DU Hockey

Ryan received four DU hockey tickets from his boss for last Friday so we invited Scott and Sue to come along with us for a night out.  We started at Mustard's Last Stand, which is a hot dog joint close to campus.

Then we headed to the match.  We had really good seats but I forgot how cold it stays inside the coliseum when you're watching hockey.  I kept my coat on the entire time!  The North Dakota Sioux were up 4 to 1 in the final few minutes of the game when the Denver University Pioneers staged a comeback.  They scored two goals very quickly to make the game 4 to 3 and I was hoping they'd be able to tie it up.  Unfortunately they didn't, but it was fun anyway.

The next morning, we had planned on skiing but we stayed out so late the night before I had trouble getting up in time.  So we enjoyed the day in town with some coffee at La Dolce Vita, some mattress shopping, and dinner at Luke's, the most delicious steakhouse I think I've been to.  I'd been wanting to try it out for some time and I'm so glad we finally did because it is such a cute and casual feeling little place with amazing food.

Pancake Social

For some reason I freaking love the pancake social Geico commercial so have no doubt that when Ryan and I signed up to help with the Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner at church there were plenty of jokes flying around the house.  Apparently the church hosts this fundraiser dinner every Shrove Tuesday and we were asked to help this year.  Ryan helped cook a whole mess of bacon for the event and also did a lot of clean up while I mostly just talked to people as they came through the buffet line.

There was even a band there and some people were out on the dance floor.

It was a really fun event to help out with and it raised some money for ongoing mission trips.  Here I am with Jodi at the end of the night, enjoying our pancake dinner.

Success!

Last weekend Ryan and I went to Keystone and I finally got in a whole day of skiing with no wrecks!  No wrecking and no stopping AND I even met Ryan when and where we were supposed to meet this time.  I am calling it a success!  Now that I know how to ski (I am by no means good) I am having such a good time!  It is amazing to go swishing down the slope so fast (Ryan might disagree with my word choice of "fast") with the beautiful surroundings and the sun shining brightly.  I always used to ask Ryan what exactly it was he loved so much about skiing and he could never really put it into words and now I am struggling with the same thing.  I guess if I had to use a few descriptive words I'd pick:  nature, beauty, freedom, adrenaline.  If you love to ski, what are some of the things you love most about it?

I had the best Vanilla Cinnamon Chai at Inxpot before the lifts opened.

Ryan being ornery before we took the gondola to the summit.

Pictures I took while on the chair lift:

Also over the weekend, I finally removed my navel ring.  Actually, Ryan had to remove it because I was too grossed out to mess with it.  I really don't know what possessed me to get it 12 years ago but I got so used to it I pretty much forgot it was there.  Then I read something about how "90s" it was to have one...and considering it is 2012 and I don't want to be "stuck in the [insert decade here]"...out it came.  I think you can tell I wore it for 12 years straight.

Anyway, I'll end this post with a scene from our household.  Where's Waldo (China)?

Look closely...there are two little white legs under the table and in between them is a leg from a maimed horse squeaky toy.  Notice how Peanut and Mojo are hovering?  It didn't take long for this to happen.

Peanut is such a 6 pound bully.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mojo says "I Woof You!"  A colleague brought me that cute bandana for him to wear for the holiday.  Another colleague brought me a yummy dark chocolate covered apricot/almond treat.  I guess I was pretty spoiled at work!

And check out this beautiful purple and white chocolate covered strawberry that I treated myself to and took a giant bite out of before photographing.  Mmmmm.

Ryan was working his company's booth tonight at the Colorado Garden and Home Show (btw - if you are FB friends with him check out his company's page and like it...you should be able to find it through his page) so I went out with the ladies to my favorite sushi restaurant Namiko's.  Sue and Jodi had plenty of sake while others in the group had Kirin or plum wine.  Yummy.

