Happy 1 year to us!

We recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary.. It's hard to believe it's been one whole year since the most amazing day in Essex, CT. While part of me will always wish I could slip back into my wedding dress and do the day all over again, I have to say, I love what we have 1 year later- and wouldn't trade it for the world. Wes and I have been through a lot this year between leaving our jobs and moving cross country- and we have grown stronger with every day that has passed. I love Wes infinitely more than I did the day we got married- and am looking forward to many, many years ahead! Thank you to my wonderful husband for all 365 days of wedded bliss !

 With that said- the most obvious way to celebrate your 1st year of marriage it to go on a getaway trip... to Vegas... with the Rossi's (who got married a week after us)... EPIC 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TRIP!

We met Nick & Kristen in Vegas on Thursday morning at the Cosmopolitan- where our dear friend Scotty had gotten us a great discount! We decided to go all out and get a cabana for the day -- actually we had no choice as apparently you have to wake up at 5 am to get a seat by the pool -- but it ended up working out great and we relaxed all day by the pool. 

Kris & I in the cabana [please note: taking photos next to Kristen is supremely undesirable for me as I tend to look drastically more like a ghost than normal]

Wes & I by the pool [also please note the amazing time stamp on all the photos- thanks to the Rossi's new camera]

The view from our hotel room (and Wes' favorite new hobby- taking panoramic photos)

Thursday night we went to see LOVE (naturally) - the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show. The music was awesome- and the show was great too. Not the normal Cirque du Soleil circus freaks I was hoping to see- but a very entertaining show. 

We tried to take a picture the 4 of us and we were lucky enough to have a stranger join us.

Afterwards we went to TAO for dinner. I nearly fainted when I saw this sign outside. It was almost enough to make me change our flights to stay one more night... but then I remembered that this was an anniversary trip and not a Katie trip.

We ended up trying to make our way into the dance club afterwards. A highly comical event- which included at least 3 hand stamps- 2 ID checks- and a walking tour of TAO. We were there for about 25 minutes before we called it quits when we saw a girl throwing up on the elevator.

The next morning we decided to gamble a little more. There was a special going on that if you lost $100 playing slots, they would give you $100 back to play. With about 2 hours to go before our flight, Kristen and I took it upon ourselves to try to lose $100 very quickly, so we could get this promotion. We did that, and then promptly lost another $100 immediately after that. At one point I thought I won the jackpot- but no such luck- as this spin only yielded about 20 quarters.

All in all, we ended up coming out even on the trip.... even after my last ditch effort to make a little more money by playing War. Tricky game. This is probably the most accurate portrayal of me at about 1 pm before we left:

http://youtu.be/8c1BQkKUsx0

Thank god we don't live near any casinos! We were back in Denver by dinner time and ready to start a fun weekend ahead with the Rossi's in the mile high city!

Another year older..

This past weekend I turned 21 again. For the 8th time. It's weird to think Wes and I met (albeit didn't start dating) when I was 23. Now 5 years later, I am an old bat with 1 gray hair...

Wes' gift was the best cure for feeling old. By far, the greatest part of my day was riding around on my shiny new ride. I had some trouble at first- but it wasn't long before I was zipping around town like Kermit the Frog.

He also got me golf lessons. Hopefully this will help me beat him...

At night, we tried a new restaurant in Denver called ChoLon (opened by the previous chef of Buddakan in NYC)-  the food was PHENOM.  Thanks to Cara for planning the evening and getting the group together!!

We roamed around LoDo afterwards- and ended the night with one of my most favorite things: getting a piece of pizza late night. I sadly don't have pictures, because I downed it before anyone could take out their camera...

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special!! I felt extremely blessed by receiving cards, phone calls, packages, texts, etc from so many people. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family- it made my day!

Two Men and a Katie

A few days after the Erich family departed, we were blessed with our brother from another mother- Pete! While I was slaving away at work, the boys were shopping and going to pinkberry having some solid man time.

Day 1: A tour of Coors Brewery and a stop at Hooters afterwards... I was lucky enough to be picked up from work with an order of fried pickles waiting for me along with some Coors trivia.

Days 2 & 3: A lot of golf was played... and randomly they decided to go sky diving on Friday. Unfortunately, they didn't get a picture of them in their jumpsuits- but I was lucky enough to hear about it all weekend- so if anyone needs a detailed play-by-play, feel free to email me separately.

Friday night we went downtown with Matt & Ricki.

A little Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA".

It was a blast- until we ended up getting shuffled into Denver's newest night club. Right before we entered the club- a "bouncer" (ie: a loser with an ear piece) was questioning who "OKed" us to go in. Before I could open my sassy mouth to remind him that we are in Denver- not in NYC- we were escorted in and got some of the best people watching we have yet to see in Denver... including some Bronco's players.

The next day the boys let me play golf with them. I kept up for the most part... Somehow the boys got perfect pictures of them swinging... and the photo snapped of me is while searching for my ball. It was a common theme that day. Also, Pete would like to apologize to the two homeowners who's houses his ball hit. I guess thats what happens when you have guns like his.

Later that night we had a mini BBQ and hosted some of the local W&L alums. It was fun to finally have people over at our place. We were lacking some outdoor furniture, but its nothing a few tupperware bins and extra boxes couldn't solve.

We decided to venture out into Cherry Creek later in the night... and I'd like to call this next segment (which truly deserves its own post):

"15 Hours of Energy: What Happens When You Chug 3 Bottles of 5 Hour Energy" 

Starring: the Iceman   ||  Featuring: his sidekick, Wes "I forgot how to smile when taking a picture" Hays.

We were definitely sad to see Pete go... it's safe to say that it was a bit quieter around here without him. But we are looking forward to the next visit from the #1 Bieber fan!

Erich Family in Denver

We were very lucky to have all Erich's in Denver at the end of August! We were celebrating Scotty's birthday & Steve & Julie had their annual tequila party (lucky for all of us, no photos of that event have surfaced yet).

We went to our first Rockies game as Denver residents. Since we weren't sure what our plans would be for the night- we bought Rock Pile tickets which are basically the nosebleeds, but they are only $4... so you really can't go wrong. The view wasn't bad though!

We took the light rail downtown to get the full Denver experience. The public transportation here is still in its infancy... so it has a lot of quirks to still work out... most specifically the schedule. I would consider the Erich family to be a fairly smart bunch... and it was a struggle to try and figure this one out...

We ran into the Budweiser Clydesdales at Coors Field... ironic.

On Saturday we went to the farmers market to get lunch and headed to Washington Park for a picnic.

We ended up setting up our picnic right next to a cornhole tournament which was fairly amusing. The amount of people in Denver that love to play drinking games is insane. I am not complaining by any means... it is just a different lifestyle than Darien, CT. 

We decided to play an old fashioned game of airplane... which then became a competition. I think Emily & Scott won... but we deserve an A for our highly artistic method...

That night we had the tequila party... and I think its a good thing we don't have any pictures. While we were much more civilized than when all the Walker's get together- I think there was a fair amount of tequila consumed. 

The next morning Wes helped Gus with his favorite pastime- cleaning. He was "cleaning" all morning and coming up to us saying "Como esta?" Blanca would have been proud. 

All in all it was a great visit with the Erich's and we can't wait for them to visit again!! 

And a close second for favorite picture...

Welcome to the world Reed Alexander Jackson!  We are so happy to have you here and can't wait to meet you soon.  Hopefully you'll get your Dad's sense of humor and ability to quote movies...and everything else from your Mom!!!

My New Favorite Picture

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

Hello all!  Sorry for the length of time between posts - Katie has been busy working (and getting blocked from most fun external websites) and I have been doing my best to find a job...with a healthy concentration on "balance", i.e. job hunt for one hour, ride my bike for two or three.  Makes sense right?  Right. 

So my plan is try to catch you up, and that will start with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge weekend.  It is a 7 day cycling stage race in Colorado (and thus should be named Tour of Colorado but I guess that would have made too much sense).  They got a very impressive roster of riders for this inaugural year, including the top three finishers from the Tour de France.  Katie and I caught the last weekend of racing by driving up to Breckenridge for the finish of Stage 6 on Saturday. 

When we got there they had amateur drag racing which was hilarious...here is the start gate:

And the kids in attendance got their own special course:

We perched ourselves about 1 mile from the finish and had a great view of the final action, complete with a random dude in a devil suit who was preparing to run along side the race (a Tour de France tradition of sorts):

There was a pack of three guys leading (first picture), including Andy Schleck who was 2nd in the TDF this year...they were followed about 10 seconds back by the peloton which then caught them with 200 meters until the finish line!

After they flew by, we sprinted over to the finish line and just missed it.  But we did get to see tons of riders coming off the course.  I was shocked at how close we could get to them - did that sound creepy? 

The next day was the last day of the race and it was finishing right in downtown Denver so we met some friends to watch.  It was insane how many people there were out watching.  I couldn't believe it.  Both sides of the street were two deep for miles and miles:

Once again, we did a mad dash to try to get to the finish line in time.  Sadly, by the time we got there, we couldn't see anything because of the crowds.  We hung out for the podium presentation and Katie managed to sneak towards the staging area to snap some great pics of the overall winner (Levi) and multiple stage winner from Liquigas:

What a great way to spend a weekend (for me)...and thanks to Katie for being such a great sport!  She was rewarded with a very large margarita on Sunday afternoon.