every day love

Favorite Things

2012-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

This week I made several discoveries:

1. Family is the best thing in the world.

2. Kabocha squash, with a little bit of coconut oil and some cinnamon, is probably the second best thing.

But my favorite discovery for the week is number three.

And that is this fantastic app.

Please excuse the cheesy screen-shot photo. It doesn't even begin to express how cool this app is.

See, the app {which I hear is related to a book, although I haven't taken the time to really sort it out} gives you one love "dare" to complete each day with your spouse in mind. They're nothing crazy - at least not so far, although I'm only on day four - just small things, like making a point of not saying anything negative to your spouse for the day, or sending them an email or text just to tell them you were thinking about them.

It's important to be truly intentional about the way that we love each other - and I think that this applies to any and all relationships. Falling into patterns, good or bad, is easy and sometimes awful. If I'm living out "good" patterns of loving Shayne, but living them out as pure habit, unthinking, is that any better or worse than living out "bad" patterns of loving him?

In either case, this app has been my secret project for the week {and the next several...40 days of this sounds like fun to me!}, and I've been thrilled every morning to wake up and see what my next dare is and how I get to focus in on loving a person who is so good at loving me.

Can't wait to find out what's in store for day five {aside from some long-overdue snowboarding with a couple of friends}!

TGIF,

anne

Epcot: Instagrammed

2012-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

A whole lot of fun in no particular order.

An Adventure {Orlando}

2012-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Last week, Shayne and I were lucky enough to get to attend a work conference in Orlando, Florida. We spent a couple of days attending seminars, taking notes, learning about social media {which prompted me to finally plug in to Twitter, just for fun} and munching on some tasty food.

We also got to enjoy the sunshine and 70 degree weather for four days! And missed a snowstorm back home in Colorado. Well, shoot.

One of the highlights of our trip, though, was the day after the conference when my parents and Shayne and I loaded up a hotel shuttle and headed over to...drumroll please...Disney World! There may or may not have been over-excited jumping up and down involved in this process. I can't help it, Disney just makes my heart happy. Plus, I'm the only one in our group who had {despite the numerous visits to Disneyland in my past} never been.

Which is how I got this pin.

I will probably frame it.

We picked, from among the parks, Epcot. And it was perfect. I'm not sure if there was a relationship to it being Super Bowl weekend, but the park was empty. The lines were short, the walkways uncrowded, the sun warm and we managed to spend a relaxed day wandering through attractions and enjoying Epcot's World Showcase which includes snippets of a whole list of countries from around the world.

Did you know that EPCOT originally stood for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow? And that Walt initially intended it to include a residential community that could be a test site for city organization? I'll admit, I probably would have loved living in a literal Disney World, but I'm glad that the park turned out the way it did in the long run...

Because, although we had a blast on the rides {Soarin', Mission: SPACE, the IllumiNations fireworks show and Spaceship Earth were all favorites, though this black thumbed kid loved Living With The Land - an attraction highlighting some very odd and very tasty-looking hybrid fruits and veggies - most of all} {call me a nerd and be done with it}, the best part of the day was our slow crawl through the Showcase.

We went to Canada, where a film narrated by Martin Short made us laugh and inspired us to head north a few latitudes to explore a whole different breed of Rocky Mountain and European-influenced cities. We ate lunch in the UK, munching on fish and chips and trying to keep a flock of birds from devouring our meal for us. {Note: if you go to Epcot, please don't feed the animals. Because if you do, they start to think that everyone is supposed to feed them, and then bird-and-squirrel-fearing folks like myself can practically dip their french fries in the anxiety rolling off their backs. I mean, just saying. In consideration of us ornithobes.}

France stands out in my mind as a "country" I could have enjoyed all day: a film filled with open countrysides, shots of the Riviera and the streets of Paris set my mind to calculating the potential costs of an overseas visit and the patisserie tucked in the corner had enough sweets to tempt the palate of the strongest post-holiday-dieters. A street side comedy act about a wine steward was spent sipping a tasty French wine from a plastic cup - a glass that the vendors made me work for by having a name that three years of high school French could never have prepared me for.

We more or less skipped Morocco once we established that Rick's Cafe Americain was nowhere to be found and headed straight for Japan, enjoying sushi and grilled fish for dinner and practicing our Japanese "thank you's" and numbers one through five with a server from Tokyo.

Italy is about where I almost sat down to stay. But we passed by the pizza and gelato, granting mercy to our majority of lactose-intolerant bellies, choosing to enjoy the taste of Venice and Rome and an open-air piazza and settling for a couple of American coffees instead of better-than-ice-cream goodness.

