Christmas LIghts

Since 1935, Downtown Denver has lit up its courthouse using more than 600,000 lights. Traffic stops, people look on at all there is to see. There is a nativity scene out front along with very large angels with trumpets hanging off either side of the building.

In addition, there is a parade on both Friday and Saturday nights early in December.

The 16th Street mall is also decked out with tons of lights!

Flash Back

One of my favorite funny videos :)

Snow

The snow and winter are here. Adam still takes the scooter since he works two miles down the road on a very well paved, well scooped road. I have resorted to the bus.
The temperature gets up into the 40s during the day and down to the teens at night. We haven't had a snow fall in about two weeks, but the stuff on the ground just never seems to disappear.
Olive isn't quite sure if she loves it or not. We have tossed her in it numerous times...but I think it is too cold for her.
There is something about the way the white snow makes everything feel cheery...and cold.
I am still getting used to the christmas lights though. Those of you who have never lived in the south may not know it, but the leaves don't really fall of the trees the same in Florida. So, when Christmas lights are strung, you can't see but the part you are looking at. Here, at night, all the trees look like pretty spirals because you can see the lights wrapped all the way around. Pretty neat observation from this Florida girl.

Dumpster Dive...America style

The other day...most like a month ago, Adam found a treasure...a brand new bed frame. We are finally adults, no more mattress on the floor. The bed is a bit high though and we have had to teach O-town to jump on the end tables first then up on the bed so she can make it.

Bad Bloggers

Ever since our move here to denver, we have been so incredibly bad at sharing our memories from this great city. As our year is quickly coming to an end, we are promising to catch up and do a much better job.
excuses
#1 Internet is way slow
#2 Blogger interface is just not so user friendly any more
#3 Our daily activities are just not as incredibly exciting as they were when we were overseas
#4 Lazy.
:(

1 year anniversary

Adam and I very rarely spend lazy days together and decided that Dec. 11  was the perfect day to do it. We have been officially married 1 year. 

We spend the morning lazy in Pj's drinking coffee and well, sleeping until 10...which is pretty late for us We then walked across the street to Snooze. Adam is totally in love with their silverware. Had some amazing mimosas and breakfast. We split the yummy granola and yogurt with grapefruit. I had the Chilaquiles Benedict and Adam had the scramble.

We headed back home for a champagne nap and woke up around 3 to get ready for our night out. We jumped on the bus and headed downtown with no exact location in mind. We strolled the streets and ended up at D'Corazon. We drank maybe 4 margaritas a piece...I had the Pomegranate and Adam had the original. We shared faijitas and had super yummy sopapillas for dessert.

We ended our night out looking at the Christmas lights downtown. I think so many things made this night perfect. The idea that we had no plans and just did is something rare for us. We spent the day reminiscing about the past year and dreaming about our next year and where on earth it may take us.

I know we are really lucky to have each other and share similar dreams and actually having the gumption and support of each other to chase them. I never in a million years would have thought that this was in my cards. I never realized that when you are with the right person, the one person who truly balances you, anything is possible and and those possibilities truly develop into your life.

Our Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas! This year we decided to purchase a fake tree even though we live in the land of Colorado where tall greenery is all around us. Adam wanted to have a traditional tree, so we strung popcorn and cranberries. We had no idea how long it took to string enough yardage to go around the whole tree.

 Four hours later, we had our tree decorated, laced and lit in the living room.

Here is the completed tree with all of our fabulous wrapped gifts from the family!

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving! We were lucky this year to be able to spend it with the Ramirez's, Shawn and Tiffany and of course Olive and Chloe. Tiffany's parents took a trip to Denver and we definitely reaped the benefits with an amazing home cooked meal.

We had tons of Champagne and wine...which led to...

 

DANCING and Salt Shaker Maracas and an Adam who was  very curious of his family.

 

Our last three thanksgivings have been so incredibly different and each so special.

