Our First Visitors!

• We got a new car: Part of the reason that Cam’s parents came out when they did was to bring us our new Jeep! As I have mentioned before, his family is really into off-roading, and they all own Jeeps. Cam and I each currently have a Jeep, however, mine is pretty much at the end of it’s road (pun intended), so we were in the market for a new car. Cam really wanted a better vehicle to go off-roading in, so when his brother (who is in the car industry and knows a lot about Jeeps) found us a Jeep that fit all of our criteria out in Washington, we decided to purchase it, and thankfully Cam’s parents were nice enough to bring it out here for us. (Towed behind their own Jeep…like I said, to say that his family loves Jeeps would be an understatement) Cam has been working really hard at his job this past year and he’s really excited about this new toy, so I’m really happy that he’s happy. I like the new Jeep alright so far, but it’s still going to take a little getting used to for me…example, a few nights ago we went to get frozen yogurt with the top off of the Jeep. I wanted to sit outside the yogurt place and eat my sickeningly sweet candy/yogurt bowl I had created, but Cam was all, oh just eat in in the Jeep on the way home, it will be just like sitting outside…well, when you drive in the Jeep with no top and you’re a person with long hair, said hair is going to blow around like crazy, rendering you unable to eat your frozen yogurt. Said frozen yogurt will melt on your car ride home leaving you with a bowl of candy soup and an irritated person with long, messed-up hair. Like I said, it’s going to take some getting used to. 

• We had dinner at The Flagstaff House: As I said, Cam’s parents are always really sweet and want to take us out to dinner when they come to town, and last week they treated us to what was probably one of the best restaurant meals I’ve ever had. They mentioned they wanted to try a place called The Flagstaff House, which is located up in the Flatirons overlooking Boulder, and it was an all-around fantastic experience. The restaurant is located only about 5 minutes from the city, but you gain quite a bit of elevation getting there. The restaurant has an upscale, elegant feel that’s still very laid back and it offers a lot of outdoor seating that allows you to take advantage of the beautiful views. (It would be a gorgeous place for a wedding reception!) Our dinner their was filled with good wine, great service, and tons of outstanding food. I was only able to get one picture of my food, my first course (taken with my cell phone…after that it got too dark to take any cell phone pics and even though we have been married for two years, I still kind of feel like a tool whipping out the DSLR to take food pictures with his parents), which was a breaded poached egg, on top of white truffle polenta, morel mushrooms, and asparagus. Divine.

 
I also loved that in between all the courses, the servers kept bringing delicious little bites, such as a sweet walnut bread, a little sample of duck confit, and an icy lemon ginger sorbet to cleanse the palate, among other little nibblets. I actually had the duck breast for my entrée, and I absolutely loved the preparation–it was seared and crispy with duck confit served with russett potato gnocchi, cipollini onions, grilled radicchio, sherry gastrique, and grilled peaches. Yum. Dessert was a Valhrona liquid chocolate cake accompanied homemade vanilla bean ice cream and a delicious cappuccino. Uhh-maze-ing. If you’re ever in the Boulder area, and are looking for a seriously nice place to dine, a visit to The Flagstaff House is a must. Here are some more pictures from our meal:

Cam and his parents

Boulder

Pretty clouds

I didn’t put this dress up on the Fashion page (because I haven’t really done a whole lot with it yet as you may have noticed…) but I just wanted to mention that it’s from Ella Fashion in Oxford, MI (which I mentioned in this post) so be sure to check out the website & blog! 🙂

(Source)

• We went to go see The Help: This past spring, my mother-in-law and I both read the book The Help by Kathyrn Stockett, so we were both really excited to go see the movie. (You can read my review here) Cam and his dad weren’t quite as enthusiastic about seeing the movie as we were, but we all really enjoyed the film. (Although, not having read the book, they both felt that the movie started off kind of slow and it took them awhile to get in to the storyline, which I could definitely see.) The movie was a little bit different than the book, but for the most part, I thought they did a pretty good job of keeping the essence of the book the same and I was glad for that because sometimes movie versions of books deviate from the plot big time. I thought the film was really well cast, but since I started reading the book after I had already heard who was going to be playing the roles, maybe that made a difference. I think that Emma Stone did a great job as Skeeter and I really like her a lot and think that she’s a really versatile actress who can do both comedy and drama. Hilly Holbrook’s role, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, was perfectly acted in my opinion, just that person that you love to hate as the story progresses, and I thought that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer did a great job as Aibileen and Minnie. The only person who was really different than I pictured her was Skeeter’s maid Constantine, as she was much older in the film than I pictured her in the book, but I thought that her part was really touching. All in all, I did like the book better than the movie because I really enjoyed the way the book was told from different points of view, however, I did think that it was a really good film and I’d highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet!

• We went to Steamboat Springs…but since this post is already getting kind of lengthy, I think I’ll save the details of that little getaway for later this week! 🙂 Have a great day friends! xoxo