Colorado Fun!

I know...  I know...  This is supposed to be a blog about training and triathlon, right?  Recently all my posts have been about life in general with little focus on athletic accomplishments.  Here's the deal, my next post will be a bit about why there has been little activity reports on here and more fun facts about the Smith's.  But for now, here's another insight into what's been crackin' in my life.

A couple weekends ago, Jenn and I went to Colorado to visit our friends Nick and Taryn Clark.  If you've been a follower of this blog for awhile, you'll remember that they were training with Jenn and me for the Holy Half Marathon last April.  Well, they ended up moving to Colorado to be the Religion Teaching/Chaplain of Campion Academy in Loveland, CO.  Nick was getting is Masters in Divinity, like me, until they got a call to work in Colorado.  Well, they are some of our best friends, and Jenn and I decided to surprise them with a visit.  While surprises are good, flying in for a weekend is NOT a good surprise.  So, we coordinated with Nick and left the surprise for Taryn.

Jenn and I drove to Chicago and caught the super early flight for Denver.  Somehow, we screwed up the timing and got to the airport and EXTRA hour early!  Oh well...at least we didn't miss our flight!  :)

It's always great to have a hottie sitting next to you on the plane!

Before we got to see Nick and Taryn, we stopped to see Jenn's step-sister, Jennifer, and her kids, Raleigh and Daisy.  It was AWESOME!  Those kids are so much fun!  It was my first time to meet Daisy, but I think we hit it off just great.

Raleigh, me, and Daisy

My Jenn, Jennifer, and me

 After an incredible breakfast at The Delectable Egg, we went back and played with all the girls.  All too soon, it was time to go surprise Nick and Taryn, but we couldn't leave without a last picture.

The "meetup" was a little sketchy because it was being arranged by secretive text messages with Nick.  He finally texted me the address to REI in Denver and a time.  Jenn and I showed up early and staked out a great spot that was on the second floor overlooking the front entrance.  Here's a picture of where we were waiting on the left hand side "cat-walk."

Soon enough, we saw them come through the door!  We waited till they were right beneath us, and Jenn said, "Hey Taryn!"  She looked up and was really confused!  We raced down to meet them and share in the excitement.  It took Taryn awhile to figure out that we came to see THEM and were not just passing through.  It was pretty fun to surprise her.

On Saturday, we did a little sight seeing, but really, we just chilled and enjoyed spending time with our friends.  We read and talked and drove around and took pictures and had fun!  They are so much like us, and we will be friends forever!  

Sunday, we ate at a super rad restaurant in Fort Collins where I ordered a sweet-roll-french toast plate.  It was INCREDIBLE!

 From there, we headed to Boulder to go to the Celestial Seasonings factory.  If you're in to tea, which I am NOT, you probably have had this brand.  Jennifer is addicted to it, so it was a lot of fun taking the tour and seeing how it is made.  This next pic is horrible, but I couldn't pass on showing you our sexy hair nets that they forced us to wear.  I even had to put one on my face.  :(

Because of all the incredible pictures that get posted on these two blogs from Jill @ Run with Jill and Julie @ You Just Have to Tri! from their lives in Colorado, I wanted to see some of the cool stuff like, The Flatirons!  We actually couldn't see them too well because of how they blended in with the sky/landscape.

 

All too soon, it was time to go back home, and Jenn and I caught our plane back to Michigan.  What an awesome weekend it was, and we can't wait for the next time we get to see our good friends.  Simply stated:

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget"