Frisbee Friday

While it's obvious we love Denver (I mean, we are buying a house here), a lot of people commonly ask how Oscar is doing and adjusting to living in Colorado.  We no longer have our dog beach (although there are dog parks here, we just haven't ventured to them yet because Osc can be iffy with other dogs), he loves visits to the parks.

One of our hometown friends recently moved to Fort Collins (yay!) so we took the hour drive up to visit him (and breweries; post to come) recently. He was gracious enough to let us bring Oscar along for the trip.

 

Of course the problem with bringing Oscar to a strange apartment and then leaving him for the afternoon was that we needed to tire him out. Luckily we found a frisbee golf disc in the car!

A word to the wise, apparently dogs must be on leash at all Fort Collins parks. A ranger pulled up to remind us of this and we barely snuck out of a $100 ticket for not having our leash on! At least our plan worked perfectly.

 

This weekend we continue on with the home process and have our home inspection! We're also getting the sewers inspected and having a contractor come out to meet us towards the end of the inspection to give us an estimate on removing a popcorn ceiling and for any other items the inspector may find.

And more exciting plans, I'm meeting a group of Denver bloggers for a little wine/appetizer/craft party. It's kind of like an awkward blind date; except that it's not blind since I've followed some of the blogs for a while now. Besides, the hostess moved to Denver the same month as us AND has a four year old English Bulldog. Meant to be, right?

Have a happy, fun and safe weekend and Superbowl!

To You and Yours

Front of our card

 

Back of our card

For the past three years I've been doing double sided holiday cards with our year in review. It's a fun way to remember the past year and a great way to tell our friends and family that we don't get to see as much as we would like to, what we've been up to.

 

I'm not sure how the map idea came to mind; but it turned out just as I'd envisioned!

 

Right now we're somewhere in the middle of our twelve hour road trip back to our hometown. I hope you're snuggled warm and safe with your loved ones. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Cheer

I'm still pinching myself that Christmas is next week. With the move, our traditions and routine of the holidays aren't quite the same. I'm not sure I'd realize it was holiday season if I hadn't insisted we get a tree.

 

You would think for sure that in Denver's surrounding area there would be plenty of spot to cut down your own tree...but after spending some time on google it seemed like our only option was to get a license to cut from a forest.  My sister has joked that since moving to CO my style as become more lumberjack (see below), but I'm not quite there there!

J Crew Factory Vest (similar) // Lands End flannel (similar)

Old Navy Vest (similar, $15!) // ModCloth Scout top // Sorel Joan of Arctic boots (cheaper option)

 

Instead, we opted for a tree lot conveniently located at Little Man Ice Cream.  Ice cream and a Christmas tree? I was in Heaven.

Oscar got his first taste of LM and LOVED it! He may even be a bigger fan than his momma.





We're adapting more and more into our new life. Oscar loves having Ben home with him.  Ben likes working from home, but I can also tell it's sometimes a struggle not to be in a typical work environment. But it has it's perks; for him: being able to wear sweat pants, make lunch or go for a lunch run; and for me: coming home to a clean apartment (included mopped floors) and clean laundry (this guy's a keeper!).

Sometimes I feel like I'm putting too much pressure on me/us to "get going" making friends, volunteering and to build up our connections here. Then I take a deep breath and remind myself, we've been here not even two months. We'll enjoy the holidays and then I'll try to put more effort into those goals in the new year.

We just need to get through the holidays, right Osc? It looks like he's already tired of them.

 After all, it IS the most wonderful time of the year.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Now that fall is here in full blast and we're finally settled into our new apartment, I've been eager to try out some recipes for pumpkin pancakes.  Ben was leery, but gobbled them right up! And you know how picky he is...if Ben likes them, they must be good!  

Ingredients:

(Original recipe; Makes ~10 6" pancakes)

•  1.5 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1 eggs
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider)
• 2 cups flour
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt

• In a medium sized bowl, mix together wet ingredients: milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar 

• In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices

• Mix dry ingredients into wet, stirring just enough to combine.

• Scoop batter on top a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat.  The batter will spread, so start with small scoops (~1/4 cups)

The first couple 'cakes came out slightly crispy and fried from the oil. Admittedly, these were the tastiest!

 Oh yes, and they're Oscar approved too!

Linking up with Let's Get Bananas and Blissfuly Miller for Taste of Tuesday

 

 

Week Recap

 Me oh my was this past week a doozie! Both the Bulls and Blackhawks were in town and we planned to take full advantage. After all, most Bulls tickets for standing room (at the tip top of the United Center) are typically around $100, so now that we've in Denver we felt like we could actually afford tickets! Then I was pleasantly surprised by a coworker with free 10th row tickets...free is even better!

 So instead, we spent a little more on Blackhawks vs. Avalanche tickets than we planned.  The game was terrible (for Hawks fans) but we did have some fun before the game!

 

 That was Tuesday night; Thursday night was the Bulls game. Darn, TBS scheduling meant we were the second game of the night, starting at 8:30 MT! Once again, the game was another dud as a Chicago fan.  The most exciting part of the game was 80's Night half time perfomance by Tiffany ("I think we're alone now..."

 The new screens at the Pepsi Center are insanely large!

With the late night Thursday, we had planned to lay low Friday and go snowboarding (for my first time!) on Saturday...however, we didn't realize how strict the rule of signing up for lessons 48 hours in advance was (you'd better believe I don't dare set foot on the mountain without lessons first!), so instead we checked out a few breweries.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing will be celebrating their year anniversary in two weeks.  This was the cutest and quaintest little brew pub. It was so cozy for a cold night!

