Flowers for days!

Wowza, two non-house related posts in a row....hold on to your butts! Amazing, I know. (although, they are doing rebar out back today and scheduled (hardy har har) to pour concrete tomorrow, so stay tuned for more on the landscaping!)

Last weekend we checked out the Carlsbad flower fields - I'm simply amazed in the 13 years of living here that we'd never gone! It was simply stunning, flowers as far as the eye can see. Or, is it eyes? I'm no cyclops, you know.

We wandered around for a few hours taking pics, it was a glorious sunny day with a soft ocean breeze - perfection! Enjoy:
You know we love us some cut outs:

Vegas!

Vegas, by way of Denver - I'm no geographic genius, but I'm pretty sure we took the long way :)

We had planned a trip to Vegas for the 14th anniversary of my 21st birthday and then learned that our dear friend Judi was turning 40 and Jeff was throwing her a surprise birthday party....so of course we had to tack that on to the front of our trip - we adore Judi and it was so fun to be a part of her surprise!

Galileo helped us pack: And we were off and the crack o' dawn: We spent a lovely day with Dad and Patti after meeting one of Judi's friends at the airport and dropping her off to surprise Judi on her own. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pics of our day together, but we had a great time chatting. And then, we were off to dinner!

Rob and I sat at the bar and waited. and waited, and eventually Judi walked into the restaurant with her entourage...and didn't even see us. We were looking at her for a while and laughing our butts off watching her oblivion when suddenly she let out a blood curdling scream and launched herself into my arms. It was fabulous, we were crying and laughing all at once and I had somehow gotten punched in the nose in the exchange, it was too dang funny.
It was way too brief (definitely broke our records for the quickest Denver trip EVAH) but a nice time hanging with Jeff and Judi and gang...We didn't think to take too many pics at dinner either, but I'm sure Jeff will post some on his blog soon (no pressure, right?), called Can O' Pringles, to the right of our blog there------------------------------------------------------------------------------>>>>>>
won't a double blog post be some sort of universe-changing, heavens-opening, angels-singing, pigs-a-flying, snowball-in-hell-a-flinging, apocalyptic event? Hold onto your butts!

And then, with only 3.5 hours of sleep, we were off again! We look pretty sleep-deprived and caffeine-laden here, I love it.We were staying at the Vdara hotel in the City Center and it was gorgeous - they totally hooked us up with a stellar view for the bday girl!Some other sights: Dick Butkus and Batman. Not together, but only in Vegas, right?
We did some shopping and Rob was STOKED to learn he could wander the mall with me while drinking beer. I'm telling you, I'd get to go shopping WAY more here if we had those same laws.We also had some great eats - at one of our favorite breakfast places in the Venetian, Robbio always likes to get the Fried Chicken and Waffles (I know...I'll let that combo sink in for a minute). Doesn't he look so happy: The first night we got dolled up and went to some KILLER sushi...we didn't lug our camera with us, so we took some dorky shots in the room only (other than Rob's phone camera)

The 2nd day was truly one of my best days EVER! We spent all day at the Canyon Ranch Spa - I had a 100 minute cocoon wrap and massage, and I was really making some num-num noises and fully in my happy place...sigh. We then got dressed up again and went to one of the best dinners we've ever had, at Sage in the Aria hotel. Seriously - go there. And ask for the waiter Bond - he's my new gay best friend.
Rob had the foie gras brulee and was DEFINITELY making some num-num noises: I had the lobster casconelli appetizer and it was amazing: for dessert, Robbio had the carrot cake - the icing was in the middle, and when you cut into it, it melted out in a blob similar to a souffle, I mean, seriously? Get in my belly!

I had some delicious heavenly combo of chocolate, peanut butter and crunchy stuff. Slap. Yo. Mama. (Not MY Mama, your own).
After a seriously heavenly experience at dinner, we continued to swoon our way through the Beatles cirque show, LOVE. It's the 3rd time we've seen it and we've adored it each and every time - majestic!

We were on a winning streak that night and on into 3 am of my actual birthday, man I love the Palazzo and Venetian!

and we should have stopped there, but unfortunately the next day, we left the proverbial deposit with Vegas. But don't worry, we'll be back to collect soon.

