Faux Home

We drove 12 hours today and arrived in Denver about 4 p.m. It felt like coming home, except we don't live here anymore. It was 6 years ago this week that we drove from Denver to Maryland. It felt very nostalgic. Good thing we still have family here. We're staying with Verlene and Paul and Brandy and Holly. We got a sloppy warm welcome from 2 of them!

We picked up Crystal after work and drove to Lakewood during rush hour. There are a lot of people on I-70 at 5 p.m.!

Barbara and Kent fed us a great steak dinner with THREE different veggie dishes. It was delicious after having spent all day in the car with a box of Triscuts and some string cheese!

It was nice visiting them once more in their Colorado home, as they bought a house in South Jordan and are moving to Utah in May. It will be nice in the future to live in the same state with them again.

2 Hour Road Trip

We waited till 10:30 this morning to leave Minneapolis, hoping to wait out the blizzard in southwest Minnesota. the cats wanted to come with us, but Amanda and Nolan would miss them too much!

We drove for a few hours in a ground blizzard. We thought we might make it out of the state, but alas. there were so many accidents they closed I-90 as well as I-35. We ended up getting a hotel in Fairmont, MN. Props to the Hampton Inn that let us hang out and bring all our instruments in while we tried to decide what to do.

They even let us work out on their exercise equipment while we waited for the storm to pass.

We had lunch at the ranch, which had a large wall of artwork by Michael Garman, the artist that created Magic City in Old Colorado City.If we couldn't make it to Colorado, it was nice that someone brought a piece of Colorado to us!

We walked over to Perkins and picked up a caramel apple pie for dinner (and breakfast tomorrow). So, the day wasn't a loss, after all!

Super Sunday

We were happy to watch our Denver Broncos win the Superbowl for the third time tonight, We were also happy Amanda and Nolan had friends who invited us all over to watch it.

It turned out we were the only people at the party that had a dog in the race, but the food was great, and the company was interesting. In a moment of amazement, Brother Fish and Brother Smith found out that they were second cousins through their Bang grandparents! It was a good thing they weren't paying attention to the game!

Choir Practice

We got to go to choir practice with Amanda after church today. It was fun to see her leading the choir.

It was also fun to see and hear the Minnetonka ward choir singing, The King of Love My Shepherd is." They had an youth soloist and 2 flute players! We thought they were great.

Amanda's Amazing Animal Tricks

Amanda got two kittens for her birthday, and set out right away to train them. This is Drizzle sitting on command.

They still get treats for every trick, but are so cute doing "Up."

They also know "Stay," which is pretty impressive for just 2 1/2 weeks of training.

Flurry is not as regal looking, but so soft and fluffy. They are trained separately, so as not to get confused.


This is Drizzles video of a training session.


This is Flurry going through his paces. We were very impressed.

Afterwards, Ed got to reward both cats with a cuddle!

Best of Minneapolis

It was fun spending the day with Amanda and Nolan, and their new kitties, Flurry and Drizzle.

We went for a lovely, if not crisp walk along the shores of Lake Harriett.

We got to see a sampling of everything that Minnesota has to offer. First, ice fishing....

then cross country skiing...

an impromtu ice rink for field hockey cleared right in the lake...

Some people had nice tents on the ice. These people even built a fort around their tent.

We had dinner at Peninsula Malaysian food,

and picked up dessert at Glam Doll doughnuts across the street.

In the evening we went to see the ice castles. We couldn't figure out how they were made, but there were very pretty formations with caves and crawling places.

We came home for some cat cuddles (Flurry with Ed),

And to top it all off, we each ate one of our special doughnuts. I had the maple bar with bacon. Who would have know bacon would be so good on a doughnut?

Road Trip

We left bright and early yesterday for our big road trip to Utah. We're taking a car full of instruments with us: 5 guitars, 2 violins, a mandola, an erhu and a number of charangos, zamponas and ukuleles. Some of them might find homes along the way as we visit our daughters.

We had some flurries, but nothing to get excited about.

We also had some blue skies, which we enjoyed. We listened to music and podcasts while we drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

We ended up in Madison Wisconsin, where we enjoyed a good nights rest. We're back on the road and looking forward to spending the weekend with Amanda and Nolan in Minneapolis!