dontcha wish your girlfriend was domestic like me?

you know you do.

p.s. that missing chunk of bunny body wasn't eaten. it's what fell out on the floor when i tried to dislodge him from the pan. yum.

green mountain.

this weekend we were colorado legit: we hiked! green mountain trail is less than 15 minutes from our house and promised good views. it was not a lie.

the start of the trail. have you ever seen a sky that blue and clear?

straight up and super rocky.

the very top of the trail. everyone puts a rock on the pile. you-know-who put a tiiinnyyy pebble on the very tip top.

seriously one of the most breathtaking views ever.can you see the snow peaks? in real life it looked like the clouds were coming right out of the mountains.

his favorite thing about the trail? breaking rocks to see if they were shiny inside. he had a scientific word for it, though.

yeah, we picked up this brochure at the end of the trail, after we had gone the wrong way twice {err, my baddd} and realized we had gone at LEAST six miles. ouch! that didn't hurt as bad as the second degree burns i am still aloe-ing. lesson learned: the sun in colorado is STRONG. we will not leave the house without sunscreen from here on out.

 

here's hoping that this little saying applies to our hiking skills. green mountain we will be back!*

*with real hiking boots, sunscreen and the trail map.

st. paddy's day.

you all: st. patrick's day is a big deal in denver. we heard the stories about the two-hour parade and planned to spend saturday downtown.

did you know it is st. paddy's day, not st. patty's? i guess patty is short for patricia, which makes sense, but i had always said st. patty's. the more you know, i guess. 

yay my denver friend anna lisa! did i already tell this story? we met in our apartment laundromat. she moved out already, thanks to her keen ability to spot a sketchy apartment complex within the 30-day guarantee window. smart cookie.

did you all know taxis had credit card machines?? isn't that so 2012? 

someone was brave enough to do a carbomb, the official drink of irish people. don't worry mrs. baker, he only had one.

our view of the parade. it was more than two hours long! we only saw about 10 minutes of it, but what we did see was pretty weird. i have no clue how it lasted two hours.

i should clarify weird. we came down to the street near the end, so it was a lot of scantily clad women riding in the back of trucks. i am still not sure what they were promoting. 

hooray, green beer!

it was a long day, but thanks to perfect weather {i wore shorts!} and good friends, it was my favorite in our new city so far. 

from our phones.

at work too early one morning. catching up on some reading with the local mag and my new bad, bad habit: daily starbucks.

speaking of bad. seriously some of the yummiest stuff i've ever eaten though. and, hello, its name is chubby hubby!

the parking situation in denver is out of control. most homes don't have driveways and even at stores you may end up having to park on the street. needless to say, my parallel parking skills are getting serious practice.

anna lisa playing skeeball on st. patrick's day at 1up.

photobooths are seriously the most fun for $3 ever.

our alma mater is in the sweet 16 for the first time since the 1960s! INSANE. the games were actually in nashville this past weekend, so disappointed we couldn't be there, but it was still great watching from our couch. this friday we play unc. wish us luck!

our neighborhood.

as previously mentioned, i love our neighborhood. we're prob def gonna move when our lease is up in five months, but, still, capitol hill is great. 

i am obsessed with the weather we are having. this weekend we hit 70! seventy! we had basically 70 inches of snow last month, so i am ready for spring. to celebrate we took a walk {more than two miles!} around our area and took photos of all the beautiful, old buildings.

um, this is someone's house.

this is a museum of "the unsinkable molly brown"! do you remember, from titanic? we will have to visit that.

i love this brickwork!

and the last stop of the day: ice cream!

spring, capitol hill, denver: we love you. we love you, too - come visit! {quick, before it snows again!}

wokano.

we have an official favorite restaurant. drum roll, please... wokano!

but i promise that we are mostly eating in AND i have been cooking... kind of. 

yep, it's in a plaza with a 7-11, but we love it. you know an asian place is legit when there is a big budda. vickie: that is a shout out to our old fav miss. saigon!

my fav, crab rangoon! that mint sauce they serve with it gets rave reviews online, but it's just okay to me.

and then we split an order of general tso's chicken. that is one serving! and it is delicious.

and i got a question this week, and yep, i am eating meat on the reg. if by meat you mean only chicken (or turkey) and by on the reg you mean about once a week or so. i should do a blog post about what happened when i ate taco bell. and by i should do a blog post about it i mean i will never tell you about that because it happened in december and i still haven't eaten taco bell {my fav!} or beef since then. so... use your imagination!

love it when the fortune cookie can read your mind.

the hard times, the straight-to-your-heart times.

{the bridge on the tennessee river, somewhere in illinois.}

a lot of people have called me "brave" for packing up and moving cross country with no job waiting, or family to come home to, or friends to welcome in.

i touched on it in this post, but i don't think that's what i'd call it. i wouldn't say i was running away, because when i say i was happy in nashville, i was. i was... unsatisfied? unsettled? unclear?

i'm not sure what i expected. maybe that when we parked in town i would feel a sense of relief? a feeling of belonging that i never really felt in the south? a hint that i was on the right path?

there is some of that. for sure. but there's also "i don't understand my job and i will never have a job i am good at again." {ahem, determined on day six.}

and "no one here gets my ability to use a song lyric in all conversations." {bonus if you recognize this post title!}

or "baker has to work holidays and i will die if i have to spend thanksgiving alone." {also, we prob both would literally die if we tried to eat a turkey i cooked.}

we are starting over, at the beginning. we have a small, small apartment and very new jobs. we have no friends {okay, i have one friend - holler anna lisa!}, no routine and seriously no way of knowing if a street we are walking on is pretty much the gallatin of denver.*

{*that last one was a joke. people in east nashville will get that. and p.s. the gallatin of denver is colfax. and we walked it! SO scary!} 

so, yeah. that's the reason for the radio silence. just thought i should keep it real.

i've got just one life. so i'll stand my ground here.*

{*finish that lyric: and i won't back down.}

photos from my phone.

another view from b's office.

crafting for tricia's bridal shower.

and the biggest craft: designing the invitations! so fun!

wah, my hair is SO short! also in this photo is the necklace i ordered months ago from a nashville boutique with our initials on it. i just got it in the mail and i LOVE it.

unfortunately, i didn't take this photo, but getting picture texts of mosby pretty much makes my day.*

*vickie, brandon, courtney: you got that hint, right?

the last pdub, or gratuitous photos of the cat.

the week before we moved we planned a final pdub celebration. it was a tradition that started in november 2008, when i first reunited with courtney and met brandon, and we decided to watch "the office" {how old school!}, order pizza and drink wine.

attendees have come and gone, we've moved more than once and we now make our own pizza, but it's still pdub.

vickie wasn't home yet. so i get a, "take an artsy shot of this - like vickie would!"

baker returning a plate of courtney's that he may or may not have had for... three years? c had not forgotten.

drinking and cooking at the same time is a recipe for success.

anyone else want to sing "friends forever" by vitamin c with me right now? 

look who made it! and no, i didn't encourage that face. i doubt anyone has had to encourage v to "make a crazy face!"

and pizza was made!

and wine was drank. 

and cats were pet.

it was a successful pdub.

this post makes me laugh and cry at the same time. i really miss my friends.

one month.

 {photo from denver.org.} 

yesterday we celebrated four whole weeks in denver! can you believe it?

there have been high highs and low lows, but in my heart i know we are home here.

{and if not, b told me we are never moving cross-country again - ha!}

here's to many, many more good times in denver.