Clint and Jen in Colorado

Fundraising for Chezca's Surgery

2011-03-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

If the below widget does not work, or if you prefer to donate directly via Paypal, please use this link. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=L4YSKXMQWE8EE

This is our good friend's daughter, Chezca. She has Moebius Syndrome, a rare congenital neurological disorder. She is unable to move several parts of her body, including her limbs.

I am asking, begging really, for your help. Chezca is also clubfooted and unable to stand or walk. There is a surgery and therapy available that will help correct this, but it is very expensive. I'm asking all of my friends to help me raise funds for this surgery. Even small donations will add up and make a life-altering improvement for Chezca and her family.

Chezca lives a few houses down from our family in Manila, with her two brothers and mother and father. Her father currently works two jobs, and the entire family helps take care of Chezca (she is unable to walk due to having two clubfeet).

There is a way to help her stand and walk again, but it involves an expensive surgery (expensive by U.S. standards, impossibly expensive to a family living in the Philippines) and follow up therapy. Chezca's father helped me learn a great deal when we were in Manila, and when I found out he was waiting for a start date to work on a cargo ship in the Arabian Sea (where Somali pirates operate) for almost a year in order to save some of what would be needed for the surgery, I decided there had to be a safer alternative.

I don't want my friend to endanger his life and have to live halfway across the world from his wife and children. They need him at home, and he wants to be there, working and supporting them on a day to day basis. We can make this possible by donating a small amount, and by asking our friends and family to "chip in", too.

Thank you,
Clint

Chezca

2011-03-02T12:40:00.001-08:00

Tornado in Elizabeth

2009-06-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

You have to watch a lame commercial first, but it's an impressive video from the town just south of us.

June Grilling and Weather

2009-06-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

We had a funnel cloud about ten miles north of us, and another one a few miles south. They didn't come out well in the video, though.

Spring Planting

2009-06-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks of work, we have most of the gardening done, for now. Jen did an amazing job with the containers, as you'll see below. Also, we'll post a couple videos - one of Collette helping with the housework and one of her trying her first curry (she liked it).

Collette in May

2009-05-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Some random photos and videos of Collette this month.

Collette practices her typing skills:

Collette eats her popsicle:

April Visits

2009-05-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Good weather for most of April meant some going out and some hanging around the house.

The 32 Best Songs of 2008

2009-04-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Previous Year's Lists:

2007

2006

2005

2004 and more

2003

2002

2001

And, for 2008...

1. Glasvegas - Daddy's Gone

2. The Duke Spirit - The Step and the Walk

3. Elbow - Grounds for Divorce

4. Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry

5. MGMT - Time to Pretend

6. Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool

7. Santogold - Creator

8. The Duke Spirit - Send a Little Love Token

9. Elbow - One Day Like This

10. Black Kids - Look at Me

11. The Ghost Frequency - Lips Stitched Tight

12. Friendly Fires - Paris

13. Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes

14. Elbow - Weather to Fly

15. Santogold - Lights Out

16. Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down

17. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You

18. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

19. Santogold - Say Aha

20. The Duke Spirit - Lassoo

21. Lightspeed Champion - Galaxy of the Lost

22. Magnetic Fields - California Girls

23. Raveonettes - You Want the Candy

24. Delays - Hooray

25. Glasvegas - Geraldine

26. Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat

27. Neon Neon - I Lust U

28. The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made for You

29. MGMT - Kids

30. Hercules and Love Affair - Blind

31. DJ Mujava - Township Funk

32. Verve - Love is Noise

Hawaii Recap

2009-04-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Hawaii. Some highlights included:

*Hanging out at the beach with Nyah, Derrick, King and Sharon and seeing Collette get over her fear of the sand

*Eating first loco moco at Koa Pancake House

*Exploring the Aloha Flea Market

*Shopping at the various Exchanges

*Having a chicken curry at Ala Moana Mall

*Going to Pali Lookout in crazy wind, then driving across the rest of the highway and visiting Bellows Beach (best beach we visited on the trip)

*Eating puka dogs

*Having malasadas at Leonards, including Chocolate and Banana Cream ones

*Seeing downtown and Chinatown

*Visiting Aloha Tower and feeding the fish and birds

*Having breakfast at Like Like Drive Inn (loco moco for Clint again)

*Visiting Hickam Air Force Base and seeing several locations that were bombed and strafed as part of the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Hawaii. Also, we got to see/feed more wild fish, visit another beach, and even see the giant lawn Sharon used to mow!

