Lookout Mountain

This past Sunday, Holly, Lilly and I rode up Lookout Mountain. Lilly was on her tag-a-long behind me. I rode Holly's mountain bike so I'd have disc brakes for the ride down. In the car before the ride Lilly said, "The ride down will be the ride of my life." :)

Lilly did great - she pedaled the whole way up. There were quite a few comments cheering her on. There were a couple guys who noticed us at the top and said, "You made it! Good job!" What fun. The day was sunny and warm and we were all a little overdressed. What a ride on December 20th.

Here's the profile of Lookout:

Dance Recital

Lilly had a little dance recital last week. They did both a balet and tap routine. Mom, Dad, Aunt B and Uncle Geoff were in the audience.

A little nervous.

Ready to start.

Balet routine.

Denver Parade of Lights

Saturday evening Holly, Lilly and I went to downtown Denver's Parade of Lights. We got a little cold by the end but held out for Santa (the last float). There were people juggling fire, dogs with lights, around 8 high school marching bands and three giant balloons: Rudolph, The Denver Post dog and the Penguin, the mascot of Parade of Lights.

Dogs with lights!

Rudolph.

Fire jugglers.

A float.

Penguin - Parade of Lights Mascot

Another float.

Santa!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Holly's sister Aimee and her children, Kalie, Kelsie and Alex came to Denver for Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday morning we took a tour of the parks in Stapleton.


Lilly and Alex at the rock park

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister Beth and her husband Geoff's house. Geoff is a terrific chef and made a great meal. After the meal we all relaxed watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It was a great evening.

Friday we went hiking at Buffalo Creek recreation area. It was the first day of Christmas tree cutting season so there were plenty of people at the trailhead. Fortunately, tree cutters didn't want to hike very far into the woods only to drag out a tree so we had the trail to ourselves.


Holly is strong


Kalie taking a nap in the sun


Kelsie and Lilly climbing

Friday evening the girls went to New Moon while Lilly, Alex and I watch Jumanji at home. They both got a kick out of monkeys driving the police car.

Saturday we ate breakfast with Beth and Geoff and then drove to Colorado Springs. Kalie is considering attending the Air Force Academy and had a tour Sunday morning. We decided to go to Pike's Peak Saturday afternoon and then get a hotel room in Colorado Springs Saturday evening so we could do some swimming. The highway to Pike's Peak takes you all the way to the top of the 14,110 foot peak. The view is unbelievable.


Summit 1


Summit 2


At the top

Sunday morning Holly, Lilly and I went to Seven Falls before heading home. There are two staircases for sightseeing. One is 220 steps to the top of the falls. The other is 181 to an observation deck. The canyon is breathtaking.


Holly, Lilly and the falls

What a great weekend.

Sunday Adventure

Lilly and I took a ride to City Park. This park has playgrounds, a pond, the Denver Zoo, The Denver Museum of Nature and Science, a golf course and 10,000 Canadian geese. It is about a 3 mile bike ride from our house down a nice boulevard with bike lanes. Here are some pictures:


Lilly and Robert Burns


Lots of friends at the park today


City Park and downtown Denver


Dinosaur at the Science Museum

Great Ride

I got out on my bike for 3 hours on Saturday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and I found myself overdressed for most of the ride. Here is a cool switchback shot from Lookout Mountain:

Stapleton Tree Lighting

Lilly and I rode bikes over to the 29th Street town center for the Stapleton tree lighting. There was a brass band, walking Christmas trees, roasted nuts and fire pits. We both had a great time.


The Tree!


Lilly and the Tree

Holly and Lilly Are Here

Holly and Lilly left Anoka Friday afternoon. They stopped at my grandma's in Des Moines and continued on west planning on stopping around Lincoln. Holly was listening to a book on tape and decided to just keep driving. What a surprise to get a call on Saturday morning saying they were in town already!

We did some unpacking on Saturday and Holly and Lilly took a few naps after their all night adventure. Sunday was more unpacking and grocery shopping. Holly and I got to go on a bike ride together while Aunt Bee and Lilly went to the Denver Art Museum.







Our bike ride ended up being a walk for the last half hour as both of us got flat tires and my hand pump is broken! It actually ended up being a great walk with a beautiful sunset and nice talk.

We wrapped up the weekend eating a great dinner at Beth and Geoff's. Quail looks like delicious little people.

Homeowners

We are officially homeowners in Denver! We closed Monday afternoon and I've spent the past two night moving our stuff into the garage. I've unpacked enough for Boo and I to sleep there. Now the process of unpacking and organizing.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend when Holly and Lilly move out for good.


Outside (corner lot on an alley)


Kitchen / Living Room


Another Kitchen / Living Room

Boo Hike

Boo and I went hiking today. A little muddy as it was 65 degrees and the snow was melting down.


Mountain Dog

Halloween

Lilly went trick-or-treating in Sioux Falls this year. They had gone to Holly's parents' house this weekend.

Beth, Geoff and I went out dressed in costume. Beth was Princess Leia, Geoff was Han Solo and I was Elton John (circa 1973).


Elton

Bummer

We weren't able to close on our house in Colorado today. It is a little fuzzy to me but it seems as if some documents were delayed getting to where they were needed. A near record snowstorm two days before closing doesn't help either. Not a huge deal as we'll close on Monday. Just a big inconvienince as I had the entire weekend to unload the truck.

