Wine, wine and more wine!

Chad and I had tickets to the first annual red wine tasting at Olivia's Wines!
What a fun time!!  There was 26 bottles of wines total...each over $75. 

The most expensive wine on the list retailed at $525!!  This was the 2005 Penfolds Grange, which is mostly Shiraz.  This was quite good, but surprisingly, it wasn't our favorite.

Our favorite was the 2007 Numanthia Termanthis...a Tempranillo.  It was the second most expensive bottle there...$250.

 

A close second...if not a tie for first...was the 2005 Pine Ridge Fortis.  This is a Cab Sav blend that was a bit more affordable at $200.  Ha!  Too bad this will be the last time drinking these wines.  There's no way we can afford to purchase them.

This was a great opportunity to try wines that we would never be able to try!  I wish we would have had the stamina to try them all, but we only made it about half-way through the list.  Ha!  Here's Chad and I with the proprietor of Olivia's Wines, Rick.  He definitely knows how to throw a good party!

 

Good times with good friends!  Thanks, Ashley & Chad, for coming with us.  We were so happy to spend time with the both of you before Chad heads out to serve our country!  Cheers!

 

A Year in Review...

Have a seat & grab a beverage.  This one's a bit longer.  ; )

My year consisted of lots of friends, good food & drink, fun, work & more fun!  Here's some excerpts of my favorite moments!

The Great Guinness Toast at The Wine Tap (one of our favorites)

with our friends Ashley & Chad

St. Patty's Day

April was full of events...Opening Day for the Cardinals (which was unseasonably warm),

Easter,

...and a very special wedding that Chad and I were unable to attend.  I stole these pics from our S. African friends' FB pages.

Here is the bride and her bridesmaids...at their traditional "bachelorette" party.  Forgive me for I have forgotten what this tradition is called...something about the mother hens??

Here is a pic of Chad's brother, Ryan, and his wife, Tanya...

May is always fun with lots of wine tastings, microfests...and of course, MY BIRTHDAY!!

This year May also consisted of vacation!  Thank goodness for that!!  I promise I won't post the hundreds of pics that we took...or all the pics of the food that we ate.  Here are a few of the best...

July brought around more fun.  We spend the 4th at the Cardinal's game & air show under the Arch.

Here are Ashley and I with a St. Louis legend...the Cardinal Cowboy!

We also took a trip back to Rochester to visit with Chad's Mom, Sandi...always a good time.  Chad's friends, Justin & Kelly, just had a beautiful daughter, MaryGrace (AKA MG).  Here is Chad holding her after much coercing!  : )

July was also The World Cup, which was held in S. Africa this year!!  Ryan, Tanya and her family were lucky enough to partake in some of the festivities.  Here are more pics that I've bogarted from others.  : )

In August, Chad and I took a road trip to Kansas City for his birthday to take in a couple of Yankee's games.  It was ridiculously hot that weekend...something like 103F when we arrived the first day.  We also hit up a local dive that was featured on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives on the Food Network.  Yumm-o!!

September proved to be a fairly uneventful month...except for a crazy afternoon (of which my memory is a bit fuzzy) with friends at the Midwest Wing Fest.  This was a festival of many different types of chicken wings.  Since I am still not eating chicken, I unfortunately didn't eat much...hence the fuzzy memory.  Ha!  
Here's a pic of me with Ashley & Judy...

October brought about a good friend's bachelorette party & wedding celebration!  
Congrats again Vicki & Larry!


Here's the bacheorette in all her glory!

Me and the girls ready for the big night...

...and at the wedding.

Chad acting goofy like normal.

The bride and her "back-up bridesmaids".
(Might as well make the best of having the same dress as someone else, right?)

November was a month of celebration.  First came dinner and dancing for my good friend, Kristine's, birthday.

Awwww...

Then another good friend, Chad, left for training prior to his deployment overseas.  We celebrated his loyalty to our country with some brews at iTap.  (One of our faves!)

Later that night we met up with some of my cousins for dinner and cocktails, of course.

Rounding out the year...more celebration.  I won't bore you with too many Christmas pics, since I just posted them.  
Here's my favorite pic from the Christmas holiday...a vertically-challenged snowman built by my lovely niece.

We celebrated the end of 2010 with some cocktails at a small place called Taste, known for it's small plates and creative cocktails.  Then we had dinner at Sage...another of our faves.  Sage holds a special place in our hearts.  We had our first date at Sage, a couple of New Year's Eve dinners and many meals in between.


Now it's time to leave 2010 behind and see what 2011 holds for us.  More work for me (but hopefully some advancement).  Chad's graduation!!  A possible move?  Most importantly...good times with family & friends!


Happy New Year, Everyone!  Cheers!

Merry Christmas!

Phew!  What an exhausting but great weekend!  I had to work way more than I planned this weekend, but I still found time for plenty of fun!  It all starts Christmas Eve when the Fillback clan pays a visit.  There was 10 of us this year.  We were missing two of the cousins, Lizzy and Kristina.  But who can really blame Kristina, when she has this to wake up to in St. Thomas everyday!  

Here's what they missed out on...

Christmas Day brings more fun with the Gill's and the Mamino's!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take too many pics.  Darn battery!  Here's what I did get...

My step-sister, Calyn & her husband, Ben

Ben getting as close as possible to the fire without actually burning.  Usually you will find him with his feet actually inside the firebox.

Ben and Calyn are the proud parents of the world's best snowman builder, Lehni.  (Supposedly the snow wouldn't stick together.  Hehe!)

Hope everyone had a great holiday.  Unfortunately, it's back to work tomorrow.  Cheers!

Random Night in November

I've been slacking on my blogs this month, since I've been without the best eyesight.  So here's some random shots of some of my November outings.

For Kristine's birthday, we had a yummy dinner at Lola and then headed over to Rue for a little 80's dancing.

The birthday girl

Chad & I

...and a little dancing.

This past Saturday, we spent the afternoon & evening in Soulard.  Our friend, Chad, is getting ready to head out for training in preparation for his deployment to Iraq.  We'll miss him, but we'll be sure to take good care of Ash while he's gone.  In celebration of him & his dedication to our country, we had a few brews...of course.  Here's a couple of pics from our afternoon at iTap...

Next Chad & I headed over to McGurk's for a "Fillback cousin" family dinner, and finally ended the night at Carson's with a mixture of both crews.  

That's all for now folks.  I hope to have some more great pics to post after the holiday.  I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day!  Drink lots, eat even more and enjoy every minute of it.  Cheers!