Travel Tuesday: Colorado Days 3&4

Colorado Part Two

July 8, 2005: Rocky Mountain National Park

I loved Rocky Mountain National Park!  Since I was only like, 15 years old my journal as not very detailed but I do remember that we made a bunch of stops to take pictures.  I also remember my brother cutting my Mom off, causing her to trip and hurt her ankle.

Amy, Dad and Jason

My Favorite Picture from the whole trip

These little guys would come right to your hand

Snow in July

Once we got to the top of the Mountain we had lunch at the Lodge and went shopping in the Lodge.  We then went to dinner (I didn't write the name of the place but I know that it had a pond and we fed the ducks in the pond.   After dinner we did some more shopping, then headed to bed to get some beauty rest before the wedding the next day.

July 9th, 2005: The Wedding

My Uncle Steve and Aunt Katie got married in Estes Park (sadly I didn't get the name of the place :( but the wedding was outdoors with an indoor reception.  Unfortunately it did rain but it blew over in about 40 minutes.  After that little glitch, it was great!   We had a great time dancing and having fun with family.  After the wedding we headed to the cabin for some rest before heading to Denver on the 10th for our flight home.

Uncle Steve and his groomsmen rode in on Mountain bikes!

The wedding pics are in no particular order.

I loved Colorado!  It was so beautiful and there was so much to do.  I plan to go back with Josh one day and do some exploring :)

Blogging Help/Vacation Decisions

So, I have been trying to figure out how people get their pinterest and instagram and all that jazz hooked up to their blogs.  Like on the side-bar area, I see peoples links all the time but can not, for the life of me, figure out how to do it!  Can anyone please help me with that? It would be greatly appreciated!! :)

On a different note: Josh and I finally figured out just what to do on Vacation since we cancelled plans to go to NOLA.

We will be taking a day trip here with my sister:

Josh and Amy have both never been and I have never been while its been warm, every time I have gone its been FREEZING.

Then we will spend some time in his home state and my college state, Virginia.  We will be exploring Luray Caverns, for sure and are still deciding on other things to do in the Shenandoah area.  Then we will spend some time in Williamsburg and Busch gardens, which neither of us has been to.

So, even though we will be visiting a state that we have both lived in, we will be exploring new things and I am very excited about it :)

Book Club Friday: ROOM

I am still not finished with Life of Pi, which is one of those that is really hard for me to get into.  So, today I am going to talk about the book that is possibly my favorite book ever.

ROOM
By: Emma Donoghue
Pages: 361
Read: 2/11/12

"To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another."

 {GoodReads}

As I have mentioned, this may very well be my favorite book of all time (well, except Harry Potter).  This book was truly unique and nothing like any other book I have ever read.  I also love psychology and social sciences, so this book was one I could not put down.  It was so interesting to view the world as Jack does and to feel his mothers emotion through him.  I also love that she never tells you "Ma's" real name even though Jack hears it.  It was also interesting to see Jacks view on the outside world and how he reacted to the major change in his life that was such a relief to his mother.  I also loved learning a little bit more about psychology.  Kidnappings are one of the main reasons I am studying Forensic Science.  I want to help find those who have been taken from their families. 

This Book got a 5/5 from me!  If I could give it a 10/5 I would!!

Also Linking up Here

  

Wednesday LOVIN

Lots of Lovin' on this Snow day!

I am Loving:

1.  Having a snow day with no snow!!  Classes were cancelled and I don't work today, which means I actually have a day off !!!  Normally I go to school mon-thurs and work fri-sun, so this is a much needed break!

2.  Zumba-thon!!!  I went to my first Zumba-thon last night, which is 1.5 hours instead of 1 and all of the money goes to a good cause!  We had a guest instructor along with our instructor and I LOVED her!  She kicked my ass!

3. Instagram!  I just love taking pics and filtering them with instagram.

4.  Vacation:  We made a decision to cancel our vacation to New Orleans and save that money for our wedding.  BUT we still have off work that week so we are going to do local day trips!  Josh has never been to NYC so I'm taking him and my sister, who has also never been!  Also, we are looking into Luray Caverns in VA, Harpers Ferry, WV and DC/Mount Vernon!

