The Mile High City

Denver, CO. this is where i spent last weekend. so much fun. it had been a long 1 1/2 years since i'd seen my dear friend, Amy Fletcher... and so i used some graduation money to go see her and her husband, Max. i loved every minute that i got to spend in the gorgeous state and found it really hard to put down my camera cause everywhere you went was so scenic! but i only posted a handful of pics, and there are others on facebook. so here you go. a taste of my weekend.

first sights of the mountains for the weekend. why hello again.

my beautiful, fun, loving, and hilarious hosts. The Fletchers.

it had been way too long since we'd had a picture together

*note my necklace. anthropologie. for $10. booya! i was maybe way too excited to find something in the store i could actually afford. haha.

out to dinner in downtown (or LoDo, as they call it) Denver for dinner on Saturday night. so fun. Osteria Marco. sooooo good. our waiter clearly thought he was way too good to be working at such a restaurant. he was from NYC and used to "higer end" clients. tried to get us to buy a $51 bottle of wine. no way hosea. get over yourself. you are not that cool. haha.

me and Max. i call him "my guy friend" cause i only have one. haha. its our thing.

ok here are some pics that i took on our way back from boulder. the drive was absolutely incredible. gorgeous sunset against the flat irons. these are more heavily edited than the ones posted on facebook. kinda obsessed with them...

so these are slightly out of order but it is way too hard to rearrange photos on this thing. so back to dinner on Saturday night. trying to take artsy pics inside the restaurant. very slow shutter speed.

water bottle and glass. and Max's hand.

light fixture and bar

ok so their dog is named Mowgli. like from The Jungle Book. such a sweet and well trained dog. he was not so happy though that i was infringing upon his space. but he is fun to play with. Amy likes to wrap tape around his paws, which is really funny cause he is then all of a sudden immobilized cause he has one piece of scotch tape on his paw. dogs are funny like that. he also took a liking to my banana republic bag. which was ok, cause it was empty. but earlier that day it held a cute cardi that i got for $25. again, booya.

the last event of my trip was that we went to a soccer game on sunday morning. i felt like y'all for a little bit. cause you went to all those soccer games in chatt this summer. now i went to one. ha. the view from here was also incredible. you could see the snow on the mountains. so cool. (ha, get it?!) there was also a really cute guy on the team, but we had to leave before the game was over so i did not get a closer look. oh well. haha.

so that was my trip in a nutshell. so much fun. and it was so hard to leave, i was not at all ready to go home. not enough time with Amy after being apart for so long. ugh... long distance sucks. but i am really glad that i got to go!

love you all and can't wait to see most of you (sorry i will miss you Jodie) in a couple of weekends! yay!!! i get to see the other Aimie in my life!

Doe. A Deer. A Female Deer.

This post is snapshots of my weekend. i thought i'd make a post showing y'all what i did this weekend since i couldn't be with you. it was a great weekend! but don't get me wrong, my heart was in Winston-Salem.

I didn't really do a whole lot on friday. bought a new bra... woo-hoo.

can i just say, that seeing this right here ^ made me so happy all weekend. it made you feel close when you were far away!

when i was out in my yard taking pictures with Leah, i saw a doe in our field! (hence the title of this post. also cause i recently watched the sound of music) it was so beautiful. had just enough time to sneak some pictures before Leah saw her and chased her away. silly dog.

this one makes me smile. A LOT. it is my favorite picture of Leah. that is what i think of when i think of this dog. happy.always wanting to play frisbee.

and i just really like this next one...

so then saturday i went to the Smokey Mountains with my friend Lauren. it was so pretty up there, we walked for 7 MILES. and neither of us thought to bring food or water with us, so needless to say we were both thirsty and STARVINGwhen we got back to knoxville. ha, we will do better next time.

These are just few pictures from my trip to Cades Cove. i put them all up on facebook so you can see them there, i just figured i take this space to point out some of my favs...

love you all! looks like you had tons of fun and hopefully i will get to see you very soon!

Pumpkins are my Favorite!

pumpkin carving is one of those things that i look forward to so much in the fall. its just so fun. i have always loved it, even as a child. i loved going to the pumpkin patch and getting to pick out my very own pumpkin every year. so great. and my favorite dessert at thanksgiving has always been pumpkin pie. All around, i just really like pumpkins!!

soooooo i was looking through old pictures and i found this video that me and my old friend and roommate, Nicole Dhaenens Hoek, made 4 YEARS AGO ... back when i was in college.... yeah. i believe that was my first junior year? anyways... i thought it was funny cause i say the date in the video and it was yesterday! so in honor of times past i thought i'd post it. its not that exciting though. and ignore the fact that in the video i sound like i have a lisp. we all know that i don't. although i met a girl recently who did have a lisp and it was really hard to concentrate on anything else. and it made me miss Jenn Dewaard. ha.

me, nicole and theodore on our front porch at 901 oak st.

ok... video time...

OH and by the way, if you are into pumpkin spice lattes and you really like the one at starbucks, DO NOT get the one from panera. it was disgusting. waaaayyyy too pumpkiny. not enough spicy. just a warning. drink at your own risk.

oh and here are more pictures of more recent pumpkin carvings...which i remembered while uploading that it was Megan's 1st time to carve a pumpkin. so sweet. so glad it was documented.

oh and p.s. i miss my house.

clouds

ok so i freakin love clouds. i love the sky. i love it when the sky feels enormous and i feel tiny. there is nothing that i love more than a big beautiful breathtaking sky. it reminds me of home.

there have been some incredible clouds recently here in knox (and i'm sure in chatt as w

ell. and lets be real, i'm sure they were much prettier against the backdrop of downtown chatt). but i do my best to take in the beauty despite the not-so-beautiful backdrop of west knoxville. and since the clouds were so amazing i had to take pictures! yes, i keep my camera with me at all times. and yes i took these while driving. and yes i know that is probably not the safest thi

ng to do while driving. oh well. these were too great to

pass up.

embracing the season

ok so... i made a blog. and just like the title says... it is only for you! my dear friends Megan, Aimie, Elisa, and Jodie are the only people and i am notifying about this blog. i am only doing this so that we can stay in touch and not loose eachother in this crazy busy life. That is how much i love all of you!

i titled this post "embracing the season" cause its one of my favorite sayings right now. i feel that it applies to so many things in life. whether you are talking about literally embracing the season that we are in - like FAAALLLLLL! which i am super dooper excited about... or whether you are talking more metaphorically, i think it is a great thing to practice! to me, embracing the season is taking full advantage of wherever you find yourself in life, and notice it, appreciate it, experience it to the fullest. it can be as simple as ordering a pumpkin spice latte instead of the normal cup of coffee because it is fall - or it could be changing the way you have done something for years, because you are now in a different season of life - like living off of a budget. GROSS. i hate budgeting...

but one beautiful byproduct of my lack of working off of a budget was that i got lots of new fun clothes this weekend! and i got to share half of that weekend with Megan! which was ah-mazing. my favorite purchase you ask? my new boots. they are (insert Boykin voice) FABULOUS.

ok so that is all for now. i hope you have enjoyed reading this and i will try to be a regular blogger so we can all stay connected. i'm sure most of these posts in the future will be about work. i do work with some crazy people. ha.

love you all

Nat