Colorado Love

We just love it out west. Love it. LoveLoveLove. This trip to Colorado was everything we'd hoped it would be! (Well, with the exception of missing a whole day of the trip. See entry: More Wedding Photos.)

I'm going to write about our trip and then add the link to my Summer Photos on the bottom. There's about 170-something photos in there and 120-something of them are of the trip. There are just so many I couldn't put them all in here, and my computer was giving me a little bit of trouble with it. I didn't want to deal with putting all the pics on Chris' computer either, so enjoy all the pics!

When we got in on Saturday evening we just relaxed for a little bit then decided to hit up Best Buy to see what they had in stock for Net Books. About 45 minutes later, we came out with a new Samsung! So far, I really love it. (I know - lots of love going on in this entry, but if the title didn't give that away then there's nothing I can do about that.) It's white and beautiful and works about a bazillion times better than my poor old HP at the moment and I don't need to use earplugs when it's on! It does all the basic stuff I need it to do: Internet, word processing, pictures, and printing. Anything "fancy" that I need to do I can just use our other computer. No need to have 2 fancies around here :) So for the price, I'm very happy!

Sunday: Wedding day!! But before the wedding which was in the evening, we took a hike with the crew up to St. Mary's Glacier. I'm not exactly sure why it's called a glacier; I was expecting a giant ice mass but it was really just some snow. It was gorgeous up there though, really beautiful scenery and couldn't ask for better company! And, we made it back to the cars just in time for the rain to start! We had a great time.

The wedding was i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. It couldn't have had a more beautiful location (Arrowhead Golf Course -- AKA The most photographed golf course in COLORADO. Check out the pics. There's no question why.) It was a 7pm wedding so the lighting was so beautiful and romantic. The bride and groom both looked so awesome and it was a beautiful ceremony with the best backdrop you could ever imagine. The reception took place right next to where the outdoor ceremony was and it was in a tent with beautiful globe lanterns hanging all over the ceiling. It looked like a fairytale! Great job planning Mr. & Mrs. Court! We love you both and were honored to be there for your big day!!

Monday: Pike's Peak! I had been up there with my family on our long road trip when I turned 9...so it was wonderful to get back there. It's elevation of 14,110' made for quite a drive up. I even drove it! It was long, steep, and the hairpin turns were ridiculous, especially without guard rails! I enjoyed every second of it though!! When we got to the top we of course took a touristy picture at the sign. I've got to find the one of me & Shawn up there circa 1993! ;) It was a beautiful day: so sunny and you could see forever! It was a chilly 46* at the top (well, that's what the sign at the bottom said...and yes it was chilly and we put sweatshirts on, but it didn't seem like 46* to me!)

Tuesday: Deer Creek Canyon & Denver! This was a nice little hike very close to our hotel. It had some nice views of Denver and very beautiful scenery. We also had a great time in Denver. We visited my old friend Nate at Pepsi Center (he does graphic design for them and even designed the Avalanche's jersey for this year! wow!) It was so great to see him and we really appreciated him taking time out of his busy day to give us a tour and visit for a bit. THANKS NATE!!!:) Then we ventured into the city for some food (Paramount Cafe -- it was very delish!) and we did some exploring of the city. We checked out the State Capitol building and then it started raining on our way back. Later that evening we met up with Chris' mom's cousin and her 2 kids which was great! Can't believe after 10 years with ol' Cristobal I had never met before! They were all wonderful and we had a great time!

Wednesday: Was our last day in CO. In the morning before we had to check out we made it to Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater. It was amazing! Throughout the summer they have lots of concerts there. It would've been great to go to one, but it really was cool just to visit! Seems as though it's a place where the locals go to workout! I couldn't believe all the people running up and down all the steps and jumping up the steps. Definitely a great place for a great workout! It was thanks to Nate that we went there - we didn't realize it was so close to where we were staying and he said it's definitely a must-see.

Then we sadly packed up our stuff and said goodbye to the TownSuites Marriot Hotel and ventured back to Hertz and the airport. When we go to the airport we decided that if the plane was overbooked we'd give up our seats if they were offering free tickets. (This happened on the way out but we couldn't do it since we had already lost a day and didn't want to risk not being there for the wedding! So we were determined for the way home!) Well, luckily AirTran apparently sucks at planning and overbooked yet again. 6 seats. As soon as they mentioned tickets we pushed and shoved our way up to the counter and graciously offered our seats! We ended up with 2 free round-trip tickets EACH (yes - 4 tickets total!) anywhere AirTran flies! We're thinking of making 1 trip up to Maine and the other one on a "big" vacation somewhere tropical...Bahamas or Aruba?! Hopefully we'll be able to find an all-inclusive deal. We've never done anything like that together before, just the 2 of us. We're looking forward to these trips in the next year! (hopefully somewhere warm this winter or spring?!)

So that's about it, in words. Check out the pics...I hear they're worth 1,000 words ;)

Summer/Colorado Pictures