Wrestling, Birthdays, Deer, Oh My!

Lots going on again this week. Four of the boys have wrestling going on. Fina is in rehearsal for Spelling Bee and Improv as well as all manner of other senior activities. Birthday week. Valentine projects at school and at home. And more snow, complete with deer.

Jarrito Loco in Monument - uniquely good!
Jarrito means little pot, and they're everywhere.

All those "clubs" hanging from the ceiling are
for crushing a food item (which I've forgotten).

Matteo printed this desktop trash can for Tracy.

More snow yesterday which brought these 8 deer to town.

Celebrating the twins continues...

Nana made these special desserts
for Family Dinner. The topic was, "Don't
put an obstacle before a blind man."

Winter Swimming

Pool day! And everyone got a shot at the Grill's new pretzels. AJ's been after one of those pretzels for a couple of weeks now.

Jonny's full-immersion theater.

Breakfast: second seating

Barria tacos. Wow! (yesterday)

TECO Model Train Show

Papa, Griffen, and AJ went to the TECO Model Train Show today. What a hoot! By far, the winning attention grabber was a Boxcar Race put on by the Youth in Model Railroading (they have a Colorado Springs rep). Never saw that done before! We spent half our time there participating in this race. The truly amazing thing was winning a show door prize: one seat on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway! Just so happens that we've been planning that trip for these two for some time now. All the photos are here.

They often have a "scavenger hunt" which
does keep their attention.

There was a rock climber on the cliff at left.

First time I'd seen an entire layout of monorail.

Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society
(Jamie does their website.)

We bought a boxcar for them to race.

AJ/Griffen's car is in the middle.

Snow Day!

Snow Day! When you see below that Papa ventured forth into 9-degree weather for some "outdoor time," you may wonder, "what did he do?" The answer is... He watched the final three episodes of "@DownieLive Travels by Train: America." Rail fans, check it out! Mike Downie covers a ten-week trip from Florida to Alaska by train (mostly), all kinds of trains. Jamie's brief intro with a link to Mike's videos is here.

Snow Day activities...

A record: 9 degrees.

Those little balls are graupel.

Forever Family

Tracy, Matt, and Serafina attended the adoption ceremony today for their first foster care child about 3 years ago. Congratulations to the Cromars!

Nana and Papa got back from Cripple Creek in time to start an epic day of football. The Chiefs won the NFC Championship and will play the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. And Nana whipped up the best baba ganoush so far (decades of trying, see below). By evening, Monday's school was to be a 2-hour delay. By the next morning (1/30/23), the school day was canceled altogether for cold temperatures. Our outdoor thermometer read -6F Monday morning.

This is what greeted Nana and Papa
upon their return from Cripple Creek.

Nana made a great Baba Ganoush. She's been after the
right recipe ever since the Olive Tree's baba in Tucson.
We'd go to Tucson every year when we had the jewelry
store for the big gem and mineral show in February.
That was decades ago and the Olive Tree is no longer there.
The magic is here.

Butte Theater, Cripple Creek, CO

Nana and Papa dropped AJ at ballet class at about noon then headed on to Cripple Creek (about a 90-minute drive from home). It was just an overnight trip with the main event being a show at the Butte Theater: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. This was part of their Community Theater season, and they did a great job. It's something of a dark play peppered with plenty of funny moments. We picked a place to stay right downtown so that everything was within easy walking distance. All the photos are here.

We discovered Alchemy (in Old Colorado City)
on the way up to Cripple Creek for lunch.
They had a really fun Almond Joy cocktail.
And the sauces with Lynn's pretzels were fabulous.

Cripple Creek's main drag. It's mostly casinos.

We discovered The Creek for dinner.
I'll have the bison top sirloin, please!
It's a small place, get reservations.

The main event.

Our hotel was the red/green one on the right:
Century Casino & Hotel Cripple Creek

That's Cripple Creek down there. This view is a few miles
away along Highway 67 back to Divide, CO.

Hungry Bear Restaurant in Woodland Park.
Very homey. Huge selection. Excellent prices. We both loved it.

We had beautiful, but cold weather while in Cripple Creek.
Colorado Springs had snow.
We saw the top of the storm from above
while in Woodland Park. By the time we were down near
Manitou Springs, we were fully in the storm.