Coffee for Two

A week ago this past Friday, Zack surprised me with a trip to a pottery painting place called Ceramics in the City. When we first starting dating, many of our dates were surprises, which made things extra fun...and, I will admit, a little nerve-racking at first for a control freak like me! Even though we are married now, I still love a good date night and a surprise one takes me back to those first dates.

We both are huge coffee drinkers... I have my mother to blame thank, and I know I am responsible for Zack's need for it since he didn't drink it before meeting me. So painting our own coffee mugs made the most sense!

They turned out better than I expected they would, and make perfect mementos of our time here in Colorado!

Here we are with them before they were fired up....

Here they are afterwards!

I love the Colorado flag on the inside of Zack's mug...so creative!!

We had such a fun and relaxing time! Thanks Z for surprising me with such a wonderful date!

Jarvis turns THREE!

Happy, Happy Birthday to our sweet nephew, Jarvis! We cannot believe he turned THREE today! This time three years ago, Zack and I were at the hospital with family, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Thomas Jarvis Tripp, V. It has been such a privilege to be a part of Jarvis' life. He has such a big personality, and is so sweet and so smart. We are always in awe of him, and amazed in everything he does. We love hearing that little voice on the phone and on Skype, and love trying to keep up with his stories and all that he has to tell us about his day. We hate we can't be there for his birthday this year, but made sure we called this morning to sing him "Happy Birthday!," and loved that it put it a big smile on his face! Here he is with part of his birthday present that we sent him in the mail. He told his mommy that Banks would be at his birthday party, so we made sure that even though our Banks couldn't be there, he would have his own Banks...

Already good buddies (he is leaning on "Banks")

We also gave him the cutest placemat and bag tag made by my dear friend Jennifer. You can check out her stuff on her site JM Papers. Here is a picture of the placemat, but I forgot to take a picture of the bag tag. You can see examples on her site. Great gift ideas!

We looked through our "Jarvis pictures" to find some of our favorites to share....

Nine pounds and fourteen ounces of sweetness

ALL BOY!

Thumbs up for the Pack and a nap :)

Sweet, sweet curls

Hamin' it up 

We love you so much, Jarvis! 

We hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Love, Uncle Zack, Aunt Lee Lee and Banks

Baby Boy Tripp!

We are so excited that Shea and Thomas are expecting another baby in July! We love being Uncle Zack and Aunt Lee Lee to Jarvis, and can't wait to spread that love to another baby boy! I also adore seeing Zack with Jarvis. They have so much fun together, and it makes me excited to one day have a few of our own :)

Here is Mama Shea when she was here in Denver. Doesn't she look absolutely beautiful!? I hope I look half this good...

It's amazing how much these two favor each other...

Wonder if baby boy Tripp will have some of these good looking features, or if he will be another Tripp look-alike!? Which, of course, are good looking, too! :) We can't ever get over how much the Tripp men look like each other....you can see it in the photo below. I know I have see the same smile on Tommy's and Thomas' face on Jarvis' face before! 

No matter who he looks like, we just pray for a healthy baby boy, and can't wait for him to get here! 

CONGRATULATIONS, Tripp Family! We love you, three FOUR!

Warmer Weather

These past few days have been absolutely delightful! I am always amazed at how much the sun and warm temperatures lift my spirits. I have been completely slightly jealous of the 70+ degree weather that our buddies in Wilmington and other parts of NC have been enjoying these last few weeks. I am embarrassed to say that I was even caught whinnying at one point. Yes, we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we moved to Denver, but we just didn't expect the NC folks to have it so good while we were gone. The grass is always greener, yeah, yeah yeah.

Needless to say, we are spending every moment we can in this glorious warmth and sunniness! Saturday was pretty windy, but sunny, so we decided to take Banks to a dog park. It was a really nice park in Littleton, a town about 10-15 minutes from us. He had a blast. A ton of tennis balls and friendly dogs to play with = one happy Banks. Here he is, worn out from all of the fun he had:

Sunday brought us another beautiful, and less windy day. After church and brunch (both walking distance from our house which is so nice), we took Banks on a long walk in Wash Park, our huge neighborhood park. He was a little distracted by all the other dogs, but I can't blame him; there were TONS! He even got to play with a floppy-eared Vizsla puppy named Max! For those who don't know, my parents have a Vizsla named Cheli. I am not exaggerating when I say that all Vizslas look exactly alike and have many similar mannerisms, mainly because they are not over-bred. Max looked just like a baby Cheli! They must be a popular breed for out here because we have seen so many; three just on Sunday, alone.

Shea is in town again for work, and we could not be more thrilled to see her! Yesterday, she and I had a fun walk to a local shopping/restaurant area, which I think I have mentioned before. We popped into a few shops and had time to catch up. Shea was our first dinner guest at our house here so I got really excited to try some new recipes. I know you typically try out recipes BEFORE you served them to your guests, but the recipes weren't complicated. The menu included Garlic Chicken with Brown Sugar, Crispy Brussel Sprouts (they were really good!), homemade potato salad (Shea's request and my mama's recipe), and Nutella Cheesecake Brownies for dessert.  Zack told me that the brownies were the best dessert that I have ever made. I was flattered and shocked. I didn't think anything could touch the goodness of gooey butter cake a la Paula Deen, which has become a beloved dessert of our families and friends (have to give my friend Jennifer a shout out for introducing me to GBC). I found all recipes except the potato salad on Pinterest. One major piece of advice I would give anyone who finds recipes on Pinterest (if you haven't already figured it out yet), is to completely read through the ingredients, directions and comments from others, if available. Luckily, this dinner turned out good, but others in the past haven't been so much of a success. Unlike a recipe book or other trusted recipe sources, sometimes the recipes I have found on Pinterest have a few flaws or aren't detailed enough. Usually, by reading others comments and reviews, I can tweak it to work, but a few times they have been total duds. But hey, that is kind of what cooking is all about...trying out new things and figuring out how to make them work for you and your family's taste. Anyway...I got off on a huge tangent! Back to more beautiful weather...

Today was so far the warmest day we have had here...71 was the high! I know, crazy right!?! I was so excited. I went on an extra long walk/jog (I am not quite to a running momentum here in the mile-high city), and even sat outside for a bit and started a new book. It's not the beach, but I can pretend :)  A bit silly, I know, but it's the little things! Banks, preferred the shade and what is left of the snow. I am started to wonder if he even misses the water and the beach?!?

Sadly, our warm weather is coming to an end...tonight it is suppose to get down to the 30's and not get any warmer tomorrow with a chance of snow tomorrow evening into Thursday. Totally depressing! UGH! A little dramatic, I know. BUT, it's suppose to get back in the high 50's-60's this weekend. We will take it!

Overall, Zack, Banks and I are finally feeling settled here, and the recent warm weather has been icing on the cake!