St. Patrick's Day Weekend

When everyone gets to be a little bit Irish.

And Irish Dancers get to dance themselves crazy.

This past weekend started with a show up in Ft. Collins for the band Celtica.  It was pretty awesome.  Seriously!

Backstage!

opening number of Amazing Grace

amazing piper skills!

Bennett Dancers!

Saturday morning, I opted out of doing the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  I was glad in retrospect, since it was cold and windy and overcast!  Brrrr!!

Our team for the day consisted of 5 dancers, my mom (our roadie) and an out of town friend (Hi Bree!).  We danced... 6 different shows.  They ranged from 15 to 30 minutes.  It was a lot of running around!!! We dealt with wind, snow, rain and sunshine. Good thing we all had matching coats with our dance outfits!

matching! poor Julie (on the right) was FREEZING

getting ready!

On Sunday, the "bar" teams only had 2 shows.  We combined a couple of teams together to get 6 dancers. Our first show was interesting... one of our dancers almost got bit by a dog! Luckily she was alright, and the drunks watching the shows mostly managed to stay off our stage. The second show of the day was short and sweet and SUPER tight. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of either show.

awesome team!!

Monday... the ACTUAL holiday.  I carpooled with the awesome Courtnay and her kick-ass daughter Hannah.  We started at 10am.... and did 8 shows with the last one ending after 7:30. What a long day!!! But it was nice out, people were excited to see us dance, and we all had fun. Our team on Monday was a little different than Saturday and Sunday... but we were a good, fun group! I love my dance family.

Monday team!

my favorite redhead!

phone hack by H&J... love these girls!

1st St. Paddy's show!

Last night was the official first show of the St. Pat's season.  A small group of us kicked off a cultural event for Denver.  It was pretty awesome!

We have A LOT more shows coming up over the next week or so... so check back for more pictures, updates, etc!

Tis the Irish Dance season!

St. Patrick's Day countdown

12 days and counting...

and boy, am I counting! The life of an Irish Dancer is very much a whirlwind this time of year. Awesome Courtnay has been booking bar gigs since October for us... and now that time is upon us! The first official show is this weekend... so, in order to get some extra practice under our belts, we had a girls night meets dance practice night.

And it was awesome!

 

 

This will now be a regular Tuesday night thing... even after St. Pat's is over. :)

Random Thoughts

The last month or so has been relatively quiet, except for Stacey moving in with us! My mom and I hitting up a bridal expo (yes, I know) and Jay purchasing his suit for the wedding. It probably seems like those are all big things, but really... spread out over a month makes them less huge! Or at least in my mind...

Stacey, Julie and I had a great little girls night at a paint-your-own pottery place called Ceramics in the City.  It was laid-back, fun, easy way for us to sit around gabbing and doing something fun and creative.

Stacey moved in that same weekend. She's heading to Australia (sad pandas!) permanently in June.  Since her tiny studio was raising rent, she's bunking with Jay and I and the cats until she heads to OH before moving to the merry, 'ol land of Oz. I will miss her desperately, but I am going to enjoy having her crash with us until the moment she leaves.  Gus, Willow and Lucy already love having another person to bug for petting and snuggles!

My mom and I headed to a bridal expo last weekend... it was interesting. I think we had more fun in the photo booth and eating the samples than anything else. I realized that despite a few of the event/wedding planners making me feel like I have not gotten enough planned... I am really ahead of the game! My hope (and secret goal) is to have everything planned and done by June. So we shall see!!

 

The last piece of random news is that Jay got his suit for the wedding!!  Early, I know (have you noticed the pattern?) But... Men's Warehouse was having a big 50% off sale this weekend, so we figured we could at least check them out. I am glad we did, because it was totally worth it. And... Jay looks good in a suit! Wooo-eee! I admit, I was drooling a bit as he was trying stuff on.



 



February Hike = MUD!

The weather has not been too cooperative for us girls to get in our weekend hikes... but we have gone one more time.  Anne and I headed up towards Golden for a new (to us) hike.  It was fun, but very, incredibly muddy!! The hazards of warm weather winters I suppose. Anyway... here are some pics from the hike!

Wedding planning...

Is way more involved than I ever expected! But, luckily, I have an amazing fiancé - who actually has an opinion and cares! - and wonderful friends that I can turn to for help.

So...what do we have planned so far? Lots!!

