Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Alex and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary in Breckenridge a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting up to posting pictures... oops. Thankfully, we celebrated early so I'm really only 5 days behind on our anniversary!

The pictures aren't the best but it was gorgeous, snowed a ton, we ate an amazing dinner at this restaurant called Hearthstone in town, explored all the cute shops/cafes, and had an incredible view of the mountains from where we stayed.

I love being married to my best friend :)

Cookie Exchange

Last night, my friend Elli and I hosted a cookie exchange at my house! We had a great turnout and TONS of sweets! (and it inspired me to decorate like crazy for Christmas-which is always a good thing!)

with my lovely husband and our tree!

the 2 hosts with abbey

next door neighbors and some Watermark guys

the Greers

alex with the almost-newlyweds

now I think I need to go for a run....

Janet and Rick take Denver

Well, seeing as my parents had a dog named Denver as newlyweds because they were SET on moving up here at some point, we've decided to slowly try and convince them it's not too late! They came up to visit and celebrate my mom's birthday almost 2 weeks ago and we had so much fun!

I forgot to take my camera with us for most of the adventures but we had a blast watching football at BWW and shopping at Park Meadows, taking the light rail downtown for H Burger and drinks, taking them to our church, heading to Idaho Springs with the Herndons to explore/eat Beaujo's Colorado pizza/try some rootbeers and beers at Tommknocker's brewery, and best of all, celebrating my mom's 55th birthday with Buca di Beppo and Gigis' cupcakes!

Here are a few pictures I stole from my mom' s iPhone from her birthday! The first few are of the walk we took near our house and then of my parents at dinner. Enjoy!

Thanks, Uncle Warren!

So for the past week and some change, I've been in the bustling metropolis of Milwaukee, Wisconsin embarking on an 8-week training program for work. Thankfully, it's only 2 weeks in the Midwest, 4 weeks at home and 2 weeks back here. I'm slightly concerned about the snowy conditions during my return trip in December... prayers would be appreciated!

This is my first experience traveling more than 48 hours for work and I must say it's been an experience. I've loved expensing nice meals out downtown (The founder of my company's name is Warren Johnson... hence the saying "Thanks Uncle Warren" was born!), being in a "walking city" during the times we actually escape the hotel, and I must say having a gym directly below me has somehow inspired me to run most mornings before work. Now, that is a FEAT! I've met alot of great people too which has been the key to bypassing home-sickness.

One particular "thanks Uncle Warren" moment occurred this weekend when the company paid for Alex to fly out to visit! We made the most of our time by traveling to Chicago! Neither of us had been and we loved it! We came home with quite a few blisters from walking around for 6+ hours but it was well worth it.

With some other JCI folks on the train

Union Station
Sears Tower

I must say I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, just eating a sandwich instead of fancy/expensive meals, doing boring household chores like laundry and just life getting back to normal. But for now, I'm enjoying the life of a traveling woman :)

These are a few of my favorite things

Fall in the Mountains

My mother-in-law's pumpkin patch

Exploring downtown Denver

...making new Colorado friends, introducing the "natives" to Yogurtland, Alex playing the piano quite a bit (stay tuned for more details!), gearing up for visitors, and starting to rack up frequent flier miles for work so we can visit our faraway friends!

We love our local farmers

After watching Food Inc. and reading In Defense of Food (both of which I highly recommend), I knew I wanted to change how I grocery shop. Thankfully, Colorado is the perfect place to do that! I have recently fallen in love with fresh, local and/or organic produce and Alex and I both have noticed how good we feel when we're eating less processed food. Now don't think we've gone too far off the granola deep end, I'm still stocking up on coupons for Annie's organic boxed mac-n-cheese. :)

The first Wednesday we were here, we headed over to this cute shopping center nearby and realized there's a farmer's market there every week. This place is the highlight of my Wednesdays!

We also had a farmer's market success story here the other day. You see, my husband has never been a fan of cantaloupe. I really like it but never buy it because it's hard to make it through a whole one by myself. We tried samples of fresh, local cantaloupe here and Alex absolutely loved it. We brought one home and were both obsessed with it. Goes to show fresh fruit is just that much better, huh?

Last but not least, my loot for today. We were pretty well stocked up already on some deals at Whole Foods and Sunflower so I just got peaches, pears, apples, green beans and homemade kettle corn. Yum!