Oh well. I seem to remember a crazy snowstorm on an important day 10 years ago and things still worked out in the end.

Closed in MN

It is official, we are no longer owners of our house in Minnesota. The closing on our house in Minnesota went through this morning with only small issues. Most of the problem was flood insurance misunderstandings and confusion but our realtor and insurance agent really came through with a solution. There was a mad scramble by our realtor at the last minute to get some stuff out of the house the buyers wanted removed. I can't say enough about the great service we were given by Duane Bauermeister of Edina Realty.

It was a hard morning for Holly and Lilly leaving the house. Lilly was upset to leave her friends and the neighbor kids were sad as well. Lilly left the house and said, "Goodbye house. Thank you for keeping us safe." How sweet is that?

Now the next step is to get through closing here in Colorado on Friday.

Lilly Has Figured Out Disney Movies

Holly and Lilly watched The Ice Princess this weekend and this conversation happened close to the end:

Lilly: "I know what is going to happen at the end."
Holly: "What?"
Lilly (wispered in Holly's ear): "They’re going to kiss."
Holly: "How do you know?"
Lilly: "Because that is what always happens at the end."

The Boat is Out

I flew back to Minnesota this past weekend to take the boat out of the water and fix a few things around the house. I fixed the garage door in the lower garage (it blew a spring), the thermostat in the basement (it was set to 77 degrees for 7 hours of the day making it 80+ degrees upstairs) and winterized the mower, weedeater and leaf blower.

My friend Rob came over with his 4Runner (ours is in Colorado) to pull the boat out of the river. I got it winterized and put the trailering cover on. It should be ready to pull down to Iowa for the winter.

Holly, Lilly and I went to Serum's in downtown Anoka for the first time for lunch. We watched the Gopher game and I tried their World Famous wings. Mmmmm....hot.

Holly was able to go on a chilly ride with Madonna and Larry on Saturday afternoon. A bunch of friends met at Moonrock after their ride for dinner and some drinks. It was nice to see everyone again. The CrossShark made an appearance after a strong, mid-pack finish in the CX4 race.

On Sunday we carved Lilly's homegrown 37lb pumpkin:


Scooping it out


Here's how the lid goes on.


Scary!

After pumpkin carving we went on a hike in Elm Creek:


The park is beautiful now.


Ninja in the woods.

A nice dinner at Maverick's and then down to the airport. What a great weekend!

Long Time, No Update

It's been a while since I updated. I've been out of town in Atlanta on a project management training trip for the past week. I've also been pretty busy at work and busy in my spare time getting housing paperwork rounded up.

First, a housing update. The people buying our house will close on October 28th. I'll be back in town the weekend before to pre-sign our closing documents allowing our realtor to handle the closing in the middle of the week. I'll drive a UHaul back to Colorado on the 25th. We close on our new house Thursday or Friday of that week. For now Holly and Lilly are planning to stay in Anoka until the first weekend in November so Holly can help her company get through month end before she leaves.

Our new house is a new construction house in Stapleton. Stapleton is a neighborhood in the city of Denver. This is an urban renewal project creating a big new neighborhood where the old Denver airport was located. It is designed as a sustainable community where things are within walking distance and houses are pretty close together. There is some research that shows neighborhoods become very closely knit in situations like this. There are kids everywhere and a lot of the residents are our age. There are neighborhood pools, trails, parks and schools all built with the philosophy of brining the neighborhoods together into one community. I'll post some house pictures shortly.

Last weekend Holly and Lilly did a 45 mile bike ride in northern Minnesota near the headwaters of the Mississippi river. Lilly did great! She was a little cold and hungry at the start but after it warmed up and she ate some food at one of the rest stops she was happy and singing.







This past week Holly and Lilly made some Halloween treats. Marshmallow ghosts and chocolaty treats.

Snow

I looked out the windows of our building today at about 10:00 to see snow flurries. Wow. There is now a dusting of snow in the mountains. From near 80 degree highs this weekend to a high of 48 today. Only in Minnesota Colorado.

Holly and Lilly Weekend

Soccer in a park

Holly and Lilly were in town this weekend. Saturday was concentrated on house hunting. We found a house we both like and are now waiting for the offer on our house to become more solid before we make an offer on this house. We spent a large part of Saturday out and about so that evening we stayed home and played in Beth and Geoff's backyard. We grilled and just took it easy on the deck. Sunday we took another peek at the house we liked and then spent time playing in the neighborhood parks and scoping out the distances to the pool and school.


Backyard

Lilly's new favorite website:

Badger, badger, badger...

Weekend Update with John Rotach

Friday eve: Rockband at home then karaoke at the Hangar Bar


B36 made out of beer cans

Saturday: House hunting in the morning then mountain biking at Mt. Falcon in the afternoon. That's about as technical as I can handle while climbing 1,500 feet over the course of an hour. Ouch. Great views of Red Rocks park and the city from the top.

Sunday: A flat, windy ride out past the airport. Very nice.

Fall Already?

Holly took the neighborhood to a movie, treats and Elm Creek Park. This tree seems to be getting ready for winter a little early:

1st Day of Kindergarten

Today was Lilly's first day of Kindergarten. She said, "School is awesome, Mom!"