372 Months and 8 Months

In the last week we had two big milestones in the Messner house.  I celebrated my 31st birthday and Emerson celebrated 8 months of baby bliss (or more likely, 8 months of tolerating her parents and beagles).  Seriously, she has to put up with this sort of business day in and day out. . .goldfish leg warmers, bunny hats, dogs wearing bowties.

 Emerson will all of her Easter loot.

Stan waiting for Riley to prepare him a glass of wine.  She is perusing the selection.

My birthday came first and I'm the most important so let's start with my birthday--yeah right, we know who rules the roost over here, regardless, we'll start with my birthday.  This year I decided to celebrate my birthday all weekend long.  On Friday we went downtown to meet friends and celebrate opening day.  We didn't have tickets, but we still had a hot dog and beer at Biker Jim's to feel special.  Emerson liked watching the crazy people.

Later that evening, Anna and I went to a drinking and painting class.  We aced drinking.  Painting--not so much.  We opted not to paint along with the rest of the class.  They were painting a lame interpretation of the golden gate bridge.  Instead we commemorated the activities that were to follow.  Drinking and biking.  Anna stuck to bikes, while I attempted to paint some beer cans too.  The only "compliments" I got from the art teacher:  "wow.  that's a lot of colors." and "you paint a pretty good beer can from memory."  Despite our lack of talent, we had a lot of fun.

 On Saturday (my actual birthday), we met up with friends for a bicycle brewery tour.  I have to admit I was nervous.  I haven't seriously rode a bike since middle school.  I'm more of the casual, slow, ride serpentine down the middle of the street type of cyclist.  Long story short: I rode to 5 different breweries, enjoyed beers with good friends, didn't crash, and came home to lots of cake.

Emerson and I before the bike brewery tour.  She stayed home with her nanny.

The crew before heading off to the first brewery.

3rd Stop.  Check out my Jammy Pack.  It's a fanny pack that is also a speaker for your ipod.  Josh gave it to me for my birthday.  I love it.

Now for the little lady.  On April 8th, Emerson turned 8 months old.  Here she is modeling her 8 month birthday sticker.  I have to keep it out of her line of sight so she doesn't try to eat it.

The picture below was taken after she found the sticker, smashed it, and started to chew on it.

At 8 months Emerson is doing great.  She loves to eat, jabbers and screams (happy screams, of course), and she just started to crawl this past weekend.  Things are going to start to get interesting.

First Friday Fun!

Josh and I are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that hosts a First Friday event.  We are especially lucky because it is literally 1/2 mile from our house and we can easily walk to get there.  If you aren't familiar with First Friday it is a monthly event that takes place, yup, on the 1st Friday.  They usually happen on a street that is home to many art galleries.  In my neighborhood that street is Tennyson, and in addition to art galleries staying open late and serving drinks and snacks, there are now bands that play, street vendors serving a variety of food from crepes to clam chowder, and my favorite new addition. . . the Denver Cupcake Truck!!  More on the cupcake truck in a bit. . .

We started out our recent First Friday adventure with our friends Brent and Catherine.  Catherine had just gone past her due date and looked like she was about to pop, but made the walk down Tennyson like a champ.  The last First Friday we attended with Cat and Brent was in December, before they even broke the news about the baby.  Time Flies! 

Our first stop was at the Red Door, an antique shop on 44th Ave.  We found tons of cool stuff.  My favorites were a tray of copper mugs, a baton/hoop thing with fringe and sequins, a pink sombrero and an orange Denver Bronco's cowboy hat.  I wanted to get the cowboy hat for Josh, but it cost $250.  The saleslady said it had "a history."  My guess is that is belonged to the Barrel Man.

We visited a few other galleries, sipped on some wine and made our way south down Tennyson looking for a place to get a bite to eat.  We decided to go to Patrick Carroll's and reminice since it is where the four of us used to go play trivia many many Wednesdays throughout the past two years.  Low and behold, right in front of the pub. . . The Denver Cupcake Truck!  I had never seen it before, but I'm sure it was fate that we finally ran into each other.  I didn't hesitate to buy a cupcake for each of us to eat after dinner.  I was worried they would leave before it was time for dessert.  Apparently, they drive to different locations all the time and you have to follow them on Twitter or Facebook to find out where they are each day--in case you get a craving.  We ordered the following:  Rockin' Red Velvet, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Overload (chocolate on chocolate w/ chocolate chips on top), and a Denver Snowball (almond cake w/ chocolate frosting dipped in coconut).

After a very yummy dinner at the pub we destroyed the cupcakes.  It was a delicious masacre.

As we continued our walk down Tennyson we made two other exciting discoveries, scratch that, three exciting discoveries.  They all involve food.  Of course.

1.  "the Hole"  A restaurant specializing in coffee, beer and doughnuts.  The highlight of the place appears to be a walk-up window for orders on the go.  I can't wait 'til it opens!

2.  "Hops and Pie"  A gourmet pizza and beer joint, yum!  It is supposed to open the summer.  Keep your fingers crossed.

3.  A new bakery is on the way!  I can't remember the name on the sign, but it is near the Wine Jester.  Ahh!  Two of my favorite things right next to one another.  I'm gonna be drunk on pastries and wine!

It was a great night!  I'm so excited for the next First Friday I'm able to attend.  I'm thinking October. . . by then Catherine will be able to tote little Baby C around in a baby bjorn or whatever those baby carriers are called.  Adorable!