New Belgium Trip

A few weeks ago, Ryan, Jeff, Jason and I ventured to Ft. Collins to visit New Belgium Brewing Company. They have free tours and taste sessions, and it seemed like a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon. New Belgium is an interesting company with great business practices. They brew delicious beers, and encourage a culture of sustainability! Their parking lot is small, but they have dozens of bike racks...they are a wind-powered facility, and maintain several methods of "green practices" (includes wastewater management, increased energy efficiencies in production and lighting, etc.). I'll have to give credit to Jason for all of these photos! I left my camera in the car for this trip.

It is quite possible that the best part of being 21 is visiting New Belgium and riding the TINY BICYCLES!!!


After a few tasters, I started to feel the Asian Glow...and had trouble staying on one of those clown-bikes, despite everyone saying I was the best fit out of the crowd for them. Here's a video of me getting extremely discouraged as soon as another tour member challenges me on the other bike:




The place is completely filled with happy employees. I can't blame them--from their 2nd story offices is a SLIDE down to the lobby! So much fun! Please also note the foosball table in the foreground.


We also got to sample some interesting brews that are not available in our local stores. One was an unnamed Dunkelweiss, which left an aftertaste of banana runts. We also took home bottles of La Follie, a beer they brewed in old wooden wine barrels, so it tasted like a red wine with hints of beer.

It was a lot of fun, and I'll have to visit again with the MADS team members who couldn't make it that week. Ryan enjoyed the place so much that he requested every major milestone in his life to occur there, including his wedding and funeral...haha!

Makin' PLANES!

Most of my weekend was consumed by a build day in Senior Projects. The people we know at Arvada Associated Modelers were hosting an RC Airplane Show at Westminster Mall, so they agreed to set up a table for us so that we could build with the help of some experts.

The Sig Rascal is a BIG plane...110 inch wing span, and we had two of them! They may look complete, but we have to assemble all of the controls, engine stuff, switches, gears, wings, and tails. I brought my camera on a tripod and took pictures frequently to create a time lapse video of our progress. Hope you enjoy!

Lafayette Oatmeal Festival

Last year, I went to the Lafayette Oatmeal Festival for the first time. It was a lot of fun, so Ryan and I decided to go again this year.

We signed up for the pre-breakfast 5K, which was a lot of fun (but so chilly)! My time was nowhere near my old Cross-Country 5K times from the days of High School, but I finished in 31:01--not entirely embarrassing, and certainly beat my goal of breaking 35:00! We skipped out on the health fair this year, after loading up on oatmeal and muffins.

I have no pictures this time around, except for one of Ryan running that I jacked from the oatmeal festival website. Sadly (or luckily), there are no photos of me.

The afternoon of the race was consumed by a well-deserved nap...if I'm around in May, I'd love to tackle the Bolder Boulder!

Andy's Visit in Boulder

After a few days in Winter Park, Andy spent two short days in Boulder. We did the usual Boulder things--hiking, Pearl Street, the Hill, campus...we meant to go flying, but got canceled because of winds.

The weather was amazing, and we took on the 1st Flatiron Trail with Rose and Ryan.

A view of South Boulder, complete with Denver Skyline in the background.
A noisy woodpecker along the trail.
...and Andy claims he's not afraid of heights.
We finished with a well-deserved feast at Lucile's for lunch. Mmm, beignets, biscuits, and farmer's eggs!

"Weekend" in Fraser/Winter Park

Part of an annual tradition, Sam invited people to his family's condo up in the Fraser/Winter Park area of Colorado for a ski trip. I'm a terrible skier and an even worse snowboarder, so I opted to snowshoe (just like last year). Conveniently, the trip landed during the same time that Andy (friend from Wichita) decided to visit. He came for a ski trip with his dad, and then stayed to check out Boulder and the area for engineering grad school.

Andy and Ryan suit up the shoes!


We were lucky enough to spot not only one moose, but two moose on the 5 mi trail.
A close-up of the female:
We scared them off, so the photo of the male isn't as clear...this was the best we could get.

When we weren't playing in the snow, we spent our time relaxing in the hot tub, cooking, watching movies, or playing games. Our plans were somewhat delayed with the closing of Berthoud Pass the morning of our departure, so we ended up staying in our pajamas and watching James Bond.
Of course, S'mores were a must.

BDT and New Year's Eve

For Eileen's 26th Birthday, Emily and I took her to the Boulder Dinner Theatre to see The Producers. It was hilarious! As always, the food at the BDT was not the main attraction...but certainly edible, and the show was well done. It was a lot of fun to reconvene with Emily and Eileen, and I'm glad they came home for the holidays!


NYE was a lot of fun. My friend and Project Manager for Sr. Proj, Travis, hosted this year. Before his party, I went on a triple-date with my siblings. We did a three-course meal at Bacaro, which was amazing! I had sashimi to start, lobster and artichoke ravioli for my main course, and tiramisu for dessert. It was pretty amazing, to say the VERY least.
Probably the best part about Travis' party was finally seeing ELSBETH and ROSE! Elsbeth spent the past semester in Portugal (and is returning there in the Spring), and Rose was in NY for school. I miss their company when they are gone, and it was good to see them.

I completely lucked out, and it turns out my friends enjoy eating as much as I do. We had an amazing array of treats to snack on to keep us awake until the countdown!

Apparently, I was not expecting my New Year's kiss.

Winter Break with the Family

I have been so bad about blogging...it's time to play major catch up!

The family was back in town, which meant lots of eating, lazing around, baking, EATING, and having a good time. :)

Porter is an all-star at begging now, and indulged in many treats over break that many dogs (and humans) don't have a chance to usually eat (including lamb, shrimp, beef, and salmon).

The "Christmas Card" family portrait:

Shiway and Dave lucked out...the weather was gorgeous for most of their stay.
The "kiddos"

Shiway was ambitious and decided to take on our huge home-video collection as her "project" for two weeks. She burned the VHS tapes to DVD, and we all had a good laugh watching some OLD videos. Here's one from back in the day!