Flower's First Visit

Last weekend Bethany, Ryan and Shaye made their first trip to Colorado. Everyone was a little worried about how Shaye would travel since she had never been on a plane and is not used to sleeping in other places. They arrived on Friday afternoon and it was great to hear that Shaye had slept through half the flight! Surprisingly, she seemed comfortable with me pretty quickly... maybe she does remember me! We got home, put Shaye down for a short nap and then headed off to the America the Beautiful park. It's a great park, with lots of kids playing for Shaye to watch (she is a serious people watcher!!) and lots of fun!

Saturday morning we headed to the zoo... I was really looking forward to seeing Shaye's reaction to feeding the giraffes and having them so up close. But as I learned over the weekend, Shaye is more interested in watching the people around her. Although with my help, she did feed a giraffe!

After returning home for her afternoon nap, we headed out to the Garden of the Gods. It's a beautiful park and we drove around and got out a few times to check it out. Then we headed over to our favorite Mexican place, Amanda's Fonda, for an early dinner.

Sunday we headed to Downtown Colorado Springs and Old Colorado City. We checked out the shops and grabbed some lunch. We were expecting rain, but it turned out to be a beautiful day... so much for weathermen! After Shaye's nap, we headed up to the north end of town and went to the Air Force Academy. We skipped the Visitor Center (not too exciting anyway), and just went straight to the Chapel and surrounding area. Luckily the Chapel was still open... although they only conduct official tours during the week, it was great that we could still check out all 3 levels. It's truly impressive!!!

Monday, we (without Matt since he was back at work!) went to Golden where the Coors Brewery is located. We took the tour and then arrived at the Lounge, where you get to taste up to 3 free beers! Ryan really loved the Batch 19, which was a resurrected recipe from before Prohibition. They are in the testing phase right now, but it seems to be popular and it sounds like it'll be on the grocery shelves sometime soon! Afterwards, we walked around the town and ate some lunch. Luckily we were able to time it all so that Shaye could take her morning and afternoon naps in car. Tuesday they were headed back home and thankfully Shaye slept through half the flight again! She did such a great job sleeping here in the Pack n' Play, going down easily for naps and at night. Shaye also had a great time interacting with Nate. The moment she laid eyes on him, she was fascinated! She would crawl around and chase him around the house, although Nate was not too thrilled when she tried to pet him and it turned into more of a slap in the face than petting! He spent the rest of the weekend keeping his eye on her and keeping his distance!

It was a fantastic trip and we loved having them around. It's so nice that family is just a quick 2 hour flight away... makes it much easily for them to visit! We can't wait to have the Flower's back!!!

To see all of the pictures Bethany and Ryan took of the trip, check out this link (there are some really cute ones I didn't include!):

http://picasaweb.google.com/bnetro/TripToVisitAuntieColoradoSprings#

A Quick Getaway

This past weekend Matt and I headed up to Denver. I think Matt was feeling sorry for me being at the house all the time, so we went up to Denver for something different. Saturday morning we drove up, checked into our hotel (found a great deal at a Grand Hyatt downtown on Hotwire!) and then grabbed some lunch at Rubio's. There are 4 Rubio's in the Denver area and we really miss it! So if we are near, we try to stop by. Matt even asked the manager about the possibility of stores opening in Colorado Springs, and he did actually say they are planning on 2 stores, but who knows when that will happen. Still we were excited about the possibility!!!

Then we headed to the Denver Zoo. It turned out to be a very hot day, so walking around the zoo was a bit exhausting. But they had some cool exhibits, including hyenas which I have never seen in person... and they were every bit as creep and nasty as I thought they would be. Otherwise, they had all the standard animals... actually comparing it to the Cheyenne Zoo here near us, it wasn't that great. The Cheyenne has some more interesting animals like moose and grizzly bears. Although the Denver Zoo had sea lions, seals and even a couple of polar bears that were fun to see. And thankfully we narrowly missed a major thunderstorm and just moved past the zoo.

After heading back to the hotel for a rest, we checked with the concierge to get some ideas for dinner. We were told about a tapas place down the road, but reservations were already booked, so we decided just to wing it and hope we could get in. But once we got down there, it was a 45 minute wait, and it was already nearly 7pm so we were hungry! We ended up just going to the Cheesecake Factory we saw on the way to the tapas restaurant. A good stand-by that always satisfies! After dinner we walked up the 16th Street Mall downtown and enjoyed the people watching. We ended up at our hotel and got some drinks at the bar. We had thoughts of going out and doing something fun, but decided we were old and exhausted from the walking and hot sun all day!

