216 - a few pictures from Colorado

This picture was taking in the car on I-70 just outside of Denver. The sun was setting and we could see the mountains in the distance.

We all piled on this bus that was to take us to our drop-off point for our rafting adventure.

This shot was taken after our rafting adeventure. I believe those clouds brought us some snow about an hour later when we were eating pizza in Breckenridge.

Here are a few pictures of the new Denver Art Museum that is currently under construction.

The new building soars out over the existing art museum.

Architecture that is dangerous. The architect is Daniel Libeskind.

This is the Denver Public Library, which is right next to the Art Museum. This building has nice geometrical shapes. This was designed by Micheal Graves (the Target guy.)

Downtown Denver from the civic lawn.

This is the structural suspension system for a pedestrian bridge at the west side of "downtown." The bridge looked somewhat like a ship with a nautical vernacular.

This is the view from the edge of the cliff where the "extreme swing" was placed. It was quite a rush flying out over that space. (Look for the semi on the road.)

These are the Alpine Cars that rode along a rail like a coaster. We were able to control the speed. This shot is taken at the end of the ride as we are being pulled automatically back up the hill.
Here we are pausing for a moment to enjoy the view.

215

Wow! Next week is the Fourth of July. It really snuck up on me, since we vactioned earlier this month. I am talking Monday off to get a nice 4 1/2 day weekend.

We are going to take a little family vacation. We are gonna visit my Grandparents in Arkansas for a couple of days and then head up to Branson and take the kids to Silver Dollar City for a couple of days.

Being in Branson give us and opportunity to do some research for Sunday School class as we view evangelicals in their vaction habitat...the gun aisle in Wal-Mart anybody???

Last night, Vernal and I scored a hotel for us to stay in for $40 a night through priceline.

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The big thing we did this weekend was visit Powell Gardens outside of Kansas City. This years feature is Mazes. My dad is out of town so we took my mom (who loves to garden) with us. The highlight for the boys was the friend they met. He was a turtle who was crossing our path. I picked him up and put him in the grass and the boys ran circles around him. We enjoyed the architecture, looked at flowers, and ate a picnic lunch. It was warm and the sun wore us out so we all took naps when we got home. That is amazing because Ewe never takes a nap.

For dinner, I made some yummy steak fajitas. I have never made fajitas before.

Vernal needed to pick something up at Oak Park Mall, so we all went. Me and the boys hung out at the Toddler Area and eventually took a carousel ride and train ride.

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Yesterday was all about mowing. I mowed our lawn and then I mowed my parent's lawn. (My dad is out of town for three weeks.) My parent's have a bigger lawn and it seemed bigger than I remember as a kid mowing every week. It's good exercise.

214 - townhouse

A co-worker gave my her copy of the Suturday Homes section of the KC Star from last Saturday's paper. There were some pictures and a short little article about the townhomes that I designed for renovation just off of the Plaza. -that was kinda cool to see.

They are under construction right now, but they completed the model unit first so it would be part of the Springs Home Tour. The model unit looks amazing...with all the comtempory furniture and decorations. The before and after pictures are fun to look at...maybe, I'll post them some day.

I had a surreal experience with this project. In early stages of design, we talked about the potential buyers, their demographic, what they want, etc. The potential buyers are young professionals buying into a quality of life. This quality of life is not as materialistic as the suburbian quality of needing more things and bigger is better. This townhouse is just under 900 s.f. This quality of life may be a bit healthier as one would walk out their door and do their shopping on the plaza or their excercise at Millcreek Park. This quality of life is very social and entertaining is very important. Friends will come over for drinks and then head down to the plaza for dinner. So those ideas played into the final design of the space-a home that offered loft like living that can throw a good party. So a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend a party put on buy the owners of this project. They invited everyone involved - the real estate agents, the construction company, the money people, and other consultants. There was a nice spread of food and drinks placed on the curved countertop. I counted 25 people in the house at one point.

