Red Rocks and RMNP

Nate came to visit for 6 days! We had several adventures; the first being me driving down to Denver to get him. I swear he is cursed when it comes to airports. Because of runway construction in Denver, his flight was delayed an hour, causing him to miss the connection to Steamboat. *Smacks hand on forehead*....

Now if I had been thinking, I would've packed my bags and we would've stayed at a hotel Wednesday night. However, I thought his bags had to go to Steamboat and that we had to come back. So, we got real familiar with I-70.

On Thursday, we drove back down to Denver for the Rise Against/Rancid concert at Red Rocks. Before the show we ate at a cool Mexican restaurant in Morrison, sat on the rooftop patio. Luckily, the rain held off and the concert was a blast! I was so thankful we had gotten a hotel for Thursday night. There's no way we could've driven back to Steamboat that night.

We drove back through Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Grand Lake. RMNP is so beautiful! It was great to see some elk and a moose too.

The never-ending rain in Steamboat foiled our hiking plans :( but we still had fun just hanging out.

On Sunday, we went up to the hot springs. As we were driving up there, a wicked thunderstorm rolled in--lightning and thunder like crazy! Needless to say, we waited in the suburban until the storm rolled through before getting in the springs.

Nate took off Monday morning and actually made it back to Madison without any problems! Yay!
There's too many pictures to upload here, so follow this link to see the rest.

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1204846013/a=123328029_123328029/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Ta ta for now.

Love Always,
Kaitlin

Vacation

Please see my other blog for the St. Croix USVI recap and pictures.

http://sboatspringsadventures.blogspot.com

All My Bags Are Packed

And I'm ready to go!

I leave for St. Croix tomorrow morning at 4:20 am. My first flight doesn't leave until 6:30 am, but the taxi likes to pick you up nice and early. Nate and I won't meet until 9:00 pm in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and our flight to St. Croix doesn't land until 10:30. Yea, that's right I'm going to be flying all day, 18 hours. My great aunt Carol and uncle Owen will pick us up from the airport and take us to Cottages by the Sea.

I.am.so.excited.

7 days of sleeping, eating, and RELAXING.

Counting Down

Well, my steroid dosage is down! 2 mg in the morning, 2 mg at night. It doesn't seem to be going fast enough though. The side effects are really driving me insane. I'm so warm all the time. I have my window wide open at work, and I just sit there and sweat pretty much all day. And then there's the weird, sporadic sleep pattern, even the Ambien doesn't seem to help much.

On Sunday, I'm down to just 2 mg in the morning. My MRI is Tuesday morning, and that will be my last day of the devil drugs. They'll be FedEx-ing my MRI to Dr. Uhm at the Mayo Clinic just to check it out and make sure everything's breaking down the way it should.

Now to figure out how to detox my body so I "unpuff." I'd really rather not have this huge belly and moon face while trying to wear a swimsuit and take pictures.

Speaking of swimsuit, NINE DAYS...NINE DAYS...NINE DAYS. I cannot wait to get on the beach and just relax and hang out with Nate. And I'm still so pumped about our free uprade to the nicer cottage! It is literally steps to the beach from Chart House.

Proof

Further proof that they didn't screw anything up with my brain surgery.

Before Nate and I headed to the airport, we stopped at Chipotle. I decided I had better use the bathroom before we started driving. In this particular Chipotle, there's a wood ledge that sticks out about an inch all the way around the room, about shoulder height on me. Not even seeing it, I bent over to grab some toilet paper and.. SMACK!

I slammed my forehead right into the ledge. If I had been in a cartoon, there would've been little birdies flying around my head. I immediately grabbed my forehead and started laughing. I wasn't bleeding, but geez did that hurt! I go to look in the mirror, sure enough.. perfect red line across my forehead.

But, at least I missed the bruises where I had the screws in my forehead. I came out of the bathroom laughing, and Nate just shook his head at me when I told him what I did.

All just proof that I'm still a klutz, nothing's changed. Haha :)

Putting Up The Tree

Nate's going to do some more decorating yet, but we had a lil fun :)
Ain't she cute?!

