Colorado Trip

This is Adam again!  We had quite the busy summer this year.  After my birthday, we had a short visit by my mother who brought a desk and a glider from my parent's house since they did not want them anymore and we could use them.  It was a fun, short visit and the furniture that she brought has become some of the most used furniture in the house. :-)

Later in July, Ashley and I went on a well-planned trip to Colorado.  Not only was this a chance to visit family and not only was it Ashley's first visit to Colorado outside of the winter months, it was also necessary for a research paper that I am doing.

Ashley was really enjoying the view of the mountains in the summer

She also enjoyed taking pictures of me driving. (This is my excited face) :-)

We were visiting for three full days but we reserved the last day, Saturday, for the family as my sister Ruth and all of her kids were going to be in town as well.  The first two days, Ashley and I would go into Denver to visit places and then go back for games and rest in the evening.

At this point, I should probably explain my research project.  I am doing a paper on Colorado Mining Age Domestic Architecture.  I have been interested in how a city like Denver, famous for the instant wealth of a mining boom, would reflect architectural practices of the more established wealthy of the east coast, in a period commonly referred to as the Gilded Age.  My goal was to visit a few houses to explore some of the architectural and interior design techniques used and compare them to the Gilded Age 'cottages' of the East Coast.

The first house I visited was the Castle Marne, a old home turned into a bed and breakfast.  The owners were most interested in helping me with the project and I spent over an hour talking to the owner, Jim, who gave me a ton of information and was just a wonderful host!  I was very impressed by their kindness, and I would give a glowing recommendation of them as hosts. :-)

Here are a few pictures I took (I took a TON for the project, but only a few I think would be interesting in general):

Ashley and I in front of the Castle Marne

Standing on the front porch

A picture of us from the front door as we stand on the grand staircase

A picture of the fireplace which is original. (In the reflection, you can see our host, Jim)

A portion of the Dining Room

The windows in the Dining Room

After visiting the Castle Marne, Ashley and I went off to lunch and then ended our day at the Molly Brown House.  There are no pictures allowed of the interior but I took a few on the outside.  Here is the best one of the house as a whole:

The next day, Ashley and I went to visit one more home: The Molly Brown Summer Home.  This house is a little less well-known after having been in the same family for 80 years.  For a while, it has been a normal residence, but now they are starting to set it up as a museum.  We had a small group and the tour guide/owner was very informative and kindly allowed us to take some pictures of the place.  I am well aware that permission was given for the purpose of the paper, so I will just show one exterior picture:

This house's interiors were not quite so lavish as the others but it was interesting as the Browns had a greater influence on its design.

That was the end of the research part of the trip but Ashley and I had some fun going to the Adventure Golf place that I used to go to a lot as a kid.  It was fun but we went right after a rather large rainstorm so there were puddles everywhere and the 'greens' were a little squishy.

On Saturday, we got to spend time with Ruth and her family. It was so much fun, as we played croquet in the backyard (a family tradition), spent some time shopping with my teenage niece, and then went to Lakeside Amusement Park as a family.  It was a lot of fun but it was cut short by a rainstorm (the theme of the trip).  I loved going back and introducing Ashley to the old amusement park.  Lakeside was founded almost 100 years ago and some of the rides are very old, but still in operation.  The Roller Coaster ride, for instance was built in the 1930s.  Ashley likes roller coasters, but she was scared of that one a bit just because it is so old, but no worries, it ran perfectly. :-)

Sunday, we packed up and headed back to Utah.  We certainly loved our trip and I loved letting Ashley experience some family traditions especially since we don't know when we will visit Colorado again.

One Year

Last post was about the first half of our Christmas break.  This post is about the main event of the second half, our anniversary celebration.  On the twenty-seventh, Ashley, my family and I all went down to the Denver Temple to do a session.  It happened to be the one year anniversary of when Ashley went through the temple for her own endowments.  It was a wonderful experience and it brought back a lot of memories.  It also happened to be the first time that Ashley had been in the Denver Temple.

Ashley and I outside the Denver Temple

The rest of our festivities took place on the 28th and the 29th.  We booked a hotel in downtown Denver for the night of the 28th since we had decided that staying over into Sunday morning would be challenging to get to church.  Because of that, we decided to do more of our celebrations on Friday, even though it was not the actual day of our anniversary.

We went into downtown Denver in the early afternoon and immediately visited the Molly Brown House.  We had already taken the tour, but Ashley really likes visiting the house and I wanted to go again in preparation for a paper I am planning to write (more on the paper in a later blog post, probably in a few months).  It was another wonderful experience and I learned a lot more than I did the first time. 

Us at the Molly Brown House

 Ashley in front of the Molly Brown House

Afterwards, we decided to drop off our stuff at the hotel before going exploring the 16th Street Mall, a outdoor mall (that spans the length of the street).  We had selected a hotel that was right on 16th Street and in an older building that had been turned into the hotel.

 

 We got into the hotel and checked in and got our keys.  When we entered our room, we were surprised at how nice it looked.  Later on, we were looking at the website, when we realized that the hotel had upgraded us to their Presidential Suite (the best room in the hotel) for free!  We were so excited.  It was spacious, on the top floor, and had a balcony where we were able to enjoy the mountains, the skyline, and the buildings lit up for Christmas.

We had a great night.  It was quite cold out that day, so we didn't explore as much as we originally had planned, but we still had fun wandering down 16th Street, eating at the Hard Rock Cafe, getting hot chocolate together.  It was a wonderful night!

The next morning, we went out again to have breakfast at a bakery, which was really delicious, then packed up and left our hotel.  Instead of heading home, though, we went back to the Denver Temple to do sealings as a way to commemorate our own sealing exactly one year before.  It was a wonderful experience.

We are so grateful for our marriage.  I know that for myself, it has been the best year in my life.  I have grown so much and had so much joy in my life.

Ashley's notes: Incredible weekend!! This anniversary celebration was more amazing than I could have imagined. The hotel was so cool and Denver was so beautiful. The best part was being in the temple (albeit different temple) and remembering looking at Adam and promising forever (I know this sounds cheesy but I'm just being honest). This past year, and almost two years has been amazing because of Adam. He is seriously a better husband than I could've imagined existed outside of romantic comedies. I am looking forward to many more years :)

Love,

Us

A Colorado Christmas Again

It's a Colorado Christmas again,

Going to share it with my family and friends...

Anyways, as you guessed Ashley and I spent our Christmas in Colorado with my parents and brother.  I was delighted to be back in Colorado for Christmas but, for Ashley, this was her first Christmas away from home.  It was a bit bittersweet for her that way, but we have really enjoyed our time.

As cliche as it may seem, our favorite thing about Christmas is giving gifts and this year was extra special.  Ever since October, Ashley has spearheaded a project for a gift for my parents.  My parents are notoriously hard to get anything for.  More things equals more stuff to find a place for in their house and food gifts often imply something unhealthy which they are not exactly looking for either.  So this year, Ashley found on Pinterest an idea for a gift. (Ashley's insert: the original idea came from this blog http://mymixofsix.blogspot.com/2010/01/thompson-sign.html)  The concept is to spell out the family name using different children and their families.  She then realized that my family has five children and five letters in my last name.  It was a perfect fit, made much better by the fact that my family has not been all together for a picture often and it has been years since we have had a picture together without a wedding involved.  So we got them a picture frame with a picture of each of my siblings and their respective families holding one of the letters.  It was a wonderful surprise that made my mother cry, she was so touched. :-)

For another surprise gift, I have been working on a project since October.  I was doing dishes one day while listening to music from a mix cd that Ashley gave me early in our courtship.  I then thought of the idea of putting pictures of us and places we know to some of the music.  It was a long and challenging project, especially with all of the demands of school and two jobs, and a grant proposal.  I originally was hoping to make videos for all 20 tracks but that was impossible.  I then aimed for 5 tracks, but I was running out of time the week before we left for Colorado and had to cut it down to 3 tracks.  I had it set up in time for Christmas and when Ashley opened the gift, she saw a jump drive in the package.  I told her to connect it to the computer and open up the folder.  She then watched three videos to three of the songs she gave me.  By the end of them all she was in tears of delight.  So I guess this will be the first Christmas where I can say I was happy to make two girls cry.

The holiday time has been great for us, even though it has been rather low-key.  Outside of running to different stores for last minute shopping, we have mostly spent our time inside, playing games with my family.

Christmas, however, was a great treat.  As much as I enjoyed giving, we also received some wonderful presents.  Among the top gifts given to us include a Kodak all-in-one type printer that can print photos, scan materials, and copy papers on top of normal printing, and the related photo paper and ink from my parents.  We also got some movies and television shows that we were hoping for.  Ashley got me a few gifts, but some of my favorites included a music book that contains songs from older movies, such as Singing in the Rain and Make 'Em Laugh, and a card game called Five Crowns.  We had first played the game at Ashley's aunt's house and I really enjoyed it.  We have since played it a couple of times with my brother and one memorable game with my parents as well as my brother where I came in a distant last place.  I was doing so bad it was laughable.

My family has a tradition of taking pictures with all of the gifts we got on Christmas (My mom also writes down who came from which person).  I really like it because I look back over the years and remember the fun presents I have received.

Me with my presents

Ashley with her gifts

Ashley also had some really good gifts given to her, but since I am writing this, I get to mention the ones I feel were the best (aka mine).  Ashley got a Harry Potter Film Wizardry book from me which is all about the making of the Harry Potter films.  She has already found it very interesting and has liked it very much.  I also got her a recipe box so that we can put in some of our family recipes in one convenient location.  Staying with the cupcake theme our kitchen has, it is decorated on the outside with cupcakes.  She also got some gloves from my mother that are touch-screen friendly (if that is the right term).  She really likes the fact she can keep her fingers warm and still use her iPod.  

It has been a wonderful holiday filled with fun, games, and rest.  We hope each of you had a very wonderful Christmas holiday!