Spring!

                                                                      The Gardens in full Spring bloom!

So much has been happening here in Colorado, it's been hard for me to keep up with updates. So, this one catches us up on Spring happenings and I promise another soon for Summer fun!

The month of May ended with lots of house projects underway. Tom rebuilt our back deck (by himself, with wood he reclaimed) and added perennials to the xeriscaped front yard:

In May, our friend Gina flew in to spend a fun weekend with us. Gina and I rented a little apartment in Boulder for a couple of days-we went to the farmer's market, strolled Pearl St., visited the Boulder Tea House (made and sent over to Boulder from its sister city in Tajikistan-beautiful!) and saw an awesome exhibition from Croatia at the Modern Art Museum. 

Gina admiring a sculpture at the Tea House

Then we headed back to Denver for a quick trip to the Botanical Gardens-so gorgeous in May, a downtown art festival, and some delicious handmade ice-cream. Denver is chock full of ice cream stores with about a zillion flavors to choose from. Who knew?!

The Lilacs were fully in bloom!

Gina sneaking "just a little bite" of Tom's ice cream at Sweet Cow in Highlands

May and June are festival madness around here! The 5 Points Jazz Festival, the Students Art League Festival, the People's Fair, the Denver Arts Festival, just to name a few. We still have the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and the Affordable Arts Fair on on the way!

The 5 Points District-full of music and culture

Me at the People's Fair. Tom bought a really nice print here.

And my favorite festival by far this year: the Chalk Art Festival! Several blocks downtown of awesome, temporary chalk art. It was all gone within 72 hours. Below are some of my favorite pics to help the art live on a wee bit longer!

Seriously, people. That's all chalk! Fantastic.

June ended beautifully with a week long vacation in Telluride. But, before we left we began a bittersweet goodbye for my boss, Sam, and her family. She, and husband Jim, are headed to Michigan State to shake things up in all the right ways. Luckily, our friends Darren and Andra (Andra, Sam, and I worked closely together at KP before Andra headed to UNC for grad school) were in town for a lovely dinner here in Colorado. Sam has been a great mentor and advocate for me and I will truly miss her (and Jim-such a great man!)

Sam & Jim (or "Salmon Gin" as Tom calls them) with Darren and Andra and Tom on the back deck. Guess what we ate? Salmon marinated in Gin. Tom's idea! It was delicious.

Telluride deserves its own post. So, I'll send the vacation update really soon.... 

As an end note, I've realized in the process of starting this blog that I've been taking my camera more places and capturing some great moments that otherwise would go unnoticed (or unremembered). So, from now on I want to try to end the blog with an "in the moment" shot. Something awesome or fun we caught on digital film simply just walking through our life.

Here's a fun one from May. When Gina was visiting, the three of us were walking down a street and happened upon this wedding hysterical-ness. Made me want to pull out our Princess Bride DVD, pop some popcorn and laugh it up! You can't go wrong starting a marriage with humor-

  

Hope you all are full of warm, fun summer things! 

We'll be in touch soon-

Much love from Denver,

Tom & Rebecca