Spontaneity on Spring Break!

Oh, Spring Break. How wonderful you are! Over my break I did lots of homework, tried new recipes, cleaned a little, and made a fun trip to Kansas.

We have a couple of awesome friends, Dac and Alisha, who live out in Matt's hometown. We get to see them pretty often when we have family events going on, but we usually have to squeeze in our visits around all the family time. This time, we decided to switch things up: we went to visit Dac and Alisha, and we squeezed in family time around our plans with friends!


It was a pretty short trip, but we wanted to make sure we got to see everyone! We headed out late Wednesday and got in to my grandparents' house really early in the morning. It was great to visit all day Thursday. We had delicious food, prepared by my grandma, and lots of chatting. We even took a little bit of time to check out the local used bookstore. I loved it because there were three cats running all around the store.

They loved attention. When Matt sat down to look through a book, he had a friend jump up to join him.

Then we got back in the car (we spent a lot of time in the car...) to make our way to good ol' AC.

Me and my car buddy, Henry. He's a frog/pillow.

We had some family time on Thursday night. Good visiting and more good food. Friday morning, we were ready for some quality D&A time. But first, we had a date with Jerry.

Mmm. Jerry's donuts.

While Alisha was at work, Dac, Matt, and I dug around for some fun things to do around southeastern Kansas. Like disc golf!

Crouched in the trees.

Digging out discs.

Synchronized disc golf.

We needed to kill a little more time, so we went to the nearby casino. I have never gambled before, so it was an exciting side trip for me.

My first time! We got in trouble for taking this picture...

Finally, Alisha came home! We had lots of fun talking, playing games, and just being silly. It's so fun to hang out with these people!

Blokus!

Friday night, we had plans to add some more great friends, John and Anna, to our little party. Unfortunately, due to other obligations, they decided they couldn't make the two-hour drive. We were a little disappointed that our sixsome was back to a foursome. But in a hugely spontaneous move, we decided that if they couldn't come to us, we would go to them! We packed up our party, including games, drinks, and snacks, and hopped in the car for a mini road trip.

Ready to go.

We have a history of making surprise trips to see John and Anna (if one other time makes it a history). We let Anna know we were on our way, but we told her to keep it secret from John. We arrived at their door, and Matt ran in to plop on top of John.

Surprise!

Not quite as crazy as the last surprise trip, when Matt crawled into bed with John in the wee morning hours. But it was certainly a bit of a shock!

We were able to continue our previously planned evening of fun and games in a new location.

Fun times.

We said good-bye to John and Anna on Saturday morning, and headed up to Wichita to hunt for a game we'd been wanting to play since last year, when we were all stuck inside due to a Colorado snowstorm. We found the game, had a good lunch, and then went to a fun at a barbeque at Matt's folks' house. Then it was time for Settlers of Catan!

Fun game. (And yes, we put the Avs game on the computer in the background.)

Sadly, we had to head home on Sunday morning. But we had a great time with great friends!

A Beautiful Day for Skiing

Well, it's been a couple of months since we last went up to do some skiing, and we're running out of time before the season is over! We're trying to fit in a couple more ski days before all the snow is gone, so last weekend, we got my Spring Break off to a good start by heading up to Loveland.

Matt and I are both improving, though Matt at a much quicker pace than me. I'm still spending most of my time on the bunny slopes while Matt is off exploring much more difficult runs. But I'm not falling anymore, which is really the important thing.

It was a gorgeous Spring day, with crisp air and blue skies. It was one of those days that really makes me love living in Colorado.

Some runs that are way (WAY) too difficult for me.

Lots of skiers (and snowboarders).

Me, in action.

Playing in the snow is fun!

By the end of the day, Matt was able to go on a blue run a couple of times. That made me really angry, but also kind of happy. It was a fun day, and I'll be sad when the season is over. But there's still time for a little more ski fun!

Weekends are awesome - Spring Break is better

I am 3 days and counting away from Spring Break, folks! 3 DAYS AND COUNTING! I can't wait. In case you didn't know, kids act crazy during the week before Spring Break. But that's ok, because I only have 3 MORE DAYS!

Anyway, since Spring Break has not arrived, every moment that I have not been working has been especially precious. Therefore, last weekend was pretty cool.

The weekend began with an evening in an Irish pub with my folks listening to Irish music. I have no pictures of this fun evening, but some of you may know that I really wish I was Irish, so this is still worth noting. At times, I imagined that it was a real Irish pub in Ireland. Now, I'm completely looking forward to St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. My teacher is bringing green mashed potatoes!

Saturday was a huge day for one of my oldest and best friends, Melissa. She was moving into her new apartment! Matt and I went to help her move with champagne in tow!

Struggling with the bottle.

The mess.

Friends toasting!

Mel's beautiful living room furniture.

Matt's birthday was last week (I made him enchiladas and brownies) and Melissa's birthday was Sunday, so a party was certainly in order! My family came over for a bar-b-que and evening of fun!

Birthday cookie-cakes!

Blowing out the candles!

After the typical birthday activities (dinner, presents, cake), it was time for Apples to Apples!

Playing the game. I lost.

Of course, a weekend would not be complete without snowshoeing (at least not since last month)! Sunday morning, we headed out for a short hike up by Idaho Springs.

Our new shoes! Now that I know they don't suck, I can show you how pretty they are.

A pretty, wooded trail.

A clearing.

Matt.

Me.

Trees.

Us.

On our hike, we came across a campground that is usually hopping in the summer. It was kind of cool to see it covered in snow and completely abandoned.

It was a nice weekend. And soon, I will have a week-long "nice weekend"!!!!!!!!!! Yay!

A Squirrel... and Other Cool Things

Yes, I know. I've failed at the blogging thing for the last few weeks. [insert lame excuse here] Moving on...

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to do some more snowshoeing. We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park with new (and much better) snowshoes.

Look, a squirrel!

The sun was shining, and the weather was not too cold. In fact, we actually got pretty hot at times and we had to do some layer shuffling.

Walking by a snow cupcake.

Not only was the weather gorgeous, but the scenery and the terrain was pretty cool, too.

Twisted tree. Cool.

Hiking.

We climbed up to a couple of different lakes in the area.

The first lake, Mills Lake.

Dave, doing his photography thing.

Walking across the lake. This is why snowshoeing is cool; you can't be in this spot in the summer... at least not if you want to stay dry.

To head up to the next lake, we had a pretty steep climb ahead of us. It was a workout, but our new snowshoes certainly did their job.

Steep climb.

The second lake, Loch Vale.

Matt fell over. I don't know why.

The following pictures were obviously not taken by me. Again, these awesome pictures are Dave's handiwork.

Mills Lake.

"Ooh, look!"

Mills Lake.

Loch Vale.

After our hike, the guys had beer waiting. The beer they'd worked so hard on had been fermenting for a couple of weeks, and it was time to bottle. I, as usual, had tons of homework, so I hid in the back and worked. I seem to do that a lot.

Beer.

In a couple of weeks the beer will finally be ready for drinking. And that's my favorite part.