5. Travel/Pinterest: Helene has a new link-up called Travel Tuesdays which is great because I have been doing travel post for the last two weeks on Tuesdays!  So I am excited to link-up!!!  Also, I am loving these travel pins:

5. This Guy:  I always love my fiance!!

Travel Tuesdays: Colorado Days 1 & 2

 
 ...totally didn't know that this was a link-up!  But I will def. be linking up every Tuesday now!!! :) I love link-ups!!! :)

Colorado

 

In July of 2005 my family took a trip out to Colorado for my Uncle Steve's Wedding.

July 6, 2005: It was everyone's first plane ride except for my Mom's (my Dad had his first plane ride on this trip at 43).  My Oma and her boyfriend Howard also rode with us, so Oma rented a limo for all of us to go to the airport where we met up with My Aunt Sandy and her family.  Our first plane ride went pretty well, but we thought my Dad and Uncle Frank were gonna miss the plane because they went to smoke.  They cut it really close.  Once we got on the plane me and Amy watched the movie Ice Princess and I worked on summer work for my AP classes.

Once we landed in Denver the adults picked up their rental cars and we headed towards Estes Park, but not before stopping for food.  The little ones had to get a picture with Ronald (the is purely for cuteness).

After some much needed food we continued on to Estes Park.  We arrived in Estes park around 4pm, we got some bad directions from some locals so it took a little longer than anticipated.  We stayed at a resort called Valhalla Resort.  My Oma and Howard stayed a few cabins up from us and my family got a cabin that joined with my Aunt Sandy's and when my Grandpop got there he stayed with my Aunt Sandy.  We got there, unpacked, cooked dinner and had a visited from my Uncle Steve.  I knocked out around 9 that night.

Top one is my Oma's - I took it from the bottom of our driveway

July 7, 2005:  First thing in the AM I tried to go running, that lasted about 5 mins because of the altitude difference. After that we headed to the pool to chill. Which was pretty much uneventful.

After the pool we went into the little town of Estes Park.  It was really cute.  We went into some shops and I bought a leather case for my cell phone.  After shopping around for a bit we went to eat at a restaurant called "Locals".

 

After we ate we headed up to my Uncles house in Ward, CO outside of Boulder. 

Uncle Steve's House (at the time)

 

View from the Porch

When we got there we hung out for a bit then Uncle Steve took some of us on a hike to a rock formation where he proposed to my Aunt Kate, the view was unbelievable.   When we got back we met Aunt Katie's family and I took a walk with my cousin Cassidy.  After that we headed back to the cabin for some sleep. 

 

That is all for today.  Next Tuesday I will talk about Rocky Mountain National Park and My Uncles Wedding.

Book Club Friday: Garden Spells

Garden Spells

By: Sarah Addison Allen

Pages: 320
Read:  2/24/12

"Welcome to Bascom,North Carolina, where it seems that everyone has a story to tell about the Waverley women. The house that's been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumors of dangerous loves and tragic passions. Every Waverley woman is somehow touched by magic. Claire has always clung to the Waverleys' roots, tending the enchanted soil in the family garden from which she makes her sought-after delicacies -- famed and feared for their curious effects. She has everything she thinks she needs -- until one day she waked to find a stranger has moved in next door and a vine of ivy has crept into her garden ...Claire's carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control."

{google}

  

 This is one of those books that sat on my bookshelf for probably two years before I actually read it.  I picked it up because I liked the cover ... it happens. I attempted to read it twice but couldn't get past the first chapter.  Then one day I had NOTHING to read and decided that this damn book was getting finished!  I am so glad it did!!  What a great book!  The plot was realistic with a little fantasy thrown in and it made the story so interesting.  I love books that are not like anything I have read before, and this was one of those books!  The plot kept me interested through the whole book and the characters were dynamic and interesting.

I gave this book a 5/5 on my {GoodReads}