Botanicals...

We had a fantastic trip to the Denver Botanical Museum with Mary Kay and Nancy. While it wasn't freezing (ie. below zero) after walking around the dormant outdoor displays, the conservatory was an exotic escape to a humid, warm rain forest with ferns, frogs, fruit bearing papayas, beehive gingers, cattleyas in bloom.

Gobble Gobble

I hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day coming up and if you don't eat turkey that all the accompaniments to the dinner, which are what everyone looks forward to the most anyways, please the taste buds. And if you need any help with any awkward guests moments, perhaps today's article in the NY Times can provide some insight and humor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/garden/19manners.html?ref=garden&pagewanted=all

Honeymooners

We got back a week ago (to snow) from our honeymoon, what a great two weeks we had, we were totally on island time and vacation time and can't begin to share enough of how beautiful the two islands are to experience, each so different and unique, but still with the tasty delights of their mainland equivalent, France & Italy. Our first week was on the island of Corsica and the second just south of Corsica on the island of Sardinia. We put together a few photos from each day with captions to share a taste of our trip, if only the smells of the salty sea, the views underwater, the smell of the maquis and the taste of chestnut bread, torsades, spaghetti alla mare, and fumiciolo rosé could come through the photos as you watch the slideshow, then you could get the full experience of our travels!

We're Married!

What a great weekend we had, thank you to everyone who came and making it a memorable weekend. We have wonderful memories and big smiles from the weekend!

Our photographer has posted photos if you are interested in seeing them.

There are two sets, one on her blog:

kaciejeanphotographyblog.com

and a slideshow:

kaciejean.com/bentley

Birthday weekend in Steamboat

We spent a weekend in Steamboat celebrating Ryan's Mom's birthday. There was fantastic weather for hikes, the Hot Air Balloon festival and Art in the Park.
Jim, Gabbie, Sophie and Olivia Chivers joined us for the weekend. Jim & Ryan did some landscape work around the house, Franny gave swim lessons. We even took time out for a quick mountain bike ride up Emerald Mtn. An unplanned flat tire revealed a rock secretly place in Jim's tool kit, to accompany us on the ride :)

The Bar is Always Open

Hazie enjoying the "open bar" in our backyard this afternoon!

Snow parole patrol

The week of snow continues, sometimes at rate of 2" an hour. Roads were icy and clogged with SUVs wheels up, when Campus closed and Ryan was sent home early, hot chocolate and a cross country tour of Boulder were in order. When life gives you snow.... ski

Truants for powder

Moments stolen out of season. After the Ides of March, the caesar of snow is typically long gone. Here is some irrefutable proof, that nigh on 20" of powder hit Vail for spring break... and Franny & I were present.

Hazie earned her green tags this week, which means that she can be an off leash dog in the open space areas here in Boulder! We look forward to tuckering her out, out on the trails now!

and 14 Months Later....

We have mastered the craigslist search for great house remodel deals, but we tend to take about a year to use these great finds, the most recent being some tiling, a business I think would be fun to do. We found these glass tile sheets on craigslist last year and have been meaning to put them up as a back splash, but one thing led to another, which led to fourteen months, and voila a leisurely weekend (i.e. no snow in weeks on the slopes) we got em' up! It has totally transformed the look of the kitchen, we love it, if you are looking for a simple way to improve your kitchen, poke around craigslist for glass tiles, you'll love em'....if it fits your taste!

p.s. Andy aren't you proud, grrrr!

Wrinkles all Around

So Hazie has a love of sleeping in what appears to be rather uncomfortable positions, this one particularly cracks us up because it shows off her extra skin so well!







and these two are recent photos of her to see how much she has grown, 52.6 lbs the other day when we visited the vet.

Guess how many of these grandiose animals we saw this weekend?

Not one...


Not two...




Not three




But Four!




We were nordic skiing up at Eldora on Sunday and going up one of the trails we saw the most enormous tracks on the skate ski course, followed them, looked up and voila FOUR moose laying in the snow like the photo above, it was awesome! Ryan later found their snow caves they make as shelter. We didn't have our cameras, but it was so cool! ( I couldn't find a photo online of four moose together, so I thought i'd show you what they looked like when we saw them instead, in afternoon siesta mode.)

The holidays.

Happy 2009! Ryan and I spent part of our holiday apart at our parent's houses and then joined back up for the second week of the holidays. My cousins and aunt stayed with us for Christmas and Hanukkah, which was great fun to have everyone together just hanging out. Once Ryan arrived we took a whirlwind tour of 1/2 of California for a few days. We celebrated New Years with good friends up in Clovis and then drove south to San Diego and north to my mom's for a day stopping at many many places as potential options for our wedding. Kind of a neat way to see the coast. Ryan got to see La Jolla, Encinitas, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Botanical Gardens, stellar Coastal views, Dana Point and Laguna Beach. Not a bad way to spend a day! We enjoyed time at my mom's house and her lovely garden. Hazie got to see the ocean for the first time and probably thought she got to go on vacation as she had dogs around everywhere we visited, my mom's dog Addie, April and Alex's dogs Callie & Beckett!

Here are photos from our time in Yosemite with April and Alex and New Years at their house. The second album is from the rest of the week. Enjoy!

Rock Band

Have you ever played Rock Band with Guitar Hero. It is so much fun. You get a drummer, two guitars or bass and a singer. It's hilarious. We went to a "rock band" party last night and laughed all night trying to keep up with the music. If any friends have the various pieces get them together for a party I guarantee it will be a good night! Between the wii and the rock band, video games got cool again!