Spring Break trip to Denver

Kylie's top two college choice were in Denver:  Colorado School of Mines and University of Denver.  Since the last time she'd been in Denver was when she was 2 years old, we decided it would be a good idea to visit and make sure she actually liked the area before committing to go to school at either one. Spring Break was the perfect opportunity.  Kylie, Jillian, and left sunny Bainbridge Island and flew to Denver, arriving in the late afternoon.  It was strangely cloudy and we couldn't see the mountains.  Kylie was a little disappointed since she was expecting the grandeur of the Rockies around every corner.  I told her it was unusual for it to be so overcast, and maybe the predicted snow would happen.Sure enough, we woke up to a few inches the next morning! Fortunately, the roads were fine and we had rented an all-wheel-drive vehicle just in case. 

 

Our first stop on Friday was Colorado School of Mines.  Kylie hadn't actually heard back from CSM yet, but had high hopes.  We visited the Student Services office and talked to some really nice people, one from Spokane, who showed us around the office and gave us an idea of what to look at while we walked around.  They weren't having their regular official tours that weekend because of Mining Days, a special celebration for their students, but said we were welcome to take a self-guided tour and gave us a map.

 

The "Commons"

The Student Recreation Center, which had a huge indoor climbing wall that Kylie thought was spectacular!

 

More cool looking buildings...

 

 

We stopped by the admissions office and found out that Kylie was on the wait list, so that was disappointing.  We decided not to walk around much more so she wouldn't fall in love with the school and then not be able to go there.

 

CSM is in Golden, CO, so we drove down to the main street and did the "tourist" thing.

The Coors brewery is in Golden, and this is the river that flows straight into the factory.  Not really. But I have a vague recollection of a beer commercial jingle that started, "From the land of ice cold waters..."

 The next day we toured the University of Denver, where we went on an official tour, complete with a presentation from some of the faculty, question and answer session with current students, campus tour, lunch, and presentation from the head of the Engineering department, to which Kylie has been accepted.  They know how to sell their school! By the end, all three of us wanted to go there!

One of the libraries...

and bunch of cool looking buildings...I don't remember which were what, but it's a beautiful campus!

And she bought a sweatshirt, which she said she wasn't going to do at any of the schools we visited until she found the one she wanted to go to, so this is it! DU really is an amazing school with so many wonderful opportunities for their students.  I was very impressed with the Engineering department. It's small, but growing, with a brand new building to be completed in 2015, and has great opportunities for research and internships.  DU also highly values study abroad, which Kylie is very excited about!

 

We also visited the Colorado Temple...

Went on a hike at Red Rocks...

where we tried to take a "selfie," but failed...

so we asked a nice lady to take a picture of us!

And went downtown and saw the Capital Building

 

 

and the Denver City and County building

 

 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Our tribute to all things green, celebrated this year with the Olivers. 

Spring is here!

We've had some beautiful March days, the kind that tempt you to come sit outside in the sun and when you do, it's actually warm! Plus, the early spring flowers are blooming!

 (photos courtesy of Jillian)

 

 

On one of these lovely afternoons, I decided it was warm enough to visit the beach.  We still needed jackets, but we were able to enjoy the water and sand for quite a while.  We went home because we had other things to do, not because we were too cold!

 

This little piggy greeted us from the path back up to the car.

Ben

I usually take pictures of my kids in the fall instead of buying "school pictures," but somehow that didn't happen this past year.  Here are some pictures of Ben this spring, instead. Handsome kid, isn't he?

 

 

Next Stop Ellensburg!

Our friends, the Reynolds, just moved back to Washington after being in Turkey for three years.  Since we were already on the other side of the mountains, we figured it would be a perfect time to see them again. Ellensburg is only about an hour from Leavenworth and it was a beautiful drive through Blewitt Pass.

As we got closer, Angi texted us directions to their house.  Brad thought she was just kidding about the dead badger. But she wasn't! (Although we later determined it was really a skunk.)

It was so great to see the Reynolds again!  They're always up for an adventure and taught us two new games:  The Flour Game, and Sock Wrestling!  I didn't get any pictures of Sock Wrestling, but it was pretty crazy.  Basically two people face off, then each person removes a sock and they wrestle, trying to be the first to take off the other person's remaining sock. We had some intense matches: Ryan vs. Angi, Kylie vs. Brad, Ben vs. Jillian, Thys vs. Ryan, Me vs. Brad.  I was laughing so hard during my round that I only lasted about a minute before Brad had my sock off.  

Here's the flour game, which is a little more tame:

You start with a tower of flour with a coin on top.  Each person slices off a sliver of the tower, trying not to collapse the tower.

You go around and around, each person taking of slices, until finally someone makes the tower crash. That person has to dig out the coin with their teeth!

Of course it was Kylie who made it collapse! 

(She's also the one Ryan dared to eat a fish eyeball one of the last times we saw them, and then proceeded to throw it up into his hands!)

 

After the flour game, we made pizzas. 

No, we didn't use the same flour...

And of course we had to have a game of Settlers of Catan.  The Reynolds are the ones who introduced us to Settlers many, many years ago!  

Now that all the kids are old enough to play, we had to have two separate games.  Angi, Jake, Ben and I played one game, and everyone else played the other.  

Good times!  We made promises to see each other sooner than three years!