Photo Challenge Day 4

Day 04 - A picture of a trip you took.

Back in 2005, Jake and I spent a few days with my mom & Marsha at my mom's land in Southern Colorado. There is a lake across the road and down a little ways where the local wild horses stop to get a drink. Oddly there is a donkey that travels with the horses. On this day the horses came up to us on the road to say hi. While I was messing with my camera the donkey came up behind me and bit my butt! Marsha & Jake just laughed at me. Bit in the ass by an ass...

Croquet Chacheria

Check out my new Tuesday necklace. Are you jealous?

New Life

This weekend is Easter weekend, but before we could celebrate, Jake and I had a task to complete. My hub was nice enough to hang a new curtain rod for his mom. She was long over due for some new threads!

The only problem was I had no function when it came to this task,... so I sat in the living room watching him drill holes & measure. I thought to myself, thank heaven he knows how to do this stuff, because I don't own a single tool!

Later that night I had to make a dessert for our Easter dinner. I set out to make a white cake with berries & filling. Maybe it was the humidity, but it turned out SOOOO bad. I didn't take a picture of the end result because it was frankly embarrassing.

I was feeling a little down about my cake, so I headed over to Penny's for a pick me up. We laughed and I helped her make strawberry rhubarb pies. I'm so lucky to have such a kick ass mother-in-law! Step-moms RULE!

Feeling better about the day I decided on the way home to stop off at the grocery store and start over. Only this time, pie! I made a SUPER duper cherry pie. The accomplishment lifted my spirits. (and made my house smell delicious!)

The next morning was EASTER! Penny and I attended the services at Sloan's Lake Community Church. I've been wanting to check it out for awhile. It turns out they have a Hand Bell Choir, which I've never seen in person. It was really neat!

On our way to dinner at Cheryl's, Jake and I stopped off at Penny & Kevin's to say hi to Grandma Ann. She always asks Jake "Are you married now? Who did you marry, what is her name? Well I have a check for you somewhere, I just need to find my purse." Gran also decided to tell Bryn she thought her dress was too short. We all giggled, but Grandma couldn't hear us. I'm thankful to know her, she is so unaware of how awesome she is.

At Cheryl's we walked into bubble-ville. The air was filled with soapy fun!

Josh had the motor pumping and Jonny kept trying to eat them.

Yum Yum!

We had a little time to play before dinner and the rain, so we all went outside.

Isn't this tree amazing? The boys climbed it like little monkey's. From one branch to another, jumping and swinging.

Can you find Josh?

At this moment Josh said, "I'm going to swing from the tree and give Grammie a heart attack." Jake and I looked at each other and cracked up. Needless to say Jake was keeping an eye on him from then on.

Jonny-goofy-kins and his little Frankenstein walk.
I think "ball" is his favorite word.

We decided to have a small Easter egg hunt. Josh hid all the eggs for Jonny to pick up. The first egg Jonny saw and picked up was a hard boiled egg. He said "Ball???" and then THREW IT! The egg went splat and we all stood there laughing! He mostly got the idea, but every once in awhile Audrey had to grab it out of his hands before it went flying.

After dinner Josh  & Jonny played hide & seek in the kitchen pantry. It was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Jonny said "Josh" plain as day. If he can say Josh, he can definitely say Jessie!!! I'll be working on that!

At the end of the day I closed my eyes, rewound and replayed the weekend. I smiled at the love in my life. I feel thankful for the world around me, for Jesus and for my family, they all fill my heart with new life.

Happy Spring!

Forever blowing bubbles...

Today I went to lunch with Breeze & Stacey at our favorite Chinese place on 11th & Ogden. After lunch we walked next door to 7-11 where I purchased some Bubble-Yum strawberry watermelon bubble gum.

Stacey and I chewed on our gum for awhile before getting some good results. Check out our cute faces!

We sat at my desk cracking up.

Stacey + Jess = Awesome!

Photo Challenge Day 3

Day 03 - A picture of where you work.

My desk isn't super cool or anything, but luckily I face the windows. I've been watching them do construction on the building across the street for the last two years. They still aren't finished! I would rather spend my days making delish treats at affordable prices, but I just cant figure out how to come up with the cash. Until then, this is my daily home away from home. Kinda boring!

Hip-Hop you dont stop!

This weekend I had a date with Audrey and Jonny.

We grabbed our gear and headed out.

It was Jonny's first trip to the library. We read books and picked ones to take home. He also liked hearing the sound of his own voice echo, so he talked non-stop. He said "hello" to everyone he could.

 

Don't you love Woodbury Library? This would also go on my list of favorite buildings. I have so many childhood memories here. I thought for sure I would one day see the librarian ghost from ghostbusters.

After the library we walked over to the new playground at Highland Park.

He was laughing so hard.

He kept tilting his head back to look up into the tree.

After our date I headed home to my honey. I had another first to tackle.

Puff pastry eclairs, with vanilla filling, white chocolate frosting & almonds.

