Last Sunday was a free day at the Museum of Nature and Science. This picture of us on the roof with the skyline in the background. The green space between us and downtown is City Park - beautiful! This is a better view of City Park. City Park is right downtown Denver, about 10 blocks from my office. This is Chris in the dinosaur exhibit. This is a picture of downtown Denver. You can see Chris' really tall building that looks like a cash register. To see my building, look in front of his, and in front of the two identical redish buildings. My building is the short white building that is just barely taller than the trees. Or, you can just see my building here: http://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com
Wash Park - 5 blocks from our humble abode - is the best park in Denver! Farmers market on south Pearl Street, not very far from us. We walk there after church on Sundays! Duffyroll Cafe - the best cinnamon rolls in the world! We make ourselves walk there and back to justify the indulgence. Lightrail station just 4 blocks from our apartment. Sarah thinks it is beautiful art, Chris thinks it is impractical. Our church, 2 blocks from the apartment.
We had a pretty eventful weekend and spent most of Saturday at the Colorado State Fair. It was a lot of fun - even with us passing up on the deep fried twinkies and oreos.
...resulting in a (very needed) update on the Gilstraps. We've had a fabulous summer full of family and friends visiting us, and we're officially moved into our new apartment. It's cozy and an awesome location - just blocks from a great park, from our church, and from a neat farmers market every Sunday - which is becoming our weekly post-church tradition. Our new Colorado friends joined us for the Denver Arthritis Walk 2009. We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park on a day off, and have spent a lot of fun nights with Denver and Colorado Springs friends. We did Vegas in a weekend. It's been a great few months and we have nothing but wonderful memories to cherish as a result.
Denver Arthritis Walk 2009
Vegas with SIFE Friends from College
Rocky Mountain National Park, Trailridge Road (the highest paved road in the US)
It's been a really, really long time since we've posted, and we're sincerely apologetic. Some highlights since our last post...
Sarah started her new job and is loving it!
Chris ran the Colfax 5k...
...and he also ran the Bolder Boulder 10k! (see photo below)
Sarah went back to Springfield for Drury graduation and her best friend Megan got engaged!
The Arthritis Walk was a huge success and Denver raised $70,000 for the Arthritis Foundation! Four friends walked with us and we had friends over after the walk for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun!
We are moving to a new apartment that is just blocks from Wash Park - the most beautiful park in Denver! We move June 30.
We're headed to Vegas for the weekend! Hopefully our next post will be sooner than later :)
We spent the weekend in Vail with our besties Chad and Michelle. It was so warm and sunny! We took the long way back to Denver and through the windy beautiful roads. One of our best weekends yet, for sure. Today, they closed Denver. A blizzard hit and literally, everyone was let out of work at noon and rush hour happened from noon to 2pm. I was picking up Chris around that time so we experienced the mass exodus out of the city first hand. The snow is absolutely beautiful though and we enjoyed an afternoon together working from home! Snow was mysteriously in the back of the jeep...hmmmm?
I (Sarah) had my 2nd interview with the photo memory and scrapbooking store today. I'm really hoping I get the position - it would be great to have a part-time job! I would be a sales floor associate and in a few months I could train to be a teacher for the classes - I think I would really enjoy working with people and especially teaching. So we'll see.
We're so content with where we are at right now in life. We're loving Colorado and the incredible mountain view. We're making lots of friends and I'm loving having girlfriends here. Everyone we've met is so fun to be around and has such inspiring, solid faith. It's neat to meet couples that are just where we're at in life and we're looking forward to continuing to share the good times (and challenges at times) of our newlywed adventures in Colorado. I know it's cliche to talk about this first year of marriage as being such bliss, but really, we're so happy.
We love you all lots - and are looking forward to our full March - April - May months of visitors!
We're busy making memories. Here is a glimpse at just a few.Chris and Chad in the photo titled "The Handoff."Chad and Michelle on top of the world. We hiked the Royal Arch in Boulder.Chris made himself at home.Thats me (Sarah), Chris didn't bother to ask me to turn around.
Last weekend in Springfield was a lot of fun. It was great that we got to see so many close friends and family in such a quick trip.
Top highlights:
- breakfast with Stuart, Julie, Kim, Katie and Kendra at Gailey's
- surprise manicure with Hilary (from Chris for Valentines Day)
- Chris crowing the 2009 Joe College (I think it was my first official "proud wifey" moment!)
