home again, home again...

…Jiggity Jig! After 15 days, 9 states, and 4328 miles, we are finally home. Although we spent 5 days in El Paso and another 5 days in Denver, it felt as if we spent the entire 15 days in a vehicle. We were always on the go, doing this and that, meeting up with people. The driving to and fro was never ending. We had a very low key time in Denver. It was a week that was all about Husband. We made sure that he got to see the people that mean the most to him. We had dinner one night with his doubles volleyball partner and her fiancé, and another night he got to play with his sand volleyball team. He had a lot of fun that night. It also made his realize just how much he missed his life in Colorado. We got to experience typical spring time Colorado weather. March is typically Colorado’s snowiest month…and it did not disappoint. The last day we had some business to take care of in the morning and some happy hour action planned for the evening. We set out that morning in heavy snow fall with a nice side of fog. We were on our way home from our morning meeting when while going about 60 on the highway my engine quits. QUITS! I get pulled over to the side of the road and Husband and I sit there looking at each other. Never have I been more thankful for a cell phone with 3G service. I get started on finding a tow truck to pick us up is a snow storm and Husband starts calling nearby repair shops. Now while breaking down is not lucky, we were able to get a tow in under 45 minutes, which in a snow storm is lucky. He happened to be close by, otherwise it would have been a 6 hour wait. The bad news was that my fuel pump had gone out and it was looking like we were not going to be on the road at 6 am the next morning. The repair shop wanted to get us the truck back that night, but as the day progressed it became clear that just wasn't going to happen. Good news is that my winter driving skills are still intact and with the use of my mom's car I got us to happy hour on time. Also...I did some name dropping and was able to get a discount on the repairs. We got on the road 6 hours late, but managed to make good time and got home exactly when we thought we would. Don’t get me wrong, I love being on vacation, but I love coming home more. Man it is going to feel so good to sleep in our own bed tonight.

80 gazillion twinkle lights

Last week Jenn posted some very cool and very trippy images she had taken of her girls last year at Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo. It reminded me that I had a bunch of images that I took last year at Zoo Lights that I never did anything with. So because there are no original ideas left in the world I decided to steal Jenn’s idea and post some of Zoo Lights images of my own. (Thanks Jenn W00T W00T) I had never been to Zoo Lights. It was something I talked about doing every year and then never got around to it. So last year I made sure to go because I didn’t know how long it would be until I was in Denver for Christmas again. The night Husband and I went was cold as hell…no surprise it being December in Colorado and all. I wanted to take photos but was not all that excited about taking my gloves off to do so. We walked around a bit looking at the lights and bitching about the cold. We then stopped to get a hot chocolate and were pleasantly surprised to find that for a few dollars more you could get some peppermint schnapps added. Yes please! Nothing like a few shots of liquor to take the chill out of the air. I had been snapping a few shots here and there. Pretty basic, nothing too exciting. Then I got this one of the dragon… …and decided to have a little fun with my camera. The rest of my images look a little something like this: Yeah for cold, twinkle lights, peppermint scnapps...oh and Jenn too...you know for the idea!

Snow Day

It is dumping in Colorado…DUMPING! So much snow that it has made the news up here. Seeing those reports and reading my friend’s statuses on Facebook really have me homesick. As most know I can take or leave snow in most cases but as I have mentioned here before I LOVE a huge snowstorm. Now some of you may be thinking that late October is too early for a blizzard but we are talking Colorado here. Anyone who has lived there most of their life kind of expect this type of storm this close to Halloween. We are a people who grew up planning our Halloween costumes around our snowsuits. I love the anticipation of it. You hear about it on the news a day or two ahead of the storm. The prediction of amounts are higher than usual…maybe 12”. But as the storm draws closer the amounts grow higher 16-20”. I would always find myself hoping for more. Once there was more than 10” of snow on the ground I would head to the store for supplies. The makings for hearty soups or chili, hot chocolate, and brownies. All the good stuff needed for a snow day at home. My favorite storm over the last 5 years happened in March 2004. March happens to be Colorado’s snowiest month. The storm hit on a Tuesday morning and by noon I closed the office and sent everyone home. An hour later I arrived home to a 4 foot drift in my driveway which you can see in the center of the picture below. My driveway was a little over 75 feet long and I had to shovel away all that snow before I was able to get the Xterra into the garage. Why not just plow right through it like you see in all the winter SUV commercials? I thought about it…but did not have enough space to get up enough speed to plow through 4 feet of heavy wet March snow. We got 36” of snow that day; all of which I had to shovel alone. I awoke the next morning to 24” of more snow. Back into the snow gear and back out to shovel. I missed 3 days of work and had my faithful companion Murphy by my side. The Murph loved the snow. She spent the hours I spent shoveling hopping through the snow and chasing snowballs thrown by the neighbor kids. Damn I miss that dog! So to my friends in Colorado I hope you are enjoying the snow day.

