Brunch with the ladies!

Today my mom, little sister and I went to Mona's for some brunch!

It was so yummy - I got the French eggs Benedict (it had brie cheese on it, and came on a croissant - YUM!), and my mom and I split a huge blueberry pancake.  The coffee wasn't too shabby either!

It's my last weekend before I start my new job, and a lovely brunch with the family was a great way to do it.  I'm very excited to start my new position - and I gotta say, it's actually been nice to have some time off (even though it was so unexpected).  I've been getting caught up on school paper stuff, getting my apartment clean, catching up with friends, getting doctor's appointments done, etc.  It's actually been pretty busy, but good.

Funny how things turn out, huh?  And I really think this was the best thing for me - it's helping me move toward a new career and towards what I truly want to do, which is help people heal with nutrition.  And that makes me feel good!!

Hope you all are enjoying this lovely weekend so far!

A trip to Balistreri Vineyards!

Who knew?  There's a vineyard just a few miles outside of downtown Denver!  Holy moly!

We made a little trek there last weekend, and it was OH so much fun.  It was the Balistreri Vineyards - they do free wine tastings if you have under 10 people in your group!  They also serve up one delicious lunch which you can enjoy with a bottle of their fine wines.

Just pour those samples right into our mouths, good Sir!  :)

Would you like some cheese with that wine?  Why yes, yes we would! 

Quite a menu... man we tried a lot of wines that day!  I can't believe I actually finished the list!

Our pretty little tasting glasses.

Mmmmm..... vino! 

The lunch was just delicious too!  Look at that lovely salad!

Our little group of girls, gettin' ready to taste more vino...

Learnin' stuff (and Anna trying to cover up her black eye).  Haha!

This is the bottle that I ended up buying - holy crap was it delicious!!  I can't believe I spent $28 on a bottle of wine (I've never done that ever - I'm a $15 max kinda girl), but I just couldn't resist.  And a good bottle of wine is worth it sometimes.

You should definitely plan a visit there!  It's a great way to spend an afternoon.  I'd definitely recommend getting there early (we got there at 12:30 which was perfect timing), as later in the afternoon (1:30-2ish) it starts getting really crowded and it's hard to find a spot at the bar.  The people there are friendly and knowledgeable, and it was a blast!

Just be sure you schedule a nap at home afterward though... and bring a designated driver. ;)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN & my Unicorn Costume!

We had our big Halloween Bash over the weekend, and here are some of the awesome pictures from it!

This was one of my favorite costumes of the night!!  MUGATU!  Haha!  I let him borrow my corset - I can't believe it fit.  Good thing he's a skinny dude (in fact, I don't think I can fit into it anymore - haha!).

Stacey - the biker chick!  Those sleeves looked awesome - she looked the exact opposite than she does in real life!  Ha!

Oh my gosh - she looked JUST like Helena Bonham-Carter in Fight Club.  It was awesome.  That's even her real hair.

Geneva looked amazing!! Those contacts were badass (and totally creepy). She even crocheted her kitty ears earlier that day!

These two cracked my shit up.  Doritos!?  Who thinks of stuff like that?  My friends - love them!

Sasha's sugar skull makeup was amazing.  Katy did it just with eyeliner and eye shadow!  So awesome - she looked great!

Hipster Ghost!  LOL!

Kendra and John just chillin' out.  Such a cute picture. :)

I'm a UNICORN!

Me and Katy!!  She looked hilarious.  Here's a link to the character she went as - it's a band called Die Antwoord, they're pretty crazy. Here's a link to a picture of the girl in the band.  Just search them on YouTube, and you'll see all their crazy antics!  It's worth it, trust me.

And here's my unicorn costume!! Pretty hilarious, huh?  Haha!  Katy lent me a lot of stuff for my costume, but this was pretty much a $10 costume.  I already had my pink Forever Lazy, and I gotta say, I think I'm going to have to incorporate pajamas into my costume every year.  It was SO comfy!  

Everyone's costumes were so amazing - I seriously think it was the most creative ideas I'd seen in a long time.  I only saw ONE duplicate out of everyone, which was pretty hilarious - John had another girl come as a bumblebee!  Haha!

Hope you all have a super happy and safe Halloween!!

