Hammond's Candy Factory

Yesterday Cody & I had a whole day off from our jobs, so we decided to take advantage of the snowy roads and take a drive to Hammond's Candy. This candy factory is pretty well known around Denver and isn't that far away...plus they give out free candy samples and tours! yay! :) When we first got there we were suprised by how big the building was and all the candy in the front rooms. I had no idea that they made all the candy there, as well as, package and ship it out. The first thing we did on our tour was watch a video about how the candy is made and the history about Hammond's, which was pretty cool. because it was a little family owned business. Then we finished it off with walking around the factory stations looking at the workers cooking, pulling and making all the different candies. They are known for their handmade hard candies and pole sticks (candy canes without the hook), but they also make really good chocolate and caramel taffies and brittle. We had a really fun day and got a lot of really good candy! :)

As you can see, they hadn't taked down all the Halloween decorations yet because we went right after...these bats were pretty funny cuz they flew in circles.

Let It Snow....

Since we've been in CO it's snowed a total of 3 times already and we've LOVED it! Compared to being in Rexburg where everything freezes we were suprised that by the next couple days it was mostly all melted and gone completely. The first snow storm we had I forgot to take any pictures because it was so small, but we did get a couple inches. The second snow storm came about a week after the first one and was HUGE! Denver got about a foot in a half and then the other cities surrounding us got even more. The news said it was the biggest snow storm Denver's gotten in October for the past 10 years. I was really excited to be out in the snow and we had fun driving around and seeing all the white trees. I LOVE THE TREES covered in SNOW! There are a ton here and it just made everything so nice and clean looking. We also loved it because it wasn't very cold and we still did a lot of fun things. Cody and I laughed because they told him not to come into work until it cleared up and we spent two days just playing instead of working...I guess when it snows like that here, no one really does much. The roads weren't that bad, but a lot of people didn't want to commute into the city for work, so they just cancelled work for a couple days. haha! It was awesome! The last snow storm that came through here was just last week and we though for sure they would cancel church meetings because that's what we heard would happen if the roads were bad, but they didn't. We had a great snowy weekend and enjoyed our sunday...I didn't bring any of my winter church boots, or my uggs (what was I thinking?) So I had to wear these really ugly snow boots to church with my skirt haha! I wish I would've gotten a picture cuz it was pretty hilarious! I felt a lot better when I got to church and saw that I wasn't alone...one girl was wearing FLIP FLOPS cuz she was visiting from out of town and wasn't prepared either. All in all we've loved the snow here and can't wait to bring it with us when we head home to ID. I just wish that the snow would melt in ID like it does here so I can enjoy it more....who likes black ice, frozen windshields, and piles of dirty snow on the side of the roads from months and months....not me! :) Here are some pics of the beautiful snow!!

#1-The view from our porch, looking on to the street in front of the house.

#2- Ooops...maybe we should've brought in our patio table...oh well

#3-The sweet icicles hanging from our window...don't want to stand under these bad boys. haha!

Octoberfest

Cody & I went to the pumpkin patch a little late this year, but we still had a lot of FUN! Since we've both been working a lot lately we ended up carving pumpkins about a week before Halloween and then for Halloween we went to our ward party and trunk-or-treat. There were a lot of cool costumes at our ward party and it was fun to see some of them. I've never been that into dressing up for Halloween and I'm pretty sure Cody's glad that I'm not into it either, but maybe sooner or later we'll actually do something creative and join the rest of society. haha...I was actually really bummed cuz I had to work that night, but it was cool because the mall has all the trick-or-treaters come from store to store and they give out candy. I'd never heard of a mall doing that before, but I thought it was a great idea because in bigger cities it's a lot safer and the parents have fun taking them around inside, instead of being out in the cold. October was a great month and it went by way too fast.. Christmas is going to be here before we know it!

