personal

We had not seen them since their California wedding in October 2008, when Jimmy served as groomsman for Jon, we meet Lisa (Jon’s bride) for the very first time and Ada had her first flight at 8 months old. The two have started off their marriage in some fabulous places..first Hawaii and now Colorado. They will soon be moving once again this time to the Mid Atlantic for yet another adventure. We were so happy to catch them and catch up in CO before the move.

Lisa works third shift as an RN so the day we arrived we headed to a local downtown bookstore, The Tattered Cover, while Lisa caught up on her zzz’s.

We love bookstores and this one definitely did not disappoint. The bookstore housed a fantastic kids section so while the guys caught up over coffee, Ada and I explored. Ada is sporting my favorite ever Ivey Handrafted hair barette that our sweet friend Tobi made Ada for her 1st birthday last year. She is really just now getting to wear it since it was hidden away in my lovely, ahem, husband’s ski jacket and unfortunately he had not been wearing said jacket since last year when we were actually once again in Colorado.

Jon and Lisa introduced us to several things during our visit. One delightful little introducation was to ice wine, which is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. It made a nice accompaniment to the chocolate covered strawberries we made for the guys one night.

It is a rare day in the Moncrief Household if we do not partake in tea AT LEAST one time! I have been known to finish a 20 count box of tea in a week. A tradition that started before we were married almost 8 years ago and one that I hope to continue for forever. We love sitting on separate couches, piping hot tea near by, Jimmy reading his Reader’s Digest with a magnifying glass and I knitting a new pair of socks. Okay, only 25% of that statement was true, but you get the point. So when J&L suggested we visit Celestial Seasonings, a brand of tea that has most frequently graced our household cupboard, we were thrilled. I specifically love their Raspberry Zinger, a tea I drank incessantly while pregnant after being told raspberry tea would allow for a quick and easy labor…yeah, well, don’t believe everything you hear :)

The girls partaking in some tea right before the official tour when cameras became off limits…too many proprietary machines out and about.

The gang hanging with a dress made of tea bags

Immediately following the tour. Jon and Ada stayed back since no little ones were allowed. Lisa and Jimmy sporting the super hot hair nets we were required to wear. Jimmy was particularly excited about getting to don a beard net (hot, babe, very hot! :) Lisa, please don’t hate…you really look cute and if you were a surgical nurse you would be assuming this look daily :)

I love this girl who turned 2 during our visit. I love her and this blue sucker and how it matches her baby blues…heavenly!

Dear Boulder,

You are beautiful!

Love,

Brittany

Did we get enough tea during our Celestial Seasonings tour? Never! So what did we do?…headed to The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. Lovely, lovely and lovely to say the least.

We put into practice our new found knowledge of preventing green tea from burning by steeping for only 3 to 5 minutes. I have most definitely had a nasty home brewed cup or two of green tea myself.

I enjoyed the most fantastic tofu I have ever had in my life along with polenta and roasted tomatoes. Jimmy had butternut squash with who knows what inside…whatever it was…it was good.

The next day, Ada was feeling better so we dropped her at a sitter and headed to Eldorado Canyon State Park. It was fabulous and a gentle, okay really precipitous, reminder that in our hometown of Chattanooga, TN though referred to as mountains, we really simply have hills.

The guys looking like we took them straight out of an L L Bean catalog. I mean really! These two were in the marine corp together years ago and are seriously brothers from another mother. One small moment of proof…they both wore corduroys… hiking…(seriously…who does that!?! :)

If you look REALLY closely dead center to the picture below on the left you will see what might appear to be a chigger on your computer screen, but in actuality is a rock climber. (chigger? really…that was gross…sorry)

Next we took turns taking some fun couple shots of each other

Again, Boulder even though your land is bare from the harsh cold of winter, your beauty shines through.

A continuation of our kid-less day, we headed to the most delicious India’s Pearl. I had sworn off Indian food after having a horrible experience on our 1 year anniversary vaca to London. I am happy to say, Indian food has most definitely redeemed itself. Following a delightful dinner we headed to the adorable Stella’s for some coffee.