*Ate coco puffs and ensaymadas at Liliha Bakery

*Hanauma Bay was a mess. Super high winds and a billion people were there.

*Halona Beach Cove (which we didn't even get of the car for, since it was so windy)

*Makapu'u Beach, where we watched the bodysurfers get wiped out (for the most part) by big waves and high winds

*Snorkeling, which became un-snorkeling as Clint realized it's a lot easier when you ditch the snorkel and fins and just swim underwater with goggles

*Had fresh mochi (including Sakura) at Bubbies

*Tried mai tais (my favorite), lava flows (Jen's fave), Scorpions, Hawaiian Punch, Blue Hawaii, and a few others

*Touring around Mililani, thinking that would be a pretty nice place to live (if we had to move to Oahu for work some day)

*Eating breakfast sandwiches and glazed malasadas (slightly lemon flavor - great!) at Ted's Bakery

*Getting fresh fruit (although apple bananas aren't that good)

*Visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center. Yeah, it's a bit of an amusement park, but the information and shows and the real "stuff" there is pretty cool. Collette was there with us for over 4 hours and didn't cry or act up at all. She even stayed awake through the entire "Horizons" show, which we liked quite a bit

*Shopping for coffee at Coffee Gallery, touring around Waipahu, and picking up a final batch of Leonard's malasadas from the Malasada Wagon

Hawaii 2009

2009-04-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

We took our first trip to Hawaii this year. With about a week with King and Sharon in Waikiki and a weekend on our own at Turtle Bay.

Just before leaving:

And, in Oahu. First, at the Hilton Village:

Then, at the beach:

At Pali Lookout:

At the hotel:

Somewhere near Pearl Harbor (wont say where, just in case it's still a secret):

At Turtle Bay.

The view from our room:

Waking up from a nap:

Collette, with the great guy from the Samoan village.

March in Colorado

2009-03-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a remarkably mild winter. We'll be in the low 70s this week with sunny skies. It's been in the 60s and no snow/rain most of the year so far. Maybe a few colder days in January and early February, but not many. Only a couple days of snow, and most of it melted away within 24 hours on those occasions.

The baby had her first cold this weekend. Jen has been working overtime to take care of her, especially at night when the runny nose and irritability has been worst. It appears to be paying off though, since Collette has looked and sounded great today (so far). I'll be doing more around the house starting tonight, as well. It was a rough week because I got an incredibly strong cold early last week and am still feeling terrible, but at least I'm not falling asleep every 15 minutes like I was yesterday.

Here are a few shots of Collette from the past couple weeks. Her hair is growing very fast now. She stands up fine and walks when we hold her hand, but she is still afraid to walk on her own. She tries anything we feed her and eats/likes most things. Her day-to-day diet still consists of milk, water, yogurt with fruit, graham crackers, and random helpings of green beans, rice, applesauce, cereal (she eats mini-wheats with me and Oh's with Jen). And, about once a week she gets a spoonful of ice cream which she LOVES.

Names

2009-01-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

When we researched baby names in 2007, two things immediately shocked me. One, the bizarre popular names for both boys and girls this decade (Boys: Jacob as #1???? Ethan? Joshua? Are 99% percent of American boys born in Nebraska nowadays? And Girls: Ava, Madison, Addison (what???), Chloe?). Seriously, what tempts parents who, their entire lives, had friends named Mike, Bill, Nancy, and Karen to suddenly decide, en masse, that Noah is the best name for their son? Or, that Isabella (#2 for girls) was a great name for their girl?

The second bit that was surprising is how quickly each generation gives up nearly all of the names that are familiar to them. For instance, my name was never tops in popularity, but it certainly had a good run in the 60s and 70s, before quickly disappearing. And, Jennifer - quite possibly the name of more people I've met in my life than any other, has similarly had a massive drop in usage over the last 20 years.

But, John, the all-time, never-ending popular name for boys has to still be at the top of the charts, right? Well, not really. Let's see - 80 years in the top 3, another 20 years in the top 10, and now it's down near the low teens? You're telling me "Jayden" is a more popular name than John????

Well, at least the trend of giving girls stripper names seems to have passed. No longer are names like Alexis, Brittany, Candy, Destiny, Misty, or Rayne showing up near the top of girl baby name lists. That phase seemed to have peaked in the late-90s/early-00s.

New Years in San Jose

2009-01-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

We went for what will be our last trip for a while to San Jose over New Years. Why our last trip? Because Collette once again had intestinal problems at the end of our vacation so we're going to give her a rest and hopefully her ability to travel will improve in a few months.

We had a great time visiting with friends and family (and, as usual, there wasn't enough time to visit even half our friends or all our family) and had a chance to eat some of our favorite food - and best of all we didn't even need jackets since it never got below 50 degrees!

The view from our living room just before leaving for the airport.

And the view from outside our hotel in San Jose.

You'd think the San Jose shot was taken in colder weather but it was probably 20 degrees colder watching the deer outside our backyard than it was in the crazy bay area fog.

Here are photos from lunch at Amber with friends:

The rest of the lunch photos came out bad or blurry thanks to my inability to set the camera on the right setting!

Later that night, celebrating New Year's Eve:

Sometimes there is so much excitement, a nap is called for:

A trip to Menlo Park to visit with Donna and jump in the TARDIS.

And then over to Palmira for another get-together:

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T10:15:00.000-08:00

From Collette and the gang in Colorado...

The 68 Best Songs of 2007

2008-12-06T12:32:00.001-08:00

A Bit of a Drop-off, but still some of the best pop music of all time had to have come out of this year.

Previous Year's Lists:
2006
2005
2004 and more
2003
2002
2001
2000

1. Glasvegas – Daddy’s Gone
2. Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
3. The Cribs – Men’s Needs
4. Rihanna – Umbrella
5. Justice – Dance
6. Biffy Clyro – Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies
7. The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
8. Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place
9. Super Furry Animals – Run Away
10. The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division
11. The Enemy - You're Not Alone
12. Klaxons – Golden Skans
13. Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring by the Sea
14. Frendly Fires - Paris
15. The White Stripes – Icky Thump
16. Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart that Makes Me Cry
17. Santogold - Creator
18. Interpol - Mammoth
19. Arcade Fire – Keep The Car Running
20. Louie - I Know What You're Doing Tonight
21. Manic Street Preachers - Winterlovers
22. Ash - Twilight of the Innocents
23. Lightspeed Champion - Midnight Surprise
24. Ting Tings - Great DJ
25. Black Kids - Hit the Heartbreaks
26. The Go! Team - Grip Like a Vice
27. The Enemy – It’s Not Ok
28. Arctic Monkeys – Brainstorm
29. The Little Ones - Lovers Who Uncover
30. Ash - Polaris
31. Jarvis Cocker - Fat Children
32. Bloc Party - Flux
33. Switches - Drama Queen
34. Arcade Fire – Intervention
35. !!! - Heart of Hearts
36. Manic Street Preachers - Indian Summer
37. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
38. The Fratellis - Flathead
39. Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent
40. Santogold – Les Artistes
41. Aereogramme - A Life Worth Living
42. Reverend & the Makers - Heavyweight Champion of the World
43. The View - Same Jeans
44. The Fratellis - Cigarello
45. Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong - Lucio Starts Fires
46. Klaxons – It’s Not Over Yet
47. Nine Black Alps - Burn Faster
48. The Enemy - Away From Here
49. Goodbooks - Passchendaele
50. Lightspeed Champion – Galaxy Of The Lost
51. The Little Ones - Heavy Hearts Brigade
52. Jarvis – Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time
53. Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches
54. Richard Hawley – Tonight The Streets Are Ours
55. Kate Nash – Foundations
56. The Enemy - We'll Live and Die in These Towns
57. Ash - You Can't Have It All
58. mstrkrft - Street Juice
59. Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers
60. Gallows – Abandon Ship
61. Charlotte Hatherley - Behave
62. 120 Days - Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out
63. Little Barrie - Green Eyed Fool
64. Duels - Potential Futures
65. Those Dancing Days – Those Dancing Days
66. Gallows - Black Heart Queen
67. The Films - Black Shoes
68. Cold War Kids – Hang Me Up To Dry

