Our Dinner Dates with Chris and Erin!

Philip and I have been planning for months to have dinner with our friends, Chris and Erin, and we finally went out last month! Philip and I chose the restaurant for our first of many dinner dates and picked our favorite place - Las Ramblas, the tiny tapas place in Greenwich Village. Again it was absolutely delicious and I already can’t wait to go back! They seriously have the most amazing food, a wonderful staff and this cozy/fun ambiance – definitely one of my favorite places in NYC!

After dinner, we walked around the corner to this Jazz Bar called the Garage and sat at the bar, listened to some jazz and had a couple cocktails. Erin and I just had one as we realized that we had some very strong martinis. Here’s a photo of us four at the Garage.

After a little music, we walked to the Meatpacking District and actually found a table at the Buddha Bar. I felt so New York. It was a really cool place, huge space with very tall ceilings, dark lighting with candles, low tables and chairs, loud music & lights and lots of pretty people. Philip and I don’t usually hang out in these areas…cause drinks are a little pricey (like our $15 cocktails and Erin’s $22 flute of champagne!) but it was so much fun! So after our one drink – we headed across the street to a club and danced the night away! Our little dinner date turned into a VERY FUN NIGHT!

Our Next Dinner Date...

And just a week ago, we had our second dinner date with Erin and Chris in Brooklyn! It was Restaurant Week in Brooklyn where a ton of restaurants feature a three-course prefix menu for just $23. Erin actually lives in Brooklyn and Philip and I have wanted to check out some restaurants and bars there so this was a perfect opportunity for us to visit. So on Sunday night we met Erin and Chris at this adorable French restaurant called Le Petite Marche located on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. Our food was great and we all loved the bread pudding for dessert! The area is really nice too, if you walk just a couple blocks, you can see this amazing view of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was too bad that it was rainy that night, but we had such a great evening and are looking forward to our next dinner date!

Valentine's Day in Chicago with Matt & Casey

Philip's District Meeting ended Saturday morning, so we spent the rest of the weekend with his high school buddies - Matt & Casey - who live in Lincoln Park. But before we met up with them, we had to check out the Chicago Auto Show, of course!

It was Valentine's Day on Saturday, so Matt & Casey had made plans to go out to dinner at a Belgium Beer House. There were seven of us (Casey & his girlfriend, Laura, Matt and his friend, Lanissa, Casey's little brother, Bobby, and me and Philip). The Belgium place was pretty cool as it had a selection of over 400 beers. It wasn't the most romantic, but very fun and really good food and beer. Afterward we accidently ended up at this dive bar where Matt and I thought there was country karaoke - but we were apparently mistaken. There was a country band playing, but they didn't find it very amusing when I asked them for the karaoke song books - oops! But then we went to a much cooler bar called the Liverteen and stayed there the rest of the night. Matt and Casey knew the bartender...so that is always a good thing making it another fun night as usual! Here's some more photos from that night. Casey, Philip and Matt on the left at the Belgium Beer House. And one of the two of us later that night.

The next day was the kick-off to the Nascar season so we watched the pre-game of the Daytona 500. This was something else I learned about Philip last year. I didn't know he was such a Nascar fan. I never really understood why people enjoyed Nascar, but after watching it with people who enjoyed it, I saw how it could be fun to watch and hopefully we'll be able to go to an actual race this year. So as we were all watching the Nascar pre-game, Matt and Casey walk up the stairs with these ridiculous looking hunting camouflage outfits. They looked pretty funny, resembling green cookie monsters. I'd never seen anything like it before...but leave it up to Matt and Casey to have something like that. Here's a photo of them on the right.

Too bad we had an earlier flight home on Sunday and had to leave Matt & Casey's around noon. :( We had such a great vacation in Chicago and I can't wait for next year's District Meeting...but too bad we won't be traveling to Chicago for it. They announced that it will be in Brooklyn next year. But hopefully we'll still make it out to Chicago to visit Philip's friends again!

