Memorial Day Weekend

This year's Memorial Day weekend was totally different for us. We are usually surrounded by friends, and on the water somewhere enjoying the sun. And although we missed those moments, we still enjoyed our weekend in Denver and had plenty to do!

On Friday evening, we ventured downtown for the Food Truck Renegade. Food trucks are a big deal out here in Denver, like many big cities, and house an array of different cuisines. The Food Truck Renegade is a gathering of of some of the city's food trucks so you can sample all of them at once (each time there are different trucks). There was live music and lots of fun. Our food choices were a BLT with fried green tomatoes and Rocky Mountain ribeye sandwich from Street Eats, green chili fries from Mike2 Kitchen, red velvet and raspberry almond cupcakes from Sweet 'Ness Cupcakes and creme caramel ice cream from Coaches Scoop. Oh, and can't forget the beer, which was provided by Left Hand Brewery.

Had to try it, considering I am left-handed!

Our eats

Left Hand Brewery

Yummy cupcakes!

Perfect ending!

Saturday we took Banks to the Cherry Creek Park, one of Colorado's State Parks. We have taken him here before, and knew what fun he would have. It was a little windy, but luckily the sun was out, making for a pretty nice day. Banks loves water and tennis balls, so this the perfect park for him. I don't think he would ever leave if he didn't have to! The park wore all three of us out, so we spent the rest of the day at home relaxing!

One happy pup!

He is out there somewhere!

One of the couples that we have gotten close to, went to church with us Sunday morning. We met them Easter Sunday at a brunch (a college friend of mine set me up with some of her friends out here). Funny side story, when my friend Jodie sent an email introducing her friends to me (she has moved back South so she wasn't here to introduce in person), the first response was from a 'Sara Lewis.' At first I was confused, because that was the name of one of my best friends since childhood. But, she is now married so her last name is different, and she spells Sara with a 'h" on the end. After opening the email, I soon realized that this was another Sara Lewis! Long story short, they have the exact same given name except one is with a 'h' and one is without. What is even wilder, is that they seriously look like they could be related! Back to Sunday's events. After church, they invited us to go to brunch and the ZOO! It had been something I had been wanting to do, so I was excited when they brought up the idea. I am so glad that we didn't have anything else planned for the day...the Denver Zoo is huge! There were so many animals, and being a holiday weekend, so many people! But, it had been awhile since any of us had been to a zoo, so we really enjoyed it. We saw so many animals, so I narrowed the photos down to our favorites. The orangutans and gorillas were the most entertaining. While watching the mama orangutan show off her baby (not exactly how humans would show off theirs...see photo below), we hear loud noises coming from the gorilla area. We went over to see what was going on to find two females chasing the male. We weren't sure exactly what was going on, but he was dragging what looked like a blanket of some sorts. We decided that maybe he tried to steal it from the females and they weren't having it! It was quite comical!

They were so amazing in person!

One of the elephants in their new home, which we got a sneak preview.

He would come over for one second to say "Hi" then dart away!

Sara and me

This one did not seemed bothered by us at all and kept eating.

Posing for people looking through the window to the left.

It was amazing and kind of scary how she would just stare right into your eyes!

Regal!

Smiling at us! 

Showing off her baby.

Here is the chase scene, haha!

We could not get over how big they really are. 'The Lion King' did not portray them accurately!

El Tigre

They were SO cute!!! The only birds that I like.

Their stripes were so neat to see up close.

Banks was still out go commission from his trip to the park, so on Monday Zack and I drove to Colorado Springs, which is about a hour south of Denver, to the Garden of the Gods. Both of us were quite exhausted from the weekend's activities so we didn't hike long here but did get some really great view of the enormous red rocks.

Would never be as brave as the climber in the photo below, but I climbed just a little!

Can you see the climber? Look in the middle.

Couldn't believe he was right there in front of us!

We had a very busy, but very fun Memorial Day weekend this year. Thanks to all those who gave their lives so we can live ours!