Road trip: Aspen!

There are a handful of towns in Colorado that I've always wanted to see so what better time than the summer when I don't have to work?! I'm super lucky to have a roommate that loves road trips so we mapped out a plan and made some hotel reservations. Here is a good piece of advice when booking a hotel...always always always book online! Otherwise you will spend waaaay too long on the phone and you won't end up with a better deal. Also, you might get talked in to a cheaper hotel, only to find out later that it isn't such a great hotel. Now if you read about my hotel adventure at El Rancho in Jackson Hole last summer, you will understand why I'm a bit skeptical. Just know, El Rancho was quite the experience! So the plan was to head to Aspen on day 1, stay the night in Snowmass, head to Vail for day 2, and leave the next day. Aspen was absolutely beautiful...if you have the opportunity to go, do it!! I was hoping to see a celeb or two (which is partly why I wore my Ralph Lauren polo dress...he has a ranch there) but unfortunately, we we're so lucky. It didn't really matter though because the scenery was amazing and we had so much fun walking around town and checking out the cool houses. Here are some pictures from the trip!

This is what $12 will get you at Starbucks in Aspen...not much!

Hangin out and people watchin

It seems like mountain towns have an obsession with oversized chairs...this one is in Snowmass 

Our hotel in Snowmass had robes so of course we lounged around in them! 

So we brought our own toaster to make breakfast in the morning, and after sneaking it into the room, Kim burned her toast and almost set off the smoke alarm...

Here is the proof!

The little village in Snowmass 

We decided to detour off of I-70 to hike Hanging Lake 

It was beautiful up there! 

If you're ever in the Vail Valley and looking for a good place to eat, check out the Saloon in Minturn...it is so good! 

My good friend from home, Beth, used to live in Vail but moved back to Charleston last year and I miss her dearly. She was out here visiting and it was such a treat to see her. 

Sorority pic pose after breakfast in front of Westside Cafe in Vail. Such a fun little breakfast place and a great time catching up!

This is where we almost stayed in Vail (via our over-the-phone reservation fiasco) until Beth warned us that it was no bueno. At that point I had visions again of last summer at El Rancho in Jackson, and took her word for it. We drove by and took a pic outside for good measure!

Miss you Beth!!

Paula Deen's Hot Fudge Sauce

Are you kidding me?! That's the first thing I said when I tasted this hot fudge because it is so ridiculously good, and so ridiculously easy to make. Of course, it's a Paula Deen recipe, because let's be honest...Paula Deen is the queen of desserts! (And yes, like all things Paula Deen, this recipe does contain butter). It is SO easy to make and tastes so amazing, you'll never go for store bought hot fudge again. So here's what you need...

1 (4-ounce) bar German chocolate
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 stick butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla


Melt the two chocolates with the butter in a saucepan over very low heat. (Don't turn it up to try to speed up the process because your chocolate might burn and that's no good!) Stir in the powdered sugar, alternating with the evaporated milk and blending well.  Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, about 8 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla and viola! You have hot fudge! Store any extra in a glass jar to re-heat and serve anytime!! 

POTD Take 2

Summer just keeps on rollin...

Kim had a birthday! A group of us went down to Denver for dinner and an improv comedy show. My face hurt from laughing, which is awesome, I love that!! Happy Birthday Kimmy!

This is the day I found out my bro and sis-in-law are preggers!! This will be their first child and I'm SO excited for them and can't wait to be an aunt all over again. This little baby's momma hails from Argentina and its daddy is fluent in Spanish so this little bundle is gonna be bilingual and unstoppable!! Here I am with one of my sewing books...can't wait to whip up some cute little baby items!

Down in Littleton at Kim's parents' house celebrating with her brother Joey before he leaves for LDAC. LDAC which stands for Leadership Development and Assessment Course is a requirement for ROTC and takes place in Washington state. Good luck Joey, I know you'll do great!  

Brunch at another great breakfast place called Lucile's.  Lucile's is a creole cafe and has some wonderful food! 

Thumbs up for beignets at Lucile's!

Picture of the Day

Before the summer started, my roommate and I decided that we had to find a way to document the daily summer happenings. We decided that we would take a "picture of the day" everyday. The picture had to attempt to capture the essence of the day, and although we got off to a rough start (we forgot to take a picture on day 2) but other than that, I think so far we've done a pretty good job! I'm going to attempt to post the "picture of the day" in order and hopefully document the summer, which is off to an awesome start! So here we go...

This great group of fellow Speech-Language Pathologists came over for homemade pizza and to watch "The King's Speech". Great movie, great company! 

This is Kim hangin out at her favorite Fort Collins coffee shop, The Wild Boar, with our friend Jered. Unfortunately, I had to work this day and wasn't able to participate in this adventure. 

This day was spent hangin out in one of Kim's favorite cities...Boulder. She likes it because she went to school there, and I can't argue with that because I LOVE where I went to school. But I have to say this about Boulder...it is weird! You should check it out sometime.

We went down to Littleton to go to Paris Street Market and find some wall decor. Major find of the day-this awesome chalkboard! It's huge so it will take up lots of room on the wall, and it's pink. So cute! This will serve as a place to post the menu when entertaining guests, and as a source of encouragement through changing scripture. Win-win! 

The chalkboard on the wall...it looks great!

