Christmas Time!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?!

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

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

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!

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!