Getting to know you... getting to know all about you.

Well, I'm about a week and a half behind on blogging about this but felt that I absolutely HAD to document the outdoors-y-ness that occurred... Our second weekend as Coloradans was spent camping! Mind you this was only the second time in my life to sleep outdoors so it was a pretty big event. :)

Our church hosted a married couples retreat in the middle of gorgeous Golden Gate State Park and we had such a great time getting to know other couples, telling funny stories around the campfire and watching out for the bear that was recently spotted on the grounds.

Thankfully, the campgrounds had restrooms, Alex didn't make fun of me too much for wanting to sleep on an air mattress, and I brought (and wore) about 3 times as many layers as all the locals to sleep in. Baby steps.

Thanks, Heather, for the pics!

Day Trip to Boulder

Well, for a couple of months now, we've been taking turns planning weekly date nights and it has been so fun! This week was Alex's turn and he went all out by planning a date day in Boulder. We went on a morning hike in Chautauqua Park, headed over to Pearl Street for falafels/gyros and a little window shopping, checked out the Boulder farmers market (which was amazing btw), went to the Avery taproom, then finished off the day with Larkburger for dinner. It was a busy but very fun (and yummy!) day!

Boulder in the distance

I must say my favorite thing about today was strolling down memory lane. Four summers ago, when Alex and I had been dating just a few months, he took me up to Boulder to hike the Royal Arch (same park as today, just a little harder hike) and eat falafels on Pearl Street. Here's a little throwback pic for you :)

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend!

What a GREAT "read"!

Well, we're officially Colorado residents! We left Dallas last Sunday morning, stopped in Canyon for the night with my sister's in-laws, and got here Monday afternoon. We have been working hard all week to get the new place together and it's really starting to feel like home!

Back to the lovely 14 hour drive we did to get here, to say I was worried about getting bored is a HUGE understatement. :) Being in the Jeep by myself didn't sound appealing in the least, though I was excited about the roadtrip w/ Alex and my dad. So we decided to download an audio version of a book I'd heard about and Alex and I listened to it in separate cars and compared notes. We're cool, I know.

Please do me a favor and buy this book right now. I absolutely loved it! Besides the wonderful fact that it made the drive fly by, it completely challenged the way I live out my faith. It's so easy to look through what the Bible says through the lens of the "American dream" and not stop to notice how the Lord really calls us to live.


If you want a little more info about just how life changing this book is, check out this post from a blog I stalk (she led a bible study I was in my senior year of college so I guess it's not REALLY stalking :) )
or just read the book and see for yourself.

Bye Bye Dallas!

pic found here.



Dearest Dallas,

While I'm really excited about moving to Colorado and all the adventures that lie ahead, I thought it would be appropriate to take a moment and say goodbye. You were the city where I started my first job, made that strange transition into "adulthood", had my first little married apartment, built a wonderful foundation for my marriage (thanks in huge part to our amazing FG), and spent the last 2 years surrounded by wonderful friends and family. Though your current hot weather is making me itch for Denver (especially when our AC was out earlier this week, but that's another story) , your random cold winter this last year was a little gift to me. I joked all winter that all that snow was God's way of preparing us to move to Denver one day.... little did I know that was the truth.

This time in Dallas has been nothing short of wonderful. The Lord has been so purposeful in equipping me, breaking me, and growing me in this place and the people positioned around me during all that were just what I needed. I have complete peace in the fact that our little family will thrive in our new home, so much so that I'm totally overwhelmed. I feel so confident in the Lord's guiding and am very eager to see what this past 2 years has been preparing us for!

The main things I'll miss about you, Dallas, are your abundant bounty of Tex-Mex (esp queso), living within walking distance to my sister (maybe not"walking" in this heat but oh well) and easy driving distance from my parents, knowing my way around a city/state, getting a little cred when I wear my aggie ring, all the nostalgia associated with our favorite date places and "firsts", how your seasons (or lack of) so appropriately fit with my wardrobe and love for dresses and skirts, and the people here who "know me-know me".

Thanks for making the first step of my journey as a Herndon just-right. I'll make sure to enjoy my last week here and then I'll see you over Thanksgiving (please make sure to stock up on queso before then)!


Sincerely,

Your faithful resident since July 2008