Monday, October 5, 2009

Fall Season and Dear Friends Visits

Beer festivals, friends visiting from SA and neighborhood progressive parties have been keeping us busy these past few weeks. So, apologies for not updating the blog for a while.

Scott and Christina invited us to the "Brew at the Zoo" evening. Scott, brewmaster for RockBottom Brewery, was hosting a stand at the function. We arrived early and got first choice of food testers and all sorts of beer. It was such a lovely warm evening, walking in between all the various animals drinking beer and eating food. We even all went on a ride on the Caroussel, just like kids. It was an amazing evening, lots of fun.

Christina and I


The Carousel - for "Big" kids


On Sunday, Stewart and Madeline and Anna arrived for a visit. We were lucky with the weather, and got to show our visitors some great sights around Denver. We drove up to Mt Evans, had a pic-nic at Echo Lake and saw some great views of the changing fall colours. We all took a train trip through the Royal Gorge, the drive was a little long, and Anna had a long day, but it was a lovely experience. Little Anna also got to play with little Lucy across the street, and they had great fun. Most evenings were spent on the patio, drinking wine and catching up.

Stew and Chris

The amazing Echo Lake

Anna playing with the ducks

The fall colors

The Royal Gorge

Anna and Chris on the train



Anna and Lucy

Stew, Mads and Anna left on the Friday and on Sunday evening we picked Terry up at the airport. The ppor guy was a little tired, after his flight from Costa Rica to Atlanta, and then onto Denver. Terry had the most amazing time in Costa Rica, fishing up a storm (-:

A cold front swept in on Monday, and we had our first snow on the mountains. Terry and I took a drive to Breckenridge, to see the snow and little ski town. It was stunning and Terry enjoyed the snow fall. Unfortunately our furnace decided to break at the smae time, after a chilly evening, a $1000 check, we got it fixed. We took a drive to the famous Bass Pro Shop, where I think Terry thought h was in heaven and hopped up a storm. I also tried to take Terry fishing, we tried Liar of the Bear, and Evergreen Lake, but clearly I'm not meant to be a fishing guide.

Terry fishing at Liar of the Bear

Evergreen Lake

Sylvia arrived on Thursday, also very tired after a exhausting 17 hour flight to Washington, then onto Chicago where she has a Law debate with her students and then to Denver. Her first words were "Geez, you live on the other side of the world". Terry was so excited about showing Sylv's Bass Pro Shop, that we had to pop in on the way home, where Terry finished his shopping spree.

Terry's favorite place, Bass Pro Shop.

Sylv's soon recovered, and we took a drive to Evergreen on Friday for Terry's last fishing attempt. Friday night Chris got us all tickets to the Rockies Baseball game. Sylvia, terry and I caught the light-rail into the City and met up with Chris at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had great seats and Te and Sylv's enjoyed their first Baseball game....and the Rockies won!

Terry and Sylvia at Coors Stadium

The next day was the Coventry Neighborhood progressive party. I was hosting a South African appetizer stage. Thank goodness for terry and Sylvia, who helped BIG TIME with the food. We made Bobotie, Pap Tert, Pumpkin Fritters and Ostrich Capacchio. It was a great success, and even though we were expecting 35 people, we had close to 50 people pop in. Terry and Sylvia made friends with all the neighbors, and Terry even swapped his Springbok T-Shirt with our Neighbor Rob.

Cooking away

Sylvia and I took Terry to the airport at 4am the next morning, and then chilled the rest of the day. Sylv's and I took a road-trip the next day, and drove up to Silverthorne to see what the factory stores had to offer. Sylvia found lots of great offers and shopped up a storm. We stayed in Frisco and had a lovely dinner in Breck. The next morning we drove over Independence Pass, which is amazing this time of year with the changing of fall colors. We had so much fun, taking lots of pics and eventually reached Aspen. We both fell in love with aspen, I now know why it's so famous. After some lunch and some sight-seeing, we headed back home.

Love the hat doll

Oh, and the sun glasses

At Twin lakes on the drive over Independence Pass

Little town of Twin Lakes

At the Chilly Continental Divide

Helicopter right above us

Sadly, Sylvia flew back to Chicago the next morning. It was so amazing seeing my friends again, and loved spending time with them and showing them my new home.

Chris and I also celebrated our 3rd Anniversary. We treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at the Chophouse, in Downtown Denver, and had a lovely time. I can not believe it's 3 years, we have done so much together, I can not wait to see what the next 3 years will bring.

So now we are back to the grindstone. Chris is working hard and I am looking at a few opportunities, always sometime happening, life is all about change.

1 comment:

All about the Woollams said...

Loved seeing your updated blog my friend. So nice for you to see Terry and Sylvia and just one question ... what on earth kind of an animal is in that first picture?
Can't wait to chat to you!