An aquatic adventure in photos + other stuff.

A view of downtown from the Aquarium! 

We loved the jelly fish most of all. So beautiful! 

After the aquarium we ventured down the street to My Brother's Bar for dinner. The atmosphere was really cool and very chill. Seems like a popular stop for locals for an after work drink. We both enjoyed a beer and a meal. 

I had the chicken salad sandwhich. It was good, but super difficult to eat! I ended up just eating the chicken salad with a fork and taking occasional bites of the bread. 

Jonathan had the Bum Steer, cold (a sandwich with pastrami, turkey, ham, and cheese). He really enjoyed it. And I think it looked pretty amazing. 

 The onion rings were the best part. They basically melted in your mouth. So delicious! 

Another successful restaurant down and another place we plan to go again. Especially when we find ourselves in that area of town! Which will hopefully be sooner rather than later because we found out that The South Platte River and Confluence park (read more about it about it here on yelp) are popular spots to escape the summer "heat" (it gets hot here, I promise, but it's nothing like Texas heat). 

How fun does this look!?

The pool at our apartment is currently out of service due to a leak, so I'm thinking the South Platte River might be a good alternative :) I'll let ya know! 

Thanks for reading! 

NOW TRENDY: Above the Knuckle Rings

I just don't know about this trend you guys...
It's really caught my attention because I love rings! But I can't decide about this above the knuckle ring situation...it just seems to be too much. Like body jewelry or something ... ?


Examples now ....

SOURCE

SOURCE

SOURCE

DO YOU LIKE IT?

I think the above examples are really beautiful and chic and how I would hope it would come across when attempting to sport this super trendy look. But I think it also has the potential to look like a mess. Idk. Sometimes I see it and I love it ... but other times it makes me roll my eyes.... LIKE BODY JEWELRY.... 

WILL IT LAST?

Not long. It'll be an in and out trend. And I think it's a trend that might fly under the radar and only catch on with the super trendy....

What do you think!? Do I just have a weird feeling about it because I don't think I could ever pull it off? I think I'll try to follow this trend to see how far it goes ...

BONUS: I'm listening to this artist right now.... Lucy Rose .... 

- she has an EP out on spotify

- reminds me of Feist (speaking of... have you listened to her 2011 album Metals? I just found it!) 

- i like "scar"

- she's done vocals for Bombay Bicycle Club

Thai food and the kindness of a stranger.

If you know me well, you know I love Thai food. Abilene locals may know about the little gem that is Ann's Thai. If you live in Abilene and haven't tried it, I really encourage you to do so (it's on South 1st next to Willis)! Even of you've never had Thai food. Go. Get the chicken pad Thai your first time. And if you're down for something a little different, try the yellow curry! It's my favorite meal of all time ever. Their Thai spring rolls are also exceptional. (also, don't go by the reviews on yelp for this place, in my opinion, most of them are inaccurate)

But when coming to Denver, I knew Thai food restaurants would be in abundance, but that didn't mean they could hold a candle to Ann's (I'm what you might call a super fan). But, I think we might've come across a pretty solid competitor. 

Udom Thai. 

This place had really great reviews on yelp (new BFF), and it wasn't too far from our place. I was willing to give it a shot due to my withdraws from Ann's. 

I ordered the Pad See Eew w/ tofu because I wasn't mentally ready to try their yellow curry yet. It was so great! The sauce and spices they used were a little different tasting at first, but it didn't take long for my taste buds to be into it. And the tofu was cooked perfectly! 

Jonathan got the Thai Basil Fried Rice and it was soooo good! SO GOOD.

I don't know food terminology well enough to explain to you how flavorful and delicious this rice was so you'll just have to trust me. Exceptional. 

On top of the excellent food, the service was just beyond. Our server was so friendly and when he found out we were new to the area he took the time to get to know us a little better and was just so helpful and kind. When we moved here, we were thankful to have a few friends in the area, but when relocating the kindness of strangers is sometimes all you have to go on. He is one of the main reasons I can't wait to return to Udom Thai! And who knows...maybe I'll even try the yellow curry next time...

New apartment tour coming soon! (Hopefully..if we can ever get this place togetherrr..)
...and probably more posts about food...

Thanks for reading! 

Everyone should move to a new place with their best friend.

Why? Because its scary. Exciting. Fun. Intimidating. Stressful... etc. It pretty much hits on every emotion level. And that happens for awhile. As in ...I don't see a calm in the near future, but that's why we did this. To get away from the calm. To endure the new, the different, the fast paced.

So far it's been...an adventure! Duh. In good ways and bad..as some of y'all may have seen from my previous post. But now I'm ready to show off our new city...

