Family Visit

Back in November, Bryan's parents came out for a few days. We were able to spend some time with them as well as Mike, Melissa and their kids. It was fun, but too short! Here are few pictures from their visit. The pictures are actually from Bryan's parents, thanks for letting us use them. :)




We visited the zoo in Colorado Springs, oddly enough, it is named "Cheyenne Mountain Zoo." It is built into the side of the mountain, providing quite the impressive views as you see animals in a well, somewhat more natural setting. It was a great time.








We also stopped for a quick visit to the Garden of the Gods. It was a little chilly by that time in the day, so Bryan and his dad were the only ones to get out of the car. The rest of us enjoyed the view from the windows of our heated cars. We're looking forward to visiting again in a little bit warmer weather.

Livin' Off the Land

The little basil plant that I bought a few weeks ago at a local's farmer's market is thriving in our house. I decided to take advantage of it while I could and made some pesto sauce, following a recipe that Jess gave me. I always get a little nervous cooking a new recipe, never quite sure if I'll be able to make it turn out. I think this one was fail-proof! It was delicious, thanks Jess!





Bryan has been contributing in the kitchen as well with ingredients that are about as "organic" as they can come. Bryan went hunting with a few guys last weekend. They had some success, so Bryan was the lucky one to bring the pheasants home! Bryan cleaned and prepared the pheasants, I was relieved.

This was my first dinner of pheasant jubilee that Bryan made for me...the pheasant actually tasted just fine. I think I simply have a mental block that I need to get over, it's just a bird, right? Maybe a recipe with fresh basil and pheasant...Jess, what do you have? :)

Fall Festivities

Brandon, Lindsay and Stan came over last week to carve pumpkins and make caramel apples with us. Bryan and I had a hard time handing over the carving knife...maybe we'll need to set a time limit for each other next year. :) As you might be able to tell from the pictures below, there were some serious, and not so serious pumpkin-carvers. This is a fall festivity that Bryan and I enjoy doing each year, along with the "homemade" caramel apples. The caramel sauce is going to see some serious improvements now that I have a thermometer, here's hoping! I'm also hoping that some of Grandma Munns' caramel making skills are passed on to me. We will definitely miss her caramels in Colorado this coming holiday season!


The happy, engaged couple practicing their wedding cake carving pose on the pumpkin. Lookin' good..




Brandon helping out by adding the necessary touches...




Stan looking thrilled to be part of the festivities




Our final products!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This weekend Bryan went to Idaho in attempts to provide meat for our family for the long winter. :) While he was gone my mom was able to come out for a visit. I had so much fun with her here and the two of us were able to play, play, play!

We went to the Farmer's Market in Boulder, about 20 minutes away from our house. It was fun to see all of the produce and watch my mom's excitement with seeing several unusual or really large vegetables. We also enjoyed the display after display of gorgeous flowers. It felt like the perfect Autumn setting. We found a basil and sage plant for $5 total, too good of a deal for us to pass over. Jess gave me some tips on keeping them alive, so hopefully I'll be able to make some of her yummy recipes with a few fresh ingredients.



Following the Farmer's Market we went to a pumpkin patch. I realize that there are certain venues that I should probably rent some kids to take with me, a pumpkin patch would qualify as one such venue. However, my mom and I still had a great time, we were two little kids ourselves. Thanks for the recommendation, Melissa! They had HUGE pumpkin fields, there were 3 or 4 more fields just like this one. I couldn't believe how many pumpkins we saw! My mom spotted the largest pumpkin in the field and asked me to try to help her pick it up, we were going to get our money's worth. We had a good laugh trying to pick up a monstrous pumpkin, but that was about it--no luck. When we were little kids, the rule was that we could have any pumpkin, as long as we could carry the pumpkin. This rule still applied, and I found one within my muscles' capabilities--much, much smaller.




It was a tad windy that day--or our wagon ride was more extreme than most...

This really is not the most flattering picture, but it just makes me laugh!


Saturday night we went to the show, Wicked. It was great! We were seated in the very tip-top of the theater, but we were in the building! It was such a good time to have my mom along, she is always up for fun, and makes it easy to have fun when she is around.


Thanks for coming out to visit, I loved it!

HGTV--a good thing?

