a first for everything...dad in denver!

We had a pleasant surprise on thursday afternoon. Dad called and said he bought himself a ticket to d-town! He flew in yesterday afternoon. Joel picked him up from the airport and dropped him off at our house. Drew had brought me to work early in the morn, so dad had a car. After many wrong turns and much frustration with the GPS (I can only imagine), he ended up at Breakfast on Broadway. I was just finishing up my side work, so it was perfect timing! We took a mini tour and headed home to take naps!! Drew came home from work at 4pm and woke us both up.

It's Sunday night right now and we have done soooo much already! Last night we headed to our all-time favorite restaurant, Thai Basil. We grabbed some beers and a LOT of food, headed home, had intentions of going out but decided to put on our "comfy clothes" (thanks ash for coining that term). Needless to say, our beds called soon after that.

Today we woke up early, went to breakfast, church, then to the Tommy Knocker Brewery in a small mountain town. After hanging out in Idaho Springs (the town where the gold rush started) and going to a museum, we headed up to Loveland (where Drew and I have skied) to grab a beer and sit outside to soak up some rays. We left the mountain (dad was feeling a little altitude sickness coming on) and headed to the Coors Brewery. It was closed--bummer! We were going to quick stop home to change and what not, but got WAY to comfy WAY to quick. I headed to the store to get some goodies for the morning and picked up 2 movies. We are on our second one right now. I rented "The Transporter 3" and "Milk", but after the first one, dad and Drew wanted to watch more action, so we are watching Rambo (a little bit too much drama for dad I think...he's breathing heavy, leaning forward, and biting his nails while looking very intensely at the TV) ohhh man. anywho...here are some pics.
hanging out in the sunshine after our nap
Tommy Knocker Brewery in Idaho Springs

some good laughs

i swear we didn't just drink all day...although the pics tell a different story...

Clear Creek (what the guys are looking into for fish) is the water that Coors uses for their beer.

so good to see dad.

getting our latte's

Loveland

yep...that's really me!

decided.

I went to the library yesterday. On my way, I was trying to figure out what exactly it is that interests me...or at least what I wanted to read about. I didn't figure it out until I blurted to the librarian, "chinese...do you have any cassettes that teach chinese?" She directed me to number 476. I grabbed the cassette books to Mandarin Chinese & Italian. I turned around and there were about 40 books on photography. I grabbed 6 and picked a table for a couple of hours. It turns out, there is lots to learn about taking pictures! That said, today as the sun was setting, I went to take some pics down Gaylord street for some practice. Here are some of the photos.

one fine weekend

from across the street...Bonnie Brae ice cream shop...the line was out the door!Sunday morning Drew and I got to sleep in and catch the 11am service at DCC! We woke up at about 10:20 (ahh...). We walked into church just in time for anouncements and caught a seat next to some buddies, John and Rachel. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to have them over to grille. We picked up some steaks and j&r picked up asparagus and rolls. We had an excellent sunday dinner...mmm...
the first time we got to host sunday dinner. The new dining room table worked great!
As we were eating, Joe and Keri biked over to join in the fun! We were all stuffed but weren't willing to supress our sweet tooths, so we took a walk to Bonnie Brae ice cream shop. There ice cream is delicious; however, Hudsonville will never be out done in my mind. I got rum raisin. Drew stuck with his mint chocolate chip. $10 for two ice cream cones...little did we know that a waffle cone added $2.50 to the experience.

walking off some dinner in order to fill it with some other goodies

keri, rachel, & me

At home we took our sunday afternoon nap...hung out...off to bed! The perfect sunday!

just an update

It's been quite some time since I last blogged. I am pretty sure it's because I am getting used to my work routine & what not (however that's all the more reason to get out and take some random pics). This week really started learning to embrace the "dull" & down times at home. I think I want to either learn a new language or study something random with my free time (after the nap that is ;). My top choices: birds, wine, or flowers. hmm...quite different I think!

This week's weather was unreal! I laid out a day, took a long walk....sweat....in a tank top!! I also raked a TON of leaves in our backyard. There are in 6 piles that Drew and I will hopefully get to on Monday--our day off.

you can see 1 pile in the background here...imagine 6!!

