Monday, April 30, 2012

The Silver Bullet

As far as factory tours go, the only one I'd ever been on was the Blue Bell Ice Cream tour.  And since you get a big free ice cream cone at the end of that one, my standards were pretty high.


But I have to say, if you're ever in Golden, go on the Coors Brewery tour.


They pick you up in a bus and give you a quick little tour around town. 
It's actually super informative and interesting.
(I now know where Buffalo Bill's grave is and have seen the largest cobblestone building in the country.)


As for the brewery tour itself, it's also really fun.
It's very bright and colorful, with lots of elevators, stairs, and doorways. 
Had I seen a chocolate river, I'd have thought I was at Willy Wonka's.

The kids picked the funniest things they wanted their pictures made in front of.

JR told me he thought this fake snowy mountain scene was "beautiful".


And I'm not sure if Kyle and Reed thought the Blue Moon replica bottle caps were really cool, or just their height.


After learning all about Coors, (The Golden brewery is the largest single brewery facility in the world, and was founded in 1873 by German immigrant Adolph Coors...a fact, which, I knew my mother, the German Jew, would appreciate.) they let you sample pretty much whatever you want.

Thankfully, root beer is also on tap!

And what's any self respecting tourist trap without a cheesy souvenir photo?

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Food Network Hasn't Covered This One!

Did I live in a small town so long that I completely missed these?
I honestly did a triple take when I saw this!


Now, maybe I'm totally backwoods, and there's a lobster crane/claw game on every street corner, but this one at The Buffalo Rose in Golden is the first one I've ever seen.

I even asked the waitress if it was legit.
Yep.
$2.00 a try, and if you catch a lobster...they cook it for you!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Fashion Fabulous Friday


I'm usually spotlighting my kids' unusual fashion statements, but today I figured I'd turn the tables on myself.

Yesterday was hot.
And I know all my Texas readers are totally rolling their eyes at me right now, but I promise, it really was hot.
In fact, Reed even said, "Mommy, it feels like summer. Like Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house."


Of course it wasn't Texas hot, but it was too hot for me to do a comfortable long run.
After a few miles in I was really suffering,
so I figured the best option for me was to go with what I'm going to call "Landscaper Chic".


I swung by the house, wet down a dish towel, plopped my hat back on my head, and finished up my run.

Oh, I'm well aware how bad it is.
But hey, cooling and extra sun protection...I'm all in!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Welcome Home!

This little face has not been tucked in this bed for five weeks.
And I hadn't seen this little face for almost 3 weeks.

It's super fun to be doted on by all 3 sets of grandparents, but as JR told me tonight,
"Mommy, it sure is good to be home."

Yep, and it sure is good to have him home!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Throw Me a Bone

Jason and my mom both asked why I hadn't been blogging lately.
Sheepishly I had to tell them, "I don't have anything to say!"

It's not that we haven't been doing anything, we just haven't been doing anything I felt warranted a mention on the blog.

But since material seems to be hard to come by these days, I thought I'd throw out the pictures on my phone in a desperate attempt to post something.


The boys are taking swimming lessons.  They. love. them.
They actually did a "we have swimming lessons tomorrow" happy dance today.


Downtown is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
So close, in fact, that if we feel the need for some Pinkberry, we can go get some.

My friend, Aubrey, and her family were supposed to come over for dinner.
Her grandmother got sick and she had to leave town, but much to Kyle and Reed's delight, the rest of her family still came.


Speaking of food, Perry and I are sooo loving living in a more-than-2-chain-restaurants-town.
I'm sure I'm packing on the pounds; Perry seems to be retaining his platypus-ish figure.


Kyle and Reed have also been taking art classes.
I was super excited when I could almost tell what Kyle's was supposed to be!
It's a thunderstorm.
With pink clouds, of course.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Very Few Beasts

My friend, Randi, (of just ran the Boston Marathon fame) and I (and the hubbies) took the kids to see a matinee stage production of Beauty and the Beast this weekend.

Now, I think it's important to point out that Randi also has all boys, and nobody in the kid group is older than 6. 
(JR's still vacaying in Texas.)

