that be on a date...oh dont mind me I am going two order to main courses!! After my brush with starvation I was over this challenge and ready to eat whatever I could get my hands on, but being the competitive person I am there is no losing.  So after church on Sunday I embraced good ol HEB and bought them out of fruits, veggies, fish, chicken, and meat. I cooked up a storm on Sunday and there has been no starvation since.

My biggest down fall is veggies, I will force myself to eat salads and veggies, but I am not a fan.  Its not something I am like "oh I cant wait to eat some kale"!! Therefore the girls and I decided to meet once a week and each make different dishes so everyone can try new recipes.  Sunday I had the girls over and I made a pork roast dry rubbed in salt, cracked pepper and garlic with balsamic glazed peaches and a  cauliflower-carrot herb mash. The girls brought over a kale salad and beet hummus.  Now just so you know I cant stand kale, beets, or cauliflower, I think they are pretty much awful.  After this meal I am a believer that with a few herbs, olive oil, and lemon juice anything can taste amazing.

Tuesday we met again at another friends house, I made hatch green chile meatballs, and the girls brought a red cabbage salad, kale salad, fruit salad, sweet potato fries and roast chicken.  Everything was so good, fresh and healthy.  The meatballs were out of this world.  I am attaching all the recipes so you all can give them a try.  Last night I invited some friends over for Moroccan Spiced Salmon served on a bed of garlic sauteed spinach and mushrooms, with a side of cauliflower carrot herb mash and sweet potato fries as an appetizer.  It was delicious.  You all make think its crazy, but you should give clean eating a try.  Cut out all those processed, fried, and sugary foods,  it will be difficult at first but the advantages are huge. Below is the menu I made last week

Enjoy!

Until next time...
Tory

Pulled Pork withBalsamic Glazed Peaches

Moroccan SpicedRubbed Salmon

Spiced ChickenThighs (you can sub for breast meat) 

Portabella Mushroom burgers you can either wrap in lettuce or get more ports grill them and use as a bun - 

Green Hatch Chile Meatballs

 

Sides

Grilled veggies - use a little olive oil and grill

Cucumber salad  (I would reduce the salt alot and not use the sugar)

Cauliflower carrot herb mash

Sweet potatoes -baked or grilled

Lemon cucumber noodles /

I've been everywhere man...

Its seems like I have been everywhere, but home lately.  I was counting all the flights/trips I have made in the last few months, and I am beat. I have been in Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, Washington D.C., Virginia, and California in the last month.  Heading to Costa Rica in a week, then back to Louisiana, Midland, and Louisiana!!  Toss in a few weekend trips to College Station and San Antonio and I have only been home for a total of one week in the last two months!! Please note this is not me complaining, just explaining my absence in writing.

I am not sure where I left off so I will start with my D.C. adventure.  A good college friend of mine moved to D.C. last November and I have been promising to visit for months.  I finally had the time and flight miles to make it happen.  Friday Aug 3rd, I hoped on a plane and headed up north, the flights were uneventful and I arrived just in time for dinner and HH.  After I got checked into my hotel I met up with Jonathon and some of his friends for dinner and a night on the town.  We were all pretty beat from the long week so we called it an early night.  The next morning Jonathon and I headed out to do all the touristy stuff we could do.  We walked around for miles checking out the Washington Monument, the capital, the old post office (best view of the city), Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Einstein, Georgetown and a few other sites along the way.

Rooftop bar at the W

After hours of walking, sweating, and sunburning we met up with some of his friends at the park for a picnic dinner/wine club meeting.  That evening we went out and did a little salsa dancing which was quite a blast.  Sunday we were up early to drive to Virginia to float the river.  Now floating the river is a big deal in Texas and my favorite thing to do in the summer, but I wasn't sure how these Northerner's did it.  Turns out its pretty much the same concept just on a bigger river!  After the float we all got cleaned up and met at Jonathon's house for dinner and game night.  We played Cards against humanity which was quite a hit!

Monday I didn't fly out until 5 so I decided to hit all the museums in the mall.  I went to the Smithsonian Castle, the Air and Space Museum, History and Science Museum, the American History Museum, and I trekked down to the White house.  It was a whorl-wind tour, but I got to see everything and quite enjoyed myself.

Air and Space Museum

Museum of History and Science

Hope Diamond

Tuesday it was back to the grindstone with lots of work to catch up on, thankfully the week flew by and it was "hello weekend time"  The crossfit girls and I spent the weekend using our groupons that we had purchased a while back.  Friday night I met up with some college friends for dinner and a night on the town.  It was a fun night and I scored a date for this Friday...so we shall see how that goes.  Saturday morning it was up early for crossfit, then brunch at Mia Bella's with the girls.  Saturday afternoon/evening was spent catching up on rest, studying for the GMAT, and watching some movies with friends.  Sunday after church I met the crossfit girls for an afternoon of rock climbing.  Now I have to admit, I am not very good at rock climbing, but since I have been doing crossfit I can see a marked difference in my strength and ability to climb.  I had much more fun this time than I have in the past.  After rock climbing we were starving so we continued the party at Blue Fish for sushi 

After dinner I ran home and packed for my trip to California for our annual products meeting.  Bright and early Monday morning I was off again.  The meeting went extremely well and overall the trip was very productive.  I hit the ground running Thursday, once I landed I picked up the girls, went and played sand volleyball and then hit book club/wine night.  Friday after work I ran home did laundry packed and headed to CS to pick op Christy for our weekend river float to celebrate Tommy's birthday.  More on that in the next post

Until next time...
Tory