Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Brothers (some of them) in Denver

Last weekend 2 of Jeff’s younger brothers came to Denver for the weekend to sample some of Denver’s finest brews and to get in a little skiing. 
thursdaynight (Jeff really isn’t significantly smaller than his brothers, it just looks like it in this photo.  So tiny.)

We took them to some of our favorite establishments over the course of the 4 days they were in town:
  • Right Coast Pizza in Wheat Ridge (they only serve beer and liquor made in Colorado)
  • Hogshead Brewery in the Highlands
  • Falling Rock Tap House in LoDo
  • 1UP Arcade Bar in LoDo
  • Wynkoop Brewery in LoDo
  • Forest Room 5 in the Highlands
  • Williams and Graham in the Highlands
  • The Highlands Tavern
  • Denver Brewing Co in LoDo
  • Prost Brewing in The Highlands
plaid shirts (It was plaid shirt night and I didn’t get the memo.)
Friday Night (We were joined by other friends which made a great night even greater!)

We also headed to the mountains where is was finally SNOWING!  We skied at Keystone in surprisingly good conditions and then stayed the night at the Inn at Keystone before returning to Denver.
Keystone

I’d say we had a busy weekend….And TONS of fun!  Thanks for visiting Patty and Dave!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

4 Years

Apparently Jeff and I have been married 4 years… I only remembered because I received the following text from my father-in-law this morning:

anniversary I don’t think my father-in-law was impressed. 

I just have trouble remembering things like that.  Birthdays are the same way.  In fact, I have trouble with knowing what day of the week it is.  I went all day on Tuesday thinking it was Wednesday. 

Whoops. 

Maybe I should have a calendar reminder for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  Although, even if I do remember I never say anything.  I just think “Oh its So-and-So’s birthday, I hope they are having a nice day.”  That’s as far as I get, so people probably think I am a big jerk. 

Well anyway…without further ado, in honor of Jeff and I being married for 4 years, here are photos from the best celebration I have ever attended (in my opinion):

wedding1 Our wedding party was very small (HA!).  My mom MADE all the bridesmaid dresses and we gifted them to the girls (total cost per dress, $10).

party bus Best. Party. Bus. EVER.

December 13, 2008 (238) cards photo op We had a photo op at Busch Stadium.  We took several serious photos.  We have a boring group of friends and family.

police station

Our reception was at the Mad Art Gallery in STL; it used to be a police station so photos in the jail cells were a must (and were very entertaining to us).

reception1 We drank, we danced, we laughed.  The reception was a HUGE party!

reception2 Can’t forget the cake and gelato!

dancing The night was a blur, but so much FUN!

Happy Anniversary Jeff!  It started as a wild party and still is :)  Can’t wait for all the future adventures with you!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Relaxing is so…BORING

Since the Las Vegas Half Marathon, I have had a nice week off of running, or doing anything that would make me sweat.  It has been a very relaxing week. 

But…BORING!  After work, I have NOTHING to do if I don’t work out?!? 

To top it off, I was planning on filling every free moment with skiing.  But it is hard to ski if there is no snow in the mountains!  It did snow a bit this weekend but it will need to dump another foot or two to really be worth it.

To keep from getting insanely bored during the week, Jeff and I have been heading to the nearest bar or restaurant.  All this eating out and drinking beer will start to add up financially (and on our midsections) if we don’t start working out again.  But at least our taste buds are happy.

BEERJeff and I also woke up Saturday morning and were bored (again).  So what does one do during the weekend when you don’t have training runs or races?!? 

You learn to Home Brew!  (We really like beer, if you hadn’t noticed…)

homebrew

Or you dress your dog up in a Christmas sweater!

Jay

Or you see all your friends that you had been neglecting while running all those training miles and races! 

Or you sign up for Spring running races!  Whoops…

RACES

Well, that whole relaxing thing was short lived.  Now it is time to start training for the next few races!!!!  WOOO HOOO!

