November Recap

Sorry it's taken so long, but I'm finally catching you all up on the Bennett happenings last month. We enjoyed our last official weeks in Colorado and then drove out to California for our usual camping trip, this year at San Mateo State Campground.
After Thanksgiving, David flew back to Colorado to continue working until he gets a job out here, where Gigi and I are waiting (im)patiently for him. We were stoked to have my mom, aka Yaya, fly out the week before our move to help us pack to and to accompany Gigi in the back seat on the long drive. This was especially helpful since I was also attempting to write a novel (I know, I'm crazy) at the time.
Now that I'm basically caught up here, I promise to post more frequently! Enjoy the pictures (I even did some captions this time!).

Click for: November Photos

Click for: Thanksgiving Weekend Photos

"I thought the Rockies would be a little rockier..."

We spent last weekend camping at Rocky Mountain National Park-- our first camping trip with just the 3 of us! It was amazingly beautiful, with great weather, and Gigi was a champ. We love our big tent but look forward to someday when we can upgrade to something a little more substantial. :)
On Saturday, we went on an amazing 3.6-mile hike that went to 3 lakes. The scenery was unbelievably green and lush! We also went on a 9-mile off-road drive up above 12,000 feet. It was awesome to be driving above the tree line- we felt like we were in the alps or something. Gigi had a fun weekend using her new bike trailer/stroller too!

Also, on Sunday we picked up Auntie Rena who was visiting her great aunt nearby. She stayed with us until today and we had a great time! She even taught Gigi how to say "yo" (or more like "o-yo-yo").

Check out all our sweet photos for sure!
http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157606191606671/

Breckenridge Trip

We had a great weekend up in the mountains with some friends from David's work. Some of them are old friends who flew out here from CA, along with one who works here in CO with David, and some other new friends that we met through the Chows who planned the trip. We had an awesome cabin (heated floors!!!) and great snow. David and I split the day snowboarding on Saturday at Copper and it was really fun.

Here's the group at Copper Mountain. (L to R: Dominick, Geoff, Chris, Margaret, Denny, David, Pao, Wes, Me & Gigi, Laura, Daphnie & Vivian)

Alex, we made sure to get some sweet icicle photos for you!
Here is the photo album: http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603733223785/

Our first "real" fall!

Gigi shares Daddy's Mountain Dew while watching the World Series (just kidding! Although she did like holding on to the can!).

With October finished, we are now finally understanding the true meaning of "fall"- as there are leaves everywhere! On one day, our neighbor spent a while cleaning up all the leaves in his yard and then within a couple of hours, the yard was full again after a few gusts of wind! It has been really pretty though. We've only had that one day of snow (scroll down for pictures if you never saw them), and the weather has been really up and down, some days never get out of the 40s and then yesterday it was in the 70s!

Here are the pictures from October here in Colorado. Included are our pictures from the NL Wildcard Tiebreaker game we went to, our snow day, visiting my friend Sharla, along with many cute shots of Gigi and the October birthdays here- David's, Blair's, and Brooke's.

Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602911346386/

Lists

Now that we have been in our new home for almost 2 weeks, I decided to reflect a little on the past and the future.

Top things I will miss about California:1. My family within a short drive
2. My brother being a walk down the hall away
3. Our awesome CA friends
4. The beach
5. Our church
6. Surfing
7. Trader Joe's
8. In'n'Out
9. The weather
10. The Dodgers
11. Philly Grille
12. Golden Spoon

Top things I am excited about in Colorado:1. A new adventure!
2. Our few friends here (and David's aunt!)
3. The mountains and the sky
4. Seasons (T-storms, fall colors, and snow!)
5. Snowboarding
6. Lack of traffic
7. Our Rec Centers
8. SuperTarget!
9. The Light Rail to downtown
10. Finding a new church
11. More space for less money!
12. Having people come visit us!!! (hint, hint!)

It's been hard to leave California, but in the end, my home is wherever the Lord leads, and wherever my husband and baby are!

These lists were inspired by my friend Myste.

We're home!

We officially live in Colorado now! We arrived to our new home on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and received all our stuff on Wednesday. We have made a lot of progress unpacking but we still have more to do. Now today (I know, we're crazy) we leave for Boston and will be back on Monday night, and then we can really settle in.I've posted the pictures from our drive out here, but here's a quick synopsis of how it went:

We left Saturday after David's last Mullets Baseball game (good news, they won and are going to the championship- David is sad to miss it).
We stopped at friends Jason & Kelly Merandi's house in Corona to say hi, see their beautiful house, and David was also able to take a shower.
We then stopped in Primm, Nevada for dinner at Buffalo Bill's Casino where our friend Blair was staying for a race.After dinner we drove through to Washington, Utah (just outside St. George) to stay with family friends Gary and Cindy Snavely. We stayed there until Monday and it was an awesome mini vacation. We visited Zion National Park (and Cindy babysat Gigi) and got to swim in their pool and ride their quad near their house. We had a really fun time, they were fabulous hosts!




On Monday we left Utah and drove all the way to Glenwood Springs, CO. It was fun to stay there because my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins lived there for about 10 years or so and I had been there a long time ago, but didn't really remember it. We stayed at a neat, old hotel - it's a beautiful town in the mountains!
Tuesday morning, we left Glenwood and the rest of the drive from there was just beautiful, going through the Rockies (and they really are rocky!). We stopped for coffee in Beaver Creek (just outside Vail) to have lunch with our friend (my former roommate) Jenny Schlenker who lives there now.Then the drive to Highlands Ranch was just a couple more hours, just enough time to finish listening to Harry Potter 1 on CD (David even liked it!). We picked up our key from our friends the Stopniks and then drove over to our new place. It was a fun few days. Gigi did pretty darn good for a 4-month old on a long, 1100 mile drive!If I missed you on the email with our new address, please email us and we will send it to you.
We look forward to having visitors here (hint, hint!), and we are very thankful that the Lord blessed us with a safe and fun trip!
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602013471459/

Colorado Pics

We had a great time in Colorado on our house-hunting trip. Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157601294282393/

Our Future Home

So, this is our house that we will be living in when we move to Colorado. It's in Highlands Ranch, which is about a half-hour south of Denver (near Littleton). We leave September 8th, and make the drive out to Colorado. We are starting to get excited, especially after finding a house to rent. This place is such an amazing value, compared to California prices!!
Thankfully, we know a few people that will be close-by in Colorado, including David's aunt Annette, and our friends the Stopniks and the Thompsons. We will have plenty of room for guests, so start planning your ski trips, people! :)