Sunday started with trying to find a place for breakfast. We heard of this place called Snooze, but also heard it can have quite a wait. We arrived at 11am and there was an hour wait! Of course, we couldn't wait this long and ended up at a place Matt saw on our drive called Pete's Kitchen. It was a small diner with good food and good service. Then we headed to the Denver Nature & Science Museum to see the Body Works show. Matt had seen it before, but I hadn't... really amazing!!! Although the bodies didn't look real to me... it seemed like something that someone had constructed, but it was very impressive. I was particularly impressed with the arteries and blood vessels... sooo many! Then we strolled around the museum seeing some of the nature exhibits... animals from around the world. Interesting... I've never seen some of those animals so large. There were sea lions that were easily 2-3 times bigger than I've ever seen! Amazing!

Afterwards, we headed back home. It was great to get away and see more of Denver. Matt hasn't really been up there much since we've moved here. I look forward to seeing more of the state as we start to explore more!

What a Mess!!!

This week we had a huge sewage mess!!! It started on Sunday when Matt ran a load of laundry. When I went downstairs to change it over to the dryer, there was water all over the floor. So we notified our landlord, Corey, who was coming over the next day anyway. He checked it out Monday morning and said they had this problem once before several years ago. So he had me call Roto Rooter who came out and started checking out the main drain. I mentioned to him that there was a water main break in the street about 1 1/2 weeks ago and asked if that could be the issue... he didn't think so, and kept checking around.

Later Monday morning, he had to bring in another set of guys who have a camera that can see what is blocking a drain. They had trouble figuring it out, but thought the issue was in the area of where that water main had broken. Eventually another set of guys show up and start marking the street to show where they are finding issues... of course it's all in the area of where the water main had been "fixed". But they also thought the issue could be with the drain coming from the house that runs under the front yard. A few hours later a bulldozer and some heavy equipment starts showing up and suddenly they are start digging up a small part of the front yard! Quite a scene considering our landlord just thought it was a simple issue.

Day #1

In the meantime, we could use our water if it went down a drain... so that meant no dishwasher, washing machine, water running down the sink, and no flushing of toilets. We were told Monday late afternoon that the problem should be solved by end of day Tuesday. But by the end of Monday, they discovered that there were some major issues in the street, which meant having to bring in the City Inspector to check it out and arrange to have it fixed. Once the City Inspector came, they discovered it was a huge issue, so we were told it should be fixed by end of day Wednesday... in the meantime, no water!

Tuesday morning started with Matt and I heading to his work to take a shower. Luckily his office has a "doctor's" bathroom that includes a shower, so I could feel human again! Tuesday our street became a major construction site! Multiple bulldozers, many trucks, a City crew and a Roto Rooter crew. This day was focused on reparing the street leaks and finally fixing the "fixed" water main. It turned out that when they fixed it, they had broken the drain coming from our house. They dug a hole across the entire street that was about 2 feet wide by 10 feet deep. It took all day, but they got it fixed and even got the street patched up. Thankfully they were able to provide a temporary drainage patch for the evening so we could use water and flush our toilets... we were so appreciative! And Matt got to shower at home on Wednesday morning.

Day #2

I was praying that Wednesday would finally be the day to get this all solved... I woke up to find a second hole being dug in the front yard. Unfortuantely this hole took out a section of the bushes near the front door. But they were going to replace the drain from the house to the street. By the middle of the day, we had to huge piles of dirt in the front yard, and the City was digging up the street again, but this time to repave the sections they had worked on. Seeing all this mess, I really didn't think they would finish by the end of the day. But these guys really worked hard all day... I didn't really see anything taking any breaks and there were probably 15 guys working on the street and our yard all day long. Our landlord stopped by and was really shocked to see all that was going on. By about 4pm I got word that the drain was in place and we could finally start using our water. I was so thrilled and immediately ran the diswasher and flushed the toilets... sad that was the highlight of my day, but it's the simple things!

Day #3

Surpringly by the end of Wednesday (about 6:30pm) they got the holes filled back up and cleaned up the yard. They did a great job cleaning it up and making it look as it did originally.

All Cleaned Up!!!

In speaking to Corey, our landlord, he was told by the City Inspector that there was a lot of evidence to point to the fact that the City had broken the pipe in the street. Unfortunately he had to pay for all of this up front, and will have to submit for reimbursement... I can't imagine how much this cost. So glad we are renters and not the owners!!! And so glad we are back to normal now!!!