October 31, 2015 - Part 2

I wish I was embarrassed to tell you Jed was Sherlock Holmes for Halloween once again, 

but I'm totally not.  

I'm not the mom who gets into creating costumes.  

And besides, this one is so awesome I don't think it can be topped, so why bother trying?  :)  

It always works to his advantage...people seem to give him more candy because of it.  

It's a win-win for everyone.  

Except Jed has said he absolutely will not, under any circumstances, be Sherlock Holmes again.  

We'll see.

:)

October 31, 2015 - Part 1

It was a beautiful fall morning, and I took advantage of the warm(ish) temps and bright sunshine by slipping out early and running errands.  There isn't a Wal-Mart in Golden, so we drive to the town to our west, which is up into the mountains.  It's just 12 miles away, but it feels like going on vacation.

The town is aptly named Evergreen. 

After stops at Wal-Mart and Home Depot, I headed further up the mountain to look at a couple of houses we were considering as rentals before we moved.  Neither of them worked out and I was curious to see what we had missed out on.  Of course I didn't see inside the houses, but the neighborhoods were just as beautiful as I expected them to be.  I love all the pine trees!!  And this lake, right down the road, is pretty idyllic.  But it's so far from Tracy's work - it takes him literally 5 minutes to get to work and he comes home for lunch! - and we would have to drive everywhere.  We are all loving being in the middle of town and able to walk most everywhere we want to go.

We can always go to Wal-Mart for our mini-vacations.  :)

October 24, 2015

We took Jed to Heritage Square today, which has an interesting history.
Originally called Magic Mountain, you can read about it here.

It is one of the oldest theme parks in the world, second only to Disneyland.

The original creators, many of whom came from Disney, expected it to rival Disneyland, in fact.

That didn't come to pass, but what was built is pretty nice.

Sadly, we had learned that much of it is closing at the end of the month,

so we went to see it before things closed down.

The amusement park will still be open next year,

which is really the only part Jed is interested in anyway.  :)

That first picture was of Jed in a giant hamster ball, trying to run in a pool.  :)

This is Jed in the Miner's Maze.

It doesn't look like much, but I was on a platform above the maze

so you can't see how difficult it was.

Jed was pretty much losing his mind by the time I took this picture.  :)

Up next was the ropes course.  

That looked like so much fun!

This shot gives a little better perspetive on how high up he was.

Last on the agenda was the bungee ride.  

Wish I had a shot that gave a better perspective for how high he was on this ride...

it was making my teeth rattle watching him come to a jerking stop so high up.  :)

More fall color from the parking lot of Heritage Square.

October 22, 2015

The leaves are turning here...this picture doesn't do them justice. 

When we visited Colorado in June we met a man from Snow Camp, NC,

which is right beside where Tracy grew up and near where I lived for 18 years.

He's been living in Colorado for 15 years and says he loves it,

but the one thing he misses about NC is the color in the fall,

since Colorado is mostly evergreens and aspens.

However, we've been pleasantly surprised at the variety of color.

It helps if you enter into something with low expectations.  :)

October 17, 2015

We arrived in Golden, CO on October 1 and have been busy getting unpacked.

Tracy and Jed took a break from the work and climbed South Table Mountain, 

which we can see from our house.

This is the view from an upstairs balcony on the front of the house.

And here's a close-up of Tracy and Jed - can you see them??

October 16, 2015

It's a bit of a shock when your birthday boy wants to light his own candles.

Really, this is what he wanted to be doing.  :)

And just like that, he's 12.