The 103 Best Songs of 2006

2008-12-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

Another very good year for music...

1. Muse – Knights Of Cydonia
2. Basement Jaxx - Good Luck
3. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
4. The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control
5. Hope Of The States - Sing It Out
6. Muse - Starlight
7. Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
8. The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
9. Muse - Take a Bow
10. James Roberts - Anyway I Lie
11. Muse - Invincible
12. Rakes - 22 Grand Job
13. The Raconteurs – Steady, As She Goes
14. The Long Blondes – Once And Never Again
15. Guillemots - Sao Paulo
16. Wolfmother - Woman
17. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier
18. Muse – Starlight
19. The Fratellis - Henrietta
20. The Sunshine Underground – Put You In Your Place
21. Two Gallants - Las Cruces Jail
22. Nelly Furtado – Promiscuous
23. Arctic Monkeys - The View from the Afternoon
24. Gnarls Barkley - Go Go Gadget Gospel
25. Muse - Assassin
26. Hope of the States - Sing It Out
27. Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before the Lights Come On
28. Muse - Map of the Problematique
29. Larrikin Love - Six Queens
30. The Gossip - Listen Up
31. The Sunshine Underground - Commercial Breakdown
32. Camera Obscura - Hey Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken
33. Duels - Brother & Sisters
34. Gnarls Barkley – Smiley Faces
35. Richard Hawley - Just Like the Rain
36. Muse - Exo-Politics
37. Two Gallants - Steady Rollin
38. Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van
39. Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen
40. Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
41. Muse - City of Delusion
42. Pull Tiger Tall – Animator
43. Dead Pretty Things - Deadwood
44. Justice Vs Simian – We Are Your Friends
45. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country
46. Larrikin Love - Edwould
47. Two Gallants - Long Summer Day
48. The Holloways – Generator
49. Circulus - Song of Our Dispair
50. Guillemots - Made-Up Lovesong #43
51. Test Icicles - Circle. Square. Triangle.
52. Duels - The Slow Build
53. The Good, the Bad, and the Queen - Herculean
54. Delays - Valentine
55. The Strokes - Hawaii
56. James Roberts - If Time Was All
57. Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down
58. The Fratellis - Vince the Loveable Stoner
59. Sebastian Tellier - Broadway
60. Switches - Lay Down The Law
61. Hope of the States - The Good Fight
62. Richard Hawley - The Ocean
63. The Sleepy Jackson - God Lead Your Soul
64. Klaxons – Gravity’s Rainbow
65. The Raconteurs - Hands
66. Larrikin Love – Happy As Annie
67. Midlake – Roscoe
68. Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance
69. Outkast - When I Look In Your Eyes
70. Bloc Party - The Prayer
71. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Turn Into
72. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
73. Forward Russia! - Eighteen
74. Klaxons – Atlantis To Interzone
75. The Horrors – Sheena Is A Parasite
76. The Sunshine Underground - I Ain't Losin Any Sleep
77. Richard Ashcroft - Words Just Get in the Way
78. Richard Hawley - Born Under a Bad Sign
79. Mystery Jets - Diamonds in the Dark
80. Black Keys - 10am Automatic
81. Justice - Waters of Nazareth
82. The Stands - Turn the World Around
83. Hope of the States - Left
84. Orson - No Tomorrow
85. Rakes - All to Human
86. Test Icicles - Boa vs. Python
87. The View – Wasted Little Djs
88. My Latest Novel - The Hope Edition
89. Duels - Pressure On You
90. Maps – Lost My Soul
91. Primal Scream - Country Girl
92. James Roberts - Yeah So
93. Dirty Pretty Things - Bang Bang You're Dead
94. White Rose Movement - Love Is a Number
95. Jarvis Cocker – Running The World
96. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
97. Mark Ronson - Just
98. Bad Wizard - Sky High
99. Cassius - Groove
100. Razorlight - In The Morning
101. Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
102. Wolfmother - Mind's Eye
103. Gnarls Barkley - Just a Thought

