1st Anniversary in the Rockies

Ryan and I traveled to Colorado for our very anticipated 1st Anniversary/vacation. When we got up at 5:30am for my cousin, Andrew to take us to the airport we were both beaming. We arrived in Colorado with no turbulence and headed to pick up our rental car. We thought we would get a sweet car, but we opted for the cheapest option and landed a blue Suzuki. Stylish, I know. It was small, comparable to the movie Just Married. We spent a day in Denver, traveling to the State Capital (Ryan's choice), the 16th street mall (my choice), and Cheeseman Park (a famous grassy knoll area where you can see the city's landscape). From there we hopped in our mini-mobile and headed to Colorado Springs. Of course I thought everything was planned (everybody knows me Mrs. Organized), but we found out Priceline over-booked the hotel. After arguing over the phone and fighting for help, we booked a hotel close to the Airforce Academy. The next morning we headed to the Olympic Training Center and had an awesome tour of the facility. I have never see so many masculine people in one setting in all my life. These were huge men/women! The six-packs were amazing! One guy was a bobsledder and he would carry this make-shift bobsled up a hill and back down. Let's just say if I was single I would definitely tour the facility on a regular basis (sorry Ryan, I still love you!). After the tour we drove to Manitou Springs to grab a bit to eat. Located at the base of Pikes Peak Manitou Springs is known for their mineral water. They would distribute cups and you could walk around taste-testing each different mineral water.
Pikes Peak was the next stop. The drive up was hilarious for me, but sweaty for Ryan. Let's just say heights are not his friend. And I had to be the brat who snapped pictures of him as we ascended to the top. It was a 19 mile drive, but took about an hour to make it to the peak. Once we got there the views were breathtaking. It was awesome! You could see for miles and miles. The temperature was also colder. We were 14,000 plus some more feet above sea level.
After venturing down, Ryan settled in and we started on the 2 hour drive to meet the rest of my family, where they rented a cabin in Dillon, CO. That night we enjoyed the food and company of my family.
Sunday morning we woke up to the cool smell of the snow-capped mountains. It was a dream to wake up on our 1st Anniversary and see the view out the window. That day was a testament to our marriage, and showed me how much I truly love my husband. We set out on a hike in the morning near our cabin. From the mountain we could see the city of Dillon, which is surrounded by a reservoir. It was beautiful. After the hike, my parents thought it would be fun to rent bikes and see the cities close to Dillon. The Van Hon's, packing more food, water, and supplies than you can imagine strapped on their biking shoes and biked 7 miles to a nearby town called Fresco. We walked around Fresco for a bit and then ventured out. This is where the fun begins. First of all, we hadn't eaten lunch yet, and Sam was farting his brains out all day because the night before he decided to eat jalapeno hot dogs (thanks to my dad). His farts were worse than if you had been following a sewage truck for 1,000 miles. So you can imagine...pretty, pretty good stench going. We started out on the trail again and my dad's internal GPS kicked in high gear. My mother and I can contest that his GPS 20% of the time is accurate. After my brothers fighting with him on which way to proceed back to Dillon, we got right back on track. With Logan in the lead, we of course had to take the most ascending route possible. After climbing a two mile up-hill bike climb, we made it to the top and Ryan turns around and says "Happy Anniversary." I glared with my evil eyes at him and kept going. Little did we know we still had many miles to go. Finally, after smelling Sam's stench with my body aching all over, we arrived home, showered, and spent the evening touring Breckenridge (quite a quaint little ski village). I had a very memorable anniversary. If my husband survived all the day and my family, I have a feeling we are going to have many memorable anniversaries ahead of us. I can't wait! :)
The next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. The views here were more awesome than Pikes Peak. The elevation was also higher. Logan wanted to venture off and climb every mountain he could find, but resisted to please my dad as he was clenching to my mom (he is more afraid of heights, than mice are afraid of humans). We also went on a 4-mile hike. The ranger said it was an easy trail, 2 miles up-hill and 2 miles down. But to our luck it was treacherous. After a long day we headed home, but it wasn't a trip home if we didn't smell the stench coming from the backseat (aka Sam!). Before we left the park Logan ordered a coffee and had to place two sugar packets and butt-load of cream in it. All we heard on the way home was Logan and all we smelled was Sam. I was beat!
Ryan and I went to bed that night, knowing that we had to go back to the real world tomorrow. We both had a great time with my family and hope that we will have many more anniversaries...(maybe even in the Rockies again)
Ryan and I in the dome of the State Capital in Denver
A view of the State Capital from the streets
The Olympic Shooting Training Center
Garden of the Gods near Manitou Springs (basically very huge rocks)
Top of Pikes Peak
On our Sunday hike...mom and dad...married for years...
My brothers, Maddie, and us on our Sunday Hike
We took a tram in Breckenridge and could see the entire city from the tram
Our 2 mile hike up Lilly Mountain
Stanley Hotel (from the movie The Shining) located near Rocky Mountain National Park
Logan working his supermodel skills at Rocky Mountain National Park
At Rocky Mountain National Park again
A spectacular view
My entire fam!

