Tuesday, May 4

mono loco, por favor!

A Mexico trip to be remembered; however, we got off to a rough start! We got to the ticket counter at DIA and Drew and I hand our passports to the Delta Employee. Drew is unloading the 2lbs we were over in our suitcase and complete silence hits along with a look of overwhelming worry. I look at Drew, then at Pat and Becky next to me and back at Drew...who brought the wrong passport! The only thing to do is, at 12am Wednesday morning, hope he gets back within 40 minutes. Our flight LEAVES at 1:10am.
Drew, in panic mode hears Pat say, "Just take a taxi to your car and go!". He listens. 90mph, no cell phone, no way to communicate, $10 cab ride, $90 parking in lot A1, and 40 minutes of pure adrenaline later, Drew is seen running up to the terminal as we, the last 5 people in line, are getting ready to board the plane without him. Phew!!  Needless to say, 3 couples boarded the plane together!

amazing food...first night was Asian Cuisine and below was one of the 5 courses!
It rained the first day that we were there; however, given the humidity in Mexico, I am not sure what caused the drops. We definitely still made it to the pool that day and got some couple massages in...
...this pool-side cabana! I actually requested a man in a not-so-joking-but-have-my-husband-right-next-to-me-so-better-be-a-joke sort of way, so sure enough my special order came...good 'ole Sergio. Drew, on the other hand, got a hottie; so it all worked out!
Becky reading her book under the cabana. Needless to say, I may have been the only one who did not read an entire book. (and let's be honest here, I actually didn't make it through one chapter!)
Gina, although notably scared of anything that is in the sea--including Sea Turtles (that we saw about 10 feet away), Jelly Fish (actually a plastic bag that we told her was a Jelly Fish), and terribly sharp Coral Reef (no jokes there...that stuff hurts!)--had a blast with the rest of the crew surfing waves for hours (getting "so burnt you could fry an egg on my chest" -Drew).
for your looking pleasure
"So bring me two Pina Coladas...one for each hand..."
(or a coconut filled with Rum, which Joel did in fact drink while the rest of the crew did some INTENSE water aerobics!!)
las palmas
Market. We didn't actually leave the resort once. We had a Centro de Comercios (shopping center), una discoteca (club), todo de la comida y las bebidas que queriamos, el mar, una piscina y muchas restaurantes! I liked how our guide put it, "In Mexico, you can make all your wildest dreams come true."  Well, at least some of them!
Joel standing by with the check book. "Joel, which one do you like? This one?"
"That one is great Gina" as he nods his head in agreement to option # 12,
The Last night. Let's hope this one doesn't end up like the night prior where we tried to work it in the resort club for 10 minutes, got too hot, shuttled home, got rallied by Drew to put on our suits, and all jumped in the pool to cool off...uh-hum...and got kicked out!!
great memories!

Sunday, April 25

the yard

Is Eva Bear's favorite place to play. Whenever the sun was shining (which was rare this week), you could find Eva playing on the swings, scooping up dirt, bossing Maupin around and playing some ball with the boys!
Cheez!
Uncle Drew and Eva Bear
Giving Maups kisses (very rare occurance)
Eva planted flowers with Julie...and, yep, is now eating the dirt...yum!

Friday, April 23

Aquarium

Nick, Julie and the girls are visiting in Denver. Nick is attending a class in Colorado Springs, CO and the gals decided to come along for a week. I took an early weekend and left work at 11am today. The weather has been really wierd this week...super cold and rainy, tornando warnings, and some sun. Today was no exception with snow...something Eva thoroughly enjoyed!

Julie, Eva, Sofia & I went to the Aquarium today. It is very possible that I was more excited than Eva on a number of occasions!  What an awesome display of God's creation. Eva's favorite creature: the shark. Mine: the sting ray - especially because we got to pet them!
Anemone - colors were not changed!

Guess who?? Dori! Can you find the fish superstar, nemo?
Mmm...
The little turtle

Tuesday, April 13

alot happened...

First, congrats to my cousins, Melanie and Jeremy & Maria and Tony for their new additions to the family!! I beleive my opa and oma now have 204 decendants in the Den hartigh clan!

Mom and Dad I. came out this past weekend and it was great to just hang out, go out to dinners, walk downtown, and go to Estes National Park (sadly the only place I actually took pictures) . Airplanes are such a blessing. Some pictures are below.
On top of the mountain in Estes Park
storm coming in...
We probably saw 400+ Elk in total. It was quite amazing.

elk grazing

Tuesday, January 26

a new addition

Our dresser! Our friends Pat and Becky gave this pine dresser to us as they received 2 from their wedding! The gold is going to go, but we're liking the new addition.

tuckered out after raging about with Drew





This is Maupin's new way of sitting on the hardwood floor b/c her feet don't grip...poor thing.


simple pleasures a dog brings:
1) They are always happy to see you
2) They are always up for a good fight...no matter how tired they are
3) Once in a while a good cuddle comes along
4) They can get you so mad (like get into 2 full bags of leaves, or chew threw a cable, or poop in your house...), but you can never stay mad for longer than 10 minutes.
5) They are super photogenic, even with a permanent sad face!

Sunday, January 24

more of christmas

I realize Christmas pics have already been posted, but wanted to put a couple more pictures up since I am still thinking daily about how cute our nieces and nephews are and how much fun we had at home! The first two were from Julie and I absolutely love them!


This weekend was all about cooking and reading. I finally got through (not because it wasn't a good book) Same Kind of Different As Me which I am highly recommending. I also made for the second time in one week Chili from the "Real Simple" Magazine. My favorite Apple Pie was made too and is already half eaten. oops!


Now, for the pictures:


In't Hout nieces and nephews (thanks julie!)


dad, drew, ryan, kev and uncle henry playing hearts

Livi...best ecpression ever when Ashlyn opened her American Girl Doll...then came Bitty Baby!

Tay and Drew

De Vries Family

Love this picture...Cameron was such a good boy all day long!

Ave, Mookie, Maupin and me

Samuel J.


Sunday, January 3

1 Year Anniversary

We made it! Drew and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! What a blessing. Yesterday we woke up at 8am (which is now sadly sleeping in for both of us). Drew put on the movie Julie and Julia for me while he made some breakfast. I think it was also an excuse to take some time to make the plans that he sad he was going to do :)
At about 12:30pm, we drove to Breckenridge with the dog of course. We got to the hotel, which was at the base of the mountain, and took the dog for a little walk down the streets lined with foreingers, adorable shops, and pubs galore. We enjoyed dinner at one of the English pubs, enjoyed the hot tub after, took a stroll which landed us outside a bar in front of a massive fireplace. We sat for about 40 minutes, meeting some locals, drinking a brewski and watched the sleigh rides come down the mountain.
This morning we woke up at 7:30 (again, sleeping in) and went to a creperia we had spotted the night before that had been absolutely packed the 3 times we wanted to try our own crepe. We were the first customers of the day and minutes later, they were slammed...only to be that way until 9pm again tonight. Mine was Nutella with Banana and Drew got a Brie-filled crepe. Mmm... We were good about sharing, which really means that I couldn't make up my mind as to which crepe I wanted to devour, so I just kept asking, "shall we trade". And Drew would say willingly, "Yes!"
We caught some fresh powder at 9am and were back to the room, had packed our things, were checked out of the room and on the road by 11am!

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