Fall Visitors

As I mentioned in my last blog, David and Teresa came to visit us last Thursday for a long weekend. We had such a wonderful time eating delicious food and seeing some beautiful scenery.

Thursday night we ate a delicious dinner at outside at Houstons. The weather was unseasonably warm all weekend but still very nice.

On Saturday we started our journey to Aspen. The drive there was very scenic with many different mountain views and lots of fall foliage. I love driving through Independence Pass this time of year.

After our lunch in Aspen, we drove over to the Maroon Bells to walk around for a little bit. The sun had kind of cast a shadow on the mountains so they weren't as brilliant as they are in the morning, but they are still a sight to see.

The David head tilt.

The other way.

 While we were walking around Maroon Lake, we noticed some people staring at a hillside nearby. They kept pointing to something and we soon realized that they were looking at a mama and baby bear eating out of some red bushes. They were very small on the hillside so it was hard to tell but they would walk back and forth a little bit and you could see them better. I'm sure they are so very difficult to see in this picture, but they are there. Trust me.

Ok, one of them is the dark spot on the rocks close to the left treeline. The other is righ across siting in the red bush. If you look closely, you can see the ears on the one on the left.

Whether you can see them or not, we know they were there. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around in Aspen before dinner. We found a delicious italian restaurant kind of on accident for dinner and had a delightful dinner outside on their patio. They even had outdoor heaters to keep us warm when the sun went down. We spent the night in Aspen and got up Saturday morning to make the drive to Crested Butte.

This is just one of the beautiful views on the way.

How cute are they?

T-bird with her "Rynie"

Dabid!

This is another one of our views.

Love Birds

Our first view of Mt. Crested Butte from the drive in.

It looks very different without snow covering it.

 The Simmons have been going to Crested Butte to ski since the kids were really young so it holds a very special place in their hearts. It was so fun to get to see the city in a different season. There were flowers everywhere and a lot of the aspen trees had turned bright yellow.

I love this picture. The boys were sitting outside of Camp for Coffee, a favorite coffee shop.

This picture makes me laugh so hard. The best part is that Teresa didn't even know what the picture was of before she got back there. I just told them to make a surprised face. Loves it.

 We decided to ride the lift up to the top and walk around a little bit. This is just a taste of what it looked like on the way up.

View from the top of Silver Queen Lift

 The boys decided to venture around a little bit and the girls found a good spot to sit and enjoy the scenery. While we were chatting, I noticed a paraglider flying around the mountain. Little did we know, the boys got a firsthand look at him taking off. Ryan even shot this video. Make sure you watch for David hopping down to take some pictures. Can't blame the guy for wanting to fly above this scenery, right?

If you were wondering what a Cool Guy hat looks like, here it is. Old School Crested Butte right there.

One victory I have to share is that of finding a can of pumpkin in the state of Colorado. The decision was made that pumpkin bars were the perfect treat for the weekend. After deciding that, I looked at 3 different grocery stores for canned pumpkin and all 3 proceeded to tell me about a bad pumpkin  harvest and how they may not have pumpkin until October. That was just not going to work. I already had all of my ingredients. Except one can of pumpkin. Our last resort was the City Market in Crested Butte. If you have ever been, it is no exactly as big or extensive as your big city grocery store. I was doubtful that they would have pumpkin. But Teresa believed in the cause, and if you know her at all, you know she makes things happen. She talked to a clerk and they sent us to an isle that had PUMPKIN! I couldn't believe it. Crested Butte/Teresa to save the day! After doing a small victory dance in the isle, we headed to check out with 2 cans for good measure. Here's the finished product. It was and still is delicious. I wish someone would come take the rest off my hands.

Sunday was the day for Teresa and I to do our running around while the boys watched football. Both parties were totally fine with this. We ate a huge and delectable breakfast at Snooze and then parted ways. That night we ate a wonderful dinner downtown at Vesta Dipping Grill . There are so many different dips to choose from and you get 3 with your meal that you can chose or have the one suggested by the chef.  It is such a unique restaurant with so many delicious options. Yum.

