Father's Day

Okay true to form, the Graves cannot seem to do any holiday correctly…Father's Day included.  

The backstory to that statement: We have had absolute hell getting our landscaper to finish the job he was hired to do in October so we have fired him and we now have a list of projects to complete that the landscaper should have done months ago.  One of the biggest things that he didn't complete was sealing our back deck.  So Saturday Mark decided that "today was the day" that we were going to finish the job.  Which was a good decision because the rains have temporarily stopped and the sealant has had 4 good days to dry and cure.  It looks really good and we are pleased with the results but who wants to do that on Father's Day weekend?  

As if that wasn't enough to do, he also decided that he wanted to put an epoxy sealer on the garage floor.  And guess what day he decided to do that?  Yup… Sunday.  Of course it looks great and Mark is glad that we got it done before another winter came. But once again, who wants to do this on Father's Day?

But the way we really celebrated Father's Day was we treated ourselves to a Cirque du Soleil show.  The Kurios tour is in Denver for a few weeks and Mark had mentioned that he would like to see it so that's what we did on Sunday Evening.  If you've seen any of the Cirque shows, you know what a treat it was.  For those of you who haven't been- go if you get the chance.  And yes…that's the way I would have chosen to spend the day!

We always look like we aren't prepared to have our picture taken even tho we control the Selfie-stick!

Santa Fe Girl's Weekend

One of the great things about old friends is that if anyone suggests that we get together, everyone makes the effort to make it happen.  As it turned out, Polly suggested that we all gather someplace this summer and have a girl's weekend together.  She has a good friend that owns a home in Santa Fe so that's where we all ended up this past weekend.  

Deby's granddaughter had her first dance recital on Saturday and couldn't make it to Santa Fe until Sunday but Debbie, Polly and I met on Saturday.  On Sunday we left early enough so that we could do the Sandia Peak Arial Tramway before picking Deby up at the airport.  It was a very clear day and the views were spectacular.  

Debbie  Me  and Polly

The Tram

The rest of the trip us gals just shopped in the Plaza

Ate

The Shed

Maria's

La Casa Sena

Entertainment at La Casa Sena

And enjoyed our time together at this beautiful home

Birthday

It's hard to believe but I've spent 2 birthdays in Denver now.  Mark surprised me and made reservations for us to eat at a "Must Do in Denver" restaurant called The Fort.  This is a Western themed full-size replica of an adobe fur-trade place called Bent's Old Fort.  Not only was the food great but it came with gorgeous views of downtown Denver. What makes this place unique is that they serve historical meals and drinks from the early West.  The menu features bison, quail, elk and all of the recipes were based on the ingredients that were available in Colorado in the 1830's. The restaurant is a little hokey but overall we enjoyed a great evening. 

Baker Historic Neighborhood

Funny what you find when you Google "What to do in Denver this weekend".  Sometimes you get some good suggestions and sometimes you get some GREAT suggestions.  We happened to hit on a great one last weekend.  

The Baker Neighborhood Association was having a fund raiser and were offering self-guided tours of 6 homes.  These homes, for the most part, were beautifully restored.  Most of them had kept several original elements in the houses (transom windows, wooden molding, stained glass windows) that added to their charm.  As expected, the majority of the homes had made substantial changes to the homes such as adding large modern kitchens, open floor plan living areas, and updated bathrooms.  Almost all of the homes had left the exterior of the home as it was originally built.  The homeowners were there and gave us a brief history of their homes before we toured it and many even had pictures of their house from the 1890's available for us to look at.  That was fun because we got to see the "before and after" look of the homes.  

They were also giving guided tours of the Historic buildings along South Broadway. The tour showcased the distinctive Denver architecture of the buildings on Broadway from the Art Deco Mayan Theater to the Neo-Classical Post Office on Cedar Ave. Most of the buildings have now been re-purposed and are being used as restaurants, unique shops and bars with outdoor patios.  We had a yummy lunch at the Punchbowl Social Club and have decided that we need to go back there and explore the other restaurants that are in that area.  

Mayan Theater on left

And as it usually goes, we ended up getting rained on for part of the tour!

Memorial Day Weekend 2015

It's been a very cool, rainy May.  In fact the weatherman recently stated that the sun only shone 3 days out of the first 25 days of May…and this comes from the state that brags that it has over 300 days of sunshine every year!  

Delaney had made plans to come see us over the weekend and as luck would have it, she was here for 4 of those cool, rainy days.  We had planned to go hiking, do some sightseeing and some outdoor touristy things so we had to regroup and do some of those things but not others.  Naturally, hiking was OUT.  The trails were muddy, sloppy and slick.  Mark had to work a half-day on Friday so Delaney and I went out and looked at model homes in the area all morning and then we went to her favorite Indian food restaurant for lunch.  When Mark got home, we all went to Castle Rock and went to the outlet mall so that Delaney could get some shopping done.  It rained and hailed on us the whole afternoon and evening and we were a little afraid that was going to be the weather pattern for the weekend.

Saturday we got up pretty early and checked the weather apps and they showed that the weather was going to give us a break for most of the day so we headed up the mountain to go to Vail. Delaney and Zach didn't go there when they were up here last Spring Break and she had said that she wanted to go this trip.  On our way to Vail, we stopped by Georgetown so that she could see it.  It's a quaint Victorian era mining town that is a local tourist trap in the summertime.  It was raining when we got there so we didn't get out and walk the downtown area but she got to see it none-the-less.  On our way out of town, we noticed that there were dozens of men and women dressed in marathon looking attire and leading donkeys through the streets of Georgetown.  Curiosity took hold of me and I made Mark pull over so that I could ask what the heck was going on.  

Seems we had stumbled upon the annual Pack Burro Race.  It was about 30 degrees outside, with sleet and rain falling so we all opted to not stay and wait to see who won the race.  Apparently this is a pretty big event with the number of runners and mules that were present.  

We hit a pretty heavy snowstorm on our way to Vail but once we were on the Western side of Vail Pass, the clouds cleared and we had glorious sunshine for the rest of the time that we were in Vail. The gondola to the top of the mountain was closed so once again we didn't get a chance to get to the top!  We walked around town, which was surprisingly not crowded at all, and ended up eating lunch at the Red Lion.  Funny story about the Red Lion Inn: "The doors opened in mid-February 1963. It was called an Inn because the owner originally anticipated renting some of the rooms above the restaurant on a nightly basis. However, he and Marge had seven children and there was literally “no room at the Inn!”

By the time we got off the mountain it was cold and wet again so we decided to go to the movies and ignore the weather.

Sunday we ate a big breakfast and hung around the house most of the morning.  There were storms all over the area but the weather apps showed that we had about a 3 hour break in the rain so we took a chance to get out of the house and we went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  When we first arrived, it was pouring rain but after about 10 minutes the rain stopped! We stayed about 3 hours and enjoyed our afternoon looking at the beautiful, rescued lions, tigers and bears (oh my).  

After we were done with the Animal Sanctuary we drove up to Boulder.  Fortunately the weather held so we were able to go to Pearl Street and enjoy the shops and the street entertainment.  There were lots of people out playing guitars, banging on bongos, eating at the outdoor cafes and restaurants and enjoying a rain free evening.  

After diner we headed back to Parker and enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting out by the fire pit wrapped in blankets and enjoying our last few hours together.  

We were so glad that Delaney took the time to come see us and spend Memorial Day weekend with us.