Song from the show

Here's the song I performed at the aforementioned music festival in NM (pics in the previous post). I covered KT Tunstall's "Big Black Horse & Cherry Tree" - it was a blast!



I've been trying to get some videos uploaded, but having trouble with that... I'll try again later!

Summer fun

As has been for the majority of the summer, the last few weeks have totally flown by.  The highlight being our brief trip to New Mexico for a music festival that my mom organized at the Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort outside Taos, NM.  It's a pretty small ski area, but gorgeous nonetheless (I hadn't been yet!). 

This was the first year for the festival, so my mom asked us to bring a "band" down and open for their headliner, the Johnny O Band from Boulder.  Though we didn't have much time to practice (and were somewhat nervous because of that), we ended up having an awesome time!  The weather was good for most of the day, but rain came in late in the afternoon putting a damper on our second set.  Regardless, it was definitely a blast.  Afterwards, we stayed the night in Taos at a beautiful hotel called the Sagebrush Inn (highly recommend it).  Johnny O did a late-night set there, so we all hung out for a bit more before calling it a night.  We met up with everyone for breakfast at Graham's Grille off the Plaza and had a great breakfast before heading back to Denver.  It was a great, quick trip, and we hope to do it again next year!

Some pics from the weekend:

For the album of photos, you can click on the picture below:


Amidst more busyness, we also had Bryan back in town for the night last weekend, which of course we loved.  After picking him up at the airport, we headed to Delite and Beatrice & Woodsley (of course) to meet up with some friends and catch up.  It was a great time, and we can't wait to get to DC in a few weeks!  Tickets are FINALLY purchased to head out East, and since I won't be in class yet, I extended my trip to head up to New York for a few days to finally meet Penny (Nathaniel and Kim's daughter).  Matt and I are both SO ready to be back in DC for a bit, and I think it will really be good for us to see everyone and all the places we love so much.  Colorado has been good to us, no doubt, but I think we'll always have a little piece of our hearts out there. 

That's it for now, I'm finally done with summer school and will be wrapping up at work in the next two weeks now that they've finally found a replacement (I think I "quit" back in May!).  It'll be nice to have some time to get stuff done around the house that we've been avoiding before I'm in grad school for real!! :)

Summer Visitors

Wow, August already - not so slowly, but surely, summer is fading away, but we've had a great few months here in Denver! This last week was no exception as we had visits from both my mom's family and Matt's parents. It was a little busy, but well worth it!

My mom and sister enrolled our little brother Ethan (he's 13) in a week-long day camp called "School of Rock", so Ethan came up last Sunday to spend part of the week with us (the camp was in our neighborhood). Ethan's never really gone to school or been socialized much outside his parents and their friends in New Mexico, so we were really looking forward to him getting five days with other kids that are interested in music (and to just be away from his folks for a few days!!). Ethan stayed with us from Sunday through Wednesday (he stayed the rest of the week with Amber), and we had a great time. Matt was able to help him practice his parts on keys (Ethan played on 3 songs), and we all got to enjoy a concert on Friday evening from the School of Rock campers. It was a blast! The kids ranged from 8-17, and some of them were super talented! I was SO proud of Ethan because I knew it was hard for him to not only meet new people and learn new music, but get on stage and perform it in front of a crowd! He did great, and I hear he wants to go back next year!

Here is a snippet from one of Ethan's performances (the uploader isn't working well):

Matt's parents finally came out for a visit this past week, and we were thrilled to have them. They haven't been out to Colorado since our wedding last March, so we were super excited to show them our home and around our new city. I was a little wiped out from trying to get the house cleaned after we hosted Ethan and moved him over to Amber's, squeezing some schoolwork in, grocery shopping, and getting everything ready for their arrival on Wednesday afternoon, but it was all well worth it!

