Land of enchantment

You can tell I was enchanted - I took over 300 photos on our trip - so just a warning, you're in for a marathon post here. Joe and I are easing back into reality today after a week in God's country - just got back from testing out our high altitude lungs on one of our fav. bay area trails - I was hoping to feel like a little bit more of a super star after spending a week at 7-8,000 feet.

I'm not even sure where to start with this post - it took me about 15 pages in my journal to get to Thursday of our vacay and I've got a couple more pages to add for Friday and Saturday. As a quick re-cap, Joe and I spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning in the beautiful town of Crestone, Co at the base of the Sangre de Cristos in southern Colorado.

I've heard so many stories about Crestone from Joe and after just 5 seconds in this place, I got it - it didn't take long to understand why he feels called back to this place time and time again. The majesty of the mountains combined with the sprawling San Luis Valley views, unending and ever changing skyscapes, and the darkest, starriest night skies create this sacred space for solitude that is absolutely invigorating. Joe's aunts Connie and Tessa live in Crestone and trips to this place were regular occurrences throughout his childhood and early adult hood. The entire time we were there, I just kept thinking about how lucky Joe has been to have had a place like this in his life - the reflection and gratitude that this place calls forth is moving. I feel equally lucky to have had a chance to experience this place with Joe - I can't wait to get back again. I could go on and on about the beauty of this place, but I'd never be able to capture it all, so I'll let our pictures do the talking...

This is what we were greeted by on our arrival in New Mexico - I never got over the incredible skyscapes.

New Mexico is dry right now - this is the start of a fire we saw on our way up to Crestone.

UFO viewing platform along the cosmic highway - ha!

The Sangre de Cristos -cue a deep breath of fresh, mountain air :).

The entrance to the Monestary.

The Chapel from afar.

The Chapel with the Sangre de Cristos in back.

Nightime Chapel.


Another chapel view - Someone could publish a book with photos of this beautiful structure at all different times of the day/in different seasons etc!

Versi! Our faithful traveling companion.

Our sweet, sweet hermitage.

Hermitage with beautiful blue sky.

Indigo hour at the hermitage.



Desert light through our hermitage window seat.

Chairs and lounges that just invite relaxation.

A sign that Joe's dad made when he was 16 for the Monastery. Everything in this place had a story behind it - it felt so rich.

Painted Desert Sky - Sunset in Crestone.


The Sangres at Sunset.


Chillaxing by the Arkansas River in SalIda. Mike and Tara - did I get close to getting the flowy water effect?

Lunch with my good college friend/European backpacking partner Melissa in Salida - love, love, love this girl!


Dinner with Connie and Tessa - appetizer = Kale chips = genius!

Joe with his Aunt Connie and Aunt Tessa at Tessa's hogan.

Joe's favorite - Desert Sage.

Mountain Meadow on our way to Willow Lake at 11.5!


Willow creek.

Mountain flowers.

Our reward - Willow Lake! Bonus birthday prize = waterfall!

awww two little lovebirds at Willow Lake.

Willow Lake

Mountain Goats! Joe spotted them at the very tip of the peaks - so neat.

Another guy! Joe was the spotter once again.

Breath-taking views of the valley.

You were probably waiting for this one, weren't you? There was no way we were leaving Crestone without a jump shot.

After Crestone, it was on to Santa Fe. Santa Fe has to be a photographer's dream come true, the incredible light that this place gets and the vibrant colors on the buildings had me swooning. Some more of my favorite parts of Santa Fe were the adobe building, colorful doors/windows, hanging chilis, rooftop sunsets and dramatic skyscapes. Here are a few pics of our time in Santa Fe in no particular order...

Santa Fe Cathedral

Loved these lights at La Fonda.

Loved the rustic, artsy feel throughout the town - wish this was my living room.




Afternoon crepes, loved the lighting in here.

On our way to 10,000 Waves for massages and serious relaxation.

10,000 waves.

Buddha welcoming us to 10,000 Waves.

Another of the millions of awesome doors.

Cafe Pasquals - our first dinner spot in Santa Fe - love the sky in the background.

Rooftop drinks amidst the adobe :).

Our B&B - Pueblo Bonito.

Los Alamos check in building - this is for all the UPSers who took the Manhattan Project class.

All the pottery made me think of Lindsey.

Afternoon chips and salsa at The Shed - enjoying some shade and some acoustic guitar.

Beautiful baskets.

Santa Fe streets at night.

More chilis - I couldn't get enough of these things.

Chilis and adobe.

Chilis and adobe.

Stained glass in the cathedral.

Stained glass reflecting on the floor.

Love one another constantly.

Night time rooftop reading over the plaza -we are a couple of self-proclaimed dorks.

Governor's Palace - I bought a pretty turquoise bracelet from the lady in white pants.

Santa Fe rainbow.

La Fonda rooftop bar in Santa Fe - gorgeous sunset views.

Shadowy pic of us at Sunset.

More rooftop reading - this was one of our fav. spots to relax.

The Fajita cart that we spotted from our rooftop reading spot.

In heaven journaling the afternoon away.

Santa Fe rugs rock.

Don't know exactly what it is about chilis and adobe that speak straight to my heart.


Sunset drinks on the roof to celebrate our last night in Santa Fe - I might have had a little bit of vacation ending blues at this point - 7 whole days traveling with a man that I love more than anything in the world was a little bit of paradise. I feel so completely humbled and lucky.

