July 4th Weekend

Our friends Matt and Andrea Harp from Springfield came to visit over the 4th of July weekend - it was so great to see them and really good to catch up on the last year of our lives. We attended Drury together and Andrea and I are sorority sisters. We have so many wonderful memories from college together, so it was nice to have old friends in town to share in a long weekend together. 

They got to Denver on Saturday and we did dinner at My Brother's Bar - which Chris claims has the 'best burger in Denver.' It's really just a burger with jalapeno cream cheese on top, nonetheless, it's "the best!" After dinner we went to Little Man ice cream and then sat on the Jeep to watch the Rockie's Baseball game fireworks. It was a great night!

Sunday we walked to church and then to the South Pearl Street Farmers Market which is just a few blocks from our house. We loaded up with veggies and bread for an evening picnic, and ate lunch at the food trucks - lots of local restaurants have food trucks the send to the farmers markets around town, so you can get some delicious grub at a reasonable lunchtime rate. Great deal!

Sunday afternoon we went to the Coors Brewery tour in Golden, CO. Matt has a home-brewing kit and is interested in making his own ale, so he was particularly interested in the tour. 

We stopped by Kaos Pizzaria on the way home to say hello to our fellow sorority sister Katie who lives in Colorado Springs but was in Denver for the Rockies game. It was great to see her and catch up on her life in the Springs. 

Sunday night we packed up our picnic goods and headed to Jazz in the Park at Denver's City Park. Every Sunday night they have live jazz and people come from all over to picnic. Rotisserie chicken, homemade salsa, garlic EVOO from Kansas City (a special treat from the Harps!), bread from the market and of a bottle of '06 Cab Sauv from our CO wine country trip! YUMM!

After Jazz in the Park, we drove down the street to Civic Center Park where the Colorado Symphony was performing. Civic Center Park is the grassy area between the Capitol building and the Courthouse. You may remember photos from the ski competition this winter which was in this same park. There were people covering every square inch of the park for the free symphony concert and to watch the fireworks. They shot off the fireworks from the top of the courthouse, and we were laying in the street directly in front of the courthouse - it was incredible! The symphony in the background during the fireworks show, simply incredible.

Symphony stage

They light up the courthouse and the lights change with the symphony music

Monday morning started with sleeping in and then brunch at Lucille's. If you frequent our blog, you know this is our go-to for out of town guests :) It really is one of our favorites, and with being a New Orleans fan, we just had to introduce him to our favorite spot for beignets and Cafe du Monde coffee.

We went to Morrison, CO to see Red Rocks Amphitheater, and the incredible view of Denver from this high-spot. Beautiful!

Next we headed south and stopped at the Air Force Academy - on July 4th no doubt. It felt appropriate to be there on this holiday weekend. The chapel at the AFA is beautiful inside and out and has won a lot of awards for architecture. Chris loves to see the airplanes too and enlighten us with his aviation knowledge. I should also mention that just for Rita Duvall, Chris wore his Eddie Bauer flag shirt. 

The cross at the alter made of stainless steel

We made it to Colorado Springs and cruised through the Garden of the Gods. This park looks a lot like Red Rocks in Denver, and it's always neat to see the beauty of these natural formations. The beauty never ceases to amaze me.

We finished the day Monday with a BBQ with Chad, Michelle and Colorado Springs friends. I think by this point, we were all very exhausted from a great weekend. We enjoyed good company and ending the weekend with old and new friends. 

We had such a great weekend and are so thankful for Matt and Andrea in our lives. I would imagine that over the course of our lives, most of us will have a limited number of truly genuine and authentic, long-lasting relationships. Relationships that sustain regardless of location or place in our life journey. Chris and I are so blessed to have the Harps in our lives to share in this life adventure together - through marriage, friendship, careers and our faith. We feel so fortunate to be blessed with their friendship and so thankful they came to visit!