Collette's First Birthday and Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

We're trying to get some Christmas shopping out of the way today so there isn't much time to explain the past couple of days. Collette's great-grandmother passed away (rest in peace, grandma). We got our first significant snow storm of the season. Collette had her first birthday party (with her first bites of cake from our favorite french bakery). We found a cat that had got away from its home and he stayed with us for a few days. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner with King and Sharon and Nyah and Derrick. And, we all went to the Wildlife Experience for the first time and ran into one of Jen's doctors (Dr. Tozer - who delivered Collette).

We've been getting coyotes going up and down the street and even coming up to our backyard fence every day for the past two weeks.

He's hard to see here, but in the middle of the road.

Now, on to our long weekend.

Collette likes standing a lot now (she normally cruises or walks when she can use both hands to hold onto something, but King had her walking while using only one hand this weekend).

We were loaded with food for Thanksgiving.

Can you find Derrick and Nyah in this photo?

Party time!

The snow started while we were at Southlands. After picking up a couple Wii games, we returned to this.

Collette, reading a birthday card from Tita Baby.

The 43 Best Songs of 2001

2008-11-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

1. Outkast - Bombs Over Bagdad
2. Roger Sanchez – Another Chance
3. The Strokes - Last Nite
4. Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
5. The Strokes - Hard to Explain
6. Basement Jaxx – Romeo
7. The Strokes - Someday
8. The Avalanches – Since I Left You
9. Daft Punk – One More Time
10. Ladytron - Playgirl
11. The Strokes - New York city Cops
12. Ladytron - Discotraxx
13. The Strokes – The Modern Age
14. The Avalanches – A Different Feeling
15. The Strokes - Barely Legal
16. The Avalanches – Electricity
17. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
18. The White Stripes – Hotel Yorba
19. Daft Punk – Aerodynamic
20. The Strokes - Trying Your Luck
21. The Strokes - Take it or Leave It
22. The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
23. The Avalanches – Flight Tonight
24. Starsailor – Good Souls
25. The Strokes - Soma
26. The White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl
27. Daft Punk – Digital Love
28. Spritualized – Do It All Over Again
29. Outkast – Ms jackson
30. Destiny’s Child – Survivor
31. Daft Punk – Crescendolls
32. The Avalanches – Stay Another Season
33. The White Stripes - Little Room
34. Missy Elliott – Get Ur Freak On
35. Basement Jaxx – Where's Your Head At?
36. Parsley Sound - Ease Yourself & Glide
37. The White Stripes - We're Going to Be Friends
38. Ladytron - This Is Our Sound
39. The Coral - Shadows Fall
40. Ash – Shining Light
41. Ladytron - The way that I found you
42. The Strokes - Is This It
42. The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

The 57 Best Songs of 2003

2008-11-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Reposting a lost year before catching up with my favorites from 2006.

