Colorado continued

We just got back from another trip to CO, this one much shorter. We were out this weekend for Jeff and Shauna's wedding, which was wonderful and I'll blog about it soon. But this is still about the week we spent out there in April. I have to hurry up! I'm going to forget everything!

On the day after the bachelor party, Sunday, Chris and I drove up with my mom to meet up with my family for 2 nights in a condo in Vail. We relaxed and played games a bit with the fam. We started to teach Chris bridge but we didn't really have a cohesive teaching strategy and I don't know how much he got out of it. We'll work on that! We also spent quite a bit of time in the hot tub.



We came up with a great joke, along with Laura. We would... oh, I better put this video clip in before I tell you about it. (My first video clip inserted into the blog! I hope it works!)



HA HA! The camera is waterproof!! We had a great time getting every single person with that trick, because we were having breakfast and everyone trickled over to the hot tub individually. This is actually just a reenactment, I know you wouldn't believe it because of our stellar acting skills.


Chip was our first victim.


Aunt Lisa didn't really react because I didn't get upset - I kind of just watched her and waited for her to react. We hadn't honed our trick yet.




Will didn't react either, he recognized the camera as waterproof right away. Party pooper!




Jasmine was the most upset, because when we did it for her, I yelled at Chris for bumping me. She was mad at me for yelling at him. Good thing she doesn't see what a nag I am around the house!



We took a walk into town and walked around a little bit on Monday.







It was chilly so we warmed up by the fire.



Later on, Laura and Will worked on some domino action.



















Chris tried to relax and read but I had to pester him a little bit.



Jasmine, Laura, and I did a portrait session. My sister is so beautiful.















So is my cousin!





We also did some portraits with poses we copied from the ads in my wedding magazine. Chris was sitting in the spot we wanted to use for a sitting pose on the couch, so he went first for this one. We were supposed to have a flower in our hand, but we couldn't find any props. I was going to photoshop something in, but I'm not really up for that right now. Use your imagination! :)











I'm so glad Aunt Lisa arrived in time to get some photos of her.





We took a couple more pics when we took another quick walk before leaving on Tuesday.















Then I got a haircut in Fort Collins, we had dinner at the Rio with a bunch of amigos. No photos of that, unfortunately.

One more Colorado post coming!

Colorado trip, starring Emma

Chris and I got to go back to Colorado a couple weeks ago while we were on vacation. We were there for a week and had a great time. Of course, every day was jampacked with activity. On the night we arrived, we were able to hit Rock Bottom in Westminster. This is one of a chain of brewpubs. They have a few basic brews and the brewmaster at each place is able to also tinker a little bit, which makes it fun to try different places. They have great food too. I think the menu is the same at all of them, and I think I recently got an email that talked about a new menu. So maybe there are new tasty things for us to try there.

Anyway I unfortunately didn't get any photos the first night. I forgot my camera. But on Saturday, we got up and went over to Chris's sister Heather's house. We had a delicious breakfast and then got to play with our niece Emma, age 2, for a couple of hours which was a big treat for us.





She was waiting for us at the window when we arrived!



Even though we don't get to see her often, she warmed right up to us and even hosted a tea party.



She knows us from photos, and she also knows Lilly from our save-the-date photo. She was disappointed that we didn't bring Lilly with us. She even has a toy dog named Lilly! She also has a karate tiger (I forgot his name, but all her friends have names) who says "Hiiiiii-YAH!"



She built a house with her colorful materials.





She had very definite ideas about how everything would come together.









I guess Emma wasn't the only person there!



Heather is also very photogenic and we have far too few photos of her (and apparently even fewer photos of her husband Pete, we didn't get any shots of him this time!)

After that, we met my Uncle Jack,



Aunt Janell,



Cousin Daniel,



brother and sister-in-law Nathan and Alisha,



and adorable nephew Joey



for lunch. Joey was having fun exchanging sinister looks with me.



We got to enjoy some delicious mexican food at Blue Bonnet, which we had been craving! Yum!

Later that night, Chris went on to his bachelor party. Two of his good friends are getting married this year also, and they had their bachelor party together. I wanted him to take a camera, but the guys had all agreed on a no-camera-no-phone rule. Probably better that way, I suppose. It sounds like they had a blast. They ate hamburgers and went bowling and all stayed together at a hotel in Denver.

Back at my mom's, I was working on another project. Some of my best friends came over. We enjoyed some wine, cheese, and cookies and we all worked together to paint on the wedding invitations. It was such a great time and they all turned out great!













More from our trip yet to come!

Brew update

I kind of figured that talking about homebrew was getting boring to my readers, but I can't restrain myself anymore. We have brewed several times since my last homebrew post, and we have been able to taste many of our brews. This past weekend we brewed Patersbier. It is a tasty sounding recipe from (who else) Northern Brewer.

Stan Hieronymus (author of Brew Like a Monk) and our own Kristen England (BJCP Continuing Education Director) bring you this very special kit. "Brouwerij'ed" on the left side of the Belgian town Malle solely for consumption by the reverent Cistercian brothers. This ale is not served or sold to the public, making it one of the rarest beers in the world. Made only from pilsner malt, hops, and yeast, the complexity that results from these simple ingredients is staggering: perfumey floral hops, ripe pear fruit, sour apple, spicy cloves, candied citrus and a slight biscuit character on the drying finish ... a monks' session beer.

Note: If you wish to achieve a level of carbonation similar to the commercial examples of this beer, add an additional 1 to 2 oz plain table sugar to the priming solution.

We don't understand the description - first it says it is not sold to the public, then it talks about commercial examples of this beer. Is there something Chris and I are missing? Probably. Anyway it sounds really tasty.