It was weird. The house was designed for parties like this and here I was at one. I found a place in the corner and just watched.

213 - I must confess

To my coworkers:

I must confess...I am the one who is responsible for that mysterious maple syrup smell that has become such a mystery to everyone over the last week. You see, I have gotten in the habit of eating instant oatmeal by warming it up in the microwave. I do this every morning around 9 a.m. Well, this last week, I switched from my usual flavor of cinnamon to maple and brown sugar. No big deal, right?...but for some reason this particular brand of maple and brown sugar has a very strong aroma. Very strong!

So I went through my normal routine - work a little, take out the package and put it into my coffee mug, fill it with hot water from the coffee maker, stir, and then heat in the microwave for 30 seconds for extra fluffiness. I then grab a plastic spoon, a napkin, and then I walk back to my desk to eat.

On Monday, I heard a few of you make some idle comments like, "Who's eating waffles?" I tried to make an attempt at first to say, "I think that is my oatmeal." But nobody heard me, so I kept quiet.

On Tuesday, I know you all smelled it and filed it away, but did not want to make a fuss two days in a row.

On Wednesday, it got to you. Three days in a row - what's going on with this maple syrup smell. I was as quiet as Darwin and had a big mischievious grin on my face as I heard the beginning to some theories...maybe it is the office next to us, but a pancake breakfast three days in a row is a little far fetched. I heard people say, "It happens around 9 o'clock every morning."

On Thursday, I laughed to myself even harder now that a group of about ten of you got together to solve this problem. You followed your noses to the epi-center of the source, but blamed the girl who sits right next to me, all the while the oatmeal is sitting in my coffee mug. I cannot say a word now - I'm in too deep. One coworker was on to me when I had to talk to her that morning. You said that when I came over, I smelled like maple syrup. I brushed it off and said, "Yeah, everyone says it is the strongest in that area over there." (pointing to my desk.)

On Friday, I could tell that a lot of you were getting annoyed. The theories were really getting bizarre as one suggested that anti-freeze has a sweet smell and maybe it was leaking on the air handler above. One of the bosses came over and said that they would talk to building management about the source of the smell. I better not fess up or be outed now! About an hour later I hear some scrapping and pounding on the roof. I hope I'm not responsible for that work.

So here is my confession: It was me and my maple and brown sugar oatmeal that threw you all into a frenzy last week and gave me some laugh-out-loud moments.

Today, I laid low. I heated my oatmeal up at home and ate it in the car. I need to lay low for a few days and then bring it back out every once in a while for a good tease.

212 - Music for Sring2006

1. Mojave 3 - this road I'm traveling............it starts off slow and soft and builds and builds and then the trumpet blows and we all come back down.
   
2. Embrace - gravity.............whoops, another slow starter that builds to the louds chorus. A great song to sing outloud.
   
3. Laura Veirs - magnetized...............zirconium??? did she just sing zirconium? a beautiful song with a simple acoustic guitar - later added by a singular piano key.
   
4. The Innocence Mission - a thousand miles............a georgous unreleased song.
   
5. Denison Witmer - little flowers...........a song about St. Fancis of Assisi.
   
6. Coldplay - the hardest part...........a silver lining in the cloud.
   
7. Iron & Wine - love vigilantes...........a New Order cover.
   
8. Rosie Thomas - faith's silver elephant.............this song was part of a kids compilation of indie artist.
   
9. Sufjan Stevens - good god bird..............NPR asked Sufjan to write a story about this small poor community in Arkansas that has come alive with the discovery of a woodpecker that was thought to have been extinct.
   
10. Morrissey - the youngest was the most loved.............the sounds of an English street and moping.
    
11. Broadcast - tears in the typing pool...............a somewhat electronic band does a simple strummed acoustic song.
    
12. Nouvelle Vague - guns of brixton............a cover of one of my favorite Clash songs.
    
13. Over the Rhine - cruel and pretty.............the sound of a front porch swing.
    
14. Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan - unplayed piano.............well, he's playing it in this song and Lisa sounds great.
    
