It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ahh, the weather is getting warmer. The trees and flowers are blooming. I love Spring!

Usually, Summer is my favorite time of year, but I'm currently loving Spring and all it brings. Yesterday, Matt and I got out to enjoy two of my favorite things about this time of year: hiking and playoff hockey!

The first hike we ever took together in Colorado was a short, but moderately steep (at times) hike to Mallory Cave by Boulder. We've gone back a couple of times since that first hike in March of 2008 to see how far we've grown in our hiking ability (and to see if we're in better shape!). So yesterday, we headed to Mallory Cave again for our first hike of the season, and we definitely handled it a little better than we did that first day!

A couple of odd trees that we always remember as a landmark. A weird bonzai-looking tree in the middle of the trail, and an awesome twisted tree.

Trees.

Matt at the end of the hike. You can't actually get to the cave from April to October, but we still got a decent view out of it.

Boulder.

A view of the building where we started our hike... and Boulder in the background.

I always love this time of year because of playoff hockey, but my excitement obviously varies depending on whether or not my Avs are playing. Well, this year they are! Last night, Matt and I headed to the third game of round one against the San Jose Sharks (boo!).

The ice crew started dancing to Michael Jackson when they came out to clean the ice. It was funny.

Though the game was low-scoring (or no-scoring until overtime), it was an extremely exciting game. We had a blast, and even though I had homework waiting at home, we were still excited when the game when to overtime. But we didn't have to stay too late because the Avs scored 51 seconds in to overtime! It was a bizarre bounce, but we'll take it!

So excited! We won!

Our goalie made an amazing 51 saves throughout the game, so the crowd was chanting, "Andy! Andy!" all through the arena. It was very exciting.

Final score!

Yay! We won!

The Avs lead the series 2-1 now. We're excited to see where they go next!

And I'm very excited for more hiking! Yay, I love hiking and camping and shorts and flip-flops and concerts and barbeques! Yay summer!

Scavenger Hunts Aren't Just for Kids

If there's one thing I'm pretty proud of, it's that I've managed to turn my husband into a Colorado Avalanche fan. I've followed the team since I was 12, so I'm thrilled that Matt now shares that love with me. But I never suspected that he would actually surpass me in the level of obsession for the team. He's now reading tons of articles about the games, and following multiple Avalanche bloggers. But hey, at least he's enjoying himself.

Anyway, one of the bloggers for the Denver Post was having a little Avs-themed scavenger hunt the other day. When Matt saw online that a group of items (a book, a Patrick Roy rookie card, and a ticket from the very first Colorado Avalanche game) was hidden somewhere in our neck of the woods, we headed out to find it.

In the dark, looking for Avs stuff.

I suppose it wasn't a true scavenger hunt, because we were only given one pretty specific clue and we were only looking for one item (or group of items). But regardless, it was fun. Melissa is not a huge fan of the Avalanche, but she is a fan of adventures and fun stuff, so she came along, too.

Melissa.

The initial clue made us think the location was right down the street from us, at some water towers just a few blocks away. So we went climbing hills and walking through snow until we realized there was no way to get past the fence with barbed wire, designed to keep punks like us out. Matt was checking the website on his phone, and a second mini-clue was given: the name of a bar not too far away. So we were off to a second location.

We found another pair of water towers behind the bar, and there sat a giant pile of rocks. We were sure this was the right location, so we started digging.

Sadly, we didn't find anything in the rocks. After looking around, and still not finding a thing, Matt saw online that we were too late and the Patrick Roy rookie card was long gone. While we were traipsing around the wrong water towers, someone had beaten us to our prize.

Oh, well. We had fun climbing hills and digging through rocks. And I've decided that this should become a monthly event. Who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt?

We didn't win, but we had fun.

On another note, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Matt and I took it pretty easy. We watched the Olympics and made a nice dinner at home:

Matt even put a candle on the table. See how romantic we are?

And we bought snowshoes:

Yay, snowshoes!

So next time we have to go climbing hills looking for Avalanche memorabilia, we can wear our snowshoes.

Sing and Dance (la la la hey...)

We started out last week by singing and dancing the night away. But not to DMB, as my title suggests (though that would have been awesome). Maybe instead I should say we started out the week takin' it easy and listening to some great Eagles music, as performed by my dad's awesome band, The Long Run.


The band was playing at a pretty cool, old opera house up in Longmont. Most of my family went out to have some fun!

Everyone loved them. The dance floor was packed!