I talked about our new bed the last post, so here is a picture of it. We are loving our little shack!

the bed

the large painting in our living room...thanks to mom dv

Last night Drew and I went over to our friends, Joel and Gina, and had "Fondue Friday"! After din-din we sat and watched "Express: the Ernie Davis Story" (he's the first black man to win the Huisman?Heisman?). Speaking of which, Drew and I have seen so many good movies lately: "Changeling", "Express", "Australia", "Confessions of a Shopaholic", & "The Reader" (which I thought would be very disturbing, but I highly recommend it because the story line is so great!)

joel & gina

Oh, last but not least, I had to give a shout out to my hubby for getting my some bomb a** flowers for valentines day!!

another visit...

Steve & Kara, some Michigan buddies, came out this past weekend to go skiing and hang out. We headed up to Keystone on Thursday night, skiied all day Friday and went to a Mexican restaurant Friday night. Saturday we left early to head to Loveland for another day of skiing! I can't wait to get some pictures up for ya, but I am waiting to get some from Kara. The sun was shining, we had about 1 1/2" of powder, and we all just had a blast. We headed out at about 3pm, took naps, and grabbed dinner at Wash Park Grille (the gouda and corn bread stuffed pork chop was to die for!!).

Drew and I had quite the Sunday. We were both in an extremely nostalgic mood and so we caught ourselves watching our wedding slideshow over and over again while letting some tears fall!! aww...missing you all at home!

a visit--Mom De Vries & Deb

Mom De Vries & her friend, Deb, came out to visit this past tuesday until thursday. They are actually in Telluride now at Deb's cottage skiing and hanging out. We had 2 beautiful days of sinshine for them which I am really happy about. The ladies visited the mall, Drew took off work and came to see me at the restaurant, we did some more shopping together, went out to eat three times (thai, mexican, and then american), and we saw taken with Liam Neesen (you have to see it!!).

Mom said it was great getting to see where we live and be able to relate now to where we are. I think that was also true for Mom In't Hout and my sister Jamie when they came out too. So...everybody COME ON OVER!! We are buying a guest queen bed this weekend and would love to open our home to whomever :)

thai basil--notice the color?
1 proud milkman...in front of drew's milktruck.

sidenote: I almost forgot to say how great of a man I really do have. He had a surprise for me when I got home from work today. I had been really frustrated because I couldn't find any dropjes to get my fix, but Drew went to find a little Dutch store called Dubbel Dutch owned by a woman from the Netherlands (Eef) & he brought me home some goodies!! Oh man did that ever make my day!

Evergreen...and a little escape

Drew and I decided that it was time for a bit of an adventure. We were both getting a bit stir crazy and somewhat on eachother's nerves, so we decided to take it to the mountains! We took the scenic route to Evergreen (a little mountain city not too far away).
frozen pond in the mountains.

At one point, I thought it would be great to get a picture from the top of a little ridge...let's just say I didn't make it too far...I took 1 step and fell into a 3-ft. snow drift!! I was yelling for Drew to come pull me out because I had one hand barried and one hand straight in the air with my camera. Drew, on the other side of the car halfway done with his pee, was not very quick to save as he was also dying of laughter!! It was just the comic relief that we needed though :)

where I landed after the fall...the picture I wanted from the ridge... Just before we got into the town of Evergreen, we stopped to get some shots of the elk herds. What a powerful animal!! We went into town to get some Beau Jo's pizza and watch part of the superbowl! At halftime, we decided to head back home. After the superbowl, we watched the Office...hahaha...Drew and I were laughing histerically! so great!

when we arrived in Evergreen at another pond, there were people ice skating & ice fishing.

So, here I am...monday morning...not working because last week I had some very exciting news. I got a really great position at Breakfast on Broadway. I am now head opener from tuesday through saturday, meaning I will be working those days from 6-11am (some days a little later). I am so excited about this because I had been praying for somewhat of a schedule and was struggling with working nights at the new restaurant and only seeing my hubby for an hour in the mornings. just another blessing!