Beer & Champagne: Facelift!!!

For my regular blog followers you will notice we did a little facelift to our blog. We changed the theme, the colors, the pictures and made it a bit more polished and professional. I know a great gal that is in the photography bizz (you can find her here) and she was a doll in helping me come up with a cool new look. And this came just in time for so many facelifts going on in our life right now. Obviously you all know we are engaged on the path to marriage (so fun!), but I'm not sure if many of you know we are also in route to moving back to Denver, CO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure this comes as quite a surprise to some, but to those of you who have walked every step with us, I'm sure it's quite obvious. This past year in Chicago has been a tough one for sure. If you ask me, I knew on minute 1 of driving into the city we would be going in reverse in 1 year, but if you ask AK he liked it for a while, and then it got old. I think the combination of two terrible jobs for me and all the big city inconveniences (hour long commutes to go 12 miles, over priced everything, drinking and eating being the favorite past time, rude people, constant hustle bustle, etc) put us over the edge. I think we are fairly outdoorsy/Colorado people at heart and one year ago we made a promise to trade cars for trains and mountains for lakes, but we also made a promise that if we were not happy we would go straight back to where we came from. Turns out neither of us worked in convenient locations to ride the train and we don't own a boat, so the lake was only so much fun after a while!!! ;) But in all seriousness, we lived a good year where there were many ups and downs (personally and professionally) and we did it together and came out on top. We now know where we want to live, we learned we can survive hard things and prefer to survive them together, and we learned a valuable lesson in that some things work out and some things don't, but how would you ever know if you NEVER tried!! Some may say we failed or we didn't try that hard, but I give us credit....one year ago we had only been dating but a year and we packed up our lives, moved in together in a brand new city, and tried to conquer what is Chicago. After a full year of living together we still like each other, we managed to get engaged despite all the stress of Chicago and we managed to see and do a lot of the positive things Chicago has to offer. So with a transfer to the Denver office made possible by Andy's company and with the luxury of me having a flexible career....we are headed back West and could not be more thrilled. We have some great friends in Denver who we missed very much this past year and it is time to reunite.....

So I start my new gig on October 23 and since our lease was up Oct 1, I am spending some much needed time at home with my fam and am trying to crank out some serious wedding plans!!! AK is finishing up his gig in Chicago and also bunking up with his parents and hoping to be out in Denver no later than the end of November!!!! This weekend we are meeting in Denver to find our first Denver place together and to get reacquainted with the city!! And if you have caught on....we are not at all embarrassed about each being 28 and 29 years old, engaged and living with our parents.....isn't that how most you have done it!?!? HA!! Thanks goodness for them though....who else would take us in during transition for free!?!? #Lovethemsomuch!!!

So without saying much more, our Facelift has been a bit intense and we have chosen a lot of change, but we definitely don't take the easy road and I'm beginning to believe we thrive on change!! :) Good thing, because the next 12 months will offer a lot of that!! :)

Cheers to us, cheers to Denver being great, cheers to Chicago being a great place to visit, cheers to the great fall weather, and cheers to a much needed Facelift!!!!!!!!!

**Enjoy some pics below of our last days in Chicago and the first few days in Iowa**