Made it at last and with snow still on the ground. We started the morning with the usual mad rush to open all the presents and both Miss Amy and Kyle did very well. We sat down around 1pm for a roast lamb lunch, and spent the afternoon lounging around watching videos. We ended up eating the Xmas pudding for dinner as we were too full after lunch. It did feel a little strange celebrating Xmas in the cold weather but it was great being able to cook without over heating ourselves.
Miss Amy received a new dolls house that is in kit form so Craig and I will be spending the next few weeks (maybe months) putting it together. It is in the style of the older American architecture, complete with a shingle roof and verandah. The shingle roof is just that, the kit comes with 500 individual shingles that we have to paint and glue into place. Maybe we should have looked into this a bit more before commencing. Kyle was lucky enough to get a Hot Wheels car set that Craig put together in about 30 minutes and no painting was required.
Craig had three days off work so we headed north to Wyoming and Nebraska on one of those days. It is only a two hour drive to Wyoming on the interstate freeway which was a flat, pretty uninteresting trip. From Wyoming we headed east to Nebraska and found Cabela's, an amazing camping and outdoor store. Inside the store they have these amazing stuffed animal exhibits, animals including bears, moose, lions, big horn sheep and ducks (Craig has included some photos on the website). Amy and Kyle were fascinated and I was amazed because after being in the store for a while you realise how big this place really is. They cater for all types of outdoor recreation, including fishing, hunting and camping. As it is hunting season there was a huge range of camouflage gear on display, we don't have anything quite like it at home. They also cater to fishermen and there was an indoor aquarium containing examples of the local varieties of fish. (Sally, tell Alan and the boys I will put the Cabela's catalog in the mail for them, I think it might be interesting reading for them). We probably spent about 3 hours just wandering around. I managed to pick up a cheap Polartec jumper that has been doing a wonderful job keeping me warm.
We also drove back down to Colorado Springs and visited the Air Force Academy, the Garden of the Gods and the site of the Pueblo Indians cliff dwellings. The Academy was really interesting and the visitors centre had an interesting display about a day in the life of a cadet. There was an actual B-52 bomber on display and you could tour around the chapel, a building made of steel and stained glass.
The Garden of the Gods is a park like area that contains a variety of sandstone structures that you can walk or ride around. You could see where the rock climbers favourite spots were because there were a series of clips (??) left in the rocks, probably for the next person to use. From here we went to the cliff dwellings, on original site where the Indians made their homes under an over hang. They actually made multiple roomed structures under the overhang, sometimes they were 2 storeys high with a ladder at the front. Excellent use was made of the natural structure.
The other thing I achieved after Xmas was to get my Colorado driver's license. It involved taking a written test (multiple choice questions, mostly a matter of eliminating the obvious, like What is the best method to remove alcohol from your system, 1. Take a cold shower, 2. Drink black coffee, or 3. Allow time to pass). After passing the test I then had to take the driving test, but I couldn't do this without first showing proof of registration and insurance for the car. And guess what, these were back at home. So I drove home (about 20 minutes) and returned with the proof. The registration was okay but they wouldn't accept my insurance form as proof. So I delayed the drive test till later that afternoon and went home again to sort out the insurance. Couldn't contact our agent so I rang head office who said that they had no record of us being in the system. Does this mean I am insured or not?? No-one could tell me. Head office tracked down the agent who said everything was fine, his secretary had stuffed up (yeh sure) and proof of insurance would be provided. Back to do the drive test and we drive out of the car park in our car, turn right, then right again and back to the carpark. Is that it I was wondering, no 3 point turn, parallel park, nothing. Sure enough that was it, and I had my photo taken, my finger print taken and got my license. I don't know what I was so worried about.
