MOJO's Blog

Christmas Time!

2011-12-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

As you can see, we are all ready for the holiday! Our tree is accented with festive ornaments and lights and accompanied by the infamous lego train this year! Somehow over the years I have lost many pieces and had to improvise parts to make it work but it is up and running well. Our stocking are hung with care with our family's favorite holiday flick placed on repeat in the background, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

To get into the holiday spirit last week, we put on our jammies, warmed some hot cocoa, and drove around Denver looking for Christmas lights. We found a few fabulous neighboorhoods all decked out. Below we feature the houses that truly went above and beyond to show their holiday spirit.

Some of these house were truely amazing. This one here had 20 or more 15+ foot trees completely covered with lights. The gate made it sad we were not able to drive through the peoples yard and enjoy them.

To start our holiday off right, Matt got a pair of Avalanche hockey tickets from me for the game on Dec.23 against Tampa Bay Lightening. The game went into overtime and our team won in the last three min by one amazing shot.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-12-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

This year we flew to southern Oregon for the Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed spending time with the family including my grandparents. Thanksgiving day we all gathered at my great aunt Leta's house for afternoon dinner and dessert. Friday, my mom and I woke up early, but not too early, to do some holiday shopping.

The rest of Friday our friend Chelsea drove Matt and I to Ashland for the afternoon. We walked the plaza, spent some time at Paddington's and had lunch at Alex's. Some of our favorite things. After the sun went down we stayed for the Ashland Festival of Light parade and city lights ceremony. We watched all the Occupy hippies walk down the street protesting their crazy ideas mixed with some holiday music as the whole town came out to participate. All the years we lived in Ashland we never attended the annual event for one reason or another so this was a fun treat!

Saturday we hung out with my grandparents playing dominoes and catching up from the past year. Sunday we woke up early and drove back to Ashland one last time for breakfast at our favorite early joint Brother's. We had our usual, the bagel and lox with capers plate for two. We walked the SOU campus so Matt could rekindle his time spent dedicated to his undergrad. Now that he's an alumni, we decided to see the alumni house on campus. We took a few pics, said our goodbyes, and left our memories of a moment in time behind for the next chapter of adventures.

Free Night at the Museum's

2011-12-24T18:06:00.001-08:00

This fall we participated in Denver's annual free night at the museums. This year we explored the Botanic Gardens and the Byers-Evans House Museum. We started the evening with the Botanic Gardens being it is mainly an outside museum with sculptures placed amongst pathways of trees, plants and flower. There was few blooming flowers as the season had turned with the leaves. The gardens were organized in themed sections including an herb garden and a Japanese garden beautifully accented with colored lights along pathways winding in and out of each other.

As we finished the outside garden's a sudden burst of rain flooded the grounds just in time for us to explore the atrium. Unfortunately, only part of the atrium was open for the evening.
Below is a picture of me in the garden's atrium next to a tree with one lonely fruit. It was a tough tree as we watched a dozen people come in from the rain and tug on this piece of fruit and yet it remained attached to he tree. Not sure how long it would last!

With the rain receding, we decided to head over to the Beyer-Evan's house. A historic house built in 1883 for William Byers, the editor of Denver's first newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News. In 1889, he sold the house to the son of John Evans (the second governor of the Colorado territory), William Evans, who was president of the Denver Tramway Company. The house remains in tact in the middle of the city and looks as it did over 100 years ago. It has been said the house is haunted so we were curious to see for ourselves. It was a very cool house but we determined by the end that it's not haunted, at least not for us and one visit was all we will ever need from that museum.

Is it already Fall

2011-10-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

I suppose it is already fall. The Denver weather has been holding strong with sun in the mid-70's during the daytime, but the evenings tend to drop into the 30's and 40's. We have been lucky with the wet summer, which has left leaves on the trees that are now turning reds and oranges to help remind us that fall has arrived. The winter is near with snow capped peaks in the distance and a few ski slopes opening earlier than ever. For the first time in a long time we have decided to not carve pumpkins. With few trick-or-treaters in our apartment complex, we lacked the inspiration to carve. Although we made it out to a local pumpkin patch and corn maze, Mile High farms. To get into the spirit I had a pumpkin painted on my face! There was no one in line so I couldn't say no. Once all the kiddos saw the fabulous sparkly art on my cheek they began to line up.

This was an interesting corn maze. The theme of the farm was haunted seas, but then it changed in the maze to a candy theme; odd. This is me next to a haunted lollipop. As you can see the corn didn't seem to do well this year since I could see the entire maze with no mystery left to wonder where we were in the maze. I talked too soon. Then as we continued we couldn't seem to find our way back. Every time we took a turn towards the entrance that we could see in the distance we would veer further and further away. Tricky. Eventually we made it out.

We were sure to get some cider and hot cocoa to sip on as we wandered the haunted decorations though out the farm.

At least they had a scarecrow. He looks scared!

Weekend in Portland

2011-10-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely time visiting Portland seeing family and friends. It was an evening of fun celebrating Lauren's UnWedding party!

I was fortunate to have a few days at the coast. Fresh baked french bread, sparkling water, and sun was just the R-and-R I needed.

Saturday Zoo Spectacular!

2011-09-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

Since we both have the weekend off now, we have a little more opportunity to both get out and do something. So, yesterday we both decided to get outside since the this weather is just about to leave us for a long time. Where else to go, but the ZOO! Actually, I was just going to go to City Park (which within its property, contains either one or two 18 golf courses, the science musuem, and the Zoo) and walk around. However, it wsas decided we should go to the zoo.

It was a good experience. We saw about 90% of the animals and they were all pretty active.

Well, most of them were pretty active. Here we see some porcupines. These things were HUGE!! The were about the size of JJ. Well, almost.

They did just have zoo animals. They had an extensive collection of snakes and fish.

I know those New England folks know what they are. That's right, Horseshoe Crabs. They always were running all over the tanks.

Some birds. I don't recall what kind.

JJ, needed an ice cream cone, so here she is enjoying it.

We saw lions, tigers, and bears. And a cheeta, multiple dear like animals, tons of birds, monkeys and apes, lemars, seals, hippos, rhinos, wolves, heyenas, wild horses, etc., ect! Not a bad trip at all.

Girls weekend

2011-09-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I attended Lauren's UNbachelorette party in Vegas. It has been unfortunate circumstances that we were celebrating, but it was fabulous to have a weekend getaway with two wonderful friends. Lauren, Elaine and I spend the weekend at the WorldMark hotel timeshare floating their lazy river and we frequently visited the strip. SO much has changed since I was last in Vegas. It's now bigger and better! (above, me in the Palazzo hotel)

This pic is looking down the south end of the strip as we made our way from Caesar's to the CVS near the far end. Wow was that a long walk. (above, Elaine and the Strip)

Below you can see the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which was beautiful with decorations of pink sparkles and shine with the interior resembling a chandelier. (below, the cosmopolitan hotel interior)

this was are walk through the Bellagio with the conservatory decorated like a carnival in the park. (above, me and the twisted tree)

It was nice to get to know Elaine better. She is a fabulous person and I am glad to see Joel and her happy. We were both glad to support Lauren in this bump in the road of her life and we have made more great memories with a weekend that we will always remember as our Girls weekend!

A Gift Basket? For Me?!

2011-09-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you which have not heard (probably no one here) I have recently accepted a job as a Content Marketing Analyst at the Belcaro Group here in the Denver Tech Center. My job will entail designing and analysing new marketing strategies for their website, ShopAtHome.com (which has over 37 million hits a month and growing) and improve the interaction customers have with the site. Sounds like fun, I know.

Well, the job starts on Tuesday (since Monday is Labor Day) so I have some time to get ready. Well, today, when I check the mail, I noticed my new employer sent me this nice gift basket as a congratulations and welcome to the team. Interesting and sort of cool thing about it, the basket came from Harry and David in Medford, OR. The town next to where we just moved from. JJ and I were just talking about it today how much we missed certain parts about Southern Oregon, and here we have some pears from there. Fate? Who knows. Nice though my new company cares.

Water World waterpark

2011-08-07T12:56:00.001-07:00

It has finally felt like summer weather during the day, in the high 90's. We took a trek north of Denver to Water World. We brought a picnic of food and lots of sun block (lots because I was determined to not receive a severe sunburn again). We arrived just after the park opened and with this being the last week of all the rides open before the shorter hours and ride area shutting down soon, the park was packed!

The first ride we decided to try was The Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. We thought it had a large line but assumed it would move fast. Once we started to wait we realized this was going to take awhile. At least we were waiting in line under a roof providing some shade. Probably an hour thought the windy line and with regret since we didn't dip ourselves into any water yet, we finally made it to where people pick up their intertube to take to the top. We grabbed this giant tube adn started upa big hill. Little did we know there was a line of people with tubes sitting in the hot sun waiting in line to the top. Winding our way up about fourty five more minutes we eventually put our tube into the water and the adventure began. We were whisped into a cave that soon dropped into a windy twisted slide with echoing screams thoughout the ride. We hit the bottom and went through a series of areas with little falls and dinosuars growling amonst the mist. About 3-5 minutes and the ride popped us out at the bottom of the hill. It was alot of fun but we decided to stick to more individual rides with less wait. Although it was truly the coolest ride of the day!

The park is huge with sections for racing with inter tubes, giant slides, a Pirate area, a Big Top circus themed area, two huge wave pools, and more. We figured by the end of the day from open to about close we had only experienced about 20% of the park.

Here is matt getting taken over by a giant wave in the wave pool! I really like the stright down plummiting slide. It had the best view in the park high above the other water slides. And with the scare factor a 10, since it was the bigest and steepest ride in the park, the line was short and fast so it was great!!!

We had a great time and at the end of the day just my little cheeks and my shoulders endured the burn of the sun! At the end of the day we took a few laps in the Lazy River and headed out! There will be a next time, just not until next year! Overall a 10!

Pu Pu Platter

2011-08-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was really craving Chinese food last week. We went to a place just down the road and they had a rare find on the menu, a Pu Pu Platter. It was my first one! Matt said when he was young that the family ordered them once in a while and they were great. Well, this one was a little sad with a semi warm fire to cook the meat and small serving sizes for the price. BUT I was excited to try it and I hope I can find a better one in the future.

Birthday Week!

2011-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Birthday week was fabulous as always. And being my last year of my 20's makes this a big year! I had a great idea to layout by the pool while Matt was at work. I thought, since I have not received much of a tan that it would be a great idea to lay out, just 30 minutes a side, with no sun block. Ignoring the fact that we are a mile closer to the sun, I did just that. Well I got ready for the day and was feeling great. About 5 hours later I started to get hot and itch. I looked at my skin and realized I had a terrible sun burn. Ug. It took over a week to peel and heal.

Birthdays are a big deal in the marketing group at work. The marketing team seems to extend it's creativity beyond daily work. I knew coming into work the Friday before my birthday would be nothing but epic. I arrive to my desk with streamers hanging from the ceiling all throughout my office cube. A banner wrapped from the inside out that said, "no ordinary party" with Twilight characters wrapped into it. On my desk laid an envelope with a card from, you guessed it, Edward himself! Apparently he snuck into our office before the sun came up to leave me a card with earrings! It was fabulous!

More of the decor in my cube included a party centerpiece of the Twilight cast!

One of the gift from my office included this character called a FOOMI, which is to be transformed by the owner with drawing and decorations. I am still trying to figure out how I will create my FOOMI!

