This last weekend we went to Denver! Yes, this was another vacation planned around a Frisbee tournament. Buuuut there are other things that would have drawn us to Denver anyways. Let's go over some of those.
1. Hunter is from Denver.
As such, we get to spend quality time with his family when we go there. It always proves to be a good time. I just love this picture...like father, like son, no?
Ameya quickly takes over all the other dogs and establishes herself as alpha. This seriously happens in the first 10 minutes. It doesn't bother her at all that the biggest dog is easily 4-5 times her size. She is the alpha dog and she does not hesitate to make that known.
2. The ring selection at the Denver Shane Co.
A little background: When I bought Hunter's ring, it was a size too small. We went through with buying it anyways because the wedding was two weeks away and ordered in a bigger size to replace the little one shortly after we became husband and wife. This was a great plan, but while we were on our honeymoon we got a phone call saying that his particular ring style had been discontinued so we would have to stick with the one we already had or replace it with a different style. After wearing it for a few days, he got used to it and decided that a little size discrepancy would be acceptable.
Fast forward almost two years to last week.
Hunter lost his ring at Frisbee practice. We aren't really sure how this happened as it's home while he is playing Frisbee is on the carabiner on his keyring. Up until that point, it seemed like the safest place to be. That way it was always with him, never got left behind, and he always knew where to look for it. Well, somehow it fell off. We searched our house, his car, even Sugarhouse Park all to no avail.
About 36 hours after the loss of his ring, we stopped at a Shane Co. in Denver (I think technically it was Westminster or Bloomfield or some suburb around that area) and right up front of their titanium collection is Hunter's exact ring. We were ecstatic! The lady helping us quickly asked us when the big day was - which we laughed at - and then quickly corrected. She then assured us that they see at least a couple guys a week with lost wedding rings. At least it's the guys, right? It would be far more traumatic to have to replace the girl's ring (I assured Hunter of this fact more than once). When we told our story and how we were told it was discontinued she checked and sure enough, that ring had been discontinued about 2 years ago. For some strange reason, they had about 20 of one size - the exact size that we had wanted to get initially.
Not only were we able to replace his ring with an exact replica, it turned out better than expected because it was the right size. Double score.
Needless to say, some sort of celebration was in order. We decided to celebrate with double chocolate chip frappuchinos from Starbucks...a new guilty pleasure of ours that formed after spending the last week of May with my family...followed by watching Brave (which I highly recommend, by the way).
3. Great friends, great food.
The first item on our agenda upon arriving in Colorado was to buy Hunter new running shoes from the Boulder Running Company. Within a couple hours of purchasing them, he tested them out on one of his old cross country runs. One of our good friends was there to run with us and we were able to have ice cream with him and his wife (who had run earlier in the day) after our run. Yes, we are really healthy. haha.
Later that day (after more of our friends flew in) we followed tradition and had a late dinner at Cherry Cricket. As usual, it didn't disappoint.
The next day we again treated ourselves to ice cream. This time with Bill, Hunter's dad. I think we might have found our new favorite ice cream place. They had a very tasty, eclectic selection of ice cream, gelato, and sorbet. Oh, and did I mention it was delicious?
On Saturday, we went to see the Dark Night Rises with the same crew (Jes, Rendy, Nate, and Heidi) that ate at Cherry Cricket a couple days earlier. Despite the tragedy surrounding the movie's release in Denver, we had already purchased our tickets and decided to go anyways. I'm not sure we would have otherwise. We quite enjoyed the movie - even though we went to a showing that started at 10:40. I managed to stay awake the whole time. Those of you who know me, know how impressive that is. This is another movie that I would highly recommend.
4. Ameya learned she loves butter.
This isn't a good point really, especially since she could have eaten butter at home as well. Sometime between dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday, she managed to get on the kitchen table (seriously) and ate almost an entire stick of butter. We got out another stick of butter for our breakfast. After we had finished and were getting ready, Lark happened to walk in on Ameya polishing off the remnants of that stick of butter.
Moral of the story, she ate anywhere from 1 1/2 -2 sticks of butter. Awesome. I would feel sick if I ate that much butter. I can't even imagine how sick she has been feeling, although I have a pretty good idea from the way she has been acting. Surprisingly, she was fine the whole way home and even most of the morning yesterday. After that though, things went downhill pretty quickly. We took her out a looot more than usual, had to clean out her crate after she was only there for a couple hours because it was a mess (which, if you know dogs, doesn't happen unless there really is no other option). She was whiny, needy, and just wanted to sit and not move. This picture captures her misery pretty well I think.
She started acting a little better later last night and seems to be almost herself again this morning, although the frequent potty breaks are still happening. I wish there was some way for her to learn her lesson, but unfortunately, I think we are just going to have to be more diligent in keeping the butter away from her. At least she is healing and we didn't have to make an emergency trip to the vet.
That's the end of our adventures for now, work and the real world are calling again. Until next time.
