Turkey Day!

We feel we've finally "made it" as adults... we hosted our first major holiday this Thanksgiving at our home in Fort Collins. Carrie's mom flew out from PA on the morning of Thanksgiving and stayed until the following Tuesday. Carrie's brother Joe also came up from Denver for the feast.

After some careful menu and shopping planning... here was our Thanksgiving feast:

Finally finished cooking and ready to EAT!

Appetizers:
Crab bisque
Veggies & homemade hummus
Shrimp cocktail


Dinner:
Herb butter whole turkey (16lbs)
Smoked turkey legs
Gravy

Stuffing: butternut squash, sourdough bread & salami
Sweet potato casserole
Pineapple stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Garlic green beans


Dessert:
Pumpkin pie
Cranberry apple crisp


The challenge, as we found, is choreographing the sequence--especially with only one oven. But with the aid of a couple crock pots and a little advice from Carrie's mom, we did pretty well. So we counted it as a success! :)

Mommy

everybody's helping out!

Jonny ready to carve up that turkey

A Happy Halloween Indeed...

So along with all the fall fun we've had out here, the days around Halloween actually brought some great news along with fun. Carrie found out that she got two part-time jobs at CSU--which is a definite blessing, especially right now! She has been working contacts since we got out here and things finally worked out thanks to a contact from her previous job at Opera New Jersey.

She'll be working in Marketing/PR for CSU's University Center for the Arts promoting activities for Music, Theatre, and Dance--right up her alley. Also, she'll be planning a 50th Anniversary event for the Communication Studies Dept. (taking place next school year). So now we're both employed and back to work out here int he Centennial State! Carrie will continue to teach voice lessons in Loveland and Fort Collins for now, hoping she'll have enough time to continue since she really enjoys teaching. She's enjoyed the chance to get us "settled" out here, but is happy to be back to work doing what she loves.

Halloween activities also included something new for us--the Fort Collins Zombie Crawl! The night included a $15 ticket for each person, which got you an item at 5 different stops (of the dozens of choices) on "the crawl"--so either a drink, a sandwich, candy, ice cream, etc. as long as you were dressed like a ZOMBIE! We were even joined by our Zobmie friends, Jill & Eric, from Laramie, WY. We went as zombie funeral mourners. Being new to the whole "Zombie thing," we did our best--you be the judge!

A Beautiful Colorado Fall

We have enjoyed a beautiful fall here in Colorado. Those golden Aspens against the clear blue sky are simply amazing! Back in September, we attended a seminar about the best fall hikes in our area around Roosevelt National Forest (just north of Rocky Mountain National Park). Our first hike was through Hewlett Gulch, not to far from our house. The colors had just started to turn, and since there was only about a 500' of elevation gain we were able to go about 6 miles (round trip)--we're working up to bigger ones.

We also recently had a chance to try out our marksmanship, not at a formal shooting range, but out in the Pawnee Grasslands just a little ways east of Fort Collins. Carrie's brother Joe came up for a visit and we set out with our arsenal on another beautiful fall day.

We also had a great visit from Jon's parents; recently making their first trip to Colorado to see us. It was so good to see familiar faces from home and get to spend some quality time with them. Even though Jon was pretty busy with school work and classes, we managed to squeeze in a bunch of fun activities in the week they were here. We took a trip down to Colorado Springs (about 2 hours south of us) and went up the famous Pike's Peak on the cog train (because we sure weren't driving up there--14,000 feet above sea level and no guard rails), drove through Garden of the Gods, and enjoyed the beautiful mountain range scenery. We also drove up to Estes Park for "Elk Fest" (all things ELK--including bugling contests, elk sausage, and more) and then took a drive up Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park (one of the most gorgeous drives we've seen out here to date)--seeing mountain wildlife, spotting cool mountain lakes, amazing views of the peaks, and even some snow, not to mention the gorgeous views of the fall colors!

And now for a pictorial version of our fall activities:

The End of a Crazy Summer

In effort to try to "catch up" to present day... we'll give a brief overview of the activities that transpired since we've moved. Carrie's parents stayed with us for a little while longer after the move and we definitely filled up that time with lots of different activities!

We'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but they include: a trip to the Cheyenne Frontier Days up in Wyoming; hiking at Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins; the Larimer County Fair; a Phillies vs. Rockies game; and, our favorite, a trip way up into the mountains, across the Continental Divide, to tour an old mine and train through the mountainside in Georgetown and Leadville, CO. So many great times in our first explorations of Colorado!

Colorado or BUST!

So we have a bit of catching up to do, and so we'll start with the move. After finishing up work and things in PA, we packed up all our toys into a 16' moving truck (with a lot of help from some very good friends!) and set out--Colorado or bust!

We drove out with Carrie's parents--with the moving truck, the Houtzs' Subaru, and our car in tow behind the truck--a nice little cross-county caravan! It took 4 days, but we made it without any problems. Our route took us through Maryland, West Virginia (where we stopped to see an old Etown friend!), Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, ALL the long way through Kansas, and then finally into Colorado! The first glimpse of the mountains was a sight for our travel-weary eyes. In fact, I don't know that we'll every get used to their beauty.

Finally we made it to our new place in Fort Collins--just south of the CSU campus. And onto our next task--UNPACKING the endless amount of boxes we seemed to have! Who knew we had SO much kitchen stuff!! Thankfully, we had some help from Carrie's parents who stayed with us for a little while out here.

So after almost 2 months, our place is now a home--which Jon has officially dubbed "The Ponderosa" (our homestead)... we are settled in, getting to know the area, and getting into our routines--loving life in the Rockies!

A New Start...

After a year and half of newly-wedded bliss, our lives have changed quite a bit. Saying goodbye to our friends and family on the east coast, we've packed up all our toys and moved to Fort Collins, Colorado! Jon is pursuing a doctorate degree in Economics at Colorado State University (CSU), and so we are here for at least four years.

We decided to start this blog to keep in touch with our friends and family and to "document" our adventures out west. We hope you enjoy reading as this is our first blog-adventure!

Cheers!