Kelly's Not as Strenuous - But Still Fun! - Weekend

Because Matt was off on his boys' trip (see previous post), I had to find a way to entertain myself this weekend. On Friday night, my mom and I went to see August: Osage County at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We had wanted to see the show when we were in New York last year, but didn't get the chance. So when we saw that the Broadway tour was coming to Denver, we had to get tickets.


I really enjoyed the experience of seeing the show with my mom, and getting to discuss it after. The show itself? It was quite good, but not as great as we'd expected. It won many awards on Broadway, including the Tony for best play, so we were expecting this amazing evening of theatre. Unfortunately, for various reasons, it didn't deliver quite like we'd hoped. But it was an interesting show, and it was fun getting to go with my mom.

Each summer, my sisters and I make a trip to our local Renaissance Festival north of Colorado Springs. Matt's never been as much of a fan of the festival as the rest of us, and with him gone Saturday, it was a good day to make our trek.

On our way.

So excited.

The whole idea of a Renaissance Festival is really pretty odd, yet it is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. Most of the time, we just stand around outside in the dirt, have some food and drinks, and look at pretty things that are usually too expensive to buy. Occasionally, we'll watch some of the silly jousting shows. But somehow, it's still so much fun!

Cheers!

A few of the crazy people who worked at the festival. They were funny.

The kiddos, about to enter the maze.

Chris bought beautiful flowers for his wife and daughter. They left the baby with Grandma. Probably smart, given the heat, sun, and dirt.

Salem also bought flowers for her girls. Aww, happy family. Just look how Salem looks lovingly at her daughter.

While at the festival, we saw Dog the Bounty Hunter. So... that was cool.

Dog.

The kiddos got their faces painted.

The joust.

After the festival, we tried to have an impromptu birthday party for my brother-in-law, as Matt and I will be out of town next week during his actual birthday. Unfortunately, we were all so tired from the day, that we weren't a lot of fun.

Sleepy.

I guess we'll just have to owe you a good party, Chris!

Sunday, we celebrated my dad's birthday with a little bar-b-que gathering. It was quite exciting because Matt wasn't around to grill. I channeled my "inner man" and made some pretty good brats and hot dogs. I was a little proud.

As a gift to my dad, my sisters and I framed some of my dad's old 45s. As in 45s my dad recorded back in the 70s. There were a few of his songs that he performed with Fyre, his band at the time. There was also one he recorded himself, and one he produced. It ended up looking pretty darn good. But I forgot to get a picture of the end product before he took it home, so I'll have to add it later.

Well, I may not have climbed a mountain this weekend, but I had a pretty good time. Matt looked like he had a great weekend, too. I guess I may need to make him take me along next time!

Matt's Backpacking Weekend

I was informed by my wife that it wouldn't make much sense for her to write a blog post about my weekend, so today's post is guest-written by me (Matt). I'm sure you're excited.

Anyway, one of my friends at work is a pretty outdoorsy kind of guy, so he invited me and another coworker to go for a short overnight backpacking trip this past weekend. We headed west from Fort Collins to the Rawah Wilderness for a trek up to Twin Crater Lakes. Anyway, I'll just get right to it.

Joe (who matched WAY too well for a backpacking trip) and his dog Katie, who made an appearance back here.

Katie wasn't much of a fan of crossing the narrow bridges along the trail, so she opted for a less dry approach.

Katie crossing the stream.

Even in July, there's plenty of snow to be found up above 11,000' or so. However, it's always melting, which makes for some pretty cool formations.

A snow bridge along the way.

After about 4 hours and 7 or so miles, we arrived at our destination. This is one of the two "twin" lakes, though you can just see the back lake as well if you look really closely.

Twin Crater Lakes

Dave's quite the photographer, so we had a number of photo stops during the trip.

Dave doin' his thing.

Dave wanted to catch the sunrise to get some shots, so we woke up at around 5am. I managed to drag myself out of bed and get a couple decent shots myself (though I'm looking forward to seeing how Dave's turned out).

A mountain about 30 minutes before sunrise. You might need to up the brightness/contrast on your screen to see this one, but it's one of my favorites.

Sunrise over the valley.

We didn't waste any time and promptly got on the trail heading back down.

Our campsite was right in the middle of this pic. It was about the flattest area we could find.

Pretty cool cascade on the way down.

A few bluebells in an aspen grove near the trailhead. Figured Kelly would enjoy this one.

Anyway, that was the trip. Weekends in the mountains certainly make it hard not to like Colorado!

Impromptu Mini Vacation - Part 2

We woke up much later than we'd planned on Sunday morning, so we quickly packed up our camp so we could get on the trail before it got too much later. We chose to hike the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park because it was very close to our camp. It was a ten mile hike - round trip, with lots of beautiful sights on the way.

