Duvalls do Denver

Mom, Dad and Aubri came to Denver for their spring break, and kept themselves entertained while Chris and I worked. I took of Thursday and Friday to run around with them. Here's the week in a nut shell:
Monday - rode the Lightrail into downtown to Union Station, walked 16th Street pedestrian mall and toured the Capital, watched the season finale of The Bachelor with Sarah
Tuesday - drove to Castle Rock outlet mall and explored historic downtown Castle Rock, dinner at Pasquini's, desert after dinner at Yogurtland
Wednesday - Toy and Miniature Museum downtown Denver, lemonade with Sarah at Deserts Bar, Denver zoo in the afternoon
Thursday - drove to Estes Park and drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, visited Hilary's new house, dinner at Cheddar's
Friday - Colorado's Wild Animal Sanctuary in the morning, lunch with Chris at Denver International Airport (he is auditing DIA this week), Mile High Marketplace in the afternoon

What a week! By far, our favorite was the Wild Animal Sanctuary - it's the largest of it's kind in the United States, and they rescue animals from exploiting and cruel living conditions. Many of the animals had been rescued from circuses, captivity, "truck stop" attractions, and other terrible living conditions. Every animal had a name and a story, and now they are able to live out their life in 25 acre pens, cared for and loved by the Sanctuary staff. We saw bears, lions, tigers, cheetahs, panthers, mountain lions and wolves. It was very neat, and definitely worth the small donation to contribute to such a great cause.

In Rocky Mountain National Park

MLK Weekend

A bit delayed... but I just remembered I had this photo from January. Over MLK weekend, our SIFE friends from college flew into Denver to spend the weekend in the mountains, in Keystone Colorado. Friends came from California, Arkansas and Missouri - we all decided to spread our wings after college :) We had such a great time! There is just something special about being around people that know you so well, and friends that have been through so much together. We rented a house and had one huge slumber party - some skied/snow boarded, some snow-mobiled, others tubed, it was fabulous. We had borrowed my parents SUV so we could transport everyone, and all the planning and details came together to make it a perfect weekend! Thank you friends for the PERFECT SIFE reunion!

Winter Weekend with Friends

Last weekend Chad, Michelle, Chris and I went to Fort Collins, Colorado for the day, to explore the brewery tours that this area is well known for. We cruised through the O'Dells tour, and saw their "micro-brew" set up, and then finished the afternoon at the Anheuser Busch tour. The best part about being at Budweiser was seeing the Clydesdales! We learned a bit about the history, and how there are multiple "teams" of the Cyldesdales, that are raised to be Budweiser Cyldesdales from the time they are born. Very neat, and a great way to spend a sunny winter afternoon!

The Clydesdale horseshoe are the two on the top, and a regular horseshoe is on the bottom!