Valentines Day and Presidents' Weekend

Lots of miscellaneous happenings over the weekend. Starting with Fina's premier appearance on the high school's Improv Team. They do "Cheap Date Night" once a month; it's hilarious. Some of us went swimming on Sunday in 48-degree weather. Some rock climbing today at a new facility in town, Gripstone.

Here's Lexi while dropping AJ at his carpool stop on Thursday.

Cheap Date Night. This was after the show during cleanup.

Going to the pool with snow on the ground.

AJ (closer) and Matteo at Gripstone.

Cripple Creek Ice Festival

Eight of us headed out for the Cripple Creek Ice Festival today. Temperatures were right around freezing, which I guess was just about ideal for a combination of people and ice. It was small, but fun, and we managed to score some festival foods, too, like corn dogs, kettle corn, and fudge (which we always get from Cripple Creek Candy). We saved lunch for Fiesta Mexicana in Woodland Park on the way home (the restaurants in Cripple Creek were small and impacted today). Fiesta Mexicana has a huge menu, all of which is good (at least all that we've managed to try so far). A few more photos are here.

Twins Birthday

It took all day to celebrate their birthday, from the traditional whatever-you-want-for-breakfast breakfast to dinner at Red Robin and Coldstone birthday cakes. Wow! We know how to party!

You may pick ONE gift to open this morning.

Thing One and Thing Two. Exactly.

At right, dinner with some of the Kreb friends at Red Robin.

Check, Please

The DCC Theatre's winter production of "Check, Please" closed last night. And that marks Fina's 40th production! This one was unique, though, in a very significant way - she was an understudy for the female lead. I've come to learn (thank you, Zach, for sharing some of your stories) that being an understudy is a very tough job, and quite thankless. In the big leagues, you mostly get to sit in the seats and take notes of all the blocking, characterizations, etc. and practically without rehearsal be ready to go on at a moment's notice. As a lead! I can't even imagine. So, Fina got a taste of it here. She did get some rehearsal time, and even a show (the Saturday matinee was for the understudies), so it wasn't quite as merciless as the big leagues, but she got a taste. By the way, it was a great show. Excellent script, very well performed.

Fina with her overstudy counterpart, Megan.

Worse than the "Bomb Cyclone"?

May be. It was a pretty heavy duty snow, almost 24 continuous hours, on top of 5-10 inches a few days ago. Certainly ended up being the hardest driveway shoveling job we've had to date. I picked up Matt at the airport last night in the middle of it all, and was very happy to follow a snow plow much of the way along highway 83. We figured there wouldn't be many Uber drivers willing to make that run. Two Snow Days this week and one Delayed Start. Yesterday's snow day managed to cancel one of the Check Please shows.

Super Bowl: Chiefs 31, 49ers 20

And we were ready for the game! Everyone was decked out in Chiefs garb, mainly for attending church and razzing our 49er friends. Unfortunately we didn't get to show up as an entire Chiefs offense (we had 11 folks!) cause 4 stayed home sick. Still, though, we made an impression.

Sunset the night before was encouraging.

Monet, and More

Turned out to be a very special, and very artsy, 2-day trip to Denver for Nana and Papa. We got a special deal at the Downtown Sheraton that included a VIP pass to the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. Craig joined us for the Monet day.

Here's part of their description: "More than 100 paintings created throughout Monet’s life will go on display at the Denver Art Museum next fall. “The Truth of Nature” traces Monet’s work from early landscapes and then to his fascination with single subjects, such as water lilies and haystacks, in different light and times of day. The show includes the first painting Monet, age 18, ever exhibited, in 1858 (“View from Rouelles”) and one of his last works (“The House Seen Through the Roses”) done a few months before he died in 1926. The museum partnered with an impressive list of museums and private collectors to create the show that will only be seen in the U.S. in Denver." #MonetatDAM

I was the last one of our threesome to finish the exhibit. That never happens at an art thing. We were all taken by the story told and the fact that the paintings had been pulled from so many collections far and wide to tell Monet's story.

The trip started the day before with another wonderful art discovery, the American Museum of Western Art - The Anschutz Collection. The location is a little hard to spot as the signage is only readable close up; look for Navares on the building. It's right across the street from the Brown Palace (where we'll stay on our next Denver adventure). This museum houses three floors of a great western art collection. You'd recognize Wyeth and Thomas Hart Benton, but maybe not the dozens of others. You may recognize Philip Anschutz as a very successful business man who, among other things, was heavily invested in railroads. And railroads invested heavily in western art to attract easterners to travel west. The Santa Fe Railroad is well know for having western art on the walls, on menus, everywhere. In September 1996, Anschutz became Vice-Chairman of Union Pacific Railroad.

On our walk to the Denver Art Museum, we walked between the State Capitol and Denver City Hall. We understand there is a step leading up to the entrance of the State Capitol that is marked 5,280 feet, the Mile High City.

All the photos are here, including a couple video clips (at the end) from the Monet exhibit.

Navares Building - American Museum of Western Art

In the Brown Palace

La Loma Mexican Restaurant

Just outside the Denver Art Museum with Lynn and Craig.

Leven Deli - great find!

First Monet, chronologically.

Last chronologically.

Great dinner at the Palace Arms in the Brown Palace