It is pretty much back to normal life for a while now. Craig is busy at work, they have asked him to re-structure the department he is in so that is providing a challenge. Miss Amy has moved to a new room at pre-school and is having a wonderful time. Her new teacher, Miss Tonya, has made her feel so welcome. She has made new friends and is sometimes overwhelmed by the reception she gets each morning. We have started the process of booking her into school. The school year starts in September 1999 and attending kindergarten assumes that you attend 5 times per week, 3.5 hours per day. If you want full days it means you are attending the kindergarten enrichment program and you actually have 2 teachers, one for the morning session and one for the afternoon. At this stage we will probably take the half day option. The school that is closest to us has underestimated the number of children in the area and if there are more applicants than places available they will use a lottery system to assign places. If you miss out on a place they then bus the overflow up to a school in Boulder, about 35 minutes drive by bus. This really isn't what we were after so I am putting her name down at other schools close by.
Kyle has started swimming lessons this term and he has a great time. His skinny little body looks so cute in speedos, we call him the spider monkey. We celebrated his second birthday earlier this week and we invited some friends over for lunch. He chose the train cake out of the birthday book so I did my best but I will have to improve a bit before next birthday. My cake decorating skills definitely need some more work.
On Friday we headed down to the Western Stock and Horse show, a three week extravaganza of horses, cattle and other assorted livestock. The facilities are out of this world, with all the arenas and exhibit areas indoors. The newest building was the horse pavilion and we saw some showjumping. It was so good to smell horseflesh again (I know, I'm weird). We were given tickets to the rodeo and it went for about 2 1/2 hours. There was the usual bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing, etc. My favourite was the cutting horse competition. There were so many breeds of cattle that we had never heard of, including Tarentaise, Braunvieh, Gelbvieh and others. There were sales for elk and yak as well. The presentation of the cattle was immaculate, I always remember being impressed by the cattle at Royal Melbourne but these cows and bulls must spend half a day being prepared before being shown. Not a hair out of place and they seemed to be clipped so that their hair didn't lie flat against their skin. They did look wonderful.
This weekend the Denver Broncos are playing for a spot in the superbowl final. Craig and Amy have headed off to a friends house to watch the game and Kyle and I are hanging around home for a well earned rest.
I hope that everyone has survived the Xmas rush and are enjoying the New Year. Go Broncos.
Other little differences:
Bottles of Baileys, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, etc are known as cordials at the liquor stores. You cannot buy alcohol on Sundays, but if you forget, the liquor stores are open till 11 pm on a Saturday night.
The snow creates a whole infrastructure around Colorado. When it does snow out come the snow ploughs (generally big trucks and smaller vehicles with ploughs attached to the front), they drive around clearing snow from the roads with the larger trucks dropping dirt at the same time to help you get traction when driving. The footpaths are cleared by ATVs with tiny ploughs attached to the front. When the snow melts and the roads start to dry out, the road sweepers appear to sweep and vaccum the dirt from the roads (I wonder if the dirt is recycled??). In some counties it is law that you must clear snow from the footpath in front of your house by 9am.
I did something very silly. I put some handwashing on the clothes-horse and put it in the garage in case it dripped. I went out later in the afternoon to find the clothes frozen stiff. Miss Amy's cardigan even had icicles hanging from it. Had to bring it inside to thaw out. Won't be doing that again.
The other silly thing I did was when Amy, Kyle and I were at the swimming pool, we had just finished swimming and were in the change room I asked them both to put their thongs on. I realised it was a faux pas when everyone in the change room turned around to look at us. A thong is actually a g-string here, so you can imagine the kind of looks we got.
Many products contain MSG, you really need to read the labels well. The kids yoghurt (blueberry and cherry flavoured) is coloured with beetroot juice.
New movies are released here on Xmas Day. It seems that due to the large Jewish population they celebrate Happy Holidays to cover both Hannuka and Xmas.
If you want to buy a horse and are allergic to horse hair there is a curly haired breed advertised that doesn't shed hair.
There is also a breed of dog advertised called the Australian Shepherd, not really sure what they look like but they are quite popular it seems.
A major chain of coat stores in the US has been made to recall coats with a fur collar that were made in China. It was discovered the fur was actually dog hair.
One of the ski resorts received 54 inches of snow in 3 days. They were suggesting that people didn't ski out-of-bounds because of the risk of avalanches. Craig has now skied at Keystone and Winter Park. This coming weekend he has a snow boarding lesson at Loveland.
The FDA here in America has approved two new drugs for use on dogs. They are to be used for dogs suffering separation anxieties and old age dementia.