the most wonderful visit!

since moving into the new house, we have started some improvement projects. one project that i have taken on is painting over all of the colors that i do not like. i have started the kitchen and powder room and man, painting a bathroom has to be the worst room to paint. i never thought about how one would paint behind a toilet and still have yet to figure it out. oh the adventures! so now i am taking a break to eat some macaroni (of course) and catch you up on the most wonderful of visits! (please excuse the font issue, i cannot figure out how to fix it!)

alisha came to visit about two months ago and we had the best of times! (and i cannot believe it was two months ago. wow how time flies!) we did all kinds of fun things and were completely exhausted by the time sunday night rolled around.

friday: 

we were initially planning to ice skate on the lake, but they unfortunately closed down ice skating the weekend before in preparation for the lake melting. but dont worry, we still had a glorious time! we introduced alisha to our brewshotski handsome made and then headed down to our favorite place to eat, one world. luckily, we made it there right in time because they were about to close. after making sure we had fun bellies, we headed down to the little bear for some drinks and music. i honestly do not remember the band that was playing, but we had fun talking and catching up.

saturday: 

we woke up to a winter wonderland! it was absolutely perfect and wonderful that alisha was here to see the wonderful large fat flakes falling! and the perfect day to head over to the frozen dead guy festival! with the blizzard going on, they had to change around some events at frozen dead guy because all of the teams competing in the different events weren’t able to make it. i think it also made the event a bit less crowded than usual. we found a local who knew what was happening to let us know where we should go. She told us where different events would take place and we decided to try out the “local hotspot”, PI (I cannot remember what PI stands for). it was a small bar and you could tell it was the local hangout. we got ourselves some beer in lovely souvenir glasses and decided to enjoy some queso, very weird queso that was served in a super tiny cup not much larger than a shot glass. ha! after making our bellies a bit more full than they were originally, we headed down to one of the event tents that was filled with people enjoying local brewery beer, live music, delicious snacks and buying tie dyed frozen dead guy shirts. we each bought ourselves a drink token and headed to the beer tables. it was nice because they let you sample the beer first to make sure you liked what you were getting. This was especially nice since all the options were beers that i had never tried before. we were hanging out, talking and people watching (especially on this guy who seemed obsessed with alisha, but wouldn’t actually come over and talk) when a nice guy came over and gave us a free VIP pass! free beer for the remainder of the day!

we tried out our new pass and then made our way to the other tent where the coffin races were about to begin. this has to be one of the funniest and probably most fun events to participate in! each team has made a coffin that they carry one of their teammates in while racing around a snowy path with snow obstacles that they must climb over. it must have been very slippery because no one was able to remain standing on some of them. There was one team made up of women in their 50s named the frigid beavers. We ended up meeting them in a tent after the race and they were celebrating a friends 60^th birthday! and they were from beaver, oklahoma! They were fun ladies.

here is a video of the coffin race:

by this time we were starving, so we went back to the first tent since it was around all of the restaurants. we watched a few people bowl with a frozen turkey and then ate some barbeque. after eating, we headed home. alisha and i napped while handsome was a safe driver.

we got home and were welcomed by a foot of snow! alisha and i made our usual artichoke ravioli using my new ravioli maker and we relaxed and ate while drinking homemade frozen bulls out of my favorite paper birch straws. by midnight, we finally felt rested and decided to begin extreme sledding! extreme sledding is the best ever where you go over bushes, have to dodge trees, hope you dont hit a rock and have to make sure you bail out of the sled before flying into a fence or over a smallish cliff. here are some videos of our fun! what a great time!

sunday: 

dont think the fun stopped on saturday! on sunday, we got up, dressed ourselves appropriately for snow adventures and headed further into the mountains for snowshoeing! we stopped for an amazing burrito for the drive and decided to have our snowshoe adventure on loveland pass. for those who do not know, loveland pass is along the continental divide. It is where the large tunnels are that you drive through to get to you breckenridge and vail so that you dont have to drive over the mountains. it is also where a bunch of adventure seeking skiiers and snowboarders (like handsome) backcountry ski. the snow is deep, pristine, and beautiful. i am pretty positive that snowshoeing is my favorite winter activity and i cannot give a reason why. i just love it! here are some more videos of our snowshoe fun!