Elena

This sassy cowgirl is my friend Elena. I met her online as we share a mutual love for poking fun at Jenn...the same way she and Jenn love poking fun at me. It is a vicious circle really. It took a triple dog dare; but I finally got to meet her face to face last time I was in Denver. She is an amazing woman and an amazing writer. She has started a new blog. She also happens to be hilarious so if you are in the mood for something clever I think you should check her out.

more than yellow

I was reading my friend Rachel’s blog this morning and she mentions in one of her posts that autumn is one of her favorite seasons. She now lives in Colorado where fall looks mostly like this. In Colorado it is not so much fall colors as fall color. Yellow…and a whole lot of it. Now don’t get me wrong…I love the falls in Colorado. Seeing a grove of aspen trees turn gold against a backdrop of evergreens is a beautiful sight. Rachel was born and raised in Seattle and is used to a few more autumnal colors and after spending my first fall season in the Pacific Northwest I can understand why she longs for a little more. The colors up here are breath taking. You have your yellow but there are also reds, oranges, purples, and pink (yes pink). So I grabbed my camera and took a little walk around the neighborhood and snapped a few photos of the changing leaves. Rachel I know it is not the same as being here to see them yourself but I hope you enjoy the colors!

Married? Married!

Elope Pronunciation: \i-ˈlōp\ Function: intransitive verb Inflected Form(s): eloped; elop·ing Etymology: Anglo-French aloper, esloper to abduct, run away Date: 1628 1 : to slip away 2 : to run away secretly with the intention of getting married Yeah...sooooooo...there you have it. Husband (aka Fiance, aka Boyfriend) and I got married last Friday, October 9th 2009 at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Golden, Colorado. There was no fan fare and we both wore jeans. There were maybe five people that knew what we were up to. In a way we wanted to have it be something that was between just the two if us, and the lady that took our money, and well Jenn cuz she was there too snapping photos, but really it was just a moment for me and him. I got myself a good man and a cool new last name with one of those little squiggle things above one of the n's. ©2009 Jenn LeBlanc Oh...and mark your calender for June 25th 2011 because we are going to have one hell of a party when Husband get back from doing things overseas that I am not allowed to talk about.

Another horse person

I have know Liz since I was thirteen. Liz also had horses and we quickly formed a tight bond. I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun I had with her. During the summer I would get up early and ride DP over to her house and we would take the horses swimming or race each other along the hogback. There is now a high school where her house once stood and highway now runs through the land we used for a racetrack. I always knew that no matter what Liz did in life it would involve horses.

We lost touch over the years and reconnected recently on Facebook. It turns out I was right. Liz is currently the number one Arabian race horse trainer in the country. She spends her summers racing in Denver and I was able to come out and see her horses while I was in town. What she does take an unbelievable amount of time and hard work and her success speaks volumes about her character. I really admire her.

Liz and I have been talking about me comng down and working with her for a few weeks this summer. I am seriously considering it. Liz is wanting to move more into throughbred racing which means she would be able to give up her nomadic way of life and put down some roots. She is thinking about settling in Dallas...which is a pleasant coincidence because so are we.

Girlfriends

One this last trip to Denver I was able to catch up with some old friends. It had been at least 15 years since the last time I saw Brett and Marybeth. I grew up spending every weekend with these girls riding horses, talking about boys, having sleepovers, and all the things girls do. As soon as I walked into Brett's kitchen all those years apart melted away and we were right back to were we left off. Marybeth made the comment that it is funny how easy we fell back into friendship. I said it was because we are horse people. I don't know what it is there is just something different about horse people...they're a whole 'nother breed. (ha ha get it...whole 'nother breed...I crack me up)

Denver Bound

Boyfriend and I are headed back to Denver on Thursday for a long weekend. My mother is happy that we will be there for mother's day, but is not so happy that we aren't staying with her the whole time. I am really excited to get together with some girlfriends that I have not seen in years. It should be a fun trip. UPDATE: It is supposed to be warm and sunny all weekend in Denver. We will be leaving this is Seattle: