Last Trip to Gunnison

Last weekend Dylan and I went up to Salida and Gunnison to visit Dylan's aunt and uncle and to visit my sister in Gunnison one last time before she graduates!

Since my sister wanted to take the puppies to some off lease areas, we also brought the dogs. This was our first time traveling with them besides to Dylan's parents house and camping at Lake Mac. It was definitely a new way to travel, but it actually went pretty well!

Friday night we drove into Salida and hung out with Dylan's aunt and uncle. We had told them around Thanksgiving about the baby, so even though we weren't telling them for the time, it was the first time we had seen them since getting to tell them and they were both very excited of course. The puppies did pretty well while we were chatting and eating. They didn't wrestle too much or hopefully shed too much (Ares is super blowing his coat, and brushing him the night before made it worse I swear).

That night we stayed in a pet-friendly motel which was on the small side but a very nice place to stay.  Freya was very happy to sleep on the bed with us. Ares on the other hand, had WAY too much energy. We eventually realized he had been sleeping for like 30 hours (the night before, all day, and the drive up) and he hadn't really gotten to run around much. So he spent all night pacing the room. I kept worrying about him peeing on the floor, since he was refusing to outside. He is not used to having to potty while on a leash, since he has always lived in our house with the doggie door. Freya is great since she spent like a year living in our townhouse and always went out on a leash. I think Ares got more used to it by the end, and he probably couldn't keep holding it any more.

In the morning we headed back over to Dylan's aunt and uncle's and left the dogs in the yard so we could go out to breakfast. They whined when we left, but they stayed in the yard until we got back. We went to this delicious breakfast place, The Patio Pancake. They have a whole section on their menu for hash browns. Definitely my kind of place.

After breakfast we drove over the pass to Gunnison. There is pretty much no snow up in the mountains. Which helped us have basically no traffic the entire time we were up there, but overall it was very depressing for the beginning of December.

We met up with Goose and her boyfriend Brandon and took the dogs to some open public lands where they could run around for a bit. They had a blast and were worn out enough to only whine for a minute when we left the in the car to go get Chinese for lunch (Don't worry, it was only 45 degrees out, they were in the shade and we left the windows down, and being cold weather dogs we weren't worried about them being cold). Then we went to visit Goose's apartment and hung out for a bit. It is a super cute place! It was one of the on campus apartment buildings and was just opened this year.

After chilling for a bit, watching random YouTube videos, we headed out to Hartman's Recreation Area where we went on a really neat hike. There were a lot of fascinating rock formations and Goose and Brandon were hilarious to hang out with.

Afterwards we headed to the store so Goose could cook us dinner. She made a chicken creamy pesto pasta that was DELICIOUS! Hooray for her getting into cooking :) I told her she has to cook for us when she is down in Denver before she heads up to Billings for her new job. Once dinner was over, we played some Skipbo and then headed over to Dylan and I's hotel. We hung out there for a bit, saw some of the awful Nebraska-Wisconsin game, then we watched How to Train Your Dragon on TV, which is one of our favorites. Goose and Brandon headed out after the movie. Ares and Freya both slept well; I think all the running around finally wore him out!

In the morning, I was obviously up pretty early compared to everyone else, so I went and got some free breakfast at the hotel. After Dylan and I packed up, we decided to take the dogs over to the same open space we went to the day before. Goose and Brandon ended up meeting us there. We grabbed some breakfast before heading out of town (second breakfast for me, pregnancy definitely has turned me into a hobbit!).

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun bringing the dogs with us. Once they both got into the swing of it and could handle being left alone, knowing we would come back, that made things a lot easier. You definitely have to plan to be doing stuff with your dogs for most of the time. And for us, off-leash is key since it makes it more fun for everyone when you aren't being pulled along.

We also had a great time visiting with Dylan's aunt and uncle. We definitely want to keep making an effort to go up there even when we won't have Goose to go visit. Salida is such a cute town and they know everyone there!