Update

I know I have laxed on my blogging lately, but there hasn't been much action in our household. We have been preparing for our trip to Colorado. We plan to rent a car and eventually meet my family in Breckenridge. It is a very well anticipated trip that we have been talking about for awhile. (I sometimes think Ryan is more ready for a break than I am.) He reminds me everyday how many days are left until we make our trip out to Colorado over our first anniversary!
Besides getting ready for our trip, we have been enjoying the sunny weather and our neighbor's company. We seriously live in the bestest (is that even a word?) neighborhood ever! Our neighbors rock! They are always outside and most have kids, so our front yard is always busy. We love it! Ryan and I have even gotten to the stage where we feel comfortable sitting outside on our driveway in lawn chairs. Just picture an old couple sitting outside watching the traffic, or whatever else they watch. Yes, that is us!
Our dog also blends in well with the kids. He loves to chase them and play fetch. I wish we had one of those pitching machines kids use, but for dogs. He would do it all day long! We both really love having him around. (Besides when he eats my orthodics, our fan cord, or when he whines in the mornings. Those were not good days!) He makes for a good companion when one of us is home, since we work opposite hours.
Ryan is busy at work these days, which makes my life easier. He comes home from work with a more positive attitude. He has been playing softball every now and then, and working on rotary projects. There hasn't been a moment where he hasn't been happy here in Northfield.
Me-I have been working more, picking up more hours here and there. Staying busy during the week with outdoor and indoor projects on the house. Nothing too exciting. Just wanted to give you all an update. :)

Curtains

I know in the past I have talked about our retro room, the green room, some call it the upstairs guest bedroom...my favorite room in the house. I am so pumped because I found material that would be perfect for curtains. It was crazy days in Northfield last weekend and I went crazy when I stepped into a shop downtown that unfortunately just relocated to the twin cities. But it had the cutest, funkiest fabric I have ever seen. I almost bought extra fabric to use for something else because I knew they wouldn't be in town long. But I remembered what my husband would say when I got home..."What is that for?" Then I would have to explain all my creative ideas for the fabric. So here it is!
(I even called Grandma Shirley right away to see if she could sew a hem.)
Here is one end of the curtain rod. I thought the yellow, green and brown would look good with the goldish, brown curtain rod and yellowy shades.
Of course we can't forget the aqua blue vases to make it more 70's-style.
The dresser, vase, and my Grandma Shirley's yellow daisy painting. And yes she did paint that. Pure awesomeness!
Basically I am so ready to put up this fabric and complete one room of the house! I can't wait to find more to decorate the rest of the house...

Report Card

On Friday Ryan and I had a day to ourselves. We took the dog to doggy daycare. Yes you read me right. There is a clinic in town that will board dogs for the day. The dogs get to swim in their pool, run through tunnels, play with toys and other dogs. They also receive treats. Basically a Spa for dogs. I picked him up about supper time and received an assessment checklist. As you can see he passed. I also received a report card. Everyday they go in their owners receive a report card. As you can see he did very well. Actually so well he had to make a last impression and pee right in front of the front desk as we were leaving. (How embarrassing!) We were those people and put it on the fridge. The rest of the weekend we hung out in the neighborhood. We love our neighborhood! There are always young ones running around and parents watching them. This is a picture of Jack and our neighbor,Emma.He loves to play fetch!

