Jealous? yes and no

I'll admit, I was Facebook stalking some friends from school this morning and while looking at the photos from their summer travels/job abroad I got a bit jealous. After all, I wish I could travel over the summer! But then I got to thinking...if I weren't in Denver this summer I would miss out on all the fun things to do here, and, being here over the summer makes me feel like I'm actually settling in, not just biding my time as a student. Here are a couple of things I'm looking forward to this week:

Today: Denver Cruisers ride! (http://www.denvercruisers.com/) A themed, weekly pub crawl on bikes. My roommate Renee is a regular, and I'm finally going to join in the fun tonight.
Thurs: Snug Run, of course. I finally get to wear my t-shirt and look like a pro :)
Fri: Santa Fe Art Walk (http://www.denver.org/what-to-do/shopping/detail?memid=15059) Held the first Friday of each month, and this is the first time I've actually remembered in time. The people-watching is as great, if not better, than the art, I've been told!
Sat: I'm going tubing...Lord help me! I'm used to tubing/canoeing down the Niobrara...but apparently CO tubing involves rapids, waterfalls, and protective shoes. Yikes.
Sun: Fireworks! Personal fireworks are all illegal in Denver, of course, but I was told by Travis that I can buy them because I have an out-of-state license. NOW I see why he keeps me around...
Mon: Hiking with the ladies! A day off must be spent in the mountains.
Tues: Rockies v. STL - bring it on!

So am I still jealous of my jet-setting classmates? Yes and no. Of course, I'll be working in between all of those events. For free. So if you're thinking, "Gee, what a glamorous life Jill is leading," don't. Because I will be broke by the 6th of July and eating Ramen for the rest of the month. Or potatoes. Maybe I'll slice them today. (Lori) :)

Finally!

Finally - after 10 Sung Runs Heidi and I had hit the run quota to receive our much-anticipated Snug Run t-shirt! (Which, we all know, is the only reason anyone does any sort of race in the first place.) It was stinkin' hot on Thursday and I was pretty sure I would be sweating all the way until Friday, so were were stoked when we got a table upstairs on the patio (where we pretended there was a breeze). The spaghetti sauce was particularly terrible that day and held a shocking resemblance to the gulf oil spill, but who cares, we were going to get our names called, receive our t-shirt, and get our picture taken to be immortalized on the Snug website! Or so we thought.

After quite a while upstairs Heidi and I thought, "Gee, it has been a long time. Do you think they'll start the t-shirt awards soon?" We went down to check. Everything was cleaned up. We questioned the staff and they said, "oh yea, we did that a while ago. Where were you guys?" We were upstairs, thank you very much! With many other runners! "Oh right", they said, "our speaker didn't work today, so you couldn't hear anything." We were then taken to the back room and unceremoniously tossed our t-shirts. Not as exciting as we had hoped. But we did take a picture when we got back to Sarah's. Take that, Snug Run! (Just kidding, Snug Run, I still love you.) Running aside, this weekend was spent helping T-dizzle paint the roof of his parent's deck. It was the underside of the roof, so it was in the shade, but it also meant that we spent hours looking straight up and now have permanent cricks in our necks! Those several hours were also "bonding", I suppose. I tolerated car talk radio, he tolerated country music, we both listened to the (last!) US World Cup game, and we discovered that we are equally terrified of wasps. You know what really ticks them off? Being sprayed with oven cleaner in lieu of wasp spray. Yup, they hate that.

Strange...

Lunchtime at Water For People and the office is quiet. Eerily quiet. Suspiciously quiet. I'm pretty sure the Germany game at 12:30 may have something to do with it. My colleague with her Germany t-shirt and German flag face stickers tipped me off. There must be a secret watch-place...but no one tells the intern the fun stuff. I'll just stay here and make phone calls from the empty desk across from me. It has a phone. I do not.

I think I smell a conspiracy :)

Devil's Head

We went camping for the first time this weekend! (Travis claims it isn't real camping because we were by our car, but I think that if I slept in a tent and peed in the woods that it qualifies!) Neither of us was really prepared for the trip (I didn't even make a list...) which led to us forgetting a few key items:

• tarp for under the tent
• bug spray
• an axe
• a knife (or anything sharp) with which to sharpen cooking sticks

Yew, we forgot a few things, but we remembered many more things than we forgot! And we had a great time.

Our camp site! Travis is hard at work (yes, we did remember a saw) and I am documenting, obviously.
On the hike up to Devil's Head

At the top of the hike was a fire lookout tower built in 1912! It is the only staffed lookout tower in the mountains today. There were a LOT of stairs up to this.

But the views at the top were amazing! That's Pike's Peak in the background, there.

We made it!

Another view of Pike's Peak, I believe.

It was so pretty we decided to hike back up again at sunset. Gorgeous! But I think my legs are still sore.

We weren't exactly sure if we'd make the sunset or not, so we did our second hike in what I like to call "mountain goat mode", which consists of Travis bounding up the mountain and me scrambling to keep up. Must be a native thing.

