Last week started with a suspenseful night of Bachelor finale watching.  A bunch of my girlfriends and myself had been getting together every Monday to partake in weekly Bachelor viewings which consisted of downing a bunch of wine and appetizers, but mostly poking fun at the ridiculousness of many of the contestants (ahem Tierra-ble).  This season, Lara proposed that we do a Bachelor pool, meaning we make predictions on who gets kicked off each episode all the way until the final contestant (same idea as March Madness brackets).  To make it fun, the buy-in was a bottle of wine and the winner took home everything, minus 4 bottles (three for second place and one for third).  Unfortunately, I did not manage rack up any amount of wine.  I did; however, manage to choose the "winner".  Let's hope my extraordinary ability to accurately choose the token of Sean's heart is a precursor for my actual March Madness pick (OSU all the way!!). 

Will you accept this rose?

The winner ended up being Lara's pregnant future sister-in-law.  It doesn't seem to be all that fair, but if anyone deserves it (other than me of course), it is definitely her!

The Bachelor group!

One question still remains though.  Was the Bachelor really Sean Lowe? Or was it Steve Sanders? You be the judge...

 

On Wednesday, I received a random Facebook message from a good friend from college saying that he was in Denver for work.  The best part was out of the hundreds of hotels in the Denver area, his was literally two blocks from my apartment! What a nice little treat this was!  Sean and I go way back, all the way to freshman year of college.  He was and always will be one of my favorite "Stradley Boys" (the only all guys floor on south campus from Stradley Hall at OSU).  We also walked to sociology lecture every Wednesday morning together the fall of sophomore year and spent so many Saturdays together cheering on the Buckeyes! Just for kicks, here is a throwback from senior year:

Such babies we were.  #boywasiblonde

 I decided to take Sean to my favorite neighborhood bar (Guy Fieri even thinks so)- Highland Tavern:

Next up is Friday- my friend Leah's birthday celebration.  Leah recently moved here from Chicago back in November.  January of 2012, Leah was out here visiting and decided that Denver was where she wanted to be.  Sure enough, almost a year later here she is! We had such a blast on her birthday. A bunch of us headed downtown to Infinite Monkey Theorem for a tour of Denver's own urban winery:

The birthday girl!

The picture below pretty much sums up how our tour went.  Bless this guy's heart for choosing to give an alcohol tour to a large group of females. 

                   

Clearly the ones paying attention.

The tour guide told us we weren't "out of control" until we climbed on top of the barrels. Soooo...

Kate and Leah

Lindsay and me

Group shot:

Little did we know, there was a ghost amongst us.  Can you find her?

 

 

And again.. Question of the night: was Michelle really there... #patrickswayze

 

 

Leah's birthday wedding cake- strawberry lemon

Lara, Lindsay, Kate, Angela

Oops, messed this one up didn't I?

And THEN, we rode in an Escalade!

 After the winery, we were all pretty much starving so we headed to Ignite where we gorged ourselves with their amazing food.  This was an early night as we were preparing for the St. Patty's day celebration the following day.  Which leads me to....

I will leave you to a series of photos for how the rest my weekend went. Basically, just celebrating St. Patty's Day a whole lot.  Here's to 0 broken body parts this year! (I took a tumble last year and broke my left middle and index finger)

Me and Robdawg

Lola!!

Me, Leah, Nikki

me, Emily, Nikki, Johnny

Emily, Leah, Sarah Coon, me

Rob and Jon playing human beer pong

Zandman and Michelle

Sean and DP

Lola again

me and Lola

Haha Larimer and his Green Jacket.  Couldn't find a golf club, so a rake had to suffice.

Aww..so tender..

The infamous pickle shot

Notice the amazing shirt in the background

Leah, Lara, me

I think I was about done for the day at this point!

THE END

Beware the Ides of March...

Welp, chalk another extraordinary weekend up in the books! Last weekend was yet another wonderful time filled with college basketball, lots of visitors, mountain fun, and pre-St. Patrick's Day shenanigans.