Our favorite new tea from our CO trip. I stayed loyal to the area we were visiting (Boulder, Co) and came home with a loose leaf blend of green tea, strawberry and rhubarb, while Jimmy was a CO trader and instead brought home Yogi’s Egyptian Licorice, an Oregon tea. If we can be completely honest my Boulder Blues kicks some Egyptian Licorice tail and not to mention, the tin is way cuter than the paper box ;) Again, Thanks J&L for the introductions to our new favs!

A just-because-I-love-random shot of Ada who got really excited when I was photographing the tea pictured above.

You can’t believe we went to Colorado and didn’t go skiing/boarding, you say!?!? Well, little bambino-head was under the weather the day we were scheduled to go and I hated to leave her with a sitter we were meeting for the first time while Ada was feeling crummy, so the boys went to Keystone, Ada and I went to Colorado’s very own Chick-fil-a ;) and Lisa slept off her 3rd shift (woah, very long certainly grammatically incorrect sentence).

*****

Thank you J&L for a most fabulous time! You were perfect tour guides and oh so much fun!

*****

I suppose this is my first personal entry on this blog. Sad? Perhaps, but it really depends on if you enjoyed it or not. I hope you did, but if not hopefully it provided some good ideas if you are ever planning a road trip to the Denver/Boulder area :) Either way, thanks for hanging out with me…I know it was a long one :)

Rewind to November. My mother in law was in town, child asleep, husband surfing our plethora of 13 channels on the TV and I cozily positioned on the couch with laptop in place. Opening my in box  and expecting nothing but the norm, I was ecstatically surprised….

(You see, the day prior I woke up to an email newsletter announcing Jasmine Star’s Feb 2010 workshop. I screamed. I hopped out of bed and pretty much accosted my husband in excitement. How he was able to translate my thoughts through my screams I still do not know. Knowing how competitive this workshop could be to get into, he quickly told me to put in for it NOW! Being the good little wife that I am :) I did just that. I pushed send and quickly received a reply that the workshop had already filled up. How could this be? I responded within an hour of the announcement. I was bummed to say the least, but clung to the fact that I was on the waiting list.)

…to find my name and Jasmine Star’s name within the same email. I WAS IN! I WAS IN! I……..WAS……….IN! I jumped and screamed and jumped and screamed! My neighbors thought I had won the lottery, my child thought we had been invaded, my mother in law thought I was crazy and my husband…he knew exactly what had happened. This singularly, was one of the greatest days of my life!

So in short, yes it has taken me way to long to blog about it, but secretly…I just have not wanted it to end and when it is on the blog it means it is done…it is over…complete. But, the truth is, this is really only the beginning because what I have taken from this workshop will be with me forever. Thank you, thank you thank you Jasmine Star for being even more fabulous in real life than I ever could have imagined. The workshop. . .

I entered a beautifully lit room to find that I got to be “brittany *” for the day :) Thank you J* for the notepad, pin and handwritten note and OH so much more!

Fresh flowers cheerily adorned each table top

Jasmine’s beautiful mom who successfully home schooled (well, still is actually :) four fabulous children and lived to tell about it. I enjoyed talking to on how to do such a thing and do it well.

The next post consists of my pictures of Jodi and Matt during the workshop, but for now is a little behind the scene. Jasmine doing what she does best: teaching and photog-ing

I seriously have a girl crush on this chick. . .J* you are FABULOUS!

JD documenting the day for us. . .

One of JD or Jasmine’s shots. . .please excuse my overly white arms. I am pretty sure we could have used them as reflectors if needed :)

Peering through Jasmine’s arm, I got this shot of Jodi’s beautiful eyes.

Yes, Jasmine is fabulous. I love her laugh. . .and she even made us cry. No, she did not beat us nor smash our photog gear on the ground. She instead shared a personal story that had each of us a bit choked up…her self included. This shot is obviously documenting the former.

This shot made me laugh. Love these two…seriously, love them!

I was not the only lucky one that February day. Myself along with 19 other photographers from around the North American continent (yes, continent…one of us was from Canada), spent the day with Jasmine Star. I am so blessed to know each and everyone of you!!!

You each are kind. . .

lovable. . .

beautiful. . .

fun and silly. . .

incredibly talented. . .

a new friend. . .

a fabulous peer. . .

Thank you to each of you! Much love to you all!

Thank you JD for taking these last two! I personally love the first one the most-est :)

and I always thought Jasmine was the funny one in their relationship. . . ;)

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou