Sisters Gone Wild In Denver

This post makes me oh so happy for about a billion reasons. I smile even as I write, thinking back on what an incredible few days away I had in Denver. Yes, I'm still catching up on posts from back in August (!) but it's kinda fun to do so when it means "re-living" such a wonderful weekend.

Colleen, Allison and I had talked forever about going away somewhere together so, when Colleen suggested going to visit her sister, Christina, in Denver, we both jumped at the chance. I've never visited some of the most beautiful places out west and Colorado most certainly has been on my list for some time. It's always more fun too to visit a place where you've got a local to take you around so I really was excited for this trip! Let me just tell you...it was one of the most wonderful trips I've taken, ever. I say that with sincerity.

Coming off a high of Abbey's terrific birthday celebration the night before, the three of us were on our way to the airport after work and so giddy. The flight felt super quick and, before we knew it, beautiful Christina was there waiting to pick us up. She took us to her apartment where she showed us to our suite (yes, I said suite) that was basically the penthouse. See, she works for the building and they have a corporate suite that they rent out which just so happened to be free the weekend we were there. Christina got it for us at no cost. It was absolutely gorgeous! Talk about staying in Denver in style... We visited for a while over some vino back at Christina's place before heading to bed around midnight.

Waking up Friday morning was just awesome because, right out my window, you could see the gorgeous mountains in the distance:

This might seem like no big deal to most but I've never seen "real" mountains before. We'd talked about taking a drive through the mountains that morning for brunch in a little town called Evergreen so I was really dying to get out and see all that I could. Once we finally got ready, we were off and I honestly felt like a little kid. I was in awe as we drove closer to the Rocky Mountains. At one point, Allison kinda giggled and, when I asked her why, she says you think those are the mountains, don't you? I was totally confused and told her yes only to find out I'd been looking at just the FOOTHILLS the whole time:

Let me just tell you how amazed I was when we finally hit the true mountains. It was so majestic and glorious, truly. I really was blown away at how beautiful everything was. I swear, you could almost feel god's presence surrounding you everywhere you looked. It was a moment I won't soon forget, I'll tell you that much.

When we finally got to the oh so sweet Wildflower Cafe, I pretty much decided then and there that I'd be moving to Denver after culinary school. In all seriousness, I think that really might be my path but that's a story for another time! Colleen had told me this place was one of her favorites and it quickly became one of mine, as well. Adorable (once again, using Colleen's awesome photos):

Bacon bloody mary? Um, yes please:

After brunch, we took a beautiful drive into the cute town of Golden where we were definitely ready to be tourists at the Coors Brewery. I swear, we have fun any/everywhere we go:

Our small tastes of beer may or may not have gotten us a little tipsy in the altitude... After Coors, we went on to Golden City Brewery which was seriously the greatest little home brewery, ever. This guy basically converted his house and yard into a brewery and it was so awesome:

We camped out there for a while before realizing we needed to get a move on to change and get ready for the baseball game that night. I'm telling you, the four of us were seriously having more fun than I can explain. Everything from conversation to laughter to experiencing the beauty of Denver...it was all amazing so we intended to not waste a minute. We went for drinks before the game at a fun rooftop bar and then had a total blast seeing the Rockies in action:

After the game, we went to Wynkoop, another awesome brewery to meet up with some of Christina's friends. We were there for a while before taking the party back to Christina's apartment. I will keep repeating myself but we literally had so much fun:

In addition to meeting Christina's friends/boyfriend, I also met Bryan. We'll leave it at that for now but it's most certainly worth noting. ;) Fun, fun times:

Friday overall was so fantastic and it was hard to believe we packed in all that we did.

Saturday, we decided to head to Boulder. We stopped for lunch at a cute little Brazilian joint and spent the day shopping and taking in the town:

It was so gorgeous out! When we had our fill of browsing around, it was time to introduce me to what the real Rocky Mountains are all about. We drove super high up, parked and got out to overlook what is some of the most stunning scenery I've ever encountered:

In. Awe. Truly. I had a couple of moments where my palms actually got sweaty due to how high up we were. Realizing you've never been in the mountains like that before is a very trippy feeling but it was totally amazing.

