The trip to Denver and an Award!

Ok, this will be a super-long, “two posts in one” catch-up from our trip and my first ever blog award!  Yay!!  I will start with the blog award, I want to thank JRS whose blog has been an inspiration and a positive voice to look forward to!  Winner of the award are supposed to tell 7 things we don't know about you, nominate 7 new blogs and send a link to them so they know they won the award. Make a copy of this award and link it to your site.

7 things you don't know about me:

1. I am originally from CO (ok, some of you know that) and now reside in KS where my husband was raised. 
2. Together my husband and I have 5 dogs- we have a soft spot for rescue furbabies. 
3. My dad and I are both extremely double jointed.
4. I love, love, LOVE to read and have an entire shelf of “to be read” books.  Currently I am reading the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton and Darker Domain by Val McDermid.  Along with a bunch of inspirational type books for school (yuck)!
5. I am an avid scrapbooker, want to learn how to sew and quilt and love to craft almost anything.
6. I am super competitive and somewhat of a perfectionist.
7. I broke my back when I was 18 and changed the whole course of what I had planned after high school.  Oddly enough, at the same age J shattered his leg, twice, which led to a change in the course his life was taking (he was enlisted in the Marines the second time). 

Now, 7 blogs that I would like to spotlight and give an award to are:

1. Sheryl- a new bloggy friend who always posts the most delicious recipes.

2. Megan- also a bloggy friend who is hilarious and such a good person.

3. Erin- yet another bloggy friend who is so sweet and so, so nice!

4. Lori- a bloggy friend who is TTC as well and stops by with encouragement.

5. Autumn- another TTC friend who always has a kind word.

6. Finessa- a bloggy friend who has a wonderful cooking blog.  Her Tater Tot Casserole was A-MAZING!      

7. Kristen- an IRL friend who is getting ready to welcome her 2^nd daughter!  

So.  The trip to Denver.  Some things turned out like we planned, some, not so much.  We arrived Friday morning and spent the morning with my dad.  Then we went and met my mom and sister while my sister had a doctor’s appointment we strolled around old Littleton (the old downtown part).  I used to buy dance gear down there and there are a lot of fun shops!  We found a spice shop and got some vanilla sugar (yum) and a sweet shop called sugar rush that was just precious!  So fun – all the old candies from when we were kids, plus everything from tables to egg timers to hats decorated with pink and cupcakes (J loved it).  Then we headed to Melting Pot, whose website specifically says “No reservations needed for lunch time.” Riiiiiiight.  So we get there and the hostess asks for our reservation and we tell her what the website says and she says, huh…yea a lot of people have said that but it isn’t true.  But we can try and get you in.  Well, they did not get us in, at least within 30 minutes and by this time it was 2pm and we hadn’t eaten all morning (except for the trip to 7-11, more on that in a minute) and so we left and decided to head for C.B. Potts, a brewery in town instead.  That was ok, definitely not as good as Melting Pot, but, oh well.  So the 7-11 trip- I had heard on the Ryan Seacrest show (which I hate, btw but it is the only channel I get at work) that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden had designed these specialty coffee mugs for 7-11 and all the profits went to their children’s charity.  So we go to 7-11 specifically to get these mugs and lo and behold they are PAPER mugs.  Mugs is too strong of a word.  Paper CUPS.  Stupid!  So we ended up getting some blackberry lime slurpees (miss slurpees!) and string cheese to tide us over.

Then, the best part of the trip- shopping at the outlet mall!  I have mentioned WORK AT HOME MAFIA before, she posted a 20% off Coach outlet coupon- so guess where we went first?  OMG it was a madhouse.  We saw three people trying to steal (they were caught before they made it out, the old fake stroller no baby trick did not work for them!) and found some a-mazing deals!  Although I might have spent before I thought (no way, right?) so I may have to re-evaluate what I purchased.  But, I will say everything I found was initially 50 – 60% off list price then 20% off that!  However, the best deal of the day was had by hubby!  He went to the Calphalon outlet store and was looking at some santoku knives (he is a gourmet chef, by the way…he is awesome).  Anyways, so the first knife he found was list price 129.99 and outlet price 79.99.  Then, he picked up the package to inspect it and saw a sticker for 39.99.  He checked every other box and that was the only one! So he snagged that.  The cutlery was all an additional 20% off as well so he picked up a combo set that was marked at 49.99 and looked on the wall where the samples were and the sample set was marked 29.99.  You guessed it, he walked away with both the big knife and the set for less than the marked price of one of them!  Wahoo!  The gal even commented- gee I guess I better check those prices!  So, the rest of the trip wasn’t very eventful (shopping or Denver!) visiting with family, playing some Rummikube…the usual!  I did get my Einstein’s so that was awesome!  Here are some pictures:

Me and my sister

Forgot about this- we went through old toys, this is my baby from childhood, my sister is demonstrating the baby holder and how cool she is!

My mom and her dog, getting beat by J at Rummikube (we all got beat...)

Learning Tetris, my sister was the champ!