A Rainy Baseball Game

A few days ago John got us a couple of tickets to the Cubs / Rockies game, so first we went and had a couple of whiskey gingers and made some muppet-faces for the camera...

...then walked on down to the stadium!

It ended up getting pretty rainy for the game, and we had to put up our umbrella a number of times.  But that didn't deter us at all, and we found it actually pretty fun!

I brought out the trusty ol' rain boots for the occasion too!

I loved looking down at all the colorful umbrellas!
We ended up getting a lot of thunder & lightning (which I loved since we don't see it very often here in Colorado), and the game was delayed and we had to move down from the upper decks due to lightning.  So we walked home in the rain and stopped for a night cap on the way back.

All in all - it was a pretty great date night!  Not too many baseball games left though! :)

St. Baldrick's Event - We shaved our heads!

Well, this weekend we did it!! 

Just a reminder - here is what we drove to Durango for, and why. :)

Taryn and I packed up some things (along with John), got up at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday (her birthday), and drove about 7 hours down to Durango.  It was a beautiful drive - the Aspens have started changing and they were all beautiful yellows & oranges scattered through the evergreens.  It was gorgeous!

We stopped at a tiny diner along the way (I think it was called Rooster's Crow or something), and got some coffee and breakfast, and a cinnamon roll the size of my head.

After breakfast we were back on the road again!

A nice "we still have hair" shot, with our big huge coffee mugs.  It was a bit chilly that morning!

John, contemplating breakfast with a beard scratch.

When we arrived in Durango, we decided to stop for a quick beer and some snacks.  We went to Steamworks, which had some pretty amazing beer!  Taryn even got a free drink because it was her birthday.  Win!  I had their Oktoberfest beer - it was absolutely fantastic.

Then we headed down to the center of town (it was such a beautiful & super cute area - I am now a fan of Durango for sure!), and we found out that it was Oktoberfest that day!  How fun!

John and Taryn - striking a pose at Oktoberfest!

Sisters & sunglasses!

We realized we were pretty pooped, so we got checked into our hotel and took naps.  My dad arrived shortly after (he rode his motorcycle down to spend the weekend with us), and after we all got cleaned up we headed to the Irish Embassy where the big event was going down!  We had to have some dinner first - I got their fish & chips (probably the best fish & chips I've ever had), and we all enjoyed some drinks.

They had an amazing Irish band there that struck up in song towards the end of our dinner.  They were awesome!  They had violinists, a guitar player, a flute player, a woman on the keyboard - and even an accordion!  They were so much fun!

Shortly after that - the head-shaving began!!

Taryn went before me...

John thought she looked like Tank Girl in this shot - haha!  Look at that smile! :)

Just about done! 

My turn!  I was a little freaked out at first - had some butterflies in my tummy, and a moment of "what the hell am I doing!?"  But it was awesome.  And the band played a little jig in the background while each of us were shaved.

Off it comes!

Taking off the last few bits!

Oh my gosh - it's all gone!  Ha!

It was so sweet because he gave us a special little shout out and had us tell our story.  They were thrilled about how much money our team had raised - over $3,600!  They even gave a shout out to our team member that couldn't be there (Megan) - Taryn told the guy that she was our "friend in Derby", and he thought she said "friend in Germany" - so that was pretty hilarious.

Here is Megan's lovely finished product!  She rocks it!

And here are the "after" pictures for Taryn & I!

John's hairier than I am now!  Haha!
He was so supportive of this whole thing - it only made me love him more.  Such a great guy. :)

Taryn got a free car-bomb for her birthday.  It was her first!  And after the hangover, probably her last... ha!

Such a happy girl!

Us with some of the other ladies that got their heads shaved that night - such amazing women!  They were fantastic!

Our new Scottish / Irish / English friend Richard - he told us jokes & stories, and his friend Roy was awesome too.  We had a really wonderful night!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the evening too - before & after!  Ha!

The next day we had some breakfast at the hotel, and made the long drive back to Denver (rubbing our heads in amazement).

All-in all it was a wonderful experience.  I'm so glad I did it, and that we could help such a great cause.  THANK YOU to everyone who made our team so successful, and who supported us in this endeavor!  You are all SO amazing, and my heart was so happy with love that I thought it would burst.

And by the way, showers are an absolute breeze.  :)