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 :)

Kate's 24 Birthday: Colorado Roadtrip

Two well-know secrets of us Marbles:

1) We love to travel. Cool places, preferably.

2) We love Birthdays. We're thankful for life!

So, we started a little tradition to combine the aforementioned elements: Birthday trips! It only makes sense, really. We started this tradition in 2009 with a trip to San Fran for Kate's 23rd Bday and then we headed up to visit Uncle Maury and Aunt Linda in Kelowna, BC for my birthday in August.

This year for Kate's two dozenth birthday, we did a road trip around Colorado. There are lots of places in this awesome state that neither of us has been.

So after a long work week for Kate, we headed out. Here was our route: http://bit.ly/8KcvNQ

Friday January 15th: Bright and early departure from Manitou Springs, CO, headed west. We were able to book dog-friendly hotels throughout, so Rosy joined. She started out in the back, but we were suckers for her cuteness. She looked down-right distraught!

Her new post:

A few other pics of the first day: on our way to Salida, CO here's Kate in front of Mt. Princeton.

We had lunch in Buena Vista on the first day, went for a nice hike just north of Nathrop, CO towards Agnes Vaile Falls.

Our trusty sidekick, Rosy, enjoying the roadtrip.

We stayed the first night in Salida, then headed west on Highway 50 past Gunnison, then south out of Montrose towards Ouray. This little town, was our most favorite on the whole trip. Several signs said, "Welcome to the Switzerland of America" and it definitely deserved such a title.

We took a quick little trip over to Telluride for the afternoon. The mountains there are absolutely stunning. Pictures don't do justice here either. Great little town too. Our 2nd favorite of the trip behind Ouray.

Telluride has a free gondola that you can take up the mountain and over to "Mountain Village" which has shops and other activities like ice skating. On our way up that gondola:

So our second night we spent in Ouray, then day three we headed up Highway 550, past Montrose again, then headed Northeast up towards Glenwood Springs. We stopped on the way in our namesake town. Good ol' Marble, CO! Not much a town (no offense, Marble) but we took a couple goofy pictures to commemorate.

(The newest proud member of the Marble clan)

We also stopped in Aspen, since Kate had never been. Here's a cool little shot of downtown Aspen, looking towards the ski hill.

We stayed our third night in Glenwood Springs. Our final day, Monday (Kate's 24th Bday!! Happy bday, my love!!) we had a great breakfast at "Rosi's Bavarian Restaurant" in Glenwood then made the trek back to Manitou Springs.

Overall, it was a great road trip for the three of us. Enjoyed our amazing state and saw several new towns we'd never visited. Kate really enjoyed herself, so: mission accomplished! Happy birthday, Kate Marblehead!