You may remember my dad's band from earlier this summer. They are Colorado's tribute to the Eagles, and they're really good.

The women in my family had to get up and dance! Sadly, the men (my husband and brother-in-law) did not join us.

Later in the week, we enjoyed one of our favorite activities: an Avs' game!

There was a super cute kid sitting in front of us, who made a sign for the game. When they left to go to the bathroom, I was able to sneak a picture:

This picture is actually upside-down so you can read it. Super cute, huh?

This time, we were able to go to the game with my folks and my aunt in honor of my aunt's birthday. Sadly, we lost. And we lost to the same team at the last game we attended. Oh, well. It was fun, and our guys still have pretty good chances for the playoffs!

Before we lost.

On a completely unrelated note, I got a new toy:

My inversion table!

Finally, this weekend, we had another birthday. With my expanding family all living so close, it seems like we have a birthday party every weekend! This one was for one of my nieces. It was a surprise party, so we all got to hide and look silly.

Waiting...

After we surprised the kid, she ran away and hid upstairs for awhile. Once she decided to come back down and join us, we were able to do all the traditional birthday stuff.

So we had lots of fun singing and dancing this week, since I basically sing and dance wherever I go. Try and find some time to sing and dance in your life!

Fun Things That Make Me Tired

Wow. December is a hard month. I feel behind on everything, and I'm busy all the time. But somehow, I've found the time to have a little fun, too.

Way back, more than a week ago, I did something I'd never done before. I went with a friend to Tracks Nightclub in Denver. On the first Friday of every month, they have a huge ladies' night, aptly named "First Friday." It's the "largest monthly women's dance party in the US." Soo... that's cool.


The thing that made this experience so different for me was that Tracks is club that caters mostly to the GLBT community. I was a little nervous about being a straight girl at a "gay club," but I ended up having a really good time. The great thing about the gay and lesbian community is that they're so accepting of everyone. It was a lot of fun, and I think I'll be going again.

Last week, it was cold. I mean REALLY cold. We accidentally forgot about the cooler full of drinks that we left outside after Thanksgiving weekend. We ended up with a pretty interesting ice sculpture.

Frozen solid.

The freezing cold weather made it very difficult to leave our nice, warm house. But leave it we did. On Wednesday, we headed out to support our Avs! We're pretty big hockey fans (I'm so proud to have influenced Matt in this), so we're always excited to see them in action.

Yay hockey!

Thanks to some connections of Matt, we got awesome seats. In fact, I've never been that close. We were in the lower level, ROW 8!! It was very exciting.

Look how close!

Sadly, our boys lost. But it was still a good time. And we got to see some way cute little kids at intermission.

Look how cute! We loved the way the little league kids just swarmed after the puck in one giant mass. It was fun.

Last night, we ventured up to Fort Collins to hang out with some friends. We had delicious food, good beer, and fun times. As a result, I am very tired. In fact, I've been exhausted this whole week. But it's been worth it. In the craziness of the holidays, it's vital to make time for fun (often non-holiday related) activities.

Let's Go Avalanche!

Last night, my dad and I went to the Colorado Avalanche game against the Ottawa Senators. We won!!! Yay!!! And it was lots of fun.

It's kinda awesome to have the spare time to do things like this again. Theatre steals all my free time.

But anyway, the game was awesome. We went to Old Chicago for dinner, and then made our way over to the stadium.

The almighty Pepsi Center in Denver.

The place was pretty empty. We got there really early, so it was dead at first. But it didn't even fill up much once the game started. The Avs haven't been doing too well recently, so the fans have become lame.

The view from our seats. We were pretty high up, but we could see everything!!!

They had a Littleton pee-wee team playing at the intermissions. They were cute.

And then there were the big guys. They were a little better than the pee-wees... But just a little.

And these were the "nice" gentlemen who showed up during the second period. They sat in front of me and leaned forward the whole time. So this was my view. Oh, well. That's kinda just what you deal with at live sporting events. They fit in really nicely with the extremely obnoxious guy behind us who really like the sound of his own voice.

We won in overtime. So that's good. I doubt it will really matter much in the playoff race, but I can still hope! It could happen!

Oh, and I took all these pictures on my new phone! Yay!

It's purple! Which is awesome!

I obviously didn't take these pictures on my phone. That would be weird.

Matt got the same phone in black. So we have his and her phones! But not because we're lame and want to have matching phones. We just both like the same one.

And really, the main reason I chose mine is because it's PURPLE!