On Thursday, Steve and Lara invited Rob and I to the CU vs. Oregon  game in Boulder.  I have not been to a college basketball game since my senior year so I was super pumped!  I always seem to forget how much fun it is to be around the genre of college kids- such an entertaining population and so full of life.  Especially, at sporting events!  It also just so happens to be a little bit depressing since they make me realize I graduated 7 years ago!  Ughh! Oh well...such is life!  Prior to the game, we headed to Harpo's, a divey little college bar, for some $1.50 tacos and a pitcher of beer.  A super fun little evening with two of our favorite Denverites and a special guest appearence from John Elway!

Two of my best high school buds from Ohio, Tiff and Michael, were hanging out in the mountains all weekend so I had an excuse to venture up to the high country twice! We skied at Breck all day on Friday, which included my first time up the T-bar!  For those of you who are not familiar with the T-bar, it's basically a bar in the shape of a T (go figure) that you hold onto as it pulls you up the mountain (rather than a lift), taking you to one of the highest points.  For those of you were familiar with my skiing ability last year, you understand that this is a HUGE accomplishment for me since I was pretty much beside myself with terror skiing down the blues last year! Here is a picture from the top:

I don't know what it is with snowboarders and the T-bar, but they really struggle with this thing! I know because not only did we watch two different snowboarders tumble and get dragged up the mountain like they were in a 007 movie, but when I was curiously searching for a You Tube video to illustrate the T-bar, this is what I found.  Trust me, it is way more hilarious in real life.

Last weekend, Kate had a random visit from a friend from Utah who we traveled together with in Thailand and Bali this past October.  Something about meeting someone in a far away land and then looking at them again in real life in your own country creates some crazy cognitive dissonance.  It took me a good while to come to terms with the fact that she was actually here!  In Denver!  Still, it was so good to see her and reminisce on our good times abroad.  Here is a picture of all of us from a reggae festival on a beach in Bali:

Kate, Sarah, me

Saturday, was a blustery,  wet and snowy day so a few of us decided to get brunch at The Universal.   The hipstery feel does not quite fit with the neighborhood or the location (in a strip mall right next to Domino's and a shady-looking pho restaurant, which is across the street from a Quinceanera dress shop and El Guapo Tuxedo).  Nevertheless, it is a true hidden gem and one of the best brunch places in my hood!

Following brunch, we decided to head downtown to Blake Street Tavern to meet up with several Miami of Ohio alumni to celebrate their annual Green Beer Day, which reportedly (according to a few alums), did not do the actual day in Oxford, Ohio a whole lot of justice.  I still had a blast though!

Sarah, Michelle, Nikki, Lindsay, me, Kate, Leah

 

Despite the dreadful daylight savings ordeal on Sunday, Rob and I woke up super early to meet up with Tiff and Michael at Vail for another day of skiing.

Ocean waves in the clouds on our drive up.

 Vail is probably one of my most favorite mountains mainly because the size never ceases to amaze me and also there is truely nothing like a bluebird powder day here! I am always blown away by the beauty of the mountains, but for some reason this place takes my breath away more than anywhere else.  This day was not quite a bluebird, but it was definitely a powder day (lots of fresh, light, fluffy snow) which always denotes an excelllent day on the slopes!

It's like that snow world in Mario Kart, only on skis

Robdawg!

Shreddin' the gnar, bro.

 Epic Mix Weekend Photo Sesh:

me, Michael, Kes, Tiff, Dave

Cross the O-H-I-O pose while standing on top of a mountain off the ol' bucket list!

And then there were two other random Buckeyes who wanted in on the action!

Tiffers!!

:)

Miss this once-Denverite in my life!

"Do you guys want your picture taken by the wind mill?" Ummm....sure!!!

trudging through the freshies

Rob, Michael, me

 

 

Yay Vail!!

Next up... my friend Leah's birthday celebration and St. Patty's Day antics! Fingers crossed for no broken body parts this year! Until next time, my friends!