Well… maybe RobAndJessInAWorkoutRegimen is better than Vitameatavegamin. Maybe.

Oh yes, I know.. you thought we, or I, had given up.  But nope, today marked the 15^th workout by me & Rob.  We haven’t skipped a single day.  The only day of rest is a Sunday.  And I look forward to that day with everything I got.

And yes, the first week was bloody miserable.  I couldn’t move, everything hurt.  I even researched ice baths and made one for me and Rob.  Yep, you heard right.  I took an ice bath.  Do I need to repeat b/c you still don’t believe.  YES, I, JESSICA LYNN MEIER, TOOK AN ICE BATH.  But only after Robert did it first.  And I put on sweatshirt for the upper half of me.  But yes, the water was a sweet 58 degrees.  Robert kind of just had to push me down b/c I stepped my toes in and was like, nope… I’m not doing it.  He literally shoved me down as I went screaming.  But I stayed in for 8 minutes.  Yep, you are looking at the girl who doesn’t get in pool unless the water is above 86 degrees.  My legs were numb afterwards, but can I say that I felt miraculously better the next day?  Yes.  Oh, and I took a hot shower an hour later.  I was kind of concern at first b/c other than my legs feeling a bit numb… my body still freaking hurt.  But, I can honestly say the next day I felt better.

We were in such unbearable pain that we took ice baths.  But, I can’t even describe to you the amount of pain my legs were in.  I don’t even remember what else hurt, but I can recall the screaming pain of my legs instantly.  I still have nightmares about it.  The second week was drastically better than the first.  Don’t get me wrong… not a minute goes by that our instructor, Shaun T says “ Dig deeper, squeeze that core!”  I  yell back, “I DON’T HAVE A CORE!!!!!” with sweat dripping down my face and my legs shaking.

I am proud to report that Rob and I can almost make it through the 9 minute warm-up.  ALMOST.  But, I don’t really consider this a warm-up.  Hardest warm-up of my life.  And then, there is this one day where you just do cardio straight for 20 minutes.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  The second week had to combine 20  minute non-stop cardio w/ a cardio abs workout.  Needless to say, my abs have yet to recover (this took place on Saturday).   I live for “Recovery Workout” Day.  While this entails squatting for 3 minutes straight, there is no jumping.  So be it that my legs collapse and I fall to the floor.  Just no more basketballs and squat jumps, please!!!!!!  For those wondering what a “basketball” is that is where you squat, bend down and touch the floor, and jump up pretending you are shooting a basketball.  Don’t know about you, but I get a ‘nothing but net’ every time!!!!

So, today was fitness test 2.  You will recall our first fitness test from day 1 on my previous blog.  So, let me break it down for you:

	Jessica		Robert
	Day 1	Day 15	Day 1	Day 15
Test 1	38	61	45	76
Test 2	18	30	26	35
Test 3	30	48	40	62
Test 4	13	20	20	29
Test 5	4	8	5	8
Test 6	8	10	10	11
Test 7	0*	6	18	20
Test 8	20	30	18	26

*This would be push up jacks.  I could do none the first day.

Oh, and no one is allowed to comment about how Rob does more reps than me.  We have a rule… no judging each other, so that will also apply to you.

So, yes folks… I would say our workout is working!  WE IMPROVED!!!!!!!!  I’m calling this a success.  What, what?!?  So, maybe all that pain was for a little gain.  I can even do a push-up!!!!!  I was fairly certain I would never be able to do a push-up jack.  I mean really, who wants to jump and straddle their legs all while doing a push up???  Certainly not me.  Oh, and I still don’t like doing any of this stuff.. but it is getting somewhat easier.  SOMEWHAT.  Maybe in the next 2 weeks I will be able to report that I can make it through the entire warm-up.  MAYBE.