When the workers came to refinish some of the surfaces in our apartment, we had to leave because of the fumes...and of course we had to take our pup. We saw this as an opportunity to go into Denver and to try something new! So we went to City Park, which I believe is Denver's largest park, and it was beautiful. So green! So big. Lots of great jogging trails, a zoo, and a lake (possibly several? that's what I've read, but we just saw one) where you can kayak, paddle boat, paddle board etc.! We walked the trail for a bit then relaxed on a bench by the lake.

Locke loved it, especially the abundance of squirrels. I wish he was better at being on a leash. He pulls! So much. Any advice on how to fix that? I want to be able to jog/walk with him without him pulling me the whole way. 

Anyways!

The park was great, and within walking distance of a restaurant that I wanted to try called Denver Biscuit Company. I found the restaurant with the Yelp app which has become my new best friend. When relocating to a big new city, it's a must! So thankful for it. So since DBC was only about 1/2 a mile away, welcomed pets on the patio, had been featured on the food network, and had great reviews, we decided to head over for brunch. SUCH A GOOD DECISION.

I got the biscuit with shiitake vegetarian gravy topped with an egg over hard....

& J got the DBC club

Our drinks - a classic mimosa for me and Chainbreaker white IPA for J

They even brought Locke a bowl of ice water which he LOVED.

All of it was outstanding! The service was excellent and the patio seating was just what we wanted it to be. We will definitely be returning! 

We are thankful to be able to have experiences like this in our new city, and look forward to many many more! 

I have some other restaurants to tell ya'll about, so stay tuned :) 

Thanks for reading!

Adventures don't always go according to plan..

..using this post to get everyone caught up on our life..

Well friends and family we did it! We moved to colorful Colorado. A lot of you know how this has been a dream of ours, so being here is just...unreal. 

We ended our time in Texas with a Texas themed going away party thrown by some friends of ours. The party was complete with Texas shaped cookies, lone star beer, a game of Texas hold 'em, and a giant Texas flag signed with words of encouragement from our friends! 

The next day we packed and had dinner with our families at one of our favorite local restaurants, Szechuan. This whole move would not be happening without the encouragement from our families! We are so thankful for these people. 

And then we began the eleven hour trip to Englewood, CO. My parents drove our car (and our freshly neutered dog) and my husband and I drove the uhaul. We stopped in Pueblo, CO for the night then finished the trip the next morning. The whole drive was actually pretty painless.

Once we arrived at our apartment complex, we met with one of the workers and she was so wonderful! But once we walked into the apartment..I was in a little bit of shock. The newly renovated apartment we had been promised looked...well it looked like crap...

and please brace yourself for the oven.....

IS THAT NOT HORRIFYING!? 

Needless to say, I had tears in my eyes. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" -actual words from my mouth. 

BUT...I promise this ends well! 

We immediately took pictures and took them to the leasing office. The ladies who worked there were equally as horrified and desperate to help us. They called to get a replacement oven and called the cleaning company to come back and completely re-clean the whole apartment (they were farely certain that they had not cleaned it when they had come by originally). You could visibly see how sorry they were for all of the trouble. They also let us know that the counters, bath tub and shower were to be resurfaced ASAP. 

Being able to see them take action was comforting, but all of this meant we couldn't fully move into our apartment. So we moved everything into one of the bedrooms that didn't need any repairs and set up our bed. This was about all we could do while we waited for the cleaning company to come by. But when they did, they did a wonderful job and completely brought new life to our oven! 

We did not think it was possible to make it look this good, but the lady who cleaned was clearly a magician and got it back to normal/usable condition! We were so thankful and let the ladies in the office know that a replacement oven was no longer necessary. They then let us know that some people would be coming by on Thursday to resurface everything! It was happening so quickly and we were pumped. Our little mess of an apartment was starting to feel like a home.

On Thursday we had to leave the apartment while they fixed everything so we made a day of it in Denver. (post about that coming soon!) But when all was said and done...everything looked amazing. 

It all looks like new and we are very pleased! (Minus the fact that we can't shower for 2 days....mmm). We are so appreciative of the ladies here at fielders creek for being so pro-active! They even gave us a target gift card for all of the trouble. Excellent customer service. 

We are still working on getting everything set up, so pictures of what we've done with the new place will come soon! And I'll be using the blog to share info about restaurants, bars, and other places we love around the city. So there are some things to look forward to! 

We already really like it here :) 

** I also want to take a moment to say that, at this point, we are so thankful to just have a roof over our heads..regardless of all of the nit picky things we had fixed. Many people in our new state no longer have their homes, and we realize that we are so blessed to not be in the current line of the fire. This experience has tested my patience, but I can't imagine what those at the forefront of this are feeling. Please continue to pray for all those who have been and will be affected by this fire and for those helping to contain it. **

Thanks for reading!