We're back!

6 days and no blogging. I cannot believe it. I didn't even miss it too much! I opted not to take my computer to Palm Beach and while Danielle has one I just never found time to blog so here I am now...back in the freezing cold with nothing better to do! :) I'll do a timeline as I feel that will be the easiest. This will be a long post so go get your coffee/diet coke/ drink of choice and settle in for a weekend rundown.

Friday
My plane left at like 6:20 AM so I had to be out of the house around 4:45. Ok, make that closer to 5 but who is keeping track?! ;) Anyway, I get to the Denver airport and make it through security (I HATE getting dressed for the airport then undressing around 600 strangers for the security lines then redressing in some corner all while trying to make a freakin' early flight- so annoying!) and head down to the trains to concourse C. Well the trains were not working. As I am standing on a not-yet-moving after 35 minutes train, I start thinking about the engineers who designed Denver's airport. (While I know many great ones I will admit that for the most part I dislike engineers nearly as much as I dislike cinnamon.) I imagine that the design meetings went like this,
"Let's make a HUGE airport!"
"Yeah!!!"
"Let's make it so big that people cannot walk from concourse to concourse. Seriously, let's not put in a way to walk. Let's build fancy underground trains!"
"YEAH! TRAINS! We LOVE trains!"
"Ok, what if the trains were to break down, then what?"
"Trains break down?! Why would they do that?! Why on earth would we waste money on a second way to get around the airport?!"
"You're right, let's rely solely on the trains!"
As you are now aware, the trains do not always work. The trains not working caused delays EVERYWHERE. Didn't the engineers know that there are only a few planes that service the entire world and when one is delayed it has a domino effect?! UGH!!!!!! End of rant.

Once the entire flight was able to make it to our gate we took off. A mere 1 hour late. I was certain that I would miss my connection in Atlanta (another huge airport with trains- but sweet tea and a way to walk so I give them a pass) to West Palm Beach. It turns out my plane was the one continuing on to West Palm so I didn't have to worry. I just sipped sweet tea and waited for the beach.

While I sipped sweet tea in Georgia things were going crazy at Jackson's office. There were a ton of people fired for under performing. Thankfully Jackson is awesome at his job so he's fine. It was still quite a day for Mr. Petefish as people were freaking out. All of the people who lost their jobs had families. What a though time of year to get a pink slip. Our hearts go out to them. We are extremely thankful for Jackson's position. Jackson's friend David flew in that evening and the two of them went to the Cherry Cricket for dinner. Yum! Then they went to bed after long days and a day on the slopes ahead of them. MacKenzie was at Camp Bow Wow all day. She says she had a nice time.

After I finally landed in West Palm (after sitting with really fun people who made the flight seem like it was 5 minutes long) I got my rental car and headed north to see Danielle. Aren't I so grown up? Flying and renting a car on my own. I know. I had a case of the "Oh my, I'm old!" while on my way to Stuart. Danielle lives in a cute little town about 30 minutes north of West Palm on I-95. I love Stuart for 4 main reasons: Danielle lives there, Sonny's BBQ is there, Tropical Smoothie is there and they have HUGE bridges that I enjoy walking across. Danielle and I caught up for hours before we decided to go to dinner and chat more. We went to Sonny's BBQ which is my favorite Florida restaurant. The food is just so good. Yum. Yum. I could eat there daily. That night we went to see a local group perform and they were really good. It was kind of folk/pop music and I really enjoyed it.

Saturday
David and Jackson got up super early and headed for Copper Mountain to go skiing for the day. They made it up without any issue even though the roads were not great. Jackson took over my little SUV for the weekend so he wasn't worried. ;) They skied all day until their legs "felt like jell-o" and then they headed back to Parker. Since it was earlier than we had expected (we planned for bad roads) Jackson was able to spring MacKenzie from camp a day early. She loves to play with David so she was elated. She brought him toys all night and he played quite a bit. Mac loves a player. They were so sore and tired from skiing that they did not do anything exciting. I know. They're old. Sorry.

Once I finally woke up (the time difference is a killer!) Danielle and I headed to walk to bridge. This is a quite popular thing to do in Florida and I really enjoy it. Stuart has a particularly huge bridge, the Roosevelt Bridge, that I enjoy walking. It is 1.3 miles from shore to shore so it is a nice little workout. We ate lunch at Tropical Smoothie. I love that place! Then we cleaned up and headed south to the Palm Beaches. We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Food heaven! Then shopped at the Palm Beach Gardens mall. That place is so nice! Whew! I loved it! We went to City Place next, but since they have a new night club "Taverna Opa" that plays loud music the echoes through the whole place the mall didn't hold the same place in my heart. They had fake snow falling and people were so excited about it. I thought it was cheesy! We did a little more shopping then headed to the beach. Ahh that drive into Palm Beach on Royal Palm way is my favorite! The wind was gusting and it was a perfect night to stare at the ocean. The salt, the waves oh I love it! :) We decided to head back to Stuart and see what was going on. We ended up at a karaoke party. Classic. I had not seen karaoke in a looong time. People still suck. Really. They do.

Sunday
Jackson and David headed to Red Rocks to see some local Denver sights. It was a freezing cold day and Jackson lost his wedding ring while taking off his gloves. He is certain it is somewhere in the snow at Red Rocks. He worried and worried about how to tell me. I didn't care at all. Accidents happen. We'll look for a new one soon, but until then he is ringless. He's much more upset with himself than he needs to be, but whatevs. Anyway, they saw Red Rocks and then headed to Golden for a tour of the Coors brewery. Jackson says it was not as good as the at Anheuser Busch. Too bad. They ate at an old restaurant in Golden that had excellent "bar food" so that means Susie would love it. ;) They played with MacKenzie a bit more- David wanted her to learn to shake hands but he was not successful- then David headed home to Indy. Jackson was so tired that I am pretty sure he was in bed at 9! Old. Again. I know.

My Sunday was again a trick of the freakin' time zones. I made Danielle miss church because she didn't wake me up-??! So once I was finally around we went to Tropical Smoothie- AGAIN- then headed to Okeechobee to see my grandparents. We visited there for a few hours. We looked at old pictures and took a golf cart ride then headed back to go to a Cantata at Danielle's church. It was beautiful! I loved it! :) That evening we went to dinner with her parents. They crack me up. They're so fun! After a little bit of time at the bookstore we headed home to watch John and Kate Plus 8. I don't love the show, but it is like a train wreck. You cannot turn away. Kate's attitude gets on my nerves! ugh!

Monday
Jackson had to go back to work and he was tired! Poor kid had a busy weekend and needed a weekend from his weekend! No more people were fired so that was a positive.

I had the whole morning and afternoon to play in Florida still so we went to breakfast at Tropical Smoothie (by now you all feel badly for Danielle and I do not blame you. We do not have decent restaurants in Denver so I was determined to eat what I loved while on my trip.) and headed to the bridge to walk. It was such a nice day! 75 degrees. Ah, love it! I cleaned up and headed to West Palm to meet with a friend from high school for lunch. I went to to high school and IU for one year with Brittany, but had honestly not seen her in like 4 years. We chatted easily and it was so nice to catch up. She's a personal trainer and in the most ridiculous shape. Note the self: workout. Shoot. Anyway after our visit I milled around City Place until it was time for my flights. Palm Beach's airport is so little and lovely. Security takes all of 5 minutes and I love it. My connection in Atlanta was only 30 minutes so I, of course, ended up booking it through the Atlanta airport from one side to the other and made my flight. Whew! I was ready to see Jackson and MacKenzie! I landed and once Jackson figured out how to pick me up- I won't go into it as it is more frustrating than the loss of his wedding ring- I was homeward bound. MacKenzie was so happy to see me that she jumped from the front seat to the cargo area and into my arms. Aww. :) I love that little dog. We ordered some Chinese food and caught up on our weekends. It was lovely. Then we went to bed and snuggled close since we'd missed each other so much. We're pathetically in love and I love it. :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Wild decor!

This is a house in the neighborhood across the street from ours. This photo does not do it justice. It is tackier than this. Really. It makes our place look nice. ;)

We have been busy getting the house ready for a guest (our first non-family overnight sleeper!). I baked cookies and grocery shopped. The boys should be all set. Tomorrow I intend to do a good cleaning of the guest bath and I will be finished!

I started packing today only to find that my Grandma's present did not fit into my luggage. I went to mail it at UPS 2 day to Danielle's so I could take it to Grams on Sunday and they wanted $93 to ship it. $93! Are you kidding me?! Are you kidding me?! I took my present to the good ol' U.S. Postal Service and sent it 2-day for $9.80. That's more like it. UPS must be on CRACK. UGH! I was so mad! They also wanted $6 for a box and $7 to pack it for me. Listen, UPS, I love the whiteboard commercials but your prices are insane. INSANE. (End of rant.) It was cheaper to mail my package than to check a bag with Delta. Madness. I have such tight connections- think 45 minutes in Atlanta- that I hope everyone is on schedule and ready to go. I better wear comfy shoes so I can book it across the ATL airport. :)

Until next time- have a great weekend! :)

SO excited!

We are about to explode with excitement!

Jackson cannot wait for David to be here to ski this weekend. I CANNOT WAIT to be in Southern Florida with Danielle for some girl time! YAY!!!

In just a few more weeks we'll be headed to NYC for Christmas. We get to see Heidi and Andrew one day. My old friend Kyle another. My old roomie, Jenna, is going to see Wicked with us. I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE ALL OF MY DEAR FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I can wait 2 more weeks! Bring it! :)

Weekend in the West

Saturday afternoon we headed to downtown Denver to see the Parade of Lights. Our good friend Meg and her friend Heidi met us at the light rail station around 3 to head down. Thanks to Meg for free light rail tickets- AGAIN! We all walked around the 16th street mall for a while then went to dinner. Well, they ate dinner. Somehow I managed to not find one thing on the menu appealing so I later ate at a Corner Bakery. They all liked their meals though! And we got to sit outside in December because it was such a nice night!!!!! :) LOVE IT! We watched the parade on 17th street. It was a nice show but really SLOW! There must have been a 20 minute break at one point. The kids around us got kind of restless and began running into the parade route- it was pretty humorous. I wore boots down there that were not that comfortable because I had planned to buy new ones when we got to the mall. Well the store was out of my size so my brilliant plan failed and by the end of the night my feet were killing me. I ended up walking in my socks back to the light rail station. Sweet. I know. ;) The light rail on the way home was PACKED. A small child actually bit Meg! I screamed. I was so grossed out. Parents really had no control over their children and they didn't care. How annoying. Also, men were sitting while women had to stand and hold on. Grr. Anyway, we had a fun night- public transit and all!
Today we went down to Colorado Springs to go to church and to hike. Above is an aerial photo I found of the New Life Church campus. It is HUGE. I really didn't mind the size, though. Today marked the 1 year anniversary of the shootings on their campus. The family who lost 2 daughters stood up and spoke. There was not a dry eye in the house. The sermon was on grief and the pastor knew what he was talking about as his nephew was killed this week in a car accident. I was heart-broken for him. We decided that if it were any Sunday except the anniversary of the shootings that he wouldn't be there. He was a trooper and delivered a very touching message.

After church we headed to Chipotle for lunch. We ate outside with MacKenzie as it was another gorgeous 60+ degree day here. After lunch we headed to Pike's Peak to do some training on the trails. We ended up on a stair trail that almost killed me. My legs are jell-o. We didn't even get half of the way up that trail either. We intend to conquer it one day when we are in better shape! MacKenzie was worn out and slept the whole way home. She just tugs and tugs out on those trails- she loves it.
We had an unfortunate event happen tonight: Jackson's 1st gray hair. He came out of the bathroom this evening yelling for me to come quick. We plucked it then sat in mourning of his youth. He is certain he will have to soon start dying his hair. Poor kid.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get a ton of snow. This wacky weather is really different, but I'll take it! I enjoy a nice day sprinkled in among snowy ones.

Happy Birthday, Susie Petefish!!!

Jackson got a drunk dial from his mother last night to remind him that today was her birthday. We knew that already, but the reminder was nice. ;) She is in New York City for a lady's getaway and will be attempting to appear on the Today Show this morning. We'll be tivo'ing it.

Have a great day, Susie! We hope you're not too hung over to enjoy it! ;)

We love you! Happy Birthday!

Baking our parents' recipes...

The ever-so-popular with the Petefish family Lena Cookies! YUM! :)

This is the tray I made for Jackson to take into work: half Lena Cookies and half of my Dad's famous fudge recipe. (The fudge is soo good! Thanks, Dad and Diana!) It was really fun to make things that our parents made for us as kids. I hope Jackson's co-workers will enjoy their treats. :)

The weather here was so nice today...it was nearly 70 degrees! It was wonderful. MacKenzie got to take multiple walks. :) It is supposed to snow tonight, though. This is like Indiana's weather on crack! Even in Indiana we didn't have this big of a temperature swing!!!

There's not much else going on here. Jackson is getting excited for his skiing weekend and I can hardly wait to get to Palm Beach! I love having things to look forward to. Hope you all have a lovely day!

RED

Today is World AIDS Day. You can help support the Project (RED) by going to Starbucks today. The intend to give $.05 of every sale to the (RED) cause. Those mochas could add up quickly! I really like this cause (not just because of my obsession with the color red either!) and I am proud of Starbucks for partnering with it.

In other RED news... this is what I hope to get on my exam today: a BIG, RED A+. :)

Have a great Monday!