To Vegas and Zion

Dave and I hadn't seen each other since spring break and my semester just let out, so we booked a last minute trip to Vegas to visit some national parks we hadn't hit yet over memorial day weekend.  My flight was delayed 4 hours, so I called southwest and they put me on an earlier flight.  I was at work at the time, dinking around until my 5:00 bus, but suddenly I needed to be at the airport in 30 minutes and the next bus wasn't for an hour.  I called a cab and he zoomed me to the airport for a pretty price.  The security line was the longest I've seen it in ages, but I made it to my gate just in time to fill up my water bottle and board.  I get to Vegas and grab my massive piece of luggage with all of my camping stuff in it, and head over to the United wing to wait for Dave.  Yeah, no restaurants, no nothing over there.  It's like an empty warehouse.  I should have stayed in the Southwest wing.  I ate some cookies and sat at Dave's baggage claim.  Only, he didn't come to baggage claim.  Apparently everyone on his plane got on a train that took them to the other terminal and no one was there to pick up their luggage.  So I grabbed Dave's suitcase and we met at the car rental place instead.  What's the point in reserving a car online if you have to still wait in line for a half an hour?  Dave was also starving and I calmed him with cookies.  Thank goodness for the monster cookies I made.  We found an awesome taco shop in a strip mall on the edge of town (Roberto's?) and had an awesome, super-late dinner. 

We head downtown, and due to construction, can't figure out how to get into the parking ramp, but after circling the block, figure it out.  The Flamingo didn't have the room I reserved (again, what's the point?), but put us in a huge suite.  Like, a bedroom with a huge livingroom and kitchen attached.  In retrospect, I should have just asked for a cheap room and my money back. We were only there for about 10 hours total, but whatever, it was funny and decorated old-style.

Flamingo.  Nice decor.

Flamingos at the Flamingo

Finally we could relax!  We checked out the flamingos in the morning and drove to Zion.  We stopped on the way for groceries, which was a little difficult. Camping food is always a challenge gluten free, but when you don't have any supplies from home, it's a little harder.  We went with sausages and soup and snacks.

Dave's good friend Brian and his girlfriend Kelly were making their way west camping, and were at Bryce canyon that night, so they got up early and got us a camping spot in Zion.  Good thing, because it was beyond full by the time we got there in the afternoon.  We set up our tent and the four of us headed up the canyon in their cool bus that keeps the park from having too much car traffic.  (No cars allowed!)  We hiked up to the Emerald Pools and got to see some cool pools, waterfalls, and frogs!  

Starting the Emerald Pools hike

It was hot, so it was nice walking under a few waterfalls.

A small emerald pool

Smile, boys!  (Brian and Dave)

The top pool.  Pretty awesome. 

We were there fore about 15 minutes before we found the frogs making all of that noise!

Dave leaving the top pool

One of the falls from the pools

Yellow Columbine!

 We stopped at the Weeping Rock and enjoyed some wild flowers and ferns and an epic view.
 

From Weeping Rock

Weeping Rock

Not sure where Dave got this coupon, but he slipped it in the picture without my noticing.

Deer!  And our campsite.

 I think we stopped for ice cream at the visitor's center and then we enjoyed some sausages for dinner and slept by the light of a very, very bright moon. 

Spring Semester Whirlwind

I worked most days this semester from 8am to midnight.  I worked most weekends.  I joined a gym in April and got in the habit of leaving work at least a bit earlier than I had been (leave at 6 instead of 7) so I could burn off some anxiety.  The gym did wonders.  I'm feeling great mentally and physically.  Here's a brief summary of the few fun things I squeezed into my busy semester.

Dave came to visit me for my 31st birthday and stayed for the week!  It was bliss having him back in Colorado for a while, his first trip since moving out in July for his sweet new job.  I got a gnome that my aunt painted when she was young.  It lived in my Grandma's basement and I begged my aunt to let me have it.  My aunt Dawn also sent me something super special, a painting she made when she was really young that hung at Grandma's house!  It is a girl who kind of looks like me wearing a scarf and standing in a winter scene.  It's kind of hippie-ish and I just LOVE it.  My aunt Darcy send me my Grandma's snowflake necklace!  And my mom sent me the gnome with a bunch of apple pie filling that was gluten free.  So sweet!  Dave and I had the most amazing birthday dinner, fondue!  We made a bunch of fun things we could fry up that I usually don't get to eat because they usually are made with gluten, and it was so delicious!  (Cheese curds, onion rings, and some healthier stuff as well.)

Grandma's basement gnome. 

