Train!

Ryan loves music (and is the sole keeper of the family's iTunes account) so for his birthday I gave him tickets to see one of his favorite bands, Train, at Red Rocks.  The concert was a week ago Wednesday night and it was the first time for either of us to see Train and to see a concert at Red Rocks.

The show started at 7 so we thought we'd have plenty of time to grab a quick bite to eat and make it to the amphitheatre.  Boy were we wrong.  There is only a two-lane road to access Red Rocks and it was very slow going.  We missed the entire first act but I'm not even sure who it was so I wasn't that concerned.  We did make it in time for the opening act, which was Matt Kearney.  They were great and I did know several of their songs.  It was so funny because the singer kept mentioning how much he couldn't breathe at the altitude (of course he was running around in the crowd and dancing all over the stage).

Then Train came on and they were AWESOME!  So much better live than on the radio and I love it when that happens.  They have been around for a long time and we have both liked them since the beginning so lucky for us we knew pretty much everything they sang, even the stuff off the new album.  They were so in tune with the crowd and did some pretty cool things throughout, like giving away a signed guitar to a handicapped girl in the front row, and throwing tons of signed t-shirts out to the crowd.  It was just a great, happy feeling concert to attend and it was a perfectly crisp and cool evening.  We ended up not getting home until around midnight, which is very late for us on a "school night", but it was definitely worth it to have such a great experience.  We would both definitely go see Train again and would love to see another concert at Red Rocks where this is such a great energy.

Apples

A couple weekends ago we went and picked apples!  We were carrying a load of canning paraphernalia at Ace Hardware and a man stopped us and told us we were welcome to pick apples off his four trees.  So of course we took him up on the offer!  He left the apple picker outside for us and we went to town. 

The apples were SO good!  Ryan canned a bunch of apple sauce and apple slices and we are planning on going back for more!  We also got 25 lbs of tomatoes and a bushel of green chilies at the farmer's market.  So now we have tons of salsa and pizza sauce and frozen roasted green chilies for soup in the winter!

The past two weekends we've been watching a bunch of football...oh how I love football season for so many reasons besides just getting to watch games.  The weather, the trees turning, autumn colors, comfort foods...ahhhhhh.  Anyway, it's been fun watching Peyton Manning (although I still miss Tebow) and KSU has been awesome!!!  We watched the first game at home and then last weekend we met up with some KSU friends at Buffalo Wild Wings because none of us got the game at home.  Go Wildcats!

Also in the last couple of weeks we joined our church.  We've been attending for almost a year and a half and recently decided to join and become more involved.  We are both on committees now!  Ryan is a Trustee and I am on Staff Parish Relations (which is basically HR).  Anyway, we had to stand up in front of the church and say a little something so I get up there and give my little talk about how long we'd been attending, how excited I was, what a great church, how people might have seen us skirting in late every Sunday (my fault) and so on and so forth...and then I handed the mike to Ryan and he said "Hi, I'm Ryan.  I'm her chauffeur".  Needless to say, everyone in the church now loves him.  Rotten.

The last note I have today is that we undertook cleaning blinds one weekend.  I never, ever want to do it again.  Do you all do this task often?  Seriously, I think it is the worst thing ever.  Although dirty blinds drive us crazy because we're both rather particular...I just really, really thought it was the worst task ever.

Spellbound Art

I was thankfully feeling a little better for Ryan's birthday and was able to take him out for dinner to Root Down, which has a field to fork mentality and tries to source the majority of its ingredients organically and/or locally.  We were there during happy hour so we got a good seat outside on the patio and we were able to sample a few pre-dinner cocktails and appetizers for a cheaper price than normal.  I really liked my lavender lemonade.

The next night we went to Spellbound Art, which is an art studio where you can sign up for a workshop during which an artist leads the class in painting.  We signed up for the "Bamboo" class but I'm not really sure why it's called that because it really isn't bamboo that we painted.  Anyway, it was so much fun and I love our pictures (we even hung them up in the house).  I really think our personalities show through in the paintings even though they're supposed to be of the same thing.  I would love to go back and do another painting. 

I was so mad that the red paint squirted all over my plate:

Serious artists:

The weekend after Ryan's birthday was fairly unexciting except for the fact that we had THREE days off for Labor Day.  That was nice.  We went to the look at houses entered into the Parade of Homes.  There were some amazing homes!  We also went to farmer's market, did some cruising in The Church Lady, had dinner at Tequila's, and relaxed at La Dolce Vita.  I'm sure we did a few other things as well but the only picture I have is of us sitting at La Dolce Vita.  Oh, and fuzzy Peanut.

The Church Lady

The day after we got home from Kansas, we got to go pick up The Church Lady!  We went right after work so Ryan could put the door handles, brake light fixtures, and trunk latch on (he didn't want a repeat of last time) for the drive home.

He put the rest of the hardware on at home and Dion came over with Amy and the kids that following weekend to help put on the bumpers.  You can be sure we've been cruising often since then.  I'll have to get a finished picture posted.