Monday morning we woke up and ate a delicious breakfast at Devil's Food Bakery and Cookery. Teresa and I looked at a menu for it last February and put it on our to-do list for the future. It was a more traditional feel than Snooze, but still very delicious. It was a perfect little ending to our fun weekend. I wouldn't have changed any of it, especially how much we laughter filled the weekend!

Up next, Megan Shaub. She arrives on Saturday and I am giddy to say the least. I feel so thankful for Fall to begin with wonderful visitors!

Bike Races, A Birthday, and a Bear Who Crossed the Road

Ryan and I have had a busy couple of weeks and weekends since we got back into our Denver groove.

For Labor Day weekend, we traveled to Telluride, Montrose, drove the Million Dollar Highway, and ventured up to Crested Butte. It was quite a busy weekend! But before I report about that trip, I want to tell you about the one before it.

On August 22, The U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge started it's first stage in Colorado Springs. It traveled through several beautiful Colorado cities and towns during the 7 stages of the race. The 6th stage was coming through Breckenridge on Saturday so we decided to go up early that morning and get a spot to stand to watch the racers come through. We ran into Joel and Lauren Steidl on Tuesday night before at a concert at Red Rocks and found out they planned to go as well. Our friend Lindsay Bombard (pictured below) happens to love the Tour de France like Ryan does and so she was happy to come ride up with us. Jordan Wilson and Paige Griffith also came over from Fort Collins and met us to ride to Breckenridge.

When we got there, we ended up in the same parking lot as Joel and Lauren which was fun because we ended up spending the day all together! The cops in our parking lot ended up telling us it was too crazy at the top of the mountain to take our cars so we had a 2 mile walk up Swan Mountain to get to the spot where we wanted to walk. We had all brought food so we filled our purses, backpacks, and small coolers with what wasn't too heavy and started on the journey up.

This is one of the views we had on the way up.

It was crazy at the top! There were tons of people in costumes, some more bizzare than others. Towards the very top they had big speakers out with music blaring and dancing in the street. It was quite a scene!

 We stood a little ways down from to have our own space out of the madness. This is our group shot.

Now, some of these shots that Ryan took of the actual racers made me laugh when I first saw them because it looked like he photoshopped the characters into the pictures. This is just an example of the crazy people that were all over the place. I'm sure the racers appreciate the support!

On Sunday, we ventured to Golden, CO to see beginning the last stage of the race. We got to see the racers begin the final stage from their starting point in downtown Golden and had hopes of racing ourselves back to Denver to see the finish. The traffic was so bad that we got at one of the race's cross streets and got to watch the racers come by again.

That was cool, but we were a little bummed to not get to see the finish in downtown Denver. We were able to watch it on TV back at the apartment, though.

That next Monday I celebrated my 25th birthday, again....ok fine, I turned 26, but I didn't like it. I would just prefer to stay 25.

I was showered with lots of birthday love from friends and family that day and I appreciated it so much. I got some fun mail and I came home to a box of Gigi's Cupcakes and a very sweet card.

Ryan has classes until 7:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays so this was so nice to come home to since I was home alone for a while. We had a delicious dinner at Pappadeux and I felt very blessed to get to celebrate my 2nd birthday as Ashleigh Simmons.

Now for Telluride.

Telluride, CO is about 6.5 hours away for us so we have been trying to find a good time to go. Labor day seemed like the perfect time. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove 4 hours and camped right outside of Gunnison.  These pictures are from the bottom of Black Canyon at Black Canyon National Park.

On Friday, we drove into Telluride and spent the afternoon walking around the charming town while the Telluride Film Festival was being set up.  Downtown Telluride sits in a valley with gorgeous mountains all around. We weren't able to take a good picture of everything because the streets were filled with all of the different film festival areas so I stole this picture from Google Images.