 Audrey, Sue, Jodi, me, and Marlene:

What a great Valentine's Day date!  Someone brought Ryan a cookie at his show so he didn't go without treats.  :)  Speaking of his show, he worked both Saturday and Sunday evenings last weekend so we didn't do anything super exciting but I did get to visit him one night and check it out.  I just had to take a picture of this Wizard of Oz themed landscape. 

Also over the weekend we enjoyed some drinks at the Arvada Beer Company, and ate at my favorite Mexican place Tequila's. 

I also finished two books over the weekend.  Poor China tried to chill out with me but sometimes Peanut has other ideas for China and tortures her.

Last night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to cheer on KSU during the KSU/KU game.  As usual, we were bad luck for our alma mater.

And there's a recap of our weekend through today.  Hope everyone had a great weekend and great Valentine's Day!

Winter Blast Part 2

The next day of the family's visit was snowmobiling at Good Times Adventures in Breckenridge!

Once we got to the Continental Divide we got to stop and take pictures and mess around for a bit.  And the guide let those of us that wanted to play on the sleds a bit more do some ripping around at the summit.  Of course our entire family joined in.

On our way back down to the base we got to go by the horse stables and the dog kennels (they offer sleigh rides and dog sledding in addition to snowmobiling).  We all think that next time we should go dog sledding!  When we returned to the base we were treated with hot chocolate.

After a visit with some of Rob and Jaime's friends in Keystone and dinner at Dos Locos we went to view the Snow Sculptures in Breckenridge.  They were amazing!  Artists start with a block of snow that looks like this:

And turn it into something like this:

This one was my favorite:

It was soooo cold out that night so we went and stood around a fire in the square to warm up.  As we were standing there a couple came up and the girl pulled out her left hand and announced that they had just gotten engaged by this sculpture:

Apparently we were the first to know!  It was pretty late at night when we finally got home so needless to say, we missed church the next morning.  We actually had a pretty lazy day and just visited, cooked, ate, and watched the Super Bowl.  Then, unfortunately on Monday the family had to leave.  We still got to enjoy a little more time together and lunch at Red Robin before we dropped them off at the airport.

We had such a FUN time and are so glad that Rob, Jaime, Kylar and Ashlynn came out to visit us!  We can't wait for the next time!

Winter Blast

Just when I'd been enjoying the unseasonably warm winter weather, we were hit with a February blast of snow that started last Thursday night and continued into Saturday.  Usually, I wouldn't have minded so much but Rob, Jaime, Kylar, and Ashlynn were scheduled to be in town early Friday morning and we had big plans for the weekend.  Thankfully, their flight from Kansas City made it in and Ryan was able to safely get them home from the airport.  It's pretty nice having a four wheel drive vehicle now!  When they got back that's when the real winter blast started!

After they got settled in with some food and warm drinks (and the kids went out and played in the awesome snow), we decided to drive to Winter Park to go tubing.  Lucky for us I found a 50% off deal online for the Colorado Adventure Park.  The drive up really wasn't that bad as the high country wasn't getting nearly as much snow as we were in town and everyone else was reluctant to get out so the roads weren't congested at all. 

Here we are heading to the summit for our first run:

There were green (easy), blue (intermediate), and black (steep) hills to choose from.  We warmed up on the blue and then headed straight for the black.  It was so much fun to go flying down the slope!  We had one double tube and the kids had a good time trading off riding with the adults.  Thank goodness there was a conveyor to take us from the base to the summit because I'm not sure I would have lasted very long if I would have had to walk my tube back up.

At one point Ryan was sitting in his tube at the base so he could take pictures of us coming down the hill.  Unfortunately it's a bit hard to control where you're going while you're in the tubes and Rob was going so fast that he ran right into him!  I think this is the picture from that wreck.  Yep, that's all sky right there.  It was SO funny.  I wish I could have gotten a picture or video of it.

Only after the wreck did we notice this sign (specifically number 7):

When we were finished with tubing there was a nice fire for us to warm up by.

And a little table for us to rest.

We sure had a "blast" the first day the family was in town!  Because I was so good about getting pictures the first day, but then not as good for the remaining three days, I'll write about the rest of the visit in my next post.