Grub and stuff

In an effort to keep up with the blog (I'm only a few months in and I'm already starting to lag - which I suppose is relatively common for things I start up...), here's a quick run down of the last few weeks.  I say quick because I'm hoping to pack for our weekend in Palm Desert with Matt's folks and aunt and uncle.  We can't wait to get away - though the weather report unfortunately is predicting some rain.  Hopefully it's wrong :) 

The last few weeks have flown by - we (in no particular order):
Visited quite a few new restaurants (YAY Restaurant Week in Denver!!)
* Walnut Room opened up on Broadway near our house, a fun little pizzeria (we went there pre-Restaurant Week).  Tried it out with Amber and DJ and then visited the Irish Pub next door (Dougherty's) for a drink.  We've had a lot of fun exploring our neighborhood and are still SO happy with our location choice :)

* Strings in our old neck of the Woods (Uptown) - we went there with Joe and Keri for Restaurant Week and had an amazing dinner.  They did four courses and each one was awesome - particularly the extra large creme brulee that I got for dessert :)  All four of us loved the food, so we'll be back for sure.

* TAG - a friend of ours from supper group is a mixologist at this hip new-ish restaurant in Larimer Square.  We took Whit there along with my sister (for R.W. as well).  Food was pretty decent (Matt loved his mainly b/c he got all the crazy unique dishes involving fish and whatnot) - but I'm not sure if we'd eat there again (combination of price and value), though my steak was outstanding.  Drinks were definitely awesome (they use all fresh ingredients), and we had a great time regardless.  (Afterward we met Moe and Nick out at Vesta on Blake Street for a quick drink, which is the last pic.  That was a great place we'd like to go back to for dinner)

* Beau Jo's - a favorite after hitting the slopes here in CO.  After skiing at Keystone (more on that later), we stopped by Beau Jo's to also try and catch the end of the USA-Canada Hockey game (the traffic on I-70 on a Sunday afternoon was at its best, of course, so it took us only about 3 hours to get there from Dillon!).  The game did not end up well, but at least we got to show Whit the awesome crust that is Beau Jo's served with honey :)

Ok, enough on food.  The best part of the last few weeks was Bryan and Whit's visit to CO.  I picked them up on Friday and we went to dinner at D'Corozon and then headed to the Rio.  It was a great evening with several of our friends hanging out with us as well.  Julie and Jordan came down from Loveland and Casey and Zach met us at the Rio (and joined us at Maloneys as well).  We had such a blast that night.  Again, as I'll probably say several more times before they leave for Africa to do some awesome work, I will MISS those two so much!  

 

(that's the boys watching Apolo Ohno's last race)

The next morning (after an interesting moment resembling a certain popular movie - Bryan knows what I'm talking about) we grabbed brunch at our favorite local spot Sputnik (yummm). We then headed up to the mountains to meet up with Bryan's fam in Keystone (after getting uber-lost thanks to GPS and google maps while trying to find their rental home).  We had a blast hanging out with them, playing games, and eating an amazing dinner of smoked pulled pork that Lee and Ron made.  The next morning the guys hit the slopes of Keystone while I hung out with Lincoln and hit the Outlets (of course).  They had a great time, and then we headed back to Denver (sans Bryan of course).  That was when we hit the ridic traffic but stopped at Beau Jo's.  We took Whit to our church for the evening service so he could meet a few of our friends (our friend Nick was playing drums with the worship team).  Great service, per usual, and we hung out after at the Pub on Pearl to catch up with Nick and his buddy Noah.

We really loved getting to see Whit (he lives in Jakarta working for the State Dept now, so it's rare that we see him), and I wish we could hang out with him more often.  He's had a rough time in his new job, and I can't imagine how hard that must be being SO far away from home and friends.  We miss him already and can't wait to see him in another 1.5 years when he's back in the States (hopefully). 

Last night I served as photographer for a famous little jam band you may not have heard of whose members include both my dad and my husband :)  They've been jamming together regularly for awhile now (Matt's a late-comer to the group), and this week they got to bring their Wednesday afternoon jam to Empire in Louisville.  It was a blast - they sounded great, and I'm hoping they can do it again soon!  (if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I posted a video from it too)

So, according to my camera, that's about it!  My brain is a little too full to remember what else went on, but I'm sure some other stuff did :)  Oh, we did book our trip to the Bahamas!  We'll be setting "sail" to Nassau on April 16th!

For now, we're off to Palm Desert tomorrow.  Can't wait!  See you soon :)