Happy 4th of July!

Some people may think it's a little weird to wait until the middle of August to blog about the 4th of July. Not me. With all the stress and sadness of summer's end and the return to school, I knew that I would need a pick-me-up. I chose to hold off on this post until now so I could relive the fun of the holiday. The delay has nothing to do with the fact that I've been really behind on blogging all summer. Nothing at all.

Anyway, you may remember from my last post (if you can think back that far...) that some of our awesome friends came to visit us in order to help Matt with his fireworks show. This year, Matt left the country club behind and moved to bigger and better things. He was the lead pyrotechnician on the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce show, which was the first show put on in the city in 20 years!

While the boys (Matt, John, Dac, and Alex, along with my brother-in-law, George, and our friend, Rick) were setting up during the hottest day of the summer...

Alisha and I stayed cool by shopping in air-conditioned stores. Then we came home and took a nap. It was rough.

After our relaxing day, we loaded up my car with dinner and LOTS of water/gatorade to take down to the guys. By four o'clock, the six boys had gone through an entire case of water and an entire case of gatorade. And they were feeling pretty desperate for more! Like I said, it was HOT!

Needless to say, our arrival with provisions was greeted pretty positively. The guys took a short break for lasagna and goodies...

Then it was back to work.

Alisha and I got our work-out by hauling our cooler and chairs to the other side of the lake to get ready to watch the show. Then we continued our trend of exerting little to no energy by sitting by the lake for 3 hours! My family quickly joined us to "support" Matt and the guys.

Playing and waiting for the show to start!

Finally, it was time!

So pretty!

It was a GREAT show! The guys did a fantastic job and everyone loved it. In fact, Matt got rave reviews from the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and many other people who saw the show. We're hopeful and optimistic that he'll get to do the same show next year. And maybe the excitement of blowing things up will continue to draw our friends out for more fun visits!

Happy Independence Day (in August...)!

Beer, Mountains, and Friends... and Then More Beer

It's nice to have friends.

But it's sad when friends live so far, far away. Luckily for us, we have an awesome state that entices people to come visit us. Of course, the fact that they kind of like us may have something to do with it, but it's mostly all of the cool things we have here in Colorado. Like lots of different breweries.

Over July 4th weekend, we managed to entice some visitors with the promise of beer, mountains, and fireworks. Matt had another 4th of July show, so he needed lots of manly help. Our good friends John, Dac, and Alex were up for the challenge, and Dac's wife (and one of my favorite people), Alisha, came to turn the whole thing into an awesome vacation.

When everyone arrived on Friday night, we first had to venture out for provisions. Like Matt, the guys are all big beer snobs. And what better place to explore new beers than Colorado? We headed to the store, and returned with sixty-some different bottles of beer. While it was meant to last six people four days (and we had leftovers!), it still seemed like a lot. But the guys wanted variety, and variety they got.

The rest of the night was spent playing with YouTube videos and looking at funny college pictures of John. John was pretty funny in college.

John, sometime in 2004.

The next day, we were off for...

DAY ONE - Beer Day

One of our favorite places to visit in the state of Colorado is the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. We've toured the place a couple of times, and we LOVE the mentality of the company. Employee-owned, environmentally friendly, and fun! We had to show it off.

New Belgium stuff.

Despite the brief fear that I would have to sit all alone while everyone else went on the tour (there were only five spots available), I managed to squeeze into the place of a no-show at the last minute! Woohoo!

Fun going behind the scenes with Bernie, our tour guide. John was very happy.

Pretty.

At the end of the tour, we got to ride a fun slide - just because New Belgium is awesome like that.

Whee!

Of course, we couldn't hit up Fort Collins without checking out the other awesome beer places. We had lunch at our favorite FC haunt, Choice City Deli, then headed to Fort Collins Brewery for more tasters.

FCB!

That night, we were pretty pooped. We sat around our little fire pit, enjoying the beautiful Colorado weather and S'MORES!

Fire!

The following day was...

DAY TWO: Mountain Day

We had to show off some great views of our state, but we really wanted to do something we hadn't done before. So, instead of the typical Trail Ridge Road drive (which is beautiful), we chose to drive to the top of Mt. Evans so Matt and I could experience something new, too!

So pretty.

Near the top, there is a pull-off for Summit Lake. Because John's phobia of mountain roads caused him to freak out during the drive, we made the stop to check out the beauty and give John a breather.

Obligatory pretty-scenery photo op.

John decided not to continue on the narrowing road, so the rest of us finished the drive to the summit without him. It was probably a wise decision because the road got a little scary at points. But we made it, along with MILLIONS of other people.

Ah, the serenity of nature.

After parking towards the top, there was a little trail to make it to the official summit. Matt, Dac, and I fought the altitude and summitted! Of course, it's not quite as rewarding to summit a fourteener without actually climbing it, but the view is still spectacular.

Wow.

At the summit and the almost-summit parking area.

Once we picked up John for the trek back down, we decided that he needed to relax. What better place to chill out than the Mellow Mushroom, a cool little pizza place downtown with TONS of beers on tap? And what better activity to continue the fun than Settlers of Catan?

Fun times.

While we'd had a blast all weekend, the big event was yet to come. The next day, it was time to blow some stuff up!