May 2023

Welcome back to the blog! May was quite the busy month for us, and we have a ton of exciting things coming up for the summer.

First, Sam had her sweet sixteen. While that’s mildly horrifying to write, and I still don’t quite believe she’s that old, she’s a pretty cool teen. That makes her growing up into a mini adult an easier pill to swallow.

Next, Ian and I took a long weekend trip to Denver, which was a lot of fun. During our grand winter adventure in Colorado over the holidays last year we never actually made it to Denver. It was nice to take a little time off after five months of the daily grind and then some. We also love Colorado and hardly every take urban/city trips, so this was a great way to combine a different type of traveling with a place we already know we like.

Denver is cool but kind of weird in that the mountains are all far away from the actual city. We were in the thick of the nature during our winter Colorado trip, but Denver is situation such that you can still see the mountains all around you but they’re much further away than being right there in your face the way they are in other parts of Colorado or in Salt Lake City for that matter. Functionally, that means you have to drive a couple hours to get to the type of hikes and outdoor recreation that we can access here in under an hour. This trip wasn’t intended to be an outdoor adventure trip, so it really didn’t matter for us in that moment, but it gets you thinking about long term living situations and stuff like that. Don’t panic - we are not planning on moving to Colorado (or anywhere else, for that matter, anytime soon).

We stayed in a modern, baseball-themed hotel right across the street from Coors Field since we were going to two Rockies games that weekend. This was a bit of a splurge for us, but totally worth it for the location. This was the first hotel we’d every stayed in that had a mini bar, so we categorized it as fancy for sure. Full disclosure, we did have the bottle of George Clooney’s tequila from the mini bar because why not. To George’s credit, it was pretty good.

We walked a ton in Denver exploring downtown, visiting parks, breweries, the Denver Zoo, and going to the baseball games. We walked to the giant REI but made it out of there with only one small thing each. We walked, we ate, we drank, we watched some baseball, then we left. It was a super quick trip but a lot of fun.

During this walk we accidentally stumbled upon a local farmer’s market and bought some fancy chocolate.

The weekend after Denver we hopped on a red-eye and flew back home for Sara’s college graduation. I think I’m more baffled by the idea that Sara is old enough to be graduating from college than Sam being 16. She’s worked her butt off, and I’m glad we got to be there to celebrate with her even if we got a gnarly sunburn in the process.

Our visit home was another quick but jam-packed trip. We spent time with family and friends and that’s about it. Not that I’m complaining, it’s always great to see everyone. An in-person hug is way better than over the phone. Plus, the sting of leaving is much less now that we’ve done it a few times and that people are going to visit us this year! Ian’s mom and stepdad are coming out in a couple weeks, followed by a visit from Katie over Fourth of July, then Mom and Sam in the fall.

Other exciting things coming up include the following:

We bought stand up paddle boards on a Memorial Day sale and are excited to do some paddleboarding this summer.
The last weekend of August, we’ll be running a half marathon.
The first weekend in September we’re going to Phoenix to watch the O’s play the Diamondbacks and explore Phoenix, which is supposed to be pretty cool despite being insanely hot.
The following weekend we’ll be in New Jersey to celebrate Ian’s stepbrother’s wedding.
In early October, we’re taking a mini vacation to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, which are semi-conveniently only about a four hour drive away.
Later in October, my mom and Sam are coming to visit.
To continue with what has become our desert Thanksgiving tradition (our first Thanksgiving in Pootah we spent in Capitol Reef, then last year in Zion), we’re going to the Grand Canyon.

I think that’s it for now. We’re excited for what’s in store for the latter half of the year, and I’m equally excited to share it with you all here. Thanks for reading!

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