Our Trip to Chicago...Philip's Eastern District Meeting

Over Valentine's Day weekend, Philip and I went to his District Meeting for Kiewit in Chicago. I went for the first time last year and loved it and couldn't wait to go back! We got there on Wednesday and that night we went to the Field Museum for dinner and cocktails. They rented the entire museum for the Kiewit function. It was pretty cool. But of course we didn't see any of the exhibits. We were too busy mingling with old friends and drinking and trying out all of the food booths! It was a very fun evening. The photo on the left is of us from that night. You can see one of the large animals on display in the background.



One of the best parts of District meeting are the fun activities that they organize for the spouses and significant others. On Thursday they had two activities planned - a purse workshop or a cooking workshop. I chose to go to the cooking event at The Chopping Block. I went last year and such a great time! The Chopping Block is a place where you learn and cook from professional chefs and then you get to eat your food. The staff prepares all the ingredients and all of us go to different stations led by different chefs and follow their instructions. By the end of the day, you have all this amazing food to try that you actually cooked! We were making tapas that day and we made some amazing dishes! Plus they provide drinks throughout the day. I was excited because I also saw one of my friends, Emily, who I had met at last year's District Meeting, but hadn't talked to since then. Here's a photo of Emily and me at the Chopping Block in our aprons.



That evening we got all dressed up again for the Awards Ceremony and dinner. The ballroom was huge as there were over 400 Kiewit employees plus their guests. Before dinner they had a cocktail reception and an open bar all night - so it made for a good evening. It's too bad that the Kiewit employees have to be in meetings all day starting early. That's why the District Meetings are really more fun for the guests! In the photo on the right Philip is standing in front of a display with his project in the background - the Willis Avenue Bridge. This year the Eastern District won the Director's League Award which means they brought in the most money of any other district in the company. It's a very big deal. Philip's job was a huge part in receiving this award.



On Friday night we had another reception in the Ballroom at our hotel and they ended the evening with a band - actually from New York City. They were really fun and everyone stayed and danced 'till the end of the night. I was also excited as I found the other two girls who I had met last year and we all hung out the rest of that night. Here is a photo of three of us (Whitney, Emily and me). We were just missing one - Ashley. Later that night we went out in downtown Chicago for a late night, ending up at a Taco Burrito King. It was a great way to end the District Meeting.

Andrew & Cari's Trip to New York City

For New Years Day, we all went to watch the Iowa bowl game at the Iowa bar, Blondies, on the Upper West Side. Andrew, Cari and Philip are all Iowa fans, so unfortunately I was outnumbered, and didn’t get to watch the Huskers play. But I heard it was a great game! The Iowa game was fun to watch, but I actually can’t remember if they won or not…oops. Can you tell I really get into the game?!

After the game, we decided to check out Chinatown to see if we could find some good deals on some purses. And sure enough…after walking several blocks Cari and I ended up in some mini-van with thousands of purses trying to work a deal. It was pretty crazy, but worth it. And Cari got some really cute ones. J We were pretty exhausted after that and headed home. We ordered in some New York style pizza and watched some old episodes of The Office – my favorite!

Philip and I both had to work on Friday, but I was able to see Andrew and Cari when they joined me for lunch at Hess. I always like to bring guests to Hess ‘cause we have such a great view of the city and our dining café has excellent food at a very reasonable price – which is definitely refreshing while you’re visiting and you see all the high prices here. After lunch, Cari and Andrew took one of those bus tours to see more of the city.

As a Christmas gift, Philip and I got tickets for all of us to see Shrek The Musical for Friday night, and before the show, we went to dinner at one of our favorite pre-theater restaurants – Hell’s Kitchen. Shrek was such a great musical – the costumes and scenery were beautiful, the actors were hilarious and the entire show was really fun to watch – very uplifting. Princess Fiona was my favorite character – she was a strong singer, very talented. It was Cari and Andrew’s first Broadway Show and we all really enjoyed it! Here are photos of us at the show.

