January Heating Up

So far, the coldest temperature I have seen is about 25. Ben says that one morning it was down to 13. But these temperatures are apparently not normal around here. It seems like most days are between 30-60. A couple days ago it got up to 70 (the day that it apparently got very cold in the Midwest!). It feels a little unnatural, but it is ok with me to not be freezing all the time. Ben is pretty sad though because he loves the cold! There are a few things that I miss about having a cold winter though! It hasn't snowed very much here (as everywhere, apparently), although, more accurately it has snowed a few times but then it gets so warm that the snow melts very quickly. There are just a few big black snow piles around in parking lots for the most part. Another sad thing is that we got an apartment with a fireplace and we don't really have occasion to use it! We have used it a few times to add some atmosphere, but really, it just makes us get hot! There's something to be said about curling up in front of a warm fire on a cold day! Those two things are the ones I miss the most. Other related items are: less occasion to drink hot tea, I have a ton of super warm and awesome winter clothes I am not wearing ( I even just added to my infamous wild knee-high sock collection!), and we haven't been able to go snowshoeing or skiing more than once!
Anyway, no one reads blogs to hear about the weather. You read my blog to find out about my exciting life! Hah.

I bought some new hiking boots! I have been ogling them for a couple years now. Finally we have some money I can spend! I thank my husband profusely for working so I can spend his hard-earned money on things for me! ;) My boots are purple Ahnu Montara boots- here's a picture: boots Cool, right!? They are so lightweight and fit perfectly that it feels like I'm not even wearing them!
See how exciting my life is?!

Last Sunday we went on a big adventure to fix the guys' cars. We drove to a shop about two miles away from us and left the cars there while we explored the surrounding area for the day. It was nice being forced to get to know the area we live in! We first walked a mile-ish down and checked out Target and Kohl's. We got a couple things after the guys enjoyed searching the clearance area for shirts. Bill ended up with 3 nice shirts, and Ben got some much-needed pants (unfortunately not on sale and very expensive), hopefully these last longer than some of his other pairs! After shopping we walked back past the car shop and probably another mile in the other direction to get lunch at the Olive Garden. Endless soup, salad, and bread sticks- yum! Eventually we made it back to the car place and picked up the cars. Ben's car unfortunately needed lots of work done and we spent lots of money on it! Hopefully, Daisy won't need any more major repairs for a while.
On the way back from picking up the cars we checked out a "farmer's market" called sprouts. Really, it's just a store akin to Trader Joe's. But, it is nice to find a store close to us that sells really great produce and natural products. And a lovely selection of cheese! I got a very large block of Fontina...  yummmmmm!

Last Saturday Ben and I went on a date to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It totally rocked! We saw a ton of cool things- Ben and I both found exhibits that we were particularly excited about and of course saw things that we were both interested in. We also had a delicious lunch at the cafe. One of the coolest exhibits was a traveling exhibit. We were lucky to catch it on the last day! It was about dinosaurs- particularly the Trex skeleton named Sue. Aside from info about Sue's bones and the dig, we learned a lot about dinosaurs in general and saw animatronic dinosaurs as well. The robot dinos were especially interesting because they were interactive! If you got too close to the nest, the triceratops would get visibly agitated and try to protect her eggs. The raptors would follow your movements and "hunt" you- very creepy actually. The robotic trex would follow you a bit too and roar occasionally, which would, in turn, frighten the other robotic dinosaurs. In general there were a lot of interactive exhibits at the museum and I really enjoyed it! We have to go back soon because even though we were there for over 4 hours, we only saw about half the exhibits! The place is huge!

This week, we took a step toward becoming official Colorado residents! We went to the DMV to get in-state driver's licenses. Of course we had to wait in line for 2 hours basically just to sign our names. And of course the other line went about 5 times as fast. But the lines were for different services and we just had to stand and wait. We should be seeing our licenses in the mail in as soon as 30 days! Wow... so fast! Unfortunately, Bill is going to have to go back another time with more paperwork to get his. Additionally, we'll have to go to a different DMV again to get Ben's license plates transferred as well (and cross our fingers in hoping there's no emissions test!), but at least we have started the process!

