Denver. Just Like Old Times.

I know, I know. It has been a few days since I have updated the blog. But we have been having so much fun!

The four days our family spent in Denver were terrific! Each day was filled with picnics, trips to the pool, BBQs, hiking and general catching-up with one group or another. Oh! And a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park too.

After a reunion of the Green Mama Shakes (you probably want to know the history behind that name...right? All I can say is have you ever read the book "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver? Are you familiar with the Green Mamba Snake?) on Thursday:

We decided to head out on Friday to check out our old apartments and homes to show the kids where we used to live.  Our first stop was One Dartmouth Place. This was Nufi's and my first apartment when we initially moved from California to Denver in 1997. We selected the apartment sight unseen from San Diego and arrived...less than thrilled with our selection. The bad news? It was a dump then.  The worse news? Hasn't changed one bit.

After living there only six months we moved into Legend Oaks. This was brand new apartment living at it's best.  And they accepted dogs!  That was Lucy's first home with us for a couple of months before we moved into our house.

We proceeded to show the kids the old house where Ana spent the first two years of her life. They were so excited! Truthfully, it was a bit anti-climatic. Especially once we showed up in front of the house and they saw the old neighborhood.  Not much had changed, except that maybe the entire area needed a bit of a face lift.  But it was neat to be able to show the kids a bit of that history.

On Saturday morning, we took the kids on a hike to Castlewood Canyon in Franktown where we met up with my oldest Denver friend:
 



 

Julia and I went to grad school together at the University of Denver.  She also tutored me in Statistics. She is super smart!

In Castlewood Canyon.















Saturday afternoon found us back at Michael and Lisa's for a super fun BBQ with a group of crazy friends. I don't know how it started, or whose idea it was, but when we lived here there was a group of girls that started hanging out pretty regularly.  Then the boys got jealous, so they decided that while the girls had dinner and drank wine, they would get together too and do whatever it is the guys do. I don't know what that is. I don't think I want to know.

This went on for...a few years I think. At least. And occasionally we would join forces and the girls would get together with the guys and we would all hang out together. Like on Saturday:



We are much older and more mature now.















Of course, there were a few more guys and gals in the gathering this time around:

See this gal, Jen, below? She met and married a great guy 10 years ago. She was so sweet...she asked me to be in her wedding which happened to be less than one month after I gave birth to Ana. Her and I also went to London one year and decided to take our moms. And Nufi (poor guy).  That's all I have to say about that.



Jen and Jenn. Or Jenn Squared.



On Sunday morning we said goodbye to Nufi and decided to continue with our tour of the National Parks. We headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park to take in the sites and drive Trail Ridge Road up to the Continental Divide. Just as I remembered, the sites were gorgeous:



This are was close to where we got stuck in a traffic jam on the mountain when a car went over the edge. Nerve wracking, no?







Hello Big Fella!















Our final stop was to catch up with Kristi and her family in Denver.  As with most of our Denver friends, Kristi and her husband Nate are dog lovers.  Their two golden retrievers were great friends to our two black labs. Now there are some other great friends amongst the group:

Conversations Overheard While Hiking:

Screaming: "Arrgh! Arrgh! Rattlesnake!!"

Me: "Did someone just say rattlesnake?"

[repeat of the above]

Of all of the animals seen during our trip, the one we most wanted to see that we missed was a Moose. The one that we didn't really care to see but did was a rattlesnake. Sure enough, during our hike on Saturday, Diego and Julia's son Drake were hiking ahead on the trail when they heard the telltale rattle of the snake. To hear one observer tell it:

Diego: "Arrgh! Arrgh! Rattlesnake!" [repeat]

As we all approached, sure enough there on the edge of the trail was a very angry rattler. he was us all as we gave him a wide berth and passed by. I didn't get a great picture of him with my camera as I think I was a little bit nervous.  But Nufi did get a picture I think, which will be good for the scrapbook.