December 4, 2015

Golden celebrated the beginning of the holiday season with a candlelight walk which started at the end of our street and proceeded down the hill to downtown and ended at Clear Creek, where the trees lining the creek were ceremoniously lighted.  There were thousands of people out, all carrying some kind of light, singing Christmas songs...it was really beautiful.

Two of our neighbors had open houses before and after the walk...this has to be the friendliest place we've ever lived!

November 27, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

It started snowing Wednesday night and snowed all day Thursday - our first white Thanksgiving!  :)
The front door mat at our new house has holes cut out in it,
which I had not cared for until I saw snow packed in them.  :)

Our landscaping bricks in the foreground, 

a church building down the hill from us in the middle, 

and South Table Mountain in the background.

That same church, taken from a higher vantage point, 

with our next door neighbor's front porch in the foreground.

Our little pine tree...

we don't have much of a yard, so I'm happy to have a few little trees at least. 

And the trees still haven't lost all their leaves yet!

It's interesting to see a combination of fall leaves and snow.

November 17, 2015

We got our first real snow in Golden!! 

South Table Mountain in the background in focus...

...foreground in focus.

November 14, 2015

We went letterboxing for the first time in Colorado today!  

We decided to go to a wilderness area in Evergreen, which is the town where the Wal-Mart is that we've been going to, so we got to take that same beautiful drive on I-70 into the mountains.  This is the first glimpse of snow-capped peaks on the drive. 

 The first glimpse of Bear Lake in Evergreen.

It's starting to ice over!  

We brought our next-door neighbor with us...this is the first time in Jed's life that he's had a friend next door, or even on the same street.  We are all pretty excited about that.  :)

November 13, 2015

Foreground in focus... 

...background of beautiful leaves in focus.

November 11, 2015

We got our first snow today!!

Granted, it wasn't much...but we were still pretty excited!

Jed tried to make the best of it.  :)

The sun was out and what little snow was on the trees turned to brilliant pinpoints of light.

November 6, 2015

Snow was in the forecast for the Metro Denver area yesterday, so we thought we would get a dusting at least.  I was more than a little disappointed to see nary a flake...it's been more than 2 years since we saw snow falling.  However, I know it's coming and I can be patient a little longer.

It was quite a surprise this morning when we drove to Evergreen (another trip to Home Depot and Wal-Mart - this always happens when we move) and saw that they got snow - and they're just 12 miles away!  They're up in the mountains, but still...if this is the way it's going to be this winter, I'm going to be making more trips to Wal-Mart than anybody should.  :)

I know this isn't much snow, but it's only November 6!!!

Can you imagine how gorgeous all those pine trees are going to be??!!

November 5, 2015

More beautiful fall color.

Foreground in focus....

 ...background in focus.

These are trees in our yard....

 ...and these are the mountains beyond our trees,

taken from the windows on our top floor.

And here's the famous Coors Brewing Co, as seen from our upstairs.

Woot!

I took this one for you, Kitten.  :)

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.