Weekend Ski Trip

At this point, it should be no surprise to you that my husband is completely obsessed with skiing. And while I love it too, it's a little easier for me to start getting bored doing the same thing over and over. Every weekend we drive for way too long, ski places we're pretty familiar with, and get stuck in traffic on the long drive home. Don't get me wrong, I still get excited to do it. It's just that, every now and then, I need a little change.

Early in the new year, we turned our weekend skiing into a little more of a vacation. And I like vacations. We went up to Steamboat Springs for two days with our friend, Dave. Really, it was the perfect plan for us. Matt got two days of skiing new (to us) terrain with his buddy, and I got a hotel stay and some vacation-y small town exploration. Awesome.

After our long, but beautiful sunrise drive on Saturday morning, we went straight to the resort. The temperature in town was a little terrifying (-20 degrees Fahrenheit), but thanks to the lovely inversion effect, it actually wasn't too bad at the top of the mountain.

Skiing! My favorite run was Frying Pan, just because of the name.

Matt and Dave

After a lovely day of skiing (and a little sitting and resting for me while the guys went crazy), we attempted hanging out in downtown Steamboat. We had tapas and drinks at Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill before enjoying dinner at the famous Rio. (It's actually a small Colorado chain called Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, but it's generally referred to as The Rio. It's pretty famous across the metro area for delicious, but strong margaritas.) While our two stops were enjoyable, that was about all we saw of the town. It was just way too cold to wander the streets or pop in and out of shops. We gave up early, hit the pool and hot tub at the hotel, and retired for the night. After all, we had to be well-rested for day 2 of skiing!

Pretty morning.

The second day was pretty good for me. I felt like I was going a little faster than usual, and I didn't even crap out early.

After a quick pizza stop, we had to head back to Denver. But it was certainly nice to get out of town for a couple of days. It's amazing how easy it is to head up in the mountains and forget about your worries back in town. It's like a short vacation. And I like vacations.

Christmas Again

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone again. It may make me sound old, but it seems like it comes faster each year.

Christmas was a little bittersweet this year. Not only did it occur mere days after my Grandfather's funeral, but everything was so hectic and frazzled that I didn't feel like I could really enjoy the holiday. But time with friends and family should always be cherished.

My family did our traditional Christmas Eve gift exchange at our house this year. I made oyster stew in honor of Grandpa (though I didn't eat any of it - YUCK) and potato soup (which I ate lots of). We had lots of delicious other snacks, too. And of course, there were lots of presents.

Pretty tree and pretty presents.

Eating.

Daddy told the Nativity story before we opened presents.

Present time! Salem slapped some duct tape on her present, just like Grandpa used to.

Go Broncos!

On Christmas Day we had a big dinner at my parents' house, with meat, potatoes, and all the trimmings. Plus some delicious desserts. Then some of us went to see Les Miserables, which was pretty awesome. Anne Hathaway = awesome. Really.

A few very short days after Christmas we were on our way back to Kansas to have Christmas with Matt's family. First, we stopped in El Dorado to see Grandma. Like so many times before, we watched football together, visited about life and family, and ate a delicious meal cooked by my grandmother. But this was the first such occasion without Grandpa, which made the experience bittersweet. It was tough to leave and make our way down to Matt's folks' house, but we were also excited to enjoy time with his family. 

After our family's little gift exchange, we made our plans to wake early in the morning to head down to Oklahoma City for our Christmas celebration with extended family. Sadly, Matt's uncle got ridiculously sick, resulting in the entire event being cancelled. We tried to salvage the day by meeting a cousin at Olive Garden, but the rest of the time was spent watching football and relaxing.

Our last day of our little Christmas trip, was supposed to include a fun gathering of our friends and their beautiful children, but we had some cancellations on that day, too. At least we were still able to see our buddies Dac and Alisha and their new baby, Reid. Baby and friend time was fun! And I was able to give little Reid his Christmas present.

It was a little monster I made! I made one for Ruby (John and Anna's kiddo), too, and I was told she liked it when she opened it at home.

And then, on the first day of the new year, we finally headed home and tried to settle down into normalcy. But, while I can't deny that this holiday season was funky, sad, and stressful, it was also great to see family and friends. 

I Heart Music

When thinking about fun things to do in Colorado, my mind usually goes to all the awesome outdoor activities. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Denver also has some amazing cultural events. And since we're a pretty big city, we also get a lot of great music acts coming through. Over the last few months, we've been able to check out a few different groups, from large popular bands to local artists who we actually know.

The first of our series of concerts was back in April when we went to see one of our favorite bands for a second time. Since the last concert, fun. has completely exploded in mainstream music. I'm sure anyone reading this has heard their recent hit from their new album, "We Are Young." While I'm very happy they're having so much success, I definitely miss the days when no one knew who they were (because I'm hipster like that). But they still put on a really good live show, just with a few more audience members.

