Thanksgiving fun

We were so happy to have my family out for thanksgiving. This is two years in a row that they've made the long trip from Arkansas to spend the Holiday with me and Duke. I was informed by Grandma Crockett that this would be the last year they wouldn't be visiting home (Osceola, Ar) for Turkey day... I am very grateful for her sharing them with me these past two years :)
We also had Sharry(Duke's cousin) over - who we so enjoyed her visting with us! She managed to survive being around the Crocketts and we had fun playing NERTS... for those of you who don't know Nerts, it is my favorite card game ever! Kinda like solitare, just a little more involved with the more people that play.
We had a great Thanks giving dinner, here's a few things we cooked:
Turkey (with an apricot glaze.. yum!), Dressing(two kinds of dressing), macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, greenbean casserole, corn casserole, deviled eggs, ham, rolls, sweet potatoes, banana cream pie, chocolate cream pie and pecan pie! Oh so good :) Mom and I got up at 6:30a.m. and cooked till we ate at 2:00p.m.! So fun... here's some pics of the fun.



And, the turkey! Rubbed with Herbs and an apricot glaze was delicious!

Yum, Chocolate and Banana Cream pies!











Yum, homemade pecan pie!










Dinnertime!











Can't go wrong with Nerts, (for me anyways!)

Adventures in Pumpkin Bread!

So, I decided to try my hand at making pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I searched and found a recipe online and decided to go for it. After going to the store and purchasing the ingredients (mainly the pumpkin and nutmeg) I thought I was set. Until, Alison and Brandon came over and I told them I was going to make pumpkin bread and Alison so kindly let me know that you don't make pumpkin bread with pumpkin pie filling, you make it with pure pumpkin! Oh! Who knew? :) So, my bread making was delayed a few days until I was able to make it back to the store to purchase the correct pumpkin. The recipe made quite a bit and turned out very good! Here's a pic of the yummy bread!

Voting

I meant to post this on election day, but the days just kept slipping by. I couldn't get Duke to behave so, here's our series of pictures which we just ended up with the stickers on our faces, I gave up trying to get the "good picture"! Nonetheless, We voted :)

Summer Fun

I'm playing a little catch-up on a few of the things we did this summer. The first thing, that my grandmother wouldn't be so proud of, is when the DNC was in Denver, we decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go downtown and see what all the talk was all about. Don't worry grandma, the only thing we did was ate dinner and walked around the main streets down town. It was pretty amazing. There were so many people - definately a great time to people watch! It still gives me the chills to remember how many police were on ever corner for blocks and blocks in a row... Here's a few pics of the fun. Brad and Carena made the adventure downtown with us!



We traveled with Brad and Carena to Glennwood Springs, Colorado. We went to an adventure park that you had to take a gondola up to. The park is so high in the mountains, you can't see it from the road.

This allowed Duke to experience riding his first mechanical bull! Don't worry, we both had bruises after riding the bull... we both made it 8 seconds, I think we're ready for the real thing!



Morghan's first rock climbing wall...


The most awesome Alpine slide ever! If you'll notice, Duke has the handles pushed all the way down, which meant we didn't use the breaks the entire time, which means I screamed and held on for tight the entire ride! They assured us the cart wouldn't come off the track, which was a good thing, since everything surrounding the track was mountainous slopes and trees!


The next day we went on a 1.5 mile hike to find a hidden lake. It was an awesome hike and the lake was so pretty! We weren't the smart hikers that took the advice of the signs that said "taking water with you is strongly advised"... but we survived!






To top off a fun summer, Carena treated me to a Carrie Underwood concert! Duke was ever so happy that he didn't have to go with me to one of these concerts!


We've had a fun summer and are looking forward to what's in store for us in the future! Duke and I will be traveling to Florida in December to attend a pharmacy conference to meet and greet with all of the places that offer pharmacy residencies. We don't know where we might end up with this new adventure, but we're excited about it!

Hair ties

Does anyone else have a problem with loosing hair ties? I can not keep up with them! I buy a package of them and everytime I tell myself I'm going to be better, but I just can't seem to find out what happens to them. I never throw them away... maybe I'll find them when I move tucked under the bed or behind the couch? Who knows. But, I know it's too much effort to search from them, so I just buy a new package of hair ties about every other month! Random, I know, but I just went to get a hair tie to pull my hair back and I'm down to two left :)

Cleaning out the apartment!