Me!  I'm not doing the pizza wedge!  (Although I'm also on a green)

I spent spring break skiing with cousins Jennifer and Ryan and uncle Randy at Copper Mountain, then went to visit Dave in New York.  Skiing was awesome.  Jennifer is the best guide and knew how far to push me.  I finally feel like I'm a skier and not a pizza-wedge-skier. 











 I flew to New York and had the pleasure of Dave's family coming to visit us in the city!  First we got Dave's brother and sister-in-law and all of the kids.  We went to the Natural History Museum and enjoyed the dinosaur bones.    The kids took the subway, and we had a taco party in Dave's small apartment, which was hilarious with Gavin (1) walking around and Dave's place being the least baby-proof place on earth.  :)

If we put him on the bed, maybe he won't get into trouble!

Connor playing Dave's banjo.

On the subway.  Dave's sister-in-law is on the left.  She is the mother of these cute kids!

Dave and I went to Katz's deli on Good Friday thinking we'd be the only people willing to eat meat during lent.  Yeah, we were wrong.  Awesome pastrami sandwich (I ate the meat and pickles, Dave ate the bready part). 

This is a gluten free bakery that Dave found for me, Tu-lu's in NYC.  I got a cupcake and maybe a coffee cake for breakfast the next day.  YUM.  Such a treat!

We met up with Dave's friends Carly and John at the Headless Horseman.

We also found a Trader Joe's wine shop near by and stocked up (that backpack held a lot of wine!)  The next day, we met Dave's newly-wed brother and sister-in-law for brunch and a museum day.  We went to the transit museum in Brooklyn.  It was pretty cool, you could walk through old subway cars and see the funny ads on them. 

Finally, on Easter we went to a beautiful cathedral called Riverside.  Awesome architecture.  I flew home on Easter and wouldn't see Dave again until late May. 

I had some great seniors this semester that kept me company and kept me sane.  I'm lucky to work with such great students, which is the reason I'm still here and haven't gone running east just yet.  

Travel stats

I found this post that I must have written in January.  I thought it was worth putting up for my own personal record of this insane year.  This must have been written the day or two before my Grandma died and I had to take another trip to Wisconsin.  I'm going through old drafts, so maybe there are more posts to come. 
....

I was browsing through my blog and realized it's been a really, really long time since I actually shared a gluten free recipe or even cooked, for that matter.  Travel has taken up the majority of my time since last May.  Here's a few travel stats before I transition back into reality, which I hope will include food blogging.  My semester starts in a week. 

I spent 40% of my time (101 days) since May away from home.  That's a lot of beds and tents!
I took 19 1-way flights, all direct.  Two round trips were for business, the rest personal.
When I wasn't flying, I was in a car (my, Dave's, or Dave's parents' Subaru Outbacks, plus the Westy) and drove to or through 17 states.
This is my 3rd weekend at my condo in Colorado (where I actually live) since October.
This is the first time I don't have a half-empty suitcase on my bedroom floor since June.

My calendar is kind of comical and I couldn't think of a spatial way to show it to you without revealing too much of my craziness.  I accidentally showed my students my calendar for a few seconds during class and their jaws dropped.  Anyway, here's a list of trips with links to pictures. 

• May 13-16 Utah camping in the new Subaru
• June 21-24 Wisconsin Cassie Wedding
• July 4-14 Wyoming in the Westy, Yellowstone, Tetons
• July 22-25 Drive to NYC from Boulder, stop at Mammouth caves in Kentucky
• July 26-August 3 NYC, more NYC, moving in to NYC
• August 3-12 Wisconsin Nicolet Shores vacation with family
• August 30-Sept 3 Jersey Shore with Dave’s family
• Sept 27-30 NYC
• Oct 18-21 NYC
• Nov 8-11 Kansas City conference
• Nov 16-25 NYC for Thanksgiving and Dave's brother's wedding
• Dec 1-9 San Francisco conference (with Dave)
• Dec 19-Jan 1 Wisconsin
• Jan 1-9 NYC and New Hampshire skiing

Dave got me a flash for our DSLR camera for Christmas (which was a pretty good deal considering I only got him a gag gift) and I took a food picture yesterday with it.  Holy cow, what a HUGE difference it makes!  Without photo-editing software on my main computer, I wasn't getting the best food photos out there.  I hope this helps!  First step, cook again!

Happy New Year!

Every year I like to look back at the fun things Dave and I did together and make a collage.  Here's this year's, which hopefully Dave got in the mail for Christmas, since we haven't seen each other yet!  You can find other years here.

