Easter Weekend with the Turners

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, spent here in Georgia with my best friend, Sara, and her husband Joe. (Sara & I met at age 5 and grew up dancing together!) Since Kyle and I had just gotten back from traveling to Colorado, it would have been too much to turn around and drive up to North Carolina to spend with our families. Sara & Joe both had Good Friday off, so they arrived in Marietta around 1:00! We took them to the battlefield and walked up Kennesaw Mountain together. The trail was steeper than we thought, but it was beautiful weather and pretty views from the top.

Here are the guys with Tyson & Tucker:

Pretty butterfly on the dogwood tree:

We came home and walked to La Parilla, our favorite Mexican restaurant on the Marietta Square. Then we watched "Dan in Real Life" with Steve Carell, our favorite actor from The Office, which all 4 of us are hooked on.

Saturday morning, while Sara & I were getting ready the guys went on a 2 mile run together! I think Kyle successfully got Joe hooked on triathlons & training, as he now knows all the websites and is looking to enter into one! We all drove downtown, where they dropped Sara & I off at Ikea. (The guys were driving around waiting and ended up stopping to help multiple people with cars broken down on the side of the road... great citizens :) We all picked up Jersey Mikes and brought a picnic lunch to Piedmont Park. It was a beautiful day again, so it was fun to let the dogs run around and people watch.

Sara & Joe:

Kyle & I:

Other views of Piedmont Park:

We came back and baked a home-made pizza (my first time!) for dinner... we were proud of ourselves:
SO NOW THE FUN BEGINS. We decided to go on a GHOST TOUR Saturday night! As most of you know, Kyle is deathly scared of ghosts, but for some reason he really wanted to go. It was held on the square and this lady took us around and basically just told us ghost stories and showed us the buildings that they are in. Marietta has a lot of history in it, so it was interesting to learn more and spook each other.

Our crazy story teller:

The four of us:

Joe & Kyle scared:

Sara & I scared:

Sara & Joe cracking us up:

Some of the sites ghosts are in!

We came back home, had some icecream and played cards.

Sunday we woke up and went to church at North Metro. The praise & worship was amazing, and it was fun to show Sara & Joe where we go to church. We ate Atlanta Bread Company afterwards and then headed home to dye easter eggs! Unfortunately I was a clutz all day, burning my hand on the stove and spilling over 2 of our cups of dye! We still had fun though and made some pretty ugly designs! ha

Our gorgeous eggs:

The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house and making dinner. We had twice-baked potatoes, flank steak, salad, french loaf, and puffed corn (okay so just Sara had puffed corn b/c she doesn't like potatoes).
Sara & Joe actually were able to stay Sunday night and leave this morning (monday) to head home to Raleigh. It was such a long weekend, and we had a great time getting to spend quality time with them! Thank you guys for making the drive and coming all the way down to visit! Hopefully we'll get to do it again soon! FUN WEEKEND!

Cabin time in Grande Mesa, Colorado

After snowboarding in Telluride, Wednesday morning we packed up our stuff and headed on our way to the Guenther's cabin in Grande Mesa, Colorado. Unfortunately, Kerry & Brad didn't get to come with us, as they flew down to the carribean for another vacation that Brad won at work! As most of you saw the pictures I had posted before, the cabin was covered with snow! We parked about 3/4 of a mile away from the house as the roads are so bad, and then took snowmobiles in. The guys made several trips getting our luggage in... here's a video of how we did it:

We spent Wednesday night through Saturday night at the cabin, playing tons of card games, shoveling snow off the deck, making tunnels through the snow, going on long walks in our snow shoes, making jumps for kyle to snowboard off of, ice fishing, and eating a lot! The cabin is very homey and warm inside, no matter if there were blizzards outside or not. Dave, one of Cuzzie's good friends, came before we did and dug a tunnel on the 2nd level so we could get into the cabin!

The living room:

Rach & Mike let Kyle and I have the big bed, since we slept on the floor in Telluride:
Rach & Mike's bunk beds:

There is a creek located right across the "road" from their cabin, and a lake right down the road. Here is the creek:
We actually rode the snowmobiles on all the lakes, as they are completely frozen over with snow on top. Here is the road, and over to the right a lake. The lakes are much smoother so most snowmobilers choose the lakes to travel on.

On Tuesday, our last day of snowboarding, the weather was GORGEOUS, but in turn our faces got fried! As you can see in this picture, Kyle looks like a raccoon and my face had a hard time stretching even to smile!
Us on one of our walks:

Kyle built a jump off of the 2nd story of the deck with all the excess snow.
Here he goes:

This is my favorite picture that I took of Kyle snowboarding off his jump... looks straight out of a magazine huh??
Here is the tunnel that Mike & Kyle dug from the garage door out the front:

The only scare we had was on Friday afternoon, when Mike & Mr. G went out for a snowmobile ride. We looked and it had been over 2 hours since they left. After worrying and going on a walk to find them, Mr. G comes across the lake on his snowmobile... Mike no where in sight. Turns out Mike's snowmobile died and they had spent over an hour towing it back towards the cabin, then when they got close enough Mr. G came to tell us they were okay. It was a little frightening b/c no one is surrounding you and cell signals don't work up there.

Saturday morning we found some ice fisherman! They were very friendly and let us try it! They were catching fish (lake is stocked) every minute it seemed like, then just throwing them back in! One man even had a $10 sponge bob toy fishing rod, and it was the one that worked the best!

Kyle caught 4 fish!

They all pressured me into fishing, and I caught one too! I didn't want to touch it, so this nice man held it for my picture!
After that experience, we packed up all of our stuff, and snowmobiled out to the car. Rach, Mike, Kyle, and I all headed to Cuzzie & Betty's house (30 min down the mountain) to hang out with them for the night so we could make it to the airport in the morning no problem. We went out to a nice dinner with all of their friends, and laughed and laughed and laughed! They are from a VERY small town, so some of the stories they told were so funny trying to figure out how to keep themselves occupied. We all came back and watched "Good Shepherd" with Matt Damon in it, and then headed to bed.

Cuz & Betty have 4 horses:

Cuzzie, Betty, Rach, Mike, & Ky:

Sunday we flew all day, finally made it to Charlotte where Cory, Mada & Tyson were waiting for us. It was so nice of them to watch Tyson for us, and we know that Tyson had a great time! Cory lives on Lake Norman, so Tyson got to swim in the lake everyday, run in a race on St. Patrick's day (the first dog to cross the finish line... go tyson!) and do much more! Here are some pictures that Cory gave us:

Cory, Mada, & Tyson:

A Running Dog he is! (yes they put a shirt on him haha)

Thanks so much guys for watching Tyson... he had a great time!! If you want to see more pictures from our vacation, here is the web address:
http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.guenther/Telluride2008

Our Telluride Snowboarding Trip 2008

*WARNING: This is going to be a very long post... so get ready!*

As most of you know, Kyle and I just returned from our week long vacation to Telluride, Colorado! We drove up to Charlotte, NC on Friday night to drop off Tyson with his "uncle Cory" for the week. We flew out early Saturday morning from Charlotte, on the same flight as Rach & Mike and arrived in Colorado around lunch time. We drove straight to Cuzzie's house in Telluride, where Kerry & Brad, Mr. & Mrs. G, and Cuzzie were. Over the next 3 days we all went snowboarding/skiing, coming home each night with tons of stories and even more sore muscles. Going snowboarding out west is such a different experience, as not only do the resorts cover several mountains filled with over 100 runs, but they allow back country skiing as well (hiking off of the main trails to "extreme" terrain). It snowed around 6 inches on the mountain each day we were there, so we were able to ride through fresh powder everyday -- such a treat!
Nick's friend Lucy from school has a brother who works in Telluride, and he was actually able to hook us up with half price lift tickets for all 3 days.... which helped us out a ton!

Downtown Telluride: (cool blue haze that day)

The town of Telluride sits at the bottom of a box canyon:
Us in our cute matching helmets :)

Kyle & I giving each other high-fives... because I went down 3 black diamonds that day... woo hoo!

Mr. Guenther, Mrs. Guenther & Cuzzie one night when we all went out to dinner wearing the Rockin' G Support Team Shirts--- how great does Cuz look?

All of the homes off of the lifts in Telluride are gorgeous! Here is one example... beautiful views right off the slopes. Oprah used to own one, but b/c of the altitude she couldn't breathe and sold it. (Speaking of altitude.... we were at 13,000 ft elevation and it is extremely hard to breathe... I feel you Oprah!).
We celebrated Mr. Guenther's 57th birthday one night. Kyle & I bought him a flat-black helmet, which he got a lot of use out of during the trip, skiing and snowmobiling. (I forgot a bow so I made one out of tape!)
It was so nice of Cuzzie to let us use his house in Telluride from Saturday until Wednesday morning. We had a great time snowboarding, spending time in the hot tub, and relaxing.

Here are a couple videos!
Kyle filming me snowboarding down a blue (my favorite type of run):


Kyle filming his journey through the back country:


Kyle explaining what he just did in the back country:

Kyle going down "Holy Cow" with moguls.. it was a lot steeper than it looks...


I couldn't even come close to posting all the pictures we took in Colorado... here is the link to all of our pictures taken:
http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.guenther/Telluride2008
Hope you all enjoy! I will post a blog about the cabin tomorrow!

And the wedding festivities begin!

This weekend Kyle and I spent here in town once again, which was nice since Kyle traveled last week for work. Friday we had 2 packages come in the mail, both of which Kyle bought on Steep & Cheap and just HAD to buy ;) After Ky & Chris went camping last weekend, Kyle wanted to get me all set up so I could go next time. He bought a really nice sleeping pad, as well as a new tent that is big enough for 3 (me, Ky & Tyson). I'm really excited to go!

Kyle setting it up:

Kyle & Tyson inside with the rain tarp (is that what it's called?) over it:

Friday night we went over to Kathleen's townhouse and got to meet all of her best friends from college that had driven down for the weekend. We both had heard so much about all of them, it was so great finally being able to put faces to the names. Kathleen and Chris cooked burgers for the 10 of us, which was a treat as well! After eating we all moved to the living room to have a guys vs. girls battle in cranium. The guys totally stomped us (after cheating many times) and they all had a ball rubbing it in our faces. Kate & Carson then taught all of us a version of "paper telephone", where you write a sentence, then pass it to the person to your right. They look at your sentence and have to draw a picture that describes it, then pass it to their right. The next person looks at the picture and has to write a sentence describing what it was and so on. It was hilarious, and the guys drawings and sentences were cracking us up.

Saturday was GORGEOUS weather finally here in Georgia, so we spent most of the day outside. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! We are sorry that we couldn't make it!!!) We met up with the crew we had hung out with at Kathleen's over at Piedmont Park and threw Frisbees, let Tyson run around, and played redneck horseshoes. One of Kathleen's friends, Ashley & her husband Paul, have a son named Charlie who is 18 months, so he was very entertaining to watch and play with as well! We all then split up to go get ready for Chris & Kathleen's engagement party that night at 7:00!

Chris works for a wholesale building company called Robert Bowden. The VP of sales for Robert Bowden hosted the engagement party at his house, and we were just blown away! Kyle and I have never been in a house so nice... it was definitely a multi-million dollar home! The party was held in their "basement" that also had a winery in the bottom! They had a nice fire pit outside as well, and the food was delicious! The engagement party couldn't have gone any better, and it was so nice to be able to visit with everyone who will be involved in their wedding in June.

Here is Kathleen & her mom in front of a beautiful floral arrangement:

Kyle, Kathleen, Chris & I:

Sunday Kyle and I headed to church then came home and made lunch. It was again a beautiful day outside, so we took our n-weds bible study lesson out to the battlefield, spread out a blanket and got it done outside! There were tons of people doing the same thing... everyone is so happy to have spring coming! I forgot my camera in the car, so this is a far away shot.
Sunday night we carpooled with Chris & Kathleen to n-weds bible study at 6:00. We grilled out hot dogs then had our lesson. THE CRAZIEST thing that happened was at the end we split up into 2 couples and prayed for each other. Kyle & I met with a couple, Danielle & Matt. After we finished praying we were just having small talk with each other about where we live, etc. We told them all about our townhouse and how we had put an offer on another house but we didn't get it, and Danielle said "yeah well we moved into our house around the same time". Not thinking anything of it, we asked them where their house was and all of a sudden Kyle kept saying directions to their house and they would say "yeah", "yeah".... and turns out Danielle & Matt were the ones that also put an offer on the house (with all the windows in the back... great neighborhood), and they beat our offer!!! We laughed for a while.... what a small world! Turns out Matt wrote a heart felt letter to the owner saying it was their first house, etc and that is why she chose them! So anyways we have plans to get together in the near future for dinner... but I just couldn't believe that!!

We leave for Colorado on Saturday (March 8th) morning, and we won't be back until Sunday March 16th! We will post a ton when we get back I'm sure! This picture was taken this week... just to show you guys what the Guenther's cabin is looking like right now in Colorado:

And yes this is a 2 story cabin... but you can't even see the first story! (the deck is on the 2nd story)We are spending Sat-Wednesday in Telluride at Cuzzie's house to ski & snowboard. Then will drive to the Guenther's cabin and stay there Wednesday-Sunday. Hopefully the snow mobiles will help us make it to the cabin! We are definitely looking forward to it!