After spending a phenomenal day in and around Boulder, we went back to Christina's to regroup before our Yonder Mountain show at Red Rocks. Ok, if I thought I was mesmerized before, I just died seeing Red Rocks and the surrounding area. The show was awesome but nothing compared to how incredible that venue is:

It really was something, I tell you. What a memorable evening, all around.

On Sunday, we woke up early and it was off to Breckenridge for the day. I swear, I remained in awe every time we drove into the mountains. I felt/feel such a connection with Colorado and it was  a true joy to experience every place we went. Breckenridge was really fun for me since I had several 'firsts' including my first gondola ride and oxygen bar visit! We walked all over, had a terrific lunch sitting outside and all of us just basked in the beautiful weather and scenery:

You can't fake this moment of awe:

I really loved the town as a whole. I could just picture it covered in snow, so beautiful and peaceful. All of us totally enjoyed spending the day there:

Oh J4, we love you:

Hehehe:

When we sadly had to head back to Denver, we decided to stop for drinks at Colt and Gray which ended up being simply tremendous. We could've stayed there forever:

The day honestly flew by and, before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head to dinner before going on to the airport, boooo. We met Christina's boyfriend, Tim, at Steuben's and appropriately toasted to our weekend with amazing moscow mules, my new favorite drink:

As if you can't tell by this epic blog post, my weekend in Colorado was one of the best experiences I've had in quite some time. Being with the girls was so special in itself and then adding every experience we had to that just made it priceless overall. I still smile thinking of every detail. I'm pretty certain that a lot of this trip was life changing in a sense so we'll see if I'm right in time...

All I know is I can't wait to get back there, soon. I feel so blessed to have the means to take trips like this and the fact that it affected me in such an amazing way is a gift. Thank you for the wonderful hospitality, Christina! This will be one of my greatest memories for a very long time. 

Beautiful Abbey Turns 30

One of the most fun nights I've had in a while came right before a string of amazing experiences so I kinda think my dear friend, Abbey, somehow rubbed good luck off on me. Right before I went out to Denver (a day before, in fact!), I was so thrilled to celebrate sweet Abbey's 30th birthday and man, did we have an absolute blast. Her parents decided to rent out Corsino for an evening and it was such a perfect celebration.

Over the years, I've gotten to meet a great deal of Abbey's family and friends so the night was as fun for me as it was her. I hadn't yet met her adorable niece, Harper, though and that was a huge highlight of the night for me. I fell in love with her: 

We drank fantastic wine, ate delicious food and ended up dancing into the wee hours of the night at a bar later on. The best part? Allison and I hired Colleen again to photograph everything and it truly was so special. Taken from Colleen's website:

Abbey is one of my first true New York friends and I am so deeply blessed by her. She has been such a bright spot in my life over the years and I cherish who she is as a woman and friend. Celebrating a milestone such as her 30th birthday is a memory I won't soon forget and I'm honored to walk the path of life together as the years continue to pass. Lots of love to you, sweet friend!

Sunset Cruises Are Fun

I really feel fortunate to have experienced some awesome things this summer but a huge highlight was celebrating Seafood's 30th in major style aboard a yacht at sunset, cruising around Manhattan until midnight. I've never done anything like that in the city before and it was absolutely tremendous.

Not only is Seafood (as we affectionately refer to him) the most generous person I know, he's also the best when it comes to celebrations. He knows how to have fun, that's for sure. It was so hard coming up with what to get him for his birthday until a lightbulb went off: Colleen! A group of us decided to pool funds together and hire Colleen to photograph the entire evening. It's honestly the best decision we could've made. Not only was Seafood ecstatic about the surprise but he told us several times how happy he was to have that memory documented.

We had gorgeous weather for the evening and I truly feel lucky to have spent such a special night with Seafood's good friends and family. I must share some of Colleen's beautiful photos as they capture much more than I can:

What a terrific, fun and memorable evening. I honestly love my life sometimes and the people in it are irreplaceable. I'm a very lucky lady.

Brigantine Or Bust

It's shameful that I'm working on posts at the end of October that happened in July and August. I've honestly had no spare time to breathe lately and it makes me sad. Even down time at work has been filled up with random, odd projects so here I am finally trying to make a dent in a few things I've been up to recently.

