Hikes and Beer

We went up to the Fort Collins area this weekend to hang out with a friend. He took us on a pretty cool hike.

Greyrock Mountain:

About to start the climb up Greyrock. This is about 2/3(ish) of the way through the hike.

View close to the top.

Overall, I really liked the trail. But towards the end, we had to do some "scrambling" over some rocky parts. It was a little tough for me, and I definitely slowed the guys down a bit. I want to say it was because of my short legs, but that probably wasn't the only reason.

Almost to the top. This was as far as I went.

I didn't make it to the summit, but I made it about 95% of the way. I didn't want to keep scrambling on the trail that kept getting more difficult as it went up. I don't like scrambling. So, I sat and let the guys finish up without me. I was ok with that.

A chipmunk.

View from the very top, as seen by Matt and Dave, not me.

After the hike and a nice lunch, we went to check out the Colorado Brewers' Festival in Fort Collins.

I'm not a big beer drinker, but I tried a couple different "flavors." Matt gets really into the craft breweries and trying new beers, so I think he enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the festival seemed to be more about drinking lots and lots of beer for most people, and less about taste-testing and trying new breweries. But it was still a cool thing to do.

Matt and Dave with beer.

It was a long, hot, and tiring day. And that's cool.

Optimus Prime

Could there be a cooler name than "Optimus Prime?" Seriously. Just think about it:

Optimus. Prime.

It's pretty much the epitome of awesomeness.


We're going to see Transformers 2 tomorrow. It should be awesome.

Peaceful Valley, so... peaceful

This weekend, we got to spend a few days up at a cabin in Peaceful Valley with some of Matt's family. It's really beautiful up there. But it was also pretty cold on Saturday night when we got in, so we started a fire in the cabin. Unfortunately, someone didn't make sure the fireplace damper was open (Matt). So it got a little smokey:


We aired it out pretty quickly. And it was quite funny.

Sunday morning we took a drive up to Brainard Lake and walked around a bit. Beautiful.

Oma and Opa.

Matt had to work on Monday, but that night we went back up to the cabin to see Matt's aunt and uncle and cousins, who had all flown in that day. We played fun games that night:

And went on a pretty cool hike the next morning:


There was a lot of snow on the trail still.



The running water was melting some of the snow, creating some pretty cool snow formations.

Can you see the cool waterfall coming right out of the snow? The waterfall is flowing from the lake we hiked to, which is right above the snow cliff.

This is the awesome place where I fell through the snow and got freezing wet in the stream below. Yay.

Lots and lots of snow, the higher up we got:

The end destination was Lake Isabelle. It was one of the prettiest places I've ever been.

Ah... Books...

Not much has been going on in the Herndon world this last week. I had an audition last weekend that didn't pan out into anything (seems to be a trend...), Matt took a short and uneventful business trip to Kentucky for a couple days, and we've both just been working and working. A lot of my free time has been spent watching TV, listening to music, and reading. Three of my favorite activities!

One of the things being passed around on a social-networking site recently is a "Fifteen Books" note. The idea is to post a list of fifteen books that have "stuck with you" over the years. Because I love to read, I had to participate. And considering the lack of other interesting things in my life at the moment, I thought I'd put my list up here. If you haven't read some of these books, I would recommend pretty much all of them. And I'm always looking for suggestions, if you have any of your favorites in mind.

1. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
3. Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. Bloodsucking Fiends (and the sequel, You Suck) by Christopher Moore
6. 1984 by George Orwell
7. Wizard's First Rule by William Golding
8. My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure by Shawn Decker
9. Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
10. Irish Trilogy by Nora Roberts (kind of embarrassing...)
11. Incarnations of Immortality series by Peirs Anthony
12. Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
13. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
14. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
15. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

The interesting thing is, I already want to change some of the books I put down. There are just too many good ones out there. But I won't because the idea is to have the first books that come to mind.

Hopefully, I'll have some eventful things to share over the next few days. But until then, I'm happy to just keep reading.

No day but today!

Rent Rent Rent Rent Rent!

We saw Rent last night. It was pretty awesome.

For Christmas and birthdays last year, we got tickets for my neices to see Rent when it came to town. It was kind of a present for us, too, because we got to come along!

The show is currently on its last tour, after closing on Broadway last September. And Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp (the original Roger and Mark) are starring in the tour production. It was really neat to see those two amazing guys in the show. I don't know if I loved them so much because they originated the roles and I'm used to their sound, or because they really are just so much better than anyone else. Regardless, I thought the show was fantastic.

We also had a nice dinner at Rock Bottom before the show.

The girls in their pretty dresses at dinner.

Then it was on to the theatre, where the kids got souvenir t-shirts.

Loving the show!

Matt and I had a lot of fun, and I think the girls enjoyed it, too.

The Long Run

The People's Fair took place in Denver this weekend, and my dad's band played on one of the stages. The Long Run is "Colorado's Tribute to the Eagles," and they definitely put on a good show.

The Long Run.

My dad.

Everyone really liked the band. They drew quite a crowd during their set.

While at the fair, we got to partake in one of my favorite things: turkey legs!


It's pretty cool getting to go to these things right in the middle of downtown Denver. The stage was set on Broadway, right in the middle of the street. And there were tons of booths with various arts and crafts. But we spent most of the time just watching the band play. Because they were so awesome.

Ch- Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes

Ah, Bowie...

A few things are changing around our pretty new house. And it's all good. We took advantage of the in-laws being in town last week to get some painting done. We tackled the guest bathroom and master bedroom. Plus, Matt's been working like crazy in our half-bath to change out the hideous light fixture for a pretty one. It's very exciting. For us, anyway...

New gray and black bathroom. It was bright blue before... with seashells stuck on the walls.

Soft blue in the bedroom. It was just white before, and the window fan was a dark green. We really need to get some art in here now, which we will be taking care of in the next couple weeks. We also need a new bedroom set, but I don't think we'll be getting that in the next couple weeks... unfortunately.

New light fixture.

We were very fortunate to have the expert in-laws helping us out. They really knew what they were doing... way more than we did.

And while they were here, we got to do a few fun things, too. We visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which is always fun. And we took a day trip up to Nederland. Papa Herndon got to fish, while Mom Herndon and I got to shop.

Good visit.

Sick...

For my birthday this year, I got a cold that led to a sinus infection. Yay!

But I also got other fun stuff. Tickets to an upcoming Rapids game, various books and book things, various home improvement things, and a delicious Red Lobster dinner with my husband. And most importantly, a fun time hanging out with my family... even if I wasn't feeling my best at the time.

So it was still a good birthday.

But now I have to try and get rid of this crazy infection. So I will be taking these antibiotics:


ALL of them! Three pills twice daily for two weeks. In case you're wondering, that's 84 pills. 84! I was just so amazed by this number that I had to share it with all of you.

One really good thing about being sick this past week was my Gilmore Girls marathon. I've been watching Gilmore Girls in my sick-bed whenever I'm not feeling great. It's been awesome.

Not so great part: my in-laws were in town (that's not the bad part!) and I had to hide in my sick-bed a lot. We probably didn't get to spend as much fun time together as we usually would have. But we still did some cool stuff. Stuff I will tell you about at a later time, when I'm not sick and not about to go to bed to watch more Gilmore Girls.