Peace out 2009!

This year was great, hard, fun, etc. Overall I think I liked it better than 2008. I'm definitely looking forward to 2010.

in january we put away our holiday decorations, waved goodbye to my mom and sister, took a lot of snow pictures, and i started school.

pups playing in the snow.

henry & i on a walk.

during february we celebrated valentine's day, our 5 year anniversary, had more visitors, and went skiing at loveland. it was a love-filled month.

valentine's flowers.

family in breck.

march brought our biggest snowstorm of the year, spring cleaning, and more wedding stuff.

henry buried in snow.

i flew home for a shower thrown by my mom, charlie flew back for a bachelor party, and of course more hiking happened in april.

opening presents.

i think the best month of all might have been may. i finished up my first semester of school, had a fun bachelorette party, and we got married.

the new hubs and i.

when we got back to colorado in june we wrote a lot of thank you notes, hiked through a ton of snow, and found a new place to live.

snow covered trail.

in july we hiked part of Pikes Peak in the rain, sent out moving announcements with the wrong zip code on them, packed a lot, and flew back to MD for some family time.

hiking down pikes peak.

we moved in august. i started school again, we hiked our first 14er, and got our car stuck on a mountain.

on top of grey's.

alex came to visit in september, i turned 26, and we ate a lot of burgers barbecued on our new grill.

alex & i on bear peak.

in october we continued our halloween tradition of carving pumpkins and making riceballs, watched the rockies lose in the playoffs, and got our first big snow of the season.

go rockies.

dogs & pumpkins.

we celebrated thanksgiving with friends in november and started the ski season.

first time skiing.

december brought the holidays, family, good food, christmas cards, and a job offer.

merry christmas.

Almost over ...

I cannot believe that 2009 is almost over. Not at all. It's been a crazy year for me. I got married. I went back to school. I applied for a million jobs/internships/anything to make a buck. I moved. I missed family. I made new friends. I spent time with old ones. It was hard. It was great. It was frustrating. It was amazing.

I'm looking forward to 2010. Hopefully more stable. I like stable. I like spending Sunday nights watching Netflix. I like waking up at the same time every morning. Walking my dogs in the afternoon. Reading books on the couch. Pretending I like to cook every once in a while.

This week has been great. Spending time with family. Cooking (ok, watching my mom cook) awesome dinners. I did bake a caramel pie all my myself!!! And I didn't explode the caramel. I'm still VERY excited about that.

A few days ago we took my sister snowboarding for the first time. Today we went dogsledding. Charlie's been playing with his Christmas gifts all week. We've been watching movies at night. My husband made french toast for the whole family this morning. Now that's hot. And he makes amazing french toast.

Later I'll post some pictures of skiing, hiking, dogsledding. I'll do our recap for 2009. I'll attempt some 2010 goals. But for now ... I'm enjoying time with family, before the Christmas lights come down, before things get busy, before I have to stop drinking a beer at lunch every day.

short hike + long lunch

sunday we hiked parts of mt. sanitas.

it's another one of my favorite hikes.

it was slightly snowy, icy and slippery. sometimes i forget that people aren't as happy trudging through the snow as i am.

i think i made up for it by taking them to pasta jays where we ate waaaay more food than we should have. delicious.

Continuing the festivities ...

I mentioned my family is here this week. We've been busy making sure they're entertained.

On Christmas we cooked a delicious dinner complete with the usual mishaps. The turkey was in the oven for 2 hours before I realized the oven was off, I put milk in the turnips, and dinner was served at 9 instead of 6. Whatever. It was still good.

Yesterday we took the whole clan to the Coors Brewery. An appropriate place for a 16 year old, no?

blue moon is definitely my favorite. i introduced my parents to blue moon with an orange on christmas. i think i may have started a new tradition.

After the brewery tour we ate dinner in golden & I had my first BLT. Seriously, why haven't I had one of these before? It was amazing.

And then .... we went to a show! Charlie and I saw the christmas show at the Heritage Square Music Hall last year and we decided to take my parents and sister this year. Their show was The Haunted Man and it was pretty funny. If you like laid-back entertainment, you'd love their stuff.

Heritage Square. Slightly creepy, but entertaining. This is the gift shop.

my sister and i being dorks before the show.

we tried to convince my dad he needed a cowboy hat. we failed.

Merry Christmas!!

We've been celebrating with family by eating lots of food and taking lots of walks.

... my sister was very happy to see the cats. she misses them more than me. :)

henry has been having a blast in the snow.

it's been so nice to have a cozy christmas with family (and lots of snow outside).

hope everyone had a great holiday!

Weekend Love.

Saturday we went skiing, again. And since my husband likes to be early to everything we usually leave at 6 in the morning, get a cup of coffee at Starbucks when we get there, and then start skiing around 8ish.

one of the few perks about being up that early is watching the sun rise.

I actually had one of the best days of skiing I've ever had. I recently bought a helmet, which seemed to cure the feeling that I was going to die on the mountain. I fall a lot. I mean a lot, but at least I'm not scared to fall now. I'm still pretty slow, which I think Charlie hates, but obviously falling takes a lot of time.

Sunday I went hiking. Charlie didn't want to come, which was fine with me. I was actually looking forward to some time alone. I hiked my favorite trail, which is about 7 miles but has the best views of the flatirons at the beginning. I took Henry with me and left Dunkin at home for Charlie to play with. I'm so glad I went. It was much needed.

my heaven.

I know Henry had a good time, too.

I'll be spending this week getting ready for my family to visit and then celebrating Christmas!

Oh, holidays

So school ended last week for me. Whew! I've gotten 2 of my grades back and am waiting for the other 2. So far they're o.k.. I'll admit I was a little disappointed about one class. :( I'll get over it. Ever since they've been done, I've ben busting my butt trying to get all of the holiday stuff done that I'd been putting off while studying for finals.

I sent out our christmas cards. finally.

Merry Christmas, peeps. I'm hoping these babies make their way to you before the holiday. If not, consider them new years cards.

... and presents for out of town relatives.

Charlie's birthday was yesterday. Which sucks. If you have a birthday super-close to the holidays or have someone close to you who does you know what I mean. It sucks for him because he always gets those Happy Birthday/Merry Christmas presents and it sucks for me because I have to think of awesome presents for 2 holidays within 1 week.

All he wanted for his birthday was an iPod touch. I didn't get him an iPod touch for his birthday. He wasn't happy. So I figured I'd make up for it by getting it for him for Christmas. He was with me when I got it. Ever since we started living together we've had no surprises when it comes to presents. Oh well, at least it means we get what we want.

Merry Christmas, baby.

happy b-day banner I made for C.

the presents he didn't like. :(

Tonight we're hanging out and tomorrow we're hitting the slopes again. I got a helmet! So hopefully I won't be as scared about smashing into a tree. Or get left on a mountain ... again.

My parents are coming for the holidays. So excited to have family here for Christmas and we're bringing my parents and sister over to some friends for new years. Although, I have a feeling my parents will be heading the home before midnight.

If you have any tips for hosting houseguests, let me know!! I'm trying to make their stay as comfortable & easy as possible.

P.S. I had a job interview today & got offered the position! I'm hoping everything else falls into place. This is the third time I've been offered something and I'm really hoping it all works out. Keep your fingers crossed for me.