ColoradoGrams

Paul and I are currently in Oklahoma City visiting our parents (and Elizabeth & AJ).  We drove down on Thursday, and will be staying until this upcoming Thursday!  Thursday morning before we left, however, we got our new kitchen counter tops installed!  Basically, our entire kitchen has been currently relocated to the floor of the front room - we decided to tackle that when we got back in town.  

You may notice that there's no faucet or drain in the sink yet.  We decided that since we were leaving town it would not be a good idea to put the new faucet and drains in and turn the water on, lest there be a water leak and we come home to a bigger complete house renovation project...

We are looking forward to lots of sailing this week in OKC and spending time with the Monsmas and the Grahams.  The Tennessee Grahams were in town for the weekend and it was wonderful to see and play with our nephews Conner, Will, and James (and their parents too, of course).  We'll post more photos of our adventures in OKC when we get back to CoS.  

It turns out that I love to bake and cook - it's a hobby that has developed more over the past year.  Who'd've thought!?!  I'm thankful that Paul is [usually] willing to try what I make and is ALWAYS willing to give anything new his thumbs up seal of approval, or thumbs down "pleasenevermakethisagain" opinion.  I have a certain passion for baking - especially cheesecake.  The most difficult part of baking cheesecake is that it's kind of finicky, especially in Colorado where we have no humidity.  And opening the oven door to check to see how it's coming along can be disasterous!  Paul and I decided that we needed to upgrade our kitchen -- replace the linoleum floors that have been peeling at the seams, the counter tops made of some laminate stuff and also coming apart at the seams, and the appliances - all of which are older than we are.  The first stage of this process is the counter tops - we're getting the new ones tomorrow, but we saved money by tearing out thd old ones ourselves.  [And by "ourselves" I mean Paul and one of his buddies from work -- I suppose there are certain benefits of not being allowed to work out or really do anything strenuous until I'm feeling better!].  The floors we've decided to tackle ourselves as well (again, see above definition of "ourselves").  And finally, I can't wait for a new range/oven that has a window to see into the oven while baking!!  Woohoo!  Here are some "before" photos and some "in progress" photos.  I can't wait to see the overall transformation of our kitchen!  Stay tuned...

 This project has already forced us to clean out many of the kitchen cabinets - a scary thing!

I wanted to take a sledgehammer to the counters, just for fun, but Paul insisted on doing it properly.  *sigh*  I think we make a good match.  

Bring on the new oven!!! :)

Yikes!  What am I going to do for coffee in the morning? 

I think it's safe to say that we'll be going out to dinner tonight.  :)

The Colorado Grahams made it to the end of the school year!!!  And relatively unscathed as well!  

Paul finished his semester with the usual whirlwind and excitement of USAFA senior activities and commencement events.  I was invited to go along to a Computer Science Department dinner celebrating their seniors -- it was held at O'Malley's - an awesome hole-in-the-wall Irish pub and cook-your-own-steak place.  It's one of our favourite steak places in the Springs so far!  He took a few days of leave at the end of the school year to relax and de-stress, but he's already back to planning his classes for fall semester!

Working at a high school with only 9th and 10th graders (currently, that is - the school will be expanding every year until it has full 9-12) had some definite benefits this spring.  There was not the craziness that comes with having a senior class -- no organizing senior activities (breakfasts, senior gifts, various ceremonies, etc) OR having to plan and organize and actually DO graduation!  I'd been a part of graduation planning and senior events every year until this year, and I was thankful to have the break!  

I'm still working on healing up after I dislocated my shoulder about a month ago.  I'm taking things slow (as per directive from my better half and my mom) and will start physical therapy this week.  I miss going to the gym like crazy, and can't wait to get back to lifting weights.  And now that Colorado has fully bloomed into a gorgeous green spring (with more rain than we've seen in over a decade I'm told), I'm just itching to run to the mountains to hike, trail run, camp, and just feel the sun on my shoulders while taking in incredible views!  Paul says that he'll duct tape me to the couch if he needs to, to prevent me from doing more than I should before I'm better.  Let's just say I've never watched so much trashy TV in my life! This past month has absolutely been a good lesson in patience for both of us (namely, I'm not very patient, and Paul is basically a saint)!