Summer in the city was fabulous as usual. Rooftop parties, patio cocktails, live music, weekend getaways, evening strolls in the park...you name it, I did it. I absolutely love summer here. I didn't get out of town this year as much as I usually do so, being that I was itching to get away, I decided a summer Brigantine trip simply had to happen. I decided to ask Rachel, Allison and Suzanne if they'd be up to going and I got a collectively resounding 'yes'!

Brigantine, NJ holds such a special place in my heart due to my time there with Erica. Visiting her family and where she grew up was something we'd look forward to over the years and, while it's so odd going without her, I love that it's such a close town to the city. Located just a couple of hours away from NYC (and less than ten minutes from Atlantic City), Brig is your quintessential beach town. It's a super small island, there are only a couple of bars and restaurants around and it's as casual as you can get. I love bumming around in flops and t-shirts no matter where you go and it's honestly a place you want to go for true relaxing.

On the absolute hottest day of the year, the four of us gals hopped in the car on our way only to run into two hours of standstill traffic sitting outside the tunnel. Yeah, that wasn't fun. We weren't letting anything get us down though so eventually we were on our way, lunchables and all:

 Yeah, very very hot:

We finally got to Brig around 8:00pm and, naturally, we went straight to the beach bar:

We spent the most awesome two days just sitting in the sun, eating cheesesteaks (an absolute must in Brig), talking, laughing, relaxing...simply enjoying each others' company and loving being out of the city:

 This one's for you, Erica:

Yesssssss:

Best night, ever (pay no attention to my hair):

I adore these women and time spent with them is both hilarious and meaningful. I can't even say how happy I am that we had this little getaway together. Hooray, summer!

I'm Back From Sicily...

...and I am not happy about it. In fact, I'm downright sad about it. However, looking forward to getting photos sorted and uploaded has me super excited.

I've been swamped since I got home so I haven't had any time to write. I don't even know if I'll be able to capture any of the feelings I have from the trip anyway but I'll try, soon!

Random side note: just over 7 weeks til marathon Sunday! Holy. Crapola.

I Love Me Some Dinner Parties

Honestly, we all know how much I love going to dinner whether it's out to a new restaurant or over to someone's home. Dinner parties of all types are awesome and I get excited just thinking about them. My friend, An, knows how much I love cooking and she'd recently told me about her friend, Daniel, and how I'd go bananas if I ever saw his kitchen. Well, it just so happens that he decided to throw a dinner party for some friends and he warmly extended the invite to me through An.

First off, Daniel's apartment is just gorgeous. I'd never seen something like it before in how unique the architecture and design was. An was definitely not joking about his kitchen, either. It was amazing. I am waiting ever so patiently for the day when I finally have a big, open kitchen. Oh, to dream... Anyway, Daniel was really gracious in welcoming me into his group of friends and it was truly so generous of him to throw this dinner party for everyone.

During his travels to New Zealand recently, he'd befriended the chef of a restaurant he loved and they've stayed in touch since. He actually hired him to cook for us since he was going to be in town and I thought it was such a fun idea. While Chef Michael got things started, we all mingled and got to know one another over fabulous wine:

I had fun taking some photos of Chef Michael while he worked. Just check out that meat:

I mean, yes please.

We had such a nice time over the course of the night. It turns out Daniel is from Atlanta and two of his friends there grew up with him so it was fun talking about our old stomping grounds. It was really neat hearing different stories and getting to know some great new people:

 Love me some An:

When it was finally time to eat, we were presented with tremendous prime rib, pan potatoes and roasted tomatoes with homemade onion jam:

It was all delicious and such a treat. For dessert, Michael had done a fresh cherry tart that was so light and summery:

What a lovely evening with lovely people. I felt so lucky to be invited and I really hope I'll be asked to come back sooner than later. ;)

The Summit

Being fresh off my trip to Colorado, I can't seem to keep my head clear of I want to be back in the mountains thoughts. I had the most wonderful weekend and I won't soon forget how amazing it is out there. That's all for another post, though. I'm actually writing today because I read a devotion that ironically coincided with my mountainous thoughts and I thought it was just awesome:

The Summit

See not the small trials and vexations of each hour of the day; see the one purpose and plan to which all are leading. If in climbing a mountain you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place as you ascend, seeing only that, how weary and profitless your climb.

But, if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement from which glories and beauties will be open out before you, then your climb will be so different.

Simple, yet profound, words. I couldn't agree more.