Whew, I also feel ready for another vacation now :). Here's to holding on to the vacation glow for as long as possible.

he's done, (I feel like WE are done!)

Let's face it, this past year was a team effort! But yay! We just got home from Joe's last grad school celebration, he got the official okay on his thesis and wam, bam, thank you ma'am he's f***ing (sorry for the profanity, but this is a big deal!) done!!! Yay, we get Saturday afternoons back - real two day weekends people. AMEN! In all seriousness though, I truly couldn't be any prouder of my man stud for getting through this year and balancing his roles as math teacher, department chair, grad student, job seeker, boyfriend, friend, brother, son etc as amazingly as he did! Joe got awarded the Happy Feet award tonight by his grad school classmates because you can't contain his feet (apparently he's got some rockin' dance moves) or his SPIRIT - and that's the truth- that guy has got an unbelievable amount of passion, enthusiasm and life inside of him - I'm so lucky to witness it!

on a totally unrelated note, here's the song of the day...

letting it all sink in...

My head and heart are once again swirling with so many feelings of love and gratitude and there is just not nearly enough time to share all that is running through my mind, so here are just a few snippets of some of the thoughts that have been sticking in my head as of late...

beautiful things are born when something is broken...

let the blood flow deep into the belly of your muscle...

if you want something, you will suffer...

acknowledge and let it be...

Song of the day....

And here is a pic of our flourishing tomato plants - i just heart watching plants grow...

Look how much bigger the garden is today!

we heart Clare!

So not only is Joe the coolest boyfriend in the world - he also has the coolest family. Joe's little sister Clare spent the weekend with us and I just have to say - I adore her! She' s a super smart, sassy, fun-loving and full of life young woman and I just treasured getting to spend time with her and getting to know her a little better this weekend. Clare and I first met about a year and a half ago when I made a work trip out to DC - at that point Joe ad I had only been dating for about 2 months - she was the first member of Joe's family that I met, and I thought it was pretty cool that she was willing to meet up with me without Joe being present. We ended up chatting over dinner for about 2 hours and well, right then and there, the girl stole my heart.

We spent this weekend going out for spanish tapas, touring Stanford, sipping bubble tea, hanging out at a local park, checking out Joe's new school, catching up on the last Harry Potter movie, brunching with Clare and a few of her college friends and cooking up a mean pot of chili and cornbread for dinner.

Clare - if you're reading this (and I KNOW you are), we can't wait to have you back!

Clare and Joe - love the sweet relationship Joe and his siblings share :).

The weekend trio :).

Joe remaining calm of course in the midst of a couple of crazy girls :).

Lovefest

Words can't even begin to describe what a beautiful weekend it was. Lindsey and Nate's wedding was bursting at the seams with love - they packed meaning into every detail of their wedding and the end result was an evening full of the essence of who they are as individuals and a couple and so many other intangible things that are beautiful in life. What a truly special day spent with some of my favorite people in all the world. Lindsey and Nate - I'm so happy for you guys!

The happy couple :).


ooooh and one more happy couple :)

AND, here is the 1st song that Nate and Linds danced to - loved it and had to share!

Our dreams have come true!

We just finished building our very own raised vegetable bed!!!!!! Since we first met, Joe and I have always talked about wanting to have our very own bit of soil to grow things in and well after just a couple of hours in the back yard today, we've got one!!! Voila!

We've got lavender, lemon verbana - two things that I LOVE the smell of and so does Joe. I think we'll also use the lemon verbana for some teas eventually. And for edibles, we're starting with basil and tomatoes - two big basil plants and 4 tomato plants - yellow tomatoes, purple tomatoes, sun gold tomatoes and red cherry tomatoes! I hope we can actually get them to grow!!

Here's the before shot as we started to dig up a patch of grass to make room for the new vegetable bed.

Did I mention that it was hot today!!! If this was a close up you'd be able to see the sweat pouring off of me!

Once we got the grass cleared we built the frame of the bed. Credit goes to loverboy for engineering this beauty!

Joe came up with the idea of making stakes for each of the four corners to make drilling a bit easier and to add some stability. They worked perfectly - we built the frame upside down and then flipped it and hammered the stakes into the ground. He was pretty excited to get the electric saw out today to cut up the pieces of wood that we bought at OSH. That boy loves his power tools and I think it's adorable!

The frame in place!

And one more cameo from the new star of our backyard. Can't wait to share pics of what we grow!

On a side note, here are a couple of projects that kept me busy this weekend....

Kat inspired this - I had a surplus of dum-dums after Joe's bday pinata and Kat sent this brilliant idea for the left overs. I bought a styrafoam ball at Joann's (I felt a little guilty about that) and stuck those suckers in it and made a dum-dum astroid - how cool is that! hah - probably not nearly as cool as it is in my head.

Joe made this refreshing sun tea today!

We hung these guys in our kitchen. A while back, Kat, Laura, Lindsey and I got together and painted these for Kat's kitchen. When Joe and I moved into our new place, Kat passed them on to me as a house warming gift. They add so much color to our kitchen and I love that every time I look at them they remind me of the girls.

Alright off to enjoy the yummy teriyaki chicken that Joe has grilling along with some grilled veggies and pineapple!

Happy 4th of Julying everyone!