The Goodrums

This year, Christmas and New Year's came and went in the blink of an eye. I can't believe we still haven't posted any of the highlights from the visits.

Michael finished school on December 18. My family arrived to visit on December 19. We hung out in Denver the first few days and then took a trip to the mountains to ski. On our second day skiing, one of my sisters managed to slice her butt open on our friend's snowboard. Seriously... you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried! A face first trip down the mountain on a stretcher and beaucoups of stitches later, we headed back to Denver with Christy laying face first down across the seats in the car. We spent most of the time after that hanging out at home, since mobility was limited.






















Skiing at Breck ________________________ Beware of Snowboards

On Saturday the 26th, my family decided to head home. They packed up the car and headed for home. About 3 hours into the 10 hour drive (with a butt laceration patient aboard), they learned that I-70 through the entire state of Kansas was closed. There is no reasonable way to get from the Colorado/Kansas border to Oklahoma when I-70 is closed. You can take 1-25 south to I-40, but that requires a trip back through Denver. So, they turned around and came back. My mom kept comparing their reappearance to the Griswolds (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation). They camped out another afternoon and then tried again. The second trip home was a success. I'm so thankful I-70 was closed as the afternoon of the Griswolds has so many great memories. We laughed until we were blue in the face.

Over New Year's, we took a quick trip to Lubbock to visit Michael's sister and hang out with his family. We had a fun time playing board games, being treated to abundant good food and even going to a skeet shooting range. I know I'm from Texas, but I have never handled a gun in my life. Quite the experience. I only managed to hit one skeet thing and then stopped while I was ahead. I was much better at working the launcher...















Goodrum Family















Shooting Range

We came back from Lubbock and Michael promptly started school again. Not much rest for the weary, but many great memories.

During this time, our external hard drive with all of our files - school, music, pictures - everything dear and precious to us, also crashed. It lends chaos to the holidays to be without addresses for Christmas cards, pictures from the last year, etc., etc. Thankfully we were able to recover the data - albeit 2 months and $1,400 later. Ugh. Lesson learned. Backup your data.

Our blog has seen some serious neglect over the past few months (err half a year). The pace of life has not slowed much, as we had hoped for 2009. Yet we've had some great experiences - from visitors to travel to life changes. I'll be attempting to update it a bit here.

A couple highlights:

At the end of February, a bunch of friends descended on Denver (yay!). We got to hang out a bit with Kim and Fleetwood (and meet their daughter, Logan) while they were in town for their friend Neil's wedding. That same weekend, Michael's coworker, Beka, along with family and friends came up for a ski weekend in Vail. We got to join them for a day. While the company was great, the skiing left something to be desired...

In early March, we trekked out to Boulder to attend the A&M v. CU basketball game - one of the final games of the season. The Ags prevailed in what was a testy game and went on to March madness.

We also got to attend a regular season Nuggets game at the end of March - and ended up right in the middle of madness between the Nugget's mascot, Rocky, and a Knicks fan. We were three rows in front of all the stands action the entire game. Now the Nuggets are battling out for a spot in the NBA finals. Go Nuggets!

We took trips to OKC to hang out with the Brashares Family in both March and April. There was the road trip in March to celebrate dad's birthday (#60 - though you'd hardly guess). It was a quick trip but it's been great to be able to spend time with family. Plus, it had been almost a year since we were last in OKC so we finally got to see Mom and Dad's new furniture (and painting job). Feeling slightly out of the loop there... We were able to go back for a little longer weekend in April - for the Poor Uncle Billy Fun Run. Documentation of that event at the Brashares Family Blog.

We balanced out our family time with a visit from the Goodrums over Easter. Michael and his dad worked hard on the Jeep. Once Hank has a multi-point fuel injection system, hopefully he will pass the Colorado emissions tests and be back on the road again (after almost 2 years out of commission - and in a cool place at that). As always with vehicles, the jeep project has morphed and now includes rewiring the entire vehicle. Most spare moments of late (even still) find Michael in the garage with the jeep. We also spent a good part of May in D.C. (and surrounding high areas) with the Goodrums.

We've also been through some life transitions with a major decision about graduate school for Michael. Michael attended visit days at both CU Boulder and MIT through March and April and shared the 5-year plan in April on the blog. In the meantime, I've been adjusting to a new job. Although the jobs are very similar, it's been interesting to note the contrasts. I'm appreciating the many blessings of my new role.

