First Weekend in the West!

During our first fun weekend in Colorado we explored a ranch out west of Loveland. We did a little fishing and a little sight seeing. It was a beautiful day! And while hiking we found that you have to watch out for cactuses!

We continued our weekend with more adventure and exploration. We went to a magic show and Emma, of course, volunteered to be the magician's assistant. She was excellent, however she did get her watch swiped :) We tried our hand at alpine sledding, here is Emma finishing up her ride down the mountain. She later decided to hop on a zip line...nothing like trying new things!!

We finished up the weekend with a little pony riding and of course, a western hold up. A great time!!

Getting here!

We were really excited about finally arriving here in Denver...that first night we spent at a hotel, we were pretty geeked about watching the sun set behind the Rockies. The building in the foreground is the new Parker COSTCO opening in August. If you know me, you know how happy that makes me.

Sunny was overwhelmed from the excitement and simply passed out from the sheer exhaustion of it all. Here she is enjoying the hotel linens.

Costco you say? I get the Rocky Mountains AND a costco 2 miles from home! Emma is thrilled.

MBJ is thinking this is all pretty cool too.

When we finally got our keys we went to Jill's to bring home Alex and Ivan after their sleepover there. Alex found a nice quiet place to rest after his 2 week extravaganza.

Missing you

Aside from missing our friends and family back in the midwest...we also miss The Cone. I don't think we'll find another ice cream place as yummy as the cone. When we come back to visit we will need to take a trip there. Miss you little guy.

During the homeless period!

During our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Brann, we got a bit of rain. We went to the 4th of July parade in Hilliard anyway and cheered the troopers marching in the puddles!

During our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Mills, we lived in the pool! Not totally, but for 8 or so hours out of each day, we had a great time!!

A few pictures from before our move!

Emma and her friend Melanie made stuffed animals for each other, so did Marty and Dylan! Marty and Emma miss their friends in Ohio, but true friends are never lost!

Marty passed his first karate test and earned his red/white belt!! It was a pretty scary time for his first test, he only tested with 2 other students, both of who were more than half way to their black belts, but he did great!!

Randy Pausch

Randy died today...nearly 2 years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and being told he may have had only 6 months left to live. He said that people were only so interested because he was a man in his 40's who was going to leave behind a wife and young children. Maybe. But his message was profound to me...really important. No one wants to talk about living your best life and the reality of death. But he faced it head on. I learned a lot from him, he was brave and generous and I will always hold him in my heart as being someone who could teach us a thing or two about living the life of our dreams.

The Peeps

So in moving out here, we only knew a few people. Marty's Aunt Jane and Uncle Jack and their kids live here. Their sons live in the mountains and their daughters live in the burbs. They were really welcoming through email and phone before we got out here and we've gotten to spend some time with them already since our arrival, which has been awesome.
Our cousin Jill and her daughter Chandler live like 2 miles from us. It's awesome and all of the kids have gotten to play together several times already and are really hitting it off. Emma and MBJ got to meet and play with their other cousins, Joe and Sam (Jill's sister Joan's boys) and they had a fun time as well. We feel really lucky to have this great bunch of people here to get to know and spend time with!
There are lots of friendly people in our neighborhood. A woman 2 houses down moved out here from Fairfield, which was a town next to Liberty Twp. She thought it was neat that we were from near her hometown and she said "Ohio is a good place to move from!" :) That was cute.
To top it off, we were enjoying one of the neighborhood pools on Sunday evening. The kids were swimming and playing while M and I sat on the edge talking and watching them. There were these other kids swimming around them...the more I looked at them, the more familiar they looked to me. Their dad was sitting right next to us and their mom got in the pool with them. The more I watched them, the more I knew I had known them. It all clicked. Turns out their oldest daughter was in Emma's ballet class at the Countryside YMCA when she was 4 years old!! So we started talking to these folks and have gotten together again to swim and play. I cannot believe how that worked out. Too funny!!

Moving In

There is so much that I haven't updated on, but I'll skip ahead to our arrival here. I'll update on visits with family when I get pictures up. So it's been a blur but we got here over a week ago. We spent one night in a hotel and went to closing the next day. Well, Marty went to closing, with our realtor. I took the kids to the park. Neither the sellers or their realtor was present...dude, I didn't know you could DO that.
Anywho, we arrived to CO, Marty took our cats to our cousin Jill's house. She very awesomely agreed to put them up while we took Sunny to the Holiday Inn with us. Sunny would be a very good New Yorker. She rode the elevator like a pro and even enjoyed the fine linens. She is baby.
After closing and getting the keys, we moved in to our new house. Which was pretty damn filthy. So after renting a carpet cleaner and scrubbing, it's become more liveable. Sincewe were sleeping on the floor, clean carpets were important to me. Though I have to tell you, they are still getting ripped out. Yuck.
As of today, part of our shipment has arrived. Just part. I am glad to see all of our books, however without our bookcases, they will have to remain boxed. It's that kind of situation. Marty is currently fuming over washing machine hookup issues. I'd prefer to blog. Without all of our stuff, it's a bit awkward to know what to do with everything.
As for the house, it's totally different than our last. The layout is much more open and bright. Which happens to show the dirt really well. It's nice though and just needs some cleaning up and updating. If you know me, you know that means all of the flooring, cabinets, and pretty much everything else superficial will be redone :D
The yard is much smaller than our last but so much more private. We have large shade trees all around and a huge pine of some sort out front. The backyard is literally half pavers, so lawn chores will be reduced to 10% of our previous time. Yahoo! The screen on the back door is ripped which makes it nice for Sunny, she just runs in and out as she pleases.
And we do keep the house opened all of the time. It was 105 here last week, but the only time it was really warm in the house was about 3pm...but if you sat under a fan it was comfy. The humidity is nil here so it's easy to keep cool. Especially with the big trees.

We're Heeeeeeeere

Well we've actually been here for a week...but our cable/internet/phone have just been set up today. Finally. There is so much to update on, I don't even know where to begin. I have pictures and stories from all of our visits with family, alas pics not uploaded yet. I'll get there. For now, suffice it to say, we traveled, we moved, we closed, we moved in, still waiting on our shipment from Ohio. Denver is even more different from the Midwest than I ever thought. We have met old friends from Ohio who live in our new neighborhood, we have met people who have moved from Fairfield and we have been give an amazingly warm welcome from our family out here whom I had only met once ever! It's hot but feels cooler than the midwest. We are adjusting well to the altitude.
That is a little of a lot of information, more to come. I just wanted to say HI :)