Fall Colors in the Colorado Mountains

Last weekend, the Mr. and I were invited up to Lake Dillon for a relaxing weekend with the FIL, the dogs and a family friend.  The weekend started with a beautiful hike up to Lake Something-or-other right outside of Dillon.  My goal for the journey was to capture a good family photo to use for this year's holiday card.  Apparently we need to work on Pugsley looking at the camera when asked...

The view.

Father-Son-Dog trio.

Gorg.

Such a stunning animal!

FIL and Katie.

 

The afternoon brought us a trip on the sailboat.  Have you ever been sailing?  This was my first time and boy was it an experience!  The Mr. and FIL are both a little weary of the open water due to their lack of swimming lessons and experience.  I, however, love the water.  That being said, I think we were all a bit petrified for the first hour or so!  Captain Lee is an experienced sailor so we were in good hands -- or so he claimed...

 

FIL adjusting the sails.

 Lake Dillon.

A relaxing moment.



Captain Lee.

 

 

We're now one day away from October.  Where is this year going?!  Happy Pumpkin season!!



IT FITS!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we recently celebrated our first anniversary and I decided that I needed to try on my dress again.  I love the idea of taking a picture in my dress every year on our anniversary.  Well, as long as it fits I guess!  I missed our actual anniversary this year but the pictures below were taken two days later -- immediately after a big haircut!

Please ignore the fact that the pictures are blurry and the lighting is terrible.  My photographer was a grumpy husband who was not amused with this exercise.

It still fits!!  And it obviously hasn't been cleaned.  You can still see where it was lifting up the dress on that fateful day by the crinkled material and extra dirt :)

An Election Rant

The Mr. and I got into a pretty good political debate last night and now I need a place to vent.  Hellooooo blog readers!  Hope you're ready for some discussion...

Let's get some stuff out of the way before we tear into this year's election.  Who doesn't hate an election year?  How many more times do we have to hear "I approve this message"?  We all know that politicians spew what they think we want to hear and what certain groups are paying them to say.  But how much are they really going to get done during their four year term in office?

Cynicism aside...

The Mr. and I are divided in terms of political party.  During our wedding, his speech included the line, "It's our differences that make us perfect for each other."  Sweet.  But frustrating.  Especially during election year (for those counting, yes, we did meet during an election year.  Thank goodness America was smart enough to not vote Sarah Palin into office).  We agreed, mostly because we forgot about the first few days of the RNC, that we would only watch the last night of the conventions to hear the candidates speak.  We watched Romney speak last week, along with Marco's (Polo?) introduction, and the entire televised DNC event last night including Biden and Obama.

The problem with politics in our household is that we don't even want to argue about the same issues.

The Mr. believes in being fiscally conservative, decreasing taxes, making more of the American population actually pay their taxes, and improving - or eliminating - government programs.  I'm more passionate about the social issues.  Gay marriage should be legal and women should be able to do what they want with their own bodies.

This is why YOU have a CHOICE and why we have a decision to make.  Nothing bothers me more than people who vote by party.  I don't care if your parents are Republicans, how can any woman look at the Romney/Ryan platform and think that her life will be better if they're voted into office?

Argument: What about the money?  What about the debt?  Doesn't everyone agree that it's a problem right now?  Does anyone think that one party will be able to help the economy recover more quickly than the other?  I can go on and on about their plans - Obama ending the war in 2014 and putting money towards the national debt and Romney decreases taxes and ending Medicare - but what will those bullet points accomplish if those people haven't actually accomplished any of that yet?

Is our nation facing a financial crisis?  Yes.
Is our nation facing issues aside from the financial crisis?  Yes.
Do you care about money or people more?  (Yes, this question was thrown into the household debate last night.)
Do you think that the Democrats won't do anything about the financial crisis?
Do you think that the Republicans will try to take rights away - or never allow them in the first place - from anyone who doesn't fit into their mold (i.e. gays, women, all minorities)?

This is my argument about the Republicans' view on the social issues.  I'm Jewish.  Jewish people don't eat meat from a pig -- pork, ham, bacon, etc.  Have you seen a legitimate ballot issue trying to ban pork from being sold in grocery stores across America?  No.  People can decide their eating habits on their own.  So why can't a woman decide what to do with her body?  Why can't a man marry his lover even if it doesn't fit the traditional view of marriage?  Who are WE to decide?  And don't you dare blame it on religion.  Freedom of religion vetoed that excuse years ago.

If you're reading this, please VOTE.

Don't vote for your parent's political party.

Vote for the platform that you most align yourself with.

Do some research.

Spread the word.

Thanks for listening.  I'm done now.