Because I've been going crazy throughout this whole "getting better" process, Paul and I decided to take an impromptu day trip today - the plan being to hop in the car with Rascal and Bandit, drive for about 4 hours and see where we end up.  The trip would also involve ice-cream (what road trip would be complete without ice-cream??), and the camera to document our adventures:

Bandit loves looking out the window & is easily distracted (squirrel?!?!?)! 

Rascal also loves staring out the window, but spends the whole car ride deciding which pillow is bigger - his or Bandit's.   He kicked her to one side of the car or the other probably a good 10 to 15 times over the course of our travels.  (He's sitting on B's bed in the photo, but you can tell he's contemplating his next move over to B's side of the car.)  

Part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range - just gorgeous!

Our destination: Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Supposedly these are the biggest sand dunes in the United States.  At first we couldn't tell if the sunlight was just playing tricks with the foothills of the mountains, but sure enough - these are the Sand Dunes - probably 7 miles away.  (And easily 40 miles from a town boasting a petrol station - thank goodness for the Prius!!)

About a mile from the gate, Paul looked at me and said "do you have any cash?"  Being part of the National Parks System, the Great Sand Dunes NP would have an entrance fee -- something we totally forgot about (this trip was impromptu, and we didn't really know we were going to end up here, to be fair.  I promise we normally are better prepared.  I may have dropped out of Brownies in 4th grade, but Paul is an Eagle Scout!)  I pulled out my wallet and grabbed 4 very crumpled singles.   Paul found two bucks in his wallet, and we both started scrambling through the Prius hoping to find loose change in the cup holders, floor mats, etc.  The sign with the admissions fees was tiny - posted on the entrance gate.  We were completely prepared to offer a dog in place of any admissions fee that would be more than 6 bucks.  As we approached, we felt sure that this spontaneous trip was meant to be, as you can see above.  :)  Rascal and Bandit are still with us.  

We approached the sand dunes - this is an AWESOME dog friendly national park.  We didn't realize that the dunes are surrounded by several creeks (that are unusually high due to the rain we've had) that one MUST cross in order to get to the warm sand beyond (it was about 60 degrees at this point and super windy), which we desperately wanted to feel on our bare feet!  We also had no towels in the car to use in cleaning up our pups  They would almost certainly get filthy - and while it would have been a BLAST to play with them in the water, not having towels would have been a huge, stinky mess (and a loooong stinky drive back to CoS).  

We put the relatively unsandy dogs back in the car and found a nice gentleman to take a quick photo of us.  We will plan this a bit better next time, but all (the dogs included) want to return to this awesome park.  Camping is just $14 a night, and there are a ton of great trails all over the place!  We'll bring cash and towels next time.   

Ahhh.....Tomorrow is Friday!  Not only is it Friday, but I can begin my countdown for my trip to New Jersey!  I leave NEXT Friday, May 1st - so that means only 8 more days at the gym, 5 more days of work, 2 school awards ceremonies, 1 eye appointment, and 1 evening of interviews before I head to the wonderful New Jersey shore!  I can't wait to see everyone - I've had my airline tickets since late January - it's about time!

This week really felt like spring in Colorado Springs.  It's a good thing I don't have a view of Pikes Peak from my office.  My urge to go for an afternoon hike is strong to begin with on most days, no matter what the weather is; these gorgeous afternoons make me want to run full-speed from my office to a trail.  A view of what I'm missing on these warm, Carolina-blue sky days would just be mean.  :) 

Tomorrow night I'll be enjoying some good food and wine with some friends.  We're all bringing food and wine from South Africa.  In focusing on one country at a time (this is not an isolated get-together), we're able to figure out which wines we like and why as opposed to "shoot - it's Friday - let's drink."  So far we've also explored wines from Australia, Chile & Argentina, and Germany.  I'm making a rice and sausage stuffing as well as some dessert dumplings.  To accompany the stuffing, I'm bringing a Shiraz Pinotage called "Goiya."  These evenings always promise a great time; it's a been a long week and I'm looking forward to relaxing with friends!

Saturday and Sunday the Colorado Grahams have NOTHING planned - my favourite kind of weekend.  Definite time at the gym, a movie (I want to see 17 Again - just have to figure out how to talk Paul into going with me!), and hopefully (fingers crossed) dinner at this AWESOME mexican place called Hacienda Colorado just south of Denver with some friends.  If the weather holds (it's supposed to be rainy), I'm hoping to get a hike in as well.  

T-8 days and counting!  Yay New Jersey!