When we were almost finished golfing on Friday Duke said "so, the apartment is a little messy"... oh great! and why is that? "I decided to do some reorganizing!" oh even worse! And, he wasn't kidding! Here's a funny picture. I didn't know our closet had so many shoes in it! And no, those aren't all Morghan's shoes! So far, we've taken 7 garbage bags of "junk" to the Goodwill (including about 10 pairs of shoes), and thrown out 3 garbage bags of "junk". That's what we've been doing this weekend. Oh so fun! The only thing that made it worth it was I got to go pick up my jeans from being altered on Saturday night, that got me through it :) Also, the only thing I can keep thinking about is... man, that was alot of shoes to get rid of, I think I need to replace them! But don't worry, Duke already denied that request... :)

Fall colors in Colorado Mountains

Last weekend Duke and I went with Brandon and Alison to the mountains to enjoy a nice picnic and the leaves changing colors in the mountains. We also managed to see a few moose - the first since we've been in Colorado! Here's a few pics of the fun colors.

A Great Friday!

So, Duke met me at the golf course on Friday after work. I haven't managed to get out and golf as much as I would have liked to this summer. Needless to say, I wasn't having a very good golf game... which makes for a frustrated Morghan. I finally decided, around hole 4 that I shouldn't keep score, because it would make my frustrations worse, and just play. My game didn't pick up any. UNTIL, I got to hole 8. Yes... all the way to hole 8, one hole before we were finished. Duke and I both made shots that were on the hill to the right of the green. So, of course Duke proposed that who ever chips it on closest to the hole doesn't have to go buy dinner before going home. (since we were in separate cars). Duke chips on first, and makes a pretty good shot (why wouldn't he.. he's Duke!) . And, based on how I had been playing, I didn't think I had a chance to get it any closer. (And, Duke told me afterwards that he thought, I wouldn't be able to get closer than his). Boy was he wrong! I chipped on and as I watched the perfect line, it dropped right in the hole! YEAH! (Picture me jumping up with my club in hand and Duke's surpised look on his face!) As well, as Duke saying, "well, guess you really wanted me to go buy dinner!" Followed up with probably my longest drive ever on hole 9... ended the game great! Good thing that happens so we want to go out and play again :)

After 9 holes of golf, we ate dinner and then went to my 8:40p.m. soccer game. (Friday night soccer is official "Duke and Morghan" date night). Our final game of the season and if we won the first game, we played another game at 9:40p.m. Before going in to the game, I had told Duke that I hoped we didn't win so I didn't have to play again... I was tired. And, of course the second half of the game I scored... we won and played at 9:40p.m. - which we won that game too.
It was a good night of fun!

Video clip from trip to Cancun

So, this is a video of us jumping off the ledge at the water hole in Cancun. It took me a little bit to get it posted, but was kind of fun so I thought I would still post it... I'll let you guess who is screaming in the video clip :)

San Diego Fun!

We made an ever so fun trip to San Diego. Here's a few pics of sea world, the beach, the San Diego temple and our fun filled weekend with Ed, Lindsey and Sarah!

































Sarah playing on the surf boards while the guys are getting ready to go out in the water.

Duke and Ed made it out to surf a couple of times. They managed to get up on a few waves, it was fun to watch them!













The Beautiful San Diego temple.






















Why the picture of feet? Well, funny you ask! We talked Duke and Ed into getting pedicures with us! While they were hesitant at first, I do believe they would go back again for some more pedicure time :)

The new look!

So, I got a new look this weekend on my fabulous trip to San Diego, Ca. Duke and I met up with Ed and Lindsey and Lindsey cut my hair for me. She does a fabulous job! I don't think I've had bangs since I was like 8 or 9 :). Change is good, right? ! More to come soon on our trip to San Diego.

Cancun, Cancun, Cancun!

Okay - so FINALLY! The pictures of our fabulous trip to Cancun! You were probably beginning to think since I didn't post pictures that we didn't have any fun... however, we had so much fun, I told Duke I would only go home if he promised to take me back soon! So, here goes it - I'll try not to make you too bored by the explanations, but that's half of the fun, right? :)

Beginning with the departure from the Denver International Airport! At this point, I still couldn't believe we were really going!

