Activities and Visits

So last Saturday was the grand opening of the Council Tree Library branch that I've been going on about. It was (predictably) a madhouse! Kate insisted on stopping by in the morning to help get some last minute details worked out. (I think it was something to do with newspapers.) And we both ended up helping out for the first hour and a half. I shelved some media before the opening and made up some signage. Kate did a little bit of everything near as I could tell. :-)

We heard recently that the library had over 3,000 visitors that day with over 9,000 items checked out! Wow! In particular, the shelves of DVDs were ransacked - there were reportedly less than a dozen left on the shelves!

Here's a shot of the opening ceremony, where Mayor Hutchinson says a few words before the official opening:



A picture of the crowds moving in:



A shot from the stairwell looking down. You can see Kate and Erin making their way up:



And just because I think it's terribly funny - this was the current hold shelf at the time of opening. All those empty shelves past that small group of books should be filled before too long:



The library provided entertainment in the form of a group of Native American drummers that played and sang for the first hour:



Nearby, Kim and Crystal had a station set up specifically for new library cards:



When I was FINALLY able to drag Kate away from helping out with the opening craziness, we stepped out for lunch at the nearby Five Guys Burgers. Unfortunately, they were really swamped due to spillover from the library's opening. Instead, we walked over to McAlister's Deli, which was truly excellent! I didn't have room to try everything that sounded tasty - so I guess that means I'll need to make another stop sometime! :-)

After lunch, we drove down to Denver to meet up with Kate's siblings - Aileen, Glynnis, and Dan were visiting Colorado for a few days and Emily decided that it might be fun to meet in Golden and visit the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave.

There was still snow on the foothills as we drove up to Golden, which was really pretty:





We started here...



...and drove up a twisty-turny road up to the top of Lookout Mountain, where we met up with Kate's siblings. We visited the museum first and it was actually pretty cool. Buffalo Bill sounded like quite the showman - though I suspect he rather had trouble focusing on one thing at a time, flitting about from job to job and idea to idea. But he led an interesting and eventful life - for better or for worse - and it was a really neat look into the man's life.

I think what I liked best was that Buffalo Bill was one of the first businessmen to really give women and Native Americans a fair chance. He never seemed to appreciate demeaning either group and advocated more even treatment and greater understanding of them. Very, very awesome in my book.







A view of Denver from the top of the mountain:



Following the museum, we took a walk around Golden a bit, mostly focusing on a charming bridge and walkway - but also having a look at some of the shops and art around town:









Afterwards, we headed into Idaho Springs for dinner at the local Beaujo's. It looked like a bunch of folk had just come down from ski trips in the mountains so the place was packed, but we were patient and had quite a yummy dinner. (Kate and I SOOO love Beaujo's!) :-)

Kate and I headed back home after that.

On Monday, Kate's siblings came up to join us in Fort Collins. I had to work but apparently they entertained themselves by playing Soul Caliber 3 on our Playstation 2. Kate made a big meal of fajitas and lentil tacos - and even Betsy was able to come over and join us for dinner. We sat around and kibbitzed 'til late then finished off the night with rousing games of Last Word and TV Scene It!

Today (Tuesday), Dan and I played a little Halo 2 while waiting for Aileen, Glynnis, and Emily. We then all went over to Hunan's for lunch then popped over to the Council Tree library to show it off. I'm pleased to say that the siblings-in-law were quite impressed with the hip chic of the new library.

Here you can see all the siblings "ascending into tranquility" - as the adverts say:



After a brief tour of the library by myself and Kate, all of us settled in to do what you're supposed to do in the library: READ! :-)




Hm. That may not be the best picture I've taken of Emily. No one tell her this is up here, okay? ;-)

I had to head off to work my night shift shortly after this. So leaving Glynnis, Aileen, and Emily to wander the three shoe stores near the library and Kate and Dan to prep dinner and play vidgames at home, I headed down to Longmont.

By the time I got back, Glynnis was still reading:



And there was a Walrus ice cream cake (chocolate cake and bing cherry flavor with vanilla frosting and chocolate waffle cone crust) waiting. It was a celebration of all the siblings' birthdays! Oh, and the cake was delish!



It was great hanging out with the siblings-in-law. I'm more than a little bummed that I have to work again tomorrow and thus won't get to see them off. Oh, well, I guess I'll still see 'em all come July for the O'Connell family reunion in California. Looking forward to that!

It's far too late but I had to finish this blog post. How's that for dedication, huh? :-)

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day! (Or night!)

A Relaxing Weekend

Kate and I spent the weekend down in Colorado Springs with my family. And after the crazy-busy couple of weeks at work that we've both had, this was a welcome break!

