Not our first ro-day-oh

 ...but it seems to get better every year! Katie did an awesome job of hitting the high points in her blog post, so I'll let you read the details here, http://alongfortheryde.blogspot.com/, and I'll just skip straight to photos:

See how they treat me? This must be how Briana feels most of the time...

32-oz of water-down lemonade hydration

Followed by nachos smothered in beef brisket, BBQ sauce, cheese, and jalapenos. Yup.

Buckin' broncos

Trick rider presents: woman on two horses, 

...and horse with six legs?

Cowboy camaraderie

Happy 91st, Burwell!

Dusty sunset

Snipin' kiddos

 Time for the bull riding!

Time for dancing! Apparently I'm the only one who knew there was a second flash...

Ah, there we go.

Look, hoes! Biiiig hoes.  :)

About 1/2 the amount of cookies I ate over the weekend. One must eat enough to last until next year, obviously. 

Too early to plan for 2013??

bad blogger

Yes, I've been terrible at keeping up. Basically I've been roasting in my apartment, working early/late and STILL not keeping my head above water, having nightmares about my Korea students not receiving their student visas in time to travel, and flip-flopping between watching the horrific news coverage on TV and girly shows in an attempt to distract my mind from all of the above.

But it is all okay because... IT IS RODEO WEEK! And I get to see my family tomorrow night, along with my BFFs. Heading Home-aha   :)

womp womp

Welp, it took three weeks but I finally went to the doctor. It was just a bad sprain, but it turns out I haven't exactly been doing the best to help it heal. Hence, this lovely accessory for 2 more weeks. Stylish, I know. Especially devastating for me because, as Katie so kindly pointed out, I am the most stylish person she knows. And yes, I chose to ignore the blatant sarcasm   :)

Mountbattens in the mile high

London friends + Colorado = fantastic weekend. I am reminded of how blessed I am - not only in the experiences I have had, but the truly wonderful friends I have made along the way. Friends who will travel all the way from NYC and Chicago, sleep on the floor in my oven-like apartment, and politely ignore the musty/dirty carpet smell that has set up camp. (Yes, my glorified swamp cooler leaked a few gallons of water on my carpet last week. Still damp. Still smelly. Bad timing.)

We had 4 full days together, but of course we fit in about 14 days worth of activities. Obviously. Commence photo-essay:

Is 11 a.m. too early for a brewery? Naah

Mandatory mile high photo!

...followed by free slurpees at 7-eleven

Lianna and Liz looking lovely as ever on Linger's rooftop deck

Great night, great view, great friends

Up early for a trip up Loveland pass to the continental divide. It was a little windy.

Love my Spooze.

Reach for the clouds!

Lunch in Georgetown? Don't mind if we do

We'll just swing by the Coors brewery for the "short tour"

Line dancing at the Grizzly Rose!

Of course we had to go to the Eldorado pool. Not nearly as busy as the 4th of July!

Go Rockies! (They actually won, too. That hasn't been happening much lately.) 

Did you know there was a burro racing circuit? Neither did I, but Joy did. And there just happened to be a race in Idaho Springs this weekend.

Not all of the burros are ready and willing to run this 3 mile course with mining gear loaded on their backs, as you can see in this photo. Moment captured by Liz :)

Mr. Tommyknocker himself, from the Tommyknocker brewery. 

 And then we went hiking in dresses in search of this "field of wildflowers" that was supposedly just off the trailhead. It was 50 degrees, sprinkling, and we were NOT suitably dressed. We got a lot of strange looks.

We ended the weekend with a rooftop BBQ at Gloria and Joy's place - they were great hostesses!

Seriously, that was 4 days.

Miss you already, Liz and Spooze - thank you SO much for coming to visit! Trips to NYC and Chicago are in the future! And until then, I leave you with the quote of the trip:

"What's wrong with you, Suz? Are you drunk?"
"YES!" (Said in an oooobviously tone of voice. The altitude will gettcha!)

Much love from the Rockies!

Cheery Creek Arts Flood, I mean, Festival

When it rains, it pours. Literally.

I feel bad for all of the artists! And... my white dress was a bad choice that day. You're welcome, passers-by...

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! With a Wednesday off work and a forecast of 95+, I felt the need to go to the pool. And because Zoucha's is an 8-hour drive away, the next best thing is Eldorado resort pool (I owe Sarah for our introduction!). Luckily my friend Gloria was up for a pool day so we headed out of the city and into the mountain haze (Due to smoke? Clouds? Hard to tell these days.)

A cooler full of fruit, snacks, and raspberry-lemonade concoction and we settled in for some girl talk and people watching. As it turns out, they celebrate the 4th of July with a beach ball party - we found this out as a hundred inflated beach balls were lobbed over the wall of the resort and into the pool. The entire pool turned into a beachball fight among strangers - SO much fun!!

 Yes, I'm taking photos of other people's children again. But he is so cute!!

Bring on the beach balls

The view from the slide

Kids and adults alike get creative with the beach balls later in the afternoon...

Safe and happy celebrations to you and yours, and much love from the Rockies!

"Okay boys"

Couldn't have asked for a better Friday evening...

Greeley Stampede!

Girls Night Out Rodeo? Yes, please. 

These ladies are quite lovely, of course, but will you look at that little peanut in the background? So adorable! I'm actually surprised that Carrissa didn't steal her...

 Lovely night for a rodeo

"Okay boys, okay boys!"

Deciding which ride we would all go on was probably the hardest decision of the whole evening. So many choices! And for inquiring minds, we did end up choosing the Ring of Fire in the background. Good choice. 

Time for food!

 

Well, when in Rome! (And by Rome, I mean the Rocky Mountains...)

This was the first rodeo for many of the ladies attending, so of course, I took it upon myself to give the play-by-play. "You see, there is a rope tied around the steer's neck, and the cowboy can't chase after him until after the rope breaks. Well, it's not really tied, but attached somehow. But anyway... So the horses buck because of this strap thing that is attached around it's flank. And once the cowboy jumps/falls off the rescue riders come in and release it so he stops bucking. And well, he just stops, then."  Got it?

Okay okay, my 7 year-old nephew could have explained this better. Sorry.

I promptly went home and watched 8 Seconds. Gotta brush up on my rodeo knowledge. Less than 30 days to Burwell :)