It’s been a while. I apologize! Here’s what we’ve been up to lately…
Mom and Dad arrived in Denver on Wednesday, Oct 10th. After picking up their Budget rental car, they drove downtown to meet us at work. We parked the car and jumped on the 16th Street Mall bus and headed down to Wynkoop Brewing Company. Upon arriving, we quickly found out that they were closed due to a Great American Beer Fest event. (BTW - next year Mike and I might volunteer to work the event…one for you, one for me!). So we got back on the bus and headed to Rock Bottom Brewery. All in all it was a good dinner.
The next day I stayed home as we were expecting our new love seat and chair to arrive. Mom and Dad ventured out during the day and the three of us had dinner later in the day as Mike was at an emerging technology conference where the guy who runs the North American division of Google spoke.
We’ve made it to Friday and our plan was to head up to Winter Park, so Mom and Dad meet us at the office and we took them for a quick tour. They got to meet the usual suspect including, Sara, Dale, Tom, Becki and even Tim. Indigio was kind enough to get them a gift bag FILLED with chocolates from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Needless to say, we enjoyed the contents with them!
While in Winter Park for the weekend we enjoyed the outdoors driving up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday morning. We had originally planned on driving through the park from Grand Lake continuing all the way through to Estes Park on Sunday, but the forecast predicted 6 to 10 inches of snow. Here are some snapshots from our drive:
Before entering the park, we made a quick pit-stop to take a picture as we were entering Grand Lake,
Shortly after entering the park, we saw a heard of Elk running across a field. After turning around, I jumped out of the car to ensure that we got some good pictures of the herd. We didn’t see much more than a bird the rest of the trip!
We stopped a number of times to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. I also make sure to include snap some that included people as Dave Hamill mentioned that it was more interesting to look at pictures that had people in them.
After making it to the “TOP” we headed down for lunch. We did a little shopping, but Mike was the only one who bought anything…a t-shirt.
When we woke up on Sunday morning there was at least six inches of snow on the ground. Knowing we were going to head back home we headed out to breakfast and upon returning to the condo we quickly figured out that there was no power. The good news is that we were all packed up and ready to go!
With a week left in Colorado, Mom and Dad decided to help us shop for home decor while we were at work. Each day when we came home, there was something new for us to see. The funny thing is that we liked and have kept everything they bought.
We also are extremely appreciative of the picture they bought us as a house warming gift. It was something that we saw at Bed Bath and Beyond and I’ll try to get a picture up on the blog so that everyone can see it. It matches our new rug and accents the love seat and chair perfectly.
Mid-week, they decided to head off on a drive to Glenwood Springs, Aspen (where they spent the night at the Hotel Jerome) and then the following day headed back through Vail and another snow storm, before returning to our house.
On Friday, we headed up to Fort Collins to check out the New Belgium Brewery. After an hour and half drive, Mike was ready to leave the brewery without even getting a beer as it was packed. I thought it was crowded because it was Friday, but after finally getting a table and ordering, we figured out that all the college kids were there because the tastings were FREE. While enjoying our beer we sent out three free postcards - one to Michael, one to Grandma and one to Jayden. Sorry to those of you who didn’t get one, but we couldn’t remember anyone’s address.
The next day, Mike and I got ready to attend a 70’s themed Halloween party at Dale and Tom’s house. Watch for a separate entry with pictures and details…
Sunday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to head down to Pike’s Peak. This was our last scheduled adventure for the trip and unfortunately we got snowed out. The good news is that we got to try breakfast at a new restaurant and then relax before Jessica and Chris Gilliam (Bill and Peg’s daughter and son-in-law) came over for dinner.
Mom and Dad packed up and headed out the next day on their journey back to Michigan. It’s hard to believe that they were here for 12 days. It seemed to go by too quickly, however we were fortunate that we got to spend some quality time with them. We can’t wait for their next visit!