July Wedding: Hobbs Visit and Grand Lake

We spent a weekend in July in Grand Lake with Megan and John Hobbs celebrating a sorority sister's wedding. The weather was wonderful and the views amazing. This was the first time we had been to Grand Lake and we fell in love with the beautiful combination of mountains, sunshine and water. We have said many times that we miss the summertime "lake-life" of Missouri, and Grand Lake was just the perfect fix. I know we say this a lot, but we need to plan a long weekend to go back and to enjoy a bit more time in this area. It was fun to celebrate the wedding with sorority sisters, after all, "Zeta lasts a lifetime!" and to spend time with our dear Kansas City friends Megan and John. 

Beaver Creek

Last weekend we visited our friends Stephanie and Michael in Beaver Creek, visiting Colorado from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We initially became friends in a round-about kind of way, partially through two mutual friends Erin and Maggie, and partially through Chris and Michael (who were both working for BKD at the time) meeting at a work training two years ago. Stephanie and Michael are both from Springfield, so we had the friends in common and we officially met over breakfast, with Maggie in Denver. We really enjoy this couple, and we were so excited to be able to hangout in the beautiful Rocky Mountains together!

Stephanie snuck a photo of Chris and I admiring the beauty from the porch of the condo.

Ice skating in July? Only in Colorado. We didn't skate but enjoyed watching the live entertainment at the Beaver Creek Village skating rink.

We also explored the Vail Farmer's Market, which they say is one of the largest in the state. We believe it, it was great! We're big fans of great farmer's markets, and this one really made up for missing the one near our house while we were away in the mountains.

Harps Visit Colorado 2.0

Our college friends, Matt and Andrea Harp came out to visit us again this year, for Colorado 2.0 - the 4th of July trip is becoming a tradition. They asked for the "Colorado Experience" so that is what we gave them! The trip started with a hike to hanging lake, a beautiful hike just out side of Glenwood Springs Colorado.

Note: Trail is difficult. Yes, it was. But, the end was totally worth it!

Views of the canyon from the top.

The lake was crystal clear, absolutely beautiful.

We stayed the night in Glenwood Springs at the historic Hotel Colorado. I don't think you can get much more Colorado-authentic than that! We also introduced them to the Glenwood hot springs and enjoyed some time relaxing that evening.

The next day we drove to Fort Collins and toured the New Belgium Brewery - We've had reservations for this tour for 3 months because its difficult to get a reservation. We were very excited to finally get to see the factory and were very impressed by the tour. All around, very successful trip and a great Colorado weekend.

Matt and I both won a beer on the brewery tour - I won the trivia question, which was "How many bottles are produced per minute?" and the answer is "700." Matt won a beer because he was the only home-brewer on our tour!

Bekah and Beth in Denver

We kicked off a month of friends visiting Colorado with a visit from Bekah and her friend Beth. Bekah and I led Young Life in college together and was a bridesmaid in our wedding, and she's now living in Texas and working as an illustrator for Fossil. Her friend Beth, from Nashville, met her in Denver for the weekend and we all had a great time seeing Denver and hiking! The spent the other half of their visit with another friend, and topped off their trip by hiking a 14,000' mountain. What a trip!

Friday night we had dinner reservations at this great new restaurant in Denver called "Linger." Chris made dinner reservations 3 months ago because reservations are tough to come by on weekend nights! When he made the reservations he looked up which nights the Rockies baseball stadium fireworks would be, knowing the restaurant has an incredible view overlooking downtown Denver (and the stadium). The restaurant also overlooks Little Man Ice Cream - which we all know is one of our Denver favorites - so in the photo below you can see the top of the Little Man milk can, with the fireworks in the distance. It was a magical view, and a delicious dinner with great friends. 

We hiked at Mount Falcon on Saturday, and made a puppy friend along the way!

We also went to Red Rocks Amphitheater to check it out - it really is such a neat place to take people visiting Denver because it is unlike anything most people have ever seen. The natural rock formations and bright red color of the rocks is incredible. I was sad to see them leave, but so glad to get to spend time together catching up.