15. Jack Johnson - wrong turn.............melancholy never sounded so sweet, it hurts.
    
16. Bill Mallonee - can't fake the heartache.............I guess I like sad songs.
    
17. Cat Power - living proof................roll down your windows, turn up the music, let's go for a sunny drive.
    
18. Erin McKeown - Beautiful (I guess).............something about that drum loop, record crackle, and slightly jazzy acoustic that reminds me of watching Seasame Street as a kid.
    
19. Don Chaffer - against the window pane.................This is a classic Don song. I saw Don and Lori and thier bands a lot at the University of Kansas. Their music feels like a part of my college experience and this song captures the feel of sitting on the floor with my friends at some local coffee shop as we listened.
    
20. Sara Groves - it's going to be alright..............One of the few CCM artist that I like. This song is great - it's vibey and dreamy and you can get lost in the music.
    

211 - May music and more

May was a good month for music. First here's a story:

Last summer, I got an album by the band Elkland. When I tried to download it onto iTunes so that I could listen to it on my iPod, it was copyright protected through the mother label company of Sony/BMG??? Bummer...at the time, we didn't have a high speed internet connection either, so I couldn't attempt to load their media player that would allow me to maybe make a digital file. Now that I have high speed, I remembered that cd and plopped it into my computer and it took me to a website where there is a class action lawsuit against Sony/BMG??? for this software that was put on these discs. The did to quite a few albums. I followed the directions in how I could participate and in return for mailing in my old disc, I got:

• a new Elkland disc with out the copy protection.
• downloadable digital files of the Elkland cd.
• 3 full album downloads from iTunes of my choice from a list of selected Sony/BMG??? artist.

The list of Artist to choose from wasn't the best, but I found some albums I was interested in. It's free, right? No one gets hurt.

I figured a little Frank would be good to have as one of my free choices.

Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound... was one of those albums that I wanted to here, but didn't really want to pay for. Now I have it for free.

Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me...I was very interested in this one. She is very bizarre and the album is quite eclectic. It goes from billie holliday to eminem to showtunes. It is very whimsical and reminds me of girls I knew in art school. My 3rd free choice.

hammock - stranded under endless skies ep...4 beautiful instrumental songs of ambient guitars, drones, and other noises. I was in the mood for some nighttime music and thought it would be perfect for the mountains.
The Concretes - In Colour...perfect summer music from a band from Sweden. I heard a song of theirs from one of my music podcasts and had to seek them out. This was music for a roadtrip to colorado.
The Weepies - Say I am You...another discovery through a podcast. Mostly female vocals but often shared or led by a guys voice too. This music is a bit more folky along the lines of the Innocence Mission or 10,000 Maniacs. I am so in love with one of their songs...so beautiful.

Asobi Seksu - Citrus...one of my favorite activities on vacations is shopping for music in a different city. The new music will always be a reminder of that trip. I picked up the next tow albums from Virgin Megastore in Denver. Again, I heard a song from this band on a podcast. Their sound is dreampop and I love it.

Editors - the Back Room...also picked up at Virgin. This British band is getting compared to Interpol because the vocals are very similar, but after sampling the music in Virgin - their music was really strong and seemed more dynamic than Interpol. Musically, it's a great album.

I read through this book in the past month - very funny. I using this book in our Sunday School class this summer - I am so fired. It was a good run - I guess Dust will have to take over teaching duties.

