“Where have you been all my life?!” – That was my first thought after dining at the new Live Basil Pizza in Denver at a private tasting and media preview in Denver. The genius of this fast and fresh restaurant is that it’s built upon the “make it your way” concept you’re familiar with at Subway, Chipotlé, etc., letting you choose the ingredients to top your pizza with and in less than three minutes, it’s served to you hot and fresh.

For just $8, you can choose from four different sauces, five different cheeses and add up to three toppings on your personal 11″ stone-fired pizza. The focus is local,  all-natural and organic. There is even a gluten free crust option. Kid’s pizzas are only $4. Our kid gobbled hers’ up with no crusts left.

Can’t decide on your toppings? Choose from a menu of signature pizzas and favorites, 13 in total. We sampled ALL of them. Some of my favorites included:
The Hot One: red sauce, Italian cheese blend, natural pepperoni, spicy giardiniera, fresh jalapenos, red pepper flakes and spicy oil.
The Colorado with Bison Sausage + Green Chile: white sauce, Italian cheese blend, goat cheese, bison sausage, fire-roasted Hatch green chiles, roasted red onions, roasted sweet corn, imported olive oil and fresh cilantro.
Mediterranean Chicken with Organic Spinach: red sauce, Italian cheese blend, fresh goat cheese, fresh organic baby spinach, all natural chicken breast, imported Greek olives, herb-roasted marinated peppers and imported olive oil.

To complement your pizza, add from one of three different salads including a Simple Bistro Salad with olives, Grana Padano cheese and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, Arugula, Lemon and Pistachio Salad with chopped pistachios and lemon vinaigrette. or the Colorado Chopped Salad with fire-roasted sweet corn, crispy tortilla chips, cilantro, and green chile ranch dressing.

What’s for dessert? How about a H
agen-Dazs hand-spun sorbet Mixed Berry or Peach Mango Smoothie?

Other refreshing beverages available are Boylan’s sodas and fountain drinks, wine, domestic, local craft beer and imports.

When it was time to go home, we chose our good old standby, pepperoni, pineapple and green peppers. It reheated perfectly in the oven the next night for dinner.

Denver is fortunate to be the home of the very first Live Basil Pizza locations in Southeast Denver with another to be opening soon in Federal Heights. But, I have no doubt that this delicious “Build Your Own Pizza” (BYOP) concept will take off fast and become a leader in the now dizzying array of fast-casual restaurants. Even Forbes is predicting it. So, if you don’t live in Denver, don’t worry, you may be seeing a Live Basil Pizza firing up near you soon!

Disclosure: My family was invited to a private tasting at Live Basil Pizza in exchange for this review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are my own and without influence by Live Basil Pizza.

Photo credit: Woodstone Firedeck oven photo courtesy of Live Basil Pizza.

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Thank you to Tillamook Cheese for sending us their Medium Cheddar Slices to use for our Memorial Day Weekend cookout. I highly recommend them for yours!

INGREDIENTS:

Tarragon Russian Dressing

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the ketchup, red wine vinegar, onion, parsley, tarragon and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and refrigerate.
2. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderately high heat, turning once, until crisp, about 6 minutes. Drain and cut the bacon into large pieces.
3. Light a grill and fill a large bowl with ice water. Gently mix the ground chuck with the ground sirloin, salt and pepper.Form the meat into six 4-inch patties, about 1 1/4 inches thick. Press your thumb into the center of each patty to form an inch-wide impression in each. This keeps the patties from shrinking on the grill.Submerge the patties in the cold water and let soak for 30 seconds. Immediately transfer the burgers to the grill and brush with some of the melted butter. Grill over high heat for 9 minutes for medium-rare meat, turning once or twice and brushing occasionally with butter. Top the burgers with the cheese during the last minute of grilling and let melt.
4. Spread the Russian dressing on the buns. Set the lettuce leaves and tomato slices on the bottom halves and top with the burgers, red onion and bacon. Enjoy!

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As Season Pass holders at Elitch Gardens, it seems we spend our entire summer every year at the park and have ridden every ride made for kids 46″ and under. Six-year-old, Reagan has been anxious to see what new rides she’ll be able to board this year as she has outgrown most of Kiddieland and is now at least 48″, last I checked. But, there are still two rides in KiddieLand she’s not ready to give up. Those would be the Rockin’ Tug (new as of last year) and the roller coaster, which just got even better. Previously a kiddie roller coaster, the all new family coaster, the Blazin’ Buckaroo is even bigger with steeper drops and lots of twists and turns.

We got to ride the new Blazin’ Buckaroo roller coaster at an evening VIP Party for the media earlier this week for the first time. Three times, to be exact. It would’ve been more if it were up to Reagan, but, there was more to see and do that we didn’t want to miss.

We sampled some of Elitch’s unique park food, including delicious chicken wings, served in either a BBQ sauce or traditional hot sauce with bleu cheese chunks – my favorite! The chicken and waffles are perfect for picky eaters – chicken nuggets covered in maple syrup and served in a waffle cup. Pulled pork sliders with Elitch’s own Hawg-n-Sauce BBQ sauce, beer brats, chicken or grilled veggie tacos are all great for summer. A nice surprise was the caprese skewers – mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil on a skewer and drizzled in Balsamic vinegar. Don’t you love having variety beyond the usual hot dogs and hamburgers?

For Reagan, and many of the other kiddos at the park that night, it was the the popcorn, cotton candy, fudge and ice cream that they wanted to fill up on. I have to admit, Elitch’s homemade chocolate fudge is some of the best I’ve ever tasted, so I may have had a second piece myself.

