Springtime Visitors

I feel like we blinked and the weekend was over.  What's that all about? 

The weather has been warming up and that means finally getting to enjoy the outdoors a bit more.  Friday night Matt and I grilled on our "indoor grill" (i.e. the left side of the stove) and ate a nice healthy meal on our patio.  We also met our interesting neighbor while he was hammering clorox-soaked nails into a tree - a tree that is growing between our two houses in the dead space that apparently the city owns (and does not care about).  The tree has apparently been on his nerves for several years, so he's made 2010 the year that it will official die.  He's gone to great lengths (including pouring drano into holes at the base of it) and the tree still continues to grow into his yard and drop its nasty brown blossoms all over the place.  It's quite funny hearing the anger in his voice when discussing how much of a pain this tree has become.  I think he's taking out more than just the tree anger on it ;) 

Saturday morning we drove up to Greeley to see Emma (our sister-in-law, David's wife) who was playing tennis at UNC.  It was great getting to see her and spending a small amount of time with her as she was in town.  We got to take her by our house, so she officially became the first Larson to see it!  We ended the evening with dinner down in Lone Tree at Pasquini's with her team from UND and her cousin (who just so happens to play for the Broncos!).  It was a great day.

Sunday morning Matt and I took a short bike ride around our neighborhood - we're trying to teach Lincoln to run with us while we bike, but he's still quite enticed by any object that moves ("shiny object?") - so, every now and then Matt gets tangled up in the leash and I think it may not be the smartest of ideas. :) 

In a time when we're definitely missing the beautiful springtime weather in DC (and the gorgeous cherry blossoms), it was great to get a visitor from the east (have I mentioned lately how much I miss our friends out there?  It's getting pathetic).  Our great friend Karen was in town on work but got to come by and see our place and have a few beers with us before we all headed to the Rockies game.  It was the PERFECT day for baseball - and the PERFECT way to catch a game: in the Fox suite!  Thanks to one of Karen's friends, we were able to get in for free and eat plenty of food (and drink some Coors of course).  I'm pretty sure I'll never appreciate watching a game from the Rockpile ever again :) 

Against Matt's wishes, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Target on Sunday evening to get a few "necessities" (this is Matt's least favorite activity in the world) but got a surprise call from our friends that are moving to Uganda.  They had been in Nebraska for awhile spending time with family, so we haven't seen them in a few weeks.  Sadly we'll be gone for their big going away shindig (and bowling fundraiser), so I was glad they wanted to grab a quick bite to eat!  We met them at Pho-Fusion over in West Highlands.  Always great to see them... I think I've said it a lot, but we're really gonna miss them.  It's hard to find friends that you can connect with on so many levels, but we're glad to have at least had SOME time with them.  We'll see them one more time before they head out to Africa, so I'll write more on that later.

I got to spend some time with an old friend at lunch today - she got me some new Rainbows from the factory in California (awesome) and brought her adorable almost-6 month old daughter.  I don't get to see her often as life keeps us both busy, but it's always nice to sit down and chat with someone that has been such a big part of your life, you know?  Sometimes I really miss the "old" days of friendships... like certain periods of times with certain people where you felt like nothing could be better.  Does that make sense?  It's funny how friendships have their ebbs and flows, and some come and go... I'm definitely one of those people that would prefer they not ever go!  But such is life.  All that to say that I'm so glad Kristen is still in my life after all these years - we have shared some of the greatest laughter sessions of all time together.

We're now in preparations for the Bahamas and just hoping the work week goes by quickly!  There's a few other important things going on this week that I can't share about here but will definitely be in a lot of prayer for.  Hopefully I'll have a good update for you in the future... just not sure if or when.  For now, we'll be seeing you after we're nice and bronzed (hopefully)!  I'm also hoping Matt can win a few bucks at the Casinos in Nassau.  Fingers crossed.  :)