Some of the pictures (LtoR): Kayaking while the van wouldn’t start in Tetons, Hiking in Cascade Canyon in the Tetons, solar eclipse at Waldo ponds, Gooseneck overview at Capitol Reef, fixing the van in Tetons, Matt and Allie’s wedding limo, hike in the snow with the new camera, Labyrinth in Jackson Hole after picking up the coil on our trip with Charlie, Central park in NYC with Brent, the shore pre-Sandy (Brigantine), Capitol Reef camp site after the Cohab Canyon hike, fixing the Westy at the garage, Tetons, wedding, whitewater rafting, me and the van at the falls in Yellowstone, Lake Powell, Time Square after nice work if you can get some, Jackson lake, Berties for Dave's 28th birthday in Kentucky on his move to NYC, Lake Powell again, Brigantine Beach, Norris in Yellowstone, Making a mosaic birdbath, My 30th birthday and new pots, Rehearsal dinner, Wildfire threatens our home, San Francisco (forgot Muir woods!), Mammoth caves, Hickman Bridge at Capitol Reef.

I think we did a bad job of taking pictures together this year, but I still wanted to show the breadth of things we did, even though we were living two time zones away for half of it.   I realized I forgot a few things and all of the pictures on Dave's phone and camera aren't here.  Ah well, it's still a fun overview! 

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I hope 2013 is amazing for all of us!  A year ago I was about to turn 30 and had no idea what this year would bring.  In the last year my car was stolen, our condo was threatened by a wildfire that was two miles away, my boyfriend moved 2000 miles away and lived through a hurricane, most of my graduate school friends have moved away, and my Grandma has been quite ill.  Despite all of this, I am proud of myself for making it through.  Sometimes it felt like I was barely surviving.  My home was a mess, my laundry never done, my eating habits pushed to eating out because I was too sad to cook.  My friend Yolanda was my savior through the hardest times.  I miss her so much, she moved away for an amazing job in November.  I saw her last week and cried after I had to say goodbye.  I think after all of this, though, I'm in a good place.  My job is still worth staying here for and I am thankful that I have it.  It keeps me sharp and makes my days go extremely fast.  I hope that I can continue to stay close to Dave, even though we are so far apart.  I also hope that my Grandma pulls through this rough time. 

Cheers to a new year, new chances to make yourself happy each and every day, and to hope! 

Christmas Traditions

My Grandma is at the heart of our Christmas traditions.  Her blue and green Christmas lights brighten her corner home that is the warmest, coziest place to spend a holiday.  Grandma and I both love our storms and hope for snow, gobs of it!  We gather at her home for Christmas Eve and have a late Christmas lunch with as many aunts, uncles, and cousins we can fit into her house!  Of course before lunch one of the family members leads us in prayer.  Grandma is the mother of my six aunts and two uncles, all of whom are married with children, adding up to 25 cousins, many of whom are married and have children of their own!  The boys make their way to the basement for poker games and football on TV, the girls cook and do dishes after each meal, as there is no dishwasher.  The cousins play games, try on any old bridesmaid dresses we can find in Grandma's upstairs closet, and exchange gifts in the living room near the Christmas tree that sits in a musical rotating stand.  She decorates the tree with icicles after all of the ornaments are on.  Many of the families wander off to in-laws' parties later in the afternoon, but some of us stay at Grandma's all day, eating leftovers, drinking, and playing games.  Grandma is a saint for letting all of this commotion go on in her home!

Around 9:00, we put away the last of the food and freshen up for Midnight Mass.  This year will be particularly hard because our priest was killed on his bike just a few months ago by a car.  Hopefully mass will be a celebration of him, among the usual Christmas celebration.  We all sit together and illegally save seats for the families who are still at the in-laws and are running late.  Cousin Jennifer and I sit together and giggle at ugly Christmas sweaters.  I awkwardly avoid receiving communion because I don't want to be glutened by the host.  We sing Christmas songs and listen to the choir.  I give hugs to old high school friends who are at mass and we all walk out through the snow to our cars, seeing our breath as we go, and haul ourselves back to Grandma's house.  It's now midnight and it's Christmas!  Tradition calls for doughnuts and pickled pigs feet, which, in reality, are something my Grandma makes called "sults," which aren't pigs feet, but a pork roast chopped up and put into a sort of pickly jello.  It's kind of like eating cold pork with sour kraut in the form of a loaf.  I LOVE it!  Grandma always surprises me with it, but this year, she is a little under the weather, so I might have to have her help ME make it!

Grandma sends out a Christmas letter each year with a story.  She is a wonderful storyteller.  This year she told us of how her and Grandpa, who died a few years before I was born, got engaged.  It was Christmas Eve of 1945 after Midnight Mass when he gave her a ring.  Now that I know this story, I understand even more, the traditional post-midnight-mass celebration that we have every year at her house.

