new snowboard...

So, John and I had some time to ourselves tonight (for the first evening this week since Monday night - it's been a busy week). And we decide to head over to the mall to cash in a Victoria's Secret coupon I had gotten in the mail. On our way over to VS, we pop into Zumiez, and see some snowboards in the back. As we head over to check them out, a Zumiez worker comes over and tells us about this crazy deal they've got going on - board, boots & bindings for $200. John and I kinda wig out thinking, no way is this for real. I had gotten my board, boots & second-hand bindings 7 years ago in Switzerland for a pricey £400 (around $800 today thanks to the dollar to pound exchange!).

We'd never heard of the board (Alibi Sicter), though it seemed good enough, the boots were sweet (you could get either a DC Shoe or a 32 Prion), and the bindings were Burton, which if you have to know anything about snowboards and snowboarding, Burton are the bomb and make the best of everything out there.

We ask them to put it on hold, I call my bro's for some research, we head back and decide to go for it. John still had some birthday money left over so he decided it would be perfect to put it towards this amazing deal. On our way home, we realised that altogether, everything originally cost $500. (I have to admit - that is still so much cheaper than England - I need to stock up on snowboarding stuff while we're here!!!)

What a deal! We are now even more excited to get season passes and hit the slopes big time this winter!

Check it out...

The board:



The boots:


The bindings:


The other side of the board:


The set:


Our snowboards together...

saturday in the sun...

One fine sunny day, Marie woke up, inspired to do something. She had all sorts of ideas. She and her husband discussed them all, and then finally he said,
"How about we go for a bike ride along the Poudre river trail?"
"What a great idea!" she replied. So they prepared a bag of things they might need, loaded the bikes into the truck, drove to Wal-Mart where they parked it, and proceeded to cycle down the trail.


The Poudre was definitely at a low season, most of the snow having already melted from the mountains, but it was still beautiful to see, and they felt like they were in the countryside as they cycled along this clear, calm body of water.


After a few miles, they decided it was time to stop and sit for a bit.

They rode off the trail into a forest, and found the most delightful little spot in the shade, by the man-made waterfall, which they pretended was real, because it made the most wonderful, peaceful sound. They crossed over to a small island, but realised it was covered in rocks, on which it would not be comfortable to sit.





From the island though, they spotted the most beautiful, little place, under huge trees, where they could sit quite comfortably for the ground was covered in moss.

They crossed back over and laid out a blanket, and took some pictures.



And what did they do after they had settled themselves comfortably? Why, they did what anyone else would - they played Scrabble.




After they finished their quicker than normal game, for the mosquitoes were starting to bite, they stepped back up on their bikes and cycled back to Wal-Mart, but not before stopping at Dairy Queen for a yummy treat.

All in all, a fantastic day had by both!

(There you go, Sam!)

Inauguration to Colorado

John has fly-fished, we've snowboarded, we've been to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Now for the next phase in the Inauguration to Colorado: Hunting class, so that we can get a license to go hunting if we like. Friends of our friends invited us to go hunting with them, and the wife is taking the class on Saturday. We decided to join her and join them to go hunting. We thought it would be fun, as well as fun for me to shoot a gun (my first time ever even holding a real gun). John wants the next step for us to be owning a gun, but I have firmly declined and will continue to firmly decline for as long as we both shall live. But yeah for hunting! (We'll try not to pull a Dick Cheney!)


On a completely un-Colorado-like note, we recently had a fun sushi night with said friends and I remembered how much I love sushi! A few days later, while shopping in Denver with Kelly, we decided to go for sushi again. And then that evening, on a date with John, guess what, we went for sushi again. We were excited to discover a great Japanese restaurant here in town called Jeju that had amazing sushi and other yummy Japanese treats for a fairly reasonable price. It's no Hayashi's (our favourite dive in Kona), but it does the trick. (And sadly, due to pix been taken by our camera phones and John having our card reader, I can't upload the pix of us eating our yummy sushi - but you get the idea!)


John and I are reading "The Little Prince" together as it is one of the best books known to man. If you have not delved into the lovely pages of this story, then go now, buy it, get it from your library, borrow it, it is such a delightful and moving read.

new car

And here it is:



And again:

new car in floods

I made two videos (showing inside & outside, as per request of my brother, Matt) of our gorgeous 2000 VW Golf, but for some reason when I try to open it on my lappy, it somehow doesn't work. So, will have to do it again.

I got the privilege to drive yesterday in my first flash flood. Last night, here in Fort Collins, it started to rain, like proper rain. John and I had a hankering for Chipotle, and as he was sick, I stepped up to the challenge of driving out in the midst of the monsoon-like weather. Little did I know how flooded the roads would already be after an hour of rain, or how close the lighting and thunder would be. It was pretty thrilling I must say. But totally worth it. I got home, changed into warm dry sweatpants, and ate Chipotle with my husband while watching CSI - the storm had blown out our cable.

Yeah for adventure and fun weather! I love weather!

On another note, I didn't get the Habitat job. Kinda bummed. But I'll be alright!