We definitely don’t have a 6 pack of abs or anything, but I am starting to see a faint outline of a leg muscle.  I still hate Kendra.  She still wears her hair down and has a 6-pack of abs and annoyingly smiles while she does it all… but let me tell ya, Kendra… I’M COMING AFTER YOU.  Though, I will never wear my hair down while working out.  That’s just stupid.  But, maybe we’re past the point of needing another ice bath, cuz baby, that was just cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But here I am, making this all about me… but Rob is doing great too.  But, let’s face it… I’m the one that really needs to work out.  He could run 4 miles w/o stopping before he even started.  J  And he still drinks Protein shakes after every workout.  I’m still eating cereal.  Where’s the fairness in life??  Okay, no judging I swear!  I’ve got 5 more pounds to go to get to my original wedding weight.  Damn the 15 lbs marriage can give you!!

So, here’s my incentive to you.  If I can do it…. you can definitely do it.  I hope my blog is somewhat of an inspiration to you.. b/c just knowing that someone might wonder how I did keeps me going day in and day out.  So, hopefully you will be able to see how we are coming along in the next 15 days.

So yes, maybe RobandJessInAWorkoutRegimen is a little better than Vitameatavegamin.  Maybe.

It's not vitameatavegamin... it's Rob&JessInAWorkoutRegimen!

Alarm went off at 6:40 AM.  A bit later than usual, but I just had to go into the office today so my time travels were much less and could afford a little extra shut eye.  I peaked one eye open and said “I can’t roll over.”  Rob perked right up and hopped into the shower.

Just so you know, Robert never “perks right up and hops into the shower.”  NEVER.  This was bizarre.  I personally snoozed my alarm.  It went off again… I snoozed it again, but felt slightly guilty since Rob was already in the shower.  I’m usually out of the shower before he gets in.

Okay.. break.  What did we do yesterday (Monday)?  Why would it cause Jessica to not be able to roll over?? Well... Robert and I started a new workout regimen.  And when I say regimen, I mean REGIMEN!  We are doing it hard core for thirty days.  If we start seeing results, we will do it hard core again for another 60 days.  Monday was our first day.  And you have to do it for 6 days straight with only one day of rest.  Each workout ranges between 30 and 45 minutes long and we watch a video & do what the guy does.  Or well, sort of do what the guy does.  Because well, we aren’t very advanced.  I might not even say we were beginners…. Can you be a beginner, beginner??

Anyways, all our stuff came in the mail on Monday.  I came home and read the instructions to make sure what we were about to do wasn’t like going to kill me.  I cooked up some left over spaghetti and then we warmed up… you know, bend over and stretch.  We got the guts to put in the video for our “Fitness Test.”  YES, day 1 was only a 30 minute fitness test.

I’m pretty sure we failed.  And Rob just as bad as me.  Ok, me a little a bit worse if I’m honest.  We did these 8 different tests and had to record our scores.  I could barely get through the part that just warms you up so that you can stretch.  But, in all fairness we did complete it all.  Just a bit slower than the guy on the video.  But ya know, FORM over SPEED.  Which is what Shaun T, my video instructor says.

You know, I can’t actually do a pushup.  I discovered this during one of our “skills test.”  I can barely do a girl push up.  And this guy wanted us to do a push up jacks!  If you know what those are, great.. if not, thank God that you don’t.  I stuck to my girl push ups only.  Maybe by the end of the 30 days I’ll have built enough strength to do an actual push up.  If I can do one push up jack, I’ll consider this course a complete success.

And as a doubly whammy... there are people behind the instructor doing all of this too.  They are sweating, but can still smile!  Both have the 6-pack abs, great legs, and awesome arms.  After every test, the instructor was like "well Kendra, how many did have before?" Kendra said, "32."  Instructor: "and what did you get this time?"  Kendra: "46" [emphasize big extra smile here].   When Kendra could do 46 I was usually around 15-20.  And when she was discussing her results I was taking large swigs of water and wiping the sweat from my face.  I hate Kendra.  Plus, Kendra did all of this w/ her hair down and it still looked nice and neat when she finished.  Me: I have sweat dripping into my eyes, my hair is also sweaty not to mention frizzy, and my face is beat red.  Did I mention I hate Kendra?

