January Birthdays!

To start, my birthday is in January! Hooray!! So... this year Jay and I got away for the weekend.  We went up to Glenwood Springs for some hot springs (lovely) and snowshoeing!  It was a beautiful weekend in the mountains and I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate another year.

The drive up to Glenwood Springs has my favorite part of I70, as it winds through the beautiful canyon!

We stayed overnight at the Sunlight Mountain Lodge just outside of Glenwood.  But that evening was spent eating good food and soaking in the hot springs. 

The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast and set out for a snowshoe adventure.  Jay had never been and its been years since I've been.  But we had beautiful weather, lots and lots of trails and each other to make it awesome. 

Fast forward to a couple weeks later and I got to celebrate Julie's birthday!  We are almost exactly 2 weeks apart in age, but I consider her to be a sister! Isn't it nice when you can pick your family? Anyway... for her birthday, her cousin Megan joined us in a night of glow-in-the-dark yoga and beer!  Random, but ridiculously fun!!

the three of us!

coolest looking pants!

Julie and I can be such total dorks together. And I love it.  A perfect example is this:

And thats why I love her!! :)

As I get older, its more apparent that having a few good, genuine, loving people in your life is more important than having lots of friends.  Another year ahead!

In the midst of winter

Its January. Which is typically a bad time to get out and do much, as it is the middle of winter!! However, we are lucky enough to live in a state that celebrates winter because you're able to still get outside and enjoy the sunshine, the snow, the weather and everything else!!

Jay and I are trying to take full advantage of this by heading outside as often as possible.  The first Saturday of 2016 saw us heading up to the mountains for a morning hike!  We layered up, grabbed our backpacks and set off.  We were up at Elk Meadows outside Evergreen.  Its beautiful, but terrible to hike in the summer because its so open and unshaded.  That made it perfect for a hike when the high was around 28 degrees.

NYE 2015

It was a few weeks ago, I am aware. But a quick update about new years! Actually, its really because I am trying to be better about posting (again) and we've done a lot in the last few weeks.

Anyway... I worked at my second job (restaurant) on New Year's Eve.  It was crazy, busy and went super fast.  I didn't really mind! It took the stress out of planning something.  I was done about 11pm, so Jay came downtown to meet up with me.  We had a beer at the bar and hung out and then right before midnight we walked over to the Millennium Bridge at the end of 16th Street Mall and watched the fireworks! It was really cool (yes, temperature too) to be there.  There were only a handful of others up on the bridge with us, but we had a great view! Not a bad way to ring in the new year!!

such goofballs

 Happy New Year!!! I cannot believe it is 2016 already...

Trip to Cincinnati!

A few short weeks ago, Jay was in Cincinnati for work.  He'd been traveling SO much, that his bosses agreed to let him extend that trip a few extra days, keep the hotel and rental car and have me come and join him! Now... a trip to Cincinnati is not necessarily at the top of my places to go list - however, my lovely friend Stacey was having the 1st of her 2 (yes 2 - the next one is in Australia) weddings in Cincinnati that same weekend Jay was there. Fate? Cosmic alliance? I don't know - but I am ridiculously happy it worked out.  I miss Stace like crazy, and her new husband is absolutely fabulous.  The two of them together? LOVE IT.

So here are some photos of our short trip to Cincy - Stacey's wedding and some sightseeing!

this girl. I just love her so much!

the beautiful bride!

Jay and I in our wedding attire

the happy couple!

We left on Sunday afternoon... but not before saying our goodbyes to the newlyweds.  There were some tears for sure - Stace is like a sister to me and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life!! We will obviously just have to go and visit her in Australia.  After we saw her, we headed out to a huge, old cemetery outside the city that Stacey's dad recommended we check out.  A quick stop after that for some famous Skyline Chili and we were headed home.

 

 

Dance Update

I haven't posted about dance in a while... which seems to be a growing trend.. BUT I do have some news!  Just this past weekend was the Western Region Oireachtas!  Which, for you non-dancer folk, is our regional dance competition (the entire western region of the US - shocker).  This year it was held in Salt Lake City.  Our school took a big group of solo dancers and group dancers to the competition this weekend. I think all in all, it was a good showing.

The group I was dancing with was an 8 hand (8 dancers in a traditional group dance).  We competed in the 15&over group and competed against 30 other teams!!! Unfortunately we didn't place, but we danced as well as we could and enjoyed every moment!

Mom came with to SLC and 2 of my lovely dancer friends roomed with us as well. The weekend was made more fun just by having them around!!

Pictures from the weekend...

mom and I on Friday

dance look!

ladies 8 hand!

Bananas!!! Love this girl so much!

These ladies...make everything more awesome. Love them!!

Happy Halloween!

This year, Halloween was so much fun!  Although we didn't really plan what we were doing (or wearing) until just a few days before.  Regardless, it was a blast!!! Jay and I went as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  It only required an ax and horns! Yes, really. I own that much blue already.  A quick peek at our night:

Fall has arrived!

And so much has happened... I can't believe its November already. So, let's catch up a bit, shall we?

Let's see... Jay and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary!  Its hard to believe that its been a year already, and yet... it seems longer at the same time.  Crazy.  Jay planned a whole day for us (we took the day off of work, LOVELY).  We slept in, had breakfast at our local place and then headed to the mountains for a beautiful afternoon!  From there we went to dinner at the same place we had our first date (6 years ago!) and then had drinks at Jagged Mountain, which is where we got married last year!

beautiful red rose from my hubby

Colorado in the fall

 

That same weekend, we headed up to Rock Creek farm and picked pumpkins with Jules and her adorbs daughter (my unofficial niece). Again, it was a beautiful day!! We've been soooo lucky with our weather lately. 

Jay makes sure to choose the biggest pumpkin

We didn't carve the pumpkins until the next weekend... and they turned out great!! It also meant that by the time Halloween rolled around this past weekend, they still looked good.

I just love Fall!! Its my favorite season of the year!