 

 From there we headed over to Epic Brewing, which has a much more commercial (and bright) atmosphere, but some awesome berry! I had their stout mixed with a kriek (tart beer) for a chocolate cherry flavored beer combo. Yum! Epic's story is pretty interesting. They're from Utah and recently wanted to expand but were told they weren't allowed; instead, the set up camp in Denver and now brew three beers that are only available in CO

 And of course, leaving Osc alone for a few hours, he was rowdy and excited for us to get home.

Sunday morning we hopped over to Crema Coffee House, one of the supposed top coffee shops in Denver, and I'd believe it. Not only was the coffee good (although a little fruity for our liking), but their cinnamon roll (warmed) was amazing!

 

Later I met my first "friends" in Denver, some girls from a message board I frequent for an amazing brunch at Roija downtown, Denver's top restaurant according to Yelp. No pics, but trust me, you want to try their raspberry marscapone french toast. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it. The company was great too. It's so funny to meet people in person that you "know" from the internet.  I know it sounds weird, Ben thinks it is, but really there weren't any lulls in the conversation! It was refreshing!

The rest of the day was spend ordering our holiday cards (woohoo!), shopping for Thanksgiving (yep, we're staying here and having our first Thanksgiving on our own. Keep your fingers crossed that our beer-brined, of course, turkey turns out!) and relaxing with my boys.

Hope you had a great weekend! 

Enjoy

Weekend Recap: A Family Affair

This weekend we had my in-laws in town for our nephew's baptism.  We spent plenty of quality (and delicious) time together.  Friday night Ben suggested, on a whim, that we go to Las Tablas for dinner.  It's a Colombian restaurant we'd been to once before for a company party. Remembering how much food is served with a meal, my mother in law split a steak/chicken combo with me, but my SIL/BIL went big with the meat combo you see below. Another memory that didn't serve me wrong was the mojitos. A must!

 

Heritage General Bicycle is across the street and was having another movie night.  We contemplated staying to watch Three Amigos, but instead Ben and I went back to our apartment (my ILs stay with my SIL/BIL) and enjoyed the perfect weather and bulldogs on the deck with wine and Yahtzee. By the way, who gets a Yahtzee three games in a row?! Apparently Ben because he smoked me every game!

   

Some how Ben and I both managed to sleep in until 9:30 on Saturday morning, which is a rarity for us!  We ended up skipping our typical morning runs to meet the fam at Bakin and Eggs for breakfast.  After ordering the same thing the past two years, bacon, egg, gruyere croissant, I finally tried something new, chorizo fritatta, and it was delicious!

 

Saturday was spent trying to coordinate the incoming three families of SIL's husband, which was a bit wonky.  We ended up relaxing at their house for much of the day, followed by a scenic drive up Lake Shore Drive and the gorgeous homes along the lake in Evanston and Wilmette before heading to Glenview for dinner at Yardhouse.

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my necklace I ordered last week arrived and I've already worn it twice. Well worth ordering!

   

Sunday morning we redeemed ourselves. I woke up at 7am to take the dogs out. At that time it was still cool and breezy so I figured I might as well stay awake and put in a healthy seven mile run.  While out on Lake Michigan path, I decided that it was so nice that we needed to take advantage! We took Oscar to the dog beach since we had plenty of time before we needed to be back at my sister in law's that afternoon.

 

Oscar was in Heaven! If there's one happy place for him, it's Montrose Dog Beach (we often joke that when he passes, we'll need to spread his ashes there). 40 minutes was enough to wear him out for the day, which was just what we wanted.  We came home and bathed everyone, dogs and ourselves. before dropping Huey off at his "play date" (a rescue event hosted by Paws) and we were off for the baptism.

   

Baby J turned six months earlier last week and now is bubbly little boy.  We had so much fun entertaining and passing him around at lunch at my SIL's house prior to the baptism.

Being that we've never really attended a baptism before, let alone been named a godparent like Ben is to J, we decided to forgo the traditional gift of money and have a little fun with our gifts... 

This little onsie was so cute and funny, we could not resist. Especially since Ben has continually referenced The Godfather, the movie throughout these past couple weeks (even though neither of us has even seen the movie...yipes!)

The other gift we gave was a personalized baptism book. We provided a picture as well as the baptism information and name of all of the guests so that Baby J can have a nice keepsake of his special day.  The book wasn't quite the quality we'd expected, but I still think it was a unique gift that can be saved for years.

The baptism took place at St. Alphonsus Church, which is absolutely beautiful. We'd been to the church before, but that was for their Oktoberfest, which is not actually inside the church. I'm not Catholic, but I'm tempted to come to mass here just to sit in it's beauty. 

There wasn't a full service, rather a few babies being baptised, which was good given that the church was not air conditioned and it was a 90 degree day.  Baby J fussed on and off throughout the ceremony, but what actually got him to stop crying was the pouring of the water.

Note his godfather photobombing

How sweet at those eyes of admiration at his dad?

After the ceremony we went back to SILs and Baby J tried on his onesie for a picture before we headed off to pick up Huey and call it a night. We upheld our tradition of Sunday Night Pizza Sunday and watched the movie Trance, which is action filled with twists and turns. It was really good for randomly selecting it from Red Box.

Hope you had a great weekend!

 Linking up with Sami