Things I learned making a cross-country move.....

For the past 6 years, I've treated moves very casually....I wouldn't worry about packing things nicely or even putting things in boxes..ha,ha. Just ask Josh Saunders, Jacob McConnell or Patrick and Natalie Turk. They helped me move at least twice during our time here in Louisiana. This move definitely had me worried. Once we pack the cars and moving truck, we are done. If there's no more room then no more stuff can go. That's a little stressful for me!

So I started organizing my stuff about a week before our move and I found some very useful tips on Pinterest, Buzzfeed and just Google searches so I thought I would share my new knowledge here. Even if no one else finds it useful, I can easily find it if we decide to pack up and make another move down the road! 

1. Use buttons to keep pairs of earrings together. This is wonderful because my jewelry box was not sitting exactly upright then entire time from my old apartment to my new one so some things moved but none of my earrings separated!! I'm going to keep them like this for daily use as well.

2. Use an empty toliet paper roll to keep necklaces from tangling up. Loved taking them off and hanging them up on my permanent stand so easily!!

3. This stretch wrap will come in handy in so many ways!! Josh and I sealed baskets, kept the legs of our dining room table together, kept metal shelves together, etc. using this stretch wrap! 

4. The view doesn't really change when you are following a big Penske truck that's towing a car.

5. Walkie-talkies are amazing. Josh and I could quickly communicate about taking breaks, getting gas, Josh merging over into other lanes, etc. It was so much easier than calling each other every single time.

6. Get the insurance for the Penske truck. While driving through Kansas, a pretty nasty storm came up. The sky was black, lightning was crazy and the weather radio was saying that if you were on the road, get off immediately. We made it to our hotel just in time to watch the rain, wind and hail. When we came out in the morning, we noticed a piece of hail smashed into the windshield of the Penske truck but we had insurance!

7. My husband is amazing for driving the truck and towing his car for 1200 miles!!

8. NPR podcasts are wonderful for passing time!! Mine and Josh's favorite was "Wait, wait don't tell me"

9. You get ready excited when you are so close to the end of the drive and go ahead of the Penske trip you've been following for better views of the mountains!!

10. The first sunset in your new apartment is gorgeous!!!

And now and added bonus tip....when arriving in Denver buying a bicycle comes before buying groceries.

Stay tuned for more adventures in Denver with the Saunders!!!

Goodbye Louisiana

So I know this is a late post since we said goodbye last Friday and I've been in Denver for almost a full week now but I've had very little internet access or time to find internet access since then. One of the joys of moving! We packed up and moved though and it's bittersweet for me. I am happy to leave some things....crazy humidity, hurricanes, Saints fans, words ending in -eaux.... but there's so much about this place that I'm truly going to miss!!

First on the list is the food. I've heard that Denver has great places to eat which is true for any big city so I know that I will find places love but right now I already miss Bistro Byronz. Josh and I went to eat lunch yesterday and I could either have my fish grilled or Cajun style and I ordered grilled because I didn't want to be disappointed if they didn't do Cajun style right. 

 Here are the infamous Blue Cheese Chips from Bistro Byronz. Yes I took a picture because they are that good.

 I will miss the festivals especially Spanish Town Mardi Gras. I experienced it for six years and two of those years were in the pouring rain so I will also have fond memories. I also loved the St. Patrick's Day parade every year in the Garden District. I know that the following pictures are old but they are some of my favorites from my time in Louisiana!!

This was the 2010 St. Patrick's Day parade with Jess!!

                                 

The Pennington Balloon festival in 2010. This was before they cancelled it. :(

One of the smallest day time Baton Rouge parades with friends in 2011

                                 

2014 Spanish Town Mardi Gras

I will also miss my proximity to the Mississippi River. It's such a huge landmark in the US and it's cool to live so close to it that you can go for runs along the levee. Denver has cool mountains but it doesn't have Old Man River, the Mighty Miss, Miss-issip (Can you name that movie reference?)

 It was also cool to see it rise as high as it did in 2011. This was before they shut down the levee. 