Bad, Bad Day

I don't usually complain (Ryan and my parents would say that is a lie). I am a pretty optimistic gal, not a negative nelly. BUT TODAY I had the kind of luck Beckie Jackson has when she gets on an airplane....NOT GOOD!
First of all, I got up to go running and my friends, especially my old roommates (Flash, Brooke, Al, etc.), I am the one to get up in the morning and get my stuff done. This morning I woke up early and went running to beat the heat. Well, that was not the case this morning. IT WAS STEAMING. Plus 3 miles would be a cakewalk for me usually. I had to walk a block or two just to keep from passing out.
Then to top things off all Jack wanted to do was go outside and play fetch. He is awesome at fetch. If there was a contest on Animal Planet, I would enter him in it. He is that good! So we had to take the ball inside and toss it around a bit to keep him occupied. During our time inside I decided to call my mother. In the middle of our conversation Jack starts to pee. Luckily my mom can get past the swearing and recognize my maturity level.
Thirdly at about 12:30pm, as I was just about to make lunch starved, our smoke alarms go off. Our smoke alarms=the most annoying sound in the world. I walked into the hallway by our bedroom and the wall was so wet. The ceiling was steaming above our attic. With the smoke alarms still blurring I rushed to get the battery out and ran to Menards (again another trip to our favorite store) to get a fan. I am so thankful for dads because I called my dad first to see if he had any ideas on how to better the situation. Then with Dennis's help I was able to get the problem resolved. After returning from the store I started the fan and dehumidifier, and wiped down the walls. (Thanks to Dennis's advice!) My heartbeat slowed and I was able to settle down. Talk about freaking out! I was mad, hurried, hungry, and not a happy camper. Just a bad, bad, Beckie Jackson airplane ride I guess. (Sorry Beck, I still love you!)

Paul Bunyan Style

We had a busy, eventful weekend. We volunteered in town for a YMCA kids triathlon event, saw Ryan's nephew, Andrew, play soccer (of which he did awesome!), and did some yard work. When I say some, I am under exaggerating. I mean ALOT! My parents came up on Sunday and we cut down many, many trees. Since I come from a family of experimenters, especially my dad, my brother, Logan, and now my husband, they decided to try ten different ways to pull the trees out of our backyard.
Maneuver #1-chop them down
Maneuver #2-drive the Yukon in the backyard and yank the trees out with a rope attached to the front of the car
Maneuver #3-drive the Yukon in the backyard and yank the trees out using some kind of belt borrowed to us by our neighbor
Maneuver #4-buy a chain from Menards and use the Yukon to pull the trees out
Maneuver #5-tie/twist the trees using the chain to pull the trees out with the Yukon
Maneuver #6-cut down the trees using a sharp sheers and dig the tree stumps out
Basically it took us until maneuver #6 to figure out the only way the tress were coming out of the ground is if we dig them out. The conditions couldn't have been better on a 90 degree to do hard, hard physical labor.
Ryan was are go-to weed whacker. I will not touch that thing because it is as tall as me!
The areas where it is brown are the areas we cut down. You can also see some of the stumps we had to dig out.
More stumps...
All the branches/trees loaded into the trailer to bring to the compost. My dad also decided to get on the brush and pretend he was riding it down the highway. He climbed off before I could take a picture. :(

Attached

As the week is coming to an end I can say one thing, I can tell Ryan is starting to get attached to Jack. We are still in the two week trial period...foster to adopt. But let's be realistic, I WILL NOT be able to give him up.
Ryan asked me the other day, "do you think he (referring to the dog) is always this good? Or do you think he is depressed?" I smiled inside and advised he is always like this. Let's face it, Jack is the world's best dog. He is already potty trained at 3 1/2 months old! He doesn't jump and comes when you call his name! Ryan and I hope our children are going to be as well-behaved as Jack.
As for the fourth of July weekend plans...I have to work. Ryan is touring wine country this Saturday. Sunday quality family time (all three of us!). Monday of course we have to hit up the fireworks.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO ALL!