At Yogurtland getting frozen yogurt with Kim's sister, brother, and brother-in-law. I laughed a lot that night thanks to Joey and Ryan! 

What a day! First Kim lost her notebook (which happened to have her credit card and drivers license inside) at Wal-Mart. She insisted that someone stole it, but after two trips back to the store, she finally found it (with everything inside)! Later that evening, the washing machine grinded to a halt and refused to drain (or do anything really). Bummer! We had to take about a million towels out of there and bail it out by hand. Thankfully it worked again later that evening. Towels will now be washed in smaller loads!  (Also, we volunteered to help out at an FCA sports camp for the week...hence the "Game Changer" t-shirt. It was a blast!)

First day of gettin the road bikes out and goin for a ride. Fort Collins is such a great town for biking!

Kim's birthday is coming up, so she bought herself a grill. She got it off Craigslist and is quite the savvy shopper. She was able to get it for about $15.00 less than it was listed for, and the seller even acknowledged that she "drives a hard bargain". Good job Kim!

Oh man, another crazy day! It started raining around 11:00pm, an quickly turned to hail. We watched for about 15 minutes when we saw our neighbor bailing out his patio. We decided we should check ours out, and sure enough, the water was so deep that it was close to flooding into our house. It was at this point that Kim took action and got the "Arctic Blast" shovel and started bailing it out. After unobstructing the drain, the water started to drain again and we were in the clear. 

This was the aftermath. All of the herbs and vegetables took a beating but surprisingly, they have sort of bounced back to life!

This day was spent sewing some really cool creations.

Ahhhh SNOOZE! I've been wanting to blog about this place for a long time so I won't go into too much detail here but just know, if you're anywhere near this place (Fort Collins, Littleton, Denver)...GO! It is amazing!! 

A great day at the pool, hanging with my family! Baby B is growin up so quickly...love love love this little guy! 

Holley had a week of swimming lessons. She loves being at the pool!

First day using the new grill, we made pizza. Most of the time you wouldn't think of grilling pizza, but it is so good. You can put the dough directly on the grill, and cook for a few minutes on each side before you put the toppings on. It's best if your toppings are already cooked because once you put them on, the cheese melts quickly and you don't want the crust to burn. Try it sometime, its delish! 

Some days are spent doing paperwork for work. Times like these remind me that I am still contracted to work this summer, even if it is only 18 days. Regardless, I am so thankful to have a job!

Ok this is also another post in and of itself...The Rio! A Mexican restaurant with locations in Fort Collins, Boulder, and Greeley, they have the best margaritas in the world (no joke!). There is a 3 margarita limit and they are not joking! (This is a mini so they will let you have more than 3) 

They also have soapapillas. In addition to having a margarita, we say Ryan Sutter, past winner of The Bachelorette. He is from Fort Collins and was eating dinner with what appeared to be his brother and sister-in-law. I can't confirm that is who he was with, but it was definitely him.  

So, being that I'm from the South, I have a lot of experience killing bugs. The bugs down there are practically the size of small animals, and there is pretty much nothing you can do about them (but kill em when you see em). Turns out, Colorado has very few bugs (except for old houses in Greeley, that's a whole different story) but for some reason when there is a bug, I am always the one that has to kill it (mainly because she doesn't care...I think she's secretly afraid!, but I know those things quickly multiply so I am not so forgiving). This day, there were 3 bugs and Kim had to kill them all! It was a victory for me for sure!

My sweet niece spent the night at my house. We had a blast, as usual...she is the coolest little girl ever, and such a smart little cookie! I love spending time with her!

The next day, we went and played at the park. I love playing at the playground so a good time was had by all. 

Oh my goodness, how precious is she?!

More fun at the park! (Ok so one picture turned into 4, but I couldn't choose just 1)

That's all for now but stay tuned for more summer adventures to come soon!!

BolderBOULDER 2011

Oh my goodness, I'm not sure I fully understood the term "time flies" until this past school year came and went oh so quickly. Needless to say, I have been more than a slacker when it comes to blogging. It's not that blog-worthy things haven't happened in the past couple months (because they most certainly have)...it's more about the lack of time I've had as of late to actually get on here and write about them. Good news though my friends, summer is here and I'm back at it! I'll start with a quick update to follow my last post:  my friends Zac and Jered MADE IT TO THE FINAL 5! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you don't have to scroll far...just read my previous post!) Whhhhat?!! I'm so excited for them...they will be heading to NYC for a week to explore the city, perform their jingle in front of a panel of judges, and hopefully win the whole thing!! Good luck y'all! 
Now, on to one of my favorite events of the year, the BolderBOULDER!! The BolderBOULDER is a 10k road race that takes place in beautiful Boulder, Colorado and draws over 50,000 participants every year. This year the BolderBOULDER was voted "America's Favorite 10k" by Runner's World Magazine, which is a pretty exciting award. The BB takes place every year on Memorial Day, meandering through the streets of Boulder and finishing on Folsom Field in the University of Colorado football stadium, which is awesome because there is practically a stadium full of people cheering as you finish the race. The race is followed by a Memorial Day tribute complete with paragliders carrying a flag to represent each branch of the military and a US Air Force jet flyover. While everyone is waiting for the American Flag to descend, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" plays over the loudspeakers (it's not cheesy, I promise!) If you are ever in Colorado on Memorial Day, you have to come to Boulder even if you don't run/walk the race...it is a sure to be a great time!