Hiking Adventure and Weekend

We got up early this morning to head up to the trail head which was near Vail, CO. I have a cold but in the name of good blogging and scrapbook I need to get a picture of Mike fly fishing. So I got up and got going, Mike was already to go and had the trail mapped out. We were suppose to be hiking to a different lake, but decided that we would try this trail out instead. It was all good until about 10 minutes into the hike when I realized that we were only going straight up, and there wasn't any flats in sight! (Typically in the mountains you gain elevation but you do it gradually or with a steep part here or there) Then Mike told me the truth it was a 3. 8 mile hike with a 3,400 foot elevation gain...so basically ever mile we hiked we were climbing a 1,000 at high altitude...not so much fun at 9:30 am. We were about an hour into the hike and just over 2.5 miles in when the next set of obstacles started...SNOW and lots of it! We were expecting some patches of snow, but we weren't expecting fields of snow that was 3 feet deep on our trails. We navigated this for an hour, following the trail as much as possible and when not possible crossing our fingers that we would find it a sooner than later. I also stumbled on this paw print...you guess what it is...I don't want to know but I sure didn't want to see it either!We ended up making it to our final destination (not the end of the trail) and much to Mike's dislike there were no fish in this lake! Once we reached this lake we decided that it was just too sketchy to continue to hike up. It was getting harder and harder to locate the trail, and we had to conceded to the snow. All in all we both agreed that the hike was not worth it in the end and won't be heading back up on that trail anytime soon. Needless to say, I didn't get my picture :-( maybe next weekend!

On Saturday afternoon we also went to the nursery and got new flowers. Our landlord finally had people come over and finish landscaping our backyard. In the corner flowerbed by our patio there was a whole lot of nothing so we decided to brighten it up. I moved the original bulbs I had planted in the front and then planted a bunch of different colorful flowers. I can't wait until they all settle in and get a bit bigger and even more beautiful. I just love flowers :-)

Saturday night we hosted Angela Langenbrunner and her Fiance Garret for dinner. Angela and I haven't seen each other since high school and she and her fiance just moved to Colorado. So we ate and enjoyed each others company.

Friday Mike went up with the boys to Copper Mountain to golf and have boys night, while I took advantage and tried to catch up on my scrap booking. I didn't get all of it done, but I did put a dent into my accumulating pile!

Man Vs. Bear?

Man hits bear on his bike....huh? Check out the article to find out more...

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=94523&catid=188&GID=oqyxI2mE5j+XHEHxO1sdAjNe0Jg7DuNe05wEsvvZ6r0%3D

Hard Work Pays Off

Just wanted to let you all know that Mike and I are extremely proud of our friend Brandy who won the Mt. Washington Mountain Race. Brandy has been training very hard for the last year and a half, she was at first aiming for the US Olympic trials and fell just a few seconds short of her goal this past April before changing over for the goal to make the mountain team. All her hard work and dedication has finally paid off...congrats Brandy!

Here is the full article.....

"That Was the Toughest Run I've Ever Had," Gasps Mt. Washington Winner Eric Blake Well, it's a 7.6-mile steady vertical climb on a New Hampshire roadway around and up New England's most famous and highest mountain. Blake, a Connecticut athlete who once set a world record for a treadmill marathon and who'd won the Mt. Washington Road Race in 2006, turned away a challenge from Coloradan Clint Wells to prevail again. "I tried to push the pace, because I knew Clint had track speed and was a good finisher," stated Blake, whose 1:00:39 gave him the victory by 11 seconds. The women's winner was Brandy Erholtz of Bailey, Colorado, who was in the race for the first time, took women's honors in 1:11:08, with Kasie Enman of Huntington, Vermont, second in 1:13:26. "Finally my training has paid off!" Erholtz declared. She and the top four men in the Mt. Washington Road Race will be part of the Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team that will compete in the World Mountain Trophy race in Switzerland in September.

