Pictures of Our Apartment

The long awaited pictures of our Colorado apartment!

This is our living room and our dining room is at the far end.






I am standing on the patio to take the picture on the left. That opening in the wall you see on the right looks into our kitchen. That way Matt and I can chat while he slaves away in the kitchen and I lounge on the sofa! Or is it the other way around?

Here are a a couple of other views of the living room...just for fun because I think it is my favorite room! I LOVE having a fireplace. We haven't used it yet, but it looks nice, right? We got a great deal on that mirror at TJ Maxx. Come to think of it, that is also where we got that picture reflected in the mirror above the sofa. I love that store! Don't be fooled. The photo collage to the left of the tv doesn't even have photos in the frames yet!

Our dining room! I have ALWAYS wanted a dark table like this that I could put any color placemate on it and it would look great with our white plates! That way I can change colors with my moods or use red around the holidays, orange in the fall, etc.














Our beautiful square plates finally have the chance to shine in their full glory!





Here is our our kitchen! Nothing super fun to look at here, but definitely serviceable. We like it! Our laundry room is at the end of the kitchen.








And this is our bedroom! It's quite a bit larger than our one at our old apartment. We weren't supposed to be getting a bigger bedroom but that was part of the upgrade that we got when arrived out here for less money. The ceiling fans and the extra bathroom were the other bonuses. We love it!

















And here are some pictures of "my" bathroom. It is the one that is attached to our bedroom.




Pictures of the second bathroom and bedroom/office to come in another post! There's something to look forward to, right?

Matt's Family Visits

Mom & Dad Wittleder, Courtney, and Courtney's friend, Danielle, arrived in the Springs the day after my parents headed back to PA. They had already planned a trip to Colorado to pick up Nicole from camp. It just worked out that we were already out here too! They drove up to camp to pick up Nicole on Saturday and then all of them came back down to the Springs and stayed with us in our apartment. Matt, of course, managed to get ANOTHER trip to the Elephant bar for a second delicious meal! Here we are Sunday after church, waiting for a table.

Aren't my in-laws cute?

This is a coffee shop that Nicole liked to visit over the summer while she was out here. It was so cute! She raves about their lavender lattes. I opted for a chocolate chip cookie and water!

Matt & his mom checking something on the computer.


We found Nicole's dream car during our travels. She was loving this baby! Unfortunately, the owner was not willing to come down to a reasonable price.



We stopped by "America the Beautiful Park" after visiting a furniture store one night. We were trying to get some shots of Matt and I for our Christmas cards, but it was getting dark fast!



















On Wednesday, while Matt was at work, we drove up to Pike's Peak. I don't know if I have ever driven up before. We took a Cog train up when I was here on a family vacation with my parents. And when I was here four years ago, we hiked it. It is kind of scary on some of the turns driving up! But the view is worth it at the top!

There were some stops before arriving at the top...like this one where the girls tried their hand at fishing for gold! Danielle is in the middle...she is such a fun girl. I told her I like her because she laughs at my jokes! I don't get that from a lot of people. ha ha.

Yay!! We made it to the top!

Nicole & Dad taking in the views from the Peak.

And here's proof that it was snowing in August.
One lone snowflake, choosing to rest on Nicole's arm.

Nicole appears to be celebrating with her
hot chocolates...one for each hand!

Wednesday night, we had another photo shoot at my favorite location in all of Colorado Springs...Garden of the Gods. Uncle Jerry was with us this time helping us with good locations to see both the Peak an d the red rocks. We all went to out to eat at a Diner afterwards! Aunt Kathy was out east so we missed getting to see her, but Matt and I hope to see her soon!

Here are some more shots of the girls and Matt and Dad Witt. Aren't the red rocks and blue skies a sight to behold?

We discovered this great little pizza place out here...Louie's Pizza! Matt is a huge pizza fan so I'm sure they will become familiar with us as they are not very far away from our apartment!

Matt's family headed home on Thursday night after dinner. Here we are saying our good-bye's! I feel very fortunate to have pictures of M om W. She is usually behind the camera!

I made sure I got a picture of Nicole's matching shirt and flip-flops. This is

a little bit more coordinated then she usually prefers! She is hilarious.


Thanks so much for spending time with us, Mom, Dad, Nicole & Courtney! We love you and will miss not living close-by anymore!

Parents to the Rescue!

My parents came out to help us get settled our first full week in Colorado! We have no idea what we would have done without them. Matt started work just about as soon as we arrived, so it was so nice to have help unpacking, hanging pictures, building shelves and overall making the apartment more efficient in terms of space.
Dad & Matt are building shelves in the office closet. This apartment has less storage than our last one, so the shelves were a great addition.

Here, my parents are installing a spice rack for me! I love it.


This next scene was hilarious. You see, Matt and I got a great deal on moving blankets on Craig's List. Obviously, we don't have a need or room for them anymore and dad and mom thought they were great. So...they determined to take 8 of them home with them on the airplane in a piece of checked luggage. Since they only had their carry-ons on the way out, I found a piece of luggage that we rarely use for them to transport them in. The problem is, the blankets are large...way too large for 8 to fit in the size bag that we had. So we went to Wal-Mart and bought those Spacesaver bags that you suck all of the air out of in order to conserve space. This is the scene that unraveled:It took a lot of tries and 3 different Spacesaver bags, but my parents didn't give up! They got all 8 blankets to fit...I wonder if could ever be done a second time! Those bags are great...though they did say when they picked their luggage up in Pennsylvania, it definitely had expanded. I guess it took in some air during the trip!

On my parent's last night in Colorado, we went out for dinner to the Elephant Bar, for Matt's 25th Birthday. Matt loves that place. It is quite delicious and festive. We had a good time. Thanks for coming, Mom & Dad!

Nicole's Camp

The next day after Matt's first day of work, Saturday, Mark & Rosie & Nicole came by to see our apartment. Mark & Rosie were in Denver to cheer on Rosie's brother at a Junior Olympics Dressage event. Nicole was a counselor for the summer at a camp not far from the Springs. So it was a perfect opportunity for us all to spend time together when we are usually miles apart!

We all went up to Nicole's camp for the day to see what she has been experiencing all summer! We went on two hikes with beautiful views. The second hike went up to the cross that you see pictured here. At this cross is the only location at camp that Nicole was able to get cell phone coverage. This is where she would make her calls home from!

We took some pictures from the top, but I always tend to prefer pictures of people close-up and I completely miss the scenery! Camera's never do it justice anyway, I didn't even have my good camera with me for the hike. This a good one of Mark & Rosie though...who needs the mountains!



Matt fell in love with this jeep that we saw up at camp. We might need a new savings account called "Jeep Dreams". And here is a shot of Rosie and I that also captures the mountains! Yes!















We left Nicole at camp that night for her last week as counselor and Mark, Rosie, Matt and I went back down to the Springs for some ice cream and touring. Mark & Rosie flew out on Sunday to head back to Orlando.