WINTER beanies

The past couple weeks I have looked for an easy project to do with my spare time and I thought learning how to make something would be really fun! Since I don't have a sewing machine yet... I decided to try and make some beanies, since they make really good gifts and I've always wanted to learn how. I came across a really easy tutorial on youtube that shows you how to make them and I bought a couple things of yarn and a crocheting wheel and got to work. It surprised me how easy it was and how fast...the smaller beanie only took me about 20 mins and then the larger one took about 45 minutes. I made one for our neighbor's son who just had his 1st birthday and it looked really cute on him! Now I just need to find more patterns and make some girly hats with flowers on them, cuz I think they're adorable. Any ideas would be appreciated :)

Bare or Beard?

For all the ladies out there who have boyfriends, husbands or just close guy friends, who attend BYU-I will understand what I mean when I say, "what's with all the BEARDS?" I can almost promise that with every semester that ends or a break that occurrs for more than a week, there will be tons of male students with overgrowth and full on beards. Eventhough Cody and I aren't in Rexburg this semester he continued the tradition of growing a beard, so I thought I'd document it by showing some pics. The beard didn't get as long as I know he wanted it to be, but that's because he is an awesome husband and shaved it before I started to hate it altogether. Here's a post just for Cody...Thanks for not becoming a mountain man and hurting me everytime you kiss me :) most girls love facial hair on men and so do I, but only when it gets to a certain point. haha! And for all you unbelievers out there, just wait until Christmas break and watch for all the hairy faces.
(ok- so Cody might hate me for showing this cheesy pic, but his face is priceless haha! I only took a couple, but the other ones turned out fuzzy and I thought this one was too cute)

Lions* TIGERS & Bears....Oh MY!

The zoo had a free day a couple weeks ago and we decided that we should both get off work early and take advantage of the opportunity. WE HAD A BLAST!! I don't think either of us had been to a zoo for at least 10 years, so we were in our childish element, and it was just really fun to be around so many families and kids. Besides the millons of strollers that were everywhere, we spend a couple hours there and enjoyed being outside and not at work. It was a great day!

The giraffes were amazing to watch because they are huge and one even walked up pretty close to us after scratching its head on the side of its shelter. Since it was a nice day outside, most of the animals were out, instead of being inside for the public to view them.

There were two gorillas, but I could only get one in the picture, and the whole time we watched them it reminded me of the movie, "Return to Me" with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny. Such a great show if you haven't seen it! One of Cody's favorites were the lions. There was a little area to watch them and one of them scared us pretty good because it came around a corner and was walking pretty close to the glass as I was taking a picture.

MY FAVORITE.... the ZEBRAS! :) I guess it's because of their stripes, but I also like the zebra in the movie Madagascar cuz he's hilarious. This polar bear was also really fun to see. We went in an underground viewing room and this big guy was just chilling with it's foot on the glass. At first it was really funny and then after 10 mintues of it not moving at all, I thought the bear was dead and just floating there. haha! There was a zoo employee there explaining to us that these polar bears can sleep or just sit in the water like this for hours, not moving...it was pretty cool.

Last, but not least...the elephants! I also really like the elephants and I'm not sure why. I have always dreams of one day be able to take a trip to the jungle or amazon and being able to ride an elephant. They are so massive and yet gentle looking and playful. The baby elephant was fun to see and then the mom who walked right over to a tree near all the people and stretched it's trunk out over the ditch/fence to eat some leaves. I didn't know they could reach that far...the pic doesn't give it justice, it was amazing :) Now the next time we're in San Diego, we definitely have some big shoes to fill...but I've heard the SD zoo is the best.

TCP

For the past month 1/2 I have been working at The Children's Place in the Cherry Creek mall and I love it! Besides the fact that there are adorable kids that come in and I get to help dress them is really cute clothes, I also get a pretty good discount and I love seeing all the fun outfits and seasonal clothes that come into the store. I am so glad that Cody and I don't have any kids yet because sometimes I have to stop myself before I buy clearance items and spend my whole paycheck on clothes for kids we don't have. I haven't bought anything yet, but I came very close :) It's so hard when some of the sale clothes are $5 or less, but I know one day I'll be able to buy clothes for little ones and I won't be "baby hungry" anymore haha! P.S. Ave, Michelle and Andrea - you should all look at the website and let me know if you want anything :) hint hint Christmas is comin up faster than you think

Yummy Taco Salad~!

