The last week and a half

I had to keep a little secret from you all… but I had good reason.

My parents are born 12 hours apart… same year and all, and their birthdays happen to be on the 27th and 28th of April. So, I decided to surprise them and drive home to see them, without telling them.

It’s a pretty long story, but I ended up making it without them having a clue … this is why I couldn’t post on here as my mother reads this little blog of mine. Thanks to my beautiful friend Kristin for chatting it up with me on my long drive, Tina Fey for keeping me entertained on my drive home and of course my Lilly bug for keeping me company. I have a post dedicated to the trip coming to you over this week.

I also had the opportunity to take some photos of two of my beautiful friends while in Denver. Here is a sneak peek.

I’ll have more of each of these through the week. I’m pretty impressed with myself, and love these two for letting me practice on them. I’ve learned so much, and yet there is always more to learn.

While in Denver I also got to meet one of my most favorite bloggers! I’ve met Janna over a year ago through blogging and sort of hated her at first, because she is so dang beautiful. BUT then I got to know her better and fell in love!  She is one of the sweetest, nicest and incredible ladies I’ve met and I’m so glad to call her a real friend!

I made it home on Friday, after driving for two days to my incredible husband who had cleaned the floors and done all the dishes!

Also, a beautiful little bracelet was waiting for me when I got home from my bestie Kristin.

I finished off the week by spending some quality time with the Hubs, celebrating the 5th of May with tacos, margaritas and good company, buying a new patio set, doing homework and some awesome power yoga!

A birthday weekend

… with our best friends.

A weekend filled with lots of laughs, great food, and even better friends. These are the days that make the boring, frustrating and discouraging days so worth it. These are our closest friends, who, over the years, have become our family. I’d literally take a bullet for every single person pictured above. <3

Our Story – Part Two

 

The Mister and I started officially dating in August of 2007, and within a few short months we both knew that we’d be getting married. It was just one of those things that feels right. We never really had any wild nights on the town and were usually content sitting on the love seat in the basement watching TV, reading or talking.

We were both in school at this time, the Mister in his last few semesters of school and me in my first few. The Mister had quit his job to try and finish school since it was taking him more then the four years to finish, and I was working 60+ hour weeks and going to school full time. We spent practically all of our free time together, but usually we each had our noses stuck in a textbook.

In our first year together we made some great memories:

The Mister’s 23rd Birthday – Underworld concert at the Fillmore (9.11.07)

We went to the annual Denver Parade of Lights right before Christmas

We went to the Renaissance Festival

Where I got “bonked” on the head by Ded Bob and the Mister met a very willing pirate

 

We also enjoyed a Smoked Turkey Leg… you can really tell who enjoyed it more!

We celebrated July 4th with some great friends, and lots of booze!

And overall had a fantastic time!

We we got into fights, maybe one or two big ones. But honestly we never thought of breaking up or had second thoughts about our relationship. It sounds strange to say it now, but we’ve had a pretty solid relationship since the very beginning.

 

Stay tuned for our second year together which had a lot more going on.

Travel Tuesday

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

In the past few weeks I’ve heard a good deal of my friends and family talk about travel, where they are going for summer and how it is so expensive to get out of the house and get to somewhere with a beach. I’ve heard many people talk about the headache they had when looking for the best deal, and how they can only afford that one vacation and by God it better be the best.
I’ve looked at these people and thought to myself, they are sucking all the fun out of their trip by thinking of all the negatives.
Yes, it is a hassle trying to find the best deal, yes it can cost a good chunk of money to travel, and yes things may go wrong and you might not have the best trip of your life, however to me it is the positive attitude that makes all the difference in the trip.
SO on the note of attitude I’d like to share our last trip to Cancun with you.

----------------- May 15th to 22nd 2010 -------------------

First thing you should know, I tend to refuse to fly “hop” or “connection” flights, I also absolutely refuse to fly American Airlines due to previous awful experiences. So we had paid a bit extra to have a direct flight from Denver to Cancun on a charter plane. This was great! We left Denver around 10 am and arrived in beautiful Cancun around 2 pm local time. The flight was nice and easy.

