Camping Trip 2!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!  We were lucky enough to get a camping spot last Thursday night and stayed out through Monday.  It was super busy the first couple of nights but by Sunday afternoon a lot of people had left.  The weather was nice the entire weekend AND it had rained enough the past few weeks that we were able to have a fire every night!

This is our sweet new table/checkerboard that Ryan ordered off of steepandcheap.com.  We have got to be some of the company's top customers.  It's a great site for outdoor gear deals.

Here is China falling asleep while Ryan cuts sap out from in between her paws. 

Here is China hiding under the camper gnawing on the greasy towel she found.



Dominoes!

The "noxious fumes" (Ryan's term not mine) from the delicious, spicy shrimp boil that almost gassed us out of the camper while playing dominoes.  Note to self:  no matter how chilly it is outside, make sure air is circulating through the camper before making spicy food.

We took the dogs hiking one day and China and Peanut didn't make it so far so we had to take them back to the campsite and leave again with Mojo.  Sweet China tuckered out first and got carried for a large portion of the walk back and once Peanut realized China was getting carried she just sat down right in the middle of the road and wouldn't go further.  We put a dog pack on Mojo (another great buy from Steep and Cheap) and he carried our lunch on the hike.

Unfortunately, Mojo couldn't figure out that he was a wider load with the pack on and this is what our chips ended up looking like.

Next time we will be packing all of our food in hard containers.

At one point over the weekend, I stepped inside the camper and when I came back out I caught Ryan jumping the biggest rock at the campsite with his bike.  It made me think/giggle about the little kids in our neighborhood that make ramps to jump with their bikes and skateboards.  Reaffirmation that boys never do grow up.

Here are a couple more pictures from our long weekend.  We had such a great time!

A Little Late...

So I never posted about our activities from a week ago Sunday like I said I would.  Well, here are the highlights:

After church and coffee we had breakfast at Blue Sky Cafe and Juice Bar.  In addition to normal breakfast fare, they also have fresh juices and smoothies made to order.  I had a Strawberry Pineapple Apple and Ryan had a Spinach Grape Apple Ginger.  Yummy!

We also did a bit of shopping and I finally splurged and got some polarized sunglasses.  They are AMAZING!!!  If you've never tried polarized sunglasses I highly recommend it!  Now I can understand why people want to wear their sunglasses inside too!  (Not that I will be doing this...don't want to be mistaken for a celebrity or anything...)

We also replanted some of the veggies that didn't make it through the frost and planted some flowers.  The next door neighbors happened to be doing the same thing in their backyard so they handed some margaritas over the fence and we all had a good time. 

While we were occupied, someone (China) dug a hole to her namesake.  This picture does not accurately show how large this hole actually is.  She had to put a lot of work into it and her paws showed that evidence.

Someone else (Mojo) used our preoccupation to escape the yard and roam around the neighborhood.  Thankfully Ryan found him just a few houses down and we made it through the rest of the evening without further hijinks. 

Rapture?

Perhaps our activities during the rapture are indicative of why Ryan and I are still here?  Yes, we were enjoying a tasty brew and watching the Preakness at The Archive Room in Old Towne Arvada.  Because we weren't taken in the rapture by 6 pm eastern we decided to roam around Old Town a little more.  We stopped at the cutest little grocery store, Etta's Place, that carries organic and local foods.  We tasted some "root beer milk" and it really tasted just like a root beer float!  We ended up purchasing some spicy pickled veggies (if you can pickle it, I will probably like it) and some pizza dough made by the local Udi's pizza shop pretty much right across the street from the grocery store.

Then we went to the Book Cranny which sells new and used books and I came away with six Anne Rice books!  Each one only cost $3.50-$4.00.  I was pretty happy with my purchase.

In other big news we now have Blue Bell ice cream in Colorado.  I didn't realize this was big news but there are billboards up and people are talking about it so I guess it's a big deal.  I'm pretty sure I'd had Blue Bell ice cream in Kansas but couldn't really remember what was so great about it so we got some to try.  Ryan chose Banana Pudding and I chose Pecan Pralines and Cream.  Let's just say we were both pretty happy about our ice cream.

And here are some gratuitous cute pictures for you.  I'll write more about Sunday activities later.



The Small Things

I always try to remind myself how lucky I am for so many things.  Clearly I have a wonderful husband, great family and friends, a great career, and home and health (and food).  While I never forget those things, a lot of times it's the little daily happenings that bring a smile to my face and cause me to pause and reflect on all the goodness in my life.  Below is just a quick list of the small things that have made me happy so far this week.  This list is in no particular order and is by no means all inclusive. 