But, give these boys some culture we must...so we decided to start out slow with our dip into the theatre world.
This production was put on by high school and jr high kids, but I must say, they did a really great job(and the costumes looked professional).

But the very best part...our own kids were awesome.
At "half time" Kyle told me, "Mommy! I love this thing you've brought me too!"

And, as you can see, he also loved the refreshments of "half time".

Here's an (almost) group shot of the bunch gearing up for "the third half" as they affectionately named the second act.

We may need to work on our dramatic terminology a bit more, but this bunch will be ready for Broadway in no time!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Poison Control Gets a Little Sexy

It's Earth Day.
So that means we celebrated with....

A call to Poison Control!

Yep, Poison Control.
Let me back up for a minute.

We're all so excited about having a yard with more than rocks and dirt, that we decided to do some spring yard sprucing today.

On a related side note, aren't my front porch "decorations" coming along nicely?

Kyle and Reed were both excited to help today.

They helped plant flowers.


And even did their own versions of Bonsai.

Then, as we were moving to the back yard, I saw Reed spitting and sputtering.
Jason said, "He says he just ate the fertilizer."

Reed had asked what the fertilizer was, and when Jason said "plant food", I guess he thought he'd give it a try.

He said he didn't swallow any, so I wasn't really worried, but figured I'd give Poison Control a call just to be safe.

I had a copy of the Broomfield Community Phone Book left from the previous owners, so I got it out, called the number and heard a sexy voice tell me

"Thank you for calling 1-888-free sex phone."

I thought "Whoopsey! he!he!"

I dialed the number again. 
Making sure I dialed each number just right.

And who do you think greeted me yet again?
You guessed it.
Free Sex Phone!

I found another phone book, and apparently the Broomfield Community Phone Book switched two of the numbers when listing the number for poison control!

After two sex calls, I finally got poison control on the phone, who I'm sure thought I was the most calm person they'd ever talked too.

I even told the operator, "I've got 3 boys. I'm not really worried, just thought I'd double check."

So FYI, if your child ever eats fertilizer, it's just like they were eating dirt (as long as it doesn't have weed killer in it) although it is an irritant, so they might throw up if they eat too much. 

And, of course, keep trying if you get "free sex phone"...you're just a couple numbers off!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Fashion Fabulous Friday


Where function and fashion meet.

Is it an Easter basket?
Is it a purse?

Either way, Kyle's gonna rock it!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

This is Easy

Jason and I were talking yesterday about how quickly we were able to settle here in Denver.
Jason chalked it up to that we finally moved somewhere "easy".

As much as we loved Beijing, communist China wasn't always a picnic.
And Durango...well, we never did get used to the remoteness of it. 
(4 hours to a real city was just too far for us.)

Knock on wood, everything here is easy:
The kids love riding their bikes to school.
Jason's commute is short.
And I have every store I could ever want within 5 miles of our house.

And speaking of our house....
Here it is.
(Now my mom can say she's seen it.)
 Do you see that patch of green stuff in the lower left hand corner?
It's grass! 
I haven't had grass in three years.

And you know what I have in the back?
A fence! And more yard!

Yep, I could get used to "easy".

Monday, April 16, 2012

Where Perry Ate

I promise this is my last post about Texas.

One of my very favoritey-favorite things to do when I'm "home" is eat all the good food I can't get in Colorado.
And thankfully, my parents like to eat out just as much as I do.

I started looking through the pictures on my phone and noticed that Perry the Platypus did an excellent job of documenting some of our foodie highlights.

Whataburger
Best fast food hamburger. EVER.
(and Jason's place of employment throughout high school)

Lee's China Inn
Sure I can get Chinese food here, but it's not the same as Mr. Lee's wonton soup.
(And JR loves hearing my mom order her usual "chicken and vegetables without the chicken".)

Donuts
(Guess Perry didn't make the picture since it's a picture of Reed.)
Colorado has a serious lack of donut shops...and don't even get me started on what they think a kolache is.


