Greeley, CO

Our main target of affection was the Colorado Model Railroad Museum (CMRM). And it did not disappoint. 5,500 square feet of model railroad! We stayed at the Currier Inn B&B, which was delightful, as was Lafayette's Creperie inside (gotta try the French Hot Chocolate). As a bonus of sorts was the Colorado Model Railroad Museum's "Tinsel and Trains Gala" last night. All the trip's photos are here. Weldwerks Brewery was fun, too. We had a great dinner at Prime the first night - prime rib every night!

The best surprise of the trip to the CMRM was seeing the HO
locomotive pictured above. I ran that very same loco on
my Dad's basement railroad in the 1970s. I actually had it
for quite some time until it got lost in one of life's shuffles.

Italian Toast = grilled pound cake. Who knew?!

"Tinsel and Trains Gala"

St. Peters

Went by just outside the railroad museum.

Fire fighting simulation was effective

Prime: prime rib every day they're open.

Horace Greeley. Portrait in our room.

WeldWerks

Veterans Day

From school, Antonio sent us the image immediately below and said "They have the whole table set up; it was really cool." We had just covered this topic in a Family Dinner on POW/MIA Day: here.

The fire was having a hard time with 24" of snow.

Nana's latest quilt.

Flown on Veterans Day.
JF2.com/flags/#35rows

Snow Day #4

If it hadn't been a Saturday, today may well have been the fourth Snow Day in a row! It seems by day's end our area had received over 24 inches of snow in the last four days. Our Family Dinner topic was orphans and caring for them. See: Caring for the Orphans - Fostering Hope (at Jamie's Torah website). It was also Carrot Cake night (and spaghetti carbonara) to celebrate Matteo's birthday! The day's flag was the Easton Flag (as you can see in the background of the dining room pic).

Easton Flag

Snow Day!

Right on the heels of our Halloween snow, we get a full-blown blizzard and a Snow Day! The kids were convinced last night that it would be a snow day today; the adults were not convinced. Look who was right... And it's still snowing...

Update: Another snow day the next day (11/7). We've received about 18" in the last 48 hours.

Update: Snow Day #3 in a row (11/8)! It's a record (for us, anyway).

Matteo made cookies so we wouldn't starve to death!

Day 3

Thursday morning

Wednesday morning

Jamie thought it would be appropriate
to fly this Reconstruction Era flag
following Election Day.
JF2.com/flags/#37

Halloween 2024

It wasn't as cold as our first Halloween in Colorado, but we did get about 2" of snow the day before. It seems that one of the few things you can count on for Colorado winter is snow by October 31st.

We even got a Halloween photo of Sandy.

All Halloweens end with trading treats.

140th Anniversary Celebration for the First United Methodist Church of Arroyo Grande, CA

We flew a flag today helping the FUMCAG celebrate its 140th Anniversary. A 38-star flag like the one shown here (but maybe not the same exact star pattern) would have been flying on September 3, 1884 when the church was established.

140th Anniversary Celebration

For more, see Jamie's Flags.

Set Construction

Matteo, Antonio, and friends have been working feverishly lately to get the Newsies set pieces built, transported, and put in place at the theater.

The van.

The show is set in 1899, the year of the
newsboy strike in New York City. The 45-star
flag pictured above would have been flying.
https://jf2.com/flags/#45