I'll always love my time in Louisiana!! It's where I fell in love with teaching and decided to work in education, met wonderful lifetime friends and met and married Josh. Not too shabby....can't wait to see if Colorado can live up to that!!

Hollywood's Dirty 30 in Rio!!

This year my wonderful sister Holly turned 30 and for her birthday her boyfriend surprised her with a weekend trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil along with some of her friends and family! It was a whirlwind weekend full of cake, champagne, partying and sightseeing. There's no way that I can put all of the awesomeness of the weekend into a blog post but here's an snapshot:

We were on the same flight as Holly and Paul from Miami to Rio but we didn't want Holly to see us until Rio so we snuck around the airport and hurried on to board before them while Paul stalled her. 

It worked! Here they are going through customs with no idea that we were behind them!

We started off celebrating in the airport with these awesome glasses and signs!!

 When we got outside, we celebrated with our first of many bottles of champagne and strawberries!!

We stayed on Copacabana Beach and the view from our room was absolutely gorgeous. The sidewalks with the wavy pattern next to the sand let you know that you are in Copacabana Beach because the pattern changes when you leave. 

During the day Friday we laid by the rooftop pool and got massages at the spa. The hotel staff brought out cake and champagne and sang to Holly as well.

For dinner Friday we went to an amazing all you can eat seafood restaurant, Marius Crustaceos. The lobster was wonderful!

The most interesting part of this restaurant were their bathrooms. There were dolls and figurines hanging from the ceiling. It was a little creepy. The statues leading up to the bathroom were pretty interesting as well. 

Sisters!!!

More singing, cake and champagne at this restaurant!

Then off to the club!!

 We listened to great music in this huge four story nightclub!

The next morning, we met our AMAZING tour guide Neyla in our hotel lobby. It was cloudy and rainy so we decided to wait a day before going up to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain so instead she took us to see a farmer's market. The fresh fruit here was so sweet and juicy!

Oh yeah we all had matching t-shirts with the Hollywood's Dirty 30 logo so we looked like a true tourist group. 

This is Neyla our wonderful tour guide telling us about those gigantic avocados!!

We also tried fresh sugar cane juice!

After the market, we headed over to the Maracana stadium where the World Cup finals will be held in just a few weeks!!

I know Josh's brother Matt has to be jealous of us here. :) 

Josh stood in line to be a World Cup volunteer.... :) 

Then we visited the Sambadrome where Carnival is held each year. We were able to try on real Carnival costumes! It was really cool. Heath looks awesome in this picture. 

We then rode around the winding roads of the Santa Teresa neighborhood and saw beautiful murals like the one Hanna is standing in front of.  

The Escadaria Selaron is also in this neighborhood. A local artist started decorating the steps outside of his house and just continued the art for 250 steps and the walls around the steps. It is beautiful!! 

Saturday night we went to dinner in a treehouse overlooking the city. The restaurant was Aprazivel and started as the chef's residence and he began to build it into a restaurant over the years. 

I didn't get many pictures of the club we went to Saturday night, Rio Scenarium but it was a samba club with great music and wonderful Caipirinha which is Brazil's national cocktail.

Sunday we went with Neyla to Sugarloaf for amazing views of the city! Heath loves to photo bomb.

These monkeys were everywhere on the mountains and looked just like the ones from the movie Rio.  

I think this guy takes these views for granted....

Then we rode the Corcovado train up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was still a cloudy day but we were able to see the statue pretty well after being up there for a little while.

Since we couldn't see views of the city from the Christ the Redeemer statue, Neyla took us to a different part of the mountain a little farther down below the cloud. These views were amazing!! Here's a great shot of Sugarloaf Mountain.

We finished the day by walking around the hippie market in Ipanema and walking back to Copacabana Beach to head to the airport and fly home.  

We did so much in our short trip and had a wonderful time celebrating Holly's 30th birthday!! It's hard to believe but I've got to start planning mine soon!! Spoiler alert, it's definitely not going to be as awesome as this trip.