Posted by Nikki Parrish
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:45:00 GMT
I am quickly discovering that Colorado has so many wonderfully fun things to offer, but I just might have discovered my favorite thing to date… the Boulder Cruiser Bike Ride. The cruiser ride happens every Thursday night in Boulder and it brings hundreds of people out for a night of fun. Every week is a different theme. So, imagine a little bike riding, a little costume wearing, a little dancin’ in the park, and an amazingly fun night with friends – kick ass, I know!
The theme of this ride was Mad Max (an apocalyptic 80’s Mel Gibson flick). Tyson, Tasha, Brian, Shauna, and I headed to Boulder attempting to look as dark, dirty, and hard as possible. Not sure we accomplished our goal, but we had fun trying!
Tags boulder, cruiser ride | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:54:00 GMT
Just in time for the 4th of July, we took a patriotic road trip to Mount Rushmore. Tyson, Sean, Tasha, Jacob, Shauna, Matt, and I did a 3 state tour of the west – Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
Our first stop was in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where we visited Scottsbluff National Monument and enjoyed some beautiful views. We encountered a prairie rattlesnake when we first drove into the park, which was sweet and scary all wrapped into one! Penelope actually walked the park with us, well at least most of it. We were pretty proud of our short-legged pup for keeping up with us.
We spent the 4th in Hot Springs, South Dakota. We caught a fireworks show there – unfortunately we missed out on Mount Rushmore’s fireworks. Apparently, Mount Rushmore has an amazing show, but they do theirs on the 3rd.
While in South Dakota we visited Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave is very similar to the caves we all visited on school field trips when we were kids. The cave was formed by wind, hence its name. It is always a cool 58 degrees and the passage ways total an impressive 130 miles long.
The highlight of our trip to South Dakota was of course seeing Mount Rushmore. It is one of those places you see in text books, but never expect to see in person. The drive to Mount Rushmore National Memorial takes you through winding roads and at one spot there is a break in the trees and through them you can see the Presidents. The park allows you to get pretty up close and personal with the Presidents – it is so cool that something so large in scale could be created by carving rock.
Our last night we spent camping at Glendo State Park in Wyoming. It was a nice ending to our weekend. We sat around the campfire and made smores. I’ve discovered that I make a mean smore, not bragging, just sayin’ :)
Click here to view more pictures from the trip on Flickr
Posted in Travel | Tags mount rushmore, road, trip | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:05:00 GMT
Cyndi Lauper knows what she’s talking about! Some of my girlfriends and I decided we were long overdue for a night on the town. So we got all dolled up and treated ourselves to a ridiculous amount of tapas and wine. After we were feeling good and giggly we went out for a little dancing. And believe me, we danced until we could dance no more!
See us in all our fabulousness :)
Tags girls | no comments
Posted by Matt Parrish
Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:47:00 GMT
Last Saturday, Nikki and I went hiking with Tyson, Sean and Tasha. We were in Boulder, CO again, but this time we hiked the Mount Sanitas trail. It was a tiring day because Sean, Tyson and I had hockey lessons earlier that morning and were playing hockey later that evening. So we ended up coming back down before reaching the top. But we made it pretty far, nonetheless. It was a gorgeous day; hardly a cloud in the sky and the temperature was great.
More pictures from the hike on Flickr
Posted in Hiking | Tags boulder, boulder, hiking, hiking, mount sanitas, mount sanitas | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:50:00 GMT
We recently went hiking at Chautauqua Park in Boulder. The park is beautiful and offers a lot of hiking trails. We decided to hike to Royal Arch, which is a cool rock formation shaped like… wait for it… an arch! The trail was about a mile long. The weather was great, the sun was shining and the air was crisp.
The higher we climbed, the cooler it got, and with just a little bit more to go before we got to the arch we encountered some icy trails. This definitely made our hike just a little more interesting. I was pretty much on my hands and knees crawling up the trail. Going down was a lot of fun. We squatted and used our shoes like skis and just slid down the trail.
We ended up hiking for about three hours - we were so tired! With all those calories burned we figured we had earned ourselves a big dinner. We stuffed ourselves with pizza and chocolate mousse from Pizza Colore in Boulder - so, sooo yummy! Tyson has a grand plan of us all hiking a different place each weekend this summer - we’ll see how that goes! :)
For more Chautauqua Park pictures click here.
Posted in Hiking | Tags Chautauqua Park, Chautauqua Park, hiking, hiking, Royal Arch, Royal Arch | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:01:00 GMT
On Saturday, March 29th we participated in Earth Hour, an event started in Sydney, Australia in 2007. The idea for Earth Hour comes from a desire to spread awareness about global warming, specifically the effects of coal-fired electricity. For one hour, residents and businesses across Sydney turned off their lights resulting in a 10.2% decrease in energy usage in the city. Not only was it a unique experiment, but it had an impact, and the idea spread across the world. This year 24 cities participated in Earth Hour.