The Weldon Store
JR has bestowed the title of  "best BBQ sandwich" upon them.

And, of course,
Chuy's
Mexican food just doesn't get any better than this...
Unless it's called Pappasitos.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Friday Night Live

See these two girls with me.
It is totally their fault that I didn't get home until after 2:00 AM on Friday.
Totally their fault that my cheeks hurt from laughing.
Totally their fault that we only have this one picture because we were too busy having fun to stop and take pictures.

These are two of my very best friends from high school.
Aubrey (on the left) lives a few neighborhoods away from me now.
Julie's parents live in Boulder.

We haven't all been together since high school.

We had a few years to catch up on.
But just a few!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Fashion Fabulous Friday

While we were visiting my parents, the circus came to town.
Unfortunately, the circus arrived the same day as the Navidad fire next door.
The fire that was caused by lighting....because it was raining.

I never dreamed the grass field we had to walk through to get to the circus tent would have been turned into a big mud pit.
But, it had.

To say JR and I didn't have footwear appropriate for the occasion is an understatement.

So we sat through the circus with muddy feet and toes.

While these little people 
(who are still small enough to catch a ride in arms, so they avoided the mud) 
enjoyed the circus with blue teeth and lips.

Thankfully everybody else was covered in mud and cotton candy too!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Egged Out

Never ever have my children celebrated Easter as much as they did this year.
(And I've got the candy drawer to prove it!)

They even attended a Seder Dinner (Passover like Jesus would have had).
And Easter morning sunrise service (which is actually my favorite kind).  
It's also the reason we have no cute Easter morning dress-up photos...
 Cause there are no Easter bonnets first thing in the morning at sunrise service!

The kids started the Easter festivities with filling eggs at Maw-Maw's.
They were very serious about their egg filling job, but not so interested in Maw-Maw's practice egg hunts.
(Maw-Maw thinks egg hunting is a skill that needs to be practiced in the weeks leading up to the main event.)
 Check out Kyle's sunglasses on top of his hat.
(I do that all the time.)

The week before Easter, the Weldon Store (the one business within 5 miles of my parents' house) had an egg hunt.
1500 eggs for about 30 kids.

They finally just got tired of picking up eggs.

We spent Good Friday at Grandpa Gary and Granny Buffie's house.
Granny Buffie made (yes, made) cascarones with the kids.
They didn't even know dying eggs was "a thing".

Cascarones: eggs, dye, confetti, glue, tissue paper...
about 5 too many supplies and steps than I'm comfortable with!

And did I mention they whipped up a homemade bunny cake too?
Yeah, they did.


And if that wasn't enough, they spent Saturday with their cousins at the 24th annual family Easter party.
Complete with bouncy castle, egg hunting, and a pinata!

Whew!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Keeping With the Animal Theme

It just wouldn't be a trip to Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's without multiple photo-ops with Belle.
She already made an appearance with a shirtless, pouting Kyle a few posts back, but she was the star of a few non-pouting pictures too.







 
These were taken just before her summer haircut.
She looks much different (and cooler) now!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Bird is the Word

I guess our fine feathered Denver-ite friends knew I'd been hanging with lots of their fowl cousins in Texas, cause look who spent the morning sunbathing in our yard.


I know he's hard to see (I didn't want to scare him off by making any sudden movements like running inside to get my good camera) but he's a really beautiful Mallard.

Thanks for the welcome home, Little Buddy!

Monday, April 9, 2012

I Got Nothin'

After two days in the car pulling a U-Haul of stuff that was in our now cleaned out storage unit...
I am worn flat out.
I've got plenty to post...but not tonight!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Fashion Fabulous Good Friday


My mom always made sure I had a new Easter bonnet every year.

She's continuing the tradition the best she can.
And can we talk for a second about the manliness of Kyle's hat?!
He picked out Batman.
I know, I'm as shocked as you.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Take Two

The no hair brushing, shirts on backward pictures turned out so great I decided to give it another go.
JR declined.
But these two are easily bribed with pieces of gum.






And then I pushed my luck one picture too many.