210 - this last weekend and the week before

• Friday, June 2nd...return trip from Colorado. Left early to be home and pick up boys at 6:30. Later that night...Ewe, me, and my dad went to Old Shawnee Days to ride the ferris wheel and let Ewe play on some other "bouncy" attractions.
• Saturday, June 3rd...took Ewe to the skate park in Roeland Park to ride his scooter after realizing that would be an awesome place to ride. The guy loves to ride.
• Sunday, June 4th...the whole family went over to Baldwin City for a Day out with Thomas (the tank engine.) It's one big kid's festival with a train ride by Thomas.
• Later that night, we had a big family dinner at my parents house.
• Monday - Thursday...work week, not much action, back to the grind. Except on Thursday, I got to hang out with my buddies at Homer's.
• Friday, June 9th...the start of a busy weekend. 6pm-rehearsal and dinner at church for J-bird's wedding. Vernals role: Bridesmaid. My role: videographer.
• Later that night, about 9ish...over the the Jerbil's house for a late start on J. Jerbil's suprise party for his 30th birthday. My mom was home with the kids, so we stayed out 'till about midnight. I loved it. Fun party.
• Saturday, June 10th...all day wedding activities. Verna had to be at the church by 10:15 and I was to be there at noon to film some pre-wedding activities. There was a lull during pictures so I got to read a lot from the book I had brought. I think we were home by 7pm, reunited with our boys and put them to bed.
• Later that night, we crashed and the couch and watched Firewall and about midnight, I started preparing the Sunday School lesson.
• Sunday, June 11th...went to church in the morning...picked up some furniture in my dad's truck (my dad is in Russia) for my mom...we all went to see the movie Cars - real good movie and the "short" was hilarious.
• Later that night, the weather was cooling down and I mowed the lawn for the first time in two weeks.

209 - Vacation, Thursday, Day 6, June 1st

On this day (June 1st) in 1996, Verna and I were married. That is the whole point of this trip - to celebrate our 10 year wedding aniversary. That is why we left the kids with the grandparents. He we are traveling around together like our past trips to Jamica, Europe, Chicago, Flint Hills of Kansas, Florida and we realized that not much has changed - our spirits are still the same, maybe a little older.

Then I think of our more recent trips that we've had with our kids to Seattle, Arkansas, and through the Ozarks of Missouri, and realize that not much has changed with the addition of a couple of small travellers. Forrest and Vernal are still doing the same things we love to do and the kids get to come along for the ride. Our spirit is still in tact and not worn down or given over to and isolated compartment called parenthood.

It's hard to believe that 10 years flew by so quickly. We were 22 when we got married.

Back to our trip:

After spending the last few days driving to different destinations around the area, we decided to stay in the area. We were going to take it easy, with no plans. We did whatever popped into our head. Today was our day to lazy or adventurous - whatever we felt like. That was our attitude.

We had a slow morning, and then decided to go for a bike ride. We figured with all the amazing bike paths (recpath), it would be a good way to take in some of the views with a bit of thrill. We rented our bikes on the east side of Dillion Lake. We set out to take a 3 hour ride. We followed the lake over to the town of Frisco, with stops along the way to take in view and make the ride more of a stroll than a race. After riding through Frisco, we headed over to Copper Mountain following the banks of a river of some valley. I am not sure how close we got to copper, because we turned around at the 1 hour, 2o minute mark. On our way back, we stopped at a grocery store in Frisco and had fruit and sandwiches for lunch. Then we followed our path back to the bike rental. It was a great ride and a lot of fun.

Next, we just sort of went to a few shops. I wanted to price some used snowboards. We had ice cream from Dairy Queen. We picked up a few gifts for the boys, etc.

After that, we played some Tennis. We brought our racquets with us and we had time. We hadn't played forever, so we were both a little rust, but soon it started coming back.

Finally, we ate dinner at Carlos Miguel's Mexican Restuarant. It smelled good as we rode past it on our bikes in Frisco.

After dinner, we packed all our stuff, getting ready for the return trip on Friday.

208 - Vacation, Wednesday, Day 5, May 31st

Today, we drove west on I-70 to Glenwood Springs. I think Glenwood Springs boast the largest above ground hot springs pool. Our first activity was to take a gondola ride up the mountain to a place that is called Adventure Park. Adventure Park is pretty new and it was quite fun. We first took a guide cave tour that lasted about 70 minutes. One of the caves that we toured was recently opened to the public in 1999. We learned that a high school student studied this natural pool of water that was isolated form all other water for a science project. She sent a sample out to the lab and they discovered seven new life forms…one of which can live in human blood and fight cancer. Scientists only come out to study when grant money is available and right now there is none.