2011...In Denver with Shawn and Tiff

2010...In Jacksonville for lunch and Orlando for Dinner

2009...In Bali, Indonesia

I wonder where we will be in 2012...

Road Trip Day 9, Taos

This ladies and gents is the beginnings of an Earth Ship. It just so happens that my cousin Jeff used to live in one. On first hearing the name, I had no idea what he was talking about and risked the thought of him being an alien lover and well...thinking abductions and such. And then, he brought us to his "earthship" that he rented years ago and explained the technology. Now, instead of a house, I want one. I want to help build one. I want to live in one. It is  a very cool concept founded by Mike Reynolds more than 40 years ago.

The idea behind an earthship is that it is self sustainable and can be built anywhere. The walls are made of glass bottles, tires and earth. The home has solar panels and a very well developed drainage system to bring rain water from the roof into the home through reuse and reduce. Basically the design principle is very simple:







This video will explain the entire building and living within an earthship.

It was truly eye opening to see how simple it is to live in a natural environment. You just need to purchase some land and build!

After we went through the earthship, Jeff brought us to the Rio Grande Gorge which is 650 ft. above the river. I had no idea that the Rio Grande runs all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to Colorado. The water level was not very high or gushing, but it was a very impressive site.

Road Trip Day 8 continued....

As you can see, Adam was quite upset that we left the meat cooler..whereas I did nothing but laugh about it. I think his heart sunk a little when he realized the cooler was gone.

We left Carlsbad and headed North to Roswell. We went to the UFO museum and man it was interesting. They had so many facts and newspaper clippings, photos etc.

It makes it very hard to believe that the whole situation didn't take place. I am a strong believer that we are not the only ones in the universe and find it all very fascinating. I also think it is pretty awesome that more than 40 years ago this took place, how much more developed their technology is than ours!

After Roswell we headed west to Santa Fe. What an absolutely beautiful city. The architecture is just what I had hoped for. It was hacienda style and so quaint.

We also found a store that sold doors from India. I fell in love and wanted to buy everything up, making a house full of those doors.

I called my cousin Jeff, whom I haven't seen since I was 10 I think. He lives in Taos which was about 90 minutes north of Santa Fe. So, we drove up through the mountains of New Mexico (It is not all desert which was news to me) and met up with him to spend the night.

Road Trip, Day 8 - Carlsbad Caverns

 This here is the amphitheater looking down into the caves and below is the walkway down into the caves. We got to Carlsbad Caverns right as they opened at 8:30 am. There was a line to hike into the caves. I highly suggest going later in the afternoon though. At sunset, everyone sits in the amphitheater and watches the thousands of bats fly out of the cave at once, which I think would be very cool.

 The caverns were discovered more than 1000 years ago when Indians were looking for shelter. The cavern was formed when an inland sea evaporated more than 250 million years ago. Rainwater gradually seeped through the cracks of the reef and the caverns were created.

The caverns were huge and took about an hour and a half to hike the main tunnels. There are many different private tours and smaller tunnels you can hike through..however my wonderful fear of claustrophobia and the whole thing tumbling on us kept us only in the main tunnel.

Adam's a Nut

Road Trip, Day 7...concluded

We headed off to the East in search of New Mexico. Immediately we entered desert and it was exactly what we hoped for. We drove and drove and drove. We went through the Missile Range and where the first bomb was tested. Then, we made it just before sunset to the White Sand Dunes National Park. It was absolutely beautiful. The Sand Dunes made the mountains in the background appear hot pink.

Sunset was definitely the time of day to go. The Dunes are very similar to the red ones that we saw in Vietnam.

We headed out south east towards Carslbad hoping to pitch camp before dark. We ended up in Carlsbad after 10 pm and really had a hard time finding a place to camp.
We ended up driving forever looking for a place and decided to park behind a motel. We made dinner over our camp stove in their parking lot and slept in the car...which was so uncomfortable. Its amazing how when on a road trip, taking a nap in a car is so comfy and easy, but when it comes to sleeping for the night...just not a good place to be.