Saturday was Andrew and Cari’s last day in New York, so we wanted to make sure they got to see everything they wanted. In the morning, Philip and Andrew went to Philip’s jobsite – The Willis Avenue bridge, since Andrew also works for Kiewit and had an interest in seeing the progress of the project. Us girls on the other hand wanted to do a little shopping…so we returned some shoes Cari had bought, went to Tiffany’s and checked out the Semi-Annual sale at Victoria Secret’s. It was great! We actually met up with the boys in the subway amazingly and all headed downtown to Battery Park to get a view of the Statue of Liberty. After seeing our Lady Liberty, we decided to hang out at a local bar to get warm and rest our legs. We ended up at the Ulysses for some oysters (not me) and a little snack. Then Philip and I wanted to show our guests the oldest tavern in NYC – McSorleys. My sister Kari and Mark introduced to this place and we wanted to go back and we had another great time there – with even a celebrity sighting! Our friendly tablemates had pointed out that Julia Stiles was at McSorley’s and sure enough, she was! She looked pretty cool and we felt pretty cool to be in the same establishment as her. Here's a photo of the Strom boys drinking the mugs two at a time. At McSorley's when you order a beer, you get two mugs for only $4.50. Not bad.

After McSorley’s we had dinner in Little Italy and then headed to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade to see some live comedy. It was a cool little dive place and the cast was extremely talented. I don’t know how they come up with this stuff on stage. It was a great way to end the night and the weekend since Cari and Andrew had an early flight home the next day.

Hopefully we’ll be able to visit each other again soon!

New Years Eve at Times Square!

For New Years Eve we actually were able to go to Times Square and see the ball drop! My friend Courtney who went to UNL with me now lives in Connecticut, real close to NYC and she works for a special event company and had special passes for anyone that wanted to help out at Times Square and pass out Pepsi scarves and beach balls. So we decided to sign up and see Times Square up close without having to stand outside all day. It was awesome! All four us (Cari, Andrew, Philip and me) all went to dinner first at a sushi restaurant close to our place and then we came home and changed into our cold weather gear and headed to this hotel close to Times Square where our group was getting ready and grabbing all of their Pepsi stuff to hand out to the crowds. Here's some photos of all Pepsi'd out! The photo on the left is of me and my friend Courtney who hooked us up with the special passes.

So once we had all of our Pepsi stuff, we headed down to Times Square and they escorted us to this building where we had to wait until they were ready for us. We were actually in the building that is right under the ball! At first we were sad we were missing out on all the fun outside, but then once we went outside we were glad we had been inside for so long because it was absolutely FREEZING out! Luckily we didn't get outside until 11pm so were we SO LUCKY! I couldn't believe how cold it was and most people had been outside for hours (we asked this one group of girls and they had been there for 16 hours - since 8am - crazy!) So once we got outside into the "special area" where the celebrities walked through and the media, police, etc. (On the left is a photo of Ryan Seacrest!) we started handing out all of our Pepsi scarves. Everyone loved them. Then, at 11:50pm we had to throw out all these beach balls during the Pepsi commercial. It was pretty cool. Balls were everyone and it was suppose to represent "carbonation".

Once we were done with our Pepsi gig, we just walked to the crowd in front of the ball and counted down with everyone and rang in the New Year with a million other people! HAPPY NEW YEAR! There was all this confetti and it was so exciting. I loved it! I want to do it again but I don't know if we'll ever have such a great opportunity as we did this year. It was so cool. Everyone says you should do Times Square once in your life - and I agree - it really was awesome! Here's a phoot of Cari and Andrew in front of the ball on the left. And below is a video from the night.

After Times Square, we walked to Grand Central to warm up because we were so cold and on walk we saw Taylor Swift who actually waved at Philip and Lionel Richie. We really added to our celebrity sightings that night!