And of course it was so much fun to see Goose. It is very interesting to see someone at that stage of life -- graduating college, getting ready to head off to a great job, but dealing with leaving (temporarily) a boyfriend and hoping they can work things out. For a good while, my sister and I were able to relate to each others place in life very well, but I do feel like we are now at very different places. Obviously me getting ready to have a baby puts me into a whole new life style, but even without that, I have already been through a lot of growing up (always in process though!) and she is just getting ready to start a big phase it. And she keeps claiming she doesn't want to get married for 5 years, blah blah blah... I may be having issues with her not being on the same timeline as me (like I said, growing up is always a work in progress... I may still need to learn to accept my sisters choices in life)

Definitely a great weekend and I will miss Gunnison! Not that we can't go there again, but there are so many other places to go in Colorado!

She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain

One thing we have been doing quite a bit this summer is hiking. I even hiked my first fourteener!

We went up to Silver Dollar Lake on Guanella Pass in July:

 

 

 





Then about two and a half weeks ago we went up to Mount Beirstadt, which has an elevation of 14,060! It took about 5 hours to complete. I am more of a two to three hour hiker, so a long hike was a big deal for me. It was a ton of fun and a great experience!

It was absolutely beautiful! It was a great morning, but early. We were up there and hiking by 6:15am. It was a couple of my cousins, one of their friends, my sister, Dylan and I.

We even saw a moose! I had never seen a moose before! I didn't have my macro lens, so I couldn't zoom in any closer, but the black thing in the water is a moose, I promise.

I had so much fun hanging out with Goose! We had a lot of fun with my camera too.

 After 2 and a half hours we made it to the top!


The elevation: 1-4-0-6-0!

 

 I don't think it will be on my to-do list to do a fourteener again any time soon, but it was a great experience!

Then about a week and a half ago Dylan and I went hiking up at Golden Gate Canyon with one of our favorite couple friends and their dog. I didn't get any pictures of all of us, but it was a pretty hike!

It has been so much fun being outside and getting to enjoy time with Dylan and the puppies. There are so many new places that I have never been to and it is always amazing how many beautiful places there are in Colorado.

Weekend Extravaganza(s)

I have two absolutely fantastic weekends in a row! Let me briefly recap them for you.

Last weekend, Labor Day weekend. Dylan's friend came out to visit. He was in town Thursday through Tuesday, so the weekend felt even longer than the three day weekend.
Thursday started out great since I left work early to do a golf tournament for work. So when I got home I was already a couple drinks in and Dylan's friend had brought 17 bottles of wine with him. We broke into quite of few of them before, during and after dinner on Thursday. We also went to the gelato place by our house where they also have alcohol, so I had my first grasshopper--creme de menthe, white creme de cacao and ice cream. AMAZING. Ice cream AND mint AND alcohol?! How could my life get any better? And how had I made it so long without having one? Delicious.
Then Friday night we went out downtown to Sing Sings, which is a dueling piano bar. We always have a blast when we go there :) They have Buzz Buckets which is essentially a giant bucket of alcohol and juice and sprite. Delicious and dangerous.

Saturday we hung out a bit watching football. I had initially put on my CU gear, but Dylan and his friend convinced to put on red to cheer on the Huskers. I have decided that since we are now in different conferences and now that Dylan and I married, I can be a Huskers fan. It is a definite work in progress and the Buffs will always be #1 in my heart.

That night Dylan and I went out with two of my cousins and one cousin's girlfriend and her friend. We tried to go to the other piano bar downtown, but it turned out that it was closed. It must have just happened because their website didn't mention anything and when I last drove by it was still open. Ah well. So we headed to the Tavern and celebrated one of my cousin's recent 21st birthday! She just got back from Semester at Sea and had her birthday while she was gone, so we finally got a chance to celebrate with her. Let's just say we all had a lot of fun (even me and I was the DD!). We had to make a Wendy's run on the way home to counteract all the libations (and because I love french fries).
Sunday we went to the Taste of Colorado, which I have never been to. It is in downtown every year on Labor Day weekend. Delicious. How it works is that you buy tickets, this year it was $10 for 15 tickets and then those tickets get you food. Some places have little tasters or you can get a full sized meal. I mostly went the dessert route. I had a berry kabob (strawberries and bananas with white and milk chocolate drizzled on top) and two kinds of gelato--lemon and birthday cake, and then I also got some dark chocolate fondue.