After the opening act, Sleeper Agent...

Sleeper Agent was pretty good.

Then it was time for fun.!

Rocking out at the Ogden!

My favorite part of the show was when the whole back-up band left the stage, leaving just the three main members. They played my favorite song ever ("Be Calm") with a sort of unplugged vibe. Super cool.

While we'll continue to love fun. despite their massive mainstream success, their surge in popularity is certainly making it difficult to keep seeing their shows. Apparently, they recently announced an upcoming show in Denver, and sold out before we'd even heard about it. Guess we'll be waiting for the next time round.

A couple weeks later, I got to have a girls' night out at a concert with my buddy Melissa. We went to see Ingrid Michaelson in Boulder. She's a very "girls' night out" type of artist, and that's cool.

The opening act, Harper Blynn, was also pretty cool:

Then Ingrid rocked out. She played some songs with her back-up band and others alone on her piano. The whole band even came out front and sang a song a cappella. And she told some pretty funny stories, too.

Our final music event of the spring was a CD release party for Instant Empire, a local band whose lead singer happens to be an old co-worker of Matt's. The show was at a cool little pizza place/live music venue called The Walnut Room. It was a little hipster, so it was entertaining watching all the people drinking PBR in their flannel shirts. Then I realized that I was wearing skinny jeans, thick-rimmed glasses, and my Zooey Deschanel bangs, so I totally fit right in with the hipster crowd. Oh, well...

Anyway, the show was awesome, and it was super cool to know someone in the band. Of course, they had a lot of their friends and family there to support the release of their CD, so a lot of the audience knew the band... but we were still super cool.

See? Super cool.

Rocking out. And eating out.

Random lemur that seems to be their mascot...

It was a fun night, and it certainly made me want to see more live music in Denver. Luckily, we have a couple fun cultural/musical events coming up!

Mini Vacations

As you may have noticed, I'm a little behind on posting about the goings-on in our lives. With a very busy schedule and a new blogger interface that makes posting take forever, I just wasn't sure if it was worth it - especially considering my measly number of readers. But, as you may have read in my last post, I have a renewed interest in documenting my life - particularly my experiences in Colorado.

Ironically, this first post has nothing to do with Colorado...

Anyway, it may take me a little while to fully catch up on everything that has happened these last few months. But I suppose one good thing about being so behind is that I can connect two events of a similar subject in one post, even if they happened weeks and weeks apart. For example, during my spring semester (I can't help but separate all events in my life into semesters: fall, spring, and summer), I took a couple of mini-vacations to get some breaks from school. The first was way back in February when Matt and I flew to Washington state to visit friends who recently moved up there. Katie is completing her residency for veterinary surgery in Pullman, WA, so she and Dave will be living there for the three years of the program. Hopefully, they'll make their way back to good ol' Colorado when the three years are up.

While the weekend was a short one, it involved lots of beer and skiing. And lots of hanging out, too.

After saying hi to Roxie and Kanzi...

We went to check out all Pullman and the surrounding area had to offer. Which was basically the college (Washington State University), a few restaurants and breweries, and some grizzly bears. Yup, grizzly bears:

Behind the many fences are the bears. They're a part of the Bear Center, which is a research and conservation program associated with the university.

A couple of the restaurants we visited. An old European place with awesome potato pancakes, and a delicious fine dining restaurant where Matt had the best steak he's ever had. Yum.

Beer! Palouse Falls Brewing Co.

On day 2, we made our way to Dave's local ski resort a couple of hours away. These pictures might look familiar because I think I already included them in my skiing post. Oh, well. It's always fun to look at ski pictures.

At Silver Mountain Ski Resort in Idaho.

Driving through Idaho and Washington.

It was a nice trip, and it was great to see Dave and Katie.

The second mini-vacation was a girls' camping trip to Moab, Utah during my spring break. I was super excited to go to a destination I've been wanting to visit for years, but it was a little bittersweet because I went without Matt.. While I really value girl-time and time with friends, I also love sharing my experiences with my husband. Fortunately, I only saw a fraction of what Moab has to offer, so we'll definitely go back sometime.

Camping!

We basically had one full day to see Arches National Park. We tried to hit the big sights, which included the Windows, Delicate Arch, and Landscape Arch.

Viewing an arch from the underside.

Walking around at the Windows.

Besties!

Hiking to Delicate Arch.

At Delicate Arch.

Meryn climbing something. She did this a lot, and it got a little boring standing around as she climbed random rock after random rock. This was, like, the10th thing she climbed. At least she was having fun!

Walking to Landscape Arch.

Landscape Arch.

After a night of awkward camping on the side of the road (a little planning goes a long way, kids) and a breakfast by the river....

We went to Dead Horse Point before Kirsten and I headed home. Amazing views!

Look how close I got to the edge!

It's always nice to get out of town for a couple of days, and it helps me keep my sanity at my stressful job.