Catching up

The holidays are here! We are getting ready to head back to Kansas later this week to see friends and family, which I'm REALLY looking forward to! Until then, a little update over the past few weeks:

- Halloween

- First day of ski season!

- Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity - learned to drywall!

- Read Mockingjay and The Paris Wife

- Went to see Ira Glass give a presentation in Fort Collins - This American Life is a favorite

- I have a new obsession with Pho - a vietnamese noodle soup. I'm usually not that big on Asian flavors, but I CRAVE this soup now

- Making chili, chicken soup and watching Big 12 football

Here's to one last relaxing weekend before the busy holiday season commences!

Exciting few days! Thursday and Friday I went to the Western Slope for work, specifically Montrose and Grand Junction. Both are beautiful towns, and so different from the Front Range. You can see the San Juan range from Montrose, which is a really high, craggy range, and Grand Junction could be Utah - so desert-like.

Lucky enough to take the Governor's jet - what a way to travel.

We went on a tour of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Working on the Colorado account for so long I've heard of the place, so it was fun to actually see it in person. It's this amazing canyon that is deeper than the Grand Canyon. The iPhone pics just don't do it justice.

In Grand Junction we went on a tour of the Colorado National Monument, which was very similar in that I've heard about it but never actually seen it. It's canyon formations in the red rocks that weren't formed by water, which is very unique.

After taking it easy Friday night, J and I spent Saturday at Washington Park, going for a run and reading our books. The leaves are fantastic right now.

Love the mountain view from there (which is better in person):

That night we watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (trying to catch up on some classics), Bill Cunningham New York, and started a new addiction to Friday Night Lights on Netflix. I know what we will be watching for the next few weeks.

Sunday we hopped up and went to church and then brunch afterward in the neighborhood.

Supposedly we are going to get snow this week so we were soaking up as much sun as possible!

Last week I took Friday off and had Monday off for Columbus Day - meaning 4 day weekend, woo!

Friday J and I went to Colorado Springs so he could meet with a client, and we wandered around the Broadmoor. That place has so many childhood memories, and I hope to go back and stay soon!

The weather was terrible (cold and rainy) on Saturday so we went to Fort Collins with Brittni and Stu to check out some of the breweries in town. Odell was definitely my favorite.

Sunday was very relaxing, but we decided to go the Denver Zoo. It was awesome! Of course, I am a dork and love that stuff. The tigers were amazing.

Monday we headed up to Estes Park to do some hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park. It's getting late in the season, so it was cold at the top and we were the only humans for what seemed like miles. But it is gorgeous there and can't wait to head back up in the summer.

Once we started making our way back to town, we ran into this:

It's elk mating season and they are everywhere!!

This weekend was much less "go go go" - watched the "Ides of March", watched the KU game, and cleaned the heck out the place. Tonight for dinner made this recipe for broccoli, and loved it.

I know I am going to be so upset with myself years down the road when I realized I didn't chronicle my first few weeks in Colorado properly! Between a big conference for work and various organizing/shopping/settling projects, I haven't given the right amount of time to the blog like I should. But no more! Here are some highlights of the last few weeks:

First big hike to Blue Lake: One Sunday afternoon J and I drove up and hiked to this beautiful mountain lake - but it was cold at the top!

Hike at Golden Gate Park: Megan and Shaun called us on the next Sunday afternoon to see if we wanted to do this hike. It was different than Blue Lake but just as gorgeous. It also ended up being a "classified difficult" hike - so it was quite a test!

One of the great things about my job is the chance to do some really cool things. This was a farm-to-table event hosted for journalists to encourage them to write about the food movement in Colorado. I've had a growing interested in local and heritage foods, so this was right up my alley.

Also got to go to Fort Collins for our summer TV shoot at the New Belgium Brewery. This is me with an uber-expensive HD camera. I was scared to hold it!

Bought my first set of skis!

Last weekend my Grammie Elna gave me a call - she and my Great Aunt Donna were in Denver visiting my other Great Aunt Thelma! So we met up for an early dinner.

Other highlights: KU football games at Stoney's (one of the Kansas bars). First game was great - second one not so much. Checking out new restaurants and shopping at Cherry Creek. Trying to figure out where to hang pictures in the new place. Downton Abbey on Netflix. Denver Beer Company for KU Alumni events. And I'm sure a ton more that I'm just not thinking of, but will post randomly anyways :) And yes, Louise is settling in nicely...

As I'm finally getting my act back together and finding routine, my mom sent these pics from the Meese party and my Grandpa's birthday party in August - how fun!

So glad cousin Ashley made it back from Florida!

Deans represent

Love him - such an amazing man and Grandpa

I told everyone at the party how some of my best childhood memories were at Cedar Links Country Club - like Edna the waitress always being awesome, Shirley Temples and the fabulous 60s decor. Love it!