I brought into the office that morning the roses Matt had given to me as a gift. The roses were a perfect color to fit with my Twilight napkins! The napkins were covering my office desk and were perfect for the homemade Lemon Meringue Pie that one of my coworkers slaved away on just for me! It was fabulous!

The team also presented me with a new coffee mug, custom decorated by them, with all my favorite cartoons!

This photo above is really the only semi clear pic I was able to take at the Rock concert I decided I wanted to attend for my birthday! Rockstar Mayhem Music Festival included Megadeath, Godsmack, and Disturbed. It was awesome!!! And HOT out!

This is my brand new mini seat belt purse from Matt! I love it!!!!! I have been eyeing this ever since we found a local store that happens to carry this brand. This is a rare find!! Every time we go to the store I drool! I was so excited when Matt gifted it to me!!

And with all my years of complaints on my lack of bling, Matt was so sweet and got me some new BLING!

And we did make it to a Rockies game. Rain and all we had a great time. It was a wonderful birthday week. Thank you to all my friends and family for the birthday cards, gifts, and wishes! WOOHOO, 29 and doing great!

Crazy Colorado Weather

2011-07-17T09:43:00.001-07:00

For those of you outside Colorado, you may have been hearing about us on the national news. The weather here has been out of control. We have had some serious thunderstorms here for what seems like weeks now. These aren't just little drizzle type storms, but rather MONSOONS!! Here are some images I risked my life to capture.

Before the rain started, it was a beautiful sunny day. Hot, but nice out. Then, almost without warning, the skies opened up and let loose. You can see from the picture above, the rain is up to the curb here.

About five minutes later, it's over the curb.

About five minutes later, it's flooding parking lots. There were lightning strikes about every ten seconds all around and the thunder followed within a second or two after that. It was incredible.

The whole storm lasted about 30-40 minutes. I heard reports on the radio that during that time pretty close to 3 inches of rain fell. In some areas, golf ball sized hail fell and did some serious damage to cars, windows, and houses. Trees and branches fell and destroyed houses. About three blocks away from where I took these pictures, the radio reported cars were submerged in intersections. This kind of rain and hail has happened a couple time this summer. I am not wondering if it will happen again, but when.

Hiking Trip

2011-07-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

My work has been complaining I have too much vacation time and need to take some of it. So this week I decided to do that and just relax and hang out. So I spent some time hiking. JJ had to work so I went off by myself. Of course, I chose one of the hottest days of the year, almost 100 degrees this day. But I'm a man. I can take it. Here are some of the photos I took along the way.

This photo below, was actually part of the trail. You had to walk along the rocks here. Off the side there, was a drop that went off a about 20 feet or so. Of course, if you did fall, there would be plenty of trees and rocks to break your fall (and your neck).

Due to the large amount of rain we have received here in Colorado this year, there were tons of desert flowers out. Here was one of the more interesting ones, a flowering cactus.

This was a sign I saw a couple miles in. Makes you feel good about communing with nature. Doesn't it?!

The sights all around were beautiful. Just one of the amazing views I saw along the way. They were all pretty much like this the whole way.

Fourth of July - Anniversary

2011-07-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

Our 5th Anniversary 2011 was spent celebrating over 4th of July weekend. We decided to spend our weekend exploring the Mountain Cities near Denver. Nestled between peaking mountains is Central City and Black Hawk. Just a few minutes off the freeway and some steep ups and downs later, we made it to this historic gold mining area.Right next to Central City about a quarter mile down the street is the town of Black Hawk. The combination of these old western buildings and gold rush history sitting on Indian land created a mini Vegas of casinos in the mountains. These places range from closet size to Vegas size gambling. We decided it looked like fun, but another day we will spend some time exploring this area. Onward!

On the way up, I decided Breckenridge would be fun. As we turned off the freeway a large lake sits to the side that was filled with boats galore. As we continued towards Breck, we saw people riding bikes along miles of trails lining the road with snow capped mountains as a beautiful backdrop scenery. It was full of casual bikers, families, and those serious spandexed professionals. Very cool.

When we arrived to the massive parking lots that sits at the front of the town, I saw a river running through the area. We parked and walked over to find a little raging rapid that ran through the entire city. It was a great time to visit because for the fourth. The whole town celebrates with festivities. We found people set up on the sides of the river with BBQs, picnics, playing games, enjoying the street fair and art fair, while waiting for fireworks.

I fell in love with this little town. It reminded me of a beach town back home, full of character with little fun shops as far as the eye can see lining the streets and friendly people everywhere.

In the picture above, you can see the local Breck fire dept. assisting the kids use the fire hoses to water fight each other from either side of the street.

On to the next location. As we continued down the road we saw many abandoned mining sites throughout the mountains.

We decided since we had a little more time before dark that we would drive further down the road to Vail. It was a town themed like a Vegas casino. This to was supposed to be German style with restaurants, hotels, walkways, and more all designed to take you to another place.

I have to admit, it was not very impressive and I think Vegas would have done this theme better. It felt odd and fake. Maybe in the winter the theme works better with the snow and instant access skiing right from the town. Eh, I had high expectations but I liked Breckenridge much better.

The mountains, however, looked great.

Now, time to leave the mountains and head back home. We both discussed where and what we wanted for dinner. Since it was our anniversary, we wanted something nice. The problem is, we are often disappointed when we go out. We had ordered a cheese plate a few weeks ago, and it was overly expensive and extremely disappointing. We knew we could do better.

For under $20, we made this huge cheese plate. Mostly purchased from the remnants cheese bin and some nice cured meats. It was wonderful. We took it to the porch and sat outside and watched the fireworks. A pretty great ending to a pretty great day.

June Bridal Shower

2011-07-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

June 23, off to Portland for Lauren's Bridal Shower. And again without Matt. It's tradition for Matt and I to pick up a new magazine in the airport for the plane trip. Since we traded in airline miles for subscriptions and the recent addition to our collection from the Bridges latest volumes of saved magazines, I decided to buy a book. I have only made it a quarter way thought the book. It was everything I had hoped for from Anthony. It reads like his show, and I love it!

Yes, it is true. it just happened to be MoJo's 5th wedding anniversary over the weekend of the shower. June 24th, 2006 we were wed. An hour later it had been five wonderful fast years and a decade of memories! Nate and Lauren were very sweet and bought us a wonderful cake from the amazing Beaverton Bakery. Although Matt could not enjoy it, I made sure to tell him how yummy it was!

Then the main event was to begin. Since there was no way I was going to check a bag for such a short trip, I decided to purchase a gift in Portland. Darlene had not shopped wither, So BedBathandBeyond we went. WE had a few giggles looking thought Lauren's list of cooking appliances and utensils. We had fun shopping and finally agreed that something less traditional and maybe even less pratical would work.

Month of planning and a Friday afternoon spent with Christy, Lauren's mom, decorating and having a blast shopping a Michael's. Hours of labor and love we spend for a beautiful fairy tail themed shower. It was tasteful and elegant. My games seemed to go over OK and the shower was fun. It is a lot of work being a good Matron of Honor. But it's worth it for your oldest and most loyal friend.

I think my homemade banners turned out great. Everyone liked all the details and personal touches!

Spring in Denver

2011-07-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

With the weather warming up the farmer's markets opened. We have visited the Cherry Creek Market and the South Pearl Market

April was a fast month. Matt was well into his second semester of his MBA and I was finally getting the hang of things at work. For Easter we decided it had been a few years since we dyed eggs. Using a tye-dyed egg kit we created robot themed Easter eggs with a space story to pair with it!

Our second visitor to Denver was Lauren. With the chaos of life and planning a wedding, she managed to make a weekend trip out to see us. We had a nice time, relaxing, getting pedicures and even went to see the Rockies play San Diego. Although the games was rainy, we came prepared enough to make it to the eighth inning.

We have also been lucky enough to visit many of the local car shows in town. Top one in the Denver Concourse d' Elegance. Loaded with all you top quality cars you can't afford like Ferrari, Lamborghini, old corvettes, Porsche's, Mercedes, and alike. Even about 20 original Shelby's. The bottom picture shows the Cruise on Havana which took care of your need for classic muscle and custom cars. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Chelsea, Our first visitor!

2011-04-09T07:42:00.001-07:00

Our friend from Southern Oregon, Chelsea, was the first person to visit us in Denver. Finally! It was so much fun to share some of our favorite places with her. Below is the famous Cherry Cricket Restaurant in Cherry Creek; very fancy area. Some of the best burgers and fries in town reside here. Then we headed over to Sante Fe street for First Friday art walk. This are walk is more unique than an other we have visited. The people really get into self expression. Here is a pic of a Fire Blowing Artist! Interesting. We could feel the heat illuminating off the area as we took this photo!

My favorite live entertainment this time was some local boys break dancing by awesome graffiti! I luv hip hop and graffiti, and seeing that as the backdrop for these dancers was so neat!

Here is a pic Chelsea took of Matt and I by random art in the street. Denver is know for its randomness!

The next day Chelsea and I went to Red Rocks to explore and hike. We visited the area expecting tourists and instead we found the entire place covered by people working out. walking, running, and using anything possible to assist in their workout routine. Crazy!

We were able to get this great pic on the stage of the amphitheater!

As we walked the downtown area and 16th street we took pics with more of the random art!

It is Chelsea's birthday so we went to the Hard Rock to celebrate!

Here is a beautiful picture on Larimer of the street lights illuminating the Bentley's, Mercedes, and man y other cars 70,000+.

Matt and I

This is Chelsea and I at the Science and Natural History museum !!

Denver Auto Show

2011-04-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Recently, we visiting the convention center for a view of some amazing cars. Below is Matt next to one of his many dream cars, an Aston Martin!

The show was huge and took us over two hours to walk through! I found a few future cars, but Matt says they are still up for debate!

To the range!

2011-03-20T16:23:00.001-07:00

We made it to the local driving range today! Just a few block from our apartment is Kennedy Golf Course. The weather was a comfortable 70 degrees today with spurts of wind. We decided to venture outside to the local range. The range was OK and the golf course has reasonable green fees with 3, 9 hold courses. No bad for down the street. Our golf swings are not too bad. We need a few more rounds at the range and I think we will be ready for a tee time. On our way out to the car we saw a right-hand drive imported Nissan Skyline. Matt was excited because has never seen one of these up close! Overall a nice day :)

New Bed!

2011-03-20T09:38:00.001-07:00

Shopping for a new bed sounds exciting but who knew it involved robots. We spent two weekends roaming the local furniture and mattress stores for a decent bed that was not going to break our pocket book. One of our many stops included Furniture Row just down the road from our apartment. As we walked crammed isles of furniture and beds we came across this gigantic robot. Wow, how random. As you can see in the image below, Matt is wondering what this thing is doing here. By the feet of the robot was his mini robot pet. Even though the little robots eyes glowed an ominous red, it still seemed kind of cute and friendly.

The time came to make a decision. We returned to American Family Furniture, laid on the bed we were considering, and a few seconds later as the salesmen walked by we said, "We'll take this!" He was taken off guard and asked, "Really, your not kidding. Do you really want this bed. Have you looked at other beds?" We explained that we had done our research and this was what we wanted. It was funny he was so shocked. The next day the news add had free pillows with any bed purchase so we ended up with getting two brand new pillows for our new bed! We moved our old bed into the second bedroom.

