Wordless Wednesday: Here we come! + our fav. game

Train of Pianos

This past weekend was a BIG one! A large group of young people came representing: Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, and California! Fred Leman's fiance was among the visitors and it was great to spend some time with Jodi! She and Fred's little sister stayed with Dan and I.

A picture of the happy couple...so in love :)
To be wed: November 7

Friday, after chilling at Tif's house, we went downtown for supper and just absorbed some of the city for a while.

These drummers were amazing!

So, about those pianos. All over downtown on the 16th Street Mall there are lots of beautifully painted pianos! One of my favorite parts of the day was wandering around from piano to piano with my sweet husband. Dan's verdict on those pieces of art: They're just that...pieces of art and don't rate so high in instrument quality. I think the weather has done a lot to them...but they were still beautiful and Dan can make even a clunker sing.

Dan was playing this (the best sounding of all) when a bridal party and their photographer came up and asked if they could have it for pictures...just when he found a decent one! Oh well.

After the downtown experience, everyone came over to our apartment. I guess I better tell you that there were two groups that came...and the other group came on Saturday so we didn't have EVERYONE smooshed into our little place!

Yup, I finally learned how to play Settlers of Catan!

It was a lovely weekend but a very tiring one as well. Monday morning Dan and I both had to work early and let me tell you, we both suffered from a case of the Monday blues! The lady I work for now knows that I like coffee and the mornings I work early she makes extra and leaves me half a pot! So appreciated!!

Today is Tuesday, That means that in one week and 2 days we'll be headed to Indiana! I don't think I could rightly write my excitement! :) :) :)

See Mama? It Worked!

I grew up on delicious homemade 100% whole-wheat bread. I'll admit, growing up, I hated when it was my time to make the bread...and probably did my best to get out of it! I finally got my mom's recipe and decided to make my own. Since I don't have a Bostch (the powerful mixer) Mom and I were worried it wouldn't turn out right. Well, ta-da! It did! It's probably not as fluffy as my mom's but it still raised well and tastes delish! I'm glad I halved the recipe...there is no way I would have liked to kneed any more by hand!

But thanks again Mom! (She's probably laughing right now...thinking of all those times she told me one day I'd want to make my own whole-wheat bread and I said, "No way!" Guess we all grow up sometime!)

All raised up and ready to bake

All done!

A little butter rub on top for a nice crispy crust

Couples Camping: Arapahoe Nat'l Forest

This weekend we were blessed to get out of the city and go camping near Grandby. Friday: Dan and I left and arrived in time to set up our tent before it started sprinkling. We spent some of the evening in our tent playing games until the rain stopped...then we enjoyed some campfire time! Dan brought his mandolin and made the ambiance even better!

As Dan finished setting up camp I cooked supper. Since it was sprinkling we didn't get a fire going so we used his Primus stove.

Camp setter-upper extrodinare! :)

The next morning we enjoyed pancakes and bacon for breakfast...and of course some good ol' black coffee.

Saturday: Dan and I drove to Hot Sulfer Springs and to Grandby lake. We also followed the off-road road our campsite is on and did some four-wheeling! That afternoon our friends, newly-weds Matthew and Kristy Moore, arrived!

Going to meet Matthew and Kristy...Dan having some fun.

That's right, be intimidated!

Thankfully it didn't rain and we got to enjoy a campfire! We had brats and (greasy) hashbrowns for supper...I learned my lesson...not so much oil!
After supper we made doughnuts!

Turns out, Matthew knew a awesome match lighting trick...Dan demonstrating.

Sunday: Three weeks during the summer Denver church holds off-site services due to all the visitors we get. (So, one service in Denver and one elsewhere on the same day) This Sunday services were held in Winter Park so we were able to attend church! Our orginal plan was to go home after church but since Dan and Matthew both didn't have to work Monday we decided to stay an extra night. The place where they held church had a couple showers so we went early and cleansed ourselves of smoke and bugspray!

After church we played Ultimate Frizbee with some other YG and young couples who were at church. It was drizzling all during our game and afterwards the rain really started coming down. Figuring it was pointless to try to build a fire for supper Matthew, Kristy and us decided to just go out out to eat.

Back at the campsite the rain kept on coming so we played games in their tent...it's so much bigger than ours!

Breakfast the next moring was provided by Matthew and Kristy...Delicious bacon and eggs and grapes!

Chef Kristy :)

We had such a nice time! It was really nice to spend time with Matthew and Kristy and get to know them even better! Even though it rained a lot we still enjoyed our time and our tents even stayed pretty dry! Hopefully camping will be in our near future again before Dan starts school!

As for other exciting things: Dan and I have hosted a total of 8 people overnight since getting married and we've always had to borrow his parents air mattress. Well, no longer! We now have a futon! Garage sale buy...for $15. It's in great shape and Dan did a great job of cleaning it up and it fits well into our spare room! It's pretty comfortable too!

Trust you are all enjoying what's left of summer!

Until next time....ciao.