We made it in time though!

And headed back down before it got TOO dark... I'm not a fan of hiking in the dark :)

Great weekend! Of course there were many other things before and after the trip...line dancing at the Grizzly Rose, dinner with Travis's fam, and a comedy show for a friends birthday on Sunday night. I am one tired Panda, but all was worth it!

Much love from the Rockies!

Two weeks in

Two weeks into my work at Water For People and not only do they continue to let me come back, I even have a key to the door! Definitely moving up in the world...

I'm really enjoying my work so far, and they trust me enough to all jet off to Chicago this weekend for a conference and leave me to my duties, so that's good! I have also quickly become the voice (and face?!) of the 2010 Water For People board meeting video. I was conned into it by being told I just needed to "read some lines", but then then they taped it also... what a day to not shower or wear make-up! That'll teach me... Video coming soon... I haven't seen it myself, so here's crossing my fingers for minimal head shots :)

And now that summer has arrived there are all sorts of fun things to do in Denver (that no longer involve snow). Each Tuesday they show a movie out at Red Rocks...yesterday was The Princess Bride. A great movie to begin with, but made much better by all of the audience cheering/booing...
...the lovely sunset behind the rocks...

...and the man dressed as Inigo Montoya in front of us! Sweet.

Much love from the Rockies!

The Fam

Springtime family photos! I know I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure my nieces and nephew are some of the cutest kids ever :)

World Cup Action

Who would have thought we'd need hats, gloves, and boots to watch a game outside in June? I guess that's Colorado for you... Didn't stop the hundreds of fans, both U.S. and England, from showing up. Everyone was fairly happy with the tie. (I secretly would have been happy with either outcome) :) Missing London...

A Cabaret Birthday

If you can't go to a comedy burlesque show at a cabaret on your birthday, then when can you? Good thing Sarah had a birthday so we could all go! It was a great chance to get together now that classes are done. AND a very entertaining evening...

The gals at happy hour beforehand. Picture needed to be cropped because the camera man didn't feel the need to tell me to cross my legs. Dang. Tricky dress.
On our way to the Clocktower Cabaret! The show is in the basement of this 100+ year old building in downtown Denver.

The birthday girl! Who, might I add, is looking RIPPED.

And the show begins

I could probably do that

Not many risque pictures - I didn't want to seem like a creepster taking pictures of scantily clad women.

The birthday girl with a couple of dancers. Such a fun night!

Although, Pierre the MC did make a joke I wasn't too fond of. While "reading" the latest headlines of a newspaper he said, "Due to lack of interest, Nebraska has been closed." Ha. Ha. Ha.

Ohh, BBC

Oh BBC News, you crack me up! Hard-hitting journalism, that's for sure

Here is a new one: "Is she pregnant, or just fat?"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8730106.stm

And here is one of my old faves: " 'Sausage-pony' prompts 999 calls"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/7939187.stm

Always good for a lunch-time smile :)

Ahh, the lake

What a relaxing weekend!

The view off of the deck...

...and then some rain moves in!
The water was like glass on Friday - awesome

A bit choppier on Saturday, but that didn't stop me from trying to slalom ski. Many times. And failing many times.

"Ah screw it, just throw me the other ski!"

Choppy water = waves over the boat = Briana's clothes soaked! As Dad so eloquently stated, "That'll spill the pop"

Ending on a comic note... one of my new favorite stuffed animals in CJ's

And earlier in the weekend, Ella was so tired from a trip to the zoo that she fell asleep at the top of the stairs next to her blue Sonic slushie :)

The official start of summer!

What a busy, but fun, Memorial Day weekend! Quite the weekend in Boulder...I'll let the pictures do the talking as there are quite a few of them. Well, that's a lie. I'll still talk a little bit. Here we go:

Friday: Rehearsal dinner then karaoke, of course.

Saturday: Travis and I went on a hike up the Flatirons. We hiked up that tall one that is cut off in the picture. It was tougher than I imagined! (May have had something to do with a few glasses of wine the night before??)

Pretty amazing views

HUGE rock slide

And on to... beer-in-hand kickball with the wedding party! REALLY entertaining - you had to stop and fill up your beer glass at 2nd base

Pretty fabulous outfits, too!

Sunday - wedding time! Great group of people - here are the "abandoned" ladies that were left to fend for themselves

Gorgeous wedding site

Vows

We clean up nicely, doncha think?

Monday: And a mere few hours later...on to the BolderBoulder race! Here are Sarah and I victorious after crossing the finish line.

Over 53,000 runners made this the largest road race in the country. Wow. Highlights of the course included the belly dancers, the Elvis impersonator, the slip n' slide set up in some one's yard, the people handing out free bacon to the runners, and the 2K marshmallows that were thrown to you as you ran by. FUN!

Team IIC! Sarah, myself, Marlena, Heidi, and Jen - all ladies from my program at school

Ended with a Memorial Day celebration in the stadium.

Great weekend! Now I'm OFFICIALLY done with school for the summer and heading to O-town for a few days. Can't wait!