Anniversary Trip to Estes Park, Pt. 1

This past week, Nathan and I, along with Isaac, were able to get away for a few days to celebrate our first anniversary in Estes Park, Colorado.  It was a delightful trip of rest and relaxation in the mountains, complete with a cabin on the river, a private hot tub, fishing, hiking, miniature golf, and the most beautiful scenery!

I took a lot of pictures (mostly of the spectacular scenery!) so I will be breaking them up into several posts over the next few days.

Our cabin on the river, cozy and quaint!

Our first morning there, we tried some fishing both on the river...

...and at Lake Estes.

It was cloudy and COLD!

But oh-so-beautiful.

Our little trooper!

No fish were biting that morning.

On our way back to the cabin, we saw several elk grazing in someone's backyard.

Little house in the mountains.

More elk!

After a lovely soak in the hot tub followed by a delicious nap, the sun came out in full so we decided to head back down to the river in front of our cabin. 

Spring is arriving in Estes Park!

It was much warmer and very pleasant to be outside!

Since Isaac was still sleeping soundly, we simply took the baby monitor with us!

It was a great setup. :)

The Big Thompson River

At last!  Nathan's patience paid off!

He caught a rainbow trout!

To be continued...

Happy Tuesday!

The Boppy-Lovin' Baby Babbler

All in a Day's Work

My little laundry helper.

"Who...me?"

"Yes, you, Son."

"Aw, Mom!  You've got to be kidding!"

"You mean you'd rather relax on the kitchen table while I do the laundry by myself?"

"You got it."

"Ahh...this is the life!"

I guess we'll just save those 'learning to be a helper' days for another time.

*smile*

The Faces of *Adorable*

A Delicious Recipe to Share!

Last night, I had a hankering for soup.  We had opened the windows to air out the house and by the afternoon, things were a little chilly around here!  Soup just sounded like it would hit the spot.

After a bit of searching on the internet for a good recipe, I came across this one.  I just so happened to have some cabbage in the fridge that my mom had bought while she was here but I had never used (we just never eat cabbage!).  And I had a whole package of smoked turkey sausage begging to be eaten!  So Cabbage and Smoked Sausage soup it would be. :)

The results were DELICIOUS!  I had two heaping bowls full and easily could have eaten more, but I decided to be a good girl and stop there. :)  Even my husband, who is neither a big soup fan nor a cabbage eater thought the dish was yummy and full of flavor.  

I did make a few changes to the recipe:

- I did not have beans, but would not have used them if I had.  (Isaac doesn't do well if I eat beans!)

- I did not have tomato sauce

- I used a can of diced tomatoes instead of crushed, since that's what I had on hand

- I used "Better than Bouillon" chicken broth base out of a jar instead of a bouillon cube

- I had to add quite a bit more water than it called for to make up for the lack of bean liquid and tomato sauce...plus I think it would have needed more water anyway

If you are looking for a hearty and healthy soup recipe, I highly recommend trying this one out!