Happy anniversary Heather!
Epicurious
Can you believe we’ve been together for 7 years now? We’ve truly racked up an impressive number of good times. Today was no slouch. After putting up with my degree pursuit and other shenanigans (e.g. dead mouse) for another year, it’s safe to say I more than owed you a cooked meal to start things out right. These spiced pumpkin pancakes were awesome! While, I still don’t know what “fold the egg whites into batter” means, it seems breakfast didn’t suffer from my ignorance.
After indulging and loading the GPS with route info we pointed our gas hog toward Rocky Mountain National Park for some good old backcountry fun – Lake Haiyaha to be clear. Ok, so the skiing kind of sucked and you managed without snow shoes, but it’s safe to say the snacks were dee-lish and the crowd-free trail, blue sky, warm sun, and crisp mountain views were pretty rockin’. I think I hit more rocks than turns made.
Lenticular - winds are a'comin'
Signpost
Otis Peak and Thatchtop
Dinner at Ahi’s
For anyone interested, the “first bite” program is a great way to exchange some dough for a multi-course wine paired meal that generally doesn’t disappoint — so long as your left brain is too mellowed out by the 3rd glass of wine to criticize the lofty bill. I guess when you’ve been with someone a long time you might start thinking like them, dressing like them, etc. We both ordered the exact same 3.5 course meal: scallops ceviche, cabbage with tangy sauce, tamales, then Mexican donuts and chipotle ice cream to finish. I’ll skip the chipotle next time… the rest was superb!
Warren Miller Anyone?
Powder Trip Finalist…
Now generally, I wouldn’t recommend taking your s.o. to a testosterone enflamed ski porn movie on your anniversary. Well, not unless you’re me and your s.o. is Heather apparently. H, have I said thanks enough times for putting up with my shenanigans? Probably not. I guess “I owe you owe you owe you…” And if you win that fabulous trip to ski fresh pow in Canada via helicopter, then we’ll have to work out some sort of amortization schedule. With only a thin veil of pity, I’ll say I’m sorry for convincing you to run up to the stage to claim your finalist prize. Seriously, at least three of us thought you won a new jacket.
PBR sells out
Seriously, it does, especially at the Sundown Saloon (aka Sundowner). This place is oozing character and by oozing, I mean it pretty much smells like B.O., vomit and other things better left unnamed. However, it’s a pretty darn good way to end a day like today. Oh, and they do have other bevs on tap these days. I promise.
Pancake breakfasts
In summary, thanks for being the most amazing partner I could imagine! Some day, I’ll do as many nice things for you as you do for me and in good faith to that aim, you can anticipate more regular pancake breakfasts.
Addendum from Heather:
First of all — Rob forgot our anniversary a week prior when he accepted an extra ticket to our friend’s guys night Warren Miller show (ski porn). He tried to slide out of it gracefully a couple of days later by admitting his folly to our friend while I’m in the same room. The friend realized that Rob’s in a bad spot (his eyes darting to me and back to Rob over and over), but really wants to get rid of this ticket so offers to include me too in this evening of boy-ness. He warns me that it could ‘get pretty rowdy’ but that we could leave at any time. Thankfully, Rob and I planned a full day of fun and food beforehand, so I didn’t mind hanging out with a bunch of dudes at WM late in the evening.
We arrive at Walnut Brewery, where the dudes were convening beforehand. We walk over to our friend’s large table of guys… and I think to myself, hmm not so bad – they seemed welcoming. Then he gestures to the *2nd* table of guys and in horror I realize that I’m one girl for 20 guys, and therefore I’ve completely crashed their guy night. Holy Cannoli (good thing I didn’t say that). Like before, all the guys eyes dart from me to Rob and back when he admits that it’s our anniversary. “Ohhh, well Happy Anniv!” – yeah, Rob’s either a hero or a dumbass to these guys.
That’s not the embarrassing part – it was just funny as hell. That part is coming next.
So we march over to Boulder Theater, the site of many outdoor-themed movies that I attend each year (this has relevance to what’s going to happen). A perk with hanging out with a bunch of dudes is that they tend to hand you drinks without asking, so by intermission I had downed a glass or two of wine at dinner, a beer at Walnut, and another brew (I think it was one) at the Theater. I was on the edge of being seriously intoxicated — you know when you’re kinda spaced out (you can’t remember what you were doing 10 sec prior) but all the motor functions are still working (i.e., talking, walking, etc). That’s me.
Rob is standing in the aisle, a handful of seats away, slugging more alcohol than I’ve witnessed him do in awhile (he’s not a big drinker). I can’t remember what I’m doing at that moment (it’s intermission), but I wasn’t really paying attention to much of anything, when, I hear the first part and my spacey brain instantly registers that I have to do something and quickly. Over the microphone I hear “Heather…. <big pause> …. Mc…. <another pause, and this is when my brain registers that it has to be me> Coool, wait, no, Mc..Cowl-a?”. Two well known skiers (to a ski crowd, that is — I can’t remember their names (not Lindsay Vonn or anyone that famous)) are onstage, successfully hacking away at my last name and also giving away raffle prizes.
…Before I continue it’s important to note that during every outdoor-themed movie event (Banff film fest, WM, etc.) there are raffles and there are prizes – good prizes. When your name is announced, you must react swiftly by making yourself known or else your prize will be given to someone else and it all occurs over a matter of seconds. This happens ALL THE TIME…
So I hear my name, I glance over at Rob who is smiling but not exceptionally excited. I proceed to jump up, scream (a whoo-hoo kind of scream, not the girly kind), and start to push my way through the aisle and run up to the stage (this is the well accepted and most appropriate method). I run (I don’t actually run – you all know that I don’t RUN – maybe more like skip) up to the stage, and the two unnamed ski celebrities are just curiously watching me, clearly bewildered. My stomach start to knot up when I see their faces – uh oh. Then the guy (I know his first name is Chris and he always wears that stupid visor to shadow his face so we don’t all figure out how old he truly is) turns to the audience. This is where I don’t remember as much as I would if I had been sober (thankfully). He snorts a laugh or two and says “well, everyone, this is Heather.” I wave, I think. I may have given a thumbs up (oh I really hope I didn’t, but I think I did). He then turns to me and says “You’re only a *FINALIST* so I’m not really sure why you’re up here.” Oh…. no…. I turn to the fully packed Boulder Theater and proceed to scurry back to my seat. I think people were clapping. Some smirking-sympathetic looking girl gives me a low-five on the way up the stairs (I’m thankful I didn’t trip – my usual behavior).
The odd thing is that I don’t think that many or any of the guys were paying attention to what really happened. They all seemed to think that I won a coat. That’s good.
So now I’m a finalist for a spectacular heli-ski trip that I will never go on (since I don’t ski, of course– and I definitely don’t snowshoe from atop very large and steep mountains — more on heliskiing). And I got to embarrass myself a little to boot. It was a memorable anniversary that I will never forget!
Hx
Share and Enjoy