This is about the time that a fife and drums beckoned us right over to the good old United States of America, sent us into a Colonial mansion, and entertained us with yet another film - this one leading us through American history with a little bit of help from Ben Franklin and Mark Twain {cameo appearances by Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, among others!}. Have I ever told you that I like America? Because I really do. Films like that get me all fired up and proud inside, excited about where our country has come from and where it has the potential to go!

But speaking of films with historical significance...we made one last major stop in the Showcase before heading to save a seat for Epcot's fireworks display. China. Talk about history. And great walls. And Forbidden Cities. And one more for the Top Ten List. The only problem was convincing Shayne that he did not need to buy a Samurai sword in the gift shop on our way out the door.

Oh, Disney World. How unusual you are. It was strange, almost, going to Epcot with approximately 57 Disneyland trips under my belt. For one thing, I kept calling Epcot Disneyland. And for another...they're so different! Someday I'd like to go back and spend a little more time exploring the different parts of Disney World and all it has to offer {and, you know, stop by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter}, but for now all I can think of is all the incredible places around the world that there are to see. Epcot, instead of making me feel like I was truly getting a taste of how big and diverse our world is, simply fueled my desire to explore the real thing myself. One of my favorite parts of the day was talking with my parents and Shayne about the top five places in the world that each of us would like to visit - the answers reaching from South Carolina to Athens and everywhere in between!

Which means, in the end, that I can't wait to see where the future takes us and what we'll get to explore next.

Over and out,
anne

Weekend in Numbers

2012-02-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

Someday I'll give up iPhoneography and go back to my SLR. But for now:

2 plane flights {DEN-MCO, MCO-DEN}

with 1 2 am wake-up call

1 Super Bowl

enough guacamole to last four quarters

and 3,278 tortilla chips to scoop it up with and put it in our bellies

We had a busy weekend with some brand new adventures {which I'll be sharing soon}! Back to the real world today. Happy Monday!

xo,

anne

Favorite Things

2012-02-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

This one is beyond simple: the song in my head all week.

Take it away, Ben Howard.

{Today's Top Ten: Places We Want To Go}

2012-01-31T06:41:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks, Shayne and I have been toying with the idea of going somewhere for spring break, or as soon as school gets out. Here's the list of adventures we've started researching {plus a little bit of Anne daydreaming}. Does anywhere on our travel list spark your interest?

1. Belize. Mayan ruins. Tropical forests. Crystal clear water. Need we say more?

2. Athens, Greece. Shayne insists that Italy is not worth seeing because all the Romans did was steal stuff from the Greeks. I'm biased towards Italy on this one {four months of gelato and cheese in Florence will do that to you}, which ultimately means that...

3. Rome comes in at number three. Because the only way to describe this city is epic.

4. Even though we theoretically just wrapped up talking about Italy, this place is special enough to have it's own spot on the list. Cinque Terre. My pitch for this one is small-town feel, and one of the prettiest hikes I've ever been on. And gelato. Always gelato.

5. Shayne and I spent at least an hour the other day trying to establish what exactly is on the Seven Wonders of the World list. Apparently there's quite a bit of controversy...and more than one list. Who knew?! But this place makes it on at least one, and we're not snobs when it comes to wonders. Plus, we're at elevation, Maccu Picchu is at elevation, hiking there would be a walk in the park!

6. Ireland. Because Frommer's website has a "Best Ruins" list for the country. How. Cool. Is. That.

7. New Zealand. Maybe for a Lords of the Rings tour...maybe not. Just saying.

8. Sticking a little bit closer to home now: Yellowstone National Park. Road trips + National Parks = Fantastic. Someday I'll probably end up posting the photo of Shayne standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon...even though it gives me the heebie jeebies. Don't quite know why I wasn't insisting he wear a rock climbing harness {or tie himself to the railing} at the time.

9. Just because you can't drive to Yellowstone and not include Glacier.

10. And, last, most improbable {if only because of the number of poisonous snakes that reside there}, but certainly not least: Thailand.

That about wraps things up for now. What's on your list of adventures these days?

ttfn,

the mombers

{On My Mind} Peanut Butter Cup Bars

2012-01-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

Before we go any further, I need to tell you something: these things are ridiculous. They're crunchy, creamy, chocolatey and just the right amount of sweet. They're borderline heavenly, and if there are any other words to describe how absolutely perfect these bars are, I've lost them because I'm too busy remembering what they taste like.

Remembering what they taste like, of course, because they seem to have vanished.