Summer Weekend In Telluride

Mike came back from Minnesota on Thursday and after switching out his suitcase we were off again. This time we were staying in Colorado and heading up to meet his Aunt Michelle, Uncle Tom, and cousins Shea and Sam. Friday was a day spent enjoying Telluride. We were suppose to be listening to some Bluegrass music, but we all forgot the most important thing...the tickets! So we went back to the condo and relaxed, listened to Tom play the guitar, and then got ready for dinner. We went to Los Montanas Restaurant, this is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Colorado. The chef even came out to tell us how he made his secret rice! We then made our way to the river front to listen to a couple songs before we headed in for the night. Saturday we got up and went and hiked a trail known as the "waterfalls." It is a two mile hike up the valley with a spectacular view of the mountains and the waterfall. With the snow still melting the waterfall was a sight to see.

Then we went and layed by the pool and did some more relaxing. Dinner on Saturday was at the Cosmopolitian. It was a dinner filled with laughs and great stories about each others families. We then headed again to our spot on the riverfront to listen to some more music.

Sunday we finally had tickets for the festival. We got up and headed down early to the show. We ended up starting to walk in for lunch just before "soft hail" fell on all of Telluride. Then we listened to some more music and Mike and I had to pack up and head to Denver. It was hard to leave Telluride...if you ever want a great place to go you must put Telluride on the top of your list! Thanks Tom, Michelle, Shea, and Sam for a great weekend in Telluride :-)

Maybe it's in the Water....

Our tomatoes are getting HUGE! Even without Mike telling them to grow :-) Must be the water or the location, but they are getting bigger everyday. Now they just need to start thinking...we must turn RED! I have been taking care of them as Mike has been MIA from home for most of June. I also experimented with mowing the lawn...got a little short, but workes. It was so long that it took me twice as long to do the front yard and I had to empty 14 bags of grass...Mike has the back yard on Sunday!

New York City

Mike and I both went to New York for the first time this past week/weekend. Mike was in Queens working all week. After he finished work he found time to eat at London Lennies, go on a Harbour Tour, and also attend a Met's Game. Here are the pictures he took while he was on his "work vacation."On Thursday I flew out to meet Mike in NYC, we both made our way to our hotel in Manhattan. Mike arrived first and then when I flew in we dropped my stuff off at the hotel and headed to dinner. We stumbled upon this little Italian joint called Pestacore which was amazing (before we left I had to go get another Lobster Linguine)! It was also a great way to be "welcomed" to the city, as we were able to sit on the patio and enjoy the city and some dinner. I figured out really quick that people in this city LOVE their horns! We then hit up a little pub and headed in.
Saturday we got up and headed out experience the city, we didn't really have a plan so we just started to walk. It didn't take me long to realize I heart NYC! We were able to see so many things on our adventure...5th ave, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, Trump Tower, Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, and we also walked a bit in Central Park.

I have to say that the whole time I was in the park I felt like I was ion an episode of Law and Order, I even included Mike in using the "lingo" and the theme song. We had a great lunch at Rue 57 and were able to people watch again as we sat outside on the patio. There is just so much energy in this city I never could have imagined it.For dinner we had our only reservation of the weekend at Bar Americain, it was fantastic and better yet towards the end of dinner I looked two tables over and there was Drew Lachey having dinner with his wife and friends. I was so excited even though Mike had no idea who they were.
Saturday we decided to aimlessly walk the city again and see the areas we didn't see on Friday. We went thought SoHo, Grennich Village, and Tribeca. We also went to the site of the World Trade Center. It is indescribable to talk about the way you feel when you are at the site of something so life changing and that happened so recently. It was a chilling to think of what that place means to so many people of all different walks of life. There we also walked through St Paul's Chapel which was very close to the towers. There was a stump of a century old tree that was knocked over when the tower fell outside the church. Really this was a much needed moment in time for me (Mike too...maybe) and I hope that there is never someplace like that that I need to go pay my respects at ever again.
After all our walking we were tired and we took the subway back towards our hotel. Sometime between when we got into the subway and when we got out the weather changed drastically. In a few minutes of walking outside it started to pour. We ducked into a little shop and got an umbrella and then sought a dry place at a little pub. There was no hope in the rain letting up and we ended up trudging through the flooding streets. By the time we got back to our hotel we were both soaking wet, umbrella and all!

