Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Road Trip Round 2. Destination: Denver

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.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Our 4th Festivities

Happy 4th of July! Almost two weeks ago. haha.

About mid June Hunter had me mysteriously sign a paper without letting me see what it was I was signing with the only disclaimer of "trust him". 

Trust him I did and it was the 4th that I learned what it was I had agreed to. It was papers for a 5k! Hunter had registered us for the Murray Fun Days 5k. Ironically enough, it was the first 5k that I had ever run and the first one Hunter had run in 10 years (the last one: high school cross country).


We ran it with a couple friends that are running the Ragnar with us as well (or maybe we are running it with them - same thing either way I suppose). I am the slow one of the bunch, but I'm cool with it because at least I can run the whole way and finish! Hunter is a rock star and placed 5th in his division running the whole thing in about 22 minutes. Insane? I think so. He was pretty excited about that and of course I was as well!

It was really interesting hearing all the awards read through afterwards. There were a lot of people in their 70s and 80s who ran. Also, people in their 50s and 60s can still run surprisingly fast. We were seriously impressed. Rewards were followed by the longest raffle I have ever seen or participated in. They had some surprisingly good prizes. 

We finished our holiday off with watching the new Men in Black and, of course, fireworks. We were in a good location that enabled us to see the Sandy City fireworks as well as the post Real Game fireworks. While we really enjoyed it, needless to say, Ameya did not. She behaved very well though and didn't even bark or growl once at the whole crowd of people surrounding us. 

All in all: another good day. Life is good. 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Road Trip. Destination: Seattle

Our fun-loving summer just keeps getting better! 

Next on the list: road trip to Seattle!

It was a crazy overnight drive both ways (there were 3 of us, which makes it not nearly as bad) followed by 2 intense days of frisbee for Hunter, being touristy, and most importantly (for me anyway) spending quality time with one of my favorite people, Emily! Also important: I finally got to meet her husband! How it took us this long to make that happen I will never know. 


Day 1: Leave at midnight (Thursday). Drive all night and all through the morning. Set up camp and proceed to the Seattle Temple for a session. Then we hung out at Pike's Place (my first time!), ate some incredible food at the pier and finished the night off with the best gelato Seattle has to offer.

Day 2: Hunter played frisbee like a pro (as always!) and I went for run. 
Note: see how beautiful and lush it is? Why don't we live here?!



If you were wondering how great it is running around at sea level after being used to Utah elevation let me tell you: it's great. We finished the night off with burgers from Red Mill Burgers which was featured on Man vs. Food. They were yummy burgers! I highly recommend you eat there if ever in Seattle. We drove around University of Washington (dreaming of the day that Hunter is in school there) and toured downtown (inadvertently - thank you one way streets).

Here is a picture of the space needle from the car while moving (please excuse the poor quality...haha).


Day 3: More frisbee and church. Dinner at Lunchbox Laboratory - more amazing burgers. But not just that, they stick to their name very well and even serve their shakes in beakers! They had amazing appetizers as well, not to mention the killer smoked gouda mac and cheese - I'll definitely have to get brave and give that a try some day. Then the drive home begins - about 10 pm. Drive through the night and all through the morning - arrive home Monday morning. 

Whew. 

Crazy. Fun. Perfect addition to our awesome summer.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

We Are Runners!

It's official....


We are going to be running in the Las Vegas Ragnar

This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and what better time than our year of crossing things off the bucket list? 

I. Am. Stoked. 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Photo Session

A few months ago, a friend of mine who is interested in photography wanted to take some pictures of a couple. Of course, we obliged. It was about time that we had some new pictures of us and this way I can hang up pictures in our house with my blonde hair so any visitors we have won't be so confused when they see black hair in all our pictures. 

Due to things like her getting married and summer vacations, it has taken a little while to post these (obviously). But, it was well worth the wait. 

Here are a few (ummmm, okay, maybe more than a few...) of my faves:































Didn't she do a great job!? I love so many of these! She was really fun during the shoot too, which is always an added bonus.