Crazy Colorado Weather

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

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

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

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!