But, baby… YOU.COULD.FEEL.THE.BURN.  I could tell in about 15 minutes I was going to hurt.  Not too mention Rob and I were hilarious.  I’m sure the neighbors that live below us loved having us jump around for 30 minutes.  And, I will say… I was a better jumper than Rob.  When he went up, he came down…hard.  Doesn’t know how to land lightly.  I’m going to thank gymnastics and volleyball for that skill.

Anyways, after it was all said and done with.. we stretched some more.  Because, let’s not kid yourself… when you are as out of shape as I am, you need double the stretching time to somewhat alleviate the pain.  And of course, about 8 Advil’s a day.  But no harm, no foul.  We headed off into bed where I knew it was going to be bad later.  I just didn’t know how bad:

Around 1 AM in the morning, I was having this dream where I was kind of performing an inventory count (yeah, so I dream about work all the time), but I was counting the number of times I could lift my arms up in this warehouse.    And my arms were like weights.  When I lifted the above my head, they clanked.  And this kept going on and on.  I’m serious.. this was actually a dream.  Finally, I just got worn out in my dream, but my arms wouldn’t start clanking.  I somehow managed to wake up and pry one eye open and suddenly realized the clanking wasn’t in my dreams… it was the DISHWASHER!!  (Why is that more & more of my stories are starting to involve my dishwasher…. Robert……).  Rob clearly hadn’t put the dishes in the proper places as they were banging around like crazy.  So, I listened to that for about 20 minutes b/c I was too sore to even get out of bed at 1 AM.  I did fall asleep again, which leads me back to the very beginning of this blog….

Rob perked up and hopped into the shower well before I was even able to throw my legs on the floor and sit in a sitting position.  He takes the fastest show I have ever seen him take.. might go down in the record books… and leaves me astounded.  Why was he in such a chipper mood even though he has to be almost as sore as I am (for my sake, I’m pretending he is as sore as me)??  He wanted to make eggs!  And he did make eggs.. brought me a plate full of scrambled eggs and a piece of toast.  He made some for himself too… this wasn’t just for me ladies.  But he says, “we need our protein!”  And he does all this as he has no care in the world.  Me, I’m cursing at every step I take and wonder how I’m going to lift my arms to the steering wheel so I can just drive my car to work.  I hate him, I swear (jk!).  I guess my chocolate poptarts in the morning don’t live up to our new workout regimen.

(You know, I really like the word regimen… for some reason it reminds me of the I Love Lucy episode about the vitameatavegamin)

We each get to work and I promptly send him an e-mail saying, “hit hurts to breathe.”  And you know.. this was only after the FITNESS TEST.  We had to do Day 2 tonight!!!  I mentally prepared myself all day.  I made it through the day, but by the end of the day when I was walking to my car I’m pretty sure I looked like an 80 year-old grandma who can barely stand up.  Walked slowly too.

I came home from work to find out that Rob had bought two bags of Whey Protein powder.  God, what is up his love of protein??!?  I’m trying to get the pounds off and he’s eating 60 grams of protein in one drink!!!  I could kill him.  He’s so freaking happy about this working out.  My muscles are screaming at me (oh wait, what muscle?).

Never fear ladies & gents, I did do day two w/ Rob.  It was plyometric cardio circuit this time for a solid 40 minutes.  And if it’s possible, I may be even sorer than the day before!!!  And it’s only 10 PM.  Tomorrow is not going to be good, I can already tell.  Wait… tomorrow’s disk says “Cardio Recovery.”  YES… Recovery sounds good, right??????

More is sure to come about our exercise regimen… and if it doesn’t, then you can probably assume we (or most likely I) gave up.  But I’m going to try really hard not to.

You know you live in Houston when...

I parked myself in the Williams Tower parking garage on the 4^th floor, took the stairs down to level 3, walked across the sky bridge, and then took the elevator to level 32.  I meandered my way to the space I call my own: approximately 25 square feet of cubicle space.  I am on the aisle, so I only have one cube neighbor.  I set my bags down and immediately popped open my Diet DP and took a nice long drink and gave out a little sigh.  Waylon, who sits in the window cube across from me, looked up and said “Wow, already?!”  I responded with, “Yeah, rough drive in.”

