Colorado Springs: Balloon Classic

Justin, my parents and I went to Colorado over Labor Day weekend. It was a very quick and BUSY trip but we had so much fun! My mom wanted to take me to Colorado Springs because I was born there 25 years ago and haven't been there since we moved when I was 6 months old - so I obviously don't remember it! Justin and I fell in love with Colorado - beautiful scenery, great weather, and a little bit slower pace than Austin. We pretty much crammed everything to do in CS in a 2 day span.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and went to the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic - a hot air balloon festival! I absolutely loved this! Our old Round Rock neighbors drove up from Denver (they had to get up suuper early) and a supplier my dad works with met us at the festival. It was so neat watching all of the balloons get "blown" up and take off. Once a majority of the balloons had taken off we walked over to the lake nearby because the balloons try to touch the basket to the water. I got tons of great pictures and really enjoyed the cool morning weather with mountains in the background! 

Justin ready to see some balloons fly

so excited!

Sun & balloons rising!

The moon was still out - so pretty

Lots of spectators

I LOVE the colors of this balloon...taking a peek at the inside

Balloon equipment

They're starting to go!

Pretty pretty

We watched this one go from the truck to the sky!

Pretty blue sky

At first we thought the balloon in the back was an acorn...nope it's Smokey the bear

Spirit of Colorado - how appropriate!

So many colors

Fiesta!!

I love the cowboy balloon with the mountains in the background

Balloon touchdown

Soo many balloons

One of my favs!

Love the balloon reflections!

Checkerboard

So much excitement!

There was all kinds of food/vendors at the festival but we headed over to Rudy's BBQ for breakfast. This was a real treat for our Denver friends since the only Rudy's in the state is in CS!

 When we were walking back to the car these guys were landing in the field we were walking by. We stopped to watch them land - it was so neat! They were from the Air-Force Academy.

Breakfast at Rudy's!

Next up...Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, & Pikes Peak

New England Trip

This past weekend Justin, my parents and I took a trip up to New England so Justin could meet my family (especially those who aren’t coming to the wedding). We got into Portland, Maine late Thursday night. On Friday we went out to lunch at Clambake with my grandparents and then took Justin on a tour of Portland all afternoon. We started out with a quick drive through Pine Point (where my great grandparents had a beach house) and then went out to Portland Headlight. It was such a beautiful place! We had nice weather considering Earl was supposed to hit – so the overcast day was not a problem for us! After Portland Headlight we went out to Bug Light Park and then East End Beach. After our Portland tour my mom and I took Justin to Freeport so he could see L.L Bean. It’s changed so much since I was there 2 years ago – too bad we didn’t have time to shop!!





Justin, Mimi, Bampy, & Me @ Portland Headlight

 

Portland Headlight

 Saturday we got up and drove to Boston. It was only about a 2 hour ride and it was a nice sunny day. We were making a game of trying to get all of the state welcome signs - I did better than Justin, just saying! ;) Once we made it to Boston we went on a trolley tour all around. It was a really good way for Justin to get a taste of Boston. We ended up getting off and walking through the Boston Common and going to the North End for a wonderful Italian dinner. We found this little place off the main street that my mom had read a lot of good reviews about and oh my gosh…it was DELICIOUS!! It tied the restaurant we ate at it in San Francisco last summer as the best spaghetti I’ve ever had! I made sure not to stuff myself so I could fit in some gelato after dinner! After dinner we decided to walk off our dinner and walked through Quincy Market on our way back to our hotel – which was near the prudential center. It ended up being about 2 miles but was needed after our dinner!


Frog pond - Boston



Really old cemetary in Boston

 Sunday we got up and drove to Torrington, Connecticut – where my mom grew up. It was a little longer ride than Saturday but not bad at all. The weather was in the 60’s all day which was AMAZING! When we got to Torrington we decided to go to the Goshen Fair – only about a 4 hour drive – that ended up taking over an hour. All this traffic was for this fair so you KNOW it was good! We got to eat lots of yummy (and SO bad for you) fair food including shoestring onion rings, a funnel cake, and apple crisp. After stuffing ourselves in the wonderfully cool weather we decided to go back to my grandpa’s house. It was a really fun day. On Monday one of my mom’s cousins had a Labor Day picnic so Justin got to meet most of my mom’s side of the family. We had another day of gorgeous weather and had so much fun with everyone!




Us @ the Goshen Fair



Me, Dad, & Gee playing bean bags!

 Sadly our trip came to an end yesterday but I was really missing the dogs so it was something to look forward to come home to! Yesterday was Lexie’s 1st birthday so I made her a cake and we had a mini-celebration for her. Of course the new toys we got her are half chewed up/destroyed today but that’s ok!


Get excited about my next post…it will be fully dedicated to Italian sandwiches!!

