Memorial Day Stuff

Happy Memorial Day!!

Memorial Day weekend came and went quickly - and boy are we tired.  I mean, TIRED.  My mom and Jason came up on Friday afternoon to pick up our fence materials in Longmont and meet us for dinner, so as soon as we got home from work, we were off.  We talked about the plans for the weekend-o-work then headed to Breckenridge Brewery for dinner (the bbq one on Kalamath).  I wasn't the biggest fan of the atmosphere/environment, so not sure I'll make it back.  We then hit up Sweet Action (I know I've already referenced it, but SUCH great ice cream!!) and hit the sack early to get ready for Saturday's job: the fence.

Bright and early Saturday morning, my mom and Jason woke up and unloaded the van full of fencing materials (I'm talking like 6am).  Once Matt and I woke up (like, not 6am), we got rolling.  We visited Home Depot to rent a jack hammer and from there we started a day full of several more trips to Home Depot (and more tool rentals, including a chop saw that I got to operate!!), lots of fence post hole digging (poor Matt!), building the fence, and racing to beat the rain by 8pm.  It was all worth it, and we now have a fabulous fence to show for it, and it truly was a family affair.  Lots of hard work, but good times (and we learned a lot!).

We used Sunday to finish the gates and work on a few other projects (fixing the new screen door Jason installed last weekend, straightening up our "landscaping" in the front, cleaning up the back patio, etc.) while we had Jason on hand :)  It's great for us whenever he comes up, but I'm sure he dreads it!  My mom and I went to Paulino Gardens, an amazing nursery (HUGE!) off I-25.  The way we built the fence in front allowed for a small area for flowers, so we got a couple Irises, a poppy, a mini-rose bush, and a Columbine (the CO state flower!).  Our neighborhood seems to have a ton of gorgeous purple Irises, so we wanted to join the "club" :).  I don't know much about flowers/gardens, so my mom helped me plant them, and it looks great!

The dogs (my folks brought up two of theirs) LOVED finally getting to enjoy the fenced in yard.  Lincoln was in doggy heaven :)

We also worked on laying a new concrete landing at the bottom of our patio stairs in the back to try and hide an ugly pipe that sticks up about 4 inches over the ground.  It was a tough task, so after all the hard work (it was originally planned to be red concrete stamped to look like stone) Matt and I actually came back after it dried and decided to try something a little crazy. Left to our own devices (my family left Sunday evening), we ended up doing a few late Monday night trips to Home Depot and managed to come up with something decent.  We'll see how it goes long-term!

We're VERY grateful for my parents offering to spend the weekend doing manual labor with us.  It was so generous to give up their time for us and our new home.  We're definitely blessed.

Memorial day itself was a fabulous one.  Yes, fabulous.  We stayed Sunday night at my folks' place in Louisville so we could head to Boulder early the next morning.  We parked our car at Kari & Jeff's place in South Boulder and got to spend some time with them before riding our bikes into the chaos downtown.  (We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!!)

Our original plan was to try and catch part of the Bolder Boulder, but we ended up heading to Folsom Field first to catch the end of the race.  There were a ton of people enjoying the day, and it was fun to be back on the CU campus.  We rode over to the Sink to grab a beer (Matt had never been, and it's a Boulder tradition!!) and then rode over to Kim and Paul's place downtown.  We had an awesome time hanging out with them, and we even got to catch the elite runners at the end of the race right outside their house!  Kristen and Thomas (and baby Katin) came over for lunch, and we enjoyed a great bbq.  We all walked down to the Boulder Creek Festival where Kristen and I entered our rubber ducks into the rubber duck race on the Creek.  After waiting with lots of anticipation, we sadly found out that our ducks did not win.  Thankfully, we had a great time regardless!!

And of course I'd like to say thanks to all our men and women who have served this country in the military.  We are a mighty nation with many blessings, and I'm grateful for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make so we can continue to enjoy our ways of life.  THANK YOU!  (A great place to donate, if you're looking for one: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/)