Colorado, Round 7

My 7th trip to Colorado was a long weekend with my oldest nephew.  The goal was to help him with the apartment search and learn some details on his future job, so mission accomplished!

This = T and I on a hike at the Chautauqua Park this morning!  (It's out of order, but I wanted it to be the cover pic for this post.)

Friday was the 10-hour drive from 9am Central to 6ish Mountain Time.  We had a nice chat for the first 4+ hours, then T took a nap while I listened to The Curiosity Shop podcast, a new favorite for me.  We checked in at the DoubleTree in Cherry Creek then headed over to the 16th Street Mall for a fun Mexican dinner on the patio at 3 Margaritas, followed by a 30-minute walk around that area then seeing the Masters of the Universe movie at 9:15! 

Pic from our walk =)

Saturday started off with breakfast and coffee for T at the Steam Espresso Bar, a cool coffee shop at a restored firehouse in the Lower Highlands (LoHi) area of Denver.

Then we toured seven apartments with a brief stop for lunch at In-N-Out somewhere in there.  We did a self-guided tour at the Cirrus (meh).  It was a quick no on the guided tour of the High Line Pointe apartments.  We were able to sneak the Elevon Apartments in between two scheduled tours, and they were the top contender at that point (they were in the Union Station area)!

After lunch, we toured the 4040 Fox Apartments with Giovanni, a newer complex that had some nice amenities!

We rushed through the (undesirable) older Waterford apartment complex in Cherry Creek.  And finally, we saw the Amli Golden Triangle apartments, a brand new complex that was super nice, as was our tour guide!  It was T's number one contender and the closest to the downtown Denver area!

Furnished model unit

Balcony view of downtown Denver (better seen in person, of course)

And after all of that, we met Holly Dei for a tour of her apartment (rooftop pic here)

We took an Uber to dinner at Satchel's on 6th, then took a leisurely walk back to her apartment, stopping for ice cream and to chat with an engineer friend of hers on the way back.

It was a pleasant outdoor walk that included a difficult-but-important conversation.

Based on that, our plans for day two shifted a bit.  We drove to Boulder, CO (a first for both of us), where we took a short hike with a major incline (which felt worse with the altitude adjustment) at Chautauqua Park!  But yay for these pics - made me think of the 2014 convo with JEM - the pics do make *light* hiking worth it!

The lady walking in front of us pointed to several buildings with red rooftops and told her friends that was the CU Boulder campus.  Whaaat?  We hadn't realized we were four minutes away, but we stopped by their bookstore and grabbed some merch for Triston's future college campus!

Then we took a stroll through the Pearl Street Mall and grabbed lunch at the Organic Sandwich Company.  We had a really good talk where T made some wise observations about how a lot of life comes down to being able to pivot and find a new path forward when life doesn't go according to plan.

After lunch, we listened to Michael Jackson whilst Tman bravely drove us through the freaking windy mountains to the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, another spot recommended by ChatGPT on a last-minute search Saturday night... (I also bought myself this new hat at the CU Boulder Bookstore.)  

Scary drive; scenic mountain views!

In the end, the road to Brainard Lake was closed -- they close it for winter but usually reopen it mid-May -- you could take a four-mile walk to go see it, but we had a tour scheduled and didn't have the extra time for that.  So we drove 45 minutes out of our way and then walked over a mile through a field swarming with gnats to see this far smaller and less exciting Red Rock Lake, which honestly felt like a fitting metaphor on this trip.

HOWEVER, we met a fantastic older couple who have lived in Boulder 40 years.  They were out hiking, and we walked back to our car with them.  Triston talked to the man, a retired doctor and Army veteran who had good advice for him about living in the Boulder area... and I walked and talked with his wife, who told me about growing up in Seattle, some good things to see in Alaska, and their coming trip to New Zealand to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.  They were a gem, and the genuine connection was a treat!

Phillip and Tman (walking back up to the Road Closed sign that blocked us from getting to see the bigger lake)!