We had a small mishap with another beer kit that we ordered.

Notre Dame d'Golden Valley - Extract Kit

OG: 1055 / Ready: 2-12+ months

According to Twin Cities lore, a beautiful Scandinavian-American princess once dropped a kringle into Wirth Lake; a walleye brought the soggy, circular pastry up from the depths and returned it to her. To commemoreate the miracle, the walleye was filleted and the abbey of Notre Dame d'Golden Valley was built in the suburb of the same name. The monastic beer brewed here is unlike any other in the world. Seriously, it's totally unique. Wink, wink.

A world-class artisanal ale that defies categorization. Refined complexity from a marriage of ingredients boldly used: high IBUs and dry hops (very unusual in a Belgian-style beer), and fermentation with a mixed culture including Brettanomyces. At bottling, NDdGV bursts with citrus fruit, herbs, and candylike malt layered under a pronounced hop character. The hops fade into the background and eventually disappear as the Brett starts to add complex, earthy aromas, elevated alcohol and acidity, and a leaner body through prolonged refermentation in the bottle. The ultimate expression of beer as a living, evolving, artisanal product: no two tastings will be exactly the same! Drinkable as soon as 2 months from brewing day, but save at least a couple six packs for sampling at 6 months and 1 year.

Sounds tasty, doesn't it? We thought so too, and it was surprisingly simple to brew when we followed the instructions on the box (as we always do - i figured that's why they print them on the box). Unfortunately, we looked at the ingredients online later and realized that they had misprinted the instructions on the box and we hadn't put in all the hops we were supposed to. They had sent them in the kit, but we refrigerate them all and didn't know which hops were for which brew. But listen to this - Chris emailed them and described the problem and our disappointment, and they sent us another kit with all the ingredients inside so we can get the full experience. Now we'll be able to compare the two! Cool. And they are such a great company to do that. The box they sent didn't have the full ingredient list on top either! But now we know to check online.

We bottled our Imperial Skitt Ale recently, and that is a REALLY hoppy brew.



Can't wait to taste that - about 3 more weeks to go. We also bottled the Wheat Wine, which has about 9% alcohol.



We always taste when we're bottling - we sample the extra if we can't quite fill up that last bottle. Some of them aren't that appealing but the FFWW was really tasty! That one is going to be great when its ready. Only a couple more weeks till we can taste that one.

A few that we've been able to taste: Seven Pound Wheat, which was our peach wheat.



We tried it Sunday for the first time, and it was really good but we could barely taste the peach. I'm a little disappointed but we'll just have to figure out how to bring out the peach next time. We also tasted the Sweet Home Colorado. That was supposed to be a Fat Tire clone, but I'm not sure how alike they are. We have no access to Fat Tire out here for a side by side test, unfortunately. I'm afraid to put beer on the plane in my checked bags, because i don't know if the area is pressurized and it would be really sucky to open my suitcase and find broken glass and spilled beer all over. Stupid airline regulations that keep me from carrying on the things i REALLY want to bring back and forth with me!

Ok, well, if that was boring - you didn't have to read the whole thing! Happy brewing!

Vacation!

As of this morning, my vacation was officially over. I've been off for the past two weeks. I figured that would mean I'd be doing lots of blogging, but apparently I figured wrong! I haven't posted in over a month. Now I feel like I have to post things to be catching up instead of writing about the stuff I want to be writing about. But I do want to write about my trip to Colorado... I'll start with the fun stuff I've done since I got back, then later this week I'll do a post about the CO trip.

On the day we got back, we got to pick up a doggie who had been at Pet Camp for a week! She was happy to see us so that was fun. We spent the weekend hanging out and relaxing. We did go out and walk around a bit but didn't do any activities, really. It was so nice just to sleep in and not have anything to do every day. We went to the gym a lot last week, which was really cool.

Two days after we got back, it got REALLY hot. It went up to the 90s so Chris installed our air conditioners in the windows. That kept us very comfy in our hot hot apartment! We also brewed beer, oh, that's going to have to be another post!

We tried a couple of new restaurants. Thai on Two is on Second Avenue. It was okay, but I guess I still like Lantern better. That is the thai restaurant that is just a block from our house. We decided to branch out, but now I'm thinking, why bother?? They have good food, good prices, good atmosphere, and Brooklyn on tap. I guess we were just disappointed in their delivery a couple times. Maybe for delivery we'll try ThaiNY, that is a place we frequently order from at work and they're always good. Also close by. Another restaurant we tried was Cafeteria, that place was tasty, average prices, kind of a fun atmosphere. And they made a really delicious cucumber martini! My favorite drink which I almost never have! I can't remember if we ate out at any other place.

I got to visit with some friends who I haven't seen in awhile since I've had such a busy spring. That was really fun. I also lounged around and spent a lot of time looking at wedding stuff online! I ordered a few items for projects that I'm working on for the wedding - secret stuff! I didn't finish everything that I wanted to but then again not everything arrived that I wanted to. I guess I still have 5 months to work on it!

We also gave Lilly a bath on Saturday night. She was not thrilled about it, but she seems to be getting more used to it. After all, she's had about 5 since she's been with us now. :) She wasn't even shaking. She did try to get out of the tub every time she sensed our grip on her was loosening but she tolerated it pretty well overall. And now she's so soft and smells so nice!

Vacation is the best invention ever. It was so nice and relaxing, and especially wonderful to get to spend time with Chris since our schedules don't exactly allow us much time together these days. Sorry I didn't take many pictures to tell about, but don't worry, there are tons yet to come from the CO trip.