We then got ready to head to Phantom of the Opera. This was my request and it was an amazing show to see on Broadway. After this we had a treat to go get at our hotel. Mike's buddy Tyler had hopped on an airplane (he is a pilot) to come spend the night with us in NYC. We picked him up and headed to City Crab for dinner. Then we went to the best little bar ever called Dukes, it had connect 4 and other fun games to play. I really enjoyed this because I had a 99.9% winning average against the guys...each time I won it was the highlight for me to shout "I win!" Tyler quickly decided he wasn't going to lose to me anymore and shortly after that so did Mike. We then wandered closer to the hotel and hit up another fun little bar called Snafu. It was a great time and great to see Tyler again.

Sunday we got up and again were greeted by rain. So we took the subway and this time it made the rain go away. We went to the Guggenheim Museum, which was a bust as they only had 1 exhibit open due to remodeling. We then wandered the rest of Central Park and then made our way to Shelly's Trattoria for lunch. Then we tried to go to Tiffany's and it along with most of the shops on 5th Ave. were closed for the night. So we went to a few other little establishments and then headed to the airport.

New York was really a great time. I loved the city. We really didn't have a plan and went and got to see so much in the few days that we were there. Hopefully the pictures can do it some justice...and if not maybe our stories can!

A Short But Long Trip to Minnesota.

Thursday night our friend Nikki flew into Denver for a wedding....how ironic that the weekend a MN friend comes here we had to fly to MN for a wedding as well. We did however get to spend one night with Nikki and took her to one of our favorites Forest Room Five for dinner.
Friday started our "short but long trip." We ended up sitting on the plane in 85 degree sun waiting for the wind to leave Minnesota. After 2 hours of sitting on the plane, we got to go back into the airport for an hour "break" and then we reboarded and were off. Mike's parents picked us up at the airport to head to dinner at Il Vescovino. Just after we ordered our food we heard some unmistakable giggling coming from the doorway...Mike's sisters and their friend Shalee had stopped by to entertain us for a few minutes. Following dinner we each got to spend some "alone time" with our parents as I stayed with mine at a hotel and Mike at his parents house.

Saturday morning we got up for the drive to Alexandria for Jen's wedding. Jen and Lisa are two of my best buds from graduate school at UMD. The three of us had some great memories and was really excited to make some more. It was also nice because I got to congratulate Lisa in person as she and her Fiance got engaged over Memorial Day....looks like there may be a 3rd Annual Minnesota Wedding Trip next year! Jen's wedding was beautiful and even better it was over so Mike and I could race to a bar to catch the Belmont Stakes horse race, Big Brown didn't get the elusive Triple Crown, but I did fall in love with his 115 lbs jockey :-) We made it to the reception and enjoyed the sunset on the lake and got some quality dance time in too.

Sunday we headed back to the cities. We had just enough time to stop by and visit quick with Jeff, Tiffany and their little one Ben! So much fun watching your friends little ones grow. I can't believe Ben is almost 2. I also got some much needed Lego's building in and Mike played a little "catch/fetch" with Ben. After that we went back and had lunch at Mike's parents house and played in the pool. Then we were off to the airport again!
Round 2 of delays on this trip was about to begin. Mike and I were taking 2 different flights as he had to fly to NYC(@6:45) and I was coming back to Denver (@ 7:10). The flying Gods were not shining upon our flights. It all started with me having a "2 hour delay." So I waited in the United line for an hour trying to just check my luggage, while Mike charged my phone and headed through security for his flight. Shortly after Mike boarded his plane the pilot announced that they had the "dreaded" ground hold in NYC and they would reevaluate in an hour...so he sat on the plane and waited for their clearance to leave which came at 9 pm...only 2:45 minutes late. While he was sitting on the plane waiting I was sitting in the bar having dinner and reading a magazine waiting to find out how many more "delays" I was going to have. Every half hour they were posting another half hour out and soon it was an estimated departure at 10:30. So I headed over to the gait to figure it out. Weather in Chicago had cancelled 400 flights already and was the reason the plane we needed to fly back to Denver wasn't able to leave. So we all got mats and waited and kept hoping they wouldn't "cancel" the flight. (The next flights out of MSP to DEN were not until Tuesday on ANY of the carriers). Finally at 11:30 after a new crew boarded the plane in Chicago, the plane was able to take off now our estimated departure was 1:40. In the mean time Mike had made it to his hotel just after 1:00 am NYC time and was off to bed. Until he got my phone call at 1:15 that the pilot "was too fatigued to fly to Denver." Which meant that we may not be getting back to Denver until Tuesday. So Mike's mom headed over to the airport to pick me up at 2 a.m. We got back and I was fast asleep by 3 am to wake up and try all over again today. United ended up adding a flight into the schedule today so all of us from MSP to DEN could make it home....they also had over booked 2 flights on Monday to Denver by 25 plus people, so they were happy to have a flight too! I made it back to Denver today at 2:45, just 3 hours short of a 24 hour "flight delay." Yikes, is all I have to say is traveling isn't like it used to be....and it might be getting worse! Keep your fingers crossed that my flight to meet Mike in NYC on Friday goes a bit better :-)