And start skiing as much as I possibly can when the snow starts to fall…um, this could be a very tiring and busy winter…which is not a bad thing since I hate being bored :)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Las Vegas for the RnR Half Marathon

This is the third year that Steffanie, Jessica, and I have met in Las Vegas to run the half marathon and to enjoy a boy-free weekend.  Girls weekends are always the BEST, especially with fellow organized Type A personalities!

Back in March, we decided we would do this trip and had the foresight (thanks Jessica!) to book a hotel right away at the new finish line (they changed the course from the previous years).  We ended up getting a KILLER deal on a premium suite at Treasure Island (TI) for booking so early; it was approx 1,000 SF, had two rooms, and an amazing view of the strip (see below).  Vegas 1 We DEFINITELY had many cheers to planning way in advance and getting such an awesome room!  And TI is in a great location for the half marathon and is in close proximity to where the post-race parties were located. 

We all arrived Saturday and took the day to catch up, hit up the expo, and RELAXED.  Originally we wanted to go out on the town Saturday night, but we all were tired from the day and ended up agreeing that staying in, ordering room service, and watching a movie was the way to go.  It was so nice to relax with the girls, even if we all felt old and lame.  Oh well :)

Sunday morning we all slept 10+ hours and leisurely got up and ate breakfast.  We then did some more relaxing in our awesome hotel suite and watched another movie.  The afternoon rolled around and it was RACE time.  After I French-braided the girls hair (yes, it is a cliché but we totally had a slumber party and hair braided) we headed to the start line.

vegas rnr half 1

The race started at 4:30 PM right as the sun started to go down.  I was in corral 1 and decided to run as fast as I could until my legs gave out (totally going against my race plan as stated in the previous post, whoops).  Steffanie and Jessica started in a different corral and decided to really enjoy the race, stopping to take pictures, talking the entire time, and ended up having an absolute blast.  I was extremely jealous that I did not stay with them.  Sad.vegas rnr half 2Instead I stupidly started running fast down the strip, getting carried away with the wind at my back and on a slight downhill.  Weeee!  I never looked at my watch and couldn’t see the numbers either way because it was dark out.

Soon my legs started to feel heavy at mile 8 and at this time we made a turn and the wind was no longer at my back.  Instead the wind was right in my face.  In fact, there was a wind advisory that day and there were gusts up to 40 mph (so I hear).  I could definitely tell as I felt like the wind was stopping me in my tracks.  I began to slow and the last 3 miles felt like a death march.  My legs felt like crap and I was ready to be DONE.  I also had some GI issues and was happy I didn’t crap myself.

splits I didn’t know there was a wall to hit during a half marathon, but apparently I found it and ran smack into it.  Another horribly paced race by yours truly.  Damn.

This year they had photographers every 3 feet (well not really that many, but it felt like it) and got a TON of photos of me.  I didn’t look as tragic as I felt, I guess I hide it well when I see the flash of a camera.

barb runs

finish time

I finished in 1:37:41, about 6 minutes slower than last year (and about 7 minutes slower than my half split during my marathon 2 weeks prior, RACE FAIL).  But everyone else must have totally sucked as well because I finished higher in my age group and overall as compared to last year. 

After I finished, I headed straight to TI where I ordered room service and food arrived right before Jessica and Steffanie made it back as well.  We ate and got ready for a night out.

See, we clean up well!

cleaned up

We hit up LAVO night club where we tricked the bouncer into thinking we were a big deal and they let us sit at a VIP table.  We did NOT order a bottle, because they mark those up ridiculously; a $30 bottle of vodka costs $300 (shame on you if you are stupid enough to pay for a bottle at a Vegas club).  Instead I reached into my purse (personal bar) where I had stashed mini bottles and I drank for free all night.  Yep, that’s how I roll.  Eventually some females with larger boobs and who were stupid enough to buy a bottle came around and the bouncers kicked us out of the VIP area.  We were left to standing around with the rest of the masses the remainder of the night.

We had a fun night and got very little sleep Sunday night, but it was worth it!

I love my girls!!  Miss you already!!