After the cave, we had some “The Amazing Race” fun. First we rode the Alpine Rail. It’s like an alpine sled crossed with a rollercoaster. You have your own person car with a lever that controls the speed. The rail has dips and bumps and goes slithering down the mountain for a good ride. At the end of the ride you car get pulled up by a cable much like a rollercoaster does at the beginning before that first drop.

Next, we rode the zip line. The set up had two seats that we buckled into. They pulled us back and let us go. We picked up some good speed as we were nearing the bottom before we hit this spring loaded mechanism that snapped us back and forth slowly until we came to a stop.

After that was the big swing. This ride had four seats – two in the front and two in the back. We chose the back. The scary or cool thing about this ride was that the center of the pendulum was right on the edge of a cliff – a big drop off – to the valley below. It was a long way down and we were pretty close to the top of this mountain. The cars looked like ants on the highway. Verna was a little nervous and I was excited. The ride was great – quite a rush and the views were spectacular. When the ride was over the operator asked if we’d like to ride in the front now. Sure…she’s giving us a free ride. I like the front view better. The way you swing along the ground and then go flying past the cliff. Wow! (Check out the pictures above.)

After we took the gondola back down the mountain, we headed over to the hot springs pool. It was a warm day…maybe in the low ‘80’s upper 70’s, but the pools felt so good. It made our legs turn to jelly. They have three pools of different temperatures. The largest pool was only slightly warm…not hot tub temps. The pool was so relaxing I can’t begin to describe how nice it felt. The Springs also had two waterslides that we each had 4 passes to ride. I forgot how fun waterslides are. We had figure 8 inner tubes and rode together. We eventually made our way over the next pool that felt like a hot tube. Evening was coming and the air was getting cooler, so the hot water felt great.

We were also getting hungry, so we got dressed and walked their little downtown and found a big brew pub restaurant. That sounded perfect. I got a bacon cheddar burger with onion rings that we shared as appetizers. Oh that was good. After dinner we walked over to this small café that served gelato and shared a bit of sweetness before we headed home.

I must say that the drive in and out of Glenwood Springs is amazingly beautiful.

207 - Vacation, Tuesday, Day 4, May30th

We started the morning off by doing a little shopping at the outlet malls in Silverthorne. From there, we drove into Denver. We found a place to park in their LODO district (Lower Downtown.)

It was lunchtime, we were hungry and wanted to grab a quick bite. Up the street from our garage was Chipotle and Noodles & Company. Both are yummy, but I have only been to Noodles once before, so I opted for some Japanese rice noodles. We ate as we gazed over some downtown maps and plotted our city adventures.

16th street is a pedestrian mall and the only allowed traffic is the free bus. We walked the whole distance because at the end was the Civic mall, the public library, and the new Art Museum. We checked all of them out.

I got lost in a Virgin Megastore while Vernal found a place to get a haircut. Two albums later we met up and walked across the river to the REI store. (Recreation Equipment International.) We each got some new shoes and picked up little backpacks for the boys. We were looking for normal solid color kid backpacks that were not plastered with kid things like Dora the Explorer or Thomas or Spiderman, etc. Oh, but first, we took time to relax a bit and sip an iced coffee at the in-house Starbucks.

Oh yeah, I thought it would be ironic to eat something form Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on this trip. I made that dream come true with a chocolate covered rice crispy treat.

Back in LODO, we found this really cool bookstore called the Tattered Cover Book Store. We probably spent and hour or so browsing around. It was as big as a B&N and was in a really old building where the wood floors felt worn from all the traffic. It had two floors and in the upper floor there was a special assembly room where people were gathered as a featured author was giving a talk. I should have gotten another coffee and sat at their cafe soaking up the atmosphere.