Our weather has been wild through the spring and summer. After an uneventful winter with almost no precipitation, April gave us two Saturdays with two and a half feet of snow each (almost 5 feet in total). Really? May, June and July has been rain, rain, rain - with a couple funnel clouds thrown in for good measure.

Thankfully, Memorial Day weekend was one of relative calm. A chance to spend a few days at home and regroup around the house with all the busyness of late. Of course, we couldn't just sit around - we had to run the BolderBoulder for good measure.

In early June, we traveled to Amarillo for Michael's high school reunion. Although I was a bit apprehensive about the event (hanging out with a bunch of people who all know each other but don't know you), we both had a really good time.

The Amarillo trip was followed quickly by a work trip to Vail for me. Michael made it up for the final day and we did a little hiking before heading back to Denver.

Michael spent most of May and June in Hawaii for work. I got to join him during the latter part of his final trip - and we took a little vacation time while we both were there. I actually relaxed during the first part of the week while Michael worked and then we traveled to the Big Island, where we did crazy things like attempt to hike Mauna Kea (but had a good time nonetheless).

We've actually been home for most of July, including the July 4 weekend. Michael has continued to work on the jeep which is oh-so-close to being complete. We're also launching into building a deck - with a goal to complete it before Michael starts school next month (call us crazy!). The Goodrums will be coming in to help us finish out these two big projects - and we'll also have several other fun visitors in the next few weeks.

The fall should be 'relatively' calm - we hope - with Michael transitioning back into school mode. Maybe I'll actually be better about updating the blog when that happens!

If we still have any readers out there, thank for bearing with us through the silence of life chaos lately. Hope you are all doing well!

August has been another busy month for us. Not much rest for the weary lately. We are feeling the fatigue.

We have spent much of the month on the road with a good stint in the Houston area. My youngest sister, Teri, graduated from the best University ever on August 8. Six days later, Kelly - sis #2, got married on Lake Conroe. Meanwhile, Michael has taken two business trips in the midst of all of this - one to Albuquerque, one to Amarillo. Adding to it all has been the late nights of Olympics obsession. Thankfully toward the end of the Houston trip (post wedding) we had a few much-needed days to relax and enjoy hanging out at the lake. I waterskied for the first time (quite ridiculous that I had never tried before given the aquatic tendencies of our family) and felt it for several days after.

Meanwhile, back home, the Democratic National Convention is descending on Denver. Let the chaos begin. We are hearing daily the talk of freeway, light rail, facility closures, airport fiascos, security nightmares, etc. Time to stay out of dodge for a week or so. Thankfully neither of us are scheduled to travel this next week and we should be able to have a low key week.

September is supposed to be one of our two (relatively) calm months this year. We'll see about that.

Pictures from graduation
Pictures from the wedding and post-wedding relaxation

It's so hard to believe that we're still doing family vacations - with all kiddos grown and living across the world. We got together in Denver over the July 4th weekend and everyone was able to come. Amazing!

Mom and Kelly showed up first on Wednesday and helped prep for everyone else.

Teri and Wes showed up Thursday morning and had a power R&R day. I think there might have been a viewing of Hoodwinked (a parody of Little Red Riding Hood) but I mostly heard snoring coming from the downstairs vicinity.

Matt, Dad and Christy showed up Thursday evening (supposedly). In truth, only Matt made his debut on Thursday evening - thanks to the mostly reliable Continental Airlines. Those on United had quite the stories to tell upon their arrival (see also, Mom, Kelly, Christy and Dad, who have sworn off of United forever). We made a secondary run to the airport to pick up Dad and Christy Thursday-night-might-have-been-Friday-morning. Snoozed for a few hours and then we were off to the races.

On Friday, we used our scouting knowledge to treat the gang to a tour of Mt. Evans. We were amazed at how well the non-altitude favored of the bunch did. Everyone made it to the top and no one got sick. The boys of the group gave us some near heart attacks with all their gallivanting off and over the sides of Mt. Evans.