And our new bed arrived. Serta Princess Euro-top. Fancy! The bed has a comfortable memory foam pillow-top. This bed is about 5 inches taller than our former bed. I have to jump to get onto this mammoth of a bed. We are glad we stuck with a queen size because the bed looks big with it's huge height. We were able to find some sheets to fit this 18" tall mattress but we are still looking for a comforter. The bed is quite firm and has that new bed aroma. We are excited that when people visit we have a bed and the pullout couch. So people..... come visit. It is sunny and 70 degrees for the fifth day this week! What is stopping you people from a two hour plane trip?

Valentines Day 2011

2011-02-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays. I favor this holiday because it means my husband will probably do something fabulous for ME! Most of my favorite holidays also consist of multi-day events. This holiday was no exception. Matt had 100 beautiful multi-colored Peruvian Lilies delivered to our door on Saturday. :) I was not up to going out for dinner this Valentines. So at my request, we went shopping at the local Whole Foods for a delicious gourmet meal. We had fun sampling foods as we picked out a variety of cheese and crackers, a mini heart shaped new york cheese cake, and red snapper with asparagus! Matt being such a talented chef, whipped up a yummy meal for dinner on Saturday.

Monday was the actual holiday, but it is Matt's busiest day of the week with work followed immediately by class in the evening. I decided on my way home from work on Monday to visit Whole Foods again. I picked up some delicious snacks of smoked salmon, bread, crackers, cheeses, and a little fruit tart. It was not as perfect as Matt's gourmet dinner, but I think he was happy to come home to some delicious surprise Valentines treats after a long day. Overall A great weekend!

It's a little chilly out there

2011-02-02T15:43:00.001-08:00

While it might have been in the mid 60's only four or five days ago, those days are gone now. The last couple days have been some of the coldest in Colorado History. We didn't break the record for the coldest temperature in Denver last night. We were one degree off. So close. It hasn't snowed like it has on the East coast but none the less, it has been pretty and interesting.
Here we show the picture from the side porch. Looking off into the distance you can see all the heaters on top of the buildings trying to pump out as much heat as possible. Monday, we reached our high temperature of 8 degrees around 1 in the morning. Tuesday, the high was supposed to be -2, but it warmed up significantly to about 1 during the afternoon.

Here is the picture from the back deck. Beautiful view of the snow covered mountains. Not a bad sight to see.

Last of all, here is a picture from the news about 7 this morning. I have been getting up and starting the car for JJ before she heads off to work these mornings. While I am sure I have been out in temperatures like this before growing up, it never gets any easier.

A Newish Deli

2011-01-23T10:54:00.003-08:00

Last night we couldn't think of what to cook at home. We have some food to make but nothing really sounded good. We were in a food rut. Well, that was until JJ had suggested we go somewhere. We tossed around a few ideas. Chinese? Kabobs? Pizza? Nothing was hitting the mental or guttural spot. Than she mentioned this place I had been too a couple months before and told her I enjoyed. The New York Deli News. This is a Denver icon as far as Deli's go. Started by a few New Yorkers who opened up a deli back in Manhattan 50 years ago. The bread is made for them as are their meats. Looking at the menu reminded me of an old favorite from Framingham. So here are some pictures.

What we have here is the combination Reuben. Half corned beef, half pastrami, kraut, Swiss, Russian dressing, on rye. Delicious. Here served open face. JJ also had a Reuben of a different color not pictured here.

Also served on the table is a bowl of all you can eat homemade pickles. We went through two bowls of them and could have easily eaten another if we weren't so full. Oh, what a lovely dinner. The place was packed but the food came quickly. Surely a place to remember.

www.nydndenver.com

Portland

2011-01-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I am behind on my blogs. Here is a few fun pics of my trip to Portland. It was great to go back and see friends and family, but I sure did not like the gloomy rainy weather.
The bride, my BFF Lauren, and I headed to the Portland bridal show. We arrived with a 45 minute wait and probably a half mile line to enter the show. Miss Lauren started to question the worth of waiting in this gigantic line, but I told her to buck up and we were waiting no matter what. I mean, I did fly all the way from Denver to attend this big event with her. So we eventually made it through the windy line to the entrance. Once Lauren received her bride to be name tag she began to have some fun!
Of course it wouldn't be a proper bridal without photographers. We found a couple booths that had props we could use to enhance the free photos we took.

And the cake. Oh my, the cake. So much cake. We must have tried over 30 samples. I did not want to eat cake ever again. Good thing we came hungry with empty stomachs!

Saturday night of my trip was great because friends and family came out to Big Als for some dinner and fun! It was great to see everyone. I was so happy!!!

It was truly great to visit with my Dad, Robin, Anna, and Ryan. I sure do miss my Dad!

The last day I was able to squeeze in an afternoon with Al and Darlene. It was great to go home and have a relaxing day. I love my new home, but I sure do miss the people at my old one. I promise Matt will be heading out for the next trip since I always seem to leave him at home!!

NHL Avalanche vs Canucks

2011-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken during the warm up's. A hockey puck broke one of the glass barriers so they had to quickly replace it before the game! Very neat

Last year I didn't get Matt a specific birthday gift since it is three days before Christmas. When Matt reciprocated the non-birthday gift, I decided this terrible pattern had to stop! This year I decided to purchase Matt a Birthday gift separate from the Christmabirthday gifts. NHL Tickets to the local team!! I unknowingly chose a great game to attend since the Canucks were first in the league and Avalanche were right behind them in second. This was my first experience at a live hockey game and I loved it! The game moved so fast and it kept me on the edge of my seat. By the end of the third when the Avalanche lost in a close game, I was wishing there was more game to see. We had a great date night out and I can't wait to see another NHL game!

Skating in the Park

2011-01-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Some day back in December, JJ really wanted to get into the spirit of the holidays and enjoy one of the most awkward sports a novice could do. Throwing caution to the wind, we decided to go ice skating. Below is a picture when we first arrived and the Zamboni was out clearing the ice so it would be much smoother and wetter when we both fell and broke our necks.

We actually didn't hit the ice right away. There was just far too many people there. The whole ice rink was about the size of our living room and tons and tons of people were waiting to go.

Later, after dark, there were fewer children to fall on and kill (albeit there were still many out there) so we got our free skates and stepped on. Below is the elegant and talented skating JJ posing for the camera.

Another photo of evil twin JJ who has absolutely no coordination on the ice. Which blows my mind since she was once a gymnast in a past life which one would assume would have some kind of balance. You would be wrong.

Relaxing before heading back out.

So you didn't believe me JJ has no balance on the ice. Just watch the video. It speaks for itself. Sorry it's sideways. You're just going to have to deal.

All in all this was a good trip. I didn't fall once during the whole time we were there, until just about when it was time to go and we were attacked by some of the aforementioned children. They came straight at us and there was no escape. It either them or us and I chose us. Down we went. Not bad all in all.

THE LORD OF THE RING!!

2010-12-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

The day began much like any other. It was an early winter morning in November (disregard the presents in the background). The day was a lazy one as it was the weekend and I didn't have to work this day. I awoke. Complete (IE: with ring). Who was to know, this was the day the ring would try and escape from its owner.

The day became an arduous one. While the rings owner thought today was going to the aforementioned "lazy" one, the ring (and the owner's wife) had other plans. CHORES ABOUNDED!! "To the store", said the wife of ring's owner. "We need sustenance!! But first we need to put in the laundry." A loud sigh came from the ring's owner as he trekked past the trials of the never-endingly long hallway to the house of laundry.

Here, in the house of laundry sits the monsters of peril which many a man (and perhaps one woman) dread more than any other. These particular beasts of burden require extra attention as they are peculiarly good at not doing their jobs properly. The rings owner must pay a toll to the machine in order to make it function. While most days, it was paid in dollars and cents. Today, with the help of the ring, it was much more. With the toll paid, the monster filled its cavity with liquid to help dissolve the soap (otherwise, because they are so crappy, it leaves white soap spots all over your clothes and makes you wonder why you even bother washing them in the first place...) The ring's owner stuffed the clothes into the soapy opening, making sure as to not overfill the monster.

Then, back to the domicile and off to the next journey. To the store, back from the store, back to the laundry. What is this?! The owner spent too long away from his laundry that some other villager took out their clothes and cast them aside like unwanted scraps. Saddened, the owner took his clothes and moved them to the fire breathing dragon which scorches the clothes dry and then back to his shire.

Due to the large amounts of evils in the world, training is required to maintain peak performance. "TO THE GYM!!", the wife said. After hours of training, lifting heavy objects, and stretching (as to not get cramps) the owner and his wife make their way back home.

It wasn't until now when the owner noticed. When had it happened? Where did it go?! The ring... it had successfully made its escape!!!!!! But where? But when? Had he had it all day? Did he lose it only recently?

Mildly panicked, he scoured high and low. Back to the gym, back to the laundry room, to the car, in the bed, under the bed, the couch, hallway, laundry room, in the other people's laundry (while the wife stood lookout. Maybe they stole the ring?) etc, etc, etc. The ring was lost. Sadness again filled the owner. He wept and wept (well not really).

After some time passed. The owner stood up with an epiphany. He ran out of the house and down the never-endingly long hallway to the house of laundry. Perhaps, he thought, when the vandals removed the clothes instead of stealing the ring, as was previously thought, the ring fell out. He fell to his hands and knees and scoured the depths of the dirty ground. A glint came from under one of the monsters feet. With a forceful nudge, he lifted the front of the monster to see it there. Sitting sheepishly, staring back at its owner, laid the ring.

With the ring back in the owners possession, the world is right again. The scare the ring gave would not be forgotten. To this day, the owner has not worn it since, at least until it is re-sized to the point where it won't fall off again.

The moral of this story, at least I think the one which was learned... DON'T EVER DO THE LAUNDRY!! Get someone else to do it.

Tree 2010

2010-11-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

Yay, our tree is up! We spent much of yesterday assembling our faux tree and adding the touch of holiday memories with our years of ornament collection. We discovered over half the ornaments are "Island of Misfit Toys". This fact made me happy! We found a great spot for our Olsen famous advent calendar next to the tree. Choosing a perfect hand-made holiday symbol to add the the calendar daily is one of my favorite traditions. The only thing we have left to do is add the train around the tree. The big question is, Lego or Misfit train???

New Shoes

2010-11-28T19:24:00.001-08:00

I got the gift of new boots! I thought I was cold weather prepared when we moved here but I was wrong. Even though it is sunny here most days the weather is extremely cold. Before my cold weather experiences consisted of most winter days being in the mid-40's and wet. Not here. When we have ventured out into the elements my feet have been so cold. Matt got new kicks to wear to school and keep him warm but I was out of luck until a nice gift was given to me. New Boots! I was so happy I cried.

I knew I wanted just the right combination of comfort and style for work and play. I easily found a great weatherproof cushioned black boot with fuzzy fur lining the tops perfect for playing outside. Then the search began for a nicer boot to wear with a dressier outfit and still keep my toes warm. I spent a lot of time roaming the department stores and trying on shoes. With the boot being a fashion style of this season I had so many options. But what was the perfect boot for me? With my crazy process of elimination and a great Black Friday sale at Macy's I found my perfect boot; shorter black boot with a zipper side to easily slip on and off my foot with a sturdy heel, a few inches lift to boost my height while saving the bottom of my pants, and a great overall contour fit. I have worn them both out and they are perfect indeed. Thank you!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

This Halloween was a fairly quiet one compared to last year. I decided since Darlene emailed me all month Wilton's Halloween recipes and decorations, that I should give-in and try baking one of these festive cupcakes. I made from scratch the classic German chocolate cake, cupcake. Then I found a simple butter cream frosting recipe, added food coloring, and busted out my baking tips. Voila! Yummy creepy cupcakes that I hand delivered to Matt's co-workers, dropped a plate at the neighbors, and devoured a few for myself.Yum!

