Ahh... Indian Summer

Last weekend my family and I celebrated my sister's birthday by grilling out on a lovely Indian Summer day. (And yes, I mean LAST weekend because I've been meaning to post this for an entire week. What can I say? I procrastinate everything.) Her gift from my other sister and me was a new charcoal grill, so she had us all over to her house to party!

Unfortunately, the grill did not come assembled. We were all very hungry as we waited for the boys to put the grill together.

Two of my adorable nieces!

Another of my nieces, also our videographer for the day.

My dad was assigned the job of grilling because he's the best at it!

The kids found an old empty box somewhere (I have no idea where it came from), and it became their entertainment for the day. I'm always amazed by the depth of imagination in these kids' heads. I can't imagine being entertained by cardboard for hours. (See, I can't even imagine having that much imagination!)

Yes, one of them is in the box at this point.

And there she is!

Then the box was deconstructed and turned into a robot. Complete with "Nuke" button.

The food was delicious and the company was even better.

I like this picture because it has my pregnant sister in it. I wish she would have been standing sideways; then you'd see her big belly!

Matt and me. All of our pictures look weird, but there's not much to be done about it. No matter how hard I try, Matt will squint or blink in 90% of our pictures. So I've given up. He'll just have to look funny on my blog all the time.

And the birthday girl in many fuzzy presents. Fuzzy presents really are the best.

It was fun enjoying the warm weather for one more weekend. Unfortunately, I really think it's all pretty much gone.

On a somewhat unrelated note, where does the term "Indian Summer" come from? I'll have to look it up.

Play time!

This weekend, we bought a brand new toy for the kitties! Matt and I are proud parents of Pywacket (Py) and Cid Arthur (Cid). And they are now proud "owners" of this crazy feather boa toy!

Py got herself wrapped up in the toy. Maybe she was just trying to pretty herself up a little.

Cid is not nearly as crazy with this thing as Py is, but he enjoyed it as well.

Py is most definitely the queen of our house, so Cid wasn't about to take the toy away from her. You can tell he thought about it, though.

Cid was a little worn out. He gave up well before Py did.

The evidence remains!

She was caught red-handed... er, pink-pawed!

I like buying new presents for the kitties. And I think they certainly enjoyed it.

Summer Dreams... Ripped at the Seams....

I hate to admit it, but I think Summer is officially over. It's been officially over for quite a few weeks, actually. This weekend was downright cold. And I really hate the cold. I really hate the cold. REALLY. But I guess it's too late in the year to be pretending; winter is nearly hear. How sad...

So, to cheer myself up, I will look at some of my favorite pictures from our summer hikes this year.

Lookout Mountain
View from Lookout Mountain. This was early in the season, so things were still pretty brown.

Me, nearly falling on the rocks on Lookout Mountain. My little legs make hiking hard sometimes!

Maxwell Falls

On the hike to Maxwell Falls. A fallen down tree; Matt saw a crazy picture opportunity.

We never actually made it to any "falls," but we came to this area which looked kind of like a tree farm.

Mt. Falcon

On Mt. Falcon. This place had a lot of different nooks that were fun to explore.

From the location of the "Summer White House." Or rather, the location where some crazy guy wanted the summer white house to be. It's awfully pretty.

Green Mountain

I felt like I was in a fairy forest. It was SO green.


This was the downhill part of the hike. It went uphill like crazy after this. I was too exhausted to take any pictures during the climb.

But we made it to the almost-top, and we got a pretty view.

Mallory Cave

This obviously isn't Mallory Cave, but it's a CRAZY tree on the way to Mallory Cave.

My dad came with us on a couple hikes this summer.

Part of this hike was pretty steep. This picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

Green Mountain (again - with the inlaws)

We liked this hike, so we took Matt's brother and his family up the other side of the mountain. I didn't really get any good pictures of everyone else, but here's a good one of us.

Pretty view from Green Mountain.

Camping at Kenosha PassMatt just set up the tent, so he gets a treat.


Cooking dinner. Yum... hot dogs.

View near our campsite.

St. Vrain Trail

River!

On the St. Vrain Trail. Right after I dyed my hair. Don't look at the crazy hair, just look at the great scenery.

Mt. Elbert and Twin LakesHa ha. Duct tape fixes everything! We went up the the Leadville area for our anniversary, and we tried to tackle Mt. Elbert!


On Mt. Elbert with all my hiking gear. This was a tough mountain! I'm not sure that I was prepared for it, but we handled it ok. Of course, we didn't make it to the top, but... oh, well.


