snowy day

it seemed so strange. one day it's 73, the next day snowing 7 inches. welcome to colorado. we didn't get that much snow in longmont but denver and points south got layered. it was nice though. i heard it raining about 6:30 AM and by 8:00 it was snowing. today it's clear and will be 50 - 55. go figure!

I know, I know . . .

my blogging is so lame these days. i don't really have a great excuse. mid-life lazy I guess. but, i promise to get caught up because other than a 1 day trip to california later this week, i have no travel scheduled at all in the month of november! you have no idea how nice that is.

more . . . gimme more!

look at john david. he's rootin' around the bottom of the suitcase looking for at least one more present. these babies looove their presents!

the princess!

oh my goodness! can you believe how precious she is? i guess my visions of her playing soccer and t-ball have been dashed. for the moment.

happy birthday!

happy birthday to my precious baby girl! you are sooooooo beautiful!!!

the joys of travel

Once again another week of travel. Is there ever going to be another flight that leaves on time? Three weeks in a row I booked the 7:00 pm return to Denver. And, three weeks in a row the flight is at least an hour late leaving. But each week I noticed that the 6:00 pm was leaving on time. I'm no fool. Last week I booked on the 6:00 pm thinking that I'd beat this little game. So I get to the airport and what do you know? DELAYED! New departure time is 6:50. Ok, well what are you gonna do? So I looked around and found a comfortable spot to SIT for an extra 50 minutes. 6:20 rolls around and its time to board, right? Uh, no . . . New departure time is now 7:35! Oh, did I mention that the 7:00 pm flight has left? ON TIME!!

the best ever?

i'm trying really hard to remember, but honestly i don't think i've had a better birthday than this one. except possibly my real "birth" day. of course i don't recall much about that day. all i remember is the day started out like all of the other days prior, then all of the sudden it was so bright and people were talking and running around and poking me and wiping me off. that's about all i can remember. nah! i like this one way better!

but this birthday, wow. it's been special. yes i got some really great gifts. who wouldn't think an iPhone is one of the best gifts ever? and who has a wife that would give her man the ability to watch every single NFL game played for the season and trust him enough to know that he would never abuse that? (that's 13 games a week)

and who has a wife that would give her man no less than 4 birthday cards (and counting) that ALL play a song when opened?

and who has a wife that would serve her man breakfast in bed at 5:30 in the morning?

and who has a wife that goes out and decorates her mans car with streamers and balloons, even before the breakfast in bed!?

and plan a great dinner that evening with friends so they too can celebrate my birthday . . .


and how great is it that my birthday celebration will continue through the weekend with more surprises in the works?

and even better than that, how great is it that i can spend the rest of my life with this woman!?

and if you haven't read la's blog yet, well . . check this out
for davus

i'm a little overwhelmed with it all but hey, i'm willing to suffer through it!

here are a few pics from my special day . . .

half dead yet fully alive

well . . . i made it. i'd like to think this is the half-way point but geeez, who do i know that's made it to 100 other than granny sullivan? nobody. so i guess the reality has set in. i probably passed the half-way point sometime ago. but you know what? it's all good. i may be 50 but i feel so, so much younger. that tells me that age is basically a state of mind or an attitude. i like young music, young tv shows and movies, and contrary to what some of you might think, i actually like being around young people. in small doses of course. so i'm not fretting about turning 50.

originally this post was going to be titled "50 things about turning 50" and i was going to spend a lot of time coming up with 50 observations i wanted to make. but you know what, i'm way too busy for that. i've got places to go and people to see. thank you very much. so . . . instead, i have done some research and decided to share some interesting things that have happened on august 1st throughout history.


1498 Christopher Columbus lands on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela)
1619 1st black Americans (20) land at Jamestown, Virginia
1779 Francis Scott Key, composer, Star-Spangled Banner was born
1781 English army under general Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia
1790 1st U.S. census, population of 3,939,214
1831 London Bridge opens to traffic
1834 Slavery abolished through out the British Empire. 750,000 slaves set free.
1867 Blacks vote for 1st time in a state election in South
1869 1st voyage down Colorado River
1873 San Francisco's 1st cable car begins service
1876 Colorado becomes 38th state
1903 1st coast-to-coast automobile trip (SF-NY) completed
1936 Adolph Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin
1939 American band leader Glenn Miller records 'In The Mood'.
1944 Anne Frank's last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested
1957 Dave Hix born in Dallas, TX
1958 1st class postage up to 4 cents (had been 3 cents for 26 years)
1960 Chubby Checker releases "The Twist"
1961 Comic strip hero Spiderman makes his debut.
1966 Former marine Charles Whitman kills 13 and wounds 31 at UT in Austin
1976 Flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon Colorado on Route 34, kills 139
1981 MTV premieres at 12:01 AM

so to all of the people i know that will read this blog, thank you for your contribution to my life. i love all of you and wish i could see you on my special day. i can't, but know that your close in my thoughts today.

they made it, they made it!!!

here we are at the airport picking up the fam. i have no idea where john david is. probably up a tree or in the fountain. i just don't know . . .

glenwood springs

i didn't take my camera into the pool so i found this shot on the web. i'm a photo pirate! arrrrgh! but i do have some good ones of our fun day at glenwood caverns.

not to see elitch's is not to see denver

ok . . . that's a really dumb slogan. the way they designed the logo makes it very difficult to even know what they're talking about. i guess you had to be there.

anyway, here're shots of our fun day in the park! some of the hilights were john david's chocolate ice cream shirt, julia's red cotton candy lips, john david showing "hook 'em horns" with spiderman, lala's fun on the boat swing, me and the party blower, julia and i dancing, julia napping on john clay's lap, and the birdman.

night rafting

here's a few shots from our rafting expedition. i don't know . . . it sounds a lot funner than it is. i guess your anticipating seeing lots of wild life but the reality is, you may not. and we didn't. except one lonely beaver. lala really enjoyed the guide talking about the wildlife. :-) even at that it was a lot of fun. john david certainly didn't want to wear the rafting gear. but when the rapids came, i'm sure he was glad he was adorned properly.

denver aquarium

one of our last adventures was going to the aquarium. we all went last year and decided it was worth going back. upon leaving we stopped by the petting zoo. uh . . . we don't pet snakes. but john david touched them. check out the pic of him eating calamari. he thought it was an octopus. he liked that! and we all like looking at the eels.