We bought pumpkins, as always, mainly for the pumpkin seeds. Disappointed that there was only a small bowls worth of seeds, we lost the motivation to carve our pumpkins. But we have had some tasty apples, some of which we baked in the oven with cinnamon. The aroma of the apples baking filled our apartment and made me happy while a little homesick. It reminded me of the annual Carmel apples Lauren and I used to make and make no more. Sniff. On Saturday we decided to get out of the house and head downtown to HAPA Sushi in Cherry Creek. We had walked by this happening joint many times but never went in. We gave it a try and census says - 7 out of 10. Not the best I've had but pretty good. I was feeling the spirit of Halloween so I used my makeup to create Zombie looking eyes before we headed out on the town. I tried to convince Matt he should have Zombie eyes too but he wouldn't budge. Oh well, maybe next year he will participate.

We had the opportunity to pass out candy in our apartment building. All we had to do was tape a pre-designed Halloween sign on our door to let kids know we were giving out candy. We got a huge bag of candy for all the trick-or-treaters but sadly we only had about a dozen kids show up. As tradition, we put out the smokey skull with the creepy green lit-up eyes on our doorstep and it was a hit. Thank you again Darlene for the only Halloween decoration we own. At least the quality of it is awesome!

Fall Festival Botanic Gardens Chatfield

2010-10-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend we set out to celebrate the coming of fall. I looked online for Denver events in the fall and was not surprised to find a bazillion ideas. It was my day to choose the activity so I settled on the Denver Botanic Gardens Fall Festival. It was about a half hour drive in the rain from our place to the festival.

When we got out of the car the clouds broke up and the sun poked its head out from behind the clouds. We wandered the pumpkin patch for awhile to find a good carving pumpkin, but sadly it seemed they were all picked over. The only ones left were rotten, green, and deformed which is not a good base for great carving. We strolled through the vendors and enjoyed all the kids participating in fun activities while sporting their creative Halloween costumes. There was a really impressive exhibit of turn-of-the-century steam engines on display. One of the collectors gave us a great demonstration.

For our finale of the day we decided to try the corn maze. The first picture below is the design of the corn maze and it looks impressive but we never really found a dead end and was able to do the whole maze in less than a half hour. We were a little disappointed with the easy skill level of the maze but glad to get out of the house. When we walked back to the car the clouds began to gather and it started to rain.

First Friday

2010-10-03T18:45:00.001-07:00

This week we headed down to the art district on Sante Fe street. Every town seems to have some type of art walk including Denver. We have been to many art walks, but I think this was the most impressive with 10 blocks packed with people cramming into over 60 independent art galleries. It was even expressed to us that this may even be the largest art walk in the country. This exhibit included many impressive 3d canvases ranging from landscapes to emotional faces.

This very simple exhibit explored light and shadow. White paper folded into cranes and oblong circles were pinned off the all the walls and lit from above the space to create a very impressive piece of art. This was the only space I saw people whipping out their camera phones to capture the essence of the piece. Although I think it was impossible to capture the emotion without experiencing the space itself.

This picture shows one of the packed galleries overflowing onto the street. Portland never had the art following that Denver has. It was amazing to be part of the experience. Galleries full of unique original art with everyone from the artist to ordinary people critiquing the pieces and filling spaces. Street vendors trying to sell art and musicians playing instruments or free style raping capturing crowds on the street. It was fabulous.

Here is a pic of MoJo standing in front of a artistic film piece capturing the process of the artist. I can't wait to go back next month!

Lauralee and Shey's place

2010-09-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

We finally visited Matt's aunt and uncle, Lauralee and Shey, by Castle Rock, CO.
Hopefully I spelled their names correctly :)

Apparently they love Mexican food, so it was fitting that Lauralee made an excellent taco lunch for us. Thank you again for the great food. I really enjoyed the green chili egg souffle. As I went back for seconds of the dish, I wished that I could have sat down and devoured all of it to finish by licking the bowl. Seeing that it was our first introduction I felt I keep that to myself and stay appropriate by just having a small slice on my plate and settle with enjoying every little bite.

After lunch we had a small tour of their cute place and Lauralee was kind enough to share her Vaseline glass collection and amazing artistic quilts with us! We continued outside to see their new toys; two 4-wheelers. Lauralee and Shey hoped on their ATVs as we took the Rhino and headed over to the Olsen's plot. What amazing views of the valley from the top of the land.

We are still considering camping on it but Shey made a point to let us know a mountain lion with cubs has been spotted around the neighborhood. Then we headed back to the house for ice cream sundaes with all the classic toppings!! It was a lovely afternoon.

I wanted to add these two pics of a thunder show right outside of our window. I wasn't quick enough to capture the lightening but I think these shots turned out well.

Rockies Win

2010-09-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day to enjoy our nations favorite past time. With tickets being so cheap, we decided to catch a ball game before the end of the season. What better way to do it than go to see our new local team, the Colorado Rockies. This game was an experiment to see where the best seats are. That is why there are a few different vantage points of the field. We would sit in one seat and than move to another to find the best. Although the Rockies were on a 9 game winning streak, there were plenty of empty seats in the house.

Though the picture may not show it well, this is a TINY TINY stadium. I couldn't believe how small it was when we arrived. Honestly, there are no bad seats here. Even in relation to Fenway, which is a small park in the baseball scheme of things, this was far smaller.

Here we see JJ standing against the Denver skyline. The park is pretty much right off the heart of Denver. Not a bad sight. The buildings are nice too.

While the baseball game is interesting, we all know why we go to the games. That's right, to eat. First thing I did when entering the park, was buy a bag of peanuts. I don't know what they put in those things, but they always taste better at the park. Maybe because I can just throw the shell on the ground. A culinary mystery for sure.

The game was a close one against the DiamondBacks. We were tied heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. Last batter up. One strike. Two strikes. The pitch, the swing, HIGH FLY BALL INTO THE OUTFIELD. GOING, GOING, GONE!! HOME RUN. Rockies win. 10 in a row. Good thing we were there. Probably would have lost without us.

Red Rocks

2010-09-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we had the pleasure to head up to Red Rocks and enjoy the John Mayer and Owl City Concert. Thanks the our great friend, Chelsea, I recieved this amazing and unexpected gift of two tickets to this concert for my birthday.

Never been to the Red Rocks, we decided to leave early so we could have a picnic and enjoy the beautiful scenery that everyone raves about. We hopped on google maps and followed the directions of 18 miles and 22 minutes. Not really thinking that it was rush hour, we followed the freeway route. A few miles into the drive we found ourselves in 6 lanes of stop-and-go traffic. I tried to embrace the experience as an adventure; my first time driving in real traffic in a big city, whoo hoo! A quick hour and fifteen minute drive later we drove up a winedy road following a pack of cars to the parking areas. We decided we had found ourselves a perfect spot when we observed about 20 cars of people picnicing by their vehicles under the rocks. This is the area in the pictures above. Once you drive through the rock tunnel, u arrive in a massive hearding of cars parked in lines up to the venue.

We spent about an hour enjoying our picnic, the amazing view of the city and each others company. Then we headed up the the concert. As we walked up the stairs I started to get winded. Matt explained we were about 6,200 feet, and I could fell it.
We found a decent spot to place our blankets in the open seating area amongst the sold out concert of 9,500 people in the ampitheater. We had an amazing view of the city in the background as the sun was setting. We ventured off to the visitors center and then explored the beautiful grounds. We learned that the Red Rocks opened 1906 and has hosted some of the biggest names in the business including the Beatles, Greatful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Rolling Stones, Rush, etc.

(The below pics are off of my phone since I couldn't bring in my Sony camera, but you get the idea, it was pretty neat.)

Washington DC Trip!

2010-09-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

We invite you all to come along with us and enjoy a fabulous weekend which was spent in our nations capital, Washington DC. Although, I am sure most of you know what was going on, I will inform the rest of the blog readers of the back story. One of my high school buddies (and former band bass player) Adam Ross, made a wonderful decision to marry a beautiful woman, former Ms. Kaitlin L'Italien, now a Mrs. Allow me to take you on the journey though our weekend.

Thursday 8/26. Day One: Wake up at 3am to drive to the airport in order to catch our extremely early 6am flight. Spend the next million hours on two 2 hour flights to arrive in Dulles, 30 miles from downtown DC. The main event of the evening for us was the attending of a Washington Nationals baseball game. You can see here, the stadium was packed and our seats were top notch. JJ was extremely excited when we entered the stadium, but after an overpriced hot dog and some roasted peanuts, she began to fade quickly. I guess some of us need a little more beauty sleep than others!! (I'm so going to get a punch in the arm for that one!!) After the game, which the home team lost, there was a spectacular fireworks display shot off from a barge in Anacostia River. One of the better shows I have ever seen. I wonder how good the fireworks would have been if they actually won.

Day Two: Culture Day (At least to begin with). Today, Matt's old next door neighbor, Matt (shown above with wife Cory and JJ) made our way down to "The Mall" in DC. We were caught by surprise to see a large amount of people had congregated on the mall that day. Unknowingly, Glen Beck, FOX News blah blah blah, was holding a rally today. We could tell who was attending the rally just by looking at all the middle aged, sweaty, men and women all walking around with folding chairs and American Flag T-Shirts. Interesting as it may be, that is not what we did today. We, on the other hand, decided to attend a couple of the Smithsonian Museums. First, the Air and Space Museum. One of Matt's personal favorites. While, I am sure I have been there over 10 times, every time is more amazing than the last. The shear magnitude of the exhibits in the building are astonishing. Shown here, are pictures of all of us enjoying the museum. One personal favorite is a picture of Matt, and his "Special" friend, Matt.

After our whirlwind tour though space, we traveled back in time. During our visit to the Museum of Natural History we enjoyed an amazing collection of fossilised dinosaurs. Shown here is but one of the many, many, many rooms.

Next stop on our trip through the Natural History museum was the Gems and Mineral Exhibit. Shown top left, is the 45.52 carat Hope Diamond. Shown here for the first time out of it setting since its creation. This picture does not really do the stone justice, but I will have you know... its kinda big. Shown below is some other, less impressive 31 carat diamond. Yeah, I know. Whatever. Top right, shows Matt standing next to the body of a giant squid. Some fun facts about this creature of the deep. It can grow to an estimated 43 feet in length, its primary predator and food source is the sperm whale, and no one has ever seen one alive in the wild. SPOOKY!! Isn't scince fun?! Our last stop within the museum was to the Butterfly Pavilion. This was a large dome one could walk through amongst hundreds of live butterflies. Shown here are a couple of examples of those beautiful insects.

It was getting late in the day and it was time to head back to the hotel and get cleaned up for the main event of the evening. However, being DC, there are a million things to see on the way to wherever you are going. Here are a few art pieces in the Statue Garden right outside one of the many Smithsonian's.

