Birthday Celebration Days 4&5 and a Belated Birthday Wish!

My birthday celebrations are over. It's kind of sad it's all over, but it was a great couple of days! I have some great friends! On Saturday night a bunch of us got together to celebrate me. The group shot is below. On Sunday, Ben and I went up to Estes with my parents before we went out to dinner that night. It was absolutely gorgeous up there!! The leaves were starting to change we got to see a heard of elk. We saw 2 male elk play fighting with each other. It was so cool!
And, I want to wish my fabulous sister a very happy (belated) birthday! She turned 29 on Sunday. She's old, I know. But, i still love her to death and she means the world to me! I'm going out to visit her in a week and I cannot wait!! We have so many fun things planned. So stay tuned, I'll update you on my trip!
Thanks for a great birthday everyone!!

Birthday Celebration Days 2&3

The birthday celebrations continue! For as long as I can remember, it's been a tradition in our family to have a chocolate donut for birthday breakfast. This year I met Ben for coffee and he had a chocolate donut for me! This year I was lucky enough to have 3 dates! Ben, Jeff, and Paul took me to dinner at my new favorite place Trios. We enjoyed some good wine, good food and good conversation.
Later we ended up having rap song karaoke night. I think the picture below is Paul's version of Big Poppa by Notorious B.I.G.
Last night Ben and I went to the Rockies game with my parents. It was a great game! The Rockies won in the bottom of the 9th. After the game they had fireworks for fan appreciation. The fan appreciation fireworks are absolutely amazing!! Probably the best firework show I've ever seen. 2 more days of celebrating before its all over. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Birthday Celebration Day 1

Tomorrow is my 26th birthday. I love birthdays! They always make you feel so loved. Tonight was the 1st day of celebrating. I went over to my parent's house for presents. They always give GREAT gifts. And this year was no different.

Gift #1

Of course KiKi had to help unwrap

Super cute dress and a black sweater to go with it

What I've always wanted. A Kitchen Aid mixer. In cherry red of course! LOVE IT!!!
Thanks mom and dad for another great year of life and for great presents!

Good-bye Summer, Hello Fall

Tomorrow is the first day of fall. I love fall. Everything about it, so i'm so excited that it is just around the corner!



~i love that my birthday is in the fall
~i love the crispness that's in the air
~i love bringing out the sweaters and scarfs
~i love the pumpkins and Indian corn
~i love the fall decorations my mom puts around the house every year
~i love Williams and Sonoma spiced pecan pumpkin quick bread
~i love that fall means Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving means tons of family getting together. And my Aunt Julie's banana cake.
~i love that it's football season
~i love the changing leaves
Oh, yes. How i love the fall

Wal-Mart Makes Me Cry

Have you seen the Wal-Mart commercial where the girl is going off to college? Every time I see it my eyes fill up with tears. It reminds me so much of me.
Even when I was away at college my parents made me feel so loved and special. I loved going dorm shopping with my mom. I loved the care packages and random cards I would get in the mail from back home. I love that my dad built my own high-rise bunk bed so we would have more room in our tiny dorm! I loved when it was summer break and they would drive the 12 hours out to Oklahoma to pack me up and bring me back home.
I can’t really talk about it about it anymore, because even as I’m typing this, I’m starting to cry! Sheesh.

St. Mary's Glacier and a Little Dancing

This last weekend, we took a hike up to St. Mary's Glacier, just past Idaho Springs. It was a great work out, and pretty crazy to be climbing up a snow covered mountain this time of year.


Just past the trail head


The lake at the bottom of the glacier. Of course we had a rock skipping contest.


The peaks once you get past the glacier

I LOVE the show So You Think You Can Dance. They've already started a new season, and it makes me so happy! I love when Mary screams and talks about the "hot tamale train" and i love watching the horrible dancers try out. This show makes me want to become a dancer!

It's That Time Again

It’s officially my favorite time of the year. Today the college football season kicks off!! If you know me, you know I love my football. The big hits, the amazing catches, the game winning field goals. The fans, the mascots, the rivalries. And, of course, waking up to ESPN’s college game. It really doesn’t get much better than this. Last year, my sister sent me this link, and I LOVE it! If this doesn’t get you in the football spirit, I don’t know what will.
GO CU!!!!

It's a love, hate sorta thing

I have a real love, hate relationship with running. For the past month it’s been more of a hate thing. I think I got so focused on all of the wrong reasons to run. And, I would feel so guilty if I missed a day of training or if I had a bad workout. Between all of the hills, the intervals, and pace runs, it just wasn’t fun for me anymore. I actually started dreading it.
I used to LOVE running. I would wake up super early in the mornings; I would run when it was snowing, I even joined a long distance running club at one point.
Yesterday I think I started loving it again. I found a new running path and went out there, just me and the road. No hills, no intervals, no watches monitoring my time. I didn’t even take my i-pod! And it was GREAT! I just ran until I didn’t feel like running anymore. My mind started to clear instead of staying so focused on what I was doing. Maybe that’s exactly what I needed.