One year and counting...

Happy One Year Bloggy Anniversary to me! :)

A year?! I know, right! It's been a whole year since my first "Life and Shoes and Stuff" post!

Not that this blog is anything life changing or particularly special, but I'm pretty impressed with myself that it has survived a year! My creative attention span tends to wain more quickly...though I'm sure part of that is I'm not posting every day anymore, which helps stave off creative dry spells.

I have really enjoyed posting on here. It's something to do and forces me to write, even if it's just trivial things like movie reviews or rants about pet peeves and such. While my "dream job" is to be a writer, I am well aware that I'm not talented enough to make a living at it, and have found this to be a handy outlet for expressing my thoughts and opinions in written form.

It also acts as a distraction when I hear the siren's call of 6pm.com or Express.com, calling to me to do a little online shopping. While "retail therapy" can be a life saver, not spending money unnecessarily is kind of important too. :)

So here's to (hopefully) another year of superfluous posting! :)

***

In other news, I just got back from a couple of days in Denver. Colorado is home to some of my favorite places ever and I'm so grateful that it's only an hour & a half flight away. Mountains...blue skies...perfect weather...no humidity. (happy sigh) Needless to say it was a good trip. :)

On Thursday mom and I drove down to Colorado Springs to check out The Garden of the Gods. I'd heard about it from a few people, but had never been there. It was really worth the drive. It's free to the public and has lots of great trails that are easy to walk (I'm sure there are more challenging ones too, but we didn't seek them out). The altitude did get to us after a bit, but not too badly.

The surrounding area is also gorgeous. As you're walking along, you keep getting glimpses of snow capped mountains in the distance, until you find an unobstructed view and then are really able to enjoy their beauty. I just love mountains...it gives me a sense of peace and joy, however fleeting...which always makes traveling to see them worth it.

We drove back up to Loveland Pass and by Dillon Lake on Friday. In 2012 a coworker told me about taking the scenic route via Hwy 6 (Grand Army of the Republic Hwy) off I-70, from Denver to Dillon Lake/Reservoir. It winds through the mountains and is an absolutely gorgeous drive. I'm kinda dumb and didn't think about the fact that it's still winter up there, so was underdressed when we drove up into the mountains. I was a wee bit chilly, as evidenced by the picture on the left below. :)  The one on the right is from our trip out to Denver in June of 2012...all sunny and summery...although you can still see some snow in the background!



April 2014 (left) and June 2012 (right)

Not just a little snow...but a lot of snow! This wall along the road was about 12' high!

We finished up our trip with a quick stop in Golden before heading to the airport. I love walking around the downtown area, stopping into whichever little boutique catches my fancy This trip it was the Red Wagon Gift and Garden Shop on Washington. I love all their Vital Industries bicycle-themed merchandise...I bought one of their sweatshirts for myself as a souvenir. After a creek side lunch at the Bridgewater Grill in the Golden Hotel, we headed for the airport and flew back to Nebraska.

Can't wait till the next excuse to head west and enjoy the gorgeous mountain views! :)

Enjoy and happy almost May!


~ Katie

PS. We have our third softball game tonight (if it doesn't get called on account of rain). We barely lost last week (7-6), which is better than the week before...so hopefully we'll do even better tonight and win! (knock on wood) :)