A picture of the platter, not the prettiest but they tasted yummy!
Monday, February 03, 2014
66. Make Homemade Chocolate Covered Foods
In my quest to find the perfect food for the Superbowl Party I was attending, of course I browsed thru Pinterest. I came across a picture of Fritos that had been dipped in chocolate and had to try them. That kickstarted my chocolate covered foods goal and I ended up making (with Brian's help) chocolate dipped fritos, peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, Ritz crackers and potato chips. I knew they were good, but I did not expect them to all get eaten before kickoff! Needless to say, I will definitely be making at least the Fritos again!
84. Organize a Pumpkin Carving Party
Not having kids can sometimes be really awesome and can sometimes be a big bummer. Holidays such as Halloween, Christmas and Easter are so much more fun with kiddos around as they bring the kid out in adults. So, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands and have parties that you would normally have with kids, but without them. Or with adult kids in this case. Carving pumpkins is fun and something I look forward to doing every year, even though I hate the cleaning them out part!
The finished pumpkins from our Halloween carving party
46. Visit Dinosaur Ridge
Living in Denver, the winter weather is a cornucopia of conditions - one day it's a snowy blizzard, the next day it's a balmy 60 degrees. We recently had one of those balmy 60 degree days and decided to take full advantage of it. Not to mention, time is running thin with getting some goals accomplished! So...we headed to Dinosaur Ridge with our pups in tow and had a great hike!
Dinosaur Ridge is a hill on the west side of Denver that separates the city from Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It's a relatively easy hike up the actual Dinosaur Ridge trail as it's all paved and for the faint of heart, you can actually take a shuttle up and over for $5 a person. We opted to walk since it was a beautiful sunny day and since we had the dogs. It was pretty much over before I knew it, but worth the hike as to the east you got a pretty city view and to the west you got to check out Red Rocks from above. After we hiked the informative trail, we took a more strenuous route back to our car on the Dakota Ridge hogback, which afforded us even better views with some privacy. I will be keeping this trail in mind this summer when I need a quick getaway with the dogs!
A dinosaur footprint. I believe it says Iguanodon Track...much cooler to see in person. Also got to see some petrified bones and weird rock formations caused by water (Colorado was once under the ocean before the tectonic plates shifted and formed the Rocky Mountains).
Dinosaur Ridge is a hill on the west side of Denver that separates the city from Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It's a relatively easy hike up the actual Dinosaur Ridge trail as it's all paved and for the faint of heart, you can actually take a shuttle up and over for $5 a person. We opted to walk since it was a beautiful sunny day and since we had the dogs. It was pretty much over before I knew it, but worth the hike as to the east you got a pretty city view and to the west you got to check out Red Rocks from above. After we hiked the informative trail, we took a more strenuous route back to our car on the Dakota Ridge hogback, which afforded us even better views with some privacy. I will be keeping this trail in mind this summer when I need a quick getaway with the dogs!
Pre-hike picture of me.
Right behind me is where we came down from the hike on Dakota Ridge Hogback.
A dinosaur footprint. I believe it says Iguanodon Track...much cooler to see in person. Also got to see some petrified bones and weird rock formations caused by water (Colorado was once under the ocean before the tectonic plates shifted and formed the Rocky Mountains).
71. Take a Ballroom Dance Class and 72. Take a Latin Dance Class
For our wedding, Brian and decided we didn't want to just sway back and forth for 4 long minutes, so instead we opted to take dance lessons. Not only was I thrilled that he wanted to take them with me, but we had a groupon that allowed us to do it for a great price ($49 for 4 lessons)! We took the lessons at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Englewood and had a blast getting to know our instructor, other students...and most importantly each other. We learned dances such as the two-step, rumba and fox trot and combined them to make our own special wedding dance.
While I'm the first to admit that dancing is not as easy as it looks on Dancing With the Stars, I will also say we weren't too bad for first-timers! The hardest part about it was picking the song we wanted to dance to! Our finalists were: Just Comes Natural by George Strait, Free by Zac Brown Band and Wagon Wheel by either Old Crow Medicine Show or Darius Rucker. We danced to all of them in the comfort of our living room before deciding on Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker. We chose that song because of a couple reasons - we liked the up tempo beat it had and it was still a significant song for us as our first concert together was OCMS. We practiced and practiced and practiced, even dancing one last time the night before our wedding in our bedroom. I think the end result was fabulous and I hope to be able to remember some of our sweet dance moves for future dances!
While I'm the first to admit that dancing is not as easy as it looks on Dancing With the Stars, I will also say we weren't too bad for first-timers! The hardest part about it was picking the song we wanted to dance to! Our finalists were: Just Comes Natural by George Strait, Free by Zac Brown Band and Wagon Wheel by either Old Crow Medicine Show or Darius Rucker. We danced to all of them in the comfort of our living room before deciding on Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker. We chose that song because of a couple reasons - we liked the up tempo beat it had and it was still a significant song for us as our first concert together was OCMS. We practiced and practiced and practiced, even dancing one last time the night before our wedding in our bedroom. I think the end result was fabulous and I hope to be able to remember some of our sweet dance moves for future dances!
Here are some pictures of us during our first dance as a married couple:
Photos courtesy of David Lynn Photography, Denver, Colorado
61. Host a crafting night with my friends
I opted to have a DIY-style wedding as I'm a pretty crafty person and really couldn't fathom paying somebody to do things that I knew I could do. At the last minute I had a group of some of our closest helpers come over to decorate birdhouses that were going to be used as extra table décor. Here are the results of that craft party - not too shabby for a group of non-crafters!
Everyone is really getting into it...more than they expected they would!
Group picture!
The groom with his birdhouse
Mike, getting cheeky :)
Monica and her beautiful creation
This is the one I made - with Instagram filters
The whole group of birdhouses - all done and ready to for the tables!
76. Go to Brian's college town, Buffalo, New York
Of course, if we're going to drive from Hornell, NY to Niagara Falls, we had to go through Buffalo, NY. This gave us a reason to do 2 things that we really wanted to do: (1) Visit Brian's alma mater of the University of Buffalo and pick up some collegiate gear (2) Eat at the Anchor Bar - Home of the Original Buffalo Wings! I was definitely more excited about the 2nd point, but had to be patient as that was my reward for visiting his college.
As I waited for my hot wings, I was really excited but I read Yelp to make sure I kept my expectations in check. I'm glad I did that as it allowed me to start eating my wings with low expectations and then getting to raise them with each awesome wing I ate. The only thing I would say negative about the experience (besides the fact that I wish we weren't driving so we could've had a couple more beers) is that they could have been a little spicier. All in all though, great wings and didn't let me down a bit! Here's a picture I took of the outside...I didn't get a picture of the wings as we were too busy mauling them to care!
As I waited for my hot wings, I was really excited but I read Yelp to make sure I kept my expectations in check. I'm glad I did that as it allowed me to start eating my wings with low expectations and then getting to raise them with each awesome wing I ate. The only thing I would say negative about the experience (besides the fact that I wish we weren't driving so we could've had a couple more beers) is that they could have been a little spicier. All in all though, great wings and didn't let me down a bit! Here's a picture I took of the outside...I didn't get a picture of the wings as we were too busy mauling them to care!
51. Visit Brian's hometown of Hornell, New York
This was actually a goal I didn't think I was going to accomplish as we have a huge honeymoon coming up that is taking all of my vacation time this year. Unfortunately, we ended up having to go back to Hornell, New York due to a loss in Brian's family and I was fortunate enough to be able to get bereavement time since it was a close family member. On the trip back to Hornell, I met lots of interesting people and we were able to spend some quality time with both of Brian's parents. In our down time Brian cruised us around and showed me the local sights like the World Famous Canisteo Living Sign, the cabin he grew up with on Big Creek Road and of course, Wegman's - the true highlight of the trip, where we purchased Wise potato chips, fresh cheese curds and I snagged an awesome Hornell Red Raiders souvenir t-shirt! We stayed with his dad and step-mom and it was neat to fill in that blank with him!
Here we are on our date to Wegman's!
Click on this link to see a picture of the Canisteo Living Sign:
50. Visit Niagara Falls
While back in the upstate New York area with Brian, I was able to talk him (and his dad) into going to Niagara Falls. It was a pretty blustery day and some of the falls were frozen, though mainly the American side. The main portion of the falls on the Canadian side were still roaring and were quite spectacular. It looked a bit like the arctic tundra and you could hear the ice crackling and popping which was neat. The next time we visit, if there is one, we will definitely go when it's warmer, we will buy ponchos and ride the Maiden of the Mist and we will likely stay the night so that we can see the falls lit up at night. Nonetheless, I enjoyed our visit!
Here are some pictures from our visit:
Here are some pictures from our visit:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About Me
- sheashedeed
- I was born and raised in Rapid City, SD. Loved growing up there and am a little sad that my theoretical kids won't be able to grow up there - unless, God forbid, I move back. I moved away for college to Omaha, NE. I went to Creighton University. Great education, great professors - not a good place for young people with an itch for action! I moved to Denver in August of 2004 and love it! I recommend that all people live in at least one other place besides their hometown - the world is so full of opportunities, we just have to move out of comfort zones!