Maybe I should preface this story with… oh.. I live 2.9 miles away from my office.  And yes, its 2.9 not 3 as for insurance purposes you get a discount if you live LESS than 3 miles to the office, not exactly 3 miles. 

I think it may only be in Houston where a 2.9 mile drive to work can be stressful.  But I had been pained by the stoplights (must go through 12+ stoplights to get to work), three school zones, and two police officers managing road traffic on the street I’m on.  Not to mention being cut-off by two black SUVs.  In fact, one of the black SUV’s decided he had to beat me so bad to the red light that we were BOTH making right hand turns at, he zipped past me and cut me off so he could make his right-hand turn first.  Buddy, the light was red anyways!  Really?!  And forget about the police officers directing traffic.. they seem to stop the traffic when it gets a green light and let it go when it gets a red light so that it takes twice as long to get through one green light.   So, yes, the first thing I did when I walked into the office that morning was take a nice huge gulp of my Diet DP.

So, that’s how I’m going to begin my list… You know you live in Houston when:

1.        You can live 2.9 miles away from the office and it still takes you 30 minutes to get there.

2.       When it’s raining outside, you can go the whole day with never getting wet b/c you just drive from parking garage to parking garage.

3.       Saying a word of profanity to the person who just cut you off becomes a habit.

4.       You drive a quarter of mile just to get to the top of your apartment’s parking garage

5.       You drive as though it’s a competition w/ everyone else… me first, me first!!

6.       On the weekends you end up doing nothing because there are too many things going on in Houston for you to just decide what to do.

7.       The sky lets a little rain down, and it freaking floods.  (When this happens, we won’t even talk about the traffic snarl up.. or the time that I called Robert crying b/c water was almost covering all my tires, as well as everyone else's right next to me)

8.       Some people willingly spend an hour to an hour and a half sitting in traffic each way. (How do you do it?!?)

9.       You hear people ask “What’s a hard freeze?  Should I bring my plants inside?” on the radio.

10.   You get traffic updates every 15 minutes on the radio and you can download iphone apps and monitor websites that have real-time traffic pictures/updates.  You always check the site before you head out.

11.   Traffic can still be bad at 6:45 PM. (or even 6:45 AM)

12.   You wonder where all those cars park that just drove into downtown over the past hour. (Seriously, where do they go?!)

13.   You willingly work an hour or two later just so that you can miss traffic. ("Well, I'm just gonna stay another hour or so b/c it's just not worth it")

14.   You own a GPS because no one really knows where they are going.

15.   The rodeo lasts for an entire month and concerts are on-going for four days a week every week during that time. (Oh yes, the concerts were just announced this past Monday at 10 AM)

16.   You turn your heat on one day and the AC on for the next five.

17.   You can head out of town on a Saturday morning and an hour later… you still haven’t left the city limits of Houston (as we noted when driving home for Christmas).

18.   You don’t keep grocery bags in your apartment because of roaches (eeewww, I know!)

19.   People know what “stickers” are (aka, grass spurs if you didn’t know)

20.   You haven’t been to Wal-Mart in over 2 months (hello, Target!)

21.   People classify the seasons as: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas (Yes, I did have a person tell me this… and after my first full year in Houston, I tend to agree)

22.   People measure distances in hours/minutes instead of miles (ex: 3 hours to San Antonio/Austin, 4 hours to Dallas, 45 minutes to Katy, etc)

23.   San Felipe is not pronounced San Phee-Lipe

24.   To do anything in Houston.. you must head to 610 (the inner loop).  It all begins with “well, go to 610 and then….

25.   You see people have carts they pull out of their car to carry in their groceries b/c their apartment is so far away (no worries, we don’t have one but I’m trying to convince Robert to buy one).

Okay, there are my 25 reasons.  Phew!!!  I was going to stop at 10, but I seem to have gotten a bit carried away… ooops.  Now, don’t get me wrong.. we really do love living in Houston, but there are some days where I just really, really need my Diet DP.

Colorado me some Springs!

