First off today is post #250. Our first post was December 31st so that means tomorrow is the 250th day out of 365 this year! Wow, only 115 days left if my math is correct.
Yesterday we headed up to Boulder to my close friend Brad’s home to visit, see their new house and let the kids play. Brad and Carol have been our oldest friends since we’ve been in Colorado. He’s an accomplished chef that owns a couple of restaurants who I first met when we started our wine company. They used to live in a small house up in Eldorado Canyon (famous for it’s rock climbing) but recently moved to a new home (new to them) in north Boulder. We’ve been invited numerous times but never made it up so finally we loaded up and off we went. Upon arrival it took us a minute to find the entrance as the home is surrounded by an 8 foot adobe wall. You walk through a little courtyard into an expansive older mexican style home with about 3 additional little buildings. The floor plan was very open with lots of room to get away from each other, the misses and I are so ready to move. If it wasn’t for Grandma being so close, we’d start looking now. Actually our dream house is Grandma’s house but she won’t let us move in. Maybe one day we’ll be lucky enough to live there! The yard itself was huge with a small stream running through it, a couple of ponds and plenty of room to roam. They have a huge garden in one corner next to the chicken coop. Squash, tomato’s lots of different kinds of lettuce, green beans, strawberries and more were everywhere. The misses and I were in heaven. They have 3 chickens which roam the yard most of the time and were quite gentle as the boys were chasing, catching and holding them all afternoon. Their names were Squishy, Sunset and Fluffy. Brad and Carol (after numerous in vitro attempts) finally had twins that are now 7 years old. Our kids have known their kids for their whole lives as we get together often over the years, however this was the first time they actually were in a setting where they could all play together for a whole day. The kids all got along perfectly. Chasing chickens, making impromptu fishing poles to use in the pond), catching crawdads, jumping on the in ground trampoline and more consumed their day. While all this was going on, Brad, the misses and I grabbed a bunch of fresh veggies from the garden and cooked up a hodge podge of carrots, onions, green beans, corn, tomato’s, and lots of other stuff I can’t remember. We then mixed in some gluten free noodles and after 2 hours of all three of us cooking, had a great super healthy lunch that even the kids ate.
Halfway through our preparation, Carol (who was out of town) parent’s showed up to return a trailer. Brad invited them to stay for lunch with us and they did. The funniest moment of the day was when our little guy came in and saw Carol’s Mom outside through the window cleaning all the tables and chairs to get ready for lunch. He walked straight up to Brad and said “you have an awesome butler”. We all burst into laughter and Brad told our little guy he was right. After lunch we pulled out Coulter’s (or more like Brad’s) new toy, a small dirt bike or motorcycle. We geared each boy up in boots , pads and helmets and let them ride around the back yard. They’ve only had this for a few weeks and Brad confided he bought it on a whim. His son did pretty well once he got going but our oldest having never been on a motorcycle was cruising around the yard from the minute he jumped on. Our little guy was up next and did great with me running along side holding on so he wouldn’t tip over. Needless to say the entire ride home was filled with questions like “can we get motorcycles?”. The good thing here was it was a bike for riding in the dirt, not on the street, and we’re coming into winter so no need to worry about this until next Spring.
6 hours zipped by and we headed home around 5pm after a fun filled day. Like I said earlier, the kids played great together which was a great test as we’re all planning on going to Italy together sometime between now and November. 4 adults and 4 kids, it’ll be quite a group. This is made possible due to me selling Brad’s restaurants 250 ($35,000) cases of wine from Umbria and getting the Italian government to pick up 75% of the tab. We figure it’ll cost each of us about $2000 for a complete 10 day trip for each family. This includes air fare, lodging, meals, rental cars, the whole thing. $500 per person or $50 per day ($12.50 per person!) is too good of a deal to pass up. The misses and I are trying to figure out how to come up with the cash to go. Good Christmas idea if anyone’s wondering what to get us!
We arrived home around 5:30 and the boys hit their bikes and played in the neighborhood until I pulled them in at 8pm. They capped off the day with a marsh mellow roast at the neighbor’s. Each boy and I had to carve their roasting stick and I carefully supervised each of them carving their stick with a knife. They were beat by the end of the day and we all slept until 7am.
I have a few calls this morning (yes I know it’s supposed to be a holiday but I’m self employed) and we’re going to try to go to the gym and then I think Grandma is buying the stuff for the misses to make lasagna for dinner for all. It’s still cool, about 75 degrees during the day which is just perfect. I need to run now and get started on my day but here’s a quote to ponder,
“The vice of capitalism is it’s unequal sharing of blessings. The Virtue of Socialism is it’s equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
Now if you think about this, first off, Winston Churchill was a pretty smart guy (we need an inspiring President like him!) and second, this is why some people are rich and some are not. Even though I’m not one of the rich, I like knowing the opportunity is there. I do agree some loopholes need to be closed and am kind of in the middle on the political spectrum but socialism, which is where Obama is headed, is not the answer. Ok ,that’s it for the day, no more politics on the holiday.
Take care, God Bless and give us a call.