So once we got to Grand Central we headed to the Lower East Side and ended up at this bar called Puck Fair. It was fun and we found a great table right next to the bar so we could order food and drinks real easily. We stayed there the rest of the night and got home around 4am! It was definitely a good New Years! Philip had such a great time he didn't even notice this balloon that was stuck to his coat. :) See photo below...

I hope you all had a very HAPPY NEW YEAR too!

Our Trip to San Francisco!

On the Saturday after Christmas before we were to head back to New York, all four of us drove from Fresno to San Francisco for the day. The drive was beautiful!

Before we entered the city we decided to check out Muir Woods. It was a long and steep drive up the mountain, but when we came to Muir Woods...the view was absolutely breathtaking. The trees went on forever and were huge. It was pretty cool. Here's some photos us in Muir Woods.

After Muir Woods, we were heading toward the famous Golden Gate bridge. Before we drove across we stopped at a look-out point and saw the amazing view of the bridge and took some photos.

Once we got into San Francisco, I really wanted to go down the famous Lombard Street that is extremely steep and curvy. I can't believe people actually live on this road. We had to wait about 30 minutes to actually drive our car down the road, but it was worth it. I still can't believe how hilly the streets are in San Francisco!

After all of our sight seeing, we checked into our hotel and then headed to the Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39. There were lots of fun stores to check out and some comedy/entertaining acts all over. We also watched the barking sea lions for awhile and then decided to get dinner reservations at a seafood restaurant right on the Wharf. We sat by the window overlooking the
bay and Alcatrez. It was beautiful. And since we were at a seafood restaurant we all ordered seafood and everyone but me ordered crab legs...so they had to wear bibs! Here's a photos of us at the restaurant.

After dinner, we went out for some drinks and had a great time playing American Shuffleboard at the bar. And the next day, we were headed back to New York - for a full day of traveling. :(

We had such a wonderful time in California for Christmas and it was so great to see Andrew and Cari and to be their first visitors! But it won't be long till we see them again...they were coming to NYC in just two days to celebrate New Years with us!

Christmas in California

I think one of the main reasons Philip wanted to go to California for Christmas to visit his brother, Andrew and his girlfriend Cari was so that he could drive Andrew's new Harley Davidson. The first chance he could...Philip took the Harley for a spin around the block. I even rode on the back while Andrew was driving. It was my first time on a motorcycle and it was actually pretty fun. I thought I would be a lot more scared, but Andrew drove very safe, and I actually enjoyed it! Here's a photo of Philip on Andrew's Harley "living the dream."

Andrew and Cari moved to Fresno last year when Andrew was transfered there with Kiewit to build a power plant. They have a very nice apartment and we had a such a great time spending Christmas with them. Unfortunately Cari recently fractured her wrist while snow boarding so fortunately, she could stay home during the day with Philip and me while Andrew had to work.

On Christmas Eve we celebrated the way the Strom family does by having fondue for dinner and then we got slinky's to open that night! Here's a photo of Andrew and Philip making the fondue. Andrew and Philip's grandma always gave the boys a slinky every year, so Cari got us some and we played with them down the stairs! And on Christmas Day we woke up to a delicious breakfast that Cari made for us and then opened up presents! Throughout the day we played cards and some Wii. It was a fun time and such a great Christmas!

Here's a photo of Philip and me by the tree and one of him opening a gift Christmas morning. He's also wearing the Bears jersey that he had just opened as a gift.

On the day after Christmas Philip and I met my Aunt Char for lunch. My Aunt, Uncle Joe and cousin Jason all live in Bakersfield, CA, which is only an hour and a half away from Frenso, so we decided to meet halfway in the middle and meet for lunch in this cute little town called Vesalia. It was great to see my Aunt Char and for her to meet Philip as well. Here's a photo of us outside of the cafe we ate for lunch.

Overall, we had a WONDERFUL time in California for Christmas!