“All of creation, sing with me now.” This would be my alarm.  That went off at 4:30 AM on Friday, New Years Eve 2010.  Then, “Why do you always plan our vacations so early?  I wanna go back to bed.”  That would be Robert… complaining about waking up early. 

But never fear, I got him up and into the shower.  Meanwhile, I checked the phone to see if we could even still fly into Denver with monstrosity of a snow storm the Denver/Colorado Springs area received the day & night before.  Sure enough, our flight was still on time.  Amazingly.  I checked the phone approximately 20 times before and on the way to the airport just to make sure.  But we left the apartment around 4:45 AM to get to the airport. 

The night before, we had a bit of difficulty packing our bags.  Robert wanted to take only 1 or do all carry ons and I was like the bigger the better with no carry ons.  We packed up one pretty quickly… I had to point out to Rob that we had no coats or shoes.  So, then we had to pack another suitcase of only coats & shoes.  We couldn’t wear our coats in Houston.. it was 60 degrees when we left!   Later, when we arrived at Hobby airport to fly Southwest, I was scared b/c the line to check in and check bags was insanely long.  I really thought many people wouldn’t be travelling on New Years Eve, but I was wrong.  There were boo-koo’s of people at the airport at 5 AM that day.  Including a lot heading to Denver just like we were.  No worries.. this story doesn’t end w/ us missing our flight or it being delayed.  We had plenty of time to still get through security, stand in line to get some breakfast taco’s and shop for some Tums for Rob to eat after he ate his breakfast taco.

We watched Sex & the City 2 on our little portable DVD player on the plane ride up.  Robert was less than thrilled, but we had net-flixed it (or well, I had), so it had to be watched!  When the pilot came on saying we would be landing soon and to sit your tray tables upright and turn off all portable electronics, we packed it up and looked out the window. The pilot also mentioned it was 1 degree in Denver.  Oh Geez!! Couldn’t see a thing out the window either.  All white.  We get lower, still can’t see a thing.  We land, still can only see white.  I point this out to Rob and he says “well, I’m sure its clear under us.”  As we taxied in, there was definitely no clear runway.  I couldn’t believe we had landed on all that snow & ice.  We didn’t seem to have any problems though with the land.  Just very freaky!  We could see our breath from the moment we stepped off the plane until we walked into the airport about 5 feet.  Soo cold!!

Ryan & Stacy were ever so kind to offer to pick us up…. However, I think when they said they would they didn’t know they would be doing it in a snow storm!!  But, they braved the weather just for us.  To do so, they had to take it slow and so Robert and I just toured the Denver airport.  Did you know the Denver airport is the 5^th largest airport in the U.S.?  At least, I think that’s right.  Don’t take my word for it… but it is supposed to be really big.  We landed in terminal C where we then promptly emptied our blatters and began our tour of the Denver airport.  We took the shuttle to terminals A, B, and then baggage claim.  We shared a small personal pizza from Pizza Hut (only 9:30 AM there), had a soda, and walked into the shops.  Lots of people in the Denver airport too.  We got around to our baggage and found an empty spot where we could open the coat suitcase and get prepared for the below freezing weather!  We bundled up and waited just a few more minutes for R&S to arrive!  They showed up in a very snowy car just a few minutes later!  We headed our way back to Colorado Springs w/ them and took the roads slowly.  We got into the CS about 2 hours later where we ate Panera Bread for a quick lunch, hot lunch.  Then, R&S took us to their home sweet home!  And it was beautiful!!  They had just gotten a brand new 47 inch TV and the place looked great.  Not to mention, nice & warm too!  On a side note:  it’s very hard to get all your luggage in when you can’t roll it (b/c of the snow!).  Plus, they had a lovely 12 pack of ice cold Diet Dr. Peppers just for me!  Now, that’s what I call good friends!!!! J

Ryan & Stacy braved the weather just for us!

Just look how cold it is at the airport!

We landed!!!

We unloaded all our gear, toured the apartment, and settled in.  We played 7 games of Sequence.  R&S won the first 3 and me and Rob won the final 4 games.  Rob and I don’t play games together just that well.  We both just kind of sit in our own little world and expect the other to know what it is & follow.  R&S beat us quite handedly the first three.  After the games, R&S cooked us Chicken & Gnocchi pasta w/ bread.  It was soo yum!! Might have even convinced me to make it myself one day!!

