Where am I going?

Luke is surprising me by taking me someplace for an early birthday present.  He won't tell me where, other than, "we've been there before."  I've guess about all I can think of and still no hints or crack of a smile that I guessed it correctly.  All I know is it is not Disney

 We went to the Toby Keith I love this Bar and Grille a few weeks ago and they had a drink called the skirt lifter.  I tried it since I like iced tea and it was delicious.  Tasted just like iced tea/Arnold Palmer.  Luke went out and bought a bottle of the Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka for me after that and it is amazing.  Add some water and ice and you are good to go... splash of lemonade or some tea if you wish.

Luke likes the glass that I got while out in Colorado visiting Jen so I may have to pick up a few more when I am out there this summer to have a set of 4.  It says "Name Your Poison."  Anyone have any idea where he is taking me?

Our 2 Year Anniversary

Luke and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary last week by having a low key evening at home.  He wants to go on a cruise of some kind for our anniversary so we kept it simple (like last year).
I made us dinner of broccoli/chicken and alfredo stuffed shells.

 After dinner we had a little campfire in our back yard.  Nothing fancy here, just some nice weather and conversation.

 We watched some tv and enjoyed the cheesecake cupcakes that I made for dessert.  They were quite yummy.  Luke is convinced he should go buy me some special spring form pan thing that you need to make a whole cheesecake now so he doesn't have to peel off the wrappers.

I enjoyed our quiet evening at home and am looking forward to some sort of cruise perhaps this fall when his work schedule is a little less crazy and we can travel.

Friday is Celestial Seasonings Tea

So Friday was my "last" day babysitting Jen in Colorado.  She went to work and I worked in the yard weeding her gardens again until it got terribly hot feeling out and then puttered inside vacuuming, sewing, etc...

 Beautiful sunrises each morning. I'd get up and go for a run, grab a quick bite and then take each of the doggies for a 20-40 minute walk before working in the yard til almost 9 or 9:30.  Shower and then indoor projects before Jen came home from work (between 1:30 and 3:30) for our adventure of the day.

 On Friday Jen took me to the Celestial Seasoning's Tea tour in Boulder.  We had to wear hairnets (Jen has that photo, I'm sure we look stellar).  They had this very strongly odored peppermint room where they stored their peppermint herbal infusion.  After that (we weren't that impressed... um can we have a candy factory tour or one of ice cream) Jen took me for ice cream at Glacier where I sampled about 6 flavors before she pulled over on the side of the road so I could get a better look at the Slurry planes that take off and land in the airport behind her house.

 Incase you are wondering the Slurry planes are the ones that drop the fire retardant on wild fires.  On Saturday morning I went for a run before getting the last of my stuff together to leave.  I had to take a photo of her pests pets since they are so entertaining.  They are pests sometimes (like when Wells has to breathe all over me).  But once they settle down they aren't so bad.

Coda and Wells (would you believe that I cleaned the window a week ago and it was already that messy).  Currently working on my mommy and me adventure list for our trip out there this summer.  Thanks for all the fun while I was visiting you Jen.  Mom and I will tackle some of the projects I wasn't able to get to over the summer (like finish weeding the side yard and paining the pantry).  Keep the little turkey cookin'!

Take a Hike Thursday

Jen thought I was getting bored at her house so insisted on dropping me off to take a hike at Mount Sanita's on Thursday.  The weather was going to be cooler than on Friday... but it was also foggy so the views weren't as great as they could have been.

 The hike started off pretty easy as you can see looking back at the trail that I'd already covered.  I was enjoying this type of hiking so far.  Before you go thinking Jen is a total meanie she would NOT have let me go hiking alone if it wasn't a very well traveled trail.  I am not kidding when I say that I was always within earshot of someone else on the trail (like if I shouted for help) and if I was confused about the trail I could stop for photos and then as the person passed me would be able to see where I was supposed to go.

 Really, the hike was nice until it got closer to the top where it just freaked me out a little bit.  I didn't have on "hiking" shoes but my road racing trainers (no grips on the soles) so this was intimidating.  I did it anyways and was taking my sweet time.

On the way down I was able to get some different views as well.  Although it was foggy you could see that it would be really beautiful on a clear day.  And there were a ton of people hiking with their dogs as well.  Jen told me people hike/run Sanitas before work since it is "easy."

 So it was scary for just a little bit but fortunately on the way down it was like steps built in on the trail or I'd have panicked a little due to my shoes and risk of slipping.  The stairs were steep in spots but overall not bad.

 From one small trail off to the side (a whole whopping 10 feet) I spotted this little hiking area across the street and braved it as well.  It just hiked up to the rock formation and was a wide trail (as you can see from the pic) and took about 20 min round trip.

 On my way to the rock formation... see wild poppy's and these birds were in quite a few places.  Jen let me borrow her giant fanny pack (whoo-hoo fashion) and I carried two bottles of water and some granola plus my camera and cell phone with me.

By the rock formation and then after she picked me up and took me to her office to shower (people bike to work).  After a quick office visit she dumped me at a shopping plaza with directions for somewhat aimless wandering until she got out of work.

Wednesday Movie and Pedi's

On Wednesday Jen surprised me by taking me to the beauty training school for pedicures.  I got the full pedi and Jen just had the basic (I guess there are pressure points in your feet that can induce contractions and labor).  I am glad she went simple since I was very excited to see Spirit of the Marathon II.  Although, the movie wasn't as amazing as the first it was decent enough.

 Jen doing her glamour shots by Deb pose while waiting for her toes to dry a little bit.  Jen had what we will refer to as "Dudette" giving her the pedi.  I had a wonderful gal named Sabrina who chatted with Jen and I while Dudette didn't even attempt after Jen said she was due... um ask when and if she knows what she is expecting???  Jen's polish was clumpy and instead of asking her to pick another color Dudette just globbed it on thick so there wouldn't need to be a second coat.

My little toes after the pedi.  They didn't stay nice though since Jen was sick of me and told me to take a hike on Thursday (don't worry, she didn't leave me for dead).  Since the movie and pedi's is all that we did Wednesday I will leave you with photos from our daily ice cream trips:

Saturday Smart Cow

Sunday Ben & Jerry's

Monday Sweet Cow

Tuesday 3 Margaritas for Fried Ice Cream 

Wednesday Higgy's before the movie (Jen was blurry)

Thursday Ripple

Friday Glacier (where I sampled about 6 flavors)

And finally Saturday Jen stopped at Sonic to get me a slushie on the way to the airport.  I was the one that wanted Sonic slushies all week so she indulged my quirkiness and took me almost daily during happy hour.

Happy Soudan-niversary!

Today my Momma and Papa Bear are celebrating their 33rd anniversary... their Soudan-niversary (Soudan was player #33 for the Rochester Knighthawks Lacrosse team).  Happy Anniversary to some people that are very loved and very much still in love with each other!

 "We'll drink to that!"

Adventure Golf Tuesday

As part of the one adventure a day Jen took me to this Adventure mini-golf place on Tuesday.  It was hot out so we stopped to get Slushies at Sonic first (um, we also went to Sonic almost daily in addition to ice cream... you cannot go wrong with happy hour slushies--I am a bad influence on Jen since this was my must do almost daily thing).

The golf course had 3 courses that you could play so I figured we'd play the Pirate course.

 But we still cannot figure out how a castle is part of a Pirate course?  Oh well, it was quite fun.

So we get to this hole that has a weird ramp type thing and and not very tall edges to help keep the ball in.  I hit my ball a little too hard and it ends up in the water.  Jen tells me to poke around in the bushes since dad found one there when he played.  So I'm poking the bushes and a guy that works there comes up and Jen think's he's going to boot us out for having our slushies since no outside food or beverage is allowed.  He just wanted to make sure they were ours or he'd toss them.  I quickly explain my odd behavior of looking in the bushes to the fact that my ball is now in the water.  He pulls two out of his pocket and let's me pick one so I can finish my round.  

 Jen also didn't like the 18th hole where it eats your ball so we had to go to another of the courses for the 18th hole since it was better.  It shoots water at you and if you get your ball in the center one it shoots fire out a volcano.

 Leaving mini-golf the temp outside:

When it's that hot there is only one thing you can do...

 Go to a Mexican restaurant for fried ice cream.  And if you are me a margarita (I love me a good margarita).

 So we had chips and salsa while waiting for our desserts. Yup, desserts as in we ordered more than one.  We hadn't eaten dinner yet but it didn't matter.  Really, how do you say no to yummy goodness?

 On the left is the fried ice cream with whipped cream in a tortilla fried dough type bowl.  On the right is our sopapillas and flan.  The sopapillas came with lots of honey drizzled over them and it actually tasted delicious mixed with the ice cream from the left.  The flan was ok... I'd never had it before so I gave it a whirl.

Stuffed with desserts we headed back to Jen's house where she treated me to Shemp (her cat) getting a peanut butter bath from the doggies Coda and Wells.  You can read about it here.  These are a few photos I have of the event:

 Peanut Butter on the cat and then let the dogs into the house.  Dogs sniff out the pb and go to town licking the cat, who is not quite sure what all the fuss is about but knows that it isn't really that great being licked by dogs.

 Cat has quite the hairdo after the pb bath and proceeds to clean the dog slobber out of his fur for the next hour.  Jen and Bob's pets do provide hours of entertainment.  The kitties and doggies play fight all the time and it is fun to watch them chase each other around and roll around.