Baseball & Buffaloes

You may not know this, but it is a requirement to go to at least one baseball game every summer (and hopefully more! I was working for the Bees last summer so I went to like 50. It was great). So, naturally, Matt and I went straight from the airport to the Rockies vs. Mets game. The atmosphere at those games really makes me miss working in sports... Anyway, the Mets killed the Rockies but it was still a lot of fun!

Matt had to move his dorm room on Saturday so we spent some time doing that before heading to Ted's, which is my ultimate obsession in Colorado Springs. Why? They have the most incredible bison (buffalo) burgers. Gotta love 'em. I used to make Matt take me like twice a month but then he got a little sick of it, so we took a break for awhile... which made me even more excited to eat there this time!

That (above) would be Ted's. And this (below) would be us in our booth at Ted's. See how happy we are to be eating there? K, me more than Matt but still...

That night, we just hung out at Anthony's with all of Matt's best friends. This is the 2nd to last time they'll all get to be together until January because Mike (the one on the right) is spending fall semester in Spain. We'll miss him!

Rodeos, Recitals & Remote contRol caRs

Utah has a lot of rodeos throughout the summer, but the best one is most definitely Strawberry Days. Why? A: it's a whopping 7-minute drive from my house, and B: strawberries and cream, of course! Back in my dating days, I'd make my dates take me to a Strawberry Days event every. single. day. so I could get my good ol' $1 cup of strawberries and cream. Now it's $1.25 a cup (pure money-making genius on their part) and tastes just as great as ever!

Going to the rodeo with my family is honestly a blast since I get to see these cute babies' reactions to everything. Exhibit A: The mutton-bustin'. They were definitely feeling for their little friends when they fell off those sheep.

Exhibit B: Totally into the calf-roping and giving my day the play-by-play.

Cute, huh? The next ones are of Gabe pointing at the cows (during the wild cow milking contest) and Kaleb getting in on the picture-taking action with my mom's cell phone.

EVERYONE loves the strawberries and cream!

Also last week was my future nieces' ballet recital. They go to Clytie Adams, which is where my best friend in 2nd grade went, so it was a little nostalgic :-) Anyway, they were such good little dancers and were so cute in their tutus!

Last but not least, Gabe's newest discovery: remote control cars. He saw Matthew's jeep and wanted to play with it, so Heidi & I grabbed the controller and decided to have a little fun. We would move the jeep just a couple inches when Gabe wasn't touching it and he was so confused! He kept looking under and all around it to try to figure out what was going wrong and then finally asked it, "Car, are you okay?" Adorable.

In a few hours...

I'll be looking at this again:

So I can see this:

Flying so much (at least every other weekend) gets really old but there is definitely a silver lining to the whole ordeal--and he's pretty cute! I have to come home earlier than usual this time but we're going to pack a whole lot of fun into this 36-hour trip! Oh, and when I get back I'll post this week's pictures of cowboys, ballerinas & would-be mechanics. April, your little brothers are adorable. And they weren't the ballerinas, don't worry :-)

Made-up Holidays

...are always fun! I'm always up for a good party and jump at the chance to celebrate, well, anything. So, naturally, we celebrated our pre-anniversary last weekend. For those of you who were lucky enough to be engaged for just a few months, a pre-anniversary is the completely made-up holiday in which you commemorate the one-year mark until your wedding day.

We decided that the best way to celebrate getting married in the Temple would be going to the Temple. Luckily for us, Matt's ward already had an appointment for baptisms (it's really hard to get into) just a couple hours after my plane got in on Friday.

After the Temple, we went to Cheesecake Factory. It amazes me every time how much food they give you! I always have to box half of it before I even start... but that makes me finish before Matt, leaving me with nothing to do except take pictures of him eating (while he asks me if I really need to take a picture of him eating). See? Our great waiter solved the problem by taking a picture of both of us once our cheesecakes came. I tried the tuxedo one this time--instant favorite. Matt got the banana cream one, which was good, but I think I'd still prefer that as a pie.

And to top off the fun, we went shopping in Castle Rock on Saturday (that would be the picture below) and to the Pann's for dinner on Sunday. Brother & Sister Pann are Matt's sponsors and they're awesome, in case anyone was wondering. I was supposed to fly home Sunday night but my flight was delayed 4 million hours thanks to flooding in the midwest, so Southwest switched my reservation to Monday night, giving us a whole extra day together. Not bad.

Weekend in Breck!

We definitely loved Breckenridge. The girls stayed in a condo, the boys stayed in an apartment, and we all had a blast together! The only bad thing was the broken hot water heater in the condo the first night--after spending the day in a river, we all had to take FREEZING cold showers! But it was worth it to be clean, and the water heater was fixed the next day (thank goodness). Good times.

After our lovely showers, we went out to dinner at a yummy steakhouse...

And convinced the boys to serenade us that night :-)

The condo's backyard was BEAUTIFUL.

So was the sunset:

We went on a nice little walk around the town (love it more than Park City's Main Street)...

And then played a fun game of croquet at a field that we found. With game faces like these, you'd think we'd be good.

We weren't. But we made up for it by winning the dice game that night!

And the boys totally schooled the girls in the dance-off that night--they were HILARIOUS.

The dance-off kept us up pretty late, so it wasn't very much fun waking up the next morning to go home. This is how Matt felt about it:

He's so cute, even when he's cranky (& wearing AC DC shirts).

White Water Rafting

Okay, so this was technically part of Ring Dance weekend, but we're all sick of the Ring Dance titles, are we not? And honestly, white water rafting deserves a post all its own. It was SUCH a blast! We were a little/lot worried because it was supposed to be raining hard and freezing cold, but we really lucked out with the weather (partly cloudy and only semi-cold...which is alright when you're having so much fun!).

First, we decided that it's important to act tough when you get your gear or else it just seems silly to have those big, strong men looking like they're wearing dance pants.

But then it's all smiles when you get to the river and see how beautiful it is!

We bought a waterproof disposable camera to take with us on the raft so we could get some great action shots. We soon found out, however, that you can only take pictures while it's calm, since you're busy trying to stay in the raft when it's, well, not calm.

Like this.

We did get a few action shots, though:

And in case you're wondering why we're making such intense faces in this next picture--

It's because this was straight ahead!

Talk about an adrenaline rush! Highly recommended, kids.

Ring Dance! (Part IV: The Dance)

Really quick detour... I just have to point out that it's officially only ONE YEAR until we get married!!! We decided that we wanted to marry each other exactly one year and one day ago, so we're more than halfway there! Is it funny that a year sounds soon? Seriously, though, time has gone by so fast! We are SO excited--and more in love than ever :-) And on that happy note, back to Ring Dance at USAFA:

After dinner was over, we made a quick visit to the ever-popular ice sculpture of their class crest. The crest is revealed at the Ring Dance dinner, and a large version of it hangs in the middle of the class wall throughout their senior year. It is also the detail on one side of their class rings (the other side is a United States Air Force crest).

Following the obligatory ice sculpture pictures, we walked outside to a GORGEOUS night and meandered around the Air Gardens for awhile. The Academy is always beautiful in the twilight.

Then we made a quick pit stop at the boys' dorm rooms and took classy pictures with their mascots before heading to the dance...

... where we indulged in numerous trips to the chocolate fountains (a much-appreciated staple at all Academy balls).

Our chocolate-eating party was interrupted by the cutting of the cake with sabers. We made sure to take a picture with the cake so we could replicate it for our wedding. (Can you imagine?)

And finally, we danced the night away.

The End!