This was as high as we made it. We topped the treeline, had lunch, and wen't back down. I'm pretty sure these two went much higher than we did.


On the "top" of Mt. Elbert.

View right out of our door at the bed and breakfast we stayed. I knew I'd be too tired to camp. And since it was for our anniversary, we treated ourselves to a romantic night on the Twin Lakes near Leadville, CO.

Ah, summer. Well, I guess there are good things about winter, too. Like cross-stitch. Cold weather is absolutely perfect for crafting. Plus the holidays are a lot of fun. And Matt and I are going to try skiing for the first time this winter. So, I must think positively, enjoy the few positive things about winter, and dream of warmer days.

Rock the Vote!

I totally rocked the vote this weekend. Matt and I received our mail-in ballots, and I voted for the first time in my life! I tried to vote in the last election, but... when I mailed in my registration form, I forgot to sign it. I know, that's pretty bad. But interestingly, my roommate at the time, John, did the exact same thing. By the time we got the returned registration forms, the deadline had passed. So even though I'm 23, this is the first time I can vote in a presidential election. It is a momentous occasion.

On another note, it's really great that Adams County is trying so hard to make the mail-in ballots available. We just had to fill out a form a while back, and now they mail our ballots to us. No trying to make it to the polls on voting day. But, sadly, I'm not going to get my "I Voted!" sticker. And since it's my first election, I really wanted that sticker. How sad...

Matt and I are really pretty good citizens this year. We did a lot of research before voting. Matt spent quite some time reading through the blue book of information on all the amendments.

We also watched a local news show on all the Colorado ballot issues. I still have a little bit of reading to do before I finish my ballot and mail it in, but I feel that I will be very educated.

What to blog about...

This is me.

I'm Kelly. I'm somewhat new to this whole blogging thing. Of course, in college I had a couple of the social networking/community blogs, but they were mostly silly. But I guess a lot of things in college are kinda silly. Anyway, this is my first attempt at a "grown-up" blog.

When I was first considering starting this thing up, I was unsure what I wanted the focus to be. I don't really want this to just become my random ramblings; I'd like there to be a general theme. So, I thought, I can blog about my marriage. I've been married for a little over a year, and I think we're pretty darn happy.

This is me and my husband, Matt.

But as much as I love being married, I just don't think my marriage is all that interesting. That's a good thing, I guess. I don't have any great dramatic stories to tell because we don't have a ridiculous amount of drama. We're just mundanely happy. Of course, I know I'll mention Matt occasionally, just not enough to fill a blog.

So...

I'm an actress. The most obvious choice would be to dedicate my blog to theatre and acting.

Me as Little Sally, in one of my favorite shows, Urinetown: The Musical.

More recently, this is part of the cast from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was performed this past July.

But really... I just do theatre in my spare time. I received a degree in theatre, and it's a huge passion of mine, but I don't plan on persuing it as a career. I guess I just don't want to make the sacrifices that so many other actors choose to make. So I'm not sure that my dinky experience would provide much insight, or even be that interesting.

I love reading. I could spend hours and hours just shut in my room with a book. I'm completely obsessed with Harry Potter. If I had started this blog before the final book came out, many posts would have been all about my theories. Snape's really a good guy, Harry is a Horcrux, etc. Now that Deathly Hallows is out, there's not much left to say on the issue. And to be perfectly honest, without crazy HP theories to discuss, I think most book blogs can be boring. Some are done really well, but that's not for me and not for this blog.

I like cooking, but I really don't have the talent to blog about it. The same goes for my interest in crafting. I enjoy sewing, cross-stitch, and online "scrapbooking." I even sewed my own bridesmaid dresses.

View of the top.

And the bottom.

Now, they certainly aren't Project Runway quality (and definitely not my own design!), but I think they're pretty cool. Of course, it must be said that my mother assissted with the finishing. I procrastinated till the very end, and she had to come in and help me finish things up. She also made my wedding dress. She has real talent.

Other interests? I love traveling. But really, I don't get to do that very often. Matt and I recently took a trip to New York City with my parents. It was a lot of fun, but I doubt we'll be going anywhere else any time soon.

Matt and I in front of Radio City Music Hall.

We also really enjoy the outdoors. Hiking, camping, and just being outside. We're really pretty new at the hiking thing; this summer was really the first. Hopefully, there will be many more.

Matt and I up at Kenosha pass.

So in the end, my blog will probably be about a little of everything. And that's ok. It's really for me that I started this thing anyway. I'd love to have family and friends read up on the things happening in my life, but if they don't that's ok. As long as it's fun for me.