Snowboarding... not real

February 7th - 9th

This weekend we were headed to Wintergreen to go snowboarding with Ben, Shelby and some of there friends. The day we left for Wintergreen, Jed had an accident at work and busted up his big toe.

Heading down to the Training Room

But we weren't going to miss the trip so Friday night we made it to our house in the woods. So Friday night once we all got there, we headed to The Edge for dinner and to watch some of the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

The view from our back porch

Saturday morning was pretty relaxing. We slept in a little, all had breakfast and then people started to head out to the slopes. Shelby, Jed and I just roamed around the lodge and the slopes people watching, check out the few shops and getting ready for our evening adventure, the Plunge.

The Plunge in the day light

As everyone was get back from snow board we realized we had another friend staying with us.

Before heading out for our evening adventures, some took a quick nap while others were busy making everyone dinner. (Thank you Tiffany, it was great!) After dinner, we all headed out to go tubing and had a fantastic time racing and being kids. It was great.

Sunday morning came pretty quick and before we knew it, we were packed back up and heading out. We all made one last stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast before we all headed in different directions.

And, of course, you know Jed and I can't get home that early on a Sunday so we headed up to Culpeper to spend some time with Jeff & Becca and their family.

We were so glad we were able to make the trip to go see them and catch up with them before they head overseas for a few years.
Can't wait to go visit them in their new home sometime soon.

A New Challenge

January 24th - 26th

This is not my typical post for a travel blog but I wanted to make sure I documented this somewhere.

Jed & I finally too a small step to being grown ups and started a real deal home improvement. Don't get me wrong, we have done little things like changing light fixtures, painting and hanging things on the wall but this was a much bigger challenge.

We decided to install new flooring in the dining room and kitchen. Peter was a true rock star and helped with the entire process (including relocating an air vent for the floor to the wall).

Kitchen - Before

Dining Room - Before

Kitchen & Dining room emptied into the living room

The process seemed easy enough and after starting, stopping, undoing, breaking the flooring and starting over 4 times, we finally got the hang of it. By 1 in the morning we had completed the dining room. Jed was feeling some compassion for the neighbors or maybe he was just tired of messing with it so after some final hammering, sawing and lots of being silly and a little punchy, we called it a night at about 2am.

 

After having to start over 3 times, we got a little creative with things

We started the next morning at 7am. We wanted to get as much of it done as we could before Jed headed off to work and Peter and his family headed off to their concert that afternoon.

After just enough wood to finish the kitchen, we successfully started moving all the appliances back into the kitchen around 10am and finished most of the clean up by 1pm.

All the flooring that was left

A closer look at the new vent and trim work.

Want to give a huge shoot out to Peter, Amy and family. We never could have done this with out your help! You guys are the best! Thank you.

Just in time for a shower and a quick bit to eat before Jed got done with work and we hit the road north to go meet the newest member of the Green Street Crew!

We were so excited to make it up to see little Ella. We didn't get much time before we had to head back home so Jed could be back at work on Sunday but it was definitely worth the trip and it was so great to catch up with Jeremy and Remy.

Mile High

January 25th - 28th

Jed and I took a few days off work and headed to visit Kilby and Johanna in Denver, CO. We headed out west Friday evening and got into Denver crazy late/early Saturday. We spent Saturday morning just hanging out with Kilby & Johanna and Nugget & Bobber.

Johanna was able to find a baby sitter for Saturday afternoon so we headed out to do a little driving and snowshoeing just the four of us.

That evening we hung out at the house, made Nannie's Fried Chicken and just hung out.

On Sunday morning, we all piled in two cars and headed north to Estes Park. It was so fun to see such a different landscape and enjoy all the mountains and snow.

When we got to Estes Park, we had some time to walk around the downtown area, check out some of the shops, check out the river walk and look for wildlife and grab a bit to eat at Poppy's.

We all had a great time hitting up an old time candy shoppe and Rocket Fizz where they had a ton of different Root Beers that I had to try. (We tried 5 different kinds, maybe one day I should take pictures and write about all the different ones so I can remember, but that isn't going to happen with this round...)

It comes as no surprise to many that Jed and I found an odd thing to check out while out in Estes Park, Estes Ark.

I was pretty disappointed that it was closed until May but I was still happy that we were able to see the ark.

On our way to the Ark, we were able to see wildlife. It was pretty crazy to see dozens of elk just hanging out in peoples yards right along the road. We had to stop (with everyone else) and watch them and take a few dozen pictures of them.

 And before we hopped back in the car to head home, we found a park by the lake where we could all play.

We finished the evening at the house watching the Grammy's.

Monday morning, Kilby headed off to work, Nugget had school so Jed and I headed out for the day with Megan and Danielle who were visiting Denver at the same time. The snow was really coming down but we didn't care. We were off on an adventure that started with a drive to Ft. Collins.

Our first stop was breakfast at Lucile's. This place was fantastic. You know any meal that starts with beignets is going to be out of this world...

As we stuffed our faces with New Orleans styled food, the snow continued to come down.

It was crazy! And they don't plow during the snow so it made for some interesting driving but Megan did a fantastic job.

After breakfast, we decided to go check out Colorado State University. Jed and Megan thought it would be fun to go visit the Video Department. We met Brett there and he was awesome! He gave us a full tour of the facilities and introduced us to lots of people.

We had a great time and I am so glad we stopped to do that.

The snow was still coming down when we left so we decided to head back south where it wasn't snowing as bad. We found our way to our first (of three) Buffalo Exchange's in Boulder.

After the Boulder Buffalo Exchange, we made a pit stop at the Laughing Goat for a little shopping break and to warm up from walking around and then headed down to Denver to hit both the stores down there. We were all quite successful.

After an afternoon of shopping, we headed to Highland Tavern for dinner. It was a cool little hole in the wall that we found for Diners, Drive In & Dives.

Our final stop for the night was a super fun bar that Jed and Kilby found when they made the road trip to Denver in June, The 1 Up Bar.

This place was filled with old school, original arcade games. The four of us had a great time re-living our childhoods by playing Joust, Donkey Kong Jr., Paperboy and a TON of other games.

We spent our final day in Denver we started in the snow, sledding, making snow angels and mini snowmen.

Then we went to check out the downtown area. We had a late lunch at Sam's #3 and met up with Stefanie.

It was great to see her and hear how things were going since we saw her last at her wedding.

After lunch, we found another one of our odd things, the Big Blue Bear.

The last picture before we broke the camera...

This is when tragedy struck and due to a fluke turn of events, our camera was dropped and it never recovered. But that didn't stop us from continuing to explore downtown Denver.

Since we had just finished lunch, we decided we needed to go visit "the cookie lady" on 16th Street Mall.

Thankfully there were still a few bags left before she closed down for the day. And to wash down those cookies we headed over to Ink! Coffee to warm up and get a drink.

By that time it was time to head out to find our next oddity, the 20 Foot Tall Dog made of dog tags.

It is just so fun to see how creative people can be. I should really try and think of something creative for people to come and take pictures with in the burg.

We finished the evening at Kilby & Johanna's playing Just Dance and Hide & Seek.

Jed hiding under the table.

Johanna hid in the dryer and almost got stuck

I am so glad we were able to make the trip and spend time with friends.We had a great time and I look forward to going again, maybe when it is a little warmer.