- seeing Zetas galore!
- seeing Blosser
- breakfast the next day with Carrie, Mont, Jacquelyn, Andrea and Matt at Gailey's (the guy working said, "Back again?" Our answer, "Duh.")
- gourmet lunch with Mollie, Christine, Aubri, Alayna and chef Dad
The ZTA Centennial dinner was great, and so inspiring. Many women there were quite a bit older than us young ones, and it was neat to see how committed they still are to sisterhood. Megan Blosser sang the song she wrote about Zeta and it was amazing (see video below).
"Some days I'm on top of the world, others I'm on my knees, and I can't do this on my own... In this life I'm gonna try, gonna cry, but I know that it will be alright. Gonna smile, gonna fight, gonna fly. I'm gonna live, gonna hope, found my home here with my biggest fans. They love me for who I am, they love me for who I am."
I (Sarah) had kind of a rough week last week because I found out I didn't get a job I had interviewed for. The people and the position had seemed very promising and my hopes were a little too high I think :) It is reassuring that after a rough week, God has a way of showing me His love in the most obvious ways.
Chris and I had a date night Friday night and saw the movie Madagascar 2 at the $1.75 theater. We even splurged on a soda and our favorite candy, Junior Mints. After we hit up Coldstone with our buy-one-get-one coupon, bringing the total cost of the date to $14 - what a great night!
Saturday we hiked in Colorado Springs with our friends Chad and Michelle, then had dinner at their house. Lots of their friends came over and we had a so much fun playing games and eating delicious food. That kind of awesome fellowship and community has been hard to come by since we've been away from all our college friends - so we enjoyed every minute of it and soaked it in all night!
Sunday we ate breakfast in bed because since Chris has been working Saturdays, he really has come to cherish his Sunday mornings in bed. We went to the 11 o'clock church service and are enjoying our church a little more every week. Sunday afternoon we went to a broadway comedy skit at the Denver Civic Theater called "Defending the Caveman." It was a HILARIOUS interpretation about the differences between men and women - so funny! We finished up the weekend by watching the Grammy's together last night, what a wonderful weekend :)
Monday morning I volunteered at the Arthritis Foundation - it was great to get out of the apartment! Ironically enough, I did lots of work with my little finger joints and actually it was kind of tough haha. I kept thinking, "oh wow my joints don't move like this anymore." I met two women that work there that are about my age and it was great to make a couple friends! I'm volunteering on M-W-F mornings, so thats something to look forward to!
We're headed to KC then to Springfield next weekend and are really excited to see family and friends. We'll be at the Zeta Tau Alpha Centennial Celebration and also Drury's Homecoming. Chris will be crowning the new Joe College! Have a great week!
Chris was assigned to a client in Pueblo so Sarah tagged along for the week. There wasn't much to do in the booming metropolis of Pueblo, but we did get to see Senator Salazar's office - he's the new Secretary of the Interior under the Obama Administration.
Pueblo is kind of like a mini San Antonio, Texas. There is a mini river walk, neat!
A week or so later, we went hiking near Boulder. The weather has been great and we've been spending our weekends outdoors!
Mom, Dad and Mollie came to visit us in Denver for my birthday weekend - they took us on a tour of our own state and we were very worn out by the time they left. The adventure started on Saturday, exploring Denver's 16th Street Mall.
Mom and Dad on the free 16th Street Mall bus - aren't they cute in their matching puffy vests? Mom, Mollie and Chris hiked around Mt. Falcon.
Dad really liked this wall of old license plates we saw in Morrison. "This was the auto body repair shop we broke down at on one of our vacations" says dad. "There is a shop that we broke down at in every state" says mom.
The Day started with a delicious delivery from Stuart, Julie, Kim, Katie and Kendra. Edible Arrangements - Sarah's favorite! And ended with Chris's surprise, dinner at the Denver Aquarium! It was feeding time in the huge tank and the scuba diver waved.
New Years Eve with Chris' cousins Daniel Gilstrap and fiancee Sarah Lacy + Andrew and Melissa Gilstrap. Then a few nights later, in the middle of a Colorado blizzard, pizza + drinks with our Colorado friends Michelle and Chad Achterhoff. We appreciate our friends a lot.
