Monday Monday, Can't Trust That Day (otherwise titled: Nobody Likes a Whiner)

Ugh. Here we are. Monday. AGAIN. I swear the weekend was about 30 seconds long. I don't remember my parents complaining about Monday on Sunday night like we do. Is it a generational thing? My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was a salesman...Both worked hard, but didn't complain. I complain. A LOT. It's not that I don't want to work; I do. I'm a hard worker and I like my job. I'd just RATHER be at home with my family sometimes. Is it a generational thing that we complain about the week starting already? I think so. I think our parents knew that complaining wasn't going to make a difference so why do it?

But today, I am reminded of something I used to say to my twin cousins when they were little (and then I'd make them repeat it because it was too cute): Nobody likes a whiner!

So, Kristen, have some coffee, get your butt in gear and let's go.

This weekend we went to a pumpkin patch.

It was fun, but the pumpkins and other goods were SO expensive that we only got a couple of pumpkins then got the rest at Walmart (same size, less than half price. Score one for Walmart!).

 

 

Anyway, so Kennedy colored her pumpkin with Sharpies and Avery painted hers. Then we had a lovely, rainy, windy Saturday evening with movies and games. I loved it!

Sunday we went to church, had another windy rainy movie afternoon, then I took Kennedy to Girl Scouts where she carved a pumpkin and we learned about all the fun activities planned for the year. I don't know who's more excited....Probably me. I <3 Girl Scouts! When we got home, that's when Ave painted her pumpkin. We wound the weekend down with hot chocolate and cider. It was so cozy!

For this week, we are having:

Broccoli Cheese soup
Three cheese pasta bake
Italian sandwich bake
Chicken noodle soup
(and if we need another meal, chicken and stuffing because it's awesome and I can't get enough of it!)

I made the broccoli cheese soup on Saturday and it was AWESOME. I doubled the recipe (but not the cheese) because I knew we would eat it all if I didn't and I wanted left overs!So then we ate the rest last night for dinner. The chopped green pepper gave it a little something extra awesome. We served it with garlic texas toast and it would have served 8-9 people if they'd only had 1 bowl each. However it served 2 people over 2 days because we're unashamed gluttons. ;) Try some of these recipes and I PROMISE you won't be disappointed!

SMH (Shakin My Head)

*I felt that I needed to put the definition of SMH in parenthesis for all of you who aren't in the know... ;)

OK. So. We just got back from Colorado yesterday. I don't even know what to say. It's a state full of CRAZIES. If you are from CO, and you aren't crazy, I'm sorry, but you are WAY outnumbered. I'm going to save you all the long story for 2 reasons: a) I'm not about to bad mouth people, even if they are ridiculous, fake, narcissistic, conceited, dbags. b) I don't want this post to be 364 pages long. Maybe I'll write a book about the experience later. Let's not talk about Thursday and Friday of the trip. We'll just skip to Saturday and Sunday because those are the only days worth mentioning, and the only days that don't make me want to punch people when I talk about them.

It was officially the Three Musketeers together again on vacation. Kennedy, Bryan and I haven't gone anywhere just the three of us in about 3 1/2 years. Saturday was basically taken up by finding a rental car and a hotel room. God bless our friend Brandon who got us a great rate with the hotel company he works for! So we got up, went to lunch at a restaurant called the Purple Ginger. If you are ever in the Denver area, I recommend looking it up (in the Englewood area). Just a helpful hint, Enterprise rentals don't pick you up on the weekend unless it was previously scheduled. It's not a last minute thing, apparently. Also, all their offices are closed on the weekends except for the airport offices. So anyway, after a lunch of hot and sour soup and crab and cream cheese stuffed salmon, we went to get a car. Then we took Kennedy to buy a bathing suit since I didn't think to bring one since we weren't supposed to BE at a hotel. We had dinner and she got to swim all evening. I read a little at the side of the pool when I wasn't scoring her cannonballs and counting how many seconds it took her to swim from one side of the pool to the other.. It was lovely and peaceful.

Sunday morning we got up and ate a hot breakfast, then spent the morning and early afternoon at the Denver zoo.

For Bryan and I, if you've seen one zoo, you've pretty much seen them all. But Kennedy really had a good time, so it was worth it to us to go. It was a lovely fall day, cool in the shade, warm in the sun.


We spent Sunday afternoon driving up into the Rockies. OH MY. Let me just say, living in a flat state your whole life, you don't appreciate mountains unless you see them live and in person. Our actual destination was the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel, which was once the longest and highest auto tunnel in the world. It is still the highest in the country though. Just a short drive out west of Denver and we were well into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Every time we drove around a bend, there were more mountains, and the further we got in, the bigger and more impressive they became. These views are what we wanted out of this whole trip. At first, Kennedy didn't want to go for the drive, then she was speechless at the beauty of it all.

 

We even parked the car on Ute Pass and walked into the forest on this tiny narrow trail. The forest is SO thick that it deadens any sound from the roadways. However, we were so far out that there wasn't much noise from the road anyway. I never realized how big of a difference there was between 'woods' and 'forest' It's INSANE how beautiful it was. Kennedy said it reminded her of a Disney movie, and I'd have to agree.

 

 

 

We are trying not to hate Colorado. I never want to return to Denver because of the first 2 days of our trip. HOWEVER, the drive through the mountains made us decide to give the state another chance in the future. So at some point, we would like to return to the mountains to hike the Ute trail up to the peak and camp out for a couple of days. Then we also want to go fly fishing, horseback riding through Garden of the Gods, white water rafting and tour a ghost town. I think there were moret things on the list, but I don't recall just yet.

 

*Kennedy looks terrified in the last picture because I just made the comment, "Maybe we shouldn't go too far on this trail...it's heading towards sunset, and aren't there mountain lions here?" HAHA!

Here's what's for dinner this week, just in case you're all missing the food posts:

Monday - Tuna casserole (we had everything to make it and Kennedy loves it)
Tuesday - Homemade Chicken Stuffing and mashed potatoes
Wednesday - North Woods Wild Rice Soup
Thursday - Italian chicken (I can't find the website, but you know I'll post the recipe)
Friday - Cheesy Potato Soup

Here's to a better week than the last one!!!

Much love,
Kristen