They came out so pretty!

Next I melted down dark chocolate and did my best at giving them some flare.

I was surprised I did so well as the chocolate was burning hot!!!

End result... DELISH!

Steph came over for dinner and showed us in utero pictures of her baby boy!

The next night we shared what was left with Audrey, Cheryl, Jonny & Stacey.

When everyone went home we dialed up Hawaii on Skype. Jake and I had sent Cyrus an Easter present and we wanted to see him open it. At first it was really weird to take a picture of my computer screen. These are the snaps Jake took!

Peep the bunny masks.

This one reminds me of a Beastie Boys video.

It was a really good weekend. I played at the park, got a pedicure and brunch with Stacey, shared music with Audrey, shared dinner with friends and family, and watched two dorks on Skype in bunny masks.

It must be Spring!

Wa-Wa-Weekend in Taos

Its Mau-Town's birthday so Maura, myself, Chris & Naomi hit the road, North Side style! We charged our ipods and jam packed the car. Once we finally got out of Denver we non-stop sang!

Destination Casa Avelina.

When we woke up it was Maura's birthday! I made a kick-ass fruit salad and with the left overs we decided to make box wine Sangria. Maura suggested that we take the box wine for a walk & hang out at the pool. A day of cocktails at the swimming pool? Yes please!

At the pool Chris & I noticed this posted sign.

Why aren't there any phone numbers???

Before the sauna.

AFTER the sauna. The warning signs they post are for real. 

Hot sauna's definitely speed up drunkenness.

On the way back to the Casa, we found an alien shrine. Maura went in for a better look and broke off an alien. I'm pretty sure she angered the alien gods because it was all downhill for her after that.

Oops! Spilled the Sangria. Sad face.

For a couple of reasons there aren't any more pictures of Maura's birthday posted in the blog: a) We are ladies, and not to be thought about in any other way; b) Maura would probably kill me if I posted them; and c) She spent the rest of her birthday on the bathroom floor. So if you just cant handle it and NEED to see the pictures, you're going to have to obtain Maura's permission before I show them to you!

Chris, Naomi & I headed into town for some missing groceries. This was our sunset. UNBELIEVABLE!

Micaela and Mike made it to Taos that night too. We all (minus Maura) sat in the hot tub together and made jokes about the movie Borat, which somehow continued through the whole weekend. Wa-wa-wee-wa.

The next day was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was shining, the birds where chirping and even the ground hogs where running around like little maniacs. So we all piled in the car and headed into town to the Plaza. Mike and Caela met us for drinks & appetizers and we all got sun burned while sitting there. Oh shoot!

While the girls did some shopping I wandered into the plaza park.

This statue freaked me out.

Why are his hands so huge?

Chris tried testing the water fountain but it was out of order.

We planned to go to Antonio's for dinner, so we walked over to grab a menu.

Next door is a church with some awesome artwork.

Stained glass mosaic window... sweet!

And a tiny town church.

I pretended to be Godzilla so you could see the tiny church to scale.

On our way back to Arroyo Seco we stopped at the Camino Real import shop.

I love this place!

Metal work city!

Little metal terrier.

Awesome metal peacock!

Maybe someday I will have one of these in my back yard. Fingers crossed!!!

When we got back to the house, Caela and I took a walk. We ended up walking something like 5 miles around the little valley that the house is in. We nearly where bit by a crazy dog, but we made it back alive!

On the walk back into Los Altos I cracked up when we saw this sign. A little outdated for what children look like, eh? Maybe you should show the kid sagging his pants and rockin' out to an ipod or something.

We where so pooped from our walk that we decided to relax before getting ready for dinner.

Chris made an awesome purchase while we where in town.

A Lucha-Lor piggy bank called "Rey Mysterio".

Hecho en Mexico of course.

This was our sunset that night. Not a colorful as the night before, but pretty none the less.

After dinner we played a game called "Apples to Apples". The green card gets flipped by one person and then all of the other players have to put down a card that represents how they feel about the green card. I've never laughed so hard in my life. The person who flipped the green card has to choose the winner.

This one was "Magical" and Schindler's List took the cake.

Mike did make a good argument though... "you can't tell me that a magic trick ISN'T magical".

I may have pee'd myself a little.

They did too.

The party didn't stop there. Maura taught me how to drive a standard, so I chauffeured us all (minus Mike & Caela) to the pool house for a late night dip. Maura had wicked awesome mascara bleed.

Bathing beauties!

She stuck her head in the sauna to tell Chris & Naomi it was time to go and came out like this!

The next day we chilled at the house because the weather was super windy. We dined on Naomi's homemade chili and cornbread and watched some movies. For whatever reason I didn't take any more photos of the trip! The next day we stopped at the Taos Cow for breakfast before heading back to Denver.

All in all we had a really great time, even with Maura's birthday mulligan, but I sure am glad to be back in Denver with my honey! I missed him! Happy 29th Birthday Maura! I love your FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!