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

New home!

That's our home for the next year or so! Precious little townhouse B.

(Thanks to our amazing realtor for spotting it and my super helpful MIL for taking notes/pictures/etc!)

Normally, I would be more than hesitant to sign a lease sight-unseen but I'm in this "my life is SO out of my control that I won't even TRY to be in control of it" stage right now. It's incredibly freeing. The Lord has really taken care of us every step of the way and I'm quickly realizing His plans are FAR better than mine anyways. :)

So all the new home details I know you're dying to hear about... it's 1800 sq ft, 3 stories (well one is the finished basement. Growing up at sea level, basements are so new to me. Weird.), 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths (I'm refusing to think about how much I hate cleaning bathrooms with this one), a gameroom/ loft area, decent size kitchen, and it's only 10 minutes from my new work! I was a tad worried about my commute in the snow so the short drive should really help. Poor Alex has to drive to the Springs 2-3 times a week, though, but I'm vowing right now to cook super extravagant, yummy dinners those nights to make up for it (hear that, hun?)!

From what I can tell (aka google map), our new home is 20 minutes from downtown/nuggets games!, 30 minutes from Watermark Denver, 15 minutes from the in-laws, 30 minutes from the Coors factory, and an hour and a half from Keystone/Breckenridge/WinterPark. As you can tell, my priorities are the nuggets, the Lord, family, beer, and pretty scenery (in that order of course).

Colorado Survival Kit

Seeing as the furthest north I've ever lived is Dallas, it's about time to start stocking up on necessary items for our new climate. Not to mention, I love having an excuse to shop!

So far I'm excited about:

EMU snow boots

and because as my lovely husband stated last week, I "don't wear pants..."

Sara Blakely (the genius inventor of spanx) leggings & tights

I am BEYOND excited about wearing these under dresses & skirts all fall & winter long!

Lastly, a few fall pieces to add to my wardrobe that can transition easily from August to November and go with boots and tights!

Bring it on, cold weather!

In other news, someone signed a contract on our house here in Dallas so it looks like we won't have to be paying double rent after all (praise the Lord!). Now, we just have to find somewhere to live up there....