1- my dress, shoes and petticoat

     I will not post a picture of my dress, but it's perfect. My mom, Claire and I found it at this cute little bridal shop called The Green Bride. One hour. That's all it took! I found the best shoes ever! Blue!! Wedges!! And then...found a petticoat the matches nearly perfectly. Why the petticoat you ask? Because I am having my dress shortened. Like to my knees-short. And I am excited. 

I know the color doesn't look the same, but it is, promise!! The petticoat has just gotten it's second steaming... (hence the hanging in the shower)

2-venue and date! 

    Yep, that's right! We found a venue and picked a date. That was in every large thing to check off the list. When? October 16. 8 months away! Where? Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery. Yes, a brewery! This was actually Jay's brainchild, but I think it's perfect!!

3-band and music!

  Jay has friends that have been in a band together since high school. Very rock meets heavy metal. They are great! And they have agreed to play at our wedding!!

4- picked the ceremony place and the officiant

   Since I work for a Judge, Jay and I have asked him to officiate our wedding! He is excited and so are we. The ceremony will be at the courthouse with just family.

Next on the to-do list is food, cupcakes and invitations! 

January hike

I love that in Colorado, we can head outdoors and not freeze to death. Don't get me wrong, it gets cold and snowy... But we have so many days of sunshine that those cold, snowy, cloudy, rainy days are more manageable. 

So, this past weekend, Anne, MM and I headed up to Lair 'o the Bear for some hiking. It was lovely!! The weather started cool but ended up being perfect hiking weather! Onto the eye candy...

Bringing in 2014...already past events and ones to come!

Its already more than halfway into the first month of 2014, and I have not done a great job of keeping up with blogging.  This year will (hopefully) be a fun filled and eventful year.

New Year's Eve was the most relaxing, laid back night I have had in a long time. Jay and I made dinner and boozy adult milkshakes, rented a couple of movies and curled up on the couch with our fuzzy children for a quiet night in.
It was lovely!

Jay and I also attended our first (of many?) Mammoth game of the season.  If you're a Denver-ite (or live in the vicinity) and haven't been to the indoor lacrosse games of the Mammoth... you're missing out. The games are like a giant party... and its easy to follow! If you know anything about hockey or soccer, or even a bit of basketball... indoor lacrosse would make sense! When Jay and I went it was Star Wars night... highly entertaining

I also just celebrated a birthday. Yes, really. I turned 30. Eeek! It was really not a big deal, but man that number just seems sooo.... old? mature? I don't really know. I know I don't feel much different, but I do have to remember that I am no longer in my 20s.  Luckily, I have a few other friends turning 30 this month as well... one of which is my lovely, beautiful friend Julie.  She is literally 2 weeks and a day younger than me. So... we decided to throw ourselves a Roaring 20's Thirtieth Birthday party. Flapper dresses and dapper suits required.  It ended up being a fantastic night!

So... what will the rest of this year hold? Wedding planning, outdoor adventures, time with friends and family and... Marrying the wonderful, amazing man in my life. And that will indeed be the best adventure to have.

Christmas time!

The holidays have come and gone. I feel like they went by much faster than usual! However brief, they were nice. Andy came home to visit...and I got a lovely Kitchen Aid stand mixer!! It's a baker's dream!

Nutcracker and dance girls

This year, for our Christmas gift, Julie bought tickets for Stacey, myself and Julie to head to the Nutcracker!!! I haven't been to the ballet since I was a little kid...but I love, love, love watching Center Stage, Breaking Pointe and any other ballet movies and shows. Add in the fact that I dance...means I have a greater appreciation for ballet. It was amazing!!

parade of lights

Every year, in downtown Denver, is the Parade of Lights. A nighttime, highly lit up parade. This year, Jay and I volunteered to help out...it was soooooooooo cold. Fun, but chaotic. I don't believe we will be helping out again...

Book of Mormon

For Jay's birthday present (in September) I managed to snag tickets to the Book of Mormon when they went on sale in June...for November. Confused yet? Anyway, about a week before Thanksgiving, Jay and I headed out for a date night! Dinner, drinks and the show! 

It was awesome!!! 

Beautiful light

A few pics of the gorgeous sky in December

Texas

I have been terrible in updating during this holiday season. It's just gone by so fast! However... Here we go!

So, for Thanksgiving Jay and I headed down to Abilene, Texas with his dad and step-mom to visit his Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill. If you remember at all, this is the same Aunt and Uncle we visited in Montana and last year in Texas. 

It was great to see Bill and Jean, despite the reason for the trip not being the happiest one...but on the plus side, we reconnected with Jay's cousin and her family!

Since it wasn't a pleasure trip, I didnt take a ton of pictures, but if did get some great sunset shots...