Mr. & Mrs. Remington.

We travelled to Denver, approx 3 hours from Basalt, for lifelong friend, Kim Henry's, wedding.  Kim has been my bestest buddy since grade school, if not before.  Growing up in Holstein, then graduating high school, then spending some of my college tour in Iowa City with her as a roommate...  Since then, she moved onto Colorado...then Minneapolis...then back to Fort Collins.  She had met Tom & soon he came to Fort Collins himself to live.  Kim & Tom married on the 3rd of July & it was a beautiful wedding!  We arrived in Denver around 1:30ish.  I was soooooo excited by this point because I hadn't seen 'my girls' in over 6 months!  We know that our visits are unfortunately too few & far between anymore these days, so we cherish every time we can get together!  We picked Hillary up from the Denver airport & met Marcell & her husband Josh at our downtown hotel!  And let the laughter & fun begin!!!  I'm so grateful that I am still so close to these Holsteinians because we have so much fun together when we do!  Anyway, a lot of our time was spent exploring the downtown Denver area, eating some great food, drinking some great cocktails, showing off our squishilicious Oliver & just having so much fun.  Photos prior to the wedding...

Of course...Oliver claimed his spot to sleep right away.

We were starved once we settled in so we found the Denver Hard Rock.  We had the pleasure to sit next to Sheryl Crow's jean jacket...jealous?!

All of the memorabilia there were from artist's Red Rock Amphitheater appearances.  Of course, I was on a hot mission to find a guitar from Aerosmith, but only fell a little short with Linda Ronstadt's sweet billowy flowered top.  Sorry, no shots of that.

Strolling along the 16th Street Mall.  Many attractions, shops & resturants...& it was blazing hot PS.

And then...I must explain about a small obsession I have had with this resturant we went to on Saturday afternoon.  A couple of months ago, I saw a news bit about an up & coming resturant in downtown Denver...it looked like such a cool place to go & had the idea about checking it out while we were in Denver for the wedding.  Well...not really thinking I wanted to hunt it down...I didn't really think much more into it (except emailing the owner to ask if including our 7 month old baby in our reservation would be kosher haha!  No, I really did).  He explained that they didn't offer a kids menu (not a problem) but would be able to accommodate as needed.  So, as we're talking about where to eat & places to see, I flip through some mag sitting in our room & find out that "my resturant" was literally 2 miles away.  BINGO.  I was going to make this happen...& my fellow diners were not let down either.  This place was amazing.

Beatrice & Woodsley.

Dreamt up & created by local designer Kevin Delk.  It's based on a story of two young lovers, Beatrice & Woodsley, whom fell in love, married & built a house in the mountains of Colorado.  The design inside is of real Aspen trees, a cozy golden ambiance & the charm of a lovely little mountain cabin. 

The bathrooms.

The ceiling of the bathrooms.

Bloody Mary's were great...so I heard.

And the only accommodating they needed to bring for Oliver, was to make sure that buttons on our seating were not removed.

And in the basement was a wine cellar covering two walls top to bottom =)

The wedding was Saturday early evening, followed by cocktails & hor d'oeurves, followed by an amazing dinner, followed by dancing & giggling.  We had so much fun & were honored to be able to celebrate with Kim & Tom.  Enjoy your honeymoon in Jamaica mon & again, another big CONGRATS!  Love you guys.  Here are photos from the wedding ceremony & beyond...

And no...we didn't wander into the slums of Jamaica ourselves...we just hit up this little gem of a dive bar between festivities.  If there's a wedding...there's bound to be an in between festivities dive bar to try out.  Our gem of choice was Shelby's...we had been eyeballing this place from up in our room since we arrived.

Proud to announce Mr. & Mrs. Remington...

I think this is my favorite photo.

Oliver felt pretty cool about having his very own highchair & place card.

"What's this?!  An appetizer?!"

Yum.

And then the dancing began...

We were 37 floors up...& had amazing views of the mountains & the city.