Playing the game Sequence!

After that, we baked some brownies.  They have one of those As Seen on TV brownie pans where you slide in the dividers once you pour so you don’t even have to cut your own brownies & they don’t stick to the pan!  It was awesome looking.  Cut nice sized brownies too.

Yummy!  Brownie & cool whip!

Keep in mind, all of this is still just one day.. New Years Eve!  We break out the Wii where we play some Mario Kart, Deal or No Deal, and Darts.  Deal or No Deal was humorous… we played 4 player, so each person picked a suitcase and then the game continued on from there.  However, only one person could take a deal (we didn’t really know that until Ryan took a deal).  And technically, depending upon which # you are, your chances are worse/better as you play.  If you are player 4, you have less boxes to choose from & have a riskier chance of picking up a high number if the people before you all had chosen lower numbers.  And vice versa for player 1.  But, very interesting none the less.  On the last time the banker called us to offer a deal, Ryan took the deal of somewhere around $200,000.  However… as it turned out… he had had $750,000 in his case!!!  Oh, it was insane.  I believe I won the game by winning $350,000 on the case Robert had traded (player 4 worked out in my favor in this case as you either got to trade your case or see what was in yours, and if you are the last player, I got too choose from the cases the other players had traded).  Oh, it was great fun.  Lots of screaming & yelling.. and Ryan rolling on the floor b/c he lost approx $500K!!!  Oh, to take the deal or not to take the deal.

This would be the deal that Ryan took instead of the $750K in his case!

Then, we moved on to the dart game.  We played one round and we all did awful, but Ryan probably did the most awful.  But I’m pretty sure he was pulling all of our legs… he smoked us from then on out.  We played two different kinds of darts:  Highest Score in 5 rounds and Cricket.  Ryan won at Cricket, but I will say Stacy put up a monumental effort.  She was one strike away from Ryan!  In the midst of the game, we left it to watch the ball drop at 10 o’clock mountain time… midnight in New York.  Then, we did all we could to stay up to 11 o’clock mountain time.  And trust me, it was a huge effort to stay up that long.  For all of us.  With the waking up early, fighting the snow, cooking food, playing games, and just plain ole catching up, it just put us all out.  R&S advised us to heat up the heating blanket and to put it in our sheets, and that is just what we did.  When we climbed into bed for the night, we were nice & toasty and out like a light!  Other than waking up briefly to hear people yell “Happy New Year!” we slept like logs.



Enjoying a nice game of darts.  Ryan played us all for a fool!
Just look at him planning his strategy in the background!



Ryan & Stacy cooking us some good food!

The next morning, R&S cooked us pancakes for breakfast.  In the midst of cooking, the building fire alarm went off.  Ryan went out to check on things, but couldn’t find anything major to report.  It was sooo cold that we didn’t even think a fire could possibly start!  We continued on our merry way and sat down to eat.  We had OJ, pancakes, bacon… the works.  We ate while the fire alarm continued going off.  It probably took close to 20 to 30 minutes for the fire department to arrive and the alarm to be turned off.  A little bit later, a fireman knocked saying that someone’s water line had broke and to check our ceilings to make sure we weren’t going to be flooded in from the ceiling.

Ryan checking out his new toy!  Believe it or not, the package
said it would hold up to 300 lbs.  I'm not sure I'd just jump right
into it though!