Dad, Christy and Teri hanging off the side of Mt Evans















The Girls at the top



















Kelly and Matt being mountain goats











Brashares Family Photo
Back from Left: Dad, Mom, Christy, Teri, Wes
Front fron Left: Matt, Kelly, Jen, Michael (Goodie)













Someone has to make fun of Christy and Teri's myriad poses















Mom and Dad in front of the Chicago Lakes

We ate lunch at Summit Lake and did some light hiking in the area and then headed home. Again, lots of snoring to accompany the beautiful drive home. Thursday evening we ate dinner and headed up to Daniel's Park Road (the road that runs the ridge next to our house) to watch the fireworks. There was another fire in the open space so we had to use some creative maneuvering to get to our destination. It was well worth the effort, as we had a panoramic view of all the fireworks in the Denver area, including some in the foothills.



















Kelly and Matt walking along Daniel's Park Road into the sunset















The Brashares Girls watching the fireworks

On Saturday, we took US 285 out of Denver and did some hiking in the foothills. Our first hike had some beautiful views of the foothills and Pikes Peak but the trail map wasn't exactly accurate and we started to wonder if the hike was ever going to end (lack of lunch was probably also a factor in what seemed to be an impossibly long second half of the hike). After lunch, we embarked on a second hike, which took us to a lake and a vista over the South Platte River. Wes and Matt brilliantly decided to go for a swim in the river. They didn't regain a normal (non blue) color until we were back in Metro Denver. Saturday night we enjoyed dinner at Maggiano's and a Dulce de Leche cheesecake by Chef Miguel.















We're going hiking now... we're on our way!



















The Brigade



















Teri and Christy along Eagle's View trail















Family portrait
From left: Matt, Kelly, Michael/Goodie, Jen, Dad, Mom, Christy, Wes, Teri



















Can you tell he had no energy?
He got sunburned on Friday and was pretty miserable on Saturday.



















Kelly



















Teri



















Christy















Mom and Jen at the Pine Lake overlook















The Brashares Family Women



















I believe this was taken just following the Bear Necessities Dance



















Masters of the River















Recovery
or inmates... your call :)

Sunday began the mass exodus that would eventually leave me all alone in Denver. After church in Castle Rock, we headed downtown to the REI flagship. I always think that one is going to get old among visitors and somehow it never does. We spent a good two hours there before making an airport run with Dad, Christy, Teri and Wes. Matt and Kelly stayed at REI for a couple more hours of fun. Post airport, the remaining crew rejoined Matt and Kelly for an exploration of downtown, spot-a-Starbucks contest, use of some port-a-potties in Civic Center Park, an art museum sighting and a scrumptious dinner at Proto's.















Reminiscing of our childhood
Hanging out in the 12 passenger van!















In front of the Denver Art Museam, aka DAM

Matt and Michael (errr Goodie) left early Monday morning to their respective destinations. Mom and Kelly stayed to help regroup (which was so helpful!) and left Monday evening. The house was so quiet Monday night - from 9 people 24 hours prior down to one.

I'm so thankful we are still able to do family get togethers like this in spite of the distance we live from each other now. We're also glad to live in a place that people enjoy visiting. It's so much fun! Thanks for coming! Come again soon! :)

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Our camera had terrible timing and took a trip to the warranty shop during this visit. :( I took it upon myself to be the keeper of the family camera (although I eventually found it too hard to use and gave up). I downloaded the initial pictures I took but, for the rest of the trip, I have to wait on pictures from my sisters. I already stole some from Christy (most of what is showcased here!).

More pictures of Mt Evans

New to Colorado - 5 minutes from the house

This past weekend, we ventured to OKC for Christy's undergraduate graduation and Mother's Day.

Jen drove by her lonesome self through terrible Kansas weather - four hail storms, torrential rains, crazy winds, threatening skies, a tornado on the ground within 15 miles of her at one point and great fun such as that. 6+ hours of chaos before 4 in the dark (uhhh... someone can't see at all to drive at night). Michael flew peacefully from Denver to OKC (smooth going minus a delay and a super late arrival time). Rough life due to "no vacation." :)

Friday Jen spent the day with family relaxing and running errands. We got some time out by the pool - to hopefully take the blinding aspect out of the winterized Denver legs. Michael got to head to work with Dad B. Perhaps that made up for the missed fun of the road trip. We ate a celebratory dinner together at great local find, Cheevers (Jen finally got to eat there - and it was as good as it was made out to be!), followed by the discovery of a weeks-old to-go box in the car from Cheesecake Factory (you could definitely tell Christy is a med school student as she repeatedly analyzed the unidentifiable contents of the box on the way to the dumpster). After getting the stare-down from the security officer at Cheevers during the to-go box fiasco, the girls headed towards the video store in hysterics. A Dan in Real Life screening followed.

