The Goodrums

In late October (in celebration of completing the deck!), I ran my first official half marathon. While I had run the distance - and further - in the past, I've never done an officially sanctioned race. The Denver marathon is a relatively flat course (which most people don't expect) that winds through most of the city parks. It was a gorgeous day for a race in Denver with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 60s. I was happy to complete a "real" race and happy with my time for a first endeavor.






















Michael sporting the "XS" race t-shirt
Seriously, the label said XS - and he's wearing it over his work clothes. The XS's were all that size - and these were for athletes. Seriously!






















Bad race morning picture - about the only one we took

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!

Laying low lately. Trying to adjust to new developments and recover from our busy last year. Yesterday we checked out the Denver Art Museum. The old building had far too many artifacts for my liking but the new/Hamilton building had some cool stuff.

I've also seen two movies lately that were compelling:

The Duchess
What agonizing decisions. Haunting...





Once
A very artsy film - but if you can hang with the concert moments - a great, albeit curiously sad, ending.




Not really family movies per se (between subject matter on the former and language at times on the latter) but ones that stick with you a bit.

We topped off a busy weekend with a late birthday present for Michael, tickets to the Colorado Rapids MLS soccer game. Yes - his birthday was in May. It's quite sad, but when I looked at purchasing tickets in mid-May, this was the first weekend where there was a home game and we were both going to be home and not have visitors. It's been a full year, no doubt!

We enjoyed front row seats near mid-field. Michael was having trouble staying in the stands and not getting back out on the field. We were both highly impressed with Columbus' goalie (an indication of how the game turned out). The weather threatened for most of the game but, in typical Colorado fashion, we got a lot of wind but just a few drops (literally) of rain.

Here are a couple fun pictures from the evening:





























































So, we have finally been to a major league sporting event in Denver. It's about time already!

Michael was out of town last week, again in Kodiak, Alaska. He left early Monday morning before a good number of our visiting family had even left. More work, less play was the verdict for him this time.

The curse of the traveling husbands has seemed to befall a good number of our friends here - so we tried to make the most of it in their absence. Wednesday night several of the gals and kids got together and went out for dinner. Don't know that we'll be revisiting that particular restaurant (bad management!) but it was nice to get out. Thursday a few of us went to the local park for the free summer concert series.

Saturday was a beautiful day - one where you just can't stay inside. The high on Saturday was below 80 degrees. We went to check out the local, Highlands Ranch rodeo. Being a Texan, it doesn't exactly compare to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo but it was definitely fun for being 10 minutes from the house. The hundreds of kids in attendance loved it!



Bull Riding



















Rodeo Clown

Sunday, we got together with some friends to rest, relax and introduce the kids to the all time classic slip & slide. Great entertainment!

This week, we hope to both enjoy a week at home - together. Not sure we'll quite know what to do with ourselves.

This weekend we spent some time downtown and, among our activities, we spent some time at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). We were treated to admission for a penny each, thanks to Penny Saturdays (admission to Denver art museums is a penny per person on the first Saturday of each month thanks to a grant from a semi-local foundation dedicated to the arts).

I do think that we were thoroughly spoiled by our experiences at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston, which still ranks as my favorite among contemporary art museums that we have visited. The MCA of Denver is substantially smaller than the ICA in Boston; however, I was still impressed with a number of the exhibits. The MCA has been on Michael's Denver "to do" list since we moved here, so it was nice to finally treat him to the experience. The building itself was also very impressive. We were able to take a tour with a museum staff member, which gave some additional insight on the building and exhibits. I'm sure we will be back to view other exhibits in the future.

Note: Speaking of cultural activities, we saw an opera not long ago (for Valentine's Day) at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House here in Denver. For one, I highly recommend Don Pasquale. It was a comic opera and lots of fun. The Opera House itself was also highly impressive. The architecture is amazing - and they have subtitles on each seat back, which adds a lot to a performance if you don't happen to be fluent in Italian. The Denver opera house is one of only three in the U.S. and nine in the world that offer subtitles.

New Years 2007 was memorable holiday here in Boston.

On Friday, we attended a performance of the Nutcracker, which was outstanding. We also discovered a new Boston restaurant that joined our list of favorites. Cottonwood Cafe had excellent southwestern dishes. Yummm! ...and that's coming from Texan/New Mexicans who are very picky about Mexican/Tex-Mex/New Mexican cuisine.

Saturday was nice and laid back. We attempted to organize our lives a bit (ha!) and made some progress on Denver house stuff.