We did one final apartment tour at The Russell, then we stopped for Sam-n-Ella's style pizza at BeauJo's on our way back!

I dropped Tman off at Holly's apartment (four minutes from our hotel).  He is staying there the next four nights while she is on a Vegas vacation, then flying home Thursday night - I hope he has a great time getting to explore a bit more of Colorado.  Then I ended the night with some familiar friends (the Barden Bellas and the Oceans 13 crew) whilst snacking on a DoubleTree cookie and writing these blogs - and now I have an audiobook-filled drive ahead of me tomorrow - fun times!! ❤

Hope you've had a great weekend, friends!  And here's a friendly reminder that a lot of life is about the ability to pivot well and find a new path forward when things do not go according to plan!

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The Niece and Nephews

Happy Wednesday!  Hearing June 3rd brings two things to mind: Gilmore Girls (Lorelai and Luke's non-wedding day, and Rory's sentencing day in court, which brought me joy).  And more importantly, it makes me think of my friend, Tiffany Joanne, for whom this date is a grief anniversary.  Today marks one decade since the earthly death of her dad.  Praying for God's presence to bring peace, anchored hope, and comfort in the midst of this painful season of grief for her. ❤

I'm in my Zoom courtroom 25 minutes early and figured I'd use this time to get some blogging in before another exciting day of OCC work! ;-)

Here's a couple professional photos of Triston Michael at the Graduation ceremony! 

Side note: Mom had his robe professionally cleaned/steamed so it would be wrinkle-free.  He wore it to the final practice the morning of graduation (where I'm sure it looked pristine), then he stuffed it into the plastic bag for safekeeping (he's holding it in the picture below after practice that very morning). lol  If only they'd had photographers there for the practice run!  But whatever, definitely unintended and accidental on his part, and it's kinda funny to me now!

A professional pic of Carter Lee steer wrestling in the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Finals (where I believe he placed 2nd)! ❤

Jace Michael celebrating the Spurs victory with me last week! ❤

And the mini-Miss Kyndal Faith FaceTiming to show me her colorful summer hair!

Here's a throwback pic of her five years ago when she made this lovely sign to encourage Grandpa when he came home from the hospital! ❤

A good reminder...

More good reminders that were worth printing out!  I am feeling freshly inspired after reading these Big Trust and Theo of Golden and several of Allen Levi's blog posts!!

And finally, here's a fun video of J&K playing basketball last night after our Rib Crib family dinner!  They're just so much FUN right now... Miss K with her 3-pointers and entertaining MJ victory dance, and Jaceman sinking three half-court shots over the past week - so happy I caught the last one on video!! ❤

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you have a wonderful day ahead!

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Slideshows!

Posting these here too, just for fun and for easy access later:

Triston Michael, Senior 2026
Song = The Best is Yet to Come by Ben Rector

Kyndal Faith, 6th Grade Graduation
Song = Try Everything by Shakira

Jace Michael, Through the Years
Song = Bad by Michael Jackson (his current fav)

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Family Brinner

We did a breakfast-for-dinner theme last night (pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit - yay!) and celebrated Triston's Graduation and Kyndal Faith's Christian Citizenship Award!  This = a fun grad-themed canvas I made for Triston (thanks to the LiveCollage app and Walgreens same-day pickup photo gifts!).  We're laughing about Mom's photo-taking skills, and it's such a real smile from him that makes me happy!! ❤

Closer view of the collage!  The extended fam, the Parrishes, his best friend Reece Barnes, Mrs. King, the speech, Wendy and JoBug, Mrs. Talley, Brooke's side of the fam, and a pic with Reese Kufahl and Kate Smiley (the girls he is closest to in his class).

A fun cookiecake... (his name got messed up when Jace was carrying it in, but I was able to restore it with iPhone's markup feature). lol

Rach bought this book back in 2011 and had every CHA teacher sign it over the past 14 years!  It has some great notes in it, then she added a few Bible verses and photos, so it's a really meaningful gift!