Looking down onto the fireworks!

And then the silliness began...

Mike was in charge of the photography here...I have, not kidding, 30 other shots of us trying to get a good one here...we were laughing so hard that it was just pointless to keep trying =)

And they lived happily ever after.

First Swim Firefall & Fireworks.

We have been up to a lot lately...starting on Tuesday...Oliver was able to finally get his first swim strokes in.  Well, it was more like floating his fatness around, but none-the-less very enjoyable.  He loved splashing & kicking...I think he has a good instinct of what to do in a giant body of water, so that's good.  We travelled back to Redstone to try out the Redstone Inn Pool.  It did deliver wonderful views of the mountains, but the pool was small & had no zero entry.  And then again, after about an hour, the darkness & the rain clouds rolled in (note the hail storm that graced us on our first attempt).  So, unfortunately, we packed up sooner than we would've liked, but still had a very enjoyable first swimming experience.

The boys checking out the weather moving in...

Classic swimming boogers.

On our drive back home, Michael stopped by the road to admire this new vehicle he of course wanted to make an offer for, the weather & the river.

On Thursday...we attended the Snowmass Village concert series located up on Fanny Hill.  Every Thursday, they host a new band for a free concert.  It was a perfect setting only about 10 minutes from our home!  Firefall was our entertainment for the evening...& you may remember this Boulder native band if you were around in 1974, I personally did not...but after some Googling, I did recognize ONE song.  And it has been stuck in my head since by the way.  Fanny Hill is one of Snowmasses ski slopes & conveniently, as most of the evenings have gone around here, it poured rain just before the concert was supposed to start.  We were prepared with a tarp & our blanket but the slope was now a muddy slip & slide.  After the shower, the sun came back out & once we settled in a spot on the muddy mountain-side, it was so relaxing to take in.  I mean...

Once the music started...we thought Oliver was gonig to be fine...jamming to the musical greatness of Firefall...but sometime shortly after they started playing, they jacked up the volume & Oliver was NOT going to stand for it. We ended up having to move our fannies up Fanny Hill to get away from the blaring tunes. Once we relocated, it was smooth sailing & he sat in front of me bouncing around.

The next morning, we were up early (but of course running late), to get on the road to Denver.  My best friend Kim was getting married Saturday & we were heading there to join other friends & family for the celebration.  This was the first time since we moved out in February for me to see my friends...so, I was really excited!  I will do a separate post, as I want to finish up with our lame fireworks here in Basalt.  After we returned from Denver on Sunday, July 4th...we were running on low, but I told Mike that I only get to use my fireworks setting on my camera once a year...so we HAD to go check them out.  Being newcomers to the area, we weren't sure what went on here in Basalt, so we received some general information of where to go & this is what happened...

On our way to the fireworks viewing destination, we weren't sure about our directions, so we noticed some locals heading up some trail with blankets & chairs, so we quickly parked our car & followed them.  Mind you...the weather had switched right before our adventure from beautiful sunny warm weather to 40 degree windyness...& on our drive into Basalt...this...

Following some locals...hoping them to lead us to the place to watch the fireworks...

...as we climbed up & up & up the trail we realized that we were now walking through a cemetery.  We spotted a skydiver above us.

...& at the edge of the cemetery was a great lookout for the fireworks show.  So we laid down our blanket, bubbled up our boy & sat & waited...& then...the rain came.  Soon after, the sky began to light up & we sat in the miserable rain & watched the worse firework show I have ever been present for.  They were over in like 3 1/2 minutes...Mike gave them 10 minutes, but I begged to differ.  I felt robbed of a great experience & with me & my fireworks setting feeling very deprived, our Fourth of July story does NOT recieve it's own post.  But, because it was Oliver's very first firework show, it was worth noting.  He did great.  His little eyes got bigger & bigger as the show went on.  So judging by this, I believe he enjoyed it. 

Boo...hiss...not impressed.  Next year, I'll be on a mission.  

Happy Independence Day!