we got to the bottom of the pass and then had to try and hitchhike to the top so that we could get to the car. this was definitely not the most fun moment. after waiting forever, we were finally able to get into a truck that we had to quickly jump into with a bunch of guys and equipment and sit squished for the ride to the top. we finally made it to the car and then headed to keystone to eat beer cheese, shop a bit and go tubing!

tubing was so fun! we had races and had the guys spin us as fast as possible. i regretted the spinning part a bit because once it was over, i could not walk. overall, great times!

we ended up getting home and eating a bunch of pizza and then having to pass out due to exhaustion. it definitely was a successful weekend!

i am so glad alisha came to visit and i am looking forward to more visits in the future!

love.

excitement!

well, we are excited to announce that as of last thursday we are homeowners!!! it took us pretty much the entire four days i was off of work to move in, but we are home! we still have some boxes to sort through and there are still more decisons to be made regarding what we actually keep. our donation pile continues to grow and it feels wonderful! there are lots of projects on the horizon and we hope to get everything organized by the end of this next weekend so that we can get started on them! i will share more as things come together!

love.

tour de fat

over labor day weekend we went to a super fun bike parade in fort collins called tour de fat. everyone dresses up in costumes and rides around town on their bikes and then you finish in an area that has concerts, food and beer from the new belgium brewery. handsome wore his tie dye and coconut leaf hat we made on the honeymoon and i wore my caterpillar costume from a few halloweens ago. there were so many great costumes! i had two favorites that i saw during the parade. one of them was a group of friends who all used cardboard to turn their bikes into all different kinds of dinosaurs! the riders dressed in prehistoric/flinstones type clothing. i was not able to get a photo of them, but they were done very well!  my second favorite costume was done by a couple on a tandem bike. they were a camel and their heads were the humps! everyone seemed super creative and had a great time. i am super excited to enjoy this again next year and prepare a costume ahead of time!

we did see a few fatalities on the side of the road. a few were bad enough that an ambulance had to come. there are so many people that you really need to be careful about where you are going. luckily, none of us were involved in any tangles!

there are many different tour de fat parades hosted around the country. you should definitely find out if there is one near you. they are so much fun!

love.

one love

we are back from jamaica! it was an absolutely wonderful time filled with relaxation, adventures and, of course, eating! we were very sad to return back to the real world, but it was nice to sleep in a bed that we had not accidentally filled with sand! we took a lot of videos with handsome's go pro that i plan on editing into a short summary of a trip as well as a bunch of photos that i need to sort through. until all of the editing is complete, here are a few of our favorite shots from our instax!

love.

pursuit of favorites: finding food, the fresh kind!

one of my goals while visiting handsome in may was to find a farmers market. handsome did some research and we headed to the farmers market at cherry creek mall one saturday morning. i must say, it is my favorite ever! now, i cannot say i have had experience at many farmers markets. honestly, i have only been to the one in norman. but this one was awesome! it was filled with so many different stands of produce, dairy, plants, breads and clothes. there were even food stands that filled the air with many wonderful aromas! we were not prepared for the many cravings we would find ourselves having while walking by the different booths, but there was only one craving that we gave into. and let me tell you, it was the best decision ever! it was called waffle cakes. and yes, it tasted exactly the way it sounds. a delicious waffle that is also sweet like a dessert! it was their first day in existence and i am so glad i was able to experience them! they have a facebook page and i believe they are working towards eventually opening a restaurant of some type. i cant wait!

the hardest part of tasting a delicious waffle cake is deciding which one to try. we went with the one that had two waffle cakes with frosting in the middle. talk about a delicious sugar overload! you can even buy waffle cakes in packages of six to take home with you. i may have to buy some the next time i happen to come across them!