Our First Thanksgiving

Nate and I had our first Thanksgiving together. Of course, as a cop, he had to work until 10:00 pm, so it was a late dinner. This was also my first year making turkey dinner, and I have to say it went quite well!And yes, we're real klassy like that, but it's the only glasses I had to work with. And yes that is sparkling juice. The steroids I'm on do not allow me to drink alcohol. Wine :( Literally, I whine.

Six Fabulous Fall Days

Once again , a lovely weekend with Nate :)

We went out to dinner at Cafe Diva; it was fondue night. Neither of us had ever had fondue before, but it was delicious!

On a walk downtown, it was actually blue skies and nice out, but for some reason this picture looks like we're in a storm!

Also on the walk downtown, along the river.

Just about there and just about time for dinner at Mambo Italiano

We attempted to hike The Devil's Causeway. This was one of the lakes on the way up to the trailhead.

Nate also in front of the same lake/resevoir.

I love how the colors reflect off the water!

The Flattop Mountains in south Routt County

And this is the reason why we didn't get to hike up to the Causeway. It started snowing on us!!

Brrr! It's c-c-c-cold!

The nearest town to the Causeway is Yampa (one of the tiny-ass towns in south Routt County). I could not believe that most of their streets are dirt!

This was just too funny, haha!

SHEEP! On the way back there was a whole bunch of sheep on the mountainside. So like tourists, we pulled over so I could take a picture.

We got rained out of the hike to the seconds falls at Fish Creek that we were supposed to do on Saturday, so instead it was pumpkin carving and wine!

And the end results!!

Whirlwind Weekend

It was so nice to go visit Nate! I took a long Labor Day weekend, and it happened to work out that Nate had a few days off... so, we got to go home-home! We met each other's parents, friends, played with babies... it was great :) Busier than hell though!

Out in River Falls with Nate's friends
Nate playing paddycake with my cousin Owen

How cute is he?!!

Nate's friends' daughter Lyla, another lil cutie!

And I match the baby lol...

Another Wonderful Weekend

Nate came to visit! :) It was perfect weather and the perfect 2.5 days together. Although not nearly long enough!

In my apartment before heading out to explore

Riding in the gondola to the top of Thunderhead Peak

On the top of Thunderhead

Ahh, Steamboat.. Isn't she lovely? My favorite mountain, Sleeping Giant, is in the top middle.

Drinking margaritas at the 3rd floor bar/restaurant on the peak

At Fish Creek Falls

The water was rushing so fast!

On the bridge at the falls

Back in Wisconsin

Here's a few pictures from Memorial Day Weekend. It was nice to visit "home" again, to have 4 days with Nate, and very nice to meet some TIA GFYers!

Out at the bars in Madison for Nate's golden birthday

After our incredible dinner at the Capitol Chop House

Mmm, gotta love a man in uniform! HCMM

Nate's attempt to teach me how to play catch the lacrosse way

So sad, time to leave :(

Best.Weekend.Ever

I had the best.weekend.ever! As some of you already know, Nate came to visit me this past weekend after not having seen each other in 3 months.

Friday night was a little frustrating, driving down to Denver and running into a whiteout blizzard 1/2 way, going 10 mph through switchbacks. It took me 4 hours to get to the airport, park, and get inside to meet Nate at the baggage claim. We didn't get home 'til 1:30 am, but the whole ride back was great just being able to talk in person.

Saturday, I showed him around town, gave him the grand tour of Steamboat, and we saw the movie "21"--which is excellent by the way and really makes you want to go to Vegas!

Sunday we met two of my friends, Scott and Bridget, for lunch, and then bummed around the apartment for a while. That night we went walking downtown by the river; it was such a nice day: sunny, warm...perfect. After dinner at Tequila's, my fave Mexican restaurant here, and a couple of margaritas (might I recommend the blackberry margaritas--delish!), we drove up to the natural hot springs. The sun was just setting as we were getting up there, so picturesque. It was so incredible. Clear skies, bright stars, perfect weather, relaxing in the hot springs. I think it was probably the best night of my life.