1 hey ya! - outkast
2 crazy in love - beyonce
3 familiar feeling - moloko
4 golden streams - hidden cameras
5 maps - yyys
6 this town - hot hot heat
7 red morning light - kings of leon
8 that great love sound - raveonettes
9 time for heroes - libertines
10 soldier girl - the polyphonic spree
11 over and over - moloko
12 oh, goddammit - hot hot heat
13 am i wrong - mull historical society
14 dancefloors-my morning jacket
15 pass it on - coral
16 obstacle 2 - interpol
17 the laws have changed - the new pornographers
18 heartbreak stroll - raveonettes
19 wasted time - kings of leon
20 blind pilots - cooper temple clause
21 stockholm syndrome - muse
22 date with the night - yyys
23 are you gonna be my girl - jet
24 i believe in a thing called love - the darkness
25 ban marriage - hidden cameras
26 move your feet - junior senior
27 the school song - black box recorder
28 nyc - interpol
29 enemies/friends - hope of the states
30 unrecorded - m83
31 vertigo - libertines
32 bandages - hot hot heat
33 tick - yyys
34 asylum - mull historical society
35 gay bar - electric six
36 dont take your love away from me - mull historical society
37 time is running out - muse
38 man - yyys
39 reach for the sun - the polyphonic spree
40 run into flowers - m83
41 nonsense - komeda
42 i love you - dizzee rascal
43 take it or leave it - jet
44 hanging around - the polyphonic spree
45 christmas time - the darkness
46 maximum overdrive - winnebago deal
47 do you love yourself - the glitterati
48 days like this - the polyphonic spree
49 so says i - the shins
50 me and giuliani down by the school yard - !!!
51 sister saviour - the rapture
52 fix up look sharp - dizzee rascal
53 golden - my morning jacket
54 black dollar bills - hope of the states
55 rhythm bandits - junior senior
56 dont think you're the first - the coral
57 sleep walker - canyon
58 the red the white the black the blue - hope of the states

Collette's New Foods

2008-11-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Boulder to eat at the Scotch Corner Pub and then walk around Pearl Street for a bit before stopping at the Laughing Goat for coffee (goat milk latte turns out to NOT be my cup of tea. um. cup of coffee, that is) and finally Belvedere for chocolates and a cup of hot chocolate. Jen gives the chocolate two thumbs up and feels it's the closest to the European hot chocolate that she loves.

So, at the pub, Collette tried scotch egg (likes the egg but not much else), mashed potato (likes it), cottage pie gravy (likes it), fries (likes them), and baked beans (likes it).

Tonight, she had her first Parmesan cheese (shaved so the pieces were larger and saltier) which she ate several bites of but did not seem to enjoy. THEN, she tried some cheese tortellini and went berzerk. I think we found her first "favorite" food. She was crawling across the room to me for more bites of it, so I think we'll be eating tortellini more often at home now.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

We ended up with maybe 15 or so groups come to the door, so most kids got two handfuls of some good candy. And Clint ended up with about 5 bags to eat himself, although Collette likes using Milk Duds and Tootsie Pops as toys.

Collette was dressed as a flower tot but I suspect her costume wont fit next year and she'll be more excited about trick or treating by then, so expect something new in twelve months time.

Sunshine and Indigo

2008-10-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's daycare day for Aspen and Sunshine, and, like most Thursdays, while the other dogs rest in the afternoon, Sunshine and Indigo are still wrestling non-stop while avoiding all the sleeping dogs.

Donna Visits

2008-10-22T09:20:00.001-07:00

Donna came out to visit for a week and spent a lot of time with Collette and the dogs (when we weren't trying to get her to every restaurant in Parker).

On Saturday, we went to the Cherry Creek market for tamales, tomatoes, and curry puffs. We get our curry puffs and satay from the wonderful "Wee Bites"

There are always plenty of dogs at the farmer's markets around Denver and many of them love Collette.

After visiting the market, Collette drove us to Silverthorn and then Vail.

And, a few last shots around the house before Donna went off to Philly.

And, Sunshine says bye to Donna.

Around the House in Mid-October

2008-10-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

Here are some shots of Collette in the weeks leading up to her first Halloween.

And a few pix of the maple trees going through their second autumn in the yard.

Collette around the house.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2008-10-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

About three weeks ago we went up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a fantastic room at the Stanley, but ended up leaving a day early due to baby issues. Here are some snaps of the trip.

At RMNP.

Collette on the hotel bed.

Day two at RNMP. Starting with the Elk.

Collette at the Alluvial Fan.

Jen and Collette outside the Taffy Shop.