Whew, we're home! I promptly crashed out on the couch, and clearly Galileo was more than happy to assist in nap duty.

Holy crap we have a plan!

I'm very much enjoying this whole "holy crap" theme for the backyard, I think I'm going to run with it for now. No, you don't get a vote.

Our landscaper finally left us an "official" plan yesterday which is ironic on two parts: (1) we already started construction, like, um, a month ago and (2) the plan isn't even accurate. Wouldn't that be like I see a suicidal patient a month after they had expressed suicidal thoughts and then I decide it might be better if we talked about Disneyland instead?

But, I figured the Warrenski fans out there (and you know who you are, people related to us or friends with us for a long time, thus obligated to smile and nod and fake interest) might want to see them anyway.
It's kinda hard to see but the funniest part is the BBQ "L" shape in the middle - either this makes our yard look HUGE or it is WAY not to scale, that thing is minuscule! Is this a little girl's princess BBQ?

Sigh...

Holy crap they move slow!

Rob thinks I jinxed us with the last post title, because as soon as I said it, the landscaping progress screeched to a halt. We're trying to be very Zen about it though, and were pleasantly surprised to find that a tiny bit of progress happened the day we got back from Vegas (personally, I was hoping for a big "Extreme Makeover" big reveal with the big bus, the waterworks, the annoying spazzy guy screaming at us with a bullhorn, etc, but that was not in the cards).

We have the start of our BBQ! And here it is, in all it's glory. Isn't it lovely?
Of course, it won't look like this when it's done, it will be covered with house-matching stucco on the BBQ and fridge side:

and a facade of veneer stones to match the front of our house on the thing bar side.

Here's the view from the other side of the yard:Incidentally, last night I had a dream that we had completely forgotten that we had a HUGE other backyard too that we'd totally spaced on designing landscaping for it....so we were scrambling last minute to design a pool, get weeds pulled, etc. Hmmmm, obsessed much?

Holy crap they move fast!

Wow, landscaping is a-happening! I can't believe how much progress they've made already. I'll spare you the super boring shots (too late!) and I'll bring you up to speed on the happs. They have completely buried the gas lines and drains, all the trenches have been filled in, and now they've framed out all the areas for cement pouring next week. Apparently next steps are to install the slate/flagstone and then pour the concrete. Wowza.

Here's a shot of the walkway framed - to the right (touching the house) will be planter so el Diablo Blanco can cha-cha on the expensive landscaping.
In between the 3x3 concrete steps we'll have some pretty ground cover, and to the left, a slightly raised area where we'll have trees and plants. At the end of this shot (where the wall on the left jutts out), we'll have our fountain. We ended up opting for the more simple but custom tile fountain with the power fall cascade situation, should be beautiful! And super loud! It'll be a bring your own catheter situation.Here's the arc of the seating wall which will parallel the big wall all the way down to the fence. We'll have a huge tree here in Walter's memory (pour one out...) with uplighting.




We'll have planter areas all around the house to the right and the BBQ will start off this corner of the house and go north and west in an "L". It's so sweet, at our request, the landscapers have spared this calla lily - it actually is from the original plant at our first townhouse together! That means it's 11 years old and has moved with us from home to house....it's like its part of the family at this point!


Here's a shot of the future hot tub area (potentially). For now the hot tub time machine area will be just planter area with an arbor and tree giving us privacy at the fence. That's a peace-loving shadow!
This looks like a bunch of chaos, but basically on the east side of the house is where the concrete will stop and there will be gravel and steppers until the end towards the fence where the concrete will pick back up (for the trash cans). And, here's the new path for the cans out front: And finally, the pre-shot, we'll be tearing out all the lilies to the right, they're insane and have totally taken over. They're gorgeous but they scrape up Rob's car when he pulls into the garage. We're putting in cobblestones to the right and left of the driveway instead, but leaving that gorgeous bougainvillea.
And some random shots to leave you with: some gorgeous flowers Rob had delivered to my work while he was gone on a business trip 2 weeks ago (I know, seriously, isn't he the best?):a sweet shot Rob took of the backyard calla lily:
3-D G and Daddy!And the landscape crew boss, look at that shrewd look, (quite a discerning eye this one)