Super Bowl Weekend

This weekend involved some beer, some hiking, and a very un-inspiring football game.

Friday night we met Naomi and Ryan out for dinner and drinks. We are enjoying being able to spontaneously go out since having a newborn baby in a few weeks will put temporary halt on that activity.

We thought about going skiing on Saturday, but the roads made us decide to stay in the city. However, we still were able to have some fun in the snow! We headed to the foothills and hiked a 4 mile trail in Matthew/Winters and Red Rocks Parks. It was really fun! Not too snowy, but still a great workout trudging through the snow.

On Sunday, we headed over to Naomi and Ryan's for the Super Bowl. Hopes were high as the Broncos had an amazing regular season. Well, as most people know, those hopes were pretty much crushed after the first play. Really...who gets a safety on the FIRST play of the game?? The highlights of the night were our Super Bowl Bingo game, the halftime show, and the spread of food (wings and homemade onion rings...yum)...the game definitely was not a highlight.

Hiking in Golden and a DYAO Concert

The mountains hadn't gotten any fresh snow, so this past weekend we decided to stay around Denver and enjoy the warmer-than-normal weather. We decided to hike up to the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden. It was a great 3 hour hike in weather that allowed us to just wear hiking pants and short sleeves! Most of the time anyway - we did put on a fleece when we were in the shade for longer than 5 minutes.

On Sunday we went to a Denver Youth Artists Orchestra concert. They were playing side-by-side with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. It was a great concert! One of the pieces featured an amazing 12-year-old pianist.

A pretty chill weekend, but we got outside on Saturday and were cultured on Sunday!

MLK Weekend

On Saturday, we headed to Keystone with our friend Leah and her friends Gretchen and Chad. The weather was gorgeous! Highs in the low 30's and not a cloud in the sky. They hadn't gotten snow recently, so the groomed runs were fast. Matt and Chad were in heaven when we found a run with no one on it and they could go down as fast as they possibly could. We took a break around lunch to have a beer and were able to sit outside and not be cold. It was a great day!

After skiing, we went home, relaxed, and then met our friends Brandon and Ashley at Fire on the Mountain for wings. Wings were probably the only thing that could have gotten Karla off the couch after a day of skiing.

Sunday was the Bronco's game at Matt's friend Brad's house. They live in the suburbs so there was plenty of space for us to throw the football around before the game and during halftime. The game was great -- especially since the Broncos won! It's not hard to jump on the Broncos bandwagon and it's the one football team we can cheer for together.

Since Matt had MLK off, Karla decided to take it off too. Since we went skiing on Saturday, we decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some snowshoeing. The weather was amazing again - sunny and not too cold. We hiked from Nymph Lake to Dream Lake to Emerald Lake. Between Dream and Emerald the wind really picked up, but it was still a really fun hike. That's definitely one of our favorite hikes at RMNP - winter or summer!

Fiesta Bowl!

It's the last bowl games of the BCS era, Baylor was Big 12 Championship...we HAD to go to the Fiesta Bowl!

We flew to Phoenix on NYE and spent the night celebrating the new year with Karla's parents, who were nice enough to provide us a place to crash! In the morning, we started our day of football with the Iowa game. Since we wanted to experience all the pre-game festivities at the Fiesta Bowl, we left during at halftime. Luckily we were able to find the game on the radio. The Hawkeyes put up a good fight, but weren't able to pull it out in the end.

Lowell, Matt, and Karla arrived to the Fiesta Bowl and found it filled with Baylor fans! Okay, there were a few UCF fans there too, but we won't mention them. After walking around and soaking in the atmosphere, we headed to a bar to watch the first half of the Rose Bowl. We were able to snag some seats at the bar and made friends with the Baylor fans and had some good-nature trash talking with the UCF fans.

The stadium was a great atmosphere - we were excited to see all of the Baylor fans! We ended up having great seats (after moving since our first seats had a railing in our way) and enjoyed our free chips and salsa (thanks bowl sponsors!). The game was really fun...for the first three quarters. Then the other team started pulling away. Boo. Overall, Baylor had a great season and Matt was a very happy Baylor Bear!!

Iowa for Christmas

Twas the Saturday before Christmas, and a mid morning flight,
brought lines for southwest out the door, quite a horrible sight!
We stood for the skycap, not a moment to spare,
as we debated if we just leave our bag, we didn't care!

A delay of the plane left us some time to rest, as our holiday travel was put to the test!
The flight was uneventful, in Omaha we land,
as Lowell and Judy and Kristin were there, Dr. Pepper in hand.

The weather was cold, and I can't stress it enough
-26 with the windchill was really tough!
Now Henry!  Now Liv!  Now Sadie the dog!
In Iowa there is no shortage of food from the hog.

At Kathy's, we made cookies galore,
And ate them until our stomachs said "No more!"
Christmas Eve was presents, steak dinner, and church with candlelight,
Then a viewing of "Christmas Vacation" that had us laughing with delight.

Plenty of card games and the lack of TV
made for a calming trip inside for the family Lee.

It was a nice trip with the family, good for the soul,
But we will see the parents in Arizona for the BU FIESTA BOWL!!

Holiday tidings and parties

This was pretty much our only holiday weekend before Christmas, so we tried to make the most of it.  On Saturday we went to a performance by the DYAO(Denver Young Artists Orchestra), which Matt sits on the board of.  It was their holiday performance, so they played the Nutcracker Suite, one of our favorite holiday compilations.  It was a very enjoyable concert and a good turnout.

After the concert we drove south to our friend Leah's house for her ugly sweater party.  Since we had just come from a show we didn't have ugly sweaters, but it was nice to see some friends and have some yuletide cheer.

Sunday was a lazy day, as we got ready for our last week of work before we left for Iowa.

Fiesta Bowl Bound!

This past weekend included a lot of football watching...but came with a (sort of) surprising result! With Oklahoma State losing in the morning, which we didn't think would happen, Baylor's game against Texas ended up being a de facto Big 12 championship game. Baylor's win got them a Big 12 title and a trip to a BCS bowl game - the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. Woo hoo!! We were wondering what we'd get each other for Christmas so we booked our flights, bought our tickets to the game, and say "Merry Christmas" to each other. :) We're staying with Karla's parents in AZ and Lowell is going to the game with us...so our next task is to convince him to wear green and gold!

On Sunday, Karla co-hosted a baby shower for her friend Naomi. It was really fun! Matt went with Ryan to the bar - they wanted to stay as far away as possible from all the shower activities. :)