UPDATE:  It's worth noting that we made a bet.  My gambling record is pretty terrible lately -- I'm currently searching for a CSU shirt that I have to buy and wear to work and I have to wear a tutu during tomorrow's 5k.  Regardless, I have hope for this one!  The prize is a specified amount of cash to the winner to spend however that person (me!) wants without input from the other.  The bet was originally the Gucci purse I've been eyeing, or the cash equivalent for him, but I decided that was too ridiculous :)

Happy Anniversary - Here's a New Bathroom!

It's AUGUST 29th!!  You know what that means?  We're not newlyweds anymore.  And the end of summer is nearing.  And the weather is getting a bit crisper.  The Mr. and I celebrated our 1st anniversary yesterday with a nice, relaxing evening at home.  I made dinner, he made cookies.  I bought him some clothes from Eddie Bauer (great clearance rack!) and he bought me some roses.  I had a fantasy football draft and he helped with my picks.  I guess we technically celebrated a few weeks ago when we went to the Book of Mormon (fantastic!) and had a nice sushi dinner:

Which reminds me... I think I'm going to try on my wedding dress tonight...

I have great expectations for this blog once summer has officially passed.  I'm planning a redesign in my head and have lots of blog posts lined up.  In the meantime, I've been meaning to show you our new bathroom for quite some time so here you go!

Before:

Not great pictures but you get the point: it was a small, outdated bathroom.

During:

 We tore up everything.

We inspected.

We tiled (thanks FIL!).

We painted.

We supervised.

After:

Renovations are so rewarding!

Rocky Mountain High

We finally had a full day free on a beautiful weekend in Colorado so we headed to the mountains with a few friends to hike the highest mountain in the state.  Mt. Elbert, at 14,433 feet, was no easy task.  We were (slightly) out of shape for this little adventure but it was fun nonetheless.  It took about seven hours round-trip, was the first 14er for two of the five in the group, and the first 14er where an app was successfully downloaded and utilized during the hike.  We kept track of our elevation gain - mostly for encouragement purposes - and sang along to Call Me Maybe on the way down. It was a fun, long day!!

 

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY, HUBBY!

The Mr. celebrated his 28th birthday earlier this month (which sounds like a totally reasonable excuse as to why I haven't blogged in so long).  We celebrated by taking a trip to MeXicO!  Well, not really... but kinda.  One of the Mr.'s high school buddies was getting married and it just so happened to coincide with the big birthday.  So what do I, the best wife ever, do for the hubby on his birthday in Mexico?

I made him miserable.  We went on a little excursion to the Mayan ruins of Tulum and then we went snorkeling in the most wonderful lagoon in Akumel, outside of Playa del Carmen.  It was wonderful.  For me.  Did I mention that the Mr. doesn't know how to swim and is petrified of putting his face under water?  The icing on the cake, so to speak, is that it was election day in Mexico.  That means that you can't buy alcohol anywhere on that one specific day -- his birthday.  Best birthday ever!!

In all seriousness, we had a good trip.  A week was a bit long for us to stay in one place but we had some quality time together with each other, his friends, and MY PARENTS who decided to crash the party at the last responsible moment.

Aren't they cute?!

More pics:

The view from our hotel room.

Hammocks.

Happy wedding guests (please ignore our wind-swept hair).

My favorite picture!  Who has bigger muscles?!

La playa.

This trip concludes wedding season 2012 and our travels for the year (we think).  Which leaves me more time to blog, obviously.

Until next time!

Don't Threaten Me

My dearest MOB tried to threaten me yesterday (or was it this morning?) by accusing me of being "bored with (my) blog."  How dare she?!  So, consider this post dedicated to the best MOB in the world!

I.  Love.  Summer.  Like, seriously.  I initially wanted to post pictures of our new, beautiful bathroom but, since it's been nearly four weeks since my last post, here's a glimpse of the beginning of our summer...

My dear Auntie Claire gifted us with one of her incredible paintings.  We promptly hung it in a prominent place in our living room after it inspired a complete re-org (and new furniture!).

Another one of Auntie Claire's masterpieces, proudly hung in the kitchen.

 We attended Ashley's 30th Birthday Bash and reunited with former coworkers (I love this photo.  We obviously have fun together!).

 We grew our hair out...

 We attended a wedding in Waukesha, WI.

 We went to Miller Park...

 ...and tailgated before...

 ...the baseball game.

And then we watched the sausage races!

Since then, we've worked on landscaping our yard (no pictures... yet), going to brunch with friends and enjoying the warm weather.

For good measure, he's a glimpse at our Punta Cana trip:

 Did I mention that the Mister won the dart competition?  Don't worry, he didn't really try to kill me...

I know it's blurry, but I love this picture... we're in looooove.