Friends: New and Old :)

Last weekend I drove back home to Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend a best friend's baby shower! Jane is expecting a little girl on May 20th! I can't wait to meet Baby Harper. :) Jane was my "big sis" in Pi Phi during college. I was a freshman and I thought she was so nice and really cool because she was really involved with Greek Week and the Exec board... so one day I went up to her and just asked if she would "adopt" me as her "little". Ha Ha! She said yes, and the rest is history... But seriously, she has been such a great friend and she's been there for me through a lot of life changes.

Baby Harper is growing!

New mommy Tara is looking beautiful as ever!

I got to hold Declan, Tara's baby boy!
I realized it's been a long time since I've been around a baby... like since my sister was born

I've never seen anything so funny. Chihuahua teeth brushing is highly amusing!

That's me with my dad and stepmom. Love you guys!

A new good friend of mine is Gabby! We are in school together and we met because on the second day of class last Fall I noticed that we had all of our classes together. So, being the goofy and slightly bossy person that I am, I went up to her and her roommates and asked if I could join them for lunch. Then I told Gabby that since all of our classes were together we were going to be best friends. ;) So far, so good! 

I'm so thankful that she helped me drive down to ABQ. We had a great time eating New Mexican food, going dancing Downtown, and attending the baby shower. It was really great to catch up with friends and family, even if we were only there one full day. I love being able to drive home in half a day! 

My wonderful friend Gabby! Ha Ha and we're holding little Solo, but he looks possessed. 

A couple of days ago another one of my best friends, Alex, was in Ft Collins. She travels the country as a Pi Phi leadership consultant. She was up working at CSU last week and so I had to go visit her! It had almost been a year since we'd seen each other :/   Alex was my "little sis" in Pi Phi and I'm so proud of all the great things she has done. It's awesome when you have friends that you don't see that often, but when you get together it's like no time has passed.  I'm so thankful for all the great friendships that I have been blessed with. 

Alex and I at Ft Collins Brewery

In other news, John and I bought a slack line. We are now practicing to join the circus in case the economy never turns around... 

just kidding, kinda.

Spring Break Cruise!

Wow! It has been way too long since I've updated my blog! Shoot. Well, no time like the present to start playing catch up. :)

John and I were lucky enough to go on a Caribbean cruise with my Mom, Nate, and Abigail for Spring Break! It was so much fun and so relaxing! Here are some photos from our awesome trip...

Special thank you to Mom for taking us on such a great vacation! :)

A Quick Visit Home

Well, Wow the last three weeks have flown by! I'm sorry for being a "bad blogger" and taking so long to update! Let's see... over the last three weeks I flew home and caught up with my family, quit my nanny job because it was so stressful, found an internship for next year (at SaddleUp!), and will be finishing up the Winter quarter at DU this week! whew
Also, got good news... John got accepted to the Master of Architecture program at UC Denver for this Fall! I am so proud of him for working hard and keeping up his motivation even when working at a dead-end job. :)

Here are some pictures from my recent trip:

Stuffing our faces at Monroe's! I LOVE New Mexican food!

Dining at Zinc before I went to see My Fair Lady with my mom and cousin

Visiting my little Corrie at the hospital... Such a blessing to be near each other when times get tough

After only 48 hours, I had to say bye to my Momma. That trip was way too short!

Saddle Up!

In January I started volunteering at an equine-assisted therapy facility called Saddle Up! It's been a great experience so far and I look forward to it every week. It feels so great to be around horses again... I love it! This weekend has started off wonderfully. John and I went to a new brewery last night called Copper Kettle Brewery and it was so good! And then today I spent the morning at Saddle Up taking care of horses. Here are some pictures from last night and today: 

John and I each got a flight of beer so we could sample all the styles!

Randy, a very well trained therapy horse but who has quite an attitude!

Randy again. We had some free time today so we braided his super thick mane.

Randy and me. Isn't he a beautiful Haflinger horse?

Tomorrow I head home to Albuquerque for a quick trip to visit my family. I'm looking forward to a little escape from school and internship! In other news only four more weeks left in this quarter. Yay! 

Boston Memories

I'm not sure if it's the snow piling up on the sidewalks or just my getting worn out with school stuff, but lately I've been missing Boston a lot. I miss all the neat places to walk to, the different neighborhoods to explore, the T, and of course the friends we made while living there. 

Church of the Covenant (1865) at Newbury & Berkeley in Back Bay

The old American Brewing Company, now lofts in Jamaica Plain

As most everyone know's I was not always a happy camper in Boston, but I'm realizing how much of that was due to mine and John's hectic work schedule. True, John still has the crazy work schedule, but really I think that's what made living in Boston so tough on me. If John and I could have had weekends off together I don't think I would have felt so lonely and we would have had more time to explore our new surroundings... 

Restaurants/ Pubs near Faneuil Hall

Charles River, with Back Bay in the background

Ahh well, my mom has always said that hindsight is 20/20. John and I are planning a trip back to visit our friends in Boston this summer. That is one of the perks of living in several different cities; you make friends everywhere you go and then you have a network of vacation spots to go back to... :)

View of Charles River from Kenmore Square

View of Back Bay from Kenmore Square

And of course, Fenway Park.

Snow Day!

It's been snowing for about twenty-four hours so far and it's supposed to continue through tomorrow! I LOVE it and I think it's beautiful outside. I also have been enjoying my first "free" day in a long time... no school, no internship, and no nannying! 

I still have a lot of homework I need to be doing, but oh well, I'll get it all done eventually.

So, even though all the schools were closed in Denver today and most business also closed... Starbucks was open at 5am this morning! Poor John had to leave the house at 4:15am, at least he got done by noon.

After John came home we took Zeus to the park, which is only two blocks from our house. It was great because there were about five other doggies that Zeus got to play with. Here are some pictures from our walk.

Alamo Placita Park

Zeus with his little snow jacket.

John and I- Don't you love our goofy winter hats?

The view from our front porch.

Now we're home and warm and ready to relax for the rest of the evening. Some hot chocolate sounds perfect right about now...

Goodbyes

Today Chris & Jen, my brother in law and sister in law, left for a grand adventure. They will be walking from New Orleans to New York City! I'm so excited for them, but so sad to see them go. It was such a blessing that we all got to live in Denver at the same time.  

Maybe, just maybe we'll get to live close to each other again in the near future.  

Now as for me...I've got to get back to writing a paper. Grad school is so time consuming!!