Sunday, May 3, 2009

Weekend in Denver

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Denver to attend a "Hillsdale" baby shower for Louise. Louise and Ryan are due to have twin boys mid-June. The trip was lots of fun, as expected (after all, the Woods are very fun people)!

I flew in Friday night and Louise had already made reservations at P.F. Chang's (a very tasty Chinese restaurant that I've blogged about before). The next morning Louise and I headed north to the shower- hosted by one of our fellow Hillsdale College Republican Women- Marya DeGrow. It was so good to hang out with Hillsdale College (our Alma mater) gals. It has been a long time since I was able to make it to Denver to a Hillsdale event of one kind or another. I was so glad to be there! I didn't take many photos at the shower (go figure), but here is the hostess with her youngest daughter Elizabeth.And photo of Louise showing off a very cute baseball overall outfit (the Woods are huge Colorado Rockies fans).
Other highlights of my trip included:

A new recipe for skillet pizza from America's Test Kitchen. This recipe uses beer instead of yeast for the crust, then you just make it in a skillet. Super fast, super easy, and super delicious! This is a recipe that I'll hang on to for a long time. Here's Ryan rolling out the dough (perfectly).
We also took a trip to a fantastic greenhouse/nursery to pick out some new houseplants. Here's a nice photo of the mom-to-be among the foliage.
There was a little golden retriever puppy named Grace hanging out at the greenhouse too. Any day is a good day when you run into a puppy!
After church on Sunday morning we had brunch at a restaurant called Toast, known for its pancakes. I decided on the blueberry granola pancakes. So good!
And finally, I took a picture of the crazy horse statue outside of Denver International Airport. I've wanted to blog about this sculpture before because of the horrible story of its creation, but never could get a good shot- until this trip when I had a high quality camera (you drive by the statue at about 70 mph heading into (or out of) the airport). The work is called “Blue Mustang,” by the artist Luis JimĂ©nez, who was killed in 2006 when a section of the 9,000-pound fiberglass statue fell on him during construction. You can't tell by this photo, but the eyes are bright red. Many in Denver love it...it personally creeps me out. It really is a killer horse.
On a final note, Louise sent me home with lots of hens and chicken plants for a new rock garden that I'm starting. They're planted and doing well...and have inspired me to expand some of my flower landscaping around our property...but that is for another entry later this week.

3 comments:

Becky said...

great pictures! I'm so glad you had a good time. Can't wait to see you again! Loved seeing you. And Louise looks great, doesn't she?

Ryan + Louise said...

We LOVED having you here. We miss you guys! Come again soon! Next time we'll have babies.

Unknown said...

finally! a recent pic of Louise? been wondering if she had the preggo glow or not. yup.