Days 69-72 - A Visit to Denver

We have been fortunate enough to have been able to include a Denver visit in each of the last two or three summers. Always great to visit my brother, John, his wife, Nancy, and usually their two children Amy and John Michael have been there as well as Joel, Amy's husband. More on this part of our Denver stay later.

Our second night here we went to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was great to, once again, be in a baseball crowd with a winning home team. The stadium is built in the popular new retro style, and it is one of the best. It was a beautiful evening and we had great club-level seats.

The next evening was the first event in a series of three to celebrate the 30th birthday of our niece, Amy Vaccher, and the 60th birthday of my sister-in-law Nancy. We had a lovely time at an extended happy hour at their home in Westminster. I was able to snap the family photo shown here of Amy, John M., Nancy and John before the other guests arrived. Those guests included some new friends and some long-time friends of John and Nancy's, and we have gotten to know them. We were delighted to see again Mo and Karen Sanstead (I hope I am spelling their names correctly). We first met them 38 years ago at John and Nancy's wedding, and had a really good time with them at that event. We reconnected with them several years ago. I didn't get a photo of them but I am hoping to see them again before we leave. It was also great to see Dick and Ginger Seeley (J & N's long-time friends from Virginia), Dorothy Zimbrick (Nancy's sister), Cec and Louise Brandon (Nancy's parents) and Char (John and Nancy's great neighbor).

Today we drove up to the new log home built by John and Nancy on what was the old turnaround and parking area at the end of the dirt road. The old cabin was reached by hiking down the hill a ways from the turnaround. Now this new home is conveniently reached by simply parking and walking in the door!! For those of us who have hiked up and down that hill a lot, this is really wonderful. Not only that, it is a LOVELY place with views that are incredible. I will take photos of the home and views tomorrow.

For this part of the blog I will show two group photos: the first is the over-40 crowd attending the open house at the log home. From top left Dick, Cec, Gary, Dorothy, John, Nancy. Front row from left Ginger, Char, me, Louise.

The second photo is the under 40 crowd. Pictured here are John M., a family friend Molly, Amy, Joel, two other friends of Amy and Joel, and Josh, another friend of Amy and Joel and Josh's little boy.