Celebrate, jubilate; eat, drink, and be merry!

Happy 2017! 2016 definitely ended with plenty of high notes throughout November and December. 

At the end of November, I turned 28 amidst much celebration. First stop on the celebration train: a fancy-pants brunch at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, wahoo! The buffet brunch there is incredible and I went all-out: crab claws, oysters, lamb, prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, fruit, bread, multiple desserts, on and on! YUM. O, as a vegetarian, was very understanding about my carnivorous streak for my birthday and we both ended the morning, pleasantly full, by enjoying a walk around the hotel grounds, soaking in the beautiful scenery before our drive back to Denver. It was a perfect Sunday morning.

Candid cutie

I took off of work for my actual birthday on the Wednesday, and thanks to my parents' generous birthday gift of the use of some of their Time Share points, Owen and I drove out to Steamboat Springs for four days of relaxing in the mountains. 

Our first stop when we rolled into town was to 4-wheel-drive our way up into the surrounding hills on a muddy primitive road to get to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. Wow! What a treat for my actual birthday. The amenities are rustic, the pools are built right into the rock and hillside next to the river, and the area is breathtaking, especially filled in with a little snow here and there. O and I enjoyed a few hours of soaking in different temperature pools. With the ambient air temperature being in the low 30s, we were happy happy to be surrounded by beauty and warmth. 

Post-soak!

After a great few days in Steamboat Springs, spent sleeping in, cooking lots together, working on a puzzle, reading, long talks over good PNW coffee, going to a community Thanksgiving dinner and a community Christmas tree lighting, and exploring the town, we made our way back to Denver. 

The day we got back saw us off for another adventure - going to see The Fray! Owen is friends with the drummer of The Fray and his wife, and they very kindly offered us tickets and backstage passes to the last show of the tour in Denver. It was a fantastic show, and really fun to see one of my favorite bands from back in high school live, and then catch up with them in person! It was an awesome ending to a great 28th birthday celebration week. 

The first weekend of December saw us celebrating Owen, and the new EP he just released! Owen put on a great show with his band of good friends and great musicians, and audience and performers both had a blast. After about 8 months of preparation, recording, mixing, layering, editing, and mastering, Owen has a beautiful finished product. Cheers, love!

That next weekend, I flew from Denver to Miami for my second year attending the ICEF conference in Miami Beach. While I wound up getting food poisoning on one of the days and having to bow out of work for a day (miserable), it was redeemed by two other full days of meeting colleagues, new prospective partner companies, and enjoying good food and drink in colorful Miami. The cherry on top was the morning I left to fly back to Denver, when I took a leisurely swim in the Atlantic Ocean and sunbathed in 81º temps (it was about 20º when I got back to Denver later that day!). That was a nice treat. 

The view of Miami Beach from my hotel room

The lifeguard was most definitely NOT on duty ;)

At the end of last month, I took a 5-day trip home over the Christmas weekend to spend the holiday at home with my family (Owen and I had done Christmas with his parents the weekend before, so he spent the actual holiday cozy at home with his folks, too). The flight home was absolutely stunning - crystal clear views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, the Three Sisters mountains, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, AND Mt. Rainier! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect 'hello' from my home and my favorite place.

It was wonderful to be with my family (and especially to spend time with sweet little Soren - getting so big now at 9 months old!). We made lots and lots of cookies, cooked up a fantastic surf'n'turf Christmas dinner of prime rib roast and fresh crab legs, laughed a ton, binged watched a show (with my mom and dad - "The Man in the High Castle" - so good!!), and had a lovely Christmas with lots of great and practical presents for everyone. I'm already looking forward to having my sister visit Denver in February for a long weekend, and then going back to Portland with Owen again for a family visit in April. Especially with my sister pregnant with another little one later this summer, it'll be really important to get home a lot this year. 

She's the cutest!

Owen and I rang in the New Year with dinner and a movie - we watched the 80s classic, "Willow" (a tradition in my family for New Year's Eve since I was a little kid), and we cooked up some delectable homemade gnocchi (seriously mouthwatering just thinking about how good the gnocchi was!). It was a great way to close out a fantastic 2016 and welcome in what looks to be an even better 2017!

This past weekend, Owen and I celebrated eleven months together. On Saturday, we went ice skating in the late afternoon with one of O's good friends from his California days back in college. We went skating on a lake in Evergreen, CO, with the bright moon high in the early evening sky and mountains on all sides. It was gorgeous and so much fun; none of us had been ice skating in several years! 

To celebrate our official 'month-iversary' on Sunday, we went out for a fancy date in downtown Denver. We first explored the new Denver Central Market hipster-y food hall. It was awesome! We had Castelvertrano olives for an appetizer, a delicious pizza for dinner, and yummy mousse-filled mini-cakes for dessert (passion fruit/mango and chocolate). We both agreed that we'd definitely go back there again. Dinner was followed up with arcade games at 1UP and then cranberry-lime-club sodas at the Peaks Lounge on the 27th floor of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Denver to enjoy the sweeping, lit-up evening views of Denver and beyond. It was a lovely evening out together, and a great way to celebrate our love and how much fun we have together.

The rest of the winter will bring us even more love and adventures - Owen's birthday and a weekend in a yurt in the mountains for some snowshoeing and cross country skiing, our first anniversary, and ten days in France in late March. We can't wait.

Cheers to a great year, everyone!