Birthdays and other such gaiety in the CO Mountains

The last two weekends have been spent in the mountains soaking up the beauty and enjoying some cooler temperatures. We spent two weekends ago in Aspen celebrating my 25th (31st) birthday. We laid our heads at the Viceroy hotel in Snowmass Village, which was quite stylish and fun.

Matt enjoying our beautiful hike - which overlooked the masdedon dig.

Sweet glass wall separating the bedroom and the bathroom of our room

Keeping warm in July by one of the hotels beautiful fireplaces

Now you see where gaiety in the title of this blog comes from

We had one of the best meals that ever was at elina in downtown Aspen. If you haven't been there before, go... and go now. Truly couldn't have been better. The whole weekend was quite lovely!! And we almost hit a porcupine in the road - don't worry, didn't happen. We ate delicious food, hiked, went to the ballet, explored Aspen, etc... And on my actual birthday which was the Tuesday before I received a sweet new cannondale road bike (among other things:). I know, I know... I'm a lucky girl!

This weekend we thought we'd escape to the high country again... but on foot with our packs on our back. We brought the dog and went just above Nederland for an overnight trip.

Rocco packed his own food, water, and sleeping bag. He is zonked out downstairs as I'm writing this... completely spent!

Voila! Our new tent that weighs a good 40 lbs less than our last one, which made much more sense for backpacking. Matt's back is thanking us for this purchase!

My two boys hiking with their gear. Cute as can be!

Sweaty backs can indeed happen. Just saying.

Can you believe Rocco can jump so high for such a big dog. It's effortless.

4th Fun

We just got back from an absolutely splendid time in Steamboat Springs. We: stayed in a luxe house that was decked out with fine appointments and a polarizing wooden goat head, played in the pool, went on gorgeous hikes to ragin' waterfalls, played games until the wee hours of the morning, watched scary movies, went to a rodeo and saw awesome fireworks, laughed our guts out.

As always, we ate the best food that God has given his children. I gained 10lbs in 3 days, mostly water and glycogen but still.

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The Shirley mobile at the parade

Dancin' at the rodeo. I got a standing ovation from the people sitting behind us. I was feeling it.

Chicken fighting

Jeff ever one to mold his flocks, made a wolverine appearance.

He calls this one, the "Donovan"- My personal favorite. Also, in this pic you can see the polarizing goat head in the background.

Grateful to have an amazing family and also to be an American. God bless.

Hot Rocks

Hot Rocks was a few weeks ago, you should have come. 16 of Denver's best chefs compete in a slider competition that is decided by the popular vote of the patrons. As usual, Candice made this into one of the best events ever.

Here were your options, I omitted the sides because I'm too lazy to type them in. The watermelon jicama salad with goat cheese was the best though.

Sketch- cascabel braised beef brisket with rajas queso enchilada and tomatillo chuney

Solera- Mcdonald ranch buffalo with chorizo aioli & Jumpin' Good Goat cheddar cheese

Elways- (downtown) Chicken and waffle

Panzano- Chicken leek sausage with rasberry preserves & creme faiche on a potato bun

Encore- North African lamb sausage with harissa and cilantro cucumber yogurt on a za'atar bun

Steuben's and Vesta dipping Grill- Lobster roll

Steve's snappin' dogs- Hot dog with ketchup/mustard

Elways- Crispy pork bahn mi with shrimp cilantro slaw

Lola- Pork albondigas with grilled tomato bacon jam & pineapple de arbol chile kimchee

Rioja-Achiote rubbed Colorado lamb on rosemary goat cheese biscuit

The squeaky bean- Grilled mortadella with spicy giardiniera chicken livers and mostarda

TAG-Kangaroo with piquillo pepper remoulade spinach and pickled cipollini onions

Barolo Grill-Pulled pork with tomato basil pesto, pickled red cipollini onions on brioche bun

The kangaroo won but most likely because the chef's father-in-law paid a lot of money to ensure his victory. I tried 9 sliders (wasn't too hungry) and my favs were the chicken and waffles, bahn mi and the braised beef brisket. Very talented cooks represented across the board.

My role was to coax, humiliate and prod elite businessmen and drunken cougars into playing hoops. The highest scoring man and woman each won these sweet watches. You could also hire former Denver Nugget Ervin Johnson to shoot for you. He is a really cool guy.

There was live music, silent auctions and other fun stuff going on all night. Awesome time had by all.

We also decided to hike our first 14,000 ft. mountain a few weeks ago. Colorado has 53 14ers, so you have quite the selection. We chose one of the "easier" hikes in Mt. Bierstadt. I was super tired hiking that beast. It took us 5 hours round trip but as expected, the air is so thin.

Sinking into snow up to your waist was pleasant. I ran out of sunscreen, that's why I look like more of a tool than is usual in this pic.

As you can see from the pics, our little Rocco loves the mountains. For being a big strong guy, he has awesome endurance. He climbed many boulders on his way to the summit. He's such a great athlete.

Rocco is less of a man now than he used to be. It was time to see if we could make him less dominant. He has fought a bulldog, a boxer and a mutt-dog since that time. So much for that theory. He will always be a dog killer.

He still loves people and cuddling. I pretty much make-out with him all the time. Yes, his head is huge.

We went to the Polo classic last weekend. Good food again and fun to see the beautiful horses in action.