bucket list // hot air balloon ride!

While Hunt and I were in CA for Christmas, my mom had planned many, many big and small things for us to do!  We were mapping out our weekend plans and my mom was acting super vague about what we had planned on Sunday.  She kept saying "Well we can't drink too much on Saturday night because we have something we are all going to on Sunday morning."  Truthfully, I first thought she was talking about early morning mass, so I didn't think too much about it.  It wasn't until my dad started chiming in, and anyone who knows my dad knows he is so not smooth with secrets, that I knew something was up aside from church.  Saturday night we went to Ontario for a hockey game { they were playing the Colorado Eagles! }, and on our drive back to Temecula I was grilling my mom for clues.  She really kept quiet and all she told us was that we wouldn't have time for coffee or breakfast in the morning and that we had to leave around 6:15am.  At first I thought we were going to San Diego for a breakfast whale watching trip and then I thought maybe we were taking the train somewhere?  Like a South Pole Christmas breakfast trip?  Seriously, Hunter and I were both clueless.  What threw me was that we had to leave the house at 6:15am, but I knew the event had to meet at 6:30am.  Well it also threw me that we weren't having coffee before we left because in the Summerfield house, coffee always comes first.  So my dad, mom, Hunter and I all pile into the car for a quick 15 minute drive and end up at the wineries…which even further confused the hell out of me because we like wine, but wine at 6:00am?  At this point my mom was crazy cute ridiculously giddy.  I knew we had to be doing something fun.  And not just 6:00am wine tasting fun.  

When we arrive at our designation, we turn the corner and I see a truck with a trailer pulling this giant basket/bucket thing.  I immediately think it's a hot tub and we are taking a tour of the wineries by hot tub { though it sounds so amazing we can say it together WTF Beth?! }  Back in the day, Hunter used to work for a hot air balloon company here in Steamboat, so he recognized the gear right off the bat.  It took me a little longer to fully come up to speed. { But I didn't bring my bathing suit, mom?!  was still vibrating through my head up until realizing what we were doing. } 

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but needless to say we had an absolutely amazing time!

Our balloon was loosely inspired by Anastasia and without a question my favorite part was looking up the balloon and seeing the cute little at that veeeeery top!  The ride lasted about 90 minutes and after we landed { almost in someone's backyard! }, we had our traditional champagne toast { yes, at like 8:30am! } and ended up at at South Coast Winery for brunch.  We were so giddy with the overall experience and had the best time recapping our favorite parts!…and not so favorite parts.  Because Hunter has chased hundreds of balloons before, he's heard the spiel that the balloon guys give the crowds, well hundreds of times.  Haha!  

I feel so lucky to have completed 2 things on my bucket list within a week!  I really think my favorite part of the entire ride was watching my mom's face - she was having the most fun and her face was lit up in excitement the entire time!

bucket list // court side nuggets game!

Hunter and I flew out to California a few weeks ago for Christmas vacation.  Hunt was able to stay in CA 5 days before having to come back to CO to work the week of Christmas, where I was able to extend my trip to be 12 days long.  When we were booking our travel, we looked up the Nuggets schedule and realized that the Nuggs played the night before we flew out!  We used to loooove going to Nuggets games together when we lived in Denver and sadly didn't make it to a game at all last year.  We decided pretty quickly that we would head down to Denver a night early to make the game before flying out the next day.  I know that my best friend Jaime her husband Ryan are also big Nuggets fans, so I shot her a text seeing if they were available that evening for a game (which they were) and just like that we had a plan!  

Jaime and I worked together for about 6 years, and the company that I used to work for and that she still works for buys season tickets for most of the sporting events, Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets etc. to give away to their biggest clients.  Jaime, being the incredibly kind friend that she is, pulled a few strings and landed 2 court side seats for the game in addition to 2 lower level seats.  We were bummed that the seats weren't together but joked about how each time out, quarter, basket made etc. we would run and switch seats so everyone got a fair chance at sitting in the court side seats.  James and Ryan let Hunter and I have the tickets the first part of the game and Hunter and I assumed that we would switch at half time.  Well!  These tricky and giving friends of ours surprised us and let us have the seats the entire game!  I couldn't even believe it.

For whatever reason, sitting court side at a basketball game has been on my bucket list for years and years now.  I like the Nuggets, but I don't live and breathe the basketball so it doesn't really make sense as to why I have wanted so badly to sit court side.  I've always thought that it would be such a fun experience being so close to the refs, players, scoreboard etc.  And it really was as much fun as I had dreamed up!  Hunter and I got the biggest kick out of what the refs scream to each other, themselves and the score keepers.  We would laugh at the opposing team's (Houston Rockets) coach pacing back and forth and got to marvel one of the Rocket's best players, Dwight Howard, express such kindness to the little 8 year old who was also sitting court side and wearing Howard's jersey.  Dwight would pause and high five/fist bump this little kid every single time he went in or out of the game.  He would sometimes even pause if the little boy wasn't paying attention to Howard and wait for him to turn to him and high five him!  It was so endearing and I got silly  emotional over how kind he was to this little fan of his.  Dwight even gave the kid his shoes after the game!

::hunter and i along with the view of jaime + ryan!::

It was an incredibly fun experience and we can't thank Jaime and Ryan enough for giving us the tickets.  It was a close game (though we lost) that went into overtime.  With less than a second in regular game time, the Nuggets hit a 3-pointer that tied us up and put us into overtime!  You can tell we were crazy excited at them making the basket as showed by this tv screen shot.  Ha!  The guy who was sitting in font of us had this picture text to him from a friend that saw us on his tv at home.

We all ended up going out for a beer after the game as we didn't get to see them but before the game and a little at halftime.  We ended up sitting with a few beers and talking until 1am.  Poor Jaime and Ryan had to work the next day, while Hunter and I had to fly to California with quite the exhausted hangover.

It was the most perfect way to spend a quick 12 hours in Denver and yet again reminded me of how thankful I am for James and her husband!