I just realized that I have been blogging for over a year - incredible! So what has been going on since the new year?

new toy, coffee, cribbage and wine

Love that face, ha

Sunday at A Basin

Last weekend Grant came to visit for a few days, which was so fun! We skied, went to the Nuggets v. Heat game, went to every neighborhood that I'm familiar with in the city, watched movies and drank and ate ourselves silly. It was so great to spend time with him!

No cheering for Mario Chalmers this time

J has been gone for two weeks and will be for another week and a half - you would think I would be very productive, but nope! This has by far been the most relaxed and uneventful weekend I have had in months - and have enjoyed every minute :)

Welcome 2012!

Well, so long 2011! A little catch up:

Thanksgiving was a fun whirlwind - 4 states in as many days. We made a stop through in Stockton, then on to Coffeyville on Thanksgiving day. Friday we ran down to Tulsa to see old friends, which was really fun. Saturday we went with J's family to Kansas City for the KU/MU football game (potentially the last ever with the conference changes). Though it was a sad loss for the Jayhawks, we also got the chance to see Molly and Luke, which was great. Sunday we got up early and drove the 8 hours home to Denver, whew!

December was full of holiday gathering between work party, happy hours, and weekend trip to Aspen (Char's blog perfectly captured the weekend!) and work trip to Telluride.

Shot ski in Silverthorne

Beautiful Telluride

Christmas was also wonderful. J and I went back to Stockton and saw friends, family (the Chilton's where back, yay!), went to Christmas Eve at the Congregational Church and ate and ate and ate. J went on to Coffeyville for a few days while I went back to Denver to get back to work and prep for Mom and Dad and Pam and Ed to come visit over New Years.

Will and Santa

My first Dicken's Village

New Years was the icing on the cake. We went to The Palm for dinner (amazing), Green Russell for drinks, shopping and lunches. New Years Eve we went to Colorado Springs to stay at The Broadmoor for the night. It was beautiful as always, and Verl and Ruth joined. A wonderful dinner, drinks and champagne in the room finished off a pretty awesome 2011.

It was quite a year - getting to know and making great friends in Tulsa, fun trips, and moving to Colorado were huge changes in life, and I'm ready for 2012 to be a little more settled. I'm excited to plan some big trips, keep exploring Colorado and start some fun projects. Life is going so fast and I want to do everything I can to hang on to every second! Here's to 2012!

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.