Rushing Down the Platte

This week Dan worked his first 24hour shift since we've been married. 7am Tuesday to 7am Wednesday. Wednesday proved to be a very beautiful and VERY hot day so we decided to go downtown to the Platte River and go tubing. Unfortunately we weren't able to get the tubes but we went anyway.

Are you wondering what the Chic-fil-A thing is about? Well, as we were going down Alemeda, we saw some guys standing by the side of the road advertising free spicy Chic-fil-A sandwiches. Dan yanked the car into the right lane and we found a little booth in the parking lot of a bank and sure enough, they were handing out free sandwiches...AND free coupons with each of them to go get another sandwich (free) at the restaurant! Hey! It's free lunch! We put the sandwiches in the dash to keep warm by the sun and went on our merry way downtown.

So this part of the river is man-made rapids. The big brick building in the next picture is an outdoor outfitting store and they use this part of the river to test kayaks and such. But, on a hot summer day the area is full of people looking for some free fun. Many were rafting down on tubes or (as pictured below) on their backs!

Dan starting out

There he goes!!

No, I'm not choking him. ;)

It was the perfect thing for a hot day...the cool water was so refreshing! I think I got a little sunburned though! Colorado sun is intense! It was good to get the ol' swimsuit out again and enjoy some sunshine. In Francesville and in Haiti a lot of time was spent in the water! I was reminded how much I miss it! Next on our list is taking out his parents canoe! :)

A Lovely Morning

What were the components of my lovely morning?

1) My mother-in-law

2) Garage sales

3) Bargain books :)

4) Coffee and a cinnamon roll biscuit

5) Good conversation

How did they combine?

Well, Mom and I headed out about 8:45ish to find some bargains...me toting my one dollar bill and $4.50 in quarters! After hitting a few spots we found ourselves in a Jewish part of town. Let me tell you, those houses in that area are BEAUTIFUL! We found a little cafe of sorts and decided to stop in and see what they had. What we found was delicious! The specialize in biscuits and we shared the cinnamon roll version. Mom settled in with an Amercano coffee and I with their "dangerous monkey." YUM! We found a couple more garage sales where mom bought a super cheap aluminum camera tripod in great condition for someone at Singing Hills.

Speaking of the place, that's where we went next for a quick stop. While Mom finished up some stuff there I hopped into the world of "An American Peeress" by H. C. Chatfield-Taylor...one of the books I bought. Oh, by the way, most of the books I bought today were from the late 1800's! :)

After Singing Hills, we were off to more garage sales...we didn't really find much and decided to call it a day. And what a day it was!

Backpacking to Cataract

Last Thursday we ventured on my first backpacking trip! We drove an hour and a half to two hours to Lower Cataract where we began our 5 mile hike.

Rearing to go!

My pack...20-25 pounds (not bad eh?!?)

Dan's pack...36 or so pounds.

As we hiked up, we saw wild flowers! They were just starting...here is a Columbine.

Almost there! We stopped for lunch at another lake, Surprise, before getting to the lake in this picture. This is Cat/Kat lake. It was about a 10 minute walk from our campsite.

This is Upper Cataract Lake...just a few minutes from our campsite. Upper Cataract and Cat lake are connected by a rushing stream.

TIRED! But glad to have arrived safely!

We found the perfect campsite!!! Where I am standing to take this picture is a little meadow!

Our tent! Tucked in the trees! If you look close in the middle/left of the picture you can see our bear bag hanging between the trees! We put our food in here and hoisted it up to keep it away from any hungry animal!

In the evenings when we wanted respite from the mosquitoes, we would climb into our tent and either read or play games. We attempted (successfully I might add) to play Euchre! We each took a team and it actually worked out!Mmm....campfire coffee :)

Friday, after a decent night's sleep, we walked around and explored the area. It was a lovely sunny day so we also sat on the edge of Cataract lake just enjoying the sunshine and the view!!! We also hiked down to Cat lake and saw many beautiful Rainbow Trout!

It's hard to see, but we are on the edge of the stream.

The rushing and VERY cold stream!

These flowers were everywhere! They loved especially wet and marshy areas.

It was such a lovely "vacation!" I'll admit, the climb up was a bit difficult...I thought I was gonna die a couple times! (haha! A wimp, I know!) We realized we didn't eat enough on the way up cause we were both light headed at times! It amazed me how much harder hiking is with a pack on! Plus, the altitude (we reached about 10,000+feet) really made my heart work double time!

It was wonderful to get out of the city and enjoy some alone time. We hardly saw anybody and just enjoyed the beautiful God-made views and weather! Other than some pesky mosquitoes our time was pretty annoyance free. At night I got cold but it wasn't bad. It seemed that everywhere we turned another view would amaze us! The hike down Saturday morning went a lot faster than the climb up! Many more wild flowers had opened up since we had been there a couple days before. Though it was a lot easier, we were both glad to reach the Jeep again safe and sound! We were both a little sore but it was well worth it!!!

I give backpacking a thumbs up. :)