Wednesday evening when Matt got home from work we headed to the Rockies game (they played the Pirates and lost sadly). We even sat in a row with another Twins fan, and met other MN folks as we walked to a car after the game! Small world :)

Matt had to work on Thursday, so I took Matt's parents up to Chautauqua for a short hike (we got a bit of a late start that morning), and we met Matt for lunch in Louisville. That night we had my dad and Arlene over for dinner, and I made a delicious flank steak (thank you Today Show), grilled asparagus, and grilled peaches (Bobby Flay's recipe for a "new fruit salad" - it had a balsamic vinegar drizzle and proscuitto and basil, yum!), along with individual fake fruit parfaits for dessert. Everything turned out well! My dad had knee surgery that Monday, but thankfully he was off crutches by Thursday night and was able to hang out and have a good time with us!

Friday morning we took Matt's folks to our favorite breakfast joint (along with most of Denver as seen by the lines they have every day of the week), Snooze. We waited a good 45 minutes for a table, but it was well worth it! Everyone enjoyed their orders (I had the pineapple upside down pancakes, yum!), and we were stuffed for most of the day. :)

After brunch, we picked up Lincoln and decided to take an afternoon drive through the foothills to show off our beautiful state. We took Pam and Barry to Red Rocks first (such a fantastic venue!), then drove north on the Peak-to-Peak byway up to Nederland. We stopped at the reservoir in Nederland to try and entice Lincoln to swim, but sadly they didn't allow dogs in the water. We then drove down to Boulder and stopped at the Boulder Creek (near the Library) to watch all the tubers head down the creek and have Lincoln take a half-dip (he never goes in very much). It was a beautiful day!

Friday evening we headed to the School of Rock concert and then took Matt's folks out to a phenomenal dinner at Rioja. We had heard amazing things about the restaurant but had never been (it's a little out of our general price range, so it's a great place for a nice dinner with great guests!). It's usually in most of the "Top ___ Restaurants in Denver", so we had high hopes. Thankfully, it did not disappoint and was perhaps one of the best dinners I've had in a long time! We had a great waiter and the whole experience was WELL worth the wait and price (we got drinks and chips/guac over at Tamayo while we waited for a table). My dinner was phenomenal (the caprese gnocchi), Matt LOVED his lamb, Barry got the delicious chicken, and Pam got an awesome artichoke tortellini). At any rate, it was a great dinner (a late Father's Day/birthday celebration for Barry), and we'd highly recommend Rioja to anyone. Plus, Larimer Square is so much fun at night!

Saturday was a more laid-back day as I made a late breakfast for everyone (the chedder/sausage strata that I've made a few times) and we unloaded the boxes of Matt's childhood that Pam and Barry brought from MN. There's a LOT of stuff we need to go through, so we're bracing ourselves for unpacking them at some point :) We stopped for a quick drink at Beatrice & Woodsley in the afternoon to show off the amazing bar, and then headed to the Empire in Louisville to watch Matt and my dad's jam band play some tunes. It was great that Matt's folks got to see him play put all his music lessons to use still playing the viola!! (A string broke, so he ended up playing mandolin and guitar too) :)

We had a great week with the Larsons and are so glad they were able to step into our lives for a bit. They've had a busy year this year and recently moved to the Twin Cities, so their plate has been very full, and we're glad they were able to get some time away to spend with us. Lincoln loved having them here!!

After the Larsons hit the road on Sunday morning, I headed to Boulder to say farewell (or see you later!) to my best friend from college and her family as they move to California. As I was at my old church (Calvary Bible) seeing all the people there wishing them the best and saying goodbye, I was so overcome with both joy and sadness at their leaving. Kristen has been such a good friend to me, and we were truly a dynamic duo in college with SO many fun memories. But life pulls people in different directions and fills up our schedules, so the past few years we've had a hard time seeing each other as consistently as I'd hoped. And of course, it wasn't until they were leaving that I could express how sad I was to not see her more often and have more of her in my life (which then made me think of ALL the people that I take for granted in my life and how I really want to be better about that). BUT, as she reminded me, we have a great friendship and I know God put her in my life for a reason (one that probably won't ever expire) so she's here to stay! :) I wish them the very best, and hopefully Matt and I can get out to California to visit them and their cute baby girl Katin.