Okay, now go make these. And try really hard not to eat them straight out of the dish. With a spoon. {Or fork. We're not picky.}

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups crushed Rice Chex
3 to 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup butter
1 {12 oz.} bag chocolate chips

How-To:

1. Melt butter in microwave and stir into peanut butter.

2. Mix Rice Chex crumbs and powdered sugar into peanut butter/butter combination until well combined. Press the mixture into a 9 x 13 pan and spread it evenly. {Note: we usually line our pan with parchment or wax paper to make bar removal easier.}

3. Melt chocolate chips in microwave {or in a double boiler}. Spread over peanut butter mixture.

4. Chill in refrigerator until chocolate sets, then cut into bars {we have found that if you let the chocolate get too cold, it tends to crack every which way when you're attempting to cut it into nice, neat lines. A warm knife helps, but the best way to go about it seems to be getting to the cutting before it's all hard as a rock.}

5. Eat as many as you want. Usually it's good to let them chill and set for a couple of hours, and we keep ours in the fridge because we like them nice and cold.

We also recommend, aside from devouring these instantly, mixing them into ice cream via blender or good old-fashioned spoon smashing.

...and a Song

2012-01-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

So. Gosh. Dang. Good. Makes me want to hop on my pony and ride slowly into the sunset towards the border.

Happy Weekend!

A Sunset...

2012-01-28T18:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the sky's view of sunset over the Western Rockies. Sometimes sitting in the window seat of an airplane is the best place in the world.

{A Love Letter}

2012-01-26T10:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Pinterest,

The moment I saw you, I loved you. Your clean template. Your myriad photos of tasty food. Your plethora of do-it-yourself craft links. I could scarcely believe that such a website existed.

And so, I promptly checked to see if you needed me to work for you. If you wanted a coffee runner. A mail-girl. Someone to sweep the floors. Write for your blog.

But you live in Palo Alto.

That is a lot of miles away from Larkspur, CO. I would Google Map it, but I’m already depressed.

Instead, I will quietly peruse your pages. I will create pin boards and organize my pins. I will obsess over the meals I could be making and contemplate twine-hung photos in vintage frames. I will go to Goodwill on Saturdays and daydream about finding the perfect end table and painting it mustard yellow.

You make Facebook boring.

Love,

Anne

P.S. If you ever move to Colorado, or even Utah, please give me a ring.

P.P.S. If you're not already on Pinterest...well, follow me, I know the way!

{Shayne Momber, who has Pinterest to thank for at least half of the ridiculously tasty things we eat, approves this message.}

Weekend in Numbers

2012-01-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

85 mph winds trying to blow down our house
3 fires in our fireplace for 3 days of keeping warm and cozy
1 trip to the airport to say goodbye to brother
1 stop on the way back to this happy place (from the book-filled dreamy photo above)
2 movie nights...in a row!

All those numbers? They mean that this girl is all quality-timed up from one very perfect weekend.

Happy, happy Monday!

Banana Pancakes

2012-01-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

In honor of Sunday morning's grilled salmon, eggs-over-medium and {believe it or not} literal banana pancakes {made with...drumroll please...one ripe banana and one beaten egg, mixed together until smooth, sprinkled with a little cinnamon and fried in a frying pan until browned and oddly perfect} breakfast, I bring you the gentle strum of a surfside song...

Now I'ma go make me some more pancakes. And pretend we're in Hawaii.

xo,

anne

Moonrise Kingdom

2012-01-20T06:46:00.001-08:00

I think I want to see this movie.

Favorite Thing

2012-01-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

If we're being completely, totally, honest with ourselves...I think there's a very good chance that both Shayne and I would admit that this lovely little video game has given our lives some very happy moments lately {especially when played with brother}.

It's certainly added a few years worth of laughter to an otherwise incredibly busy week. Give four people Wii controllers, a Super Mario Bros. character, a Yoshi to ride and eight {well, more, really} worlds of mushroom monsters and lava pits and it's almost guaranteed for comic relief to occur at some point. So. Good.

Happy Friday!
mario & luigi

{A Love Letter}

2012-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Dear January 19, 2012 Weather in Larkspur, CO {Monument, too},

You are, in your mid-winter weirdness, more than I ever could have hoped for. You bring sunshine and temperatures warm enough to walk through parking lots in long-sleeved shirts and moccasins. You tempt me into wondering if, somehow, spring is here, and summer and vegetable gardens are lurking just around the corner...

I don't even mind that you're kind of windy. In fact, I'll take the wind. If it means that it's going to be 44 degrees Fahrenheit at 9:25 p.m.!

The best part about you might be that you're nothing like the weather in our neighboring mountains, which have received ten inches of snow in the past 48 hours. You provide the perfect opportunity for me to sit at home in the sunny corner of the house and ponder whether or not I'd like to spend tomorrow carving through sheets of fresh powder while wrapped in my snowboarding gear...or if I'd rather spend the day, again, catlike in my corner and bask in your warmth.

Feel free to stay a while.

Sincerely,
Anne

P.S. You make Canada sound like a frozen plain.

Yesterday and Good Morning

2012-01-18T07:14:00.001-08:00

I love days like yesterday in Colorado, when it's so cold and so dry that the snow you wake up to find in the morning spends the day blowing like glitter in the sun at your car windshield and the clouds never really decide if they're fog, or part of the sky after all. They just swirl and swirl and finally disappear.

I'm on the road today, so Shayne sent me a good-morning text and a glimpse of sunrise from home.

Thank goodness for iPhones, yes?

ttfn,
anne

Weekend in Numbers

2012-01-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

1 small group launch meeting {three cheers for getting connected and community!}
42 {plus at least 42 more} awesome spices and seasonings at Penzey's Spices
...and 3 in my bag headed home
2 brown eyes on our weekend's puppy-sitting stint
5 pounds of tri tip steak from Costco in our fridge, just waiting to be grilled and get in our bellies

xo, happy Monday!

Favorite Thing{s}

2012-01-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

Far and away my favorite thing this week was showing my momma how to use this lovely little iPhone app. May it rock her world as it has mine.

But, because it's hard to really pick favorites, I'll have to admit that there's a pretty unfairly-picked {read: Anne is biased beyond all reason} runner-up. With everyone getting engaged - or at least managing to make us feel that way - Shayne and I spent some quality time this week remembering our own wedding. We talked about the details we loved and were so excited to share, how perfect it was and how we wouldn't have changed a thing - unless it was to give ourselves the magical ability to both be in our wedding {as ourselves, of course} and attend it as guests at the same time.

Sigh. Guess we'll have to stick to pictures.

xoxo,

anne

{A Love Letter}

2012-01-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Weekend,

After two weeks of Christmas vacation, five days of work come as a shock! We can't wait for you to get here so we can sleep in, hang out in our sweaties all day, go for a run (or just watch a movie) and make some awesome breakfast. Eggs and bacon are just that much better at 9 am on a Saturday.

Yours truly,
Shayne & Anne

{Today's Top Ten}

2012-01-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

The things that are making us happy right now.

1. Fresh snow in the mountains.

2. These mugs. Tea, coffee, swoon.

3. Okay, these mugs too. Yes, I'm a sucker for a pretty mug. Especially when it has tea in it. And is sitting on my night stand.

4. January birthday adventures.

5. The fact that playing with our Christmas toys isn't getting old.

6. Watching football together on the couch by the fire. 'Til next year, NCAA.

7. Gluten-free pizza that still tastes good.

8. The public library.

9. A woodpile to defeat all woodpiles. I may have mentioned this yesterday. Believe me, the warmth it will bring to our wood-burning stove makes it well worth the follow-up. Plus, the dang thing is as tall as I am and it barely fits in my photo! And that's only part of it!

10. Talking about where we want to go for spring break. How about here? Or here? Just a thought...

over and out,
shayne & anne

Weeked in Numbers

2012-01-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

In honor of my math-minded husband, this weekend was:

2 NFL playoff games on tv
16 slices of Beau Jo's pizza
527 pieces of wood, split and stacked on our woodpile
5 inches of fresh snow in the mountains
1 candle for one birthday peanut butter bar

xo

p.s. happy birthday, best friend!

Engagement

2012-01-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

My brother {who used to be my little brother. Six feet and NYU change things} met this wonderful girl last summer. She's fun and quirky and smart and we all heart her. Then, on Christmas Day, he got down on one knee and she said yes.

We think they both made fantastic decisions.

This week, before they left to head back to their respective schools, we found an afternoon, some sunlight, a few historic {read: old} buildings and had a very non-professional but excessively fun photoshoot.

Every time I look at them I end up with a face-hurting smile.

Also, I want to live in that old schoolhouse. Who's with me?

Favorite Things {Christmas Edition}

2012-01-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas break, which, between our varied jobs, we still manage to have, is almost over. As in less than 48 hours away. Which means that this is the perfect time to reminisce...about all of our favorite things.

The best part{s} of Christmas were:

Having our very own tree.

Making homemade Christmas presents.

And awesome gluten and dairy free chewy sweet spicy gingersnap cookies.

Hanging out with some of our favorite people ever on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day {brother and fiancee! - more on this later - and brown-eyed Dagny, Mom and Dad and yours trulies}.

Spending a week in the mountains, skiing, snowboarding, and playing board games to our hearts' content.

And getting some of the coolest gifts ever. Shayne won't stop playing with his long enough for me to take a picture of them.

We're so blessed.

Merry Christmas to all!

xoxo,

anne and instagram