More Summer Fun

August has arrived, and with it the promise of lots of adventure and excitement in the Big D household.  Our summer thus far has been pretty low key, considering that we moved and had all that painting to do, so we haven't been able to chase many adventures this year.  But, now that we're settled, we can give you the Official Tour!  (just click on the link)

Tour of our New Home

My Uncle Dave, Aunt Ally, and cousin Chris moved to the great state of Colorado in June.  We've had a fabulous fun time hanging out with them!  We spent the 4th of July at their place, and despite the fact that our BBQ got rained out and we cooked the burgers and dogs on the stove-top, we had such a fun time.

Dora on the way to Uncle Dave's - There's too much wind, mom!

That's better.  How come Bill doesn't want to be in the picture?  Too bad!

Yummy patriotic cake that Aunt Ally made

Uncle Dave made a valiant effort to grill our dinner - but got soaked in the process.

 Chris and I have been seeking adventure together, since I have some free time during the week.  One week we hiked at Devil's Backbone:

Vista of Devil's Backbone

Devil's Backbone is a portion of a long open-space trail in the Longmont area (north of where we live, between here and Fort Collins) which has these amazing rock formations that resemble the spine of a dragon.  The scenery, paired with the heat of the unshaded trail, makes its title seem very appropriate.  We hiked about 6 miles that day before it got too warm.  It was Dora's longest hike to date, and I could tell toward the end of the hike that she was on a mission to get back to the car!  Gone was the puppy who zig-zagged along the trail, sniffing every scent and bounding through the tall grasses...now she was bee-lining it for the trail head without so much as a look back to make sure I was following.  :)

Dora posing at the Devil's Backbone keyhole

It doesn't happen very often that I can actually wear that pup out.  She's a never ending fount of energy!


The following week, we had another adventure - but this time, it was more concrete than wilderness.

Chris posing at One Mile Above Seal Level on the Capitol Building steps

We decided to spend the day in downtown Denver, which is a different kind of hiking.  We must have walked at least 4 miles that day through the concrete jungle.  I took Chris, a fellow book-lover, to the Tattered Cover - a fantastic old bookstore which is a landmark in Denver.  We made long lists of books we want to read, but only left with one which we are sharing custody of.  I've since finished it and sent it on for its stay with its other owner.

Next, we walked along the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian strip of shops, restaurants, street performers, and the largest concentration of Starbucks we have ever experienced.  We had lunch at the Paramount Cafe - delectable Falafel Pitas with Red Pepper Hummus and fries (the sweet potato fries are to die for, but Chris does not agree).

Nom Nom Nom

After lunch, we continued down the 16th Street Mall and ended up at the Capitol, where we attempted to sneak our way into the dome.  Alas, it was locked and heavily guarded by polo-shirt clad volunteers.  Boo.

The Capitol Building

After exploring the interior of the Capitol and making fun of all the Presidential portraits, we crossed the grassy knoll and ended up at the Denver Art Museum.

Chris was swept away by the awesomeness of the Denver art scene

The King Tut exhibit is visiting Denver right now, so the museum was packed with grannies and school-aged children, but we were not interested in Tut.  We started out exploring the American and European art, then tooled through the Asian art, then because we were bored we went straight to Contemporary art for the good stuff!

"Fox Games" at the Denver Art Museum

We both thoroughly enjoyed the Contemporary art, whether truly appreciating it or making fun of it.  That's what Contemporary art is all about!

After wearing ourselves out walking around the Denver Art Museum, we headed back to the 16th Street Mall to refresh ourselves with, you guessed it, Starbucks.

What a great day!  We came back home and had a wonderful steak and potato dinner with some refreshing Colorado micro-brews. 

In just a couple days, we are going to be blessed with a visit from two of my most favorite people in the world, and we will have LOTS of adventures with them.  Stay tuned!  It's only just begun!

A Summer of Changes

If you had asked us only two months ago if we had any plans to move out of our little apartment soon, we would have told you we were moving at the end of the year.  Little did we know that God had other plans for us this summer!  When Bill and I moved to Colorado a year and a half ago, we started out in a little one-bedroom apartment - 759 square feet of cozy living space - with our two kitties and very little furniture.  Over the almost 18 months following our move, the Lord blessed us so we were able to purchase some new furniture, a kick-A** TV and surround sound system, and a bouncing, energetic puppy girl.  Our one-bedroom apartment quickly changed from a cozy home into a crowded space in which we were always tripping over something or someone.

We started casually scoping out the market for a bigger place to live, carefully researching rent prices and square-footage.  And then we found our new home!  Somewhat unexpectedly, we found ourselves falling in love with a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 1250 square foot townhouse with an extra 600 square feet of unfinished basement.  It is in a lovely, quiet neighborhood just north of our previous home, and right across the street from a pretty little lake and open space.  Suddenly, we were moving.

Once we got all our belongings moved, we had to paint.  Although the townhouse is in great shape, the color scheme chosen by the owner did not fit our tastes.  We spent our first week in our new home painting our bedroom, the living room, and the dining room, and unpacking as much as we could.  I still have to paint the guest bedroom!

Our bedroom was a shade of purple that my mom would love, but we hated.  Must.  Be.  Painted.

You can see the in the contrast between our accent wall color and the old color just how "lilac" it was.  Very girly, and not at all coherent with our color scheme.

Isn't that better?  Obviously, the new wall colors complement our dark-wood furniture and linens perfectly.  Don't you love it when a plan comes together?  :)

And then there was the living room - a color we liked to call "Push-pop Orange".

The dining area was a very pale pinkish tone; we decided to paint the entire space in a pale golden yellow known as "Stable Hay".

It's much better now, and although I don't have a picture of it finished, we will post a video tour later which will welcome you to our newly painted home!

The kitties love the windows in our new place...

...but still don't really appreciate having their pictures taken.

And of course, Dora is excited about everything.  She loves (and just HAS) to be involved in every little going-on that happens here.  She is especially excited about the new critters who live around our home - ducks, rabbits, and weird insects.  It's a veritable smorgasbord of scents and adventure for a pup!

Our little "Explorer" has been having a lot of fun lately.  More on that later!

The weekend before the Big Move, Bill and I went up to Keystone for Bill's annual summer regional meeting.  It came at a perfect time, since we *really* needed a weekend to relax and decompress.  Keystone is beautiful; so far it is my favorite little mountain town for a getaway!

 It was a beautiful Colorado weekend; we ate great food, spent time with fun people, enjoyed the outdoors, and Bill received an award of recognition for his achievements this past year with Edward Jones.  I was a beaming, proud wife!

This was a pretty long post, and knowing this I have already decided to continue this summer story in a "Part 2".  Look forward to the official home tour, some hiking and adventure, and a rained-out 4th of July party.  Until then, we hope you are making the most of your summers all around the world, and send you our love! 

Busy couple months + very few pictures = Boring Blog

The kitties are very disappointed.  The have convened today in a kitty intervention to tell Bill and I that we have been working too hard.  They insist that we have been indoors too much on the little time off we have, taking up their comfy spots and stealing all the blankets.  They do not want to hear excuses about the rainy weather or chilly wind.  They say the life of a kitty does not suit us and they want us out of the house.  They are very scary when they team up against us.

Needless to say, these last couple of months have been busy for us - we have both been working and traveling for work.  When we are home, we are tired and just want to lay around on the couch reading books (me) or watching ESPN (Bill).  But, we did have a little excitement in the past two months:

Aunt Ally came to visit in March in order to audition for a weight loss commercial!  Look at how well she is doing during her practice session with us!  I would buy whatever she is selling.

Really though...  Aunt Ally came to stay with us while searching for a temporary home for the Weber Clan that is moving here in June.  Woo HOO!  We are very excited about having them here.  Aunt Ally accidentally packed Uncle Dave's jeans in her suitcase, leading to the amazing weight loss picture above.  Hmmm...I wonder if that's really how they advertise on those commercials?  Give a skinny lady someone else's fat jeans?

Although Aunt Ally was a busy bee during her stay with us, she and I got to have some fun adventures Colorado-style!  I took her and Dora to one of our favorite hiking spots in Eldorado Canyon, and she took me to the famous Johnson's Corner truck stop diner for a ginormous cinnamon roll. 

Fast forward through boring work stuff and regular old life to April and Bill's Rock Star Birthday celebration!

I got Bill a Wii and Guitar Hero for his birthday and decorated the apartment with rock band paraphernalia, including two life-sized Elvis posters.  We had home-made Chicken Chow Mein and Angel Food cake with strawberries and whipped cream (Bill's favorites).  Then we played Guitar Hero and sang like rock stars for the rest of the night.  It was awesome!

We were having such a good time shouting and trash-talking each other that one of our neighbors thought we were experiencing a domestic dispute and called the police!  Uh oh.  The police officer just smiled and said to keep it down.  :)

So that's the end of this boring blog entry.  We promised the kitties that now that the weather is improving, we will get out of the house more when we have time off.  We've got some exciting adventures coming up this summer, which includes more hiking and camping, of course.  Goose has already started his warm weather activities:

How is this comfortable?  Who knows why kitties do the things they do.  Case in point:

Weirdo.

All I want is a cabin in the mountains...

Happy Birthday to me!  My gift this year from my wonderful husband was 4 days and 3 nights in a private cabin just outside Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a much-needed time of rest and relaxation for us both, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was the sitting area in our little hideaway - Pine Creek Cabin.  We had a fireplace and lots of huge windows so we could enjoy the beautiful views.

 

This was the view from the window in the kitchen/dining area.  Gorgeous!

 

Mule Deer visit us at Pine Creek Cabin 

Close-up of the deer 

 We were visited by many Mule Deer through the time we stayed at Pine Creek.  My favorite moment was when we were sitting in the hot tub out in the snow, drinking our frosty beverages, and three deer decided to join us for their evening dinner!  

Just more proof of the fact that I married the most wonderful man in the world - he cooked for me the whole time!  And one of the many reasons I love him - he always makes me laugh.  Exhibit number 1:

  

Can anyone guess how this happened?  I'll tell you - hubby forgot to put a cookie sheet under the pan.  Flimsy aluminum foil pan + heavy cooked lasagna + no support underneath = a big mess + lots of laughing!

He's so cute!  Well, he made up for the lasagna incident the next morning by making me my favorite breakfast - waffles!  And they were perfect.   Bill makes waffles

We mostly relaxed at the cabin - reading, doing crossword puzzles, drinking, eating, making fires in the fireplace, making S'mores in the fireplace, watching movies, sleeping...  all the wonderful things that make up a restful vacation.  But we did get some hiking in at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

The park looks so different during the winter, when it's all covered in snow.  But it is still beautiful, and very peaceful (since it's not crawling with tourists!).  We took a short hike up to Dream Lake on our last day of vacation...

 

 On the hike to Dream Lake in RMNP

 

 

Absolutely breathtaking!  Of course the lakes are frozen this time of year, so it just looks like more snow.  We fully intend on getting back to this spot in the summer time, when the water is visible.  I'm sure it will be just as beautiful, if not more so!

As soon as we returned from our restful vacation, it was back to the grind.  I worked a couple overnight shifts, then flew immediately to Las Vegas for a veterinary conference which I just got back from.  Bill used his time as a bachelor to get a lot of extra time in at the office.  And we show no signs of stopping!