What other theme parks other than Elitch Gardens can you order a craft brew? Elitch’s partnered with Wynkoop Brewery (owned by Colorado Governor Hickenlooper) last year to serve one-of-a-kind brews that are served only in the park. In addition to Elitch Gardens Orchard Wheat and Fire Roasted Amber introduced last year, they’ve added Elitch Gardens Thrills & Spills Summer Ale which I’ll definitely be sampling again.

Besides Elitch’s craft brews, there are nine more premium beers on tap served in the Blue Moon Beer Garden and Draughtworks. You can also order a specialty drink, red or white wine.

I spoke with John Pagel, Promotions and Season Pass Manager for Elitch Gardens about what else visitors to the park could expect this year. He said, after polling season pass holders about what they’d prefer more of, summer concerts or more daily entertainment in the park, they were surprised to learn they wanted more daily entertainment. This means, no more summer concert series at Elitch’s. They’ve decided to no longer compete with the bigger Denver venues in that arena, but to focus their resources on more family entertainment in the park. Personally, I’m thrilled with that decision. I’m much more excited about the Seven Inspirational and Interactive New Shows at Elitch’s that we’ll be seeing all summer long.

Of the seven new shows this summer, the biggest is Cirque Conjure in the Trocadero Theater. A wonderfully choreographed combination of music, singing, dancing, illusion and comedy with elaborate costumes and sets. And by illusion, I mean the biggies, like levitation and disappearing girls. You definitely won’t want to miss it.

Disclosure: My family was provided with three return tickets to Elitch Gardens in exchange for this review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are my own and without influence by Elitch Gardens.

Photo credit: Blazin’ Buckaroo roller coaster photo courtesy of Elitch Gardens.

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In January of 2012, I received the following email:

No fancy signature or links, just a very simple email. My excitement was couched with equal parts skepticism. I Googled Lou Aronica and found he was legitimate, but how do I know this is the real Lou Aronica emailing me? And Sir Ken Robinson? Like, for real, THE Sir Ken Robinson? New York Times Best-Selling Author, Sir Ken Robinson? TED speaker, Sir Ken Robinson? Surely this is a joke.

I emailed Lou back and we set a time for a phone call the next day. That was postponed when I got an email from him that his power went out and could we reschedule for the following Monday so he could record the conversation? I asked if he could email me some questions so I could be prepared and he said he didn’t work that way, rather, he liked the conversation to evolve on its own.

It was a long three days wondering if someone on the other end was having some fun at my expense.

When we finally spoke, Lou explained how he had Googled “Tribes” and came across my post, “Have You Found Your Tribe Yet?” in which I wrote about discovering my own Tribe. It was just the type of story he was looking for. We had a great conversation about how finding my mentor and a group of like-minded women has propelled me into a love for what I do.

Then, I waited.

Today, a year and a half later, another email from Lou, telling me Sir Ken Robinson’s book, “Finding Your Element,” is out and would I like a hard copy? Ummm… Yes, please! But, I couldn’t wait to read it. I immediately downloaded it to my Nook and searched my name. It’s all there. Everything we talked about in our interview. I wasn’t being punked after all.

Here is where my contribution begins…

I can’t express how thrilled I am to have played a small part in the coming together of such a valuable book by an acclaimed author that teaches “How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life.” While my life truly is a work in progress, I can say that blogging has been an important creative outlet for me that has led to other exciting ventures in social media and now travel blogging for TravelingMom.com. I’m so fortunate to be able to combine a love for travel with writing. It has been the perfect partnership for my pilot husband and I as we’ve made travel blogging into a family affair.

I consider my little piece of the chapter, “Where’s Your Tribe?” to be a tribute to all the people who have played a part in my journey to “Finding My Element.” Thank you to Colorado Parent Magazine for setting me on my path with a mom makeover, Gretchen Reid of Motherhood Transitions for the valuable life and career coaching that led me to become a blogger and social media manager, Amber Johnson of MileHighMamas.com for encouraging me as a blogger, Barb Likos of Chaotic Communications for being my mentor and friend,  Kim Orlando for giving me the opportunity to be part of an amazing network, TravelingMom.com, my Tribe of amazing blogger/social media friends (you know who you are) and my husband, Danny who has climbed on board with me to see where this crazy train takes us!

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I’ve written about my family’s adventures at both Snow Mountain Ranch and Estes Park a few times at TravelingMom.com and also on this site. Our trips have been part of multi-family camping trips with friends or church, but, it’s nice to know that whenever we want to plan an escape from the stresses of everyday life, the YMCA is there.

On-grounds family-friendly activities include:

• Horseback riding
• Archery
• Adventure course
• Swimming pool with water slides
• Craft shop
• Mini-golf
• Ping-pong
• Hiking
• Roller-skating
• Fly-fishing

Right now at Snow Mountain Ranch, military families can take advantage of a special package created just for them. The Military Getaway Package is the YMCA of the Rockies’ way of giving back to those who dedicate themselves to serving our county. Last year, the YMCA of the Rockies set a goal of serving 623 military families with this package, the goal was called Mission623. This was a 10% increase in military families served in 2011. The Military Getaway Package is made possible through donations to YMCA of the Rockies Annual Campaign.

The package includes 2 nights in any lodge room, up to 4 people per room, and meals for $149!

To Qualify:

• Must be active duty or in reserves
• Must be able to provide proof of active duty at time of check-in

The Fine Print:

• Based on availability
• Individual reservations only (no groups)
• Additional nights will be full price for lodging and meals
• Additional Persons: $19/day/child or $29/day/adult
• 1 room per reservation/name
• Call 888-613-9622 to reserve.

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