We all got ourselves ready… or well… Rob and I got ourselves ready b/c Ryan & Stacy were on top of their game and got up early to get ready.   Such excellent people!!  We chilled around the Wii some more and R&S made up some bacon wrapped weenies, chips & salsa, and crackers, cheese & sausage.  Then, R&S drove us around CS and we dropped into Pier 1 to check out their half off Christmas decorations.  Then, they drove us through some neighborhoods that they liked and took us to one of their malls.  We headed back to the apt where we played “Dirty on your neighbor.”  I think Dirty should mean something else… but I’ll let you use your imagination for that one.  R&S killed us on that game.  Rob and I didn’t win a single game.  During the many whippings Rob and I took from R&S from this game, we made a reservation for the Sunbirds Restaurant.  We got all fancied up… or well, as fancy as you can get when it’s about 15 degrees outside.  As we were driving, we realized this was on top of a major hill… you could maybe even classify it as a mountain??  Probably a mountain as it is Colorado!  We made it up the snowy/icy hill no problem though.  Ryan is such a good driver!  He kept us safe the whole time!!  We had a great time at the restaurant.  We ordered appetizers… beef skewers & calamari.  Stace & I had the filet mignon, Ryan had the rack of lamb, and Robert had the Prime Rib.  Very tasty!!!  The waitress was hilarious… she loved that they were twins and I believe she said Rob had a “baby face.”  Poor Rob.  He always gets the baby face thing.  One of the days he will look like he is in his twenties.  It might be in about twenty years though. 

During our dinner, Ryan asked Stacy, “Are you mashed potatoes lumpy?”  Stacy kind of looks down, I even look down b/c I have mashed potatoes too?  I’m wondering to myself… well, are they lumpy?  I don’t taste any lumps?  Ryan continues, “mine are just really lumpy and kind of dry tasting.”  Stacy cautiously answers, “no.”  And I can’t remember who utters it first, either Ryan or Stacy, but one of them says something to the effect of “Oh wait, this is risotto.”  So yes, once Ryan realized he was not eating mashed potatoes, he decided his risotto tasted great.  But, apparently, risotto disguised as mashed potatoes is not such a good idea.  It was soo funny.  We all just burst out laughing. 

The gang at Sunbirds Restaurant!

We took our fabulous time eating dinner and having conversation.  Getting back from the restaurant, we played more “Dirty on your neighbor.”  I think Rob and I might have won a game, but R&S steadily whooped our butts over and over again.  We hit the sack pretty early that night too… 10:30 if I remember correctly… b/c we had to wake up around 6:30 to head for the COG railway that goes up the Pikes Peak mountain.

Leaving the restaurant!

Ryan & Stace leaving Sunbirds

That next day, R&S made us biscuits & gravy for breakfast and we all put as many layers as possible on.  I had on tights, jeans, a camisole, turtle neck, Rob’s thick Hog sweater, a scarf, pea coat, hat, and two pairs of gloves.  We just weren’t too sure what the weather would be like on the mountain or in the train, so we came prepared.  We headed out and drove to Manitou Springs where we found the COG railway (we had made reservations the day before).  We drove through kind of what I would consider a snowy, ski village (minus the ski’s).  Definitely some of your typical “Colorado hippies” lived there too.  But it was a fantastic village covered in snow, including the streets.  Very picturesque.  We found a place to park and Robert & Ryan got the tickets.  I took out my camera and started taking some shots of the beautiful scenery.  I was fumbling around w/ my gloves when I dropped my camera.  From then on out it never worked again.  I think Rob might have been slightly peeved at me for a lot of the train ride.  Not to mention, I was very upset w/ myself.  I had just bought this new camera two months ago… if that.  So, I’m quite mad at myself for dropping it!!!  Oh well, Stace took some awesome pictures and we shared her camera throughout the rest of the day.

R&S on the train ride

R&S outside the train station

The train that took us up the mountain!

Posing on our stop that the train let us get outside on the mountain.

Me and Stacy during our stop on the moutain!

Once we finished the train ride, we headed to grab some Subway for lunch and then R&S took us to the Garden of Gods.  By that time of the day, around noonish, the streets were finally starting to melt some.  We took loads of pictures in front of some cool red rocks including something called the Balancing Rock.  Basically, that is this huge rock that looks like it could fall over at any minute.  We also saw this rock that Rob thought looked like a dragon.  I couldn’t see it… but you know what they say about crushing creativity!!  So, a dragon it may be! After posing for his picture by the dragon, he went to throw something away while Ryan gathered up some snow for a snowball.  I just stood there w/ the camera to capture the moment.  This may be misconstrued as traitor-ism.  But, I thought it might be a good picture!!  Ryan nailed Rob and then the snowball fight began.  Me and Stace just stayed well out of the way.  Snow was going down Rob’s pants and Ryan’s whole head was snow covered.  Stace & I briefly wondered “why did we marry them again??”  They stopped eventually when their hands were frozen solid.  We toured the park and took some awesome pictures.  You could really feel like you were on top of the world in some of the shots. 