Christmas morning we spend at mom and dad's house.  Mom makes breakfast and we open gifts, usually with Lampoon's Christmas on in the background.  We gather food, games, and pajamas, and drive back to Grandma's house to join the cousins from out of town who slept there the night before for a day of games and good food.  Grandma listens to us as we sing along to her Christmas music, "Come on Ring Those Bells!" and entertain ourselves with cards and board games and movies all day long.  She plays cards with the aunties, 7's, Kings, and Sheep's Head. 

Grandma's house when I was in my mom's tummy!

Grandma's house when I was a baby

Cards and Grandma's

Uncle Mike's outfit after Midnight Mass

Games!

Grandma's kitchen table

Grandma and mom 2012

Looking forward to another year to make memories with Grandma and the family!

Fall 2012 Highlights

Since we left off, I've been to the Jersey Shore (Brigantine), New York three times, Kansas City, and San Francisco.  This is my first weekend in my condo since November 3rd!  Dave was at his parents house for hurricane Sandy and they were without power for well over a week.  I heard from him right after the storm, but had to wait a while before we were finally back in touch.  There were lots of trees down in his parents neighborhood and lots of ruined roofs!  The Rockefeller Christmas tree ended up coming from their county!  His apartment actually had power the whole time, but his work didn't.

Dave and I with his nieces and nephews at Brigantine Beach.

Oh my gosh, how cute is this?  I believe Gavin was 8 months old here.  Best baby ever!

Dave, Matt, and Nard gambled while Vicki and I went to watch the fireworks one night in Atlantic City.  Not sure how this fared in the hurricane.

Statue of Liberty from the not-so-long-ago flooded Battery Park

We had some NYC fun.  We went to a play about a dude with a big nose, went to the Philharmonic at the Lincoln center, and I finally got to see TWC site and the new Freedom tower.  I also got to see Battery Park after it flooded from Sandy.

A park in Dave's neighborhood

Rehearsal dinner gluten free dessert-- sorbet.  YUM!

I went to NYC for my fall break.  I had lots of fun sharing a kitchen with Dave's mom.  I made 15lbs of cream cheese mashed potatoes (5 too many!), a gingersnap crust pumpkin cheesecake gluten free, Aunt Darcy's stuffing, and gravy for Thanksgiving dinner.  She made just as much food and the other girls made the Turkey, more stuffing, and soooo many amazing pies!

Dave's last unmarried (1-year-younger) brother tied the knot the day after Thanksgiving. Rehearsal Dinner was Wednesday, Thanksgiving-eve, and we had such a fabulous meal with an amazing dessert!  Dave's brother and sister-in-law in NJ hosted Thanksgiving and the Turkey was made on the grill.  Best turkey EVER!  We had such a beautiful sit-down meal with much of the family who had come in from Wisconsin for the wedding.  It was perfect! 

Rehearsal dinner with Vicki (Dave's mom), brother Andy, and Liz, who were married in June.

Rehearsal dinner.  Dave borrowed this academic jacket from his dad. 

Groom, Bride, and Best Man all rehearsed!

Maddie being such a Turkey on Thanksgiving!

Brothers on Thanksgiving enjoying the hot weather and smoking the turkey on the grill.  Honestly, it is very difficult to get these boys to pose for a photo without someone being a goofball. (Matt, Dave, Andy, and Jake) (Jake is the dad of the adorable kids pictured above!)

Ready for dinner!!!

 The wedding was such a blast.  Dave was the best man and gave a really cute, funny speech. 

Congrats Matt and Allie!

Good lookin' crowd!

Fun in the limo on the way to the reception.

Cocktail hour!   Only coke for Dave, have to be ready for the big speech!

Dave with some of his WI aunties.

Dave with Grandma Nancy and Aunt. 

Dave and his mom.  I can't get over how amazing she looked in that dress!!!

The wedding was positively fabulous.  I've never seen anything like it!  We had a beautiful cocktail hour, then a three course meal that lasted well into the night.  In between each delicious course we danced!  It was so fun and I am so happy to have been able to attend this one, as the last brother's wedding was the same day I was in cousin Cassie's wedding.

A week after this, Dave and I met up again in San Francisco for a week-long conference.  We met up with many of our bestest friends who have moved away in the last year and had so much fun.  We took a day-trip to Muir woods and went on a 4 mile hike, then headed to Stinton Beach.

Hike in Muir Woods.

Red wood at Muir Woods

Stinton Beach, SF

We flew back to Denver and had a good 10 minutes before Dave had to board his flight back to New York.  I hate goodbyes!

Well, that's it, my semester in a nutshell!  School was crazy-busy and that's why I lacked posting for a few months.  More to come!