Woodpeckers!

For the last few week Mike and I had been listening to this odd sound. It sounded almost like a jack hammer, but against metal. We both chalked it up to the construction that is happening around our house and left it at that. Then last week Mike said, "I think it is a woodpecker." I didn't know what to think. It was so sporadic and I just didn't think too much of it. Then earlier this week Mike called to tell me that it was a woodpecker trying to peck into our chimney. So we decided that something needed to be done. On Tuesday morning, while I was getting ready to leave for work and the little guys were at it again. This time I caught them as they were trying to drill into our chimney. So Mike went up on the roof and put a bunch of nails on the top of the chimney (which doesn't allow them to land). Since then I have seen the little guys flying around and landing on the trees and telephone poles, but not again on our chimney!

Quick update

After returning home from Telluride, I was hit hard by my cold. I only worked part of Thursday and Friday last week as most families "didn't want what I had." Mike kept drinking airborne and Emergen C supplements hoping to stave off my "disease." So far so good and he has yet to get sick. Thursday night I hosted book club for 5 friends. We read the book Trespass by Valerie Martin. We all enjoyed it for different reasons, which always leads to interesting discussions. Thursday night Mike had a late hockey game, and then his buddy Larson came to town. After I went and picked up Larson from the airport I went to bed, and he and Mike stayed up and "boy bonded." Friday the boys left for skiing and a night on the town in Vail. I scrap booked and managed to get 18 more pages finished while working off the rest of my cold. Mike and Larson came back into town on Saturday night and we went out. We grabbed dinner and then went and danced at one of the best "dive bars" in downtown Denver. Sunday we all agreed that Saturday night was a lot of fun, but it left us a bit sleepy. It was a great night to watch the Oscars! Monday after seeing the movie Michael Clayton on the Oscars we decided we should see what all the fuss was about. It was a good movie and I always enjoy when I can convince Mike to watch a flick with me! Now as boring as this was to read you are caught up in our lives :-)

Happy Birthday to Mike

Today Mike and I celebrated his 27th Birthday. We went and looked for some new things for him at his 3 favorite stores: Filson, Patagonia, and Orvis. After shopping in all three the only thing he wanted/needed/saw was a pair of pants! We then made steaks at home for dinner. I didn't know his favorite cake so he went without, but I surprised him with a candle on top of a jello pudding dessert. He then broke down and told me that in the future he likes white cake with chocolate frosting and m&m's on the top....I will remember this for his future birthdays. For those of you that know Mike and have followed his struggle to grow facial hair...he is now 27 and attempting to grow a beard! Who knew that there would be website totally dedicated to helping people know and discuss beards...check it out http://www.beards.org/

TELLURIDE

I think I must start by saying I don't know if I can do this weekend justice in this blog entry. As Mike said he doesn't use the word "beautiful" often but Telluride was "beautiful!" It was an amazing getaway, with so many memorable things during our stay. Both Mike and I agree that to date it is our favorite trip.

We got into town on Friday night after a 6 hour drive through the Rockies. On the trip I had fun looking at all the cattle, horses, and deer. As we drove up to the property management building we realized that things were different. On the door there were about 15 envelopes with peoples last names on them. We found ours and inside were our keys to a condo located at the base of the mountain. For a last minute reservation and it being President's weekend (a crazy ski weekend in CO) we had gotten a great place. Once we unloaded we put on our boots and headed into town. We found a place that served Latin food called Las Montansa . We had a bite to eat and then went and walked around Telluride.

Saturday we headed up early to ski. We had heard that the skiing was amazing, and it truly lived up to our expectations. After making some warm up runs, Mike decided to take me on an adventure. We hiked up a mountain peak called "baldy." Simply put it was one of the scarest things I have done. Not only were there no ropes, we were hiking in our ski boots up the side of the mountain. (side note for our moms...Mike would never let me do anything that would hurt me...I was just terrified because of the height! We were also wearing our helmets) Once we finished the 30 minute hike we had an amazing view of the mountains surrounding us. However, I was still pretty nervous from the hike and skiing down wasn't my prettiest. We then skied a bit more before Mike decided that he wanted to hike another peak. This time I backed out. This hike included one of Mike's highlights of the trip, seeing Glenn Plake dropping cliffs with a camera crew 5 ft. from where he was standing. After this we were both exhausted and decided that we should be done skiing and grab something to eat. We went a saloon on mainstreet and grabbed a couple burgers, this was followed up by a soak in the hottub. Saturday night we went to dinner at local favorite called the Chop House. The food was very good and then we headed to the historic bar next door. We only had a drink because I was starting to feel my cold come back again :-(

Sunday we started the day off skiing. It was windy and a pretty cold. We made about 5 runs and decided to grab lunch at 9545. After lunch my cold came back full force, but it was nothing a few advil and a hottub couldn't fix. Then we got ready to head up to I think my favorite part of the trip, Allred's.