We also came home to massive zucchinis from the garden:

Also that following weekend we attended a neighborhood block party and went to church.  After church we went to coffee like usual but I told Ryan I was feeling extremely tired and just wanted to go home.  I thought I had just worn myself out from the trip to Kansas and the following busy week.  I ended up sleeping ALL DAY.  The next morning when I got up for work I just couldn't get out of bed.  So I stayed home and slept ALL DAY again.  I convinced myself I was better the next day but I really wasn't and was having trouble walking any distance or moving much at all (and talking was such a chore...you know it's bad when I can't talk!).  I just couldn't breathe.  So I went to the doctor and apparently I wasn't taking in enough oxygen and I was having some sort of asthmatic response to something.  She immediately gave me a breathing treatment and a prescription for 30 days of Advair and an "emergency" inhaler.  Apparently this has been going on a lot this year. I really wonder if it has to do with how dry it's been this summer and all the smoke in the air because I usually don't have problems like this.  I feel so much better now but I think I'm going to visit an allergist to see if there is something I need to avoid so this doesn't happen again.

Kansas Part II

I forgot to attach a picture of the hilarious dog treats that Wendy gave us.  Yes, they are shaped like you would imagine...HAHAHAHA.

So anyway, on to the rest of our trip to Kansas.  We got back to Kansas City from Branson in time to celebrate Jaime's birthday at Jose Pepper's.  Margaritas?  Check.

The next day, everyone including Ryan was working so I fiddle faddled around by myself and luckily got to see my friend Kelly!  Unfortunately I didn't get to see my sweet little Reid this time.  :(  When everyone got home Vearl treated us to homemade Reubens...mmmm...he used to always make those for us when we lived there.

Ryan took stealth pictures of Linda and me doing "Just Dance" on the Wii later.  Good thing it was dark.

The next day we got to have lunch with Kylar and Ashlynn at school.

 

And then we got to spend the entire rest of the day with Rob and Jaime at their house.  Of course we were in the pool!  It was actually not that warm out (which I wasn't expecting and truly hadn't packed correctly!) but Rob was so nice to turn the pool heater on because we had been so excited about coming over and swimming.  Once the kids got home from school we played horse, chicken, had water fights, and enjoyed the rest of the daylight hours.

We ended the night out by the fire pit enjoying a fish fry and homemade onion rings that I kind of begged Vearl to make.  :)

The next day after breakfast we drove to Topeka to stay with Luke and Leslie for a night.  And because we are all just big kids we did what big kids do:  played with horses, dogs, and kitties; drove the go-cart, played games, and ate custard! 

I got to see my sweet baby Bodhi and his momma Pony Sue, Aunt Breezy, and Uncle Joe.

I got to ride Joe and we got into small tiff where I maybe ended up on the ground (mainly due to my poor riding skills) but we kissed and made up. 

Go-Cart!  I'll never forget the first time Leslie and I went ripping around in that thing.

Custard at Freddy's.  I didn't get two on purpose...they just accidentally made extra.  I swear.

The next morning we headed back home to Denver. 

We had a great time and miss and love everyone lots.

I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

The second weekend in August, we took 10 days off to drive to Kansas/Missouri to spend time with family and friends.  We got to Mark and Wendy's house super late that Friday night to see my side of the family.  We of course had lots of Chinese food like fried noodles and dim sum while we were there.

We got the four wheelers out for the kids.  Uncle Ryan got to ride too!

We made bracelets and I was an utter failure and never did finish one but the boys made several that looked good.

Maybe we got into Grandma's make-up...

And maybe Uncle Ryan and Aunt Rachel brought suckers that turned the kids' mouths colors:

We also had fun playing games (Apples to Apples...love it!) and checking out Mark and Wendy's super nice gym, HealthRidge Fitness.  Wendy convinced me to try to the steam room after my workout as I'd never been in one before.  It really took my breath away when I first got in there but I got used to it quickly and then felt pretty good.  It's nice because you get so warmed up you can do some deep stretching...which is helpful for me because I am extremely inflexible.  

For the next stop we turned the Batmobile towards Branson to visit Ryan's Nanaw and Grandad.  Boy did they have a full few days planned for us!  We showed up to Nanaw's home cooking and now thanks to her I have a new addiction to coconut cream pie.

The first night we were there they took us to the Pierce Arrow Theater, which featured great live singing and comedy.

The next day we drove around to see where some of Ryan's cousins work, including the College of the Ozarks, which is beautiful, and the Northwood's Candy Emporium at The Landing.  Here Ryan is trying chocolate covered bacon (YUM!) and I am chowing down on a sea salted chocolate caramel:

Later that night we got to meet Ryan's Aunt Kay, Uncle Gary, and cousins for dinner at the Rib Crib.  And then we got to go to Uncle Gary's for homemade ice cream!

And then all too soon we left the next morning to drive back to Kansas City to see Ryan's immediate family.  We had a great first few days of our trip and it all seemed to go by so quickly.  I will post next about the second half of our trip.