Ok, here we go. The MAIN EVENT (of the evening!!). Being the crazy overachievers both Mr. and Dr. Ross are, what better way to spend the night before their wedding, than to put on a Rock n' Roll show for all their friends. Actually, a little back story about this, Adam and Kaitlin originally met in this band. Adams friend had told him about a girl with an amazing voice which would be perfect for their band. She came, auditioned, sang, joined, and the rest is history. The lovely couple played for two hours in front of hundred of screaming fans!! Awesome. Pictured below, top right, Dan Harris and Matt. Top middle and right, Bride and Groom, (DUH) Adam and Kaitlin. Bottom from left to right, Adam Hess, Dan Harris, Matt "The Man" Olsen, Jon Halpert, and Al McRae (all high school friends of Matt)

After a lovely evening of ROCKING OUT, we made it back to the hotel and rested up for the somewhat smaller MAIN EVENT on Day Three:

Located in a small chapel in the heart of Georgetown, a man and a woman became man and wife. It was a very nice service which had a lot of audience participation. I guess thats what you get from Catholics. Unfortunately, from where we were sitting/standing, we were unable to get a good shot of the groom with the bride, but just close your eyes and image one.

After the ceremony, a bus picked us up and transported us to the reception. A location expertly named, "The Top of the Town". Sitting on the twelfth story, we enjoyed a birds eye view of many of the national monuments. The pictures do not describe how amazing this location was. Never in a million years would I have hoped for this. Visit their website to get a better idea of views. You will not be disappointed. We weren't. (http://www.topofthetown.net/)

While it was hard enough to try and cram so much into three days, we had a few more hours on DAY FOUR: Our flight didn't leave until 4pm so we still had time to see a few things before we left. JJ had expressed to me she would like to see some of the national monuments she had not seen last time she visited DC. Shown below, is the World War II memorial. A fairly new site which I had not seen before either.

A short distance from the WWII memorial was the Vietnam Memorial (shown below top right). You never understand the magnitude of this particular memorial until you are standing there. Next we walked the steps to the Lincoln Memorial. Though there were tons of people in and around the memorial, amazingly enough, JJ is shown here alone with Lincoln. (Top right) We see the view from the Lincoln Memorial over the reflecting pool toward the George Washington Memorial.

While I am sure we did more things, I am just plain burnt out from writing about our trip. It was incredible to see DC with JJ, see all my old friends and make some new ones, as well as enjoy a little vacation to boot. It is unfortunate how quickly reality sets back in once you get back home. Oh well. At least from time to time, we have the ability to escape it.

Museum of Nature and Science

2010-08-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

This weekend we headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Located in the eastern side of Denver within the 330 acres of City Park. The City Park is so large that is has the Zoo, museum, golf course, 2 lakes with a boat house, rose garden, fountain, great view of the city and a plethora of pathways to wander.

We decided to start at the top floor of the museum. I chose the Prehistoric Journey exhibit. As we wandered through the maze of exhibits and fossils we finally made it to the dinosaurs!! Here is a really neat exhibit I am next to with trees, a stream, jungle sounds and 2 dinosaurs fighting. We continued through the Egyptian exhibit and down the the next floor. We explored the

Indian Cultures, Expedition Health, Exploration Colorado, and Wildlife Exhibits. This museum had the largest collection of life size stuffed animals I have ever seen. Here is a picture of me next to a post prehistoric ravenous animal. (I can't remember the name.) The last floor had the space odyssey and the gem and mineral exhibit. Here is a picture of Matt next to a piece of a Crystal mine in Mexico that was relocated and reassembled in the museum.

Sunday, we woke up early and went to visit one of the local farmers markets. It had a small bounty of fresh vegetables and fruit and a lot of craft vendors. One item which we have noticed at both the farmers markets we have attended thus far are the fresh roasted green chiles. Here you can see the vendor roasting (and coughing) the chiles in a large drum. Delicious!! We bought our first bag and made great use out of them in some fresh salsa verde.

IMAX Experience

2010-08-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Last night we ventured into the night to the local movie theater which happens to be and IMAX theater! We have heard Inception was a great mind twisting movie to see. At ten in the evening we sat in the dead center isle of a giant theater with just a few other people and enjoyed our first experience in an IMAX film. Now I have been to OMSI IMAX in Portland, but these new IMAX theaters sound and look impressive! The previews for TRON on the screen looked amazing and we will definitely be back to see it in IMAX 3D!!

Boulder and Estes Park

2010-08-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Being Matt's last day before he has to get back to the reality of work and school, Team MOJO hit the road and explored the areas surrounding Denver Metro. First stop on the trip, the town of Boulder. According to the Colorado guide book we purchased, Boulder is a hip and happening area which specializes in alternative medicines, hippies, and a free thinking culture. My goodness, is this another Ashland? After being there for about thirty seconds, we realized the scope of Boulder left Ashland in the dust. Nevertheless, it was a fun place to visit.

Boulder had a plethora of "art" type sights to see throughout the city. And I mean CITY!! It made our little town of Ashland look like a one horse town. We actually visited Boulder during the Colorado Asian Festival which consisted of Asian dancing, food, and umbrella's. All of which we decided to leave for the other tourists to purchase and enjoy.

We walked through the Boulder shops empty handed and drove on to our next destination, Estes Park. The 40 or so mile drive was actually very familiar to Matt. He couldn't place the reason why. It wasn't because he had been there more than 20 years earlier, which he didn't recall one iota (sorry Mom!!!) However, the drive was very familiar.... until he mention it to JJ. THE SHINING!! During the beginning of the Shining when they are driving to the hotel... that's the road we were on. Actually, the Stanly Hotel in Estes Park was the hotel Steven King was originally writing about during the book. He stayed there while writing the original novel. Scary stuff. Thank goodness, we did not get stuck in the snow while here or surely JJ would be a goner............... HEEERE'S MATTY!!

But, I digress. When Matt's mom told him to visit Estes Park, we packed a picnic to enjoy while eating in the park itself. Needless to say, it is only a town called Estes Park. Here is a picture of us enjoying our picnic in the car before exploring the town.

Don't worry though. There was plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy surrounding the town. Here a picture of water goddess Jessica walking on water.

One thing we haven't yet become used to is the sheer magnitude of the mountains here. Most peaks being upwards of 13 - 14,000 feet. WOW!!!

What's this?! Why, its Jellystone Park. The official home of Yogi bear. He is shown shamelessly posing with the two of us. Thank goodness we had already finished all of our food our he might have stolen our picnic basket!!

We are glad to have had the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of our surroundings before we have to become functional adults in society. Hopefully, soon, we be able to explore a little more of this alien country.

DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adventures in Denver

2010-08-15T07:18:00.001-07:00

A lovely Saturday afternoon in Denver. We started the morning out with a double P90X workout. One for the Friday workout we missed because we spent all night looking for computer sleeves for Matt online and another for Saturday. Needless to say by noon and about 2.5 hours later we were starved and soar and hungry. (So with our workout regime; we decided to start from the beginning of the 90 day workout since we just took off 2 weeks to move and had may other interruptions in the 6 weeks prior. Although we had both lost about 15lbs.) We had driven by a Boston Market last week and Matt really wanted to go today since we were so hungry.
I asked Matt for a bite of his chicken here, but he wouldn't share.

We headed downtown to explore. we parked by the art museum and saw theses giant cow. Of course a great photo.

This area off Colfax had so much to look at, the many art museum buildings, the Cell, the library, art in the plaza, etc. We chatted with some people at the museum and they explained we need a whole day to explore it, so we will return again.

This pic was taken in front of the art museum. If you look close I am being swept away with the paper!

Next to the art museum was a plaza that had beautiful flowers and an open area theater with huge columns. We sat and watched a local rock musician play for a benefit called Feed the Need which supports local schools with supplies and money for those in need. The music and idea for the benefit was great but unfortunately there was like 20 people that showed. No PR and it was sad to see. AS we walked further into the plaza the capital building laid int he middle. I got this great pic of it!

We walked past 16th and toward the business district. We found this sign on the ground that explained a bit about the unusual grid system of Denver's city. All of the main downtown city streets sit at a 45 degree angle. It does seem odd.

Before we headed back home for dinner we happened to see across the street from the grid sign this really neat looking building, Brown Palace Hotel. It was really cool and spectacularly classy inside. As we walked in people were having afternoon tea and crumpets in the lobby while a piano player entertained. The dinner menu had an 8 course meal at a great value of 105$ plus tax and tip. We felt a little under dressed so we decided another day perhaps.

Just a side note, the tax thing is hard to figure out here. And it is hard to get used to on our pocket books too. So in the city its like 7.7 but in other areas is 6.8 or less. So it pays to know what cities charge what for what. It depends I guess. There's no tax on necessity grocery items. But things like a cooking spoon or other unnecessity items in the grocery store are taxed at like 2 or 3%. Matt got a new laptop for school and paid $60 in tax, ouch! Good thing he had a rebate so it still was the cheapest one he found.

We made it to Denver!

2010-08-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

Our drive to Colorado was 26 hours, 1400 miles and 4 days. Matt drove the giant U-haul pulling the Corolla and I drove the Nissan. It was a long slow drive but we made it safely. This was our first pic in Colorado and I almost missed the sign. But with some evasive maneuvers, I got it. We stopped in Fort OCllins to use the restrooms and it just happened to be a great visitors center too! We must have got 30 or 40 brochures and maps of Denver and Colorado. I even got an awesome free Colorado souviner hat!!! Here is the first pic of the city!

This is a few days later at 16th street mall. I am playing one of the many pianos that line the street. It can be a great conversation piece or a great way for musical bums to become entertainers and make a little cash!

This is part of CU/UC Denver Campus! Here's Matt sitting in the business center of the school, trying to get info for classes! So much prep!
This is the Student Union; Trivoli. Across the street is the Pepsi Center Field! Crazy!
We decided to stroll through the city after Matt got some things done for school. We walked from campus to the famous 16th street mall. What a fun street and I couldn't resist the chance to take a pic by this gigantic Pegasus. And of course as we strolled through LoDo (known as Lower Downtown) we happen to stumble upon Coors Field which is home of the Rockies. Crazy! What you don't see adjacent to the Field is 2 bike cops clocking people coming off the ramp of the freeway and then walking in the middle of the road with their hand out to pull them over and nail them with a speeding ticket. We have heard cops here are not forgiving!

Apartment hunting trip to Denver!

2010-08-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Matt and Darlene went out to Denver to scope out a nice place for us. Which was well worth it because our place is great and we probably would have ended up in Glendale which would have been scary.

This is a pic from the land in Colorado. The plans for the land are pending until further notice, but the view looks spectacular!
Matt's mom being silly!

Matt, Darlene, Shey and LauraLee went to the bridge at the Royal Gorge; Colorado's natural wonder. It looks really far down from the bridge so I have no idea how anyone could fish from it. About 1,000 ft. over the Arkansa River. WOW!

Last 6 Months Update!

2010-08-10T19:52:00.001-07:00

In March we flew down to lovely Palm Desert and visited my Grandparents for a week. We golfed, visited an Oasis, saw wild desert flowers, ate great food, admired the most tricked out and fancy golf carts in California and visited with two of our favorite people.

Jonathan (Matt's brother) married Breezy and her kids in March at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

It was so great to have friends and family visit us this summer in wonderful little Ashland. Here is a pic of Melissa with Lotus and Naomi! We had a great time hanging out!June 24th we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. This year was my turn to decide the event (we alternate every year). I chose to raft the Rogue River. We dropped in at Ennis Riffle and rafted about 5 hours to Grave Creek. I only got stuck once, on Agness riffle in the middle of the rapid on a large rock. Poor Matt had to watch me struggle off the rock as he gracefully floated by. But I eventually made it off without bailing out of the raft! We also saw a baby black bear take a dip in the water across the river from us as we ate lunch.

Matt Graduated from Southern Oregon University in June with a business degree in Marketing and a certificate in E-Commerce and Internet Marketing. Yay. We were so happy all the parents came to show their support, and Lauren too!

I had my 28th birthday July 24th. My Grandparents hosted a lovely dinner with family. I was excited that my friend Chelsea came too! The food was great and the company even better and I had my favorite, Lemon mereingue pie! It was a wonderful evening on the river.

Before I left work at FMG, some fellow co-workers and I had a nice farewell get-together. I will miss my job and all the great people I became friends with. I am now and forever a FMG model and jewelry artist!

This last pic is me and my friend Chelsea at the FMG annual picnic. We finally got r faces painted and they look fabulous!!!

It's been awhile

2010-02-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

So we have not posted in awhile, but we have been busy in the world of living and working.

We did recently get a chance to make Angie's famous ranch dressing and it was delicious! We added it to rice and tamales for dinner. Thanks Angie!

Matt's parents visited us a few weekends ago! We had a January Christmas. It was fun. We even busted out the new scrabble game and gave it a try.

Matt and I started a game that has been going on for about three weeks. We have less than ten letters left and it's a close game.

The holiday

2009-12-27T20:55:00.001-08:00

Christmas Day......we had a great morning at our Grandparent's house opening gifts, eating breakfast and enjoying the family! We played games in the afternoon and Matt entertained us with some Christmas music on the piano. Then we had a nice light lunch and more game play! In the evening we went to the the jam packed movie theater to see Sherlock Holmes! It was a great holiday to share with so much family.

Christmas Eve... we had a lovely dinner at my great aunt Leta's house. We participated in the family gift exchange. It was hilarious because every time it was one of the men's turn to give their gift to their recipient they had to ask their wife which gift under the tree it was. Then we headed back to my mom's to open family gifts!

The cousin's, mom and grandpa! He was bombarded by a photo shoot but he was a good sport! It was fun!

The Charity Tree

2009-12-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

The hours, days, and months of preparation has all led to this one day. During a cold winter day in southern Oregon, the teddy bears come to have their picnic.

The "Bear" tree before all the decorations
50 handmade bears sit waiting for placement.

What's a picnic without a little fishing? (STUPID BEAR CAUGHT ONE!!)

Tasty ceramic berry pie.

The Final picnic.

Whew. Glad that's all over. Now time for the auction!!

Thanksgiving Fun

2009-12-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

As another year inevitably comes to a fast close, we get together with family and friends to gorge ourselves with mass quantities of delicious food and spend time reacquainting ourselves with the joys of quality time at home. The time inevitably speeds by too quickly but it is nice to have at least one day where we can just sit down and relax, if even just for the day. Here, is that day!!

Everyone is all smiles. We have not eaten yet.

Mariana's stomach grew 3 sizes this day.

Gathered around the table. Let the feasting begin!!

Thanksgiving isn't just for turkey anymore.

The Mutt.

Yummy good!!

My Artist Studio and Gallery

2009-11-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been exploring the artist in myself. I took the opportunity join the Ashland Art Center Community and now I have an artist studio/gallery downtown. It's only been a week, but I have a few pieces of work finished and many more in processes. It's a place for me to have an office workspace, interact with other artists, freelance and even sell art.

First Friday is when all local galleries open to the public to exhibit art. Lauren and Nate came down to my studio/gallery on 1st Friday. It was great for them to see my new space and sign my guest book. This pic is of me and Linnie. Linnie is a local artist I share my space with. We have great chemistry together and have already become friends. She has inspired me to explore art again. I have so many ideas and blank canvas's to fill. Maybe the blizzard in our living room will become a real piece of art!

lauren and nate visit!

2009-11-08T18:29:00.001-08:00

This weekend we were lucky that Lauren and Nate came to visit us! We love it when company comes ~ since they made the trek down, we made sure to support their favorite team, the Blazers, by watching the game and rooting them on. It worked because they won.I did make plans prior to Lauren visiting. She joined me early Saturday morning to helping my mom and her girl scout troop. We helped the community by assisting a local farmer load and deliver 19000 lbs. of pumpkins the the food bank. The pumpkins will be turned into food to feed local families. We were so silly and wore garbage bags around our feet so our pants and shoes stayed clean! We were definitely not photo shoot ready, but a took a few for the blog anyways!

Of course we walked down to the fabulous Paddington station. They are in the process of bringing out all of their Christmas items. It was so overwhelming and wonderful. Everyone female I bring to that place loves it!

We had a great time and the weather was perfect all weekend!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2009 This year Matt and I had to dress up. We found a geisha costume and Matt an Army outfit that were perfect! We spent the afternoon watching the town parade, which seemed to consist of everyone in the Rogue Valley willing to get dressed up on a Saturday afternoon to parade around in the streets of Ashland! By all means, it was entertaining!

Our favorite costume was the mobile ZOLTAR which dispensed candy to all that wanted a wish granted. We figured it was probably a guy that had a Segway and box. Very creative.
This year's pumpkins turned out to be (Matt) Jack the pumpkin king head, and (JJ) Mike Wazowski head from Monster's Inc. We were sad that the pumpkins seemed to lack seed this year. We barely roasted a bowl's worth, sniff. Although, I was so happy that a cute little trick-or-treater knew that my pumpkin was Mike Wazowski!

Origami Saturday

2009-10-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

Matt and I walked by the new gallery about a month ago. We thought, "Just what Ashland needs; another art gallery." Not that we don't like the art galleries, but there is like 30 of them that always seem to have the same art showings and some have even closed down because of the poor economy.

This week Anna was visiting us in Ashland and we decided to walk into town and spend the afternoon cruising the strip. On our way back to my place we stumbled upon this same art gallery that was having a grand opening this weekend with an Origami theme. To my surprise the gallery is actually different then the others. They teach classes and they rent out lots of spaces to local artisit as studios to work in and to display and sell art. There is probably 25 different artisit and kinds of art!

Anyways, Anna and I walk in and they had classes all weekend. They were anywhere from $10-$30. We were talking to the lady at the front desk and she explained that someone donated money to pay for all of the classes that weekend, so they were free to anyone. EXCELLENT! I signed up for a box class for Saturday morning, and then I signed Matt and I up for a wet folding class Saturday afternoon.

Here are a few pics of our work! I think the box class was a better class for beginners and lots of fun. The teacher was a true art teacher , eccentric, which in my art experiences meant the class would be good and I met a few really neat people. The wet folding was for more advanced origamists, (not sure if that's a word), and there were a few of us not up to par. Matt and I did learn that the beauty of wet folding is that you can shape the paper to have more character and personal style. The same folded piece of origami becomes unique for each person depending on how you form it. Even though Matt was sick the whole time we had a great time!

Thanksgiving BEWARE!!!

2009-10-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

JJ picked me up from work the other day to have lunch at Lithia Park (because I was too lazy to make my lunch before I went to work). Our normal picnic trip turned into a wildlife safari! We saw a group of pheasants, 13 deer, and 9 wild turkeys. We caught some pictures of the turkeys since I have never seen an actually wild turkey before. Mom, I know you are afraid of the turkey from your childhood experiences, but don't worry. These turkeys won't hurt you. They better hurry up and hide though. IT'S ALMOST THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turkey on the hill with this feathers puffed up.

Final Harvest my Butt!!

2009-10-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Though the temperature has been to the frost point in the evenings, we expected all of our plants would stop producing. We were happy with the last harvest and were going to leave it at that an not try to cover our plants during the cold temperatures. Well, WE WERE WRONG!! Our pepper plants have been going crazy!! These pictures show about thirty to fifty peppers which have ripened with about the same number which are still green. Oh, how I love you pepper plants. Not much can be said for our tomatoes which have been poor producers all year this year, but oh well. I don't have any expectations about Final Harvest 3 but will keep you posted!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Brazilian's in Ashland!

2009-10-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Mariana and her mom came down to Ashland to visit us. Mari's mom is visiting from Brazil for a month and wanted to see some of the sites in southern Oregon. We spent on afternoon exploring Crater Lake and enjoying the majestic views of the lake from every angle you look at it! I haven't been since I was about ten and barely remember the trip, so it was really great to visit.

Of course we took a walk around our cute little town and stopped for the biggest one scoop ice cream cones ever at Zoey's!It was so neat to have Mari bring her mom here. Since she couldn't speak English Mar translated between all of us, and we learned a bit of Portuguese. It was great to see them interact together and see just how much Mari is like her mom.

We all spent one morning shopping at the local Farmer's market for fresh produce. That evening Mari and her mom cooked us a delicious authentic Brazilian meal. I hope someday we get the chance to visit her in Rio and let her show us her hometown. Go Olympics 2016 RIO~ It unfortunate other places didn't get this, but after chatting with Mari's mom, Rio needs it. She explained that it's a beautiful town of dance, culture, and history that is falling apart. The crime and bad reputation is causing the business and tourism to struggle. Understandably. The people are hoping that the event in their town will not only show the world what a great place it is to experience, help the city rebuild some of the economy, and push the government to enforce laws and safety to make Rio a better place. Will see.

Family's Fall Visit to Ashland

2009-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

It was great to have the parents and the Bridge's come visit us again! It was a short trip and unfortunately Regan did not get much time with MOJO. Sniff. But it was nice to have the whole gang for the weekend. As always we had a great time.

We saw at the Angus Bowman theater, Paradise Lost. The play was set around the depression and told the overlapping dramatic stories of five characters. It seemed to be a fast moving play with all the stories intertwined together. It was very interesting to see the similarities of economic downturn and the rippling effects of it, mirror so much of our current societal situation today. I think this was overall everyone's favorite play!

Of course the ladies all had a great time shopping on Main St., especially at Paddington Station.

We had very nice seats at the Elizabethan Theater for Don Quiote. This theater is great because the multilevel historic stage is set outside creating a great ambiance. Although the local fires cast a haze of smoke in the sky and we could barely make out the stars, it was still nice. I can't speak for everyone, but I really enjoyed this play. It was a comedy play about a crazy old man trying to live out his truly rediculous fantasy's of heroism and adventure.

We saw an interesting Deaf dance group perform at the Green show. They really weren't that great of dancers, but the idea and meaning behind the show was sweet. We all sat on this brick wall for at least an hour. By the end of the show I think all of us were hurting a little form the uncomfortable seat!

The Final Harvest

2009-09-29T18:24:00.001-07:00

Even though it was 90 degrees and sunny a few days ago, today it was only about 60 degrees and rainy with reports of snow in the mountains. It will be somewhere in the 30's tonight so we might have the first frost of the season which means we decided to do a major harvest. Here is the remaining bounty of ripe veggies. There are still lots and lots of unripe produce which we hope will ripen but who knows. It is sad the summer is now officially over for us.

Ashland Fire

2009-09-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

On Monday, just before I left for work at the crack of noon, I was standing by the table and the light from outside looked like the sun was setting. I looked at the light on the ground and couldn't understand what was going on. I told JJ to come outside and check out the sun. Much to our surprise, there was a HUGE cloud of smoke coming from the hill a mile or two away from our house. It was about 100 degrees and windy that day, which didn't help to keep the fire contained. The smoke covered our little town and made many evacuate their homes. All in all, everything turned out alright. I think there may have been a couple houses burned, but no injuries. While they have not determined what started the fire, I was told by one of my customers at the bank which works for a local news station, they believe it to be arson.

The first four pictures were taken by JJ while the others were taken by a local professional.

Standing at the back door of our house.

The parking lot.

A Walk around Ashland '09

2009-09-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

While living in this town we have taken THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of photos. Well, maybe not that many. However,with all the "photo shoots" I have been forced to be a part of, it feels like it. These are picture from about a week ago as JJ walked around town experiencing Ashland through the lens of the a100.

Right out our back door.

Bamboo and Bell

Outside the Ice Cream Shop

The Plaza

Water Street

Ashland Springs

The Other Side of the Tracks

Beauty

Blast from the Past

2009-08-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

When JJ decided to go on her 100th trip this summer, she told me I should update our blog. So, after thinking about what we have done since our last posting, I realized we have not really done a whole lot. So, I went back to through the archives and looked at our lives. They are pretty much chronological starting with our honeymoon and moving back to our thinner days (and the more hair days!!). Enjoy.

2006 - European Honeymoon
Ferris wheel in Paris

2005 - Jessica's Graduation from PSU

2001 - Crazy Girl

2003 - Jessica's grandfathers 75th Bday

2001 - JJ and a Blurry Lotus

2001-02ish - The Home Depot Shirt

A long time ago!!

BEACH!

2009-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

It is over 100 degrees in Portland and Ashland. So I decided to make a stop at the beach on the way home. Neskowin has been a perfect 80 degrees and sunny! My BFF's Lauren and Lotus joined me gladly! We are loving it! I am so grateful to have such a beautiful place to visit.

Chinese Gardens!

2009-07-28T21:06:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday I had a wonderful day with Darlene! We went downtown to the Chinese Gardens. I have wanted to go for years, and just never went. So during my trip to Portland I made sure I didn't miss out, and it was a perfect sunny day to visit. Then gardens were gorgeous and I loved the floral garden. Our only discrepancies were that there was cob webs everywhere and all the windows were dirty. Afterward Darlene took me to lunch at DIM SUM and it was delicious.

Fortune teller! You shake a can, pick a stick with a number, and choose the number box with your fortune!

Darlene next to one of the many beautiful wooden doors!

Birthday week festivities

2009-07-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

#27 Saturday my grandparents had a very nice birthday party for me! It was great to celebrate with them this year! It was truly special, and 90 degrees in the shade! This year I was lucky to have my Mom, Will, Anna, and Alicia all there too. My Grandma made my favorite dessert, lemon meringue pie, from scratch! YUMMY! And I got a fabulous crock pot from them. I already made a pork roast with it. Delicious! It is a great way for me to cook since I don't enjoy the act of cooking, just the eating part suits me. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

Now I am off to Portland to see family and friends for the rest of my week. I am excited to see Darlene, Al, and visit with my Dad and Robin! Its a good thing since Matt just began his Physics Class and his Business class is crazy hard. Now he will be more focused to study. Only 4 more weeks of classes and then he gets 6 weeks off! YAY!

The Mountain Lakes

2009-07-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Fish Lake This last week, and this week too, was over 100 degrees everyday. We decided to take an afternoon and cool of at the mountain lakes. About 30 minutes from our house and 5,000+ feet above sea level are 4 beautiful Lakes. It was a perfect 78 degrees in the mountains! We had a great sandwich picnic. We did try to fish at Howard Prairie Lake, but again unsuccessful.

Lake of the Woods

Hyatt Lake

We hiked a trail where there were amazing views of the lake and a nice seat to rest in!

Matt is posing the "I'm cool" look here!

Harry Potter

2009-07-21T10:09:00.001-07:00

Its true, Matt and I along with my sis and her friend went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter.

All three of us girls made sure to fit in with the crowd by drawing harry scars on our foreheads! Matt didn't want to fit in!

We patiently awaited while the theater had a costume contest. Then the movie began. In MOJO's critics corner the movie got a C rating. We felt lost in many parts of the movie and it seemed to lack on the plot. Anna explained that the book filled in the gaps we were confused on. Over all we still had fun!

~4th of July 2009~

2009-07-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

The birthday party! This afternoon we visited my cousin's family, who is from out of town, and celebrated her son Aaron's fourth birthday at my Aunt's house. We also had the opportunity to finally meet their son Ryan. We had a nice evening with family!

Happy 4th. This weekend we stayed in Ashland and enjoyed one of the towns largest celebrations of the year. We started the day by watching the town parade. Matt admitted that he believed it was the first parade he has ever been to that he was an observer and not a participant.

Later in the afternoon my family came to visit and we enjoyed a casual walk through the towns festival booths and enjoyed some evening fireworks! It was sweet that our apartment complex put together bbq food, casual music, and activities that happened to be right outside of our front door. Overall it was a quite and peaceful holiday!

Bandon Weekend

2009-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took a trip out to Bandon to visit my old roommate Joel and our friend Kevin. Unfortunately Matt had school and work and stayed at home. He is such and hard worker, and I missed him so much that I had to text him constantly (he probably got sick of my texting, but I didn't care). We had a lovely time relaxing on our own private lake, Laurel Lake. With jet skis, catch phrase, and sun I was definitely amused.

We visited a safari petting zoo and I fell in love with the baby lions and leopard! They were only weeks old and still adjusting to walking. It was so cute! But the white Siberian tiger was my favorite! Beautiful animal!

I did take the first book of Twilight with me, and I ended up reading the first two books in two days! I can't believe it, but I love it. I read book four (I couldn't wait to see what happened in the end) and now I am reading book three. I know it was disrespect to the Cullens, but whatever. This is the first time I have ever read a whole book series, I can't believe it.

Weekend with Grandma

2009-06-22T12:25:00.001-07:00

This weekend Grandma had me accompany her to Corvallis for a PEO organization convention where my sister presented a speech. Anna was asked to speak because she was a PEO Oregon State scholarship recipient and a recent grad.

The food was amazing with salad, cream stuffed chicken and mashed potatoes, followed by delicious chocolate cake. Anna did a great job on her speech and Grandma and I were proud! Her PEO sponsors from Newport drove all the way to Corvallis for the evening to see her speak and they just love Anna. One of the ladies even calls herself "Anna's fairy godmother." They were so happy to help Anna and see her graduate.

I was excited Grandma booked a room at the Hilton, and the beds were like clouds. They even looked like clouds. I slept like a baby.

Father's Day

2009-06-22T12:14:00.001-07:00

This year we were able to spend Father's Day in Grants Pass with my Mom and Will along with my grandma and grandpa! Matt made a great lasagna for dinner and accompanied by bread, salad, and a tasty fruit salad from grandma. After dinner we enjoyed the river next to Grandpa's patio bonfire while filling up on apple pie and ice cream. We had a lovely afternoon.

Lauren and Nate Visit Ashland

2009-06-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Golfing Day! Matt had Tuesday off of school and work, finally a true day off. Lauren and Nate came to visit us in little Ashland and we tried the greens at a Medford Golf course. We decided to do 18 holes with walking the first 9 and carting the second 9.

Now you must understand that our golf skills are not up to par for the season, so we spent half the time trying to figure out where the ball went after our drives. Well after the first walking 9, we were all so exhausted and we had to stop to replenish fluids. We were so happy to have the carts on the second half. By the end I was not even putting, I just picked up my ball and moved on to the next hole.

Unfortunately Lauren became ill on Wednesday and thru the rest of the week. We were supposed to go rafting on Thursday, but she was not pulling it together. Matt and I will have to photo shoot a raft trip later this summer!

So we decided to golf at the Greens in Ashland, a 9 holer, while Lauren manned the cart and tried to keep track of where we hit our balls. This local course was somewhat nicer than the Medford course, and I loved that in general the holes were not nearly as long. We played a much better game in terms of our skill level.

Anna's a Grad!

2009-06-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend my family all met up in Corvallis to watch Anna graduate from OSU. She has a degree in Political science, a degree in International Studies, and a minor in Spanish. She graduated with honors; such an over achiever; we are all proud. As you can see, she was advertising herself, for hire, at the graduation. She is going to spend the summer living with my mom in southern oregon, and that means closer to me! Now we can job hunt and scrap book together!

Week with the Fam!

2009-06-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last week our family came to visit and it was great to see everyone! We saw the Shakespeare plays Macbeth and Death of a Kings Horsemen. I really liked Macbeth, but have had to refer to the children's book afterwards to really understand what happened. The other play was kinda weird for me. It wasn't bad, but I didn't love it!

It was fabulous to have our B.B. Regan stay with us too! We took Regan to the dog park, and he was a shy puppy. I don't think he could handle all the doggy exercise and doggie friends. One dog stole Regan's toy and teased the other dogs with it and Regan didn't even care.

We had a lovely picnic at Lithia Park one afternoon. The weather was warm and sunny! Matt baked a great Strawberry Pie to celebrate his Mom's b-day, but of course I forgot a knife and serving utensil, so we made due with plastic silverware. The result was yummy mushy pie topped with hand whipped cream! It tasted delicious!

The Bridges enjoying the afternoon

Darlene is showing off the yummy ice cream we had for dessert!

To end the week, after our family left, we did see Love's Labor Lost at the university. It was a funny witty play and I really enjoyed it! We love the experience of the theater and can't wait to see more!

Our garden is growing!!!

2009-06-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

We have a little growing garden!!!! Our tomatoes have a few small fruits on them! Finally. We almost killed the plants by planting too early. We assumed since it had been warm weather in March, and the stores were already selling tomato plants that it was fine to start the garden. A few weeks after we potted the plants, the spring freeze started, and all of our plants looked dead. We just left the dead plants in the pots, mainly because we had given up on doing anymore gardening until after Mother's Day. The beginning of May all the plants started to flourish!!!! Now we have added to the garden. We have Cilantro, Parsley, Basil, and 4 types of Peppers! I can't wait to eat them all! Not bad for a potted garden!

All American Holiday!

2009-05-23T22:41:00.001-07:00

Girl Scout Troops parade lineup

(Me inside the float)

This morning I woke up early to join my mom's girl scout troops in the Boatnik Parade. Needless to say it was a crazy morning. I sat in the float, that I attempted to help my mom glue and tape together, and lifted the Jacky-in-the-box up and down for a half hour. Thank goodness the Parade route was short since it felt like a million degrees in the float! The girl scouts all had fun. I did get a few great All American Pics!

I spent the afternoon walking the farmers market with my Mom and Will. I eventually wandered over to the river and found myself on a crowded bridge squeezing between a sweet old couple so i could get a glimpse of the boats racing on the river. I have never seen the town so full of people!

Good Student!

2009-05-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday Matt and I attended the SOU School of Business award ceremony where he recieved an award for being on the Dean's list for good grades! It is soooo cheezy I love it!

SUNDAY FUNDAY!

2009-05-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our relaxing fun day. We traveled about thirty min. up the road to Howard Prairie Lake. It was picturesque. They have a huge dock with fishing and boats for rent. We will definitely be back, especially since it was 93 here and 78 at the lake.

We spent part of the afternoon cruising the town by foot. We saw our local friendly deer family feasting on trees, enjoyed the towns sidewalk sale, and ventured through some of Lithia Park. It was a lovely lazy afternoon! After Memorial day it will be a busy and fun summer for us, so a final relaxing weekend was great!

OSF Open House 09

2009-05-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up to the constant pounding rain on our window. We were so surprised. A rare occurrence for Ashland. Luckily it blew over about eleven, and just in time for our day to start. Today we went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Open house.

