october, you're more than welcome to arrive early.

September's about half way done and I'm counting down the days to October. Actually, more like October 2nd - 4th: meeting Darcy in LA where we will be finally be partaking of the benefits of our age, using a rental car! Then we shall drive up to our glorious old stomping grounds of Santa Barbara to celebrate the nuptials of the wonderful Sharon and Zach!!!!! We're basically planning our trip around meals because eating is very important in SB.

October also can come quickly because WICKED the Musical will be on one of our weekend agendas.

Oh, and hopefully for the first time in our married lives we will actually have trick-or-treaters come to our door and we won't have to start and finish off all the candy we purchased.

students again.

Not to overuse a term, but we've been truly blessed to receive a free education by being employees of Regis University. And noting an opportunity to use this benefit, we will be taking full advantage. As of this Fall, we're both going back to school. It's crazy. We're about two weeks into our first classes. Master's level courses are 8 week intensive classes that move at a fast pace, but I'm seeing that there is definitely an advantage to this structure. Focus on one class at a time, take your final 8 weeks later and you probably still have all that knowledge in your head from when you started. At least, this is what I'm hoping.

After not being in school for awhile, this is taking some getting used to and trying to remember that there's a house to clean, dishes to do, laundry that doesn't clean itself and a puppy that still needs all the love and attention that you can give him.

bargains spelled backward.

Last year, I posted on some sweet deals we made out with during last year's SNIAGRAB sale. Thanks to a very last minute decision influenced by my dad's willingness to come with me, we headed out to the Sportscastle at 4am this past Saturday.

I am happy to report that I had improved my place in line from last year: 233 to 196, right behind all the folks in their tents. This improvement guaranteed me and dad a $50 gift certificate. Not too shabby. Eventually the sun came out and the doors opened and within 30 minutes, my parents both have new skis and Kalin and I have helmets and a new winter coat. Me, being the deal hunter that I am, was pretty proud of this round of SNIAGRAB.

We'll see if I need anything enough next year to "camp out"....

thingsviapost

Here's my shameless promotion of my sister's Etsy shop: thingsviapost. Although she typically works with large metal sculptures, she's scaled down her design into the lovely polymer clay necklaces she's started making. So, if you are in the market for some beautiful and unique jewelry, stop by her store.

rocky mountain national park.

Unfortunately, with working and being lazy, we haven't taken full advantage of living in Colorado in the Summer. The mountains are so close, we should be up there more often. Luckily, we did finally make it up to actually experience some of the beauty we have just to the west. Kayla, Kalin, my dad and I went up to Grand Lake for a weekend and it just so happened it was the free weekend to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Typically it's a $20 fee per car, so this is quite the deal, especially since we didn't realize it until we went through the gates. Kayla picked out the Lulu City hike to an old abandoned mining town. It was about a 3 mile hike into the "town" and by town I mean no remnants of any form of town, just a marker. The hike ends up at the little trickling river where we stopped to have lunch.

We beat the downpour that was rolling in once we got back to the car. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the cabin and then the next morning had the most incredible brunch at the Fat Cat Cafe in Grand Lake. This weekend brunch shouldn't be passed by. A wonderful Brittish lady owns the place and from scratch, makes every single item available for brunch. Everything is sooooo delicious. Her scones are just incredible. So, we finally got our little piece of Colorado in for the Summer.

The leaves across the street are starting to change already so Summer is slipping away...