Several friends gathered at our place and from 8pm-9pm we turned off our lights. We lit candles, ate brownies and played board games. It was so easy and fun. One hour a year is such a small amount of time to commit to, we hope to celebrate Earth Hour many times throughout the year.
Tags earth hour, earth hour, environment, environment | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:46:00 GMT
On March 20th, my handsome hubby turned 30! To celebrate this momentous occasion we went to dinner with a group of friends. We went to a restaurant called Casa Bonita.
Casa Bonita is one of the most interesting restaurants we have ever been to. While we didn’t know exactly what to expect going into the evening, we had heard that the experience of eating there far surpassed the experience of eating their food. Casa Bonita lived up to its expectations.
Throughout the evening we were entertained by flame jugglers, a dancing gorilla and entertainers cliff diving. Light sabers were brought to our table for purchase, while we stuffed ourselves with an endless supply of sopapillas. After dinner we wandered through Black Bart’s cave and took a pony and donkey ride(on kiddie rides, not real ones!).
All in all, it was a great night. We were all hurting a bit the next day from the food, but it was well worth it!
Check out more pictures from Matt’s birthday here.
Tags birthday, birthday, casa bonita, casa bonita | no comments
Posted by Nikki Parrish
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:50:00 GMT
Hi Everyone! Well, as I’m sure you all know we made it to Denver safe and sound. Our drive out here went well - nothing too exciting to report. We opted not to stop and see the world’s largest ball of twine, but we did catch a glimpse of the world’s largest easel. Fun times! :)
Once we arrived in Denver things got a little crazy. We had made arrangements to see the home we were going to be renting on the Friday we got into Denver. Driving through the neighborhood leading up to our house did not give us a lot of hope for what we were about to see. Unfortunately, our concerns were warranted. The neighborhood was a little scary looking. The house was older, kind of dingy, and it ended up being smaller and just not as nice as we had expected. Walking out from our tour, we were pretty doubtful that this was a place we would want to call home, but I think what sealed the deal for us was a comment made by the women who owns the home. She said, and I quote, “The neighborhood may look kind of sketchy, but it’s not actually sketchy. There’s no gang-bang violence or anything.” That did it for us. While we were glad there was no “gang-bang violence” going on, the mere mention of it told us this place just wasn’t for us.
Bright and early Saturday morning we began our search for our new home. A friend of ours, Kat (Brian Grimes’ girlfriend), recommended an area called Stapleton. The area used to be the location of the Stapleton International Airport (fun fact: the movie “Airport” was filmed there). It is an up and coming neighborhood being built with a focus on sustainability. They have recycled parts of the old airport by using them in the construction of the new neighborhood. The community hosts a grocery store, gas station, skate park, schools, playgrounds, and several restaurants - all within walking distance. A 10 minute drive gets us to several of our friends, downtown, a Super Target, and a mall. We like our apartment. It is no Buggyworks Loft, but we are truly happy and settling into our new home.
Address update:
7615 E 28th Avenue
Apt. 6
Denver, CO 80238
Love and Hugs,
m&n
p.s. Pictures on Flickr
Posted in Travel | Tags apartment, apartment, colorado, colorado, moving, moving | no comments
Posted by Matt Parrish
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:20:00 GMT
Okay, nothing like that happened, but we had a lot of fun anyway! We went to celebrate Nikki's 2*th birthday and the main attraction was the Cirque de Soleil show, "Love". The show was really cool and set to the Beatles music. It seemed to be a mix between a play and a circus. I wish we could've used our camera in there, but we did get some good pics of Vegas. Check 'em out!
Tags birthday, birthday, las vegas, las vegas, vacation, vacation | no comments
Posted by Matt Parrish
Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:45:00 GMT
This past weekend, Nikki, Sean and I took part in the 10th annual Scoot-a-que scooter rally in Columbus, OH. I ride a white Kymco People 150 and Sean drives an Aprillia Atlantic 200. We arrived at the North Market Saturday morning for the breakfast which was surprisingly good. The ride left around noon. We went through downtown to Franklin Park for our first stop. Then we went out east through downtown Gahanna and eventually stopped at Gatzby's, a bar in Gahanna with a large outdoor seating area. We ordered a pizza, which was also good, and hung out there for awhile.
Scooter rallies are a lot of fun. It's great to completely disregard traffic lights and just see this long caravan of 2-wheelers continue through an intersection. It's also fun to see people waving to us, especially kids. I've posted pictures here on my Flickr account.
Tags scoot-a-que, scoot-a-que, scooter, scooter | no comments
