A beautiful January day in Colorado

So one of the reasons that I was nervous about moving to Denver is being stuck inside for all of the winter months but this past Saturday was a gorgeous day and Josh, Huey and I took a drive through the wildlife refuge and then went to the Elk Meadow park in Evergreen. The fresh mountain air and just being outside was exactly what I needed!

I unpacked my little Canon camera because I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day because I want to start taking more pictures than are a little better than the ones I take on my iPhone. 

The wildlife was out and enjoying the nice weather at the refuge as well. When we first started the drive, we saw several deer grazing on the hill. 

Then we saw this bison very close to the road!! There were several cars stopped and taking pictures of this guy.  

It was such a clear day that the view of the city skyline was amazing!!

There's something about frozen ponds that is so beautiful to me. 

Huey was loving life.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing snow covered mountains in the distance. 

Prairie dogs are so stinking cute!

As we were leaving I told Josh that I read that coyotes are here in the winter time but I thought it would be unlikely to ever see one. Then he turned to his left and saw one! It was the craziest thing ever! After I got a few pictures, he turned and ran off 

Huey loves sticking his whole head out of the window these days 

The drive into the mountains is gorgeous! 

Huey loves snow...he runs around and tries to eat as much of it as possible! There was a good bit of snow still on the ground up here especially in the shady spots but the temperature was in the 40s and 50s so it wasn't too cold at all!

I realize that I take a lot of pictures of my dog now but this last one is my favorite. See Huey in the corner? 

I hope that the rest of the winter includes a few more of these beautiful warmer days!!

Christmas travels

Josh and I both had two weeks off for Christmas break and we spent that entire time in Georgia and Maine with family and friends! 

I finally got to meet beautiful Aspen and Avery Wright!!

The Sunday before Christmas, my entire family drove up to Brasstown Bald for a 5k straight up the mountain!

We crammed in a van to get down the mountain before the start. Here I am with Hanna and her boyfriend Chad.

Josh looks less than thrilled and Holly showed her infamous look from Hanna's graduation....

Here's the whole gang ready to go!

We all walked up at various speeds. I stayed with Daddy for most of the way. Here we are at mile 1!!

It was a pretty foggy day but the clouds cleared for a few good views

Here's the gang and the after shot!

The same day, we went to my grandma's house for a Christmas get together. Holly made her a bling shirt for Christmas. Hollywood's Couture is great even for grandma's!

We spent the next few days relaxing around Elberton and napping frequently

My parents got their first real Christmas tree this year and in true Griswold spirit, my daddy put this picture of a squirrel in the tree :)

On Christmas Day, we got nostalgic and brought out old toys to play with. Josh and Heath were into this child laptop toy.

We spent our time putting puzzles together and in Georgia it was this awesome Christmas Vacation puzzle!!!

The day after Christmas we flew to Maine and had our Saunders Christmas! Here's a shot of the brothers in their matching hats.

We had fun spending time with family in Maine but I didn't take as many pictures as I originally planned to. We went to Josh's grandmother's 90th birthday party but I didn't get any pictures there. :( The next day we went down to Portland to watch a minor league game- the Portland Red Claws. It was amazing!

On New Year's Eve, Josh, Matt and I decided to go run into the ocean as part of the Polar Dip in Portland. It was freezing!!!

Here's the before shot.... 

And the after shots..... 

Here's the beast of a puzzle we put together in Maine...1000 pieces!! 

Looking forward to a fun filled 2015!!!

Thanksgiving and December happenings

As I was going through pictures, I realized that I didn't put up pictures from Thanksgiving or December so I thought I would do that today!!

For our Thanksgiving vacation, we both had a week off from school so we decided to take an anniversary trip into the mountains! On our actual anniversary, Josh took me to Shanahan's- a fancy steak restaurant here in Denver. Then the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we headed into the mountains! I started driving but then it started snowing pretty hard and I let Josh take the wheel.

We got up to 11,000 while driving I-70!

The mountain views were breathtaking for sure. I can't believe this is only a couple of hours from where we live now!

Here's the view from our hotel room.

We loved being cozy in our room by the fireplace and watching the snow fall on this beautiful landscape!

We saw a ton of elk near our hotel and had to stop from them to get out of the road each morning.

The snow plows were working hard!!

Huey was happy to see us- he had been boarded at his daycare while we were in the mountains. On Thanksgiving Day, we took him with us to Wyoming to visit Matt and Vanessa!

The drive to Wyoming was windy but the views were gorgeous. We crossed over the Continental Divide a few times while driving on I-80.

This is a picture of Huey during a pit stop on the way. He decided that he was king of this snow pile.

In Wyoming, Huey got to play with Matt and Vanessa's dog, Barley. They were BFFs.

Before heading back to Denver, we went to a park close to their house to let the dogs run around and to see more of the Wyoming scenery.

When we returned from Wyoming, Huey's tail was bothering him and he seemed to be in a good amount of pain so he was given pain medicine and a cone so that the cut on his tail could heal.

For the first weekend in December, I flew to Georgia for a girls weekend with my close friends!! We rented a cabin in Helen for the weekend and hung out, talked, did spa treatments, talked, watched movies, talked.....you get the picture. I had to miss my high school reunion in July due to my new job so this helped make up for that!

I love these girls!!

Josh and I also got our first Christmas tree this year and I had so much fun decorating it! It was my first real tree ever so it was a fun experience. Here's a picture of us heading out to Josh's school's Christmas party.

The next blog will be about our Christmas travels so stay tuned!!!