Nate and Annelisa's Virtual Portal

the ollie dog

2010-12-03T09:23:00.001-08:00

A new member of the family

2010-01-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Meet Ollie:

She normally does sit.

Snow Day!

2009-10-29T08:19:00.001-07:00

Growing up, snow days were just about the best it got. In Oregon, a half-inch snow qualifies as a blizzard and all the schools shut down. Mrs. Vaughn would lend her hill and all day the Messolines and Olsens (and assorted others throughout the years) would go sledding. Bumps of varying sizes for kids of varying braveness would be made, and we would go zipping down, then flying off that steep hillside. It didn't matter if the snow was minimal and we were more covered in cowpies than the white stuff, it was a SNOW DAY. These days held such dizzying excitement for me that in anticipation of them, when snow was just falling and not yet sticking, I would run and record the event in my never-used diary. Seriously, my childhood journals have on average one or two entries a year and each is me screaming about the weather with the words getting progressively bigger.

Since living in Utah and Colorado, snow has sadly lost some of it's allure. There are only so many times you can slip on ice, or get your pants muddy and icy, or almost rear end someone else and not have the dream fade. However, every now and then, especially after the first big snowstorm, those old feelings flicker up in me again. Snow... the wonderful homogenizing power of it. Everything is white, clean and new. Just waiting for me to go romp around in it.

And so we did:

This is Nate and me and some friends at city park. Nate's school was canceled, and though he still had to study most of the day, we got some fun in.

15 inches. Not bad for October.

This blog post reminds me of my old diaries. Nothing for months, then excitement over snow. I guess not too much has changed.

On a side note, this is my finger. Yesterday I was
using a vertical stick blender to chop up some dried apricots and was digging out the resulting goo around the blades with my finger when somehow I pressed the on button and came this close to chopping said finger off. Blood sprayed everywhere and I screamed bloody murder and Nate came running in to find me holding up my index finger with a big deep cut all around the circumference of it. Even the nail part was cut open. Because we are poor and I don't have health insurance, we forwent the hospital and bandaged it ourselves. I think it's going to be fine, but it was very terrifying. It made me think about what a klutz I am, and how if I'm not careful someday I'm probably going to die an absurd and unnecessary death.

2243 Franklin Street

2009-07-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings to the few lonely souls who somehow make it to this corner of the world wide web. As many of you know, Annelisa and I recently bought a new house. Not that the house is new; it was built in 1888, the year that Benjamin Harrison narrowly defeated Grover Cleveland in a close presidential election. At the time Colorado had been granted statehood a mere twelve years earlier and the state was still full of miners and mountain men. Although we don't know much about the 121 year history of our house, we do know that several years ago it fell into disrepair and was eventually abandoned for a period of time. Earlier this year an investor bought the dilapidated old house, renovated it, and sold it to the aforementioned young couple eager for some land where they could put down some roots. It is a new and exciting experience for us and we are looking forward to making this house our new abode. We are deeply grateful to our loving and supportive families who have helped make this opportunity possible for us.

Without further ado, here is our little house on 2243 Franklin Street:

Annelisa, a proud new homeowner, posing with our newly planted marigolds.

Annelisa painting the front door a bright blue. Annelisa has most of the creative vision for our house.

Additional photos of the interior are soon to come...

So we beat on, boats against the current..

2009-05-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

Annelisa, our friend Rocky, and her dog at the St. Mary's glacier hike trailhead.

The lake at the base of St. Mary's glacier.

Hiking up the glacier.

Grant and Carrie came to visit us a few weeks ago. Here we are at Confluence Park in Denver.

On our way to the art museum (Denver library in background).

City views on my bike ride home from school today.

Summer Archives

2009-02-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

Although I recognize that these photographs may be somewhat of an anachronism, I was desperate to find something that I could send out into cyberspace which would validate my existence on this planet. In our computer age is not enough to simply have an experience; it must be authenticated and legitimized through a process of meticulous virtual documentation. And since I have not been vigilantly documenting anything as of late, here is a glimpse of what Annelisa and I might be like now, based on photographic evidence from this past summer.

All of these pictures were taken on our trip to Oregon's famous Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, our first camping trip as newlyweds (July 2008).

Driving down the Oregon coast

Annelisa warming up by the fire

A red barrel

Embarking on an excursion into the dunes
Annelisa and lots of sand

City Park/Ethiopian Food

2009-01-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

Annelisa and I continue to live our lives within the structure and limits dictated by society. I go to medical school. Annelisa works at a library. We do not hop on freight trains bound for unknown destinations nor do we spontaneously buy one-way plane tickets to exotic foreign lands. Fortunately for us there is no need to venture out on some wild, cathartic, Kerouacian odyssey in order to experience culture and beauty. We have Ethiopian food down the street and a beautiful park a few blocks away.

Here are some pictures I took in the fall. Featured below are the Ethiopian restaurant and the lake at City Park with downtown and the mountains in the background.

A Nice Weekend in Denver

2008-10-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

I had my final anatomy exams this past Monday. It feels good to have all of those long days in the cadaver lab behind me. Annelisa and I decided to celebrate by getting out and enjoying some warm October sunshine this weekend. Yesterday we hiked up to the cliffs on Table Mountain (near Golden) and did some rock climbing with a few friends. It turns out that Annelisa is a much sturdier climber than I am. I think she climbed everything about twice as fast as me. Nonetheless, we all had a splendid time.

Then today after church we went for a bike ride around Denver. We made a big loop around the city, biking up to LoDo, then along the Platte River and Cherry Creek, out to Sloans Lake, and back home via 12th Ave through Cheesman Park. I took some nice photos of Annelisa with the downtown skyline in the background. She looks as beautiful as ever.

Annelisa in front of Union Station/Downtown

Biking around Sloans Lake

Annelisa climbing

Yes She Can (marry him)

2008-10-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

My dreams run a wide gambit. Scary, weird, boring, etc but rarely funny. Or at least they might be to me, but Nate never seems too impressed after I insist on recounting many long dreams each morning. Yes, I am one of those people. Sorry. However, this one got a hearty laugh from him this morning and I think is worth sharing:

It started out at home and I was just hanging out with the family. Melida had a new boyfriend but was being pretty secretive about him. Finally, through little hints she let it drop that they were pretty much engaged, but it had to be hush-hush because he kept a high-profile life. We were all pretty intrigued and tried to noodle the info out of her. Finally she let it spill that she dating.... Obama. The Obama. My family, on the whole, was impressed and congratulatory, but I had reservations. I didn't believe her. I kept telling her: "No way, Melida. No way. He's married and running for President and there's no way he would risk this scandal and I don't see how he would even have time for dating and this is too crazy and how would you even meet? Melida, hurt, said she could prove it. Then out came a wallet photo album of fun Obama/Melida times. I sputtered he was simply a look-alike but eventually felt I had to face the facts. My sister was dating Obama.

Lost Lake, Indian Peaks Wilderness

2008-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon Annelisa and I hiked up to Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness (near Eldora Ski Resort, west of Boulder). It was rejuvenating to be surrounded by such extraordinary scenery, far removed from civilization. A welcome respite from a rigorous week of anatomy...

Annelisa enjoying some meditation time out on a rock...

A creek we crossed...

Finally a contributing member of society

2008-09-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Annelisa here. I figured I'd add a little post myself since Nate's been doing all the work.

Denver is fun, beautiful and a great place to live. I haven't really made too many friends yet, and Nate spends a good part of his day with dead bodies, but I'm not too lonely. It's been a little boring because I still don't have a job, and job hunting is the WORST. But the good news for today is I finally got a job!

It's a fun one, working at an elementary school. For half the day I work with a boy with Spina Bifida, and for the other half I am the school librarian. That's right, I am basically Mrs. Van Horn for Brush College alumni. They are too poor to hire a real librarian so I get to be the one to manage things. It's also only about four miles away so Nate and I will both be commuting via bicycle. And the best part about it is it has school vacation time. So I get a long Christmas break and get to come home for longer. And I just found out Kaisa and family are coming home Christmas as well! I could not be more excited about this.

Nate's done a good job chronicling our adventures so far but he's left out some of the more interesting parts. On the day we climbed Grays Peak we forgot our sunglasses and when applying lotion I missed a good chunk around my eyes (raccoon style). Sadly, my eyes and a mask-like portion of my face were horribly sunburned. I looked like a demon and was pretty snowblind and could only see blurily. Then I had to go to church and teach some 6-7 year olds about making wise choices. I'm pretty sure they thought I was a monster. We took some photos, but somehow they disappeared. What a tragedy.

And since posts aren't as fun without photos, here are some of Washington Park last Sunday:

Our normal park is City Park (only 2 1/2 blocks away) but we switched it up and biked around Washington Park for the Sunday afternoon. Denver really has the most beautiful parks with lakes and animals and winding trails. City Park definitely deserves its own post and Nate will probably oblige sometime in the future.

Our bikes. Mine is a craigslist steal for $10.

Nate is really quite a good amateur photographer. Might the Olsens have another Matt on their hands? I can only hope.

Fall Foliage on the Colorado Trail

2008-09-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Annelisa and I decided to drive up to Kenosha Pass to see some beautiful Colorado fall foliage. We hiked several miles along the Colorado Trail and were awed by the glorious beauty of aspen gold. It was the perfect way to find some peace and solitude before my next anatomy exams tomorrow...

An Early Snow on Grays and Torreys

2008-09-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Annelisa and I went up to the mountains with a few friends to hike Grays and Torreys Peaks, two of Colorado's fourteeners on the Front Range. Undeterred by deep drifts of snow and a frigid wind, we slogged onward and upward and gained both summits. What a gorgeous day it was to be in the mountains...

Our New House

2008-08-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

My how time flies. It has been almost a month since Annelisa and I moved out to the Mile High City to seek our fortune and start our new life together. When we first arrived, naturally the first order of business was to find a place to live. After four long days of searching, we finally found the perfect place: an old purple Victorian house on Detroit Street, three blocks south of Denver's beautiful City Park. The house had been converted into apartment units and it just so happened that the one available for rent was a small studio on the second floor with the huge balcony overlooking the street. The moment we set foot inside we both knew that it was the place we wanted to call home. After a quick tour of the apartment, we promptly drove to the management office in Lakewood and signed a year-long lease. This involved a desperate high-speed race across town to make it there before another girl who had toured the apartment with us and also wanted to rent the place. Suffice it to say that we got to the office just in the nick of time, only a few minutes before this other girl. She was a worthy opponent, but we wanted it more...and perhaps we had an unfair advantage because I knew my way around the streets of Lakewood (my hometown).

Anyways, to avoid getting bogged down in too many details, I will end the story there. Curiously, it doesn't seem nearly as exciting in writing as it does in my head. I apologize if that wasn't as entertaining for you to read as it was for me to write. At least we have some pretty pictures to spice up this blog entry...

We hope you'll come visit us in the old purple house on Detroit if you're ever passing through Denver!

Annelisa's First 14er

2008-08-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to our virtual home away from home. After several months of postponement Annelisa and I finally decided to create our own little portal into cyberspace for all of your enjoyment. Although I have never been the technologically savvy one in this relationship, Annelisa has nevertheless charged me with the responsibility of this blog's creation and maintenance.

I must say upfront that if you are looking for a blog that will amuse and entertain you with cleverness and wit you may be a bit disappointed. Basically, we just want to share a little bit of our lives with you all. So, if you are looking for a blog that will keep you updated on all of Nate and Annelisa's adventures in Denver, then you have come to the right place.

That said, I would like to report on our first mountain climbing expedition together in the Colorado Rockies! Annelisa picked Mt. Sherman (14, 036 ft. above sea level, located just west of Fairplay, Colorado) for her first 14er summit attempt. Despite a pessimistic weather forecast it turned out to be a warm sunny day and we enjoyed a great climb surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery in Colorado. No rare birds were sighted nor do I have any strange happenings to report. It was simply a beautiful day on a beautiful mountain with my beautiful wife. I couldn't have been happier. Hope you enjoy the photos...