Recipe post- This is one of our favorite meals to make and eat because it is really fast and easy. All you need is some chips (tortilla or fritos) and then any topping you want. Here's what we use on our taco salad or "straw hats;" chicken with taco seasoning, black beans (or enchillada chilli), tomatoes, corn, lettuce, cheese, salsa and a little bit of ranch dressing. We also like to use ground beef instead of chicken, and we also do the same thing in a warm tortilla or burrito. We love mexican food and have it at least once a week so I thought I would share since I never do a recipe post. This is a huge taco salad and usually Cody and I will make smaller ones for ourselves individually or we'll share one together. My next goal is to master pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, or pumpkin bread for halloween. I don't normally cook a lot, but since I have a lot more time I am loving being able to just experiment and find recipes online and cook them for dinner. Enjoy!

Red Rocks

On the weekends, Cody & I love to find new places to go visit and explore. The Red Rocks Amphitheater is a place we have heard about from many different people and we were excited to go. Marshall, Cody's brother, served his mission in Denver and has told us how cool it is and that a lot of people go for outdoor concerts and events. My dad also told us that the LDS tabernacle choir sang there a could years ago, so we thought that was really great. The cool thing about this outdoor amphitheater is that from the outside it just looks like a bunch of tall, massive rock formations. Once you drive around and go through to a parking lot, you see a ton of stairs leading right into the amphitheater. Cody and I hiked these stairs and couldn't believe how high they went...we thought we were in pretty good shape...but after a couple flights we were sucking wind and couldn't catch our breath. Luckily we made it up and saw the beautiful amiphitheater and the view from the top. There aren't any sound microphones or anything but lighting when they have concerts here so that's why so many people love it. There aren't many concerts left this season because it's getting colder, but we're hoping to find one that's in our price range so that we'll have the opportunity to sit through a concert. Here are some pics...enjoy! :)

The outside of Red Rocks before we hiked the stairs to go inside

Cody posing half-way up the mile high stairs. Inside the amphitheater (couldn't get the other side in the picture...it was huge!)


One of the entrances inside the lower level of the stage. Cody & I with all the rows of seats behind us :) It was a great day and I can't wait to hopefully see a concert there in the future!

Cherry Cricket Restaurant

Everyone loves trying new food and eating at new restaurants, right? Since being in Denver Cody and I thought it would be fun to eat only at restaurants that we haven't been too or those that people recommed, and aren't in ID. I don't like eating out very much, but since we don't have a lot of friends to hang out with while we're here on the weekends we thought that maybe having a date night at least once a week or every other weekend would be fun and would give us plenty of chances to try all the amazing restaurants in the area. We love mexican food, so of course and we had to go to Chipotle and Qdoba to see what all the fuss is about. Personally we both thought Qdoba was WAY better than Chipotle! I mean they give bigger and better portions and the flavors are a lot better. I know there are a lot of Chipotle fans out there and it is crazy popular in Denver, but coming from Utah where they have Cafe Rio, I am pretty bias towards their food. Chipotle just didn't give us enough food for the price and it didn't have a different, wow-ing taste. Qdoba is really different and they have a lot of different flavors like a 3 cheese queso-salsa and mango salsa as well. Next, we tried another mexican restaurant that was a sit down place called Lime and it was way good!! We split three enchilladas and then got an appetizer called the scorpions, which was breaded jumbo shrimp that were wrapped with cheese and jalapenos- WOW! they were spicy and really yummy! :)

The next places that we are going to try are some Chinese places, maybe some Thai and then a burger place that a co-worker told Cody about called the Cherry Cricket. This restaurant is pretty famous in Denver and is the ultimate burger restaurant because the customers can pick whatever they want inside the burgers and custom make their own or just have a classic one from the menu. Not to mention this restaurant was featured on one of our new favorite shows called Man vs. Food. Check out the video below on You Tube to see the cherry cricket restaurant and the man vs. food challenge :) Once we go there and eat we'll given an update of how good the food is cuz we've heard so many great things about it and we're excited to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KdVFw2JQSU