We timed it perfectly and headed up the gondola right as the sun was about to set.

We had spectacular views and went up and had a drink and appetizer. After this we went down and grabbed another drink at the Hotel Columbia's bar COSMOpolitian. (side note for my dad at this point we have only talked about having 2 drinks-well within our age limit!) Then we had dinner at Rustico. By the end of dinner, I needed to go home for more cold medicine and bed.
Monday morning, Mike headed up to hike and ski the bowl again. I decided that I needed to finally listen to my cold and stayed in bed and then packed up. We reluctantly left Telluride this afternoon. It took us a bit longer to get back to our house. Somewhere between when we left Telluride and we got to Highway 285 (the final stretch of our trip) we saw that the pass we needed to go over was closed due to adverse conditions. We ended up going up and around through another ski town, Breckenridge, and made it home in 7.5 hours. It was truly an amazing trip, one that I don't think either Mike or I will ever forget!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day...

Originally Mike and I were going to make a nice dinner at home together, but plans have changed. I have a wonderful date set up with my friend Allison. First we are going to do Pilates together, then shake our bodies for Rumba. This will all be followed up by dinner together at Forest Room Five. This is if I feel better and can drag myself out of the house.

Mike has a wonderful date set up with his hockey buddies. I swear the hockey league is cursing Valentine's Day and making the boys pick between their two loves, hockey and their ladies. My love, picked hockey! He did earn it today however by showing up from his "work vacation" with a tulip and chocolate covered strawberries and truffles.

Truthfully, Mike and I have a very special weekend up in Telluride planned. So we decided that it wasn't necessary to celebrate tonight as Mike said "we celebrate our love everyday." I am still laughing inside from his witty comment. We are going to be leaving tomorrow after work for our fun filled weekend. This weekend will be spent skiing, dining, and relaxing to celebrate both Valentine's Day and Mike's birthday which is on Tuesday. Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! xoxoxoxo

Steamboat...Ski Town USA

Mike and I headed up to Steamboat on Friday night. The weather was trying to fight against us and for most of the day the roads and passes into Steamboat were closed. We ended up taking an alternate route, and made it up there without trouble, our friends who left earlier in the day ended up driving for 8 and a half hours! Saturday we hit the mountain, that had over 2 feet of fresh powder to play with. Even thought we live in Colorado, it is still pretty amazing to get a few good powder days in each season. This season has been crazy and most places have already gotten over 300 inches of snow! Everyone is talking about the EPIC season we are having up here. Our legs were dead, but we skied until we couldn't anymore. The trees were amazing and I have just put a bunch of pictures on here of the weekend skiing. For all you skiers out there...we have a great place to stay and would love to have you! On Saturday night, Mike and I snuck away from the group to go catch some of the Winter Carnival events. It is only in a ski town that they bring in snow to cover main street so that horses and snowmobiles can pull the kids on skis down the road. They also have parades and a bunch of other activities. It was a lot of fun, and a change of pace. The red lights are the kiddos in Steamboat that are in
the ski club skiing with flares on their backs or in their hands. Then the ski patrol rode down with fireworks on their sleds. The biggest event was the "lighted man" and his fellow ski patrolers that went down lit on fire and jumped through a ring of fire. At the end of this show, they light off 4th of July type fireworks. It was a lot of fun to watch. Then we walked around the town in our new boots. We also stopped in a really neat art gallery. The artist, Thomas D. Mangelsen, is a biologist that takes amazing photos of wildlife and nature. Then we went back to join the group that was all back at the house. We hung out, sat in the hot tub, and then crashed. Mike and I hit the mountain again this morning, only to realize that our legs were completely dead from the day before. After we made a couple runs we went back to the house, changed and headed into town to catch the end of the main street festivities. The tractors were removing the snow from the road. We had lunch and then headed back home.