we also purchased some delicious produce for dinner that night and the following night. green peppers, asparagus, grape tomatoes and a super delicious avocado vinaigrette to eat with bread. delicious! i plan on visiting this market once i move to denver to buy herbs for our future herb garden! this place is filled with so many opportunities!

love.

monthly macaroni 11

my last trip out to denver was crazy. my plane was scheduled to leave about 6pm wednesday night, but that did not happen. it was delayed a few hours due to rain in dallas (where our plane was coming from) and then continued being delayed until the plane finally arrived at about 10pm. a bit after it landed, they announced that there was snow in denver so our plane was delayed again. i know, snow in may?! and the denver airport is unable to handle it?! how is this possible when they can handle snow during the winter?! i was baffled and irritated from being at the airport nearly all day. they assured us that the plane would be going to denver, we just had to wait for denver to give us the okay. i honestly did not care what time i arrived as long as i made it there. it hits 1:30am and we get a call saying they canceled our flight. definitely not what i wanted to hear. i had to rebook my flight that night and got home at about 2:30. i then had to wake up at 4:45am to head straight back up to the airport. what i did appreciate what that southwest ended up making a new direct flight that morning for those of us who were on the canceled flight. i did not think i was ever going make it to denver and i was so excited once i finally made it. it felt amazing! what does this have to do with monthly macaroni? well, when my flight got delayed until about 10pm handsome offered to make dinner and bring it in the car for us to eat and enjoy together. 

we decided to try a new macaroni recipe with fontina, spinach and bacon. it sounds delicious doesnt it?! he had finished making it about the time my flight was canceled so we were unable to eat it fresh. we decided to eat it for dinner on thursday and made a bit more sauce and more bacon to make it taste a bit more fresh. well, drama and all, it was very delicious! handsome did an amazing job and this years monthly macaroni recipes were immediately redeemed! since we had made more sauce, it was soooo rich and creamy. and i absolutely loved it that way. handsome put a bit more spices in the sauce than the recipe called for and it tasted great. a very delicious move on handsomes part because it gave the macaroni the perfect amount of spiciness. another plus about this recipe, besides the spinach and bacon, was that it reheated wonderfully! we got to eat the deliciousness for multiple meals and it was perfect. i will definitely make it again!

love.

monthly macaroni 2

the macaroni that i made this month was aged gouda macaroni and cheese with smoked paprika and was picked out by my sister because i wanted to make one in celebration of her birthday. and i must say, she did a great job picking because just like the last one, it was delicious!

it was not overly cheesy and had an interesting vodka sauce-like taste to it. it was also a bit lighter feeling than the one i made last month. very delicious, very satisfying, and of course also caused me to stuff my face so much that i needed to take a small rest before moving on to the rest of the day. it was a shorter rest this time though.

i was hoping to have some left over for a small snack, but it was so good that we could not resist eating the whole pan!

since i already have all of the ingredients, i think i may make this again pretty soon so i will have a bunch to bring for lunch during one of my upcoming weeks of awfulness. we will see what turns out!

i am loving this monthly macaroni more than i can even explain. everything has been very delicious so far and i cannot wait to taste the one i choose to make next month! until then, i will cherish the taste of this months choice! yum. yum. yum!

love.

for the love of cheese!

i have an extreme love for cheese. and by extreme love, i mean that the word extreme just may be an understatement. so imagine how i felt when i found a food blog dedicated to 30 days of macaroni and cheese?! basically, i fell in love and tried to decide how i can eat all of them! unfortunately, i cant make one everyday, so i am going to try to make at least one a month, hopefully more. IM SO EXCITED!

sorry diabetes class, it looks as though my diet will now consist of way more than 50% of my calories coming from fat. at least for the next 30 months or so.....

congrats brad, you only thought the amount of cookies and candy i consumed was absurd. i have truly become the most unhealthy person ever and wont ever tell you to not eat a 900 calorie sandwich from subway again.


and the first one on the list is.........

Spinach Artichoke Macaroni & Cheese!

i seriously cannot wait!!!!

alright, my mouth is watering way too much to keep talking about this amazing cheese adventure. i will keep you posted!

love.