When I'm not in school

Despite the flurry of schoolwork I've been doing a lot of the things I like doing this summer. I haven't been taking as many pictures, but here are a few from the past month.

We hiked up Apex trail in Golden with our friends and our dogs.

We go for walks at Crown Hill about every other day. I caught this cute goose family crossing the walk to take a dip.

Last weekend we visited Neil's home in the mountains. Seriously. Mountains. He lives outside of Idaho Springs. The last 5 miles to his house is up steep dirt roads. You can see several peaks on the Continental Divide from his house. We had a sweet little barbecue, laid back, and watched the clouds roll by.

Here's a picture of the Rockies game I think I mentioned earlier. I went as part of my volunteer work for school. On another day we went to Golden for rhubarb, but the farmer's market hadn't opened yet for the season. Instead we went for a quick walk along Clear Creek, where they had these statues that scared Jem.

I'm still cooking! Most nights, in fact. Our gas grill is awesome. I use it a couple times each week. I love not getting the house hot. It turns outs grilled pizza is easy and delicious. Much better than oven pizza. I also make some cookies. I tried substituting whole wheat pastry flour for half the flour. I had heard this works well, but apparently not. My cookies were flat as pancakes. I added some more all-purpose between batches and they turned out sturdier. I made some peanut butter jelly bars that were ok, but I was expecting greatness. Disappointing. Then just last night I made a raspberry tart with vanilla pudding. We devoured it while watching BSG and SYTYCD with friends.

This afternoon we went to the Highlands Street Fair to watch Paper Bird play a free concert. It was blistering hot! We met our friends there and took Jem. It seemed like everyone wanted to stop and pet the her. I think since the beagle won the dog show this year they've become more popular. The band was good but I was eager to get out of there for a $1 shake from Sonic. We got home and collapsed for a nap. Then I grilled some brats. Now Brian is patiently waiting for me to stop blogging so we can play a game of some sort. Maybe we'll watch some more Doctor Who tonight. I borrowed his set for this latest incarnation and it's pretty fun.