This picture was taken as we were waiting for our cab to get back to the airport on our last day in Cancun, Mexico

However, when we got to our hotel, it had become cloudy and started to rain. We figured it was just a late afternoon shower and would go away, clearing up in the morning. Let me tell ya, we were very wrong. Six of the eight days that we were in Cancun we saw rain and gloom. Only one full day of sunshine and another beautiful day as we were leaving.

It was really disappointing to be on the beach, with the ability to lay out in the sun and swim in the ocean to have it ruined by the awful weather. Lots of people were getting upset, some of the guests were even booking flights back home and checking out early. The Mister and I stayed, and had a ball!

We beat the weather by going diving, and while the sun wasn’t shining on the surface the bottom of the ocean was as beautiful as can be. Unfortunately we didn’t have our underwater casing for the camera and have no pictures of this.

Here are some of the things we enjoyed:

We met Courtney and Josh halfway through our trip and had a blast with them.

Especially since we got to share that one day of beautiful sunshine with these two!

 

We tried out all the specialty restaurants that the resort offered.

The steak house was located on the patio right by the beach

The Japanese restaurant offered a covered few of the patio and the ocean. 

The dinner at the French Fusion restaurant was fantastic, and we got to share it with Josh and Courtney and celebrate our 6 month anniversary all in one. 

In addition we made sure to check out the famous clubs and bars in the area, and even though it was raining outside we walked from one to the other. The tequila helped keep us warm!

In all, we had an amazing time, made some great friends and lots of good memories that will keep us laughing and smiling through the years.

This may be one of my most favorite pictures from the whole trip. That is actually the Mister and I on the beach at night. The photo was taken with our Rebel

Great Friends and Running

 

Remember when I talked about how great Couch to 5K was? Well, then I talked about how I’m still waiting for the runner’s high… and then I mentioned that I hate running and quit.

Well, today when the Mister came home and saw me sitting around on the couch, he decided that it was time to get me outside and running again. Despite my protesting and putting it off, despite the excuses of I don’t have clean workout clothes, and despite my grouchy “I am going to die” attitude he got my butt off the couch and into the street.

Let me tell you, I wanted to kill him. I also wanted to cry, and maybe throw another tamper tantrum with stomping feet and all. However, I didn’t… well I might have told my ah-mazing husband that I hate him (sorry babe, I really do love you). ALSO, I’d like to point out that I am obviously very alive and able to write this post. In addition, now I remember why I wanted to start running again, and like it… I love the way I feel afterwards, when all the sweat has been washed off, when I can finally breath and my heart isn’t threatening to escape from my chest.

So here is to me getting back on the old path and trying to convince myself that I love to run. Wish me luck guys.

__________________________

On the brighter note. My Monday was super special because I got to catch up with a friend that I hadn’t see in four years!!!

Our middle school graduation photo… well part of it, both of us are on this side

Let me tell you a little about my friend Dita! She was my first real friend when I moved to the States, and at in the 4th grade when I barely spoke English… actually I think I knew about 10 words, she befriended me and showed me around. As the years went by, she became a part of my family to the point that we referred to each other’s parents as Mom and Dad.

Dita and I graduated from elementary, middle and high school together, we also lived a short walk apart, and when I started to drive I would pick her up on my way to school every morning because she wasn’t old enough to drive yet (funny story).

  

Our high-school graduation

After graduation we each decided on the University of Colorado as our school, however I went to the Denver campus while she went to the Boulder campus. Despite being only an hour drive away, our lives were so hectic that we didn’t see each other. When she would be in town I’d be gone and when I’d be in the Boulder area she’d be out of town and so on.

However, even though we didn’t see each other for four years, we never lost touch and when we saw each other today it was just back to the old days. Sitting around drinking tea, and talking.

 

Our college graduation

Long story short, real and true friends never forget, and even after literally years of not seeing each other can pick up exactly where they left off.

Love you Diter! <3 Can’t believe we’re done with another chapter of schooling.