July (so far!)

There shouldn't be much more stuff happening in July, so I feel safe blogging about it so far. If I do anything else, I can always add a blog!

I took Friday, July 1st off to hang out with my sister and her kids, and we went to the zoo!! I always have fun there! July 4th was nice because I was also able to take the day off from work, so we mostly just hung around the house and had a small BBQ with my mom and dad. Susanna, our HR intern, came over and joined us as well! She was a huge hit with my sister’s kids, mostly because she played the “pretend” games with them and let them crawl all over her! I was also a big hit because I had gotten quite a few glow sticks from the Dollar Store and gave them to the kids as a surprise – it was a HUGE hit! They were SOOO excited! They had bracelets and necklaces, and each kid had their own wand. I learned from last year that those definitely keep them entertained while we’re waiting, plus it’s always easier to see them in the dark when you know where they are!

That week was also the week of the US Women’s Open! It was pretty slow for us in the Administration offices, but we got out to the Merchandise tent to help at the register. It was packed, and it didn’t help that it rained all 4 days of the Championship and everyone came inside to do some shopping! It was crazy, but it added to the already memorable experience of saying that you worked at a property that held a National USGA golf tournament that got worldwide recognition. I even came out of it with “credentials” and a free Cutter and Buck t-shirt! So I would say it worked out well!

I also went with Katy and Susanna (both from work) to a Sky Sox game! The Sky Sox are our Minor League team that feeds into the Colorado Rockies. The stadium is really close and it’s really affordable – the seats closest to the field are only $12 plus tax! Then the food and drink are priced what you would expect, between $6 and $8 but that’s not bad! We had a blast, and we stuck around for after the game when we saw FIREWORKS!! Nevermind that we just saw them a few days earlier for the Fourth, but they shot these off RIGHT outside of the ballpark, which is relatively small.

I also went to another Rockies game, this time with Susanna and friends from her school program, Sarah and Lumi! We had a great view from Right Field, but we were in direct sunlight the entire time – IT. WAS. SO. HOT. Thank goodness Susanna had 50 SPF sunscreen in her purse, or we would have burned skin off – it really was that hot. The only breaks we got were when we got up to get food or beer and when a large cloud covered the sun for a good chunk of time. We also decided to go to the gift shop and buy the first white sleeveless tank top we could find to help allieviate some of the heat from our black cotton t-shirts! 3 out of the 4 of us got a new tank top that day, and changed in the bathroom. The shirts fit a little funny, but it was worth the $27 to have even a little bit of relief! On a non-baseball related note, I think that I had the most amazing cheeseburger I have ever eaten at the game – SO yummy!! They also gave us so many French fries that I couldn’t eat them all, and I didn’t even need dinner! My dad also gave me an old camera of his – the camera wasn’t really that old, but he wasn’t using it and didn’t sell it in the garage sale they had that weekend. But, it has 12X zoom and I was able to get some really cool shots! The only bad thing was that the closer you zoom, the fuzzier the picture got. But it was still cool!

Finally, I completed my 5K!! You can read about that here. I bought a 5K sticker to put in my car’s rear window and might even continue running – might even do another 5K!

So, with that all finally being said and done – here is a highlight of July so far (with a few more photos to come – the next few weeks are busy too!):

Recuperation

No one can imagine how much walking I did this weekend. I simply can not walk today; my legs are so sore. Not to mention my abs, and my arms, and I’m pretty sure I konked my head getting in or out of a car on Saturday and it still hurts. While it was nice to park the car at the hotel and not having to worry about driving anywhere, I definitely underestimated how much walking we would do. Then add in the fact that none of us really knew where we were going, and then add in some drinks (hey – we’re all adults) and it makes it just a little bit fuzzier to get around a strange town. When you walk 6 blocks in one direction, only to realize you meant to go 6 in the OTHER direction, you end up walking about 12 blocks extra to get back where you wanted to be in the first place. That’s an extra 12 blocks too many. And that eventually adds up, especially over a 24 hour period. Thank goodness for BlackBerrys with GPS and cabs!

Justin also has a friend from high school who lives in Denver, and that guy’s brother also lives there, so of course we walked from Coors Field to see their apartments downtown after the game. That added some unaccounted for walking. But it was pretty swanky!

However, I wouldn’t trade this weekend for anything! I did a lot of things I wouldn’t normally get to do on my own, and I laughed the entire time! It’s almost like I wonder how different it would have been if Justin’s friend hadn’t traveled down, or if it was a girls only weekend or something. Definitely still fun, but it would probably be a whole different experience.
So check out some of the awesome pictures below, and you’ll notice how I’m not in most of them, since I was in charge of the camera!

Go Phillies (and Rockies?)

The Rockies Home Opener is next Friday, April 10th, and they play the Philadelphia Phillies! I was never really into baseball until I watched the World Series 2008 with Justin. He’s from South New Jersey, so he’s a diehard Phillies fan. And when I say diehard, I mean even worse that my love for the Stars and Avalanche over the past 10 years combined into every game he watches.



So needless to say, I watched every minute of every single game, and I got into it. He also bought an MLB game for Wii that he now plays all the time (whenever I’m not playing Lego Star Wars) and now I’m familiar with all the players and their names. And I really enjoy it!

We really wanted to go see the Phillies play, and I’m a Rockies fan as well. And hey – it’s opening weekend! He mostly wanted to go because how often to you get to see your home team play in person when you live in another state? We were unable to get tickets to the actual opening day (those things are expensive!) but got tickets to Saturdays game, so we could spend Saturday morning to drive up to Denver. Since it’s a night game, and we’d be in Denver, we thought it would also be fun to stay in a nice hotel overnight to avoid driving back so late, and got a SUPER great deal! That way, after the game, we can go out in Downtown Denver and then we just walk a block or two and that’s it.

And then – one of Justin’s best friends, Greg, from New Hope, PA will be flying in next Friday and will be going to the game with us! He was planning on coming down to visit him in the next few months anyway, and Justin encouraged him to come sooner and to go with us to the game! (Even though he can see the Phillies whenever, because he lives up there, this is still a good excuse to visit). Greg hopped online last night and bought tickets, and will be arriving in Colorado Springs Friday afternoon (which is GREAT – because I already drove all the way to Denver to pick up Justin, so it’s nice that I only have to take a 10 minute drive to the COS airport). Justin wanted to get a Phillies shirt, as do I, and since he knew that we lived in “Rockies-town” and that would be hard to find, Greg offered to pick up some shirts and bring them down here for us! Justin was able to get a half day off from work and I was able to get the whole day off to go pick him up together and show him around town before the game starts at 2:15.

And if that wasn’t enough (oh yea, there’s more) – he was so pumped to be coming out here to visit Justin AND go to the game, that he bought us 3 more tickets for the game on Sunday too!!! So we’ll be sitting club level on Saturday thanks to my bank, Wells Fargo, who sell the tickets half price, and we’ll be sitting club level on Sunday thanks to Greg! It works out perfectly because the game on Sunday is at 1 pm, and Greg’s flight back home is going out of Denver around 7 pm, so we’ll either make it perfectly or early to the airport since we’re right there.

I’m pretty siked!!! But…I still can’t find my camera cord, and I’m definitely going to want some pictures. So if I can’t find it by Saturday, my weekend will be spent at electronics stores to find one!