Oktoberfest and Fall Colors

We actually had a very busy weekend. On Friday we went out to dinner with WS' sister and her 2 daughters. We actually found a good Mexican restaurant out here. It's called Los Dos Potrillos and it's only about a 5 minute drive from our house. I'm a little bit picky about Mexican food from restaurants. They have to serve homemade beans. If the beans aren't homemade I won't even bother with it. Los Dos is really good.

On Saturday we went to the Denver Oktoberfest with E and met up with one of my high school friends who lives in the Denver area too. She has a 2-year-old. It's good to have someone living nearby who I've known for a long time. The Oktoberfest was okay. It was touted as family friendly and was supposed to have a kids carnival. However, I wouldn't consider a jumper and slide a "carnival." Also, the jumper was $3.00 for a 4 minute jump. So, that part was pretty poor, but at least we had the chance to drink a few beers with friends, listen to polka music, and see downtown Denver all at the same time.
E enjoyed the expensive jumper. Here she is on minute 1 of her 4 minute ride.


My high school friend.


Enjoying our beer.


German Dancers


E and my friend's little girl give bavarian pretzels a try!

On Sunday we decided to check out the fall colors before it's too late. The last weekend in September is known to be a pretty peak time in the mountains. Colorado is known for the changing of the Aspen trees. They turn a really pretty golden color. So, we drove up with WS' sister and her girls to a place called Kenosha Pass. It's about a 90 minute drive from our house. When we got up there, we took a hike on the Colorado Trail. The hike was great. The key is to arrive early. We were on the trail by 9 am. When we were hiking back down at about 11:30, it was really crowded. The hike was pretty amazing. At one point we found ourselves in a pretty big Aspen grove.


E is getting ready to start the hike.


The smallest of the crew.


E with the girls on the hike. Her cousins and their friends.


Our view of the aspen tree tops.


Aspen grove



Taking a rest



Family shot! E was ready to go back at this point. She was done with all the picture taking.

We have had beautiful weather. Our morning in the mountains was a little bit chilly, but by the time we were leaving to go back into Denver it was the mid-seventies in the mountains. It's actually been pretty hot down here. Everyone has been telling us that this is unseasonably warm for the end of September.

At Home Today

Well, I'm at home with E today. She has either a stomach flu or a mild (hopefully) case of food poisoning. She's not feverish, so I'm thinking that it's something she ate. I really hate calling in sick to work. I always feel guilty about not going in. I never call in sick for me, it's always because E's sick. It was such a hassle at my old work because I had to submit lesson plans. That usually took me about 2 hours to put together. I don't have to do that at my new job because my co-teacher can take over when I'm not there.
Even so, I would rather be at work. Especially since I have only been working there for just over a month.

Our weekend was actually really busy. WS had a work party on Saturday and one on Sunday. The party on Saturday was an annual department party. It was hosted by the director of the pharmacy department. She lives in an area of Colorado called Parker. It's about a 30 minute drive from us. Her house is in the middle of farmland. She had a few acres of property. Now that I've been living here for a few months, I'm starting to realize that there's a pretty substantial group of people who love "country living" in Colorado. They move to remote areas intentially because they want to have acreage and animals. I am not someone who would ever do that on purpose. I think that I would be miserable. I like having neighbors and a paved road. I don't crave "country living." But...to each his own.

On Sunday we went to WS' boss' house for his daughter's birthday party. She's about E's age, so we thought she'd enjoy it. WS' boss has a beautiful, very expensive home. Again, we had to drive out to the middle of nowhere. They are another familly craving "country living" and unpaved roads. They have about 36 acres, BUT live halfway to Kansas! Maybe WS and I are the exception, but we just don't desire that kind of lifestyle. I was imagining the commute into Denver. It's probably 60-90 minutes each way. Possible 2 + hours during snow. Not worth it to me. They did have a great house though. E had a good time and had the chance to meet Cinderella (her favorite). It's nice that WS' workmates have families and like to get together. I think that it give him the chance to get to know them a little bit better. It also makes for a more comfortable work environment.

Landscaping Issues

We are still enjoying our house tremendously. Slowly, but surely, we have been able to get things unpacked or stored in the basement. It's amazing how much stuff we have. Our 2 bedroom condo in LA was significantly smaller than our new home. Also, we didn't have a basement or garage for storage. How the heck did we manage to store everything that is now starting to crowd our basement?! Our condo wasn't cluttered and I could open the closets without a ton of stuff falling on my head. I have no idea how we ended up with so much stuff. It almost seems like it expanded in the move.

A lot of the boxes I've been opening and wondering why I even moved it here. And we sorted through a lot of stuff while we were packing. We donated a lot of stuff to Goodwill. Somehow junk managed to find it's way here.

One of the things that we've been focusing our attention on is our yard. It's pretty overgrown at this point. I have to admit that WS and I really don't know anything about yardwork. Although he does know how to handle a mower. He even borrowed one to mow the yard when we first moved in. Aside from that, we don't know what to do. It's difficult for us because winter is approaching and I'm not really sure what to do for the plants to prepare for the snow. Do we pull them out? or do we just let them die? A lot of our flowers have been topped by rabbits. So, I probably should pull those flowers out, but what should I plant in their place? Since it's fall I don't think it's a good idea to plant another type of flower. Maybe I should plant bulbs? Basically we have no idea what we're doing. I like to garden, but my gardening has been limited to a few patio pots of geraniums.

We have decided to bring in a landscaper. I was reluctant to do that (because they can be very pricey), but I think that we really have no other options. The front and back yards have many different types of plants that we would like to remove. In the front there's this big circular patch of ivy surrounding a tree. It's huge and we consider it an eyesore. It's also overgrown at this point. The entire side yard is filled with ivy plants that are sprouting up everywhere. Of course I tried to pull some out last weekend. I think that ivy roots are made of steel. I could not get them to budge an inch.

We want to remove the ivy and other "fence climbing" plants that have been planted and replace them with grass or low maintenance shrubs. I would love to have flowers, but I think that maybe I can just do those in pots. Our neighbor has all of their flowers (which are just beautiful) in pots. So we'll see. We have 2 landscapers coming within the next week to give us an estimate. Yikes! I hope it's not too terribly expensive.

New House Quick Update

We've been so very busy. So, I apologize that I haven't updated the blog lately. We moved into our house over a 48 hour period. Actually, we were in and out of the house last week painting, cleaning, and making small trips. But, our main move was during Saturday and Sunday. We borrowed a large pick up truck from one of WS' friends and began making a few trips with it on Saturday morning. This allowed us to move over our bed. Thankfully we were able to sleep here starting Saturday night. We initially thought that we wouldn't be able to sleep here until Sunday, but since the bed was here on Saturday we made it work.

We had a lot of help from WS' family. His parents came for 2 days to help us and his sister's family watched E all day on Sunday. It's so nice to have family close by and willing to lend a hand. I don't think that we could have done it by ourselves.

We love the house. I don't even think that love is a strong enough word. I feel comfortable, happy, and completely serene in the house. We still have lots of boxes to unpack, but we're already making progress! It is very helpful that I am only working part-time. It's nice to be able to come home and still have energy to do some unpacking.

We'll try to take some pictures when we have more things in place. Maybe we can take some video. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful place to live in. We couldn't be happier. We've met 3 of our neighbors. One even brought us some cookies! I feel like we made such a great choice! It's kind of hard to believe that this is our house. I don't know when it will sink in. We are surely blessed.