Saturday was another day of relaxation, along with a Mother's Day celebration and graduation. We are so proud of Christy! Graduation footage is available here.



















Mom and kiddos with the Mother's Day gift
Mom claims she'll be social now that she has a lure to the front porch. Like she's not already social! Ha ha!



















Cute Graduate















Christy in the crowd















Christy and Proud Parents















4 of the 5 girls

Sunday we went to church with Mom, Dad and Christy (Teri and Wes had to head back to College Station on Saturday night), ate a quick Mother's Day lunch and headed back to Denver. The weather was much more cooperative on the return trip - although Kansas is still tedious as always.















Kansas sunset

Let the races begin... May will be a crazy month in this Goodrum household.

We have had a whirlwind of activity here over the past two weeks. It turns out that Colorado is a popular tourist destination and we have had lots of visitors, which we have loved!

The quick-ish version:

On Friday, March 7, my dad and mom arrived from Oklahoma City and Indianapolis respectively. My mom had been in Indianapolis to be with my grandmother who was recovering from open heart surgery. Mom and dad finally made it to the house about 12:30am on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, we picked up Teri and Wes from the airport and trekked down to Colorado Springs. We hung out at Garden of the Gods for a bit, then the Broadmoor and played a killer round of (freezing) adventure golf. We ate dinner at Teri's favorite restaurant, Grand Lux, and ran into some neighbors while playing a "game" with the buzzer they give you while you wait. The game (courtesy of Wes) consisted of sticking the buzzer on your forehead and seeing who the buzzer went off on (our neighbors probably thought we had lost our minds).



















Wes and Michael at Garden of the Gods















Family portrait
From left: Dad, Mom, Jen, Wes, Michael (Goodie)



















Guys being guys















Another family portrait
From Left: Mom, Jen, Teri, Wes, Michael















Wes as Atlas















Dad and daughters















The Broadmoor



















Adventure golf - Dad and gorilla



















See previous caption (guys being guys) - this time with the Statue of Liberty



















Sheer concentration

On Sunday, we headed to church in the morning and then to the airport to drop off Dad. Sunday afternoon the girls went for a walk/jog and the guys decided to check out the local mountain bike trail. Early in the season = mud city. They worked on hosing off for at least twice as long as they were on the trail.

On Monday, we got up and drove to Copper Mountain and Wes and Teri skied.















Cold day of skiing - Teri and Wes

On Tuesday, Teri and Mom joined me for my 5:30am pilates class and then promptly went back to bed. :) I managed to get a little work done and we then returned ski gear and kidnapped Michael from work for a lunch at Fuddrucker's.

On Wednesday, there was some sleeping in abounding and then we jumped on the light rail toward downtown. Somewhere out there there is a pictoral history our light rail ride (some blackmail material for sure in those shots). The trip downtown involved a yummy sushi lunch, trip to the flagship REI, exploration of downtown, visit to the art museum, gander past a building that Teri worked on during her architecture internship last spring and dinner at Proto's. Our long-awaited rug also finally showed up on Wednesday!















New rug!
Note: Baby stuff is all borrowed for Jordan (see below). Thank goodness for my neighbor Luaan! She saved the day on baby stuff!!

Thursday was the transition day. My family left and my college roommates (and now families) started arriving for a reunion. We started the day by picking Jessica, David and Jordan up from the airport. My mom left while we were doing that airport run and dropped Teri and Wes off at the outlet mall just down the road. Shortly thereafter, I picked Teri and Wes up and headed to the airport with them. Beth and Jeff arrived that evening. Kelly also got engaged on Thursday! Whew.... what a day!















Meal time for Jordan

On Friday, we took it easy in the morning and did another light rail trip into downtown in the afternoon - perusing the contents of the flagship REI, balking at the Starbucks on every other corner and dodging the wind up the 16th Street Mall. Our neighbor Luaan again saved the day by helping transport our crew to the light rail station (otherwise we would have had to make two trips since one car doesn't fit everyone and Michael had the Saturn with him at work).

