June Bridal Shower

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.