Denver, Colorado

Until a week ago, I had never been to Denver. So, when my cousin, Amanda, randomly called me at work to ask if I wanted to drive down with her over the weekend, I was all over it. I had a check with my boss first since we have been in crunch time and I was already planning Tuesday off for Chantry's (cousin) wedding. But she approved the Friday off as well and I called Amanda to tell her the GREAT news. Now I can say I have been to Denver, Colorado. It was a quick trip (Thurs night to Sunday) but a fun one.
The reason...well one of the reasons we drove down was bc Chantry was having a reception there since this is where Austin is from. We surprised her and I will never forget the great big grin on her face when she saw us! I was so excited to see her beautiful self again! I love you Chan! The reception was at a lake house and her mom went all out. It was gorgeous and the endless buffet of food was delicious.We saw some fun sights on our quick visit. We went to the Temple grounds and it really was a beautiful temple. There were tulips everywhere and the trees in full bloom. I love spring!Yes...Denver is a mile in the sky. Made perfect sense because it was extremely windy the whole time we were there. At least it didn't rain or snow...seems to be all Utah is getting lately.We stopped by at the Bronco Stadium bc Amanda, "A" wanted me to see the GIANT stampede of stone broncos up the stairs (really there were only 7ish, but it was cool) and "B" to pick something up for her brother who is a huge fan and is serving his mission right now.We were told by a cousin of ours that 16th street was a greatest place to shop. So we got our hotel right on 16th so that we could just walk right out onto the street. Well, to be honest, it was a little lame. Sorry, Rando, maybe it's is bc he is more of a party-er and there were a lot of bars along the street! But Amanda did make a great find while we were sitting eating our breakfast. She went right out and bought this adorable, red purse.One good thing about 16th street is the fact that it had Amanda's favorite restaurant right there across from our hotel, Rock*Bottom. She kept talking about their amazing Mac 'n Cheese and told me it would be the best that I would ever try.

I thought "yeah right, Mac 'n cheese. I mean come on really?"

But...to my surprise it was really good. Though we should've shared bc we both filled up really fast! Then we noticed Mac 'n Cheese on the hotel restaurant menu...I wonder, is it a Denver thing? Who knows? We visited the aquarium, "Water Place" just for Amanda;) , Saturday morning. It was really fascinating and I loved walking through the tanks looking up and below seeing sting rays above and sharks below you. The whole environment was really cool. But I was slightly disappointed they didn't have dolphins and we never saw the Tigers they have either. They were hiding. But apparently it is a type of Tiger that lives down in Indonesia and bc it is so hot, they spend like 90% of their day in the water! Crazy! The only cat that enjoys the water. We just had to come at the 10% they were off sleeping somewhere. But it was lots of fun and I am glad we spent the money to go through. Oh, and later we were informed by someone that there were otters too! We missed them as well. But they did have a sting ray tank which was fun even though I did soak my sleeve in the water. Amanda wouldn't even touch them.Lion Fish: They were pretty cool lookin'!

All in all we had a great time. We discovered new things, laughed a LOT, talked about Boys ;) and just enjoyed being together. They have a pretty good outlet mall that we sped walked through pretty quickly. But I must say, it's not near as good as the San Marcos, Texas Outlets. Oh, and to all who didn't know, the Buffalo is the state BIRD and Target is more popular than Wal-Mart. Happy Day everyone:)

-Peanut