Our first stop was at the Calypso Cascades. We took a couple quick pictures and kept moving.

At the Calypso Cascades.

Calypso Cascades.

Along the trail.

The second stop was Ouzel Falls.

Ouzel Falls.

Toward the top of our "mountain," the trail took us through an area that had been hit by a fire years and years ago. It's interesting how different the terrain was.

Toward the "top."

Almost at the end. This waterfall doesn't have a fancy name, but it was still pretty.

Our final destination was Ouzel Lake.

Ouzel Lake.

The rain clouds came out a little at the lake, so before we started our trek down, we donned our awesome rain panchos.

We're so stylish.

But the sun came out pretty quickly on the way back down, so we didn't have to wear them for long. As a matter of fact, it got pretty darn hot towards the end.

Matt, enjoying a little bit of shade.

It was a very different hike from the big mountains we'd been doing the last few weeks. Mostly because it was so much lower in elevation. But it was still a pretty good climb.

We were on our way home after our hike. It was nice to get out of the city for a couple days, and it felt much more like a vacation than we thought it would. But back to the grind... for Matt, anyway. I'm on Summer Break!!

Impromptu Mini Vacation - Part 1

Matt and I decided we wanted to go camping last weekend, but we weren't sure we'd be able to find an open campsite. So we headed up toward the mountains Saturday morning, unsure of what we would find or what we would do. It ended up turning into a pretty nice little vacation.

We grabbed the last spot available at the first campsite we visited. It wasn't as secluded as we would have liked, but it was still pretty nice.

Our little tent.

Because we found a spot so quickly, we had the entire day to kill. We were up near Estes, so we decided to head over Trail Ridge Road. It's always a pretty drive.

Pretty mountains.

Unfortunately, it's very crowded on the weekend. And some of the visitors don't respect the environment as much as they should. So I took pictures so I could gripe about them on my blog.

You may not be able to read it, but the sign tells all visitors that we were in a "Tundra Restoration Zone." Basically, walking on the Tundra will cause death and destruction, and is not allowed. Sadly, some of the park visitors didn't know how to read.

I had a hard time keeping myself from yelling at the people off the trail. We also saw an awesome teenager who stood off the trail throwing rocks at chipmunks while his entire family (parents, grandparents, etc.) stood around watching. I told Matt that every time the kid threw a rock at the wildlife, I should get to throw one at him. But I didn't. I minded my own business, and tried to not let it ruin my day.

We saw some pretty elk, which helped cheer me up.

Elk.

It was super pretty at the "top" of the drive.

A chipmunk.

Sadly, we did not see any marmots.

We decided to head all the way over the ridge to Grand Lake.

They were having some sort of festival with lots of people.

We walked around town and had a nice dinner before taking a short walk up to see a pretty waterfall.

The lake viewed from the trailhead to the falls.

Matt on the trail.

The pretty waterfall.

When we started the drive back over Trail Ridge Road, the sun was beginning to set. Beautiful. It was much less busy, and all of the wildlife started coming out for the evening.

An elk.

At the top, we tried to spot some marmots again. And right before we left, we saw one! It was very exciting.

A marmot.

Ahh, so pretty.

Back at the campsite, we had s'mores and hot dogs before heading to bed. We had to be up early for our hike the next morning.

Which I will post about later. I wouldn't want to overload you with the millions of pictures I took!

Completely obsessed!

I am, that is. I am completely obsessed with Harry Potter.

The new movie came out yesterday and, of course, Matt and I went to see it. I had tickets purchased a week early and I had been re-watching the movies and re-reading the sixth book to fully prepare myself for the awesomeness.

I had to get into the proper HP mood (as if it takes much) before leaving to see the movie, so I enjoyed a "butterbeer" while reading my book.

The butterbeer is basically one ounce butterscotch schnapps to a cup of cream soda or ginger ale. It was delicious. And very magical.

I made Matt rush home from work so we could get to the theatre ridiculously early. I thought it would be crazy busy.


It wasn't. We were the first in the theatre. I must have been the only obsessed fan in the audience for that showing. But the theatre filled up before the show started.

Here we are, excited for the movie to start. Or at least I am. I think Matt's just pretending.

The sixth book is my favorite (though my favorite book seems to change daily), so I really wanted this movie to be good. In general, I liked it. But I'm not sure I can make a real judgment until I've seen it again. Maybe seven or eight times.

After seeing the movie and reading the book over the last couple of days, I am now in a "Harry Potter-induced funk." I get this way sometimes. I can't get my mind out of the HP world. Even when I'm not consciously thinking about the story, I just feel funky. The idea of it all being over saddens me immensely.

Tonight, Matt suggested we re-watch all the movies from the beginning. I was thrilled to hear him say this. So, now we're watching the first movie, while I read HP things online, occassionally leafing through one of the seven books piled next to me. Completely obsessed!