Sex in the City

Ahh gal pals near and far...how excited were we tonight?! Sex in the City was on the big screen. So some girlfriends and I hit downtown to catch the show and grab dinner at Marlowe's. I have to say that the movie did not disappoint. I was laughing, crying, and awing with the rest of my friends and audience during the movie. For all of us "sex" fans, this was the ending we were all waiting for 2 years ago when season six ended. I can't wait to hear what everyone else has to say!

Nightly Conversation Piece

So both Mike and I have decided we have green thumbs! Our parents also enjoy perfecting their yards, and this has been passed down to Mike and I. Atleast once a day we will discuss the "pots out front" or the "tomatoes in the back." I am also super excited about the bulbs I planted in the spring coming up. Right now they are just green leaves, but pretty soon I am hoping I will have beautiful flowers! We already have tomatoes growing, if they continue to do well we should have a summer of tomatoes!

Memorial Weekend in Vegas

Friday after a crazy busy week, Mike and I left for Vegas to help my friend Renee celebrate her 30th birthday. After a bit of a weather delay we landed in Vegas. It was apparent that the weekend was going to be filled with a LOT of people. Not only was it Memorial Day and UFC Fight it was also Renee's birthday! There were people and lines everywhere...nothing was easy. We went to the Bellagio and checked in and then headed into the crowd to get Mike a pair of shoes for dinner. This wouldn't have been a terrible task if the weather was nice outside, but it was cold and raining and everyone else was in the hotels as well. By the time we got a pair of shoes it left us with no time to get ready for dinner. We then met up with Renee and her boyfriend Paul to go and have dinner at Samba. It was a Brazilian Steakhouse and oh so yummy and a meat lovers dream! They walked around with these big sticks of meat and gave you as much as you wanted and seconds and thirds. We then headed to Sensi to grab a drink. Saturday we ended up getting up and went to the gym. They had an amazing gym and spa area for a quick workout. If it would have been nice our plan was to hit the pool instead of working out! Then we went and got ready for lunch at Olives, it was one of the restaurants that we had hear amazing things about. It was great food and the best part is we sat right next to the windows and were able to watch the Bellagio's fountain show during our lunch. We then waited for 45 minutes to grab a cab to head to Renee's Party. Her boyfriend hosted a bunch of her friends at his house for a pool party...again this was deterred by the weather! Following the festivities and watching some of the UFC fight, Mike and I headed back to the strip. We went to Smith and Wollensky for dinner. This was followed by our younger side coming out and the two of us sitting at New York New York and the Bellagio playing Black Jack until the wee hours of the morning. It was crazy, must have been all the oxygen they pump into the place or the free beers! We ended up walking away from Vegas only spending $50 on gambling...most of which I spent trying to get a Jackpot Party! (Ry you and I never had that much trouble back in the day getting a party...now they have a super jackpot party and it is pretty intense!) Sunday we went to Mesa Grill for lunch and then to the Mirage so I could go to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and dolphin habitat. We then went home and crashed until we met up with Renee and Paul again to go to Mystere the Cirque du Soleil show. The show was really amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone that has the opportunity to see it either in Vegas or when it is traveling. (Mike even enjoyed it!) Monday morning Mike and I met up with Renee for a quick breakfast and then Renee and I went to get pedicures. It was so relaxing and nice to spend a bit of time away from the guys so we could really "girl" talk. Then we picked up our stuff and headed to see Renee's place and lunch. After we finished lunch we were off to the airport to again be delayed due to weather and then got home last night late. Both of us are tired and even though Vegas was a bit overwhelming for us we had a great time! Best yet I was able to be there to help a great friend celebrate an important milestone!