Last week I did something exciting! Well, got excited about something, more accurately. I applied for a job at the Denver Zoo! I've been applying for things here and there, but I haven't gotten excited about any jobs until now! The job is basically an educational zoo keeper. If I get the job, I would basically work with animals and then teach other people and kids about them in shows and workshops. It is pretty much right up my alley, and I definitely had a strong application. Keep your fingers crossed for me! If you have nothing better to do (which must be the case because you are still reading this blog), you can look at the job description here. I'm trying not to get too excited so I don't get my heartbroken, but I am obviously not having much luck with that.

Today I got to see some Luther friends, Nathan and Alyse! It was great to see some familiar faces! While the boys were still at work, the three of us took a nice hike to Cherry Creek State Park and had some tea (thanks for the AWESOME tea, LittleC!) when we got home. After that we had some cheese and crackers before the whole gang went to the Bent Noodle (our restaurant of choice lately) for dinner. It was wonderful to see them and hear about all of their adventures. Hopefully we'll be able to do more with them while they are still in town!

We'll see what's in store for this weekend- maybe I can convince the guys to go to the art museum!
Hmm, pretty unlikely.

Thanks for reading!

White Dresses and White Snow

This weekend was nice- it was good to finally get to see the guys! They even both got back early/ at a reasonable time on Friday! Our original plan for Saturday was to go downtown (and see it in daylight for once) to go shopping and see the holiday lights parade- and find out what a holiday lights parade is as well. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until next year to solve the mystery. I ended up getting a call from my friend Ashley to go wedding dress shopping with her and Alex. We had a nice girls day out! First, we went out for sushi. I haven't had sushi in probably 5 years, and didn't know if I would even like it. But, I wanted to make a good impression so my plan was to fake it even if I hated it. The descriptions of the rolls sounded odd, but I trusted the two other girls to pick something good. Luckily, I did end up enjoying it! We got two different kinds of rolls and ended up sharing them. Now I that I know I like sushi, I might even be a little more adventurous with what I order in the future! After sushi we went to look at wedding dresses. It was a little odd being the youngest person and the only married one, and I tried to give the best advice I could about dress shopping. We only ended up looking at one store because another one we were going to check out was closed. Alex and I had fun picking out dresses for Ashley to try on and Ashley eventually came around to enjoying trying them on. After a long afternoon at the shop, we narrowed it down to two that we all liked the best. They are so different that we couldn't decide which one we liked better. Another weekend we are going to try to look at some other stores to look at other options.
It was really nice to get out of the house and spend time with some other people for once!

Over the past week we had lots of snow falling! Some has been falling about every other day. The temperatures have been fluctuating a bit though, so some days it is above freezing and the snow melts. Today, on the other hand is the coldest I have seen here so far: 0 degrees! It is interesting to see how the mountains affect the weather. I can feel the cold coming down from the mountains sometimes! The snow is also a lot drier and more powdery here. Very unlike lake-effect snow in Cedarburg. Considering the typically small amounts of snow that fall at a time here and the fact that it usually doesn't stick around, there is not much plowing or salting on the roads. On Saturday morning I had to have Ben drive me in the 4wd jeep to Ashley's house because there was so much snow on the roads. It snowed about 4 inches over Friday night and Saturday, and apparently that is a lot here! People were driving very slowly and swerving all over the place! The freeway was covered in a layer of snow and slush, even around noon. We even spun out once on the freeway in front of a semi! Everyone was driving slowly enough to stop in time and let us turn back around. Normally people just wait for the snow to melt- there aren't even that many plows in the city fleet. They also rarely salt roads around here either- to protect the wildlife and ecosystem. I like the idea, but it makes driving very scary and dangerous!

Today I baked a pumpkin pie, did dishes, and did laundry. And today our debit and credit cards finally came in the mail. Looks like I'll be doing lots of Christmas shopping this week!