1. Receiving a package in the mail
2. A good book on a rainy day
3. The way  6 lb. Peanut sounds like a herd of elephants when she runs
4. Pink nail polish
5. Pink pajamas
6. Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (with pink ice cream...I'm seeing a theme here with pink)
7. Ryan putting my vitamins out every morning because he knows I wouldn't take them if he didn't
8. Green grass
9. Everyday Food Magazine
10. Evites
11. Emails from friends and family
12. Getting to use my umbrella

What are some small things that make you happy?

Movie Mania

I always try to be the best I can be at whatever I set my mind to...and this weekend I chose to be a world class slug.  The weather was rainy and cool, which we don't get a lot here, and it just felt right to spend lots of time eating, reading, and watching movies.

We had a delicious taco and margarita night on Friday night, along with watching two movies:  Inside Man and When in Rome.

Someone used our inattention as an opportunity to wreak havoc on Blue Man ("Who Me?"):

I also finished one Anne Rice book, Pandora, and started another one, Blackwood Farm.  Both are so, so good just like the rest of the Anne Rice books I've read.  Ryan also took me to see Water for Elephants after church and breakfast at Gunther Toody's. 

The movie was wonderful and I went in with high expectations as Ryan and I both read the book a few years back and both absolutely loved it.  If anyone hasn't read or seen it you should!  We watched more movies this weekend than we usually do in one month and it was lovely.  Sometimes there's nothing better than taking a weekend to relax and recharge.

What a Difference

What a difference a day makes!  I went to bed on Tuesday night after enjoying a gorgeous, sunny, 80 degree weather day and woke up on Wednesday to this:

The snow turned into rain and it continued to rain all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday.  We definitely needed it so I was very happy! 

Growing up in Kansas, there was always the saying "If you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes and it will change."  Well, that saying seems to hold true here in Colorado too!

Colorful

I've mentioned that I'm super excited about spring/summer and that excitement seems to be showing itself in my work attire the past couple of days.  Please note the bright shirts and lip gloss in the pictures below.  :)  If I had pictures of my gym outfits you would see more of the same...     



Spring/Summer has sprung!

I've been a pretty terrible blogger lately and I'd like to blame that squarely on the beautiful, sunny weather we've been having.  When it gets this nice outside I have a one track mind for being outdoors so I'll try to catch up on the happenings of the last week (most of it involved being outdoors) so this might be a long one.

First off, Ryan planted all of our veggies in our garden beds this week.  Because he goes to work much earlier than I do, he usually gets home earlier than I do and that was the case that night because when I came home he had already planted everything and was watering.

Unfortunately, it frosted one night since he planted so we're not sure everything is going to make it.  We were a bit wary this might happen but Ryan talked to a garden person at some store who said it was totally okay to plant just as long as we watched the news for frost warnings.  Too bad the meteorologists never actually warned of any frost and it's been so nice we didn't expect it.  Anyway, if everything makes it we'll have a few different kinds of tomatoes, peppers, and lettuces, as well as basil, cilantro and strawberries.  I love fresh produce from the back yard!

I was so excited about all the fresh veggies we'll hopefully have that I made a delicious pasta using fresh, (well as fresh as I could get at the store) tomatoes and basil.  Ryan and I both loved this dish.

Because of the awesome weather, I was able to dine outside downtown for lunch a couple of times this week.  One day I went to Yazoo BBQ with colleagues.

And one day I got to meet my friend Jenna at Organixx.  It was so good to see Jenna and it was such a perfect day! 

Then came the weekend and camping!!!  I have been excited for this camping season ever since we put Bumblebee (our camper) up for the season last year.  We headed up right after work on Friday.  Here you can see what China and Mojo like to do on the ride up to the mountains:

The campground we went to was pretty full but we were able to get a great spot.  Here Ryan is prepping Bumblebee to unhook from the truck:

The fur babies checking out the weekend digs:

Bumblebee all set up:

Amy, Dion, and Lily joined us on Saturday for lunch and a hike before they headed back to town.  Below are a bunch of random pictures.

We actually left camp last night (Saturday) because Ryan wanted to get some yard work done today.  One patch of sod we had planted last year didn't take and it was completely dead and brown.  So after church and breakfast at Butcher Block Cafe with some members that were so kind to invite us out, Ryan set to work.

And I supervised/spectated:

Actually, after I snapped this photo Ryan enlisted me.  I guess he didn't appreciate me harassing him just my moral support.  Now the lawn looks beautiful and I hope it stays that way this time!

We celebrated the close of a week the best way we know how: