Nana Visits

Joe's Mom, Nana, came out to watch Georgia for us while we went to the 'Doolie Retreat'. Georgia and Nana had a great time together. They played, read lots of books, went to the park. We're very grateful she was able to come out. It served us and was a great little break for me.

Garden of the Gods

We went to Garden of the Gods a couple of Friday's ago with some of our friends. There were 3 kids with us, so it was quite the leisurely stroll. We enjoyed the scenery none the less.

Hey, Clara, why don't you get out and play?

Um, Mom? I'm not so sure about this.

The little boy in the picture is Joah Bryant. Georgia LOVES playing with him. She gets extremely excited whenever she sees him knowing they are going to get to play together. He's 3 so he shows her the ropes. The funny thing is with their light blond hair and blue eyes they look like they could be siblings!

My Little Gardner

Georgia loves playing in the dirt. She digs in my flower pots and picks flowers to try and plant them in the empty pots I have. I think we might have a future gardner on our hands!

4 year Anniversary

This entry is about our anniversary/food critic column. August 19th Joe and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We both think it's hard to believe we've only been married 4 years. It seems a lot longer than that, in a good way. We've packed a lot into 4 years. Lived in FL, NC and CO. Gone through two deployments. Had a baby. Visited LOTS of places. Overall had a great time.

For our anniversary we had planned to go to Shuga's for dinner and then a crepe place downtown for dessert. However, Joe was able to put his 'J-ness' aside and we changed plans midway through our date. We did go to Shuga's for drinks and appetizers. While there we decided to find some place else for dinner. We drove around looking for what sounded good. In Joe Brown fashion he saw the of the beaten path ethnic places and wanted to eat there. I humored him, as I often do, :) and we ended up at Rumi's Kabab, an Afgan restaurant. The food was excellent and we enjoyed getting to talk with the owner for a bit. By the end of the meal we were stuffed, so unfortunately we didn't have dessert. Crepes will have to wait for another date night. We had a really fun time together.

Shuga's: Shuga's is a hip, local bar on a quite street in downtown. The atmosphere is very casual and laid back with great outdoor seating. They are known for their drink menu. Joe had an IPA which he quite enjoyed. Don't let the can fool you. I had one of their mixed drinks. It was good, but I do think they are overpriced. The mixed drinks average $8 and are served in small glasses. The menu is fairly simple. They have a few appetizers to choose from, salads, soups and sandwiches. The food is well priced. We had the Chop Board. It was great and included plenty of food for two. We were actually kind of full after eating it. The board included two kinds of cheese, pancheta, salami, bread, spicy chipotle cashews and dried apricots. Overall we enjoyed Shuga's and will frequent there again.

Rumi's Kabab: Rumi's Kabab is located on Bijou St. downtown. They offer a large lunch buffet and full dinner menu. The food is mostly found in the Kabul region of Afghanistan. It reminded me a little of mexican with some of the spices used. There was cumin and cilantro in a number of dishes. We enjoyed hot black chai tea, lamb, rice. The rice was excellent. It was very flavorful and so moist. Joe's meal came with two kinds of rice. One was more traditional with cumin seed in it and the other had spinach mixed in. The lamb came in a spinach and red sauce. It was well cooked and moist. (Sorry! I didn't write down the names of what we ate!) Mine wasn't quite was I was expecting. The description of mine was it was ground lamb and veggies in a dough with sauce. I was expecting more like an empanada type dish, but instead it was more like an Italian dish. The meat was encased in a light, almost rice paper, noodle with a tomato based sauce with yogurt. It was only ok. Prices were reasonable about $12 for a dinner entree which came with bread and their chile dipping sauce. I think next time we'll try out the lunch buffet to be able to try out more dishes. If you're looking for something different to try for dinner that is also delicious, check out Rumi's Kabab.