Recently, I have become addicted to HGTV. I love watching pretty much any show on that channel. I was impressed with some furniture painting/refinishing they demonstrated on their shows. Of course, they make it look so simple and it only takes a couple of hours! The wheels in my brain started turning thinking about some old bunk beds we have. Another gal in my ward, Natalie, told me about her successful experience with what I was trying to do and that was enough of a push to get me going!


The "original" bunk bed---Bryan had actually already painted over these once, but then I had my great home improvement idea!



The priming stages



After a few coats of the base paint



The next step was the one that I was most nervous about, applying the glaze. The friendly man at the paint store kindly reassured me that glazes were originally invented to hide the mistakes made while painting. Perfect, something that already looks like you've made a mistake-how can I mess that up?!? :)




The finished product. This is not the best picture to show the bed, but close enough. It took me well over a few hours to complete, but I think I would try it out again. The glaze is actually the fun part! Good thing we're renting right now, or I would be planning the next paint color for the walls. I can't imagine why Bryan isn't thrilled with the thought of moving into a new place!

The Lees

Last weekend we felt lucky to have our friends Jared, Mandi, and Johana come out to visit us! They made the long drive from Salt Lake City and their 4 1/2 month old baby, Johana, didn't cry once! We like to think that she was just super excited to come out for the visit, but I really think she is just the best little baby!
While they were here we visited the Butterfly Pavilion, Estes Park, played a round of Frisbee Golf (Jared tried to give me some tips, but I think I might be a lost cause), and the gals did a little shopping with a pedicure. We had such a good time visiting with them into the late hours of the night--sleeping just wasn't as much fun. It was a great weekend. We're hoping it's not too long before we can find an excuse and see them again soon!



The gang at the Butterfly Pavilion~the marketing for this might have been targeting a slightly different population, but who could pass this up?




The gals keeping an eye out for all of the butterflies, and trying to keep Johana out of the sun!



At the Pavilion they also had a few fish tanks. Johana has some impressive skills that she demonstrated below...

Look at her perfect grip on that fish! That fish is lucky there was glass between her and those shiny blue scales!




Jared, Mandi, and Johana at Estes Park.



We stumbled across just a "few" elk while visiting Estes Park. It was pretty neat to hear all of them bugling. Mandi and I really enjoyed watching Bryan and Jared's excitement with seeing so many elk and hearing the bugling. Bryan and Jared have their own elk bugles that were pretty good-lucky for these elk below, no tags or guns within Bryan and Jared's possessions.

SAN FRANCISCO

We have officially hit the 1-year marker! Within this last year we have moved to a new state, began new jobs, started a new business, traveled to new places...there have been many new experiences this last year. Through all of the changes and adventures I continue to feel like the luckiest gal to have Bryan by my side.
For our 1-year anniversary Bryan and I went to San Francisco. We spent just a few days there, but packed as much as we could into those couple of days. We didn't rent a car while we stayed there, so we walked, biked, "trolley-ed" and taxi-ed to see the sights.

Below are some favorite memories of our trip.

We visited the Pier and Fisherman's Wharf. I can't believe how many Sea Lions just lounge around on those docks. I wasn't sure if I was more surprised with the laziness of these creatures or more jealous with their ability to lounge around all day in the sun...tough life it seems.




Another part of SF that I loved was Ghiradelli square. We decided that with all of our climbing up and down the hills of SF that our visits to this chocolate heaven was justified. Bryan and I visited not once, but twice. It was delicious!




We went to Alcatraz on Saturday. While we were out on the island, the "Air Show" for Fleet Week began and we had primo seating! Bryan was loving it, and I was entertained as well. This picture doesn't do it justice, but since I had the camera-it is the best we have.





Bryan helped me fulfill my two dreams of visiting San Francisco. The first one, riding on a trolley. The second dream, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge.
I loved my trolley ride and was the last one off-dream number one is officially checked off the list.



Dream number two was slightly more comical. We rented a tandem bicycle to go across the Golden Gate Bridge, there is just something goofy and funny about riding a bicycle built for two. I will willingly admit that Bryan muscled us up the hills. Seated behind him, I might not have been pedaling quite as vigorously (or at all) a time or two.


Bryan kindly informing me, "You know I can tell when you are and when you are not pedaling, right?"



My view at the time...

My quick response, "Oh, right"-my legs find the pedals and begin pedaling at an incredible rate.




We made it across and back without incident, just a bunch of smiles from strangers that seemed to be saying they knew whose idea this was for us to be on the tandem, the person on the back taking pictures.





Happy One Year!