The first night we were in Cancun, we awaited the arrival of Brad and Carena so we just hung out, got to know where the food was in the hotel, walked around the pool and beach. After dinner that night, we decided to go down to the beach. It was around 9:00p.m. or so, and we were talking with Brad and Carena and we saw this "rock" by the edge of the water on the beach. As we watched it, we decided it was moving! No way ! what was it? We walked up to it and it was a HUGE Sea Turtle! WOAH! So, we tried to take some pictures, it was kinda hard because it was so dark, but we ended up seeing 4 coming in and out of shore and one was already laying her eggs on the beach.

It was pretty neat watching them come off and on the shore. Once they got to where the water wasn't assiting their moves, it took hugh flops to get them to move up the sand. Then, when they decided to go back, they would catch the water and "ride" the water back to the ocean! Pretty cool.

Touch or not to touch? I think Duke actually got his hand on it, but I thought that picture was pretty funny, we were so hesitant! The above pictures show how they get up on the sand and dig a hole to lay their eggs in. Come to find out, as we were finishing taking these pictures, we were told not to take any more - as you aren't supposed to take pictures of them. The flashes scare them so they won't come up and lay their eggs. We told someone at our hotel about it and they said it was pretty rare to see the sea turtles... it made us feel special - whether or not it was true! lol.

The first full day we were there, Duke and Brad golfed while Carena and I layed by the beach and took in some wonderful sun and overloaded on our "virgin" drinks!

Pictures of the hotel and golf resort.

So, after our morning at the beach and golfing, we had to go to downtown cancun to get some pants for Brad. One of the resteraunts at the hotel you had to wear pants at, so off to downtown we went. We decided to pass up all of the 'touristy' shops and go to "local-ville" cancun. And, lucky for us, on the way there, Tropical Storm "Dolly" rolled in to the city. Too funny. That meant down-poor rains, wind, flooded streets and soaking wet people!

Pics of the Tropical Storm!

The next day we were supposed to go on an all day excursion to Isla Mujeres, but we weren't able to because all of the ports were closed from the tropical storm and rough waters. So, we rescheduled the trip for Tuesday and decided to experience the "tourist" part of downtown cancun and do some bargaining at the flea markets.

This picture is pretty funny. If you can read it, it says " take a picture with the Jaguars" but the picture is of a crocodile! Couldn't resist getting my picture taken by it.

Duke did see a baby crocodile while he was golfing...

One of the many bus rides...

What beautiful colors!

Once we were downtown again, of course, it decided to rain on us again... okay it down-poored again! here's a few pictures of the fun in the rain!

Then, when since we were already soaking wet when we got back to the hotel, we decided to go play on the beach in the rain! here's a few pics of the fun... the tropical storm was not going to keep us from having fun!

Notice how no one else is around - yeah, we were the only ones on the beach this night!

We only wished we were on surf boards!

Amazingly enough, the next day we were able to go on our excursion to Isla Mujeres. So here's a few pictures of the fun that we had that day!

The boat ride to the Island.

And now for the Island fun! We snorkeled, went on a zipline and took a bike ride to a turtle farm.

The next day, Brad and Carena left. Duke and I went to Chichen-Itza to see the Mayan Ruins. Here's a few pics of the ruins.

So - because Chichen-Itza is now one of the "wonders of the world", you can't walk up and down the steps anymore. It was definately amazing to see the ruins. You could spend a few days there walking around to see everything. After the ruins, our tour took us to a swim hole which was pretty amazing. It's a natural water hole, absolutely beautiful. The pics below are of the water hole. We jumped off the ledge that you can see... boy was I scared!

The next day duke and I went to a mayan zipline throught the jungle and a mountain bike ride through the jungle to another natural swim hole. It was fun... and I was talked into going on the zipline upside down! wahoo!

And, now our vacation is almost over. The last day we were there we didn't have to leave until 2:00p.m., so we got up and enjoyed every second of the beach and ocean that morning!

And, here are a few pics of the hotel as well...

And finally, the Cancun airport - heading back to the U.S. ... we had tons of fun and highly recommend you all going to Cancun on a vacation!