By working a little extra in the week, I was able to duck out a few hours early on Friday so as to make it back to Fort Collins, pick up Kate from work (though she "made" me help finish some projects), and gather up our overnight bags. We took the E-470 toll road to bypass the Friday afternoon rush hour through Denver - and actually made good time down to the Springs. We stopped at Whole Foods to have some soup and bread for dinner then headed over to my sister's house.

We hung out with Heath, Dianna, and Joe (Heath's chum) that evening - mostly just gabbing back and forth. Kate and Dianna went out grocery shopping (getting in at 1am!) while Heath showed me and Joe how to play "Rock Star" for the Playstation. (My only comment is that it's a good thing I didn't try to go into music!)

Heath and Dianna's cats (Grey, Sally, and Simon) also kept us company:





On Saturday, Kate and I took Julie and Everest out as a late birthday present for Julie. We gave Julie the choice of either the zoo or the library and the park. She chose the library and a visit to Cottonwood Park.

At the library, Julie picked out a couple videos and a handful of books for herself and a couple more videos for Everest. She was very focused on acquiring her items and getting checked out. She even knew how to use the self checkout machine all by herself.



We then stopped in at Cottonwood Park (actually it was supposed to Palmer Park, but I got locations mixed up) and let the kids play around for about an hour or so. They seemed to like the slides the best. :-)




Here's a compiled vid of the kids (mostly Everest) going down the slide. My apologies - it's my first go at using Windows Movie Player. :-)





After the park, we dropped Everest off at home for his nap then Kate and I took Julie out to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. There was a birthday party happening in the back so the cow mascot was roving the place - which delighted Julie, who got a hug and a pink balloon.

We dropped Julie off after lunch and headed over to my parents' place. When we got there, we found out that Mom and Dad were working on a new tent-style gazebo for their deck. We offered to help out with the 'roof' of the gazebo and got most it taken care off - just before the wind really kicked in! :-)



That evening we all went out to the Olive Garden for dinner and then most of us came back to Mom and Dad's place to hang out and play a rolicking game of Monopoly. (Kate won - even though she was half-asleep at the time.) :-)

On Sunday, Kate and I joined Dianna for services at Pulpit Rock Church. Afterward, we came back to Mom and Dad's place for some really dynamite chicken and shrimp scampi. (Mom, I may need that recipe!) Then we finished up the gazebo and played around with the kids.







We headed back to Fort Collins late in the afternoon, did a little grocery shopping when we got into town, then came home and crashed. :-)

It was a great weekend - just what we needed. I'm not sure if I'm quite rejuvenated enough to go through another work week, but I'll give it a go anyway. :-) Thanks to the family for showing us a good time!

And as always thanks to all of you for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

Visit Last Weekend

Okay, a little slow on the updates again. I'm going to try out the scheduled posting thing and go ahead and write up a couple of updates today. We'll see how it works out. :-)

This post I wanted to share some pictures of my Mom, my sister, and my nephew's visit with me and Kate last weekend. They weren't able to stay really long but it was great to see them anyway. They came up on Friday night - which unfortunately was when we'd planned to have our monthly Library Game Night. It turned out not to be a problem, though. Dianna joined us for the gathering while Mom watched over Everest back at the hotel. We managed to get in two (count 'em, TWO) games during the evening, namely Apples to Apples and Wise and Otherwise. A couple of our guests had to leave a little early but a couple of us nonetheless managed to stay up later than we should have. Stil, a good time appeared to have been had by all.

The next day (Saturday) Dianna and Mom brought Everest over to our place. We chatted and let Everest play with some toys we keep upstairs. Everest seemed to enjoy himself quite bit.





My Dad gave us a call that morning to chat for a bit so Everest got to talk to his grandpa a little too.



Afterwards, we headed out to Old Town Fort Collins for lunch. On Dianna's suggestion, we went to Hu Hot, a popular Mongolian grill style restaurant there in Old Town. It's one of my favorites and I'm glad that Mom and Dianna enjoyed themselves too.






After lunch, we wandered around Old Town for a little while. There was a jazz music event going on as well as a big sidewalk sale for most of the downtown stores so we definitely wandered and browsed for a bit. Then we stopped for some dessert at Gelazzi, the gelato shop in Old Town.








After Gelazzi, Mom and Dianna decided to head back home so that they wouldn't be getting in too late. Kate and I kicked back for the rest of the night with a game of Lego Indiana Jones. :-)

It was a lot of fun! Thank to Mom and Dianna for making time for the visit!

And as always, thanks for reading! Hope you're having a great day!