On Saturday, we packed up the crew and headed to Roxborough State Park for a hike. Preparing to leave for our hike, David was extolling the virtues of soft shell jackets and made the comment that soft shells were excellent at "breaking wind." We all sat in silence for a second wondering why that sounded so funny. With the soft shells in tow (we were assured privacy on the trail), we started our hike.















Jordan's first hike



















The group hiking















A view from Carpenter Peak trail



















View of the Hogback's ridgeline and Roxborough



















Break time - Jordan, Jessica and David

Not far into the trail, we saw signs warning us of the mountain lions and rattle snakes. While I was attempting to reassure all that it was still too cold for snakes, Michael decided to educate our friends as to the extreme dangers of the infamous Colorado snow snakes. You really can't catch a break in this group. Being that it is a bit early in the season for hiking around here, we encountered some semi-treacherous conditions on our trail to Carpenter Peak (aka we needed crampons). Jessica and I were performing some pretty outrageous "dance moves" with all our slipping and falling.















Buried alive... well to the knee



















Michael in deep-ish snow

After a while, we decided to take a break for "lunch," except that in my quite sporadic packing that morning (lots of interruptions and distractions) I had forgotten to pack the bread, granola bars and napkins. Wow. Wow. Thank goodness for flexible friends. We made cheese and lunch meat wraps and ate lots of fruit, crackers and cookies. Jordan had the most "normal" meal of us all. Michael decided to be the garbage disposal of the group; although Jeff couldn't quite convince him to finish off the large, untouched container of mustard.















Makeshift lunch



















Jordan's lunch



















Bottomless pit

Eventually we decided it wise to save the hike for a warmer day and the girls and Jordan headed back to the house while the guys continued hiking for a little while. There were many games of Catch Phrase these evenings - complete with the all time classic reference to "the brown stuff that comes from a cow" (aka chocolate milk - bet you didn't go there; neither did we).

On Sunday, we took Beth and Jeff on the "scenic drive" down Daniels Park road on the way home from church. Then the girls hit the outlet mall and found some crazy good deals ($0.49 hat and mittens for Jordan).















Shopping!
Jessica and Bethie



















Jordan's steal of a deal

We sent the guys to pick Jen Nelson up from the airport. Poor Jen! After eating dinner with the crew, we played three or four rounds of the appropriately titled "Nelson game." Best of included flamingo with four legs, fox stealing baby and flower pot-head. I'm sure there are others I am leaving out.

Sunday night it started snowing and the slushy weather continued for most of Monday. Monday was a pretty low key day for people to hang out and catch up. We made a trip to Beau Jo's (local pizza) for lunch and then took a walk in the afternoon. Beth and Jeff flew out Monday evening and we worked on a Grand Canyon puzzle to relive college memories.















Group shot
From left: Beth, Jeff, Jen, Goodie, David, Jordan, Jen, Jessica















Puzzling

Jessica, David and Jordan left on Tuesday, so we spent the morning helping them get packed and ready to go. Traveling with a little one is a lot of work! After dropping off the crew at the airport (it was quite a squeeze getting there - four adults and a baby in an itty bitty Chevy Prism), Jen and I went for our tour of downtown. REI flagship, 16th Street Mall, State Capitol, Art Museum - she saw it all! We met Michael at his office, went to dinner at Maggiano's and then rented a movie.



















Happy Jordan at the airport












Denver art museum



















Jen in the fountain
Bring back A&M memories anyone? Fountain hopping... hmm...

On Wednesday morning, Jen and I headed back to Roxborough and hiked a different trail (South Rim trail). The trail was better than the previous one, although it was still showcasing a good amount of snow. After cleaning up our mud covered selves, Jen and I chilled for a while and then she headed to the airport and back to Houston. :(



















Jen on snow covered South Rim trail












Jen and Jen over Roxborough












Another view of Roxborough

View more spring break pictures here.

Thursday and Friday saw the return of work and some regrouping around the house. On Friday, baby Tristan decided to surprise our friends Davide and Claire three weeks early. On Friday evening, we visited the crew at the hospital.

We went into the can't-believe-it's-already Easter weekend (it was so early this year), ready for some calm and rest. Michael worked on shelves for the garage for most of the weekend.















Shelves in progress



















Filling wood



















Painting
(Pictures of the finished product are not too far off)

Otherwise, this weekend was fairly laid back. Other than a couple inches of snow on Easter morning, we had beautiful weather and enjoyed being outside.












Easter Sunset