that's a lotta pizza

Tonight Brent and I decided to be adventurous and make a pizza from scratch, and I'm so glad we did! It was SO GOOD. Like seriously, so so good. I found a recipe for bread machine pizza dough online, and it turned out to be great. After baking it, it was thick and crispy on the outside, but soft and doughy on the inside. Also, it wasn't too heavy, so we could eat multiple pieces (very important). The only change I made to the recipe was to use regular yeast, rather than fast-acting yeast, so that the dough wouldn't over-rise in our high, thin air. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I can send you the link.

We threw the ingredients into our awesome breadmaker (thank you Dad and Taherah!), and while the breadmaker did all of the work, we headed to Pearl Street to buy a deep dish pizza pan and some pizza fixings. After letting the dough rise once, then spreading it out in the pan and letting it rise again, it was ready for our toppings. Brent did most of the honors.


First, the sauce... so nice and even!


Brent is a topping maniac.


Tomatoes make me happy.


The finished product.


Leftovers.

During pizza, we watched Stranger Than Fiction, which was totally great. Everyone should watch it because it is that good. Just like everyone should make homemade pizza like we had tonight... Yum.

Snow?! Are you kidding me?!

The weather here since last friday has been beautiful and sunny with high temperatures in the 60's and 70's. Yesterday's high temperature in Boulder even reached 63.7 F! Last night, however, the weatherman warned that we were sitting right below the middle of a low pressure system, and that a big weather change was coming. He was definitely not kidding! I woke up this morning, and snow was sticking to the roof, grass, and trees, which means that it had definitely been snowing for a while given the recent warm temperatures. The weatherman has been saying that this March has been one of the least snowy and warmest on record, so I think today is a good thing. This snow has been exciting for me, though, because I get to wear my warm and comfy snow boots again. Oh, and it's really pretty outside. I feel bad for the trees, though... they were already starting to bloom with flowers and leaves, and now the poor things are covered in cold snow.

Luckily for Brent, there is construction at his office, so yesterday his boss said that he and his coworkers could work from home today. Now, he doesn't have to drive in the snow, and I get a snow-day buddy. It's spring break this week for me, so I was going to be home anyways. Now that it's so cold outside and cozy inside, I think today is the perfect day to bake something good.


The view from the window this morning.


It looks like December outside!


The Blazer... and we even drove it last night. It's been snowing a while for that much to stick to it.


Brand new leaves in the snow... poor things.

bike-cycles!

Two weekends ago, Brent and I finally decided to go out and get bikes for ourselves. We both had bikes growing up and throughout our years at Davis. In fact, we both were very loyal to our bikes and kept the same ones from middle school through undergrad. Sadly, when we moved we didn't have enough room in our uhaul trailer to move them to Boulder, and we have lived without since August 2005. Boulder is just as big a bike town as Davis was, so it's kind of against the rules to not have one. There are over like 150 miles of trails around town, and we were excited to learn that you can get pretty much anywhere in town without having to ride on a main road. This makes me very excited, because I get scared when big cars drive by bikes super fast and super close.

Brent ended up picking out a swanky mountain bike, and I got a fun schwinn hybrid bike. It is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike, so it has a more comfortable seat and upright riding position, but it also can go on smoothish dirt trails and stuff.
Here we are! We took these pictures at the park just down the street from where we live. The mountains are so pretty!

We've gone for a few rides since then, and we've discovered so much more of Boulder than we ever thought existed. We especially like a neighborhood we found with big houses on even bigger country lots that border open space. One family even has a whole play area for their kiddos, complete with a train boxcar, small houses, and more. Here are some pictures of the pretty views from the park, trails, and neighborhood near our house. I can't believe all of this was so close to us for all of this time!

first (hopefully not last) post

I am thinking about doing a blog, so that I can let family and friends know what's going on in my life. Lots of fun and not-so-fun little (and sometimes big) things happen out here in Boulder, so I will try to update as much as I can!