On Sunday, we went into Boston to check out the First Night programming. It turns out that most of the afternoon programming for First Night was very family focused. There were a million people everywhere and most of the programming was not great quality. Good entertainment for families - perhaps not so much for others. At least we got to check out the Shops at Prudential Center, something that's been on Michael's "To see in Boston" list for quite some time now.

Some of the evening programming was better. We attended a concert by Eilen Jewell that we enjoyed. Michael liked the fact that she was from Idaho (he spent a summer in Idaho Falls). We also attended a show called Comedy at the Castle, which featured Tony V. and Frank Santorelli. Attending a show at a comedy club had been on my "To do in Boston" list. So, one check mark for both of us. We also saw two sets of fireworks - one in Boston Common and one in Boston Harbour. It was definitely a memorable night. We left Boston around 1am and finally got back to our hotel around 2am.

Therefore... on the first day of the New Year, we slept in, watched a whole bunch of football, called family and friends, and otherwise took it easy.

Happy 2007 everybody!

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas in Boston with a fun day of cultural activities.

We started the morning at the newly opened Institute of Contemporary Art. Thankfully we arrived early - as it was a holiday and was insane (read: tons of people) by the time we left for the day. They had some really cool exhibits. I'm not much of an artist (thankfully Michael provides some balance here) but I do really enjoy some of the contemporary works.

After leaving the ICA mid-afternoon, we grabbed a quick lunch at P.F. Changs. We then cashed in Michael's Christmas present - attending a performance by the legendary Blue Man Group, which was outstanding. I laughed so hard that I cried (which is not suprising to anyone who knows me). According to the billboard, we have now "seen Boston." I'll have to find a picture of that billboard and post it here someday...

Sorry for the lack of blog posts of late. Life has been fairly chaotic.

We spent a few days in Denver during the first week of December - as Michael documented in his posts about house hunting. House stuff has been consuming much of our time lately - documentation for loans, finding inspectors, choosing blinds, etc., etc., etc. There is always an endless list of things to do along the house hunting/closing timeline.

From Denver Michael went to Amarillo for two days and I went to Houston for a week of work "meetings" (very few of the scheduled meetings actually took place) and our company Christmas party. It seems that I am always in Houston when we are trying to make housing decisions. I was there when we listed our house in Jackson and when we accepted the offer on it. This time we were the ones making an offer and trying to coordinate all the associated paperwork.

On Saturday, December 16th, my middle sister flew into Houston from Peru. I surprised her and met her at the airport (along with the rest of my family). Then I spent the next 5 days hanging out with my family in Houston and Oklahoma. Too much fun. (I will post pictures soon.)

I arrived back in Boston this past Wednesday (the 20th) - quite worn out. Thankfully we have the holidays and a few days off of work to catch up on sleep and everything else that needs to be done.

We are spending Christmas Day in our little hotel in Boston. It's somewhat strange to be away from family on Christmas Day but we are thankful to have been able to see everyone recently.

We are gearing up for a "culture week" in Boston - complete with performances by the Blue Man Group, the Nutcracker, a trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art, an A&M v. Cal bowl game (Michael claims that football is a cultural activity) and First Night - Boston's New Year's celebration. It will be a packed week - but we are trying to make the most of our remaining two and a half weeks in Boston. It's hard to believe that three months went that fast - but they did. Soon we will be on our way out to our new Colorado home!

It's been quite a year. It's hard to believe that at this time last year we had just made an offer on our new home in Jackson. Since then we traveled all over - including a super fun trip to Peru and some new highpoints, Michael started a new job, we sold a house, moved to Boston, put a contract on a house in Colorado - and there's more fun to come.

Merry Christmas everybody - and come visit us in Colorado!

We went to visit Teri at work at Inspirations Tea House in Edmond, OK. We had very yummy cocunut cake and tea - and played a little more dress up. We tried to be good and not embarrass Teri. :)
















Teri & Christy - cute hats





















Mom B.
















Me & Christy :)

Pictures from the historic town replica at the Cowboy Museum















Christy & me in jail















Christy and me getting run over by a train















Mom and Christy boozing at the local bar... ;)















Stick 'em up!

In the kiddo area...















Ride 'em cowgirls




















Peek-a-boo




















Dress up time















Circle up the wagons




















Check out those nice high-water chaps...

Last night we went to Oklahoma - and didn't even have to drive 10 hours to get there! :)

Actually we went to an off-broadway production of the musical Oklahoma! here in Jackson. The company did a great job with it. I had a blast and I think Michael enjoyed it too. In my family, our childhood was filled with Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals - complete with an almost daily mini-production of the Sound of Music. So it was a fun and memory-filled experience for me. Plus, Michael woke me up this morning singing, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning..." It doesn't get any better than that. ;)