Pic of T and Rach with the book!

Kyndal Faith made up a trivia game for us to play, asking things like her favorite color, movie, song, season, Thunder player, etc. lol

It also included what she wants to be when she grows up, which was definitely the first time I'd heard about the Senator Parrish plan (inspired by their DC trip), but I'm 100% on board for that! =)

Then she and I played a few rounds of Speed while Jace played basketball and Rach made a McDonald's run, then they played a couple rounds of that and another fun card game when Rach got back!

"She tried to cheat, but I still won!!" ~K telling Grandpa all about it

(P.S. Dad's had a tooth pulled and we're all used to it, but I felt like I should explain that here)

Another family dinner to remember - the sun being out longer is my favorite, and I feel like the niece and nephews are all at fun ages with interesting lives and thoughts I love to hear right now.  I made extended slideshows for K-Faith and T-man, which prompted a "Bro, where's MY slideshow!?" from Jace, so I hastily made him one while he was swimming!  We all watched all three of them together on Mom and Dad's huge living room TV, and that was fun times hearing the kids thoughts and commentary!

Here's Mrs. Garner and Tman on his very first day at CHA! ❤

And on his final day at CHA - here's Mrs. Garner with the 8 Senior students who had been there since Pre-K!

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Thunder Playoffs!

Around 9am yesterday, Rach texted to ask if I wanted to go to the Thunder game... to quote David Rose, "That's a real quick yes!!"

She was able to order last-minute tickets for us, and we got edge seats in Section 111!  I finished around 3 covering A's lengthy court docket, then got ready and headed to Rachael's to ride with them to the game (it started at 7:30, but we arrived around 5:40 with high hopes for J&K to get autographs and/or meet some of the players).

Under the colorful bridge downtown

Knowing we had lower seats, I suggested Rach make a cool poster so we could get on TV... so they worked hard making these signs, then were immediately told they couldn't bring them into the arena - lamesauce!!

(They have a table set up where you can make signs, but they have to be 11x17 or smaller).

Whilst J was waiting on the spurs players, Kyndal and I went to get her a Thunder hat and try (unsuccessfully) to see some of her favorite players...

Jaceman got three autographs from the Spurs - Carter Bryant, Kelton Johnson, and De'Aron Fox - so yay for that!  (He's a Wemby fan and wore a Spurs shirt - he was afraid he would be bullied, but there were lots of Spurs fans there, including two younger boys right in front of us who were entertaining and fun)!

Me and K-Faith ran into her friend and VB teammate, Olivia!!

I was between Kyndal and an adult guy who was a loud and enthusiastic fan - we very much enjoyed his commentary, however colorful it may have been! lol

Jace had more fun early in the game - the Spurs were ahead most of the first quarter and part of the second, but the Thunder came in strong after that!

The nuns memes and costumes were entertaining!

Go OKC!!  This makes me happy - hopefully we can add a few more banners this year!

Giant Rumble covered in confetti after the win!

We waited around trying to get autographs (or a Tik-Tok dance for K) after the game, so they were able to reclaim their signs with no crowded line as we walked out!  I made us stop for one more pic by this wall!

"McCain is COOKING, bro!"  -Kyndal Faith

He got to start this game and had his best game of the season - she pays attention to sports, and he's her new favorite player this year - and she has the jersey and two posters to prove it! =)

We stopped by Cain's and McDonald's (of course) on our way back to Rachael's... J&K's commentary and sports rivalry was entertaining for me!  ...After a few moments of silence while they were both looking at their phones, Kyndal chimed in, "Bro, I look so good in hats!" and it was the funniest thing!!

So now the Thunder is up 3 to 2, and only need one more win against the Spurs to become the Western Conference champs and move into the finals against NY.  Here's hoping that happens on Thursday!

Mom and Dad preferred to watch from home, but we had a great time being there for it live!!

Yay, Thunder!  Yay, family fun!!

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