Miss Amy's comment to Kyle as we were driving to swimming lessons, "Kyle, why did you keep pushing me when we were in mum's tummy?", and Kyle's knowledgeable response, " 'cause".
The weather has been very mild for this time of the year, although the nights still get down to zero and below. It is certainly very different from this time last year when some days didn't even get to zero. I'm not complaining mind you, yes it was good to experience living in the cold bit I don't think we need to do it on a long term basis.
Well we had a great trip to Santa Fe and Taos for Thanksgiving. It was only about a six hour drive, 3 in Colorado and 3 in New Mexico. We ate lots of great food and got to see lots of historical places, museums and National Parks. We hiked around Bandelier National Monument where there were ruins, cave dwellings and petroglyphs (prehistoric drawings on rocks, mostly carved into the rock) of the ancient Pueblo people. It was really interesting and we had a cool but sunny days for being out and about.
We spent a bit of time also cruising around Santa Fe itself, with its narrow streets and adobe architecture. A place where you could lose yourself in the numerous galleries, restaurants and museums. We took our bikes and intended to ride around Santa Fe but after an hour and numerous punctures on my bike we decided to use our feet instead.
We had Thanksgiving Dinner at "the Inn at the End of the Trail". A lively place with good music but lousy service. We met two gay guys from San Diego on the table next to us and even they commented about how bad our waitress was. After an hour I decided to go and talk to the manager to see where our meals were, the kids were good but this was really testing their patience. Anyway we finally ate and when leaving Craig was so pissed off that instead of not leaving a tip (which I would have done) he decided to leave a 1 cent tip. We didn't go back during our stay…
After a few days in Santa Fe we headed north to Taos, another historic place but a lot more spread out than Santa Fe. There were many Indian Reservations in New Mexico and a large number of Casinos owned and operated by various tribes. On the reservations they have their own government and police force and charge tourists to enter, some even charge you extra if you want to take photos. The famous Taos Pueblo was closed when we went by but we were able to see the mud and straw adobe walls of the houses. There were also some wonderful old churches, also in the adobe style and it was quite amazing to walk around these 3 story buildings imagining how they came together.
We found a great restaurant, called Tim's Chile Connection, so our last night of holidays was capped off by a wonderful meal of roast turkey tacos and stuffed chiles.
Back home the next day we now had to get geared up for all the Xmas happenings. Again, unable to compete with neighbours in the light and tree stakes, we put up our miserly 4 foot tree (one neighbour commented, "oh isn't that cute"). But at least this year we had a tree shirt (a wonderful thing that I can bring back home, hopefully make a heap to sell them at the Burra Fair).
In the lead up to Xmas we went to meet Santa at Storage Tek and he actually had a real white beard, very impressive. We also went to the newly opened Pepsi Centre to see Disney on Ice, this year it was the Little Mermaid and again it was extremely well done. Kyle and Amy both had Xmas parties to attend, and we went to High Tea at the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder. Didn't compare to the Hyatt in Canberra but the Xmas decorations were impressive.
On Xmas Eve we introduced friends and neighbours to the champagne/midori cocktail, it seemed to be a big hit. Xmas Day saw us have a leisurely brunch while playing with new toys and then our Australian friends, Ingrid and David, came over around 2pm for an early dinner. It was a very relaxing day. The only disappointing thing was the lack of snow. Oh well, can't have everything.
Craig worked between Xmas and New year (we need the holidays for summer) and on New Year's Eve we headed down to Denver to the new aquarium, Ocean Journey. Then on the way home we stopped at the Traildust for a steak and Kyle fell asleep at the table. Back home the kids were in bed by 8pm and Craig and I opened our bottle of Dom Perignon and Lindt chocolates and watched "the Matrix" video, trying to recognise parts of Sydney in the movie. We also saw the new year celebrations on Sydney Harbour, in New Zealand and lots of other places and it was great.
Now that we are into the year 2000 we are looking forward to the true millenium at the end of this year. Amy had a 2 week break over Xmas and then we headed to Aspen for a weekend with the Storage Tek ski club. We drove up Friday night, about a four hour drive from home. Saturday morning was cold, but clear blue sky. Ingrid and David came with us and as the guys headed out after breakfast I headed up to the village with the kids to have a look around. Out of the blue Amy said that she would like to ski. We had asked her before but she always said no, it was too scary. Anyway I said okay and we found the ski school and ended up booking her in for a full day lesson. Of course young Kyle was standing there and said well if she can do it so can I, so he had a half day lesson.
After settling them in I left them to it and went back after a while to see how they were doing. Luck was on our side, things were quiet and Amy ended up with an instructor to herself. She was out there having a great time on the beginners slope. The kids used the Magic Carpet to get back to the top of the slope, it's like a travellator that they stand on and it slowly takes them back to the top. Over to see Kyle and there he was, our almost 3 year old on skis, again with his own instructor and would you believe it was a girl from Epping in Sydney. She told me that Kyle was so funny because when he tried to get momentum to go down the slope he obviously wanted it to happen sooner than it was and he started jumping up in the air to make himself go. It was so bright out that they put goggles on him and he had a great time. The half day was enough for him, he was getting tired but said he was eager to go with dad next time.
On Sunday it wasn't such good weather so we just went sledding in the morning and headed home about 1.30. We hope to get back to Aspen over summer to do some camping and hiking. Maroon Bells is supposed to be a great spot to see.
The next weekend we had Kyle's 3rd birthday party. There were 12 adults and 9 kids so we were fortunate that it got to 17C and we were able to be outside in the backyard. We had a B-B-Q and I finally found puff pastry so after 16 months of living here we were able to have sausage rolls. Ah heaven. The meat wasn't quite the same, Craig had to extract it from the skins of pork sausages. Compromise it what it's all about.
The rest of January was spent going to the Stock Show in Denver, a pool party (indoors of course), Amy's dance recital and more skiing for Craig. We are off to Steamboat Springs on February 12/13 for more skiing and I have organised a sleigh ride (with horses) on the Saturday night. There are 3 other families coming away with us that weekend so it should be a lot of fun.
What else is happening, I can't think of anymore at the moment. I hope everyone is having a good summer and when we head home later this year we will get 2 summers in a row, getting our own back for having 2 winters in a row when we arrived.
In the lead up to New Years Eve 17,000 Coloradans decided that having a firearm to protect themselves was mandatory in case of riots, etc. This is how many background checks were performed for firearm purchases in December in Colorado, one million nation wide.
I saw a Pennsylvania license plate and it had the governments web address on the bottom of the plate.
When we were booking camp sites for Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons we discovered that you couldn't reserve a site in the Grand Tetons, it was first come first served. We did manage to find a private campground in the park though and when we rang to make a booking Craig was shocked to learn that it was against the law to take bookings for tent sites. Apparently a law had been passed that stated all tent campers had to stay in the National Park. Can you believe it, we just wanted to make sure we had somewhere to stay and we are being discriminated against because we have a tent. Only in America…
Craig passed on a supposed true story about some guys that went duck hunting in Minnesota. They drove their brand new Jeep Cherokee out onto the frozen lake to find some ducks to shoot. Unfortunately the whole lake was frozen, so there was no water on which the ducks could land. Ah hah, said one of the hunters, I just happened to bring a stick of jellignite (not sure how to spell it) with me. Let's toss it out, blow up the ice and then the ducks can land. Off it went, high into the air and guess what happened, his faithful dog ran out over the ice to fetch it. Running back towards the new Jeep with the explosive in his mouth, the hunters panicked and tried to shoot the dog before he got any closer. After only wounding the poor dog he ran under the car in fright and sure enough, the dog and the new Jeep were blown up. I suppose they did get a hole in the ice for the ducks to land though…. (and by the way I didn't laugh like Craig did).