Church, Nature and Movie

We went to church with Crystal today. Her ward meets on Grant Street in Denver, in a very unusual three-story building we had never seen before. Once you fought the traffic to get there, it was quite pretty inside. We enjoyed hearing Crystal play the organ with gusto!

In the afternoon we went for a nature hike at Cherry Creek reservoir, just a few miles from Crystal's house. It seemed to be early in the season for flowers, but we did find a few treasures!

 This leafy spurge was so pretty, with it's heart shaped green petals! Unfortunately, it is considered invasive just like the myrtle spurge in Utah!

The cottonwoods had tiny red blooms on them that looked like caterpillars when they fell to the ground!


















We finished our weekend with Crystal by watching more episodes of the new Lost In Space on Netflix. While it was somewhat entertaining, it was also frustrating. How many catastrophes can they go through. We'll find out when we go home and watch the last 4 episodes!

Pickleball and Prairie

We taught Crystal how to play pickleball yesterday. We found a nice, shady court in Aurora. Unfortunately, the city had classes Saturday morning and kicked us off the court!

Fortunately, we found another court to play on. The city of Aurora has locks on their courts, but the teacher was nice enough to give us a key in compensation for kicking us out!

It is disconcerting that Crystal beat me when she barely knows how to play! I was happy I won a game of cutthroat, and Ed was happy he won all the rest!

In the afternoon we checked out the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora. We were one of the very few visitors to sign in on Saturday!

The had a nice yurt and an information center. I think they do a lot of educational programs there.

The visitors center had some displays of animals and grasses, as well as Indian and pioneer artifacts.

They also had some animal hides and a buffalo head. They have a resident herd of pronghorns on the prairie, but we missed seeing any of them.

We went for a walk in the prairie. Much of their trail system is closed to protect the nesting bald eagles, which did not make an appearance!

Even the prairie dogs didn't make an appearance, although they had quite a few holes around!

The only flower we saw was this lonely wallflower along the trail! That was good for Crystal and Ed, as I didn't spend much time taking flower pictures!

We were happy to see some wildlife before we left--this little bunny hiding out by the museum!

Breakfast and a Movie

We had breakfast with the Reichmans this morning, and had the added benefit of seeing Amy and her kids. I'd seen plenty of pictures of Nate, and he was just as cute in person! Grandma and Grandpa are also just as fun and cute as we remembered them! It is hard to believe we have been gone from Colorado for 8 years now!

We took a trip down memory lane, and found out progress has come to Broomfield while we've been gone! They even have a couple of pickleball courts!

In the afternoon we explored some of the parks near Crystal in Denver, to see if progress had also come to Denver. We found some very pretty parks, and enjoyed walking the paths and smelling the flours in bloom! We also found a couple of courts not too far from her house. Hopefully, we can teach Crystal how to play tomorrow!

We picked Crystal up from work and went to the movies tonight. We scared ourselves silly by seeing A Quiet Place! It had almost no dialogue, because the monsters could hear them! I really enjoyed the movie, and after Ed and Crystal explained some finer points I enjoyed it even more!

Weekend in Denver

Ed and I drove over the mountains to Denver today. Our main purpose was to renew Ed's global passport entry. We spent 10 minutes at the airport, and now we have the rest of the weekend with Crystal! We started out with a delicious Mexican dinner at La Fogata.

We also brought some treasures with us for Crystal, including a stack of piano music from Grandma's house! We included some organ music to encourage her to start playing the pedals at church!

Mary Came to Town

We were so happy Mary came all the way from Maryland to see us. (Okay, she was really here to see her daughter, but was able  to work us in!) It was so fun to hear all the news from Sykesville, and there was plenty of it!

We showed her the best that Alpine has to offer, which, of course, is Lambert Park! It was so fun walking and talking with her!

We found all the flowers on the Alpine Nature Hike, as well as some new ones! I have no idea what this is! I have my work cut out for me!

Thanks for dropping in! And congratulations to Mark, the new Bishop of the Eldersburg ward!

Relief Society Yarn Night

Last night we had a Relief Society meeting at Shelly's house. Some of the younger members of our ward mixed up some dips for us to try out.

The rest of us supervised, and read the instructions as they worked! Then, we had snacks as Kim taught us how to knit!

Debbie and I went rogue with crochet hooks! She tried to help me get started on an ear warmer, but I am seriously remedial! I can't count the stitches! Hopefully I'll finish it before it gets cold out again!

Lambert Park Walk and Water

I took Lynne, Kathy and Jeri on the Alpine Nature Walk Number 1 yesterday. They were able to follow the map and find 9 of the the ten flowers on the picture page. Sadly, the glacier lily was no longer in bloom! They all earned a beautiful collectible badge!

Lynne showed us how to make a whistle out of horsetail reeds. The soft sound we got out of that is nothing compared to my crabgrass whistle!

We found some new flowers that I have yet to identify! So many flowers and so little time!

In the afternoon we made and laminated instructions for watering the seedlings in Lambert Park. We're hoping to get some community participation to help these little plants grow. Without water their chances of survival are very slim!

Cast a Giant Shadow on Earth Day

After church yesterday Ed and I went over to Lambert Park to water seedlings. We were able to water the upper half (700 plants) in an hour and a half! You can see Coda's shadow on the right, and Ed with his water pack on the left!

We felt happy when we realized we had done something to help the environment on Earth Day! Then we went home a drank a quart of water! That was thirsty work!  I hope the plants appreciated it!

Rewards of Pickleball

Saturday was a beautiful day for pickleball! After a few hours with the Sardoni's we were plenty thirsty! We have been enjoying lessons with Eric, but think that perhaps the Sardonis are taking lessons on the side and not telling us! We don't seem to be making any headway!

We went out to eat at Red 8 Asian Bistro in Lehi afterwards. While the food was good enough, the service was somewhat bizarre! Maybe they had a lot of new staff. The food came out at different times, the staff never cleared our plates, and kept forgetting to bring back things we asked for (like napkins)! Fortunately, the conviviality of eating out with fun friends made a few inconveniences seem trivial!

Watering and Watering Hole

The state Department of Natural Resources planted 1100 seedlings in Lambert Park this week. Ed and I are committed to helping keep some of them alive. They need to be hand watered daily while they get established!

I found the gallon jugs easier to handle than the 5 gallon backpack, which Ed had no problem with. There is a watering station nearby, and the city is looking for volunteers to help throughout the summer! We'll see how many survive!

We were pretty worn out after walking, watering and having a pickleball lesson on Thursday, so we tried out the new Fiiz store in Highland. I'm not sure why we needed a cookie to quench our thirst, but the sugar cookie was REALLY good!

We enjoyed having Brittany drop the kids off while she and John went to a movie Thursday evening. Before she put them to bed, Mabel got to dance with the Juniper Jam Band!

My favorite flower picture this week was an early paintbrush! Isn't that color fantastic?

We've already found 4 plants in Lambert Park this spring that we didn't discover last spring! This Great Basin Desert Parsley is one of them! How could we have missed such a pretty yellow flower?

Lunch at Guadalahonkys

I went out to lunch with my Ministering Sisters on Monday. It feels strange not to say my "visiting teachers," but I'm trying to get on top of the new program. We had great Mexican food at Guadalahonkys in Draper. The first two restaurants we tried were closed on Mondays! What's with that!

We're glad the church is changing to a new emphasis with the ministering program, but also happy that it still provides us the opportunity to make good friends and enjoy one another's company!

Weekend Walk and Play

We took Brittany and the girls on a walk in Lambert Park Friday, following the Spring is Sprung Loop we've mapped out for the Alpine Nature Center.

We had a list of 10 plants to look for, but somehow missed a beautiful patch of Glacier Lilies (thank Brittany, for noticing them)!

Afterwards we stopped for dinner at Arctic Circle to give the kids some play time, and us a rest!

It is so fun to watch how good Clementine is at climbing! She is absolutely fearless, and can navigate stairs in both directions. She can also go down slides head first and feet first without even balking!

In the evening John joined us for Pinyon Rats practice. Mabel thinks she is a member of the band and is pretty good at all kinds of percussion. She sometimes even strikes on the downbeat!

Pickleball and Omelettes

It snowed this morning, so Ed and I went to the church and played pickleball rather than walking. I'd like to say I won a game, but that was just wishful thinking. We got a good workout, though!

Afterwards, Ed made breakfast for me! He has omelettes down to a science! We often have them on Friday morning, as I weigh in on Thursdays at Weight Watchers. It's a reward for good behavior!

Slow Jam

We had a good turnout for slow jam last night. We're working on some songs for an as-yet unbooked gig this summer. We're hoping to play on a Monday night when the snack trucks come to Alpine.

It was fun having Barbara back in band. You never really feel like you have a band until you have a fiddler!
It was also fun having Hazel, our high school friend who just happens to love the music of the 70s that we grew up with! Coincidentally, we, also love it!