What a fun place! There were so many people coming in for the film festival. Ryan and I plotted on how we could come up with a lanyard to get into some of the bigger shows, but we never came up with anything. We camped that night at a nearby area. On Saturday morning we got up and decided that we needed a delicious breakfast to start our day. We looked up different breakfast options on our phones and decided on Maggies Bakery and Cafe. It was a simple looking place with the menu written on a giant white board and you got the sense that one of the few women working was probably the Maggie. As I looked around, I almost gasped at who I saw right behind us eating with her daughters. I grabbed Ryan's arm and he quietly said "I know." Now, I don't usually get too star-struck but it was Jennifer Garner. I'm by no means her biggest fan, but I had just watched Juno and Ghost of Girlfriends Past recently on tv so it seemed more out of place than usual. She seemed so natural with her daughters and didn't act like she was any different than anyone. She made sure to mention how good their food was when they left. It was really cool.

When we got to our car and sat down to make a gameplan for the rest of the day, the White Witch from Narnia, Tilda Swinton, walked right by our car! Ha, I immediately knew she was someone and then the White Witch came into my mind. Ryan was mad I didn't roll down the window and ask her for some Turkish Delights.

Later that afternoon, we hiked up to Bear Creek Falls. It was a gorgeous hike up to the falls and the air was nice and cool.

After our hike, we decided to get on the road towards Montrose so we could stay in a hotel and Ryan could pick up some internet to watch Tennessee's season opener on his computer. Obviously you see where our priorities lie.

As we were driving on the beautiful two lane highway at about 60mph, Ryan kinda yelled and slammed on the breaks. I looked to the left and saw the giant BROWN BEAR that was running down the hill to the left and straight toward the road in front of us. As the bear noticed the cars, he kinda hesitated right before the road and we were able to move forward as he ran right behind our car and into the woods on the othe side.

Once again, kinda like the wild horses, it was one of those moments that happened so quickly that you can't really think to react. This is just another google image search for a visual for you but it looks oddly similar.

After our bear scare, we finished our trip to Montrose (me scanning the road the entire time for more wildlife) to race into our hotel so Ryan could get set-up for the game.

On Sunday we decided to drive the Million Dollar Highway. I didn't know what his was before this day either. It is:
"U.S. Route 550 is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway."

U.S. Route 550 at the Uncompahgre Gorge

"Though the entire stretch has been called the Million Dollar Highway, it is really the twelve miles (19 km) south of Ouray through the Uncompahgre Gorge to the summit of Red Mountain Pass which gains the highway its name. This stretch through the gorge is challenging and potentially hazardous to drive; it is characterized by steep cliffs, narrow lanes, and a lack of guardrails; the ascent of Red Mountain Pass is marked with a number of hairpin "S" curves used to gain elevation, and again, narrow lanes for traffic—many cut directly into the sides of mountains."

Enough said. If you read Ryan's one and only post from over a year ago about our adventure from Aspen to Crested Butte, this story gets strangely familiar.
After we got into Ouray and walked around for a little bit, Ryan decided he wanted to go to a ghost town he had heard about. Here are some pictures from the ghost town.

As we were walking around the ghost towns, we were seeing different 4x4 vehicles driving on small dirt roads through the mountains around us. We didn't have cell service so we couldn't tell exactly where we were, but Ryan kept saying "I wonder what is on the other side of that mountain."

Now, I knew exactly what this meant. He wanted US to DRIVE to the other side of that mountain to see. At first, I was very hesitant and made myself clear. No thanks. After a little bit, I started realizing that he wasn't going to be satisfied until he found out if we could get back to where we came from by driving those trails. So I gave up and told him let's just try it and see, hoping that it would be a short and safe drive and then it would be over.
2 hours later and after many parts of the road looking like this:

we finally found where our trail met back with 550. Literally over some mountains. Oh brother. He promises that he will never do that again and that I am not allowed to let him even think about it. We will see how that goes.

 After we got "out of the woods", we decided to head to Crested Butte for the night to camp. We knew we wouldn't have that much time to spend, but it is a place that we love so it was fun even to spend a couple hours. We ate a good breakfast Monday morning and then hit the road back to Denver.

Our last few weekends have been more low-key with more naps and A LOT more football. I don't mind though. It is a nice reminder of coming into the fall season.

Tomorrow, I get to pick up Dave and Teresa from the airport for a long weekend! I am looking so forward to their visit.

I hope to be back soon with pictures from our time with them!