Zebras are Reactionary

The weekend before last Justin and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Justin liked this big piece of really clear quartz. We spent a couple of hours there, but when we left we decided that we like the Houston Museum of Natural Science better. I think their exhibits are more extensive, and they have more variety.

This past weekend we went to the Denver Zoo, which we decided was quite a bit better than the Houston Zoo. The weather was quite a bit nicer than it ever is in Houston in June, and they had lots of animals that Houston doesn't have (kangaroos, gorillas, polar bears, zebras). The Denver Zoo covers 80+ acres, and it was a challenge to visit every interesting animal in the whole park, but with persistence and good route planning we were able to see pretty much everything. Everyone knows that the most disappointing thing about the zoo is that all too often the animals aren't doing anything even remotely interesting. I was particularly disappointed with the lethargic kangaroos (last picture) because there aren't any kangaroos in Houston; I don't think I've ever seen a live kangaroo, and who knows when I'll have another chance? These kangaroos had a huge enclosure that they shared with a couple of emu, who were just standing around at the other end, also being boring. Luke has proposed a good solution to the "lethargic zoo animal" problem- give each animal a shock collar, and sell remotes to the collars at the front gate. Then zoo-goers who want to see the animals jump up and run around can make this happen for a small fee. Unfortunately, I don't see animal rights people allowing this to happen any time soon.

Thankfully for me, on Saturday the emus did the job for us. After staring at the boring kangaroos for several minutes, hoping to see one jump or at least stand up, I was ready to move on to the next exhibit, when I guess the emu decided he was bored too. So he ran over to the group of kangaroos and started chasing them. I'm not sure when the kangaroos were afraid of, i.e. what the emu would have done if he had "caught" one, but they jumped up and hopped around, allowing me to get these good action shots:

Colorado, Here We Come!

This is how Justin and I spent the 8 days following our wedding: 5 days honeymooning in Cancun, 1 day in Katy packing up and saying goodbye to family, 1 day making the 1,049-mile drive from Katy, Texas to Denver, Colorado, and 1 day moving into our new apartment. Monday morning (day 9) Justin began his new job.














A quick photo tour of our apartment: Living room
Bedroom
Dining Room







Last weekend Justin and I went camping in Rocky Mountain National Park. As it was our first time camping on our own, we decided to just go for one night and thereby get practice with planning camping trips. On our way there we stopped at REI and got North Face sleeping bags, nalgene water bottles, and hats! So we totally looked like legit campers as we headed out to the park... that is, after we removed all the price tags.

The park was beautiful!!!
We saw lots of wildlife, including elk, marmots, ducks, bunnies, and chipmunks!
On Friday afternoon after setting up our tent, we went for a short hike (2.3 miles each way) to a small lake. That was really fun, and would have been more fun if it hadn't started to rain as we got close to the turn-around point. Saturday we went for a slightly longer hike (3 miles each way, with a 1,000-ft elevation gain) to the top of a mountain. That was also fun, and the view was BEAUTIFUL. As we sat at the top, eating lunch and shooing away chipmunks, we saw (and heard) threatening thunder clouds approaching, and it got pretty cold. So we packed up, making sure we didn't have any chipmunk stow-aways, and headed expeditiously back down the mountain so as not to get rained on. A short way into our descent we started to feel wet drops on our skin... cold wet drops. Soon the frequency of these drops increased, and we heard them falling on the ground also. I looked at the ground around me and was astounded to find that rather than simple wet spots, there were little white spots on the ground! I turned to Justin, who had just had the same realization, as we both said "it's snowing!!!" This was very exciting for us, and we would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't both been wearing shorts and t-shirts. We hurried down the mountain as quickly as we could, so we didn't have time for photos. But we weren't quite quick enough to escape getting snow, which soon melted into cold dirty water, inside our sneakers. Bleh!

Here are a few photos from our hiking. We have so many, it's hard to choose which ones to post, but this blog takes so long to upload each photo that I will only post a few. There are more on my Facebook page.

Eat, Drink and Be Married!

I have taken a large step towards becoming a real grown up: I have gotten married. I think this means I might not even have to sit at the kids' table anymore at family gatherings, but I'm not sure. I might have to have my own kids before that happens.

The wedding was a lot of fun but also very stressful. I had thought I would LOVE having a huge party with all my friends and family all paying attention to ME, but it turned out to be really tiring. There were so many people I wanted to talk to, and I had to be paying attention to what was going on because people were looking at me. I had a really good time, but as Justin and I were leaving we agreed that that is something that is best to only do once.

Thankfully, we only had a few mishaps. First, Luke and Amber and family were late. This would normally be a big deal simply because he's my brother and I want him at my wedding, but it was an extra big deal because he had the ring bearer and one of the flower girls with him. We did have our other flower girl, Carsen, who had dutifully been at the church since 3:30, but the flower girl task was a little too big for one little girl to do on her own. When it was 5:00 pm and we were still unable to get ahold of Luke and Amber, we were quite concerned. Thankfully they were fine and safe, and there had been some mis-communication about what time the wedding started- they thought it started at 5:30. They arrived shortly after 5:00 and sent the kiddos down the aisle. Once it started, the wedding ceremony went smoothly.

After the ceremony, during pictures, my step-grandpa had what appeared to be a stroke. Thankfully a couple of the guests were nurses and were able to attend to him until the paramedics arrived. Sadly, he had to be taken to the hospital, so he and my uncle who drove him weren't able to attend the reception. After several days in the hospital, Pappy was released and doing fine.

The morning after the wedding Justin and I flew to Cancun for 5 nights at an all-inclusive resort. We had a great time. The resort was beautiful and not very crowded (thank you, swine flu!). I think we got a room upgrade because of the low occupancy, and because we were honeymooners, and because we were so charming. The resort even put flower petals on our bed!
We found that it was hardly necessary to leave the resort, since there was a beautiful pool (with a swim-up snack bar / drink bar), lots of nice restaraunts, and beach access. We spent most of our days at either the pool or the beach, while waiters brought us an unlimited supply of margeritas, daquiris, beach combers, quasadillas, chips & salsa, chicken wings, etc. It was great, and very relaxing.

One day we took a tour to Chichen Itzah to see the Mayan ruins. It was really cool to see, but it was very hot that day.

For more pictures, check out my facebook photo album.

Towards the end of our 5 days at the Cancun resort, we decided that that was just the right amount of time for us: it was long enough for us to really be able to relax and enjoy all the food & drink we wanted, but by the end of it we felt refreshed and ready to get on with married life, especially with our upcoming move to Colorado!

Next time: read all about Justin and Hannah's move to CO and their first few weeks there!