I also had book club with my girls. We read Brave New World. Overall a different book. I think we liked it overall, but it was a bit on the disturbing side. Reminded me a lot of 1984 with the whole distopia concept.

Sunday night Dylan and I were pretty low key and then Monday we hung out with Dylan's friend and my friend and played games (Guesstures, Continental, etc.) most of the day and then went to dinner at the Chinese place by our house that we didn't know was a Chinese place.

Then onto this weekend. I had taken off Friday, Monday (yesterday) and this coming Friday in order to have some options to go visit Goose at school. She has one weekend field trip this semester and I didn't want to limit my time to visit her. Turns out her trip isn't until October... So this Friday I drove up to go visit her for the weekend.

We had a blast, as per always. I got in around 2:30 and we hung out and I saw her dorm (she is an RA) and then we hit up 5 B's, an amazing BBQ restaurant in town that inspired/provided one of Dylan and my favorite meals-the tatonator. Baked potato, bbq sauce, pulled pork, sour cream, cheese. Amazing. Then we went for a walk up to the Gunnison River. We bought some peaches at the farmer's market on our way. Then we just hung out and put our feet in the freezing water and chatted and laughed. After that we headed back to her room and watched Anna and the King, which neither of us had ever seen. Super good. We both really enjoyed it. After that it was my bedtime (10pm... I am so cool!).

Saturday I slept in until 10. 10! I usually get up around 8am on the weekends and I am lucky if I make it to 9 (and this was before the puppy started waking us up). We grabbed some breakfast at the dining hall and then headed up to Crested Butte. We went hiking on a trail across from Crested Butte. Overall it was a nice easy and beautiful hike. We had a lot of fun. Then we headed into the town and Goose got her Chai Tea Shake. I got chocolate and we split a basket of curly fries.

Then we headed back to Gunnison. We kept getting delayed in leaving to go to the Blue Mesa Reservior (in part because I was watching the end of regulation of the CU v. Cal game). We finally left and then Goosie, who was driving, got lost. Not just left or right lost, which had been going on a lot that weekend (really, she just doesn't know her right and left... :-P, Love you Goose!), but she forgot how to get where she wanted to go. So we did two U-turns and kept driving. We found the Bay of Chickens she was looking for, but it wasn't really where she wanted to go, but we could at least see the right beach. Back in the car and we finally made it. This whole time I was nervous it was going to pour rain and thunder, but the storm moved north, so we lucked out. We had brought our swim suits, but since it was already 6pm and kind of chilly, we just waded around and took silly pictures for an hour or two.

Then we read on the beach for a bit before we heading back to change into warmer clothes for dinner. Delicious Mexican food :) Then we hung out and laughed about our pictures from Blue Mesa and turned on EverAfter, to which I promptly fell asleep. Not because it is boring, I love the movie, but because it was 11:30pm and we had run around all day.

Then we grabbed breakfast at the Firebrand. Delicious waffle with bananas, whipped cream and syrup. Then I head back home to make it to puppy class and my friend's dad's 60th birthday.

Quite a lot of stuff going on these last two weekends! I keep trying to take time off to have some time at home (you know, to clean our house...which just is not happening right now, or to start thinking about some new projects and spend time with my adorable puppies), but that is not in the cards with everything else going on in my life. Ah well! At least I am living it up :)

Camping Season!

This morning it was nice out, but with a little chill in the air and it reminded me of camping in the mountains in the summer. Then I realized it is almost that time of year again!



Camping up in Olympic National Peninsula Aug 2009

We need a new air mattress for camping, but other than that we already have a hefty stash of camping stuff. My love of camping stuff is second only to my love of kitchen stuff :) We will have to get a lot of trips in in July after the wedding and before puppy #2 since we have to wait until he gets all of his shots to camp with him. I would love to go before the wedding too, but I think with my traveling for work and needing to get ready for the wedding, I won't have time.

At the end of July, we already are planning on going to Lake McConoughy with my family. I cannot wait! It is like going to the beach for a couple days because the water is so warm and we just hang out.

The best part is that this year Dylan can actually go for more than 20 hours since he doesn't work on the weekends anymore. So we can stay for two nights and actually have time for some long hikes. Freya will appreciate that for sure.

I cannot wait for the nights to be less cold so we can start camping!