Chihuly at the Denver Botanic Gardens

The company that Mark works for gives all of their employees one Friday afternoon off per month so that they can schedule doctor's appointments, repairmen, etc.  Since Mark has been here in Denver he hasn't done much with his afternoon off but now that I'm around things are a-changin'!  

This past Friday we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather we have been having and we decided to go to the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit before it left.  It's only scheduled to be here through the end of November and we wanted to go before it got too cold. 

I really didn't know much about this artist before we saw his work, other than he was a "glass blower". Well, he is a glass blower but on a really HUGE scale.  Both Mark and I were very impressed by the size and scale of his works.  And placing his art in amongst the gardens really made for a beautiful display.  

  There are glass balls that float in the water, delicate translucent flowers and neon glass towers that are over 50 feet tall 

It's really hard to take pictures that show just how big these pieces are and how detailed they are. For instance, the red spears were at least 6-7 feet tall.  The blue ones were 4-5 feet tall.  The white flowers were about 3 feet across.  Although they look fragile, they have withstood several baseball sized hailstorms this summer and they didn't break.  There were several pieces that looked like they came off the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. 

Some of the pieces are HUGE!  This one was probably 12 feet tall. 

This one was even bigger.

 These balls were 42" 

The grounds themselves were so beautiful.  They had formal English gardens, Oriental gardens, desert-scapes, a Monet inspired pool, and much much more.  

We walked past this gentleman when we first got to the park and he was still sitting there an hour later.  He was snoring both times we passed him!  I guess he wasn't as interested in the Gardens as most. 

We both agreed that we need to come back in the spring and summer to see the gardens in their full splendor.  

Busy Weeks

I'm pretty sure I'm behind in all sorts of areas in my life…including keeping up this blog on our lives. 

Last Monday our furniture was delivered. And I thought that I was going to be so happy to get our home settled.  But I have decided that the moving company wanted to play a cruel joke on me.  It almost seems that the movers took one thing from each room in the house and put in into one box, sealed it and then repeated the process.  I will open a box that has stuff that all originated in one room in the Odessa house and I will find odds and ends from a half dozen other places in the home.  Its made it a little challenging setting up our Denver home but it's getting there.

The weekend of October 26th, Mark and I flew to Texas to spend Parent's Weekend with Henley.  Delaney drove in from Austin and both of their boyfriends came in as well so we had the whole bunch of us there to enjoy the weekend! Friday night we all hung out until everyone arrived and then we ate at Fuzzy's Tacos. Saturday morning Delaney and I joined Henley at her sorority breakfast and we got to meet her Big and several of her other sorority sisters.  The other gals were all very sweet and I can see why Henley chose to join this sorority.

The guys were on their own and ended up eating "The Best Chicken Fried Steak in Texas" at Jake and Dorothy's Cafe. The best story about Jake and Dorothy's is that a few weeks ago a huge raccoon fell down from the dropped ceiling into a roomful of diners.  Seems that the raccoon had been living there for a while based on the size of him!

Jake and Dorothy's Cafe

Since Mark had not seen Tarleton in years, Henley gave us the grand tour of campus and we all went to the football game on Saturday night, followed by a great meal at Montana's. We had to leave fairly early on Sunday so after a good breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls and their guys. 

The whole gang: Blaine, Henley, Sandie, Mark, Delaney and Zach

Henley and Delaney

Our Tarleton Texan Henley and Blaine

Delaney and Zach

This past Saturday Mark and I emptied his apartment and watched our Horn's play ball.  We were hoping that we could catch a glimpse of Delaney since she was at the game.  But we didn't.  We spent the rest of the day unloading boxes and putting stuff away.  I don't think we even put a dent in the pile…

So Sunday we both decided that we were going to play hooky from unpacking and we headed up to Rocky Mountains National Park.  And were we ever glad we did.  The leaves had peaked about a week ago so we didn't get to see the oranges and the reds that we had hoped to see but the mountains had 2 days of snow last week and the landscape was absolutely stunning. It's interesting that the mountain range was originally named "Never Summer Mountains" by the Indian tribes that lived in the mountains and we could see why.

Granby Lake

Never Summer Mountains

Almost at the top

At the Top

We started at the bottom of the park and drove north along the valley floor before climbing to over 12,000 ft at the top.  Midway through the drive we stopped at Milner Pass where the Continental Divide is located. The wind was blowing and it was pretty darned cold but nothing compared to when we got to the top of the Pass.  Whoo dogie was it windy and cold.  

We ended up back in Estes Park and they were having their annual Elk Festival.   So we stayed for lunch and enjoyed the bands that were playing at the park and walked around the shops to stretch our legs after riding in the truck all morning.  

On the way out of Rocky Mountain National Park we ran into a TON of elk that were right off of the road so of course we had to take pictures of them.  It is the start of the rut so the bulls were bugling at the other bulls while trying to herd their harems away from the other bulls.  It was funny because we saw a couple of cows run from one harem to another while the stupid bulls were bugling at one another. 

Life in Colorado is feeling more normal every day.