Off to New England!

I decided to do one quick post before we leave tomorrow. It's been a busy week with work, getting ready for our trip, neighbor dinner, and finishing up the invitations. But hallelujah they're done and sent (almost all of them are sent at least)!!! We finished stuffing, sealing, and double checking our list on Monday night...you can see the excitement in our faces because we are SO glad to be done with these!!

Look at all those invites!

Tonight we have to take the babies to Bastrop to meet Justin's parents because they are watching them for us while we're gone. Since we had to do that tonight we had our neighbor dinner last night. I decided to try a new recipe - Shepard's Pie. Sandie gave me the recipe at my shower and I decided to be brave and make a recipe I had never made before for company. Usually I go with something I've cooked before because I know there's less of a change I'll mess it up. I guess I got some kind of cooking confidence with all of our new kitchen items from my shower!! The Shepard's Pie actually came out really well...at least everyone said they liked it - and I don't think they were lying becuase there was barely any left!! I was so happy that it came out...but was short on time so no pictures :( but it wasn't a very pretty dish anyways.


We leave tomorrow for our very quick trip to New England. I have to pack tonight because I've been putting it off because we don't know what the weather will be like with that crazy hurricane Earl making his way up North. And sadly I'm not taking the Rebel...we are carrying on our luggage and it's such a short trip I have to leave it at home :( but I will have my little canon point & shoot so I will come back with awesome pictures still! So as of right now this is our sched...


Thursday: Get into Portland, ME late at night
Friday: Spend all day with my grandparents in Portland
Saturday: Go to Boston and do touristy stuff because Justin's never been there :)
Sunday: Go to Torrington, Connecticut
Monday: Mom's side of the family is having a Labor Day Picnic! wahoo!
Tuesday: Come back to Texas BRIGHT and early...actually probably dark and early because our flight is at 6am




Hopefully Boston will look like this...



and not like the great hurricane of 1938...

Portland Headlight on a beautiful day...

the surf @ Portland Headlight during hurricane Bill

Hope everyone has a fun @ safe Labor Day weekend!!

Almost all about Rachel :)

I promised it wouldn't be 2 weeks since my last post...this time it's only 1 week - guess I'm slowly getting better at this blogging thing. Once again it's been a very busy week...I feel like this is the way all of my posts are going to start for the next couple months!! We're now at less than 2 months until the wedding...so hard to believe!! My to-do list keeps getting longer and my time keeps getting shorter so I really need to crack down. This past weekend was my bridal shower in Houston. My mom's friend Diana graciously opened up her house for the party. The food was Mexican themed and was SO yummy!! The best part was probably the fact that Lauren brought a GALLON of salsa for 16ish people...it was an accident but still SO funny!


SOO much salsa :)

 In case you don't know - Rachel is obsessed with babies and wants everyone around her to have them. I've already informed her that will not happen ANY time soon. Also, in case you don't know - at bridal showers - the number of bows you break when you open presents equals how many kids you are going to have. Needless to say when I didn't break any bows at the Austin shower Rachel was not too happy. So she brought me this lovely gift to this shower. But don't worry - I opened it like a champ without breaking any bows...in about 20 seconds :)


Nice try Rachel

 All in all it was a WONDERFUL weekends and Justin and I got so many nice gifts from friends! It's funny how anytime someone gives me kitchen stuff there's comments about how it won't get used or that I don't cook. My mom even defends me because that is not true!! I love to cook...I just have a long way to go to be as wonderful of a cook as my mom!!


On a completely unrelated note - I did not take the two pictures above - those were taken by the lovely Rachel Barde and her new camera - which was a graduation present from my parents, and Justin and I. I was probably foolish to get her a camera that has a fish-eye setting built in. If you have seen her facebook albums you will know why.


hahaha

 This weekend won't be filled with as much fun as last weekend :( Sad day :( I have to work tomorrow all day but do get to go to Michael's birthday dinner (hopefully)!!! We should be done with wedding invitations this weekend and ready to send out by Monday!


Next Thursday we are going to New England to visit my grandparents. Justin hasn't met them and they won't be able to come to the wedding so we decided to make a quick trip up there. We're leaving Thursday evening and flying into Maine to visit Mimi & Bampy. On Saturday we're going to Boston (since Justin's never been there) and do some fun stuff there. Sunday we're going to Connecticut to visit Gee! On Monday my mom's family is having a Labor Day picnic so the family can meet Justin. And then we're coming home Tuesday. It will be a very quick/tiring/FUN trip so I'm excited!! I'm SUPER excited about the weather forecast - high's in the low 70's and lows in the 50's. It's going to be hard to come back to this Texas heat (which we've had a little releif from in the past couple of days). Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and a fantastic Labor Day weekend!!