December 31, 2017

December 30, 2017

We hit the road to Charlotte yesterday to see the grands.  

Had our Christmas celebration with them this morning, and it was grand.  :)

I tried to make a gingerbread house with the kids but the icing wouldn't stick and the house kept collapsing.  

My honors-studio-art son took over and did a spectacular job, but his roof kept sliding off.  :)

My mom had made stuffing and sweet potato souffle for our Christmas dinner ahead of time and we brought it with us.  The stuffing took a really long time to cook and it was getting late, so when it was finally ready I put the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes and popped them in the oven to melt, but even that didn't happen quickly so I asked my daughter-in-law to turn the oven to broil.  I checked on them just a couple of minutes later and they were on fire.  Literally.  I screamed and immediately ran from the room, ala George Castanza, but with a better motive - I held the door closed so the kids couldn't come into the kitchen from the playroom upstairs.  It was a madhouse.  Thankfully my daughter-in-law has a good sense of humor.  We scraped the marshmallows off, put on another batch and posed for pictures.  :)

They survived, thanks to my quick thinking!

December 27, 2017

My dad's sister passed away a few days before Christmas, so we headed to Richmond today for her funeral.  

So thankful we were here for that.  

The sun setting over the James River on the way home was really nice. 

December 25, 2017

On our way to Virginia to see my parents for Christmas!  

This is what eastern Colorado looks like - why??  

What are these different colored squares?

Norfolk, Virginia at twilight from the air.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, linking the mainland to the Eastern Shore.  

I didn't remember there were two tunnels until I saw them from above.  

Or rather, didn't see them.  :)

The plan was to celebrate Christmas a little later in the week, 

so it was Eastern Carolina bbq sandwiches for Christmas dinner today.  :)

December 21, 2017

Jed found these sweet little bird tracks in the snow as he was shoveling.

December 14, 2017

 Jed chose a science fair project that involved fire...of course.

Magnesium is a really interesting combustible.

December 8, 2017

I took Jed and a couple of his friends to an escape room in Golden this evening 

to celebrate his birthday (rather belatedly), 

since we were in North Carolina during his actual birthday.

It was so funny to watch them...they were sure they would escape within 10 minutes.  

The confidence of 14 year old boys knows no bounds!   

Even when they didn't manage to escape at all, it wasn't their fault.  :)

December 7, 2017

Jed getting the leaves raked up.  

He was smiling because he thought he was almost done.  :)

November 29, 2017

 Another sunrise, this time before Jed's class.

 

It was interesting how the camera captured the colors differently when I zoomed in.

November 26, 2017

Catching the sunrise this morning.

November 19, 2017

The light coming into the house late this afternoon was yellow.

This is what greeted me when I stepped outside to take a look.

Colorado is the only state we've lived in 

where you could have clouds like this

and no rain.

November 8, 2017

It was snowing again when I went to bed last night.

Still just a dusting...

but we're hopeful all these dustings are just a warm-up for a very snowy winter.

Also, I really need to get that hammock and umbrella put away!

November 7, 2017

We woke up to our fourth snow of the season!

Again, just a dusting, but we're still pretty excited. :)

This window is in an upstairs loft.  

Our neighbors rebuilt their chimney last fall (I think) and it is really beautiful...

I think it looks like a cupola.

November 5, 2017

The sky was amazing today on our drive home from our church in Boulder.

November 4, 2017

Jed and I went out again this evening - two in a row!  :)

The local museums were free from 5:00 - 8:00 PM and we took advantage of the offer

to visit the Golden History Museum.

Jed was pretty intrigued with this old snow shovel - 

can you imagine shoveling with a wood shovel??

I hope it makes his shoveling this winter seem a bit easier by comparison.  :)

We love the light rail!

An interesting bit of history about the "M" on Lookout Mountain. 

 That's our view of South Table Mountain.

This quilt was pieced by the Ladies Aid Society of the First Baptist Church of Golden in 1887. The sunburst signature quilt is composed of 30 red squares about 14″ to each side. In the center of each square is a white circle surrounded by 17 white diamonds. Key events in church history are written onto the center of each circle while church member names are written on the diamonds. All together, over 500 names appear on the quilt.

Golden history is literally written into this quilt. Another square records Golden’s first bell: The church built a tower for the bell presented by William Austin Hamilton Loveland in 1865. While the date is slightly off (it should be 1867), Loveland offered to give the Baptists a bell if they’d built a tower to house it. The Baptists met the challenge whole-heartedly and the bell finally swung into place on June 17, 1868. As the only bell in town it was put to other uses such as signaling town meetings and fires.    from goldenhistory.org

I had no idea Boppy pillows originated in Golden - how cool is that??!

I also had no idea the designer of the Pullman railroad car lived here in Golden.

We got to bring home a souvenir - a metal disk laser-etched by a machine that was designed and built in Golden! 

November 3, 2017

Jed and I went out tonight to run a couple of errands.

I used to have the full moons noted on my calendar but I didn't do that this year,

and we were flabbergasted at the moon that greeted us -

not only was it full, it was huge and it was golden - a harvest moon!

These pictures are horrible - cell phone again - and it's a little heartbreaking because the moon was so gorgeous.

Moving the camera to the left to get away from the Staples we were parked in front of 

really darkened the sky.

That's Golden in the foreground and Denver in the background, 

with the southern portion of the South Table Mountain mesa separating the two.

A wide swipe to the left reveals the rest of Golden with the Rockies in the background.

The white light on the mountain slightly to the right of center is the School of Mines "M."