Adam and Leane

As promised in the post below, here's a picture of Adam and Leane. Congratulations to you both!!

Christmas in a Winter Wonderland

As I sit here in the Seattle Airport during my 4 hour layover, I'm reflecting back on my awesome trip home for Christmas. Meanwhile, I'm also sitting in the Alaska Airlines super special Board Room with all the rich people because my dad bought me a day-pass. And I'm eating a PB&J that my mom packed for me. Obviously my parents love me a lot. :)

It was a very relaxing, very nice trip.... despite the darkness and extreme cold weather (even cold for Alaska). Seriously, my mom's car said -20 degrees this morning when we were driving to the airport. Actually, it said -21 degrees, which we think is where it bottoms out at because it said -21 degrees two other times while I was home but never went any further below that.

One afternoon it was particularly clear out, so we took a drive through town.We were trying to see Mt. McKinley -- even though it's hours away, you can still see it from our town on a clear day. That's how huge it is!! We could make out a faint outline.... but I guess you really can't see it in this picture.

Did I mention it was -10 that day, too? After looking for Mt. McKinley, I was feeling reminiscent, so we went to my high school....

The football stadium:My brother and me in front of the outdoor ice rink where he spent lots of time practicing for the hockey team.

I took a few pictures of our neighborhood. Here's our house....

And the view out my bedroom window:

This is looking down our street... and was taken at dusk... aka 3:30pm.And I took this one at 10:00 am to show how dark it still is at that hour...And probably the most exciting thing that happened on my trip was finding out my brother got engaged!! He proposed to his girlfriend, Leane, the day after Christmas and we all found out the next day. Very exciting!Of course I got a picture of the rock. But I completely spaced out on getting a picture of Adam and Leane together. They told me they'll send me one of them for the blog, so I'll post that as soon as I get it. I do, however, have this one picture of them when we all went to the beach in 2007.... it definitely doesn't fit my Winter Wonderland theme of the post... but here it is!

My New Place

On October 15th, I closed on my very first home -- it was a lot of work, but very exciting! I bought a condo in the Uptown/West City Park area of Denver. There's different districts to our downtown -- Coors Field and most of the nightlife is in Lower Downtown (aka Lodo). Uptown is maybe 1.5 miles from Lodo and is the area where the Ernst & Young office is. City Park is a huge park a couple miles further East. I'm in between Uptown and City Park.
So far I've really, really enjoyed my new place! Here's a tour....

This is the hallway leading to my condo:

My front door! Entry way:
From the entry way, this is what you see. There's a long hall with the bedrooms, laundry room, and 1 bathroom along the way. At the end of the hall is my kitchen and living room.

The first thing on your left is my guest bathroom (notice my UT Santa):

Next, on your right, is my bedroom:

This is the door from my room to my bathroom:

My closet (which is HUGE) is off the bathroom.
Next, along the hallway, on your right is the guest room. The furniture is courtesy of my friend Trisha... who lives with her boyfriend... but tells her parents she lives with me. It's really funny considering the only time she's stopped by is to check out my place when I moved in and then once again to move her furniture in. And she doesn't even have a key!

At the end the hall, on your left, is my kitchen.

And at the very back of the house is the living room/dining room:

Magnolia's stocking is the red one with a white cat on it. :) Coincidentally, my stocking - which I've had since childhood - has a white cat on it, too. I must look like a really freaky cat lady.

And here's the view from the back of the house -- that door at the back is my front door.



There you have it... my new house!

Thanksgiving

I had an especially nice Thanksgiving this year because my parents and brother were able to come to Colorado! I always head to my grandparents' house in Salida (about 3 hours southwest of Denver) for Thanksgiving, so it was awesome to have my whole family come with me!

My family flew in from Alaska on Tuesday night and we went straight from the airport to the Bluebonnet Cafe -- my favorite Mexican restaurant in town. It's still not as good as what you find in Texas, but it's the closest I've found to good Tex Mex. And it's a definite crowd pleaser when your crowd is coming from a place 4000 miles from Mexico.

The next day we got up early, had a delicious breakfast at my favorite breakfast place, and hit up the outlet malls on our way to Salida. My grandparents have been in Colorado for over 30 years - they spent the first 10 in Denver and the last 20 in or around Salida. It's a really cute town. I love the big "S" on the mountain:

I'm a total phony because I didn't take either of these Salida pictures (go to Salida.com for many more!). But I didn't take any of my own, and I wanted to show how pretty it is!

Thanksgiving Day was great. My grandma spent most of the day cooking, and we had a fantastic meal. My Uncle Jim (mom's brother), Aunt Suki, and my cousin David all came for Thanksgiving, too. My grandma really wanted a family picture, and after some struggles with the tripod we finally got it! ...can you spot Jim and Suki's beagle?On Saturday, my family and I headed back to Denver. My dad is quite possibly the biggest Avalanche fan alive, and he bought us all tickets to the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that night. He was more excited than I think I've ever seen him. It was such a fun night!

I was sad to drop them all off at the airport Sunday morning. But in a short few weeks, I'll be up in Alaska for Christmas!

Making Friends at Football

Amy and I always joke that we don’t have any friends other than each other. Which isn’t entirely true, since Amy really does have other friends. And I have my cat. Even so, we both do a pretty good job of making friends during football season… albeit short lived friends. For example…..

Example #1:

Texas/OU game –
(Yes, the one we in which we BEAT the team that is going to the Big XII Championship on Saturday). Amy and I went to the local Texas bar – the Giggling Grizzly where I proudly wore burnt orange and Amy wore an Iowa tshirt adorned with a UT sticker.We were enjoying a bloody mary and a breakfast taco when a couple of guys asked if they could sit with us. Being the friendly girls we are, we let them sit down and buy us another drink. We were also joined by Amy’s high school friend, Abby. Abby is a traveling nurse, and when Amy and I went to visit Austin last spring, Abby was living there! So Abby could understand the hysteria taking place at the bar during the game.
Example #2:
Texas/Texas Tech game –
Amy and I were minding our own business at our favorite sports bar when we were approached by this character:His name is Scott, and he immediately sat down and brought over a couple of his friends… none of whom actually live in Denver. One’s from Minneapolis, one’s from Vegas, and the other’s from East Colorado. They turned out to be super funny, and we enjoyed talking to them!

Example #3:
Iowa/Minnesota & Oklahoma/Texas Tech game –
While Amy cheered on Iowa and I was selling my soul to the devil and cheering (quietly) for Oklahoma, the most insane brothers I have ever met came to watch with us. (ps... check out my new, dark hair) These two were interesting characters. They had lived in Iowa (where Amy’s from), Kansas (where I spent my childhood years), Austin, and now Denver. Very odd coincidences. Amy and I tried to watch football while answering their bad knock knock jokes and fending off marriage proposals. (I was presented with a ring made out of a napkin. Classy.) These two were definitely the strangest football friends we’ve made all year. I soon realized we could get rid of them if we asked them to buy us a drink. I casually mentioned my beer was gone and I’d like another one. They got a bit nervous and the brother who proposed to me said to the other brother, “Just get her number and let’s get out of here.” Referring to Amy’s number. The other brother said to Amy, “Can I have your phone number?” To which Amy responded, “For what?” And they immediately left. Who’s to say who we might meet at a bowl game?