These boots are made for walking

Today, Mike and I invested in cowboy and "girl" boots for ourselves. Mike has always wanted them apparently, and I find that sometimes when we are playing in the mountains we need them. Hopefully, they were a good investment. Now I just need to convince Mike to go horseback riding with me! Mike and I have had a pretty busy week. It got crazy last Thursday night Mike had hockey and I decided to join my friend Allison at a dance class called Zumba. Allison has been raving about this class forever. So I decided I should check it out. We started with an hour of Pilates and then an hour of salsa style dance. My body was sore until Sunday.
Friday Night Mike went to happy hour with his buddy Chico, and I had a glass of wine with some coworkers. Then Mike and I went and met up with my girlfriends for a night of karaoke.
Saturday Mike and I had a lazy day around the house and then went to lunch. Then I went to grab a drink with my friend Lauren, and Mike and his buddy Reid stayed in and watched the Minnesota vs. Sioux hockey game.
Sunday we went to the 2nd annual Lien's Superbowl Party. Neither Mike or I won any money in the pools, but we had a good time with friends watching the Giants win.

Up in the Mountains we Play

Ok, so I had some trouble figuring out what to title this post! It is true, Mike and I do enjoy playing up in the mountains. For Martin Luther King Weekend we went on an annual trip with Mike's buddies to Breckenridge. This year Mike started a festive tournament to get the night started. We all put our names in a cup, so we could mix up teams, and then played a beer pong tournament, with brackets and everything. The games started at 8 and didn't end until 3 a.m.! Mike's team got second, my team was the consolation champs! Saturday we skied and then our group of 20 went to our annual dinner at Mi Casa. Sunday we headed back into Denver to watch the Packers game. Monday we got things done around the house. I started working on my taxes...lots of fun! Both of us worked all week and then the weekend came and we decided to play again. Thursday night I got to pick our dinner place, and I picked the Melting Pot. It wasn't Mike's favorite, so I am going to have to save it for really special Stacey treats. Friday Night we went with our friends Tim and Allison to the Impulse Comedy Theater. After waiting for our taxi for over 45 minutes we finally were able to meet up and grab a drink. The show held a lot of laughs, but the funniest thing was a group of women who were a little "crazy" celebrating a friends 50 somethingth birthday. Saturday Mike and I hit up skiing in Vail. It was a fantastic powder day and we skied until our legs couldn't anymore. We also got some much needed action shots for your viewing pleasure (Mike is on the left and I am on the right). Sunday was a get stuff done day! Mike took a break and headed to the Sportsman's Expo. Hopefully, everything will fall in place and next year at this time he will have a new hunting partner! Keep your fingers crossed...I am going "puppy crazy!" I will keep you all posted.

A little place called Aspen

This past weekend Mike and I made our way up to Aspen. Mike's lifelong friend Anna lives up there. It is a great way for me to hear stories about Mike from when he was growing up. Spending time with Anna is always a good time with a lot of laughs, and great skiing never hurts either.

The festivities....
On Friday when we left it looked like we were heading straight into a storm. Once we got to Anna's we picked her up and headed into Basalt for a drink. Later that night, Anna's boyfriend joined us for a home cooked dinner and late night darts and video golf!
Saturday night we went to the Double Dog to meet up with some of Anna and Dale's friends before they headed to a concert. Mike and I decided to take that opportunity to grab dinner together. We first tried to go to a seafood restaurant that was closed when we were there in October. We quickly learned our place when our table was given to a "fur wearing family" right before our eyes! We then went to a great restaurant, D19, that had both wonderful food and a great atmosphere.

Ahh the skiing....
Saturday we skied Snowmass and Sunday we skied The Highlands. I have always heard about how great the skiing in Aspen is and it truly lived up to my expectations. There was hardly a wait for the lift and the runs felt like Mike, Anna, and I were the only ones on the run! Anna and I expressed it with a little "whahoooo" ever time we got off the lift...Mike even joined in once or twice! Aspen was a great time and I think it even made us consider what kind of life we could have in the mountains of Colorado.

So far a crazy beginning

So far January has been eventful to say the least. We started it off in December when my brother came to stay with us. He ended up getting sick and we only got one day of skiing in, instead of 3! We did make it to the Vikings/Broncos football game. It was both Troy and I's first NFL game, the only thing that would have made it better would have been a Vikings victory. New Year's Eve we hosted a little get together for our friends. Mike got to cooked a prime rib on the grill which got rave reviews. All of our friends brought a dish to share and we then had a few cocktails to ring in 2008. On Thursday I celebrated my 26th birthday. Mike took me to a wonderful dinner at Del Frisco's where we ate all my favorites!








Then on Saturday we went out to Sing Sing with our friends to celebrate. It was a double birthday celebration as my friend Danielle's birthday is on the 8th. So far 2008 has been eventful and great. Happy belated New Year everyone.