It was getting late now and we were getting hungry. We found a Mexican restaurant (D'Corozan) a block away that claimed it was the best Mexican food in LODO. It was pretty good and not to expensive.

206 - Vacation, Monday, Day 3, May29th

We again slept in at our own leisure, woke up and ate some breakfast at the Moose. We were scheduled to go white water rafting with a rafting company called AVA ( Arkansas Valley Adventures.) I picked them becuase they sent me the best marketing material. In otherwords, they looked the most organized.

Their outpost was located about 14 miles south of Leadville along the Arkansas River. We had to meet at 11:30 to get geared up and by geared up I mean put on wet suits and water jackets with life jackets and helmets. It was a little chilly that day and the water is assumed to be a bit cold this time of the year, so the wet suits were nice to have on. Our hands and feet were the only parts exposed to the elements (besides our faces) and they did get a bit cold. But for me, it came in spurts and those parts soon warmed up.

The rafts would hold 5-7 people and one of those people was the raft guide. We all had paddles and would follow the instructions of our raft guide. The journey was beautiful through the Brown Canyon. The river was rated a level 3 (intermediate)...meaning between the serene and calm were rapids that were fun and wild, but not to difficult for us first timers. There was one tricky rapid ahead where the rafts pull over and we take a short hike to look at it. The guides then figure their best plan of attack and give us a little instruction and pep talk. Our group didn't lose anybody which was nice because...after the rapid our guide confessed that she lost all but one the day before, but she did say they were a rowdy bunch who kinda wanted to "go for a swim."

The raft trip was a blast. The rapids are the best parts - going up and down - it's like a roller coaster ride. It's amazing that we don't fall off. We went 15 miles down the river and I think that lasted about 4-5 hours.

When all of that was over, we changed back into our dry clothes and by that time we worked up quite an appetite. Vernal suggested that pizza sounded good and I agreed. We drove into Breckenridge and tried a local pizza joint called Extreme Pizza. It was an old house decorated with skis and snowboards that had a room of arcade games and TV's that hungs showing local sports. We ordered a large (leftovers are always nice) and I got a side order of spicy buffalo wings. Mmmmh!

205 - Vacation, Sunday, Day 2, May28th

Today was all about taking it easy. We slept in for as long as we could. We tried to take advantage of sleeping as much as we could on this trip.

We went out to eat breakfast at the Sunshine Cafe in Silverthorne. The Sunshine Cafe is a breakfast only place very much like a First Watch.

From there, we went out to explore the local surroundings and towns. First we went to the marina at Dillion Lake and walked along the shore. Then we drove up to Keystone and then over to Breckenridge. We stopped at Breckenridge's Main Street and walked along the shops. From there we drove into Frisco to get some supplies for the week at Wal-Mart and Safeway.

We got back to the Moose Lodge and put away the gorceries. I called a rafting company and made reservations for a rafting trip the next day. We ate lunch and then took a guilt-free Sunday afternoon nap.

Later that night, we saw Mission Impossible 3 at the theater in Dillion. I can't remember the last time that we saw a movie together at the theater...very enjoyable.

204 - Vacation, Saturday, Day 1, May 27th

The day started off with us taking the boys over to my parents house. My dad came over with his truck in which we took apart the crib to load. We also threw on the truck bikes, trikes, and scooters.

Now that the kids are dropped off, we come back home to load up our car, then gas-up and add air to the tires. It is about noon when we leave.

In the car, we listened to music and podcasts; we conversed; we read books: and Verna watched a dvd for MOPS. We stopped in Hays, Kansas for a mid-afternoon dinner at the Golden Corral for buffet food. (a decision I always regret later.)

I don't remember exactly the time, but I think we arrived at the Moose Lodge (Doc's place) around the 10 o'clock hour. After unpacking and getting a bit of the munchies, we picked up some McDonald's to take back to the Moose. It was our one and only stop at McDonald's on the trip.