1. I'm waiting for you.

2.  I got you.

3.  It's in my pants!

4.  Take that.

I’m fairly certain if Stace & I had left the boys up to their own devices, they would have traipsed through the entire park on foot freezing their toes off exploring every nook & cranny.  Especially Rob.  He just kind of took off after the Balancing Rock w/ this look on his face of “I’m Lewis & Clark, let me explore!”  We all yelled at him though to get back in the car so we could go look at more cool things.  Oh Rob.  Maybe another time!

I'll hold it up!!

The balancing rock in full view.

This is a really awesome picture Stacy took of Rob and I
on top of this rock.  It was an awesome view.  I'm probably
arguing w/ Rob in this picture, too... but that's no surprise!

The two of us ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

Ryan & Stacy ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

After we finished exploring by vehicle, R&S took us to downtown Colorado Springs and showed us Stacy’s work and where BKD’s office was located.  And then we headed back to the apt to kind of relax and get off all our winter gear.  We played a Wii Snowboarding game where I completely dominated both Rob and Ryan.  Stacy organized all our pictures so that we each had every picture we both took.  Then, we watched them all on their TV.  We laughed hysterically at this one picture of Rob where he looks like a very fat man.  It’s quite odd.  And then there is this picture of Ryan where it looks like his neck is broken or at least his face was kind of cropped on to his body.  Both are down right hilarious looking.  I won’t attach directly here as probably neither of them would appreciate it very much!

R&S cooked us another wonderful meal.. green beans, Barbeque & Salsa porkchops, and some bread.  Yum!  Very tasty, not to mention creative!  Then, we settled down to watch the movie Inception.  That was a very interesting movie… kind of makes you really think about dreams.  Bad ending though… I hate not having a clear, concise ending.  I need to know how it ended, people!  Not this, “well… this probably happened, but I guess we’ll never know” kind of ending.  Really good movie though, I super enjoyed the suspense & action.  Could have thrown in a bit more romance, but then again I’m a girl and love romance!

That pretty much ended our night.  I went to write R&S a quick thank you note for letting us stay with them and when I pulled out my black pen I noticed that it was leaking.  I quickly capped it & thought, phew… I’m glad I caught that before I used it.  So, I grabbed my blue pen & checked it… it looked fine.  Wrote the note & capped the pen & tossed it on the bedspread next to my purse.  Little did I notice that the top of the pen was leaking & I got blue ink all over their nice white bed spread.  How’s that for a guest for ya??  I felt soo bad!!  R&S were such good hosts and I ruined their bed spread!  We’ll probably never be invited back!  J JK!  Well, we’ll just invite ourselves over… hehe!!

We woke up at 4 AM the next morning to get our groove on to get to the airport.  Ryan drove us himself so that Stacy could sleep a little longer since she had to go to work that morning.  Robert was Mr. Grumpy that whole day home.  He kind of reminded me of a 6 year old w/ his lower lip stuck out who just wants to stomp his foot and say “No.”  Miserable kid.  He never really got over having to get up early for the entire day… even took a nap when he came home!  Oh, funny kid.  One of these days he’ll just wake up early and say “I love you babe, isn’t this a great day?!”

So, all in all, that was our trip!!!  Thank you R&S for opening your home to us & braving the weather just for us!!  We had a spectacular time and are truly blessed to have you in our lives.  See you two soon!!

SIDE NOTE:  Currently, my camera is still un-fixable & I will most likely have to buy a new one as my warranty won’t cover it.  This sucks.

This is me & Rob.  Rob would be the one choking me.
Why does this not surprise me?!

Me and Stacy on the train ride!

Robert and Ryan on the train

The Windy Point on Pikes Peak

View from the train!