We started with a tour of the costume department. To our surprise, it is a huge deal to get the initial design of the costumes until they hit the floor for rehearsal. Most plays have about 10 people per play working on up to 60 elaborate costumes. Every detail from the jewelery and shoes to the elaborate beaded work and accurate costume representation for the period is taken in to consideration. All of the costumes are available for other production houses and individuals to rent at the end of the season.

Next we went to the stage and prop design department a down the street from the theater. All of the stages and props are custom designed each season. All the stage sets are donated to local schools or throw away at the end of the season (since each play, even if it is done by OSF again, has a different director and designer with a different idea of how the play should look). Although the props are all put online at the end of the season to be rented by people all over the world.

We we able to chat with one of the prop designers for Don Quixote. He showed us some of the props for the play and explained that most of these particular props were all made from everyday items, including tires to make a vulture and garden gloves to create the owl.

We never did get anyone to tell us an est. cost for a play, but it would not be cheap. These plays are labors of love for one persons vision of the play. There was one backstage tour for the new theater, but we missed it. We decided we will take the full backstage tour another day.

FAMILY visit

2009-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the parents visited our humble abode. We met Uncle Georges' son, Rick and his wife Sue, who live in a beautiful new home in Eagle Point which is not far from Ashland. It was great to hear family stories from Rick and Darlene and see them happily reminisce on memories of George. I was amazed to see the clear resemblance of Rick and George from the photos Darlene brought down.

We did make it to a Shakespeare Festival play, Equivocation. It was an interesting and funny play about Mr. Shakespeare and his theater company struggling to write a play that pleases the King.
We had a great time walking the town, and getting some tasty treats at The Rocky Mounting Chocolate Co. I think that Louie's Burgers were the hit food for the trip.

We are excited for the family and the Bridges to visit next month. We still have more places to explore and then I will have a chance to take more photos; I need more "tall" photos for my new picture frame!

The Vortex!

2009-04-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my BFF Lauren and Mr. Nate (her new Beau and our new friend) visited. We took a trip to a local attraction called The Vortex. The vortex, essentially a whirlpool of force, is what creates the mystical illusion. Nowhere in the circle do you normally stand erect. Inevitably the visitor assumes a posture that inclines toward magnetic north. As another person, on a level platform, recedes from you towards magnetic south, they appear taller. When they approach you, coming towards magnetic north, they become shorter.

Lauren was confused and is still pondering how it "really" works. We all had a lovely weekend.

The below images depict the phenomenon clearly.

Easter Sunday

2009-04-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Easter Sunday with the Fam. We went to R HAUS for Sunday Brunch. My Grandpa told us that he and my Grandma had gone to this restaurant since they were in high school. They used to spend their evenings there playing and dancing with local bands. So it was really nice to be there with them!After Brunch we had birthday cake at my Grandparents house for my sisters birthday. Then Anna insisted we play solar system Monopoly with her. About an hour in I decided I had won the game, since I had all of the 1$. SO I handed my properties over to Matt and left the game (taking all of the 1$ with me).

Now Matt and I are sick, sniff. Strep and a terrible ear infection. Not fun! Lets hope it improves soon.

AIFF

2009-04-06T09:19:00.001-07:00

THis weekend we spent our time at the Ashland International Film Festival. Above you see Matt infront of a van of cameras. We had a great time. We saw three excellent screenings!One screening was full of 6 local short films.

Then we saw, Between the Folds, which is about artists, scientists and mathematicians from all over the world working in the very same medium of origami. It was so beautiful and amazing. This screening also featured a short film on david mccullough, an author, painter and PBS show host (he was a funny guy with a great life story).

Another film was Prom Night in Mississippi. Even though segregation became illegal in the US in the 70's, the town of Charelston still practices this by doing one senoir prom for whites and one for blacks. In 2008, Morgan Freeman offered to pay for a prom for the school, if it was intergrated, and hesitanly with confrontation, they agreed. The film documents this event. It was a great film, that HBO just picked up, and it is being submitted for an oscar.

All of the films we attended had a Q&A session with the Directors at the end. It really was neat to get more of an idea of how the films came about and how it all came together form the directors viewpoint. You could really tell that these films were labors of love for the film makers we met.

The lake

2009-04-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Recently we went to Emingrant Lake to fish. We did not catch any fish, yet, but we had a lovely day!

Jealous?!

2009-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

This is what we are having for dinner!! Artichokes as big as JJ's head!!

Spring Break Adventure!!

2009-03-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

Since I just started working on Monday, I haven't really had the opportunity to take some time off and get a break (per se), so JJ and I decided maybe a little road trip would be a nice change on my day off. We originally planned to head out to the Oregon Coast this morning and drive back tonight. After we found out its about 3 to 3 1/2 hours away, we nixed that idea and split the difference. We ended up in Cave Junction. Home to... um.... the Oregon caves. We drove into town, went to the information center, picked up some brochures and off we went. The caves were another 45 mins. away and then a 90 min guided tour. We actually decided not to do this today and to come back later in the summer, when it's warmer. We did have our adventures though. JJ pestered some poor swans. I kept telling her to be careful, they might attack!!

We stopped by this crazy place on the way out of Cave Junction. It is a "Gallery Woodyard Shop" Lots of crazy wood art, tree houses, furniture, etc. Go to itsaburl.com to find out more. Really, go......... Crazy.

This was a picture of me on my way up one of the tree houses. I think I just barely made the age limit.

Here is a very cute picture of JJ standing under a wooden mushroom. Everything was going fine until the mushroom ATTACKED HER!! IT WAS GRUESOME!! IT TRIED TO EAT HER!!

Needless to say, JJ made it out alive. Just barely. Here are her battle scars!!!!! A crazy day.

Pete Mondrain

2009-03-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

I love De Stijl Art. I found this background and was so excited! De Stijl art is the most basic of crossing joint forms and primary colors of art, inspired in the early 1900's. Maybe I will create my own someday! As the rain pours I am scrapbooking and staying out of Matt's way so he can study. FINALS!

Snowboarding

2009-03-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

It's one of the last days you can snowboard at Mt. Ashland, so we decided to make the trek up there at least once this year. It was a beautiful day!! Temp was in the mid 50's all day. I only wore my t-shirt, gloves, and snow pants. JJ originally had on a sweater and after the first run we had to go back to the car and drop it off because she was too hot.

Below is a picture of the mountain from the lodge. See the little white globe on the top? We will be seeing that again later in this post.

There are only 4 lifts at this mountain. I think we rode them all at least once. I am learning how to be a better boarder but had a few accidents along the way. This picture doesn't really do it justice but forearm has some road rash and is bruising up pretty well now. Actually, by the end of the day it was both arms, elbows, ankles, oh, and I have a sunburn!!!

These picture are from the very very top of the mountain. Amazing views!!!

All strapped in a ready to go. Oh, JJ had a little bit of an adventure but I am not going to tell you here. I will let her tell you!!!!!!! HAHA!!

Almost done with my post. This one turned out to be a long one!!

All in all, GOOD TIMES!! We are going to be sore in the morning!!

New Snow

2009-03-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Not that its really all that new anymore, but it snows quite a bit here. These are from the walk home from my music class JJ decided to attend. It snowed for about an hour big quarter sized flakes. Then about an hour later, it was all gone.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Co. in Ashland

2009-03-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

JJ was feeling a little depressed and taking it out on me. So, i decided the only thing i could is give her some chocolate!! This is what she chose. They call it a Rock Road. Marshmallow, chocolate, caramel, and "crispy's" (says JJ. Think they are nuts.) There are about 12-15 different combinations of apples there. Perhaps, in time, we shall try them all.

PS... I had a Cookies and Cream milk shake that was, in one word, dissapointing... I miss Kimbles!!

The New Couch!!

2009-02-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

After years of sitting on the floor, or on our LoveSac (which if you're reading this JP, we still love!!) we finally bought a couch. Here it is. It's a sleeper too, so when/if you come and visit you won't have to sleep on the floor (or the sac). Unless you want!

More Snow...

2009-02-13T11:21:00.001-08:00

All the snow had melted from the other night but when we woke up this morning this is what we saw. Here is the picture from the back of our house.

This is the picture from the front. Very pretty today. It's melting fast though so it's good I took these picture when i did!!

Artic Blast 09

2009-02-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, not exactly like '08 but what the heck. The Weather Channel says its going to snow for the next 10 days. I guess this is just the beginning!!

Old Town

2009-02-09T20:39:00.001-08:00

Even though the town is only ten square feet there is an old part. Here is an old building with an original painting on the side from the early 1900's (Girl not included).

Beach 2009

2009-01-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely weekend at the coast with a few friends. And of course we had oven baked pizza and black bottom creme bruile. It is a longer drive than going to Portland, but well worth the view. We are happy and thankful we get the chance to go out there a few times a year!!!!

More Exploration

2009-01-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

This weekend we decided to drive around and explore. We ventured into the hills of Ashland and found some very unique homes. It was interesting to see some very expensive homes, next to small run down homes all over the hills. Then we scoped out the housing around Lithia Park. There are some nice homes, that seemed to cost way too much, just because they were next to the park. Crazyness.

Then we drove up to Mt. Ashland, where the slopes are short and steep (at least for us novice snowboarders). The views were beautiful from uptop the mountain, but there is only 4 feet of snow. It seemed very icy on that sunny day, which is not my ideal snowboarding conditions. If it ever get a fresh coat of snow, then one of these days we will drive up the mountain to test the slopes.

Stuffed to the Brim!!

2008-12-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

My parents were nice enough to stock us up on the essentials before making the trip home from ARCTIC BLAST '08. After raiding their pantry and a trip to Costco, we are now ready for another semester of home cooking. This picture does not do our new pantry justice but helps you understand why we are just a little concerned about whether or not the shelves will live up to their stated 300 lbs. capacity.

Beautiful Bow Pt. 2

2008-12-29T13:19:00.001-08:00

Even though we were not home most of this month to put up the pieces, I thought I would show what it would look like completed.

Arctic Blast '08

2008-12-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

The weather outside was frightful. It also postponed our trip back down south for almost a week (6 days that is!!). Here are some pictures from the storm that broke all previous Portland Records.

It really wasn't a ton of snow, about 2 feet, it was the complete lack of any means to get rid of the snow and 6 inches of ice on all roads. IE: Plows, Sanding, DeIcing, Etc. The driving was treacherous, not to say we didn't drive all over in it!!

PS... THIS IS THE HIGHWAY!!!!!!!

Million Christmas Lights

2008-12-08T19:52:00.001-08:00

WARNING!! If you get motion sick beware!!

I'm just kidding. Its not that bad. We just wanted you to sort of see what the town looks like during Christmas time. So many lights!!

Christmas Time is Here

2008-12-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

We are prepared for it. Well, as prepared as anyone can be I suppose. We have our tree up with the train ready to go. It makes a TON of noise but is pretty fun (for about 30 seconds). The smoke stack still smokes. Which makes me wonder what they have in there to make it do that.

We have our stockings hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that someday we might actually have a chimney to hang our stockings.

Beautiful Bow

2008-12-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here is the fruits of our labor. True, the bow took us many hours to make but I believe it turned out very well.

Strangeness In Ashland

2008-12-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

While walking around the little town of Ashland we are always amazed at what we see. Here is a 15 foot bronze... thing...

Not sure if you can notice, but down on the bottom left corner there is a Donkey/Man... thing... Very strange!! The image somehow became messed up but perhaps thats just from the large amounts of strange!!