Pagosa Springs

The unusual occurrence of a 4 day weekend is reason enough to celebrate. And boy did Jesse and I celebrate. We drove down to Pagosa Springs Friday night to enjoy the amazing hot springs and to relax a bit. The drive was absolutely breathtaking and we were surprised to find the colors of the aspens still lingering. I do have to say that 5-6 hours of driving for only one night away is a lot with 2 large dogs in the back whining, but totally worth it! Not to mention that we needed to be back for a very special event to which I will address later. First, here are a few pics of the drive!

One of our many stops to let the dogs get some air

Playing fetch with the dogs. Lesson of this trip: don't hit Nelly in the eye.

My hunk :)

The hot springs we went to. There were some 18 springs to try, all different temperatures. The hottest we tried was 110 degrees, and I was a meltin'.

Nelly Bird enjoying a game of chess :)

More colors on our way back. Absolutely beautiful!

And now... to the event I mentioned before :) Beautiful Avery Anne Isaacson was born on Sunday morning, October 17th at 8:03am weighing 6lbs 12oz. Avery is our first Niece and the first grandbaby on the Ormsbee side! She is as sweet as ever and has already found a way to win all of our hearts. Congratulations Abby, Tim and Avery!!

Incline

One of Jesse's and my favorite parts of living in Manitou was our weekly trips up the incline during the summer. This summer has been quite the opposite and we realized recently that we better make our way up the incline before it starts snowing! So we made our way down to Manitou with the dogs for the first time this summer and it was perfect. Not only because I kept the dogs on the leash in the beginning to let them drag me up the first section:), but also because we hiked in the evening and were able to use the last light of the day to hike the barr trail down. 

The pups loving the ride down to Manitou

The colors were just beginning to change. It's hard to see in the picture, but it was beautiful!

These black dogs make me look so white...

Beautiful time of night to hike down. The city looked amazing!

We ended the hike with some amazing Thai food in Manitou. One of the things we miss most about living there are all of the unique restaurants that you can find nowhere else. If you're ever planning a trip there, let us know and we can recommend some great restaurants!

Pooch Plunge

There is nothing more chaotic or exciting at the end of the summer than the Pooch Plunge. It's exactly what it sounds like...a bunch of dogs, plunging into a pool. Pure mayhem. And Rosy and Nelly loved it.

Notice all the labs...

This is shortly after Rosy jumped in for the first and last time. She couldn't figure out how to exit the pool without stairs nearby and become a little "bottom heavy". Needless to say, Jesse had to pull her out by her collar and she now thinks swimming is life threatening. She still had fun running around meeting the other pooches though.

Nelly jumping in with no hesitancy... She swam more than any other dog there.

Never been happier...

Family Reunion

This Labor Day was an especially meaningful holiday for my family. My Mom's Mom turned 90! My Grandma Tina is an amazing woman who we celebrated with a family reunion this last weekend.  It was the first time in who knows how many years that Grandma Tina's 3 children, 16 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren were all together! It was an amazing time to catch up with all of our cousins and become reacquainted.

We all celebrated together at the Freeport County Club the first night. 

This is my mom, Alison, her sister, Lesley, and her brother, Tim.

Here are the 16 grandchildren around Grandma Tina. She looks amazing for 90!

The second day we all met at Krape Park. I have amazing memories as a little kid feeding the ducks, riding the carousal, and climbing the old fire engine at Krape park.

After we said our goodbyes, us Ormsbees headed to the Union Diary for some ice cream. Right next to the ice cream shop was the site of the Lincoln Douglas debates. Becka and I found Lincoln quite charming :)

After ice cream, my parents, Paul and Jaya hit the road back to CO. Abby, Becka, Tristan, Jesse and I made our way to chicago where we stayed the night before our flight the next morning. We first met at our cousin Dan's and his fiance Meg's condo. Dan then took us into downtown chicago where we visited a few touristy sites and then had a drink before we said our goodbyes.

Jesse snapped this amazing picture of the downtown skyline and the shiny bean

Here is the last picture of myself, Jesse, Becka and Tristan before they went to Taiwan. They, along with their friend Dusty, will be in Taiwan teaching english for about a year. I already miss Becka tons, but I am happy to say they made it safely and once they start a blog, I will post it here so you can see what she's up to.

Manitou

Jesse and I have been really missing Manitou. Especially the summertime in Manitou. If you ever have time to stop by with your family, it's a must visit. We can recommend quite a few amazing restaurants! Since Jesse and I moved to Castle Rock in April, we haven't had many opportunities to visit our old home. Fortunately, Jesse and I both had Wednesday off so we took a trip down with the dogs!!

Our first stop, of course, we the Colorado Custard Company (our favorite ice cream shop ever). If you are ever in Manitou, you must stop by and visit the owner, Vick, who is the wonderful owner.  He's even treated to free custard in the past for our anniversary :)

Here are Rosy and Nelly enjoying a little entertainment from the street performer

A little cool down in the fountain :) Yes, we let them jump in.... nobody was looking

Here's a video that Jesse took of Nelly playing fetch in the lake. We hiked around the Stratton open space near Cheyenne Mountain. Nelly would fetch in water for hours if we let her. She starts drowning after awhile, poor puppy!

Splatta'

Becka Ormsbee is the most creative person I know. By the way, she's my twin :) She artistically drained me before birth, unfortunately, but I have come to grips with this fact. I however (with the help of my husband) have learned to dig deep within me to pull out any ounce of creativity left and enjoy a little painting here or there. Most recently, Becka, her boyfriend, Tristan, our sister, Abby, Jesse and I enjoyed a little splatter painting on a Sunday afternoon.

   

Jesse's 25th Birthday!

Jesse's first quarter of a century is over! I can hardly believe he is 25. Although this is young to most, I keep thinking about how we met when we were 10!

In keeping with our Marble family tradition, we went on a trip for Jesse's birthday. This year we chose to go to the Royal Gorge for a weekend of adventure. The main attraction at the Royal Gorge that led us there is Rafting. We LOVE rafting. We headed down to Canon City on Friday night with Mark and Christie. We found a dog friendly hotel and brought Rosy and Nelly who LOVED sleeping on the bed with us :) The next morning we met Becka and her boyfriend, Triastan, at Echo Canyon Rafting company. The 6 of us had an absolute blast! We chose the hardest of all rafting trips which took us right through the royal gorge. It was amazing to see the bridge above us, so beautiful. 

After the rafting trip, Jesse and I drove to Westcliffe, CO (suggested to us by our rafting guide "Zoloo"). The drive was beautiful and we were able to find a small Uruguayan restaurant for dinner that cooked all our food by a giant fire pit stove thing. It looked impressive, trust me.

This is our view driving into Westcliffe. The rain made the mountains even move breathtaking

I have a picture to prove how cool the fire pit stove thing was

Sunday morning we drove to the actual Royal Gorge Park where we walked across the suspension bridge and go a bit freaked out. I'm a little scared of heights and I definitely think my heart rate was somewhere in the 150's. After we decided that you probably need to be about 5 years old to really love the park (given the petting zoo, carousel, etc), we drove to the train depot where we boarded our lunch train. The lunch train was much more exciting than I thought it would be. Our 2 hour ride turned out to be about 3 hours after our brief stop at the end of the tracks with our generator and train not working. However, the food was delicious, 3 courses! In between courses we were able to walk to the open air car and view the royal gorge as we rode through. 

The Birthday Boy at the entrance of the Park. Doesn't he look older and more mature?

Waiting for our Lunch Train

One of our views from the train up at the bridge. Pretty darn high....

Our trip was amazing and we ended our weekend with a party at my parents house for a multi-celebratory BBQ. We were celebrating my parent's house selling, Abby and Tim moving to CO, Beck and Tristan moving to Taiwan, and of course Jesse turning 25! The turn out was great and the food was delicious. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate!

2 Year Anniversary!

Can you believe that we have been married 2 years?! As of June 1st that is. This post is somewhat premature, however, as was our celebration past week. To continue with our tradition of traveling for special occasions, we chose to drive up to Grand Lake for a night with the dogs. In CO, we were surprised with some unexpected snow the day before our trip, but nonetheless, our trip was beautiful and even allowed us a few hikes. Here are a few pics from our adventure....

On our way to Grand Lake. Nelly's finally big enough to look over the seat :)

Yes, this took at least 4 attempts, but the first pic of all of us...

Such good dogs, waiting so nicely...

Beautiful Grand Lake

Another update, we moved!! Jesse and I loved Manitou so much, but decided to upgrade a bit to a larger and newer apartment. We chose to move to Castle Rock to be close to Denver (praying for God to provide Jesse a job there) and to be close to family. We have loved it so far and I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly my commute goes to Fort Carson for work. Pictures of our new place to come....

We'll call this.... Road trip to Vegas and Nelly (not the rapper)

Yes it has been too long. I apologize for the gap between posts, but here's a 2 for 1.

First update: we took a road trip to Las Vegas!  Why you may ask would the Marbles go to Vegas? For random fun of course! Also to visit a good friend of ours, Caleb Smith.  Jesse met Caleb in London while attending the London School of Economic in the summer of 2007. Caleb is from Kentucky and recently took a position working on the campaign for Sue Lowden who is running for US Senate in Nevada (against Harry Reid). Caleb has come to Manitou twice since we've been married and we felt it our turn to visit him. Of course as Marble tradition, we took the advantage to make this a road trip kind of vacation.

Excited for another road trip! (Good job Jesse for keeping your eyes on the road)

First stop as we entered Las Vegas was In-N-Out of course! 3 day trip, 3 meals at In-N-Out. We'll aim for a higher ratio next trip.

Visiting a few of the casinos, this was The Venetian. 

It really felt like walking the canals of Venice, gelato included.

 

The Paris Casino was beautiful as well, we were even able to ride an elevator and view all of the strip. Looks a lot like the real Eiffel tower huh?

Here's a view from the top of the fake Eiffel tower viewing the Bellagio water show.

Our friend Caleb and his roommate Alli Jay

One of Jesse's favorite looking casinos, the Excalibur.

Our second night we went to see the Blue Man Group! It was amazing, poncho's were included for all those in the first row. Jesse managed to be included in the show for a 2nd time in his life! What a record.

Our last night we were able to see a second show, Cirque du Soleil Mystere at the Treasure Island Casino. It was absolutely worth not gambling so we could afford seeing shows!

One of our favorite activities of the weekend was riding the roller coaster at New York New York. What a beautiful New York skyline.

Alright, on the to the second (and much cuter) update. NELLY!!

Just look at that face! Breaks my heart every time. Yes, we've become that couple: obsessed with our dogs. We can't help it, someday it will lessen, but we're enjoying it for now.

Right after we picked her up

Yes, we let her sleep on whatever she wants, including white pillows...

Rosy and her new best friend, Nelly. Still learning unconditional love.

Our sweet Etsy dog tag.

Awww.....

So after having her for 2 weeks, she is now 10 1/2 weeks old, almost 100% potty trained, can sit, shake, lay down and come. Yes, our puppy is way cooler than your puppy. Just a little friendly competition :)