Autin, TX

This weekend I had the pleasure of flying into Austin, TX to visit Sarah for the weekend. It was really nice to visit her for a change since she's the one that's been doing all of the flying (because I coach soccer and don't want to miss too many games). I didn't get into Austin until late on Friday, so we just enjoyed some wine and each others company. On Saturday her friend Dawn from Auburn drove over from Houston. We then headed down town to a UT tailgate that Dawn's roommate's father was putting on (are you still following?) This man apparently sells these really expensive smoker/grill things, and he brough like 4 of them along. By the time we got there around 1pm, the food had been on the grill for about 8 hours, and he must have made about 100 pounds worth. They had an equally impressive spread of side dishes too and enough drinks to keep the crowd happy.

After the game we went back to Sarahs place to nap and then headed back downtown to catch dinner and party it up. We ended up at some Tapas/Wine joint which was amazing, and spent the rest of the evening at an outdoor bar that had a great live band playing. Not only did they play great 80's covers, but they even played Outcast and Justin Timberlake which is impressive considering they were all in their late 40's.

The Wedding Page

Once we started planning our wedding we started having troubles picking a date that worked. Sarah's family was unavailable January through June (plus between June 1st and July 15th I'm in two weddings and am attending two others...) and neither of us wanted a summer wedding so we decided on December 1st. Since it's last minute we can't ask people to travel to Colorado for a wedding, so we're holding it in Middleville, MI (so most of her family can drive). In additon, there isn't sufficient time to plan a large wedding for all friends and family (since it's like 4 weeks away!) so we've decided to make it very small and intimate. We have to keep it to 25 people or less so we've only invited parents, siblings, and grandparents. Since we are flying back to Michigan two weeks later for Christmas, we aren't going to throw a party for family and friends until later in the spring, once we've moved into our new house in Denver. We're planning a huge shin-dig, reception, housewarming, welcome to our new home, hey everybody check out Denver kind of thing.

So in summary, we would have loved to accomadate all of our family and friends, but it just didn't work out. We appreciate you love and support and we can't wait to see you all.

A weekend with Sarah

So this weekend Sarah flew into town again, and always, it was fantastic to see her. We spent most of the weekend hanging out together and just relaxing. We did a little more wedding stuff, but for the most part we're done, which is nice. Aside from seeing Sarah, the highlight of the weekend was seeing the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team play an international friendly against Mexico at UNM Stadium. The game was fun to watch with the U.S. coming from behind to draw the game with 20 minutes left. We were joined at the game by Eric, Robing, Joe and Courtney.

A week with the folks

On October 5th, my house was once again blessed by the presents of my parents. They drove non-stop from Michigan (because they are frickin' troopers) and visited some friends in Colorado before coming down to see me. On Sunday we got up early and headed up to the balloon fiesta. We got there plenty early to see the dawn patrol, but because of the high winds, less than half of the balloons actually launched. Two days later we suprised my mother with a balloon ride from a guy that I work with. We all headed up to Albuquerque early and met Tom at the field. It was a windy day so everyone had to launch from off the field so we ended up launching from some guys lawn. It was interesting crewing for a balloon. I thik it would be really fun to be a balloon pilot but you definetly need dedicated friends to crew for you. Her flight went off without a hitch and despite 5 other crashes that day, she landed safely.

Later in the week we headed out to the White Sands National Monument. If you've watched the movie transformers, you've seen it. They call it Qatar. White Sands is in southern New Mexico, which like Qatar is very hot and filled with people who don't speak english. The whole experience is very weird. It's hot, there is sand blowing, yet it looks like miles and miles of snow.

Since my dad had never been up Sandia Peak, we took a drive up the back side of the mountain. We hiked about 3 miles along the ridge trail which took about 8 hours because all of us brought our cameras and just HAD to take pictures. Needless to say I have at least 150 pictures of that 3 miles, and I'm not even counting the ones my parents took.

I had a great week with my folks and I'm glad they were able to come out to New Mexico one last time. Hopefully this time next year I'll be in Denver and we can have some new adventures up there.

I AM ENGAGED!

So the big news in my life, that I've kind of been sitting on for a few days, is that I am officially engaged to a Ms. Sarah Reese. To you friends that live near us an see us together, this probably isn't much of a shocker, maybe even predicted, but I'm sure those of you who are more geographically removed may be surprised. The topic has come up over that last few weeks and we've both decided that we are ready to move to the next phase in our relationship. I asked, and obviously by the title of this post, she said yes. Both of us couldn't be more excited and Sarah looks forward to seeing you all and showing off her BLING! As my friend Robin pointed out, as soon as you tell anyone you are engaged, they ask when the wedding will be, even if you've only been engaged for 30 minutes, but even after 5 days, we still have no idea. Once we figure something out, I'll post and update.

Fort Den-va!

As it turns out, Sarah works for the coolest company ever. Because they are moving their corporate headquarters to Denver, they are paying for their employees to fly there for a "Get to Know Denver" trip, all expenses paid. On Wednesday, Sarah and I both flew into KDEN, and headed to our hotel in Louisville. For most of the day on Thursday, we drove around to the different neighborhoods that she and I had decided we might want to move to. At first we drove around the area east of Pena Blvd. The houses were really nice and in our price range, but they neighborhood was in the middle of no-where, which was a drawback. We then headed over to Stapleton, which is the new housing community that is being built on the old airport. These homes ranged in price from "an arm and a leg" up to "your first born child." They were more expensive and half the size of my current house, plus they are only 5 years into the 20 year construction cycle there. We decided that it didn't make sense to purchase there for that much money and just have to compete with a builder for the next 15 years if we want to sell.

Finally we headed back to the north west side of Denver and drove through the communities of Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, and Superior. The last two were great places but were on the high side of our price range. We found a lot of great houses on the US-36 corridor in Westminster that would allow me to commute to Buckley quickly, while still being close to Sarah's work.

Friday we took off to Fort Collins to meet up with Doug, Liz, Christina, and Greg. We chilled at Doug's house, grilled some cow, and played card games. The next day we got up and enjoyed the culinary skills of Mr. Blocksma, and eventually headed out to some state park just west of town. I was hoping to try a little rock climbing but there was a competition going on so we just sat around and enjoyed the views.

Of course, all that sitting around made us thirsty, so after departing the park we straight away went to New Belgium Brewing Company for a free tasting. If you are ever in the area, this place is a must stop. The atmosphere is great and the beer is even better. The La Folie sour is fantastic and I wish I could drink more of it.

Like all good things, it eventually came to an end on Sunday and Sarah and I had to part ways again for the next two weeks. I flew home to my soccer game and unfortunately they tied it up at the end of the game off some bogus penalty.

That night the Bishop/Klaiber household headed over to Chris' house for a going away dinner for James as he heads back to New York after 6 months here in ABQ. As always with this crew, good times were had.

Here are the Denver pics. Here are the ABQ pics.