Thanksgiving/Hockey Weekend In Denver

Kelly, Barrett, and Nolan enjoying the D.U. vs. Air Force hockey game at Magness Arena on the campus of D.U.

We just finished up a great trip to Denver today, after driving down there on Thanksgiving Day. After making great time (8.5 hrs) heading south last Thursday, we were able to watch a PeeWee hockey team from Montana play in a holiday weekend tournament in Centennial, Colorado (Nolan's IP Hockey coach is also the coach of this PeeWee team). Then we headed up the mountain to Evergreen where my Uncle Jack and Aunt Darlene live. It was a balmy 73 degrees in Denver for Turkey-day and just as nice in the mountains (albeit a few degrees cooler).

Friday brought some time on the playground, Thanksgiving Dinner with my cousins and their children and friends. Many of us then travelled to a new mall east of Denver to watch Marcus (my cousin Tom's son) sing Christmas carols with his Middle School choir group. We then got a dose of On The Border (none in Montana) and headed to the University of Denver for their hockey game against the Air Force Academy. A few former Billings Bulls Junior players are currently cadets at the Academy, so it was fun for us to see them play at the D-I level. D.U. won the game 2-1. Nolan's IP coach brought his PeeWee team to the game and they had arranged to go to the D.U. locker room after the game. Thanks to Jason (Nolan's coach), Nolan was able to go with the PeeWee kids and meet the D.U. players and coaches after the game!!! The D.U. goalie even noticed that Nolan didn't have anything for autographs so he gave him a program to have signed by many of the players. As we were leaving after Nolan returned from the locker room, Nolan's coach pointed out that Colorado Avalanche defenseman John-Micheal Liles was in the room with us too, so Nolan and Barrett got to meet him and get his autograph too!!

Nolan and Barrett (foreground) as John-Michael Liles autographs their program.

Saturday, we spent the morning with Jack and Dar again and greatly enjoyed and appreciated their hospitality. Around the time we could check into our hotel in Thornton (N of Denver), we headed down the mountain so the boys could play in the pool for part of the afternoon. After that, we went for our visit to Chili's (again none in Montana) for dinner. Then Kelly and Barrett dropped Nolan and I off at the D.U. arena and they went shopping at the Cherry Creek Mall and surrounding Super Target, etc., etc. Nolan and I found our seats and then moved down to where Uncle Jack and cousin Tom have Saturday season tickets. Luckily not many folks wanted to see D.U. play Robert Morris so we were able to sit right with Jack and Tom for the whole game. Nolan really enjoyed seeing another game, especially after meeting the D.U. players the night before. D.U. won this game as well. After the game, we said good-bye to Uncle Jack and Tom, and Kelly and Barrett picked us up right outside the arena as the game ended.

This morning we started our trip back to Montana and were blessed with great travelling weather. We even cut about a 1/2 hour off our time, and we were back in Billings by 4pm.

We could not be more thankful to have great family and friends in Colorado, and only wish we had more time to visit with all those we did not see on this trip.

More in a few days...but this week Kelly is back to teaching, music classes and hockey get going again, and Scott heads back to work on Wednesday.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend too!!!!!

Scott

Thanksgiving Week

What a few weeks. Lots of weather fluctuations, lots of wind here in Montana. Not nearly the grey skies which have been so prevalent in the eastern US...but interesting none the less.

Nolan continues to do well and learn a lot during his IP hockey experience. He finished session 1 and is now on to his second session. A lot of the older kids moved up to Mites after session 1, but Nolan is still very excited to continue in IP even though some of his friends moved up a level.

Barrett went to a public skate with Nolan and I a few weeks ago and was skating around quite a bit without the "bar" and having a lot of fun getting on and off the ice. I even saw him get up off the ice all by himself for the first few times. I was impressed!

Kelly and I have been fighting off some bugs the last few weeks. I had a very minor dose last week, and then Kelly was ill late last week and part of this weekend. Luckily we think we are pushing past all that now.

Hopefully our house is done being sick too, since we had sewer problems late last week too!! YUCK!!!! RotoRooter was out here twice in two days, but the 2nd time was much less messy as we discovered the problem before it spread in the basement. We added some other chemical treatment (lye, etc.) on Saturday night and so far so good. Lesson learned...don't believe Pampers when they say the kandoo wipes (for potty training) are "sewer friendly"...THEY ARE NOT!!! We are hopeful the wipes were the entire problem and the problem has been cleared (and no root damage is causing the problem). Our little old house has 3 inch drain pipes, and no outside cleanout to the 6 inch pipes in the back yard...so RotoRooter could only go in with a 3 inch blade from the inside clean out location. We are sooooo hopeful that the wipes were the only problem and we can make it to spring-time. At that point, we may have to drop $1k plus to have an outside cleanout installed.

It is nice to have Thanksgiving week here and the holidays already underway. The boys are already really excited. We watched The Santa Clause last night while Kelly enjoyed a few hours out with some friends. I think Nolan is ready to take the turkeys down and get the Christmas decorations up ASAP!! I'll need to think about untangling lights sometime soon!

Hope you all have a great and safe Thanksgiving!! Enjoy your Turkey!

Scott

Halloween and the Commander-In-Chief

Happy Halloween a few days late. I'm finally off of evening shifts and wanted to share some recent fun!! As many already know, Nolan decided to be a practice putting green (from a golf course) for Halloween and Kelly made him a cool costume. Kelly also did a great job creating the tiger costume for Barrett this year!!!


By Halloween morning...the pumpkins were mighty frozen so carving them was quite an adventure before my evening shift on Halloween night. We've been quite cold here this week if you had not noticed.

Our Republican Senator Conrad Burns is fighting to be re-elected this week, and is trailing badly enough in the polls that the RNC decided to drop the serious coin to bring President Bush out here on his behalf (Thanks to the McCain-Feingold Legislation, the political parties now have to foot the bill for these campaign trips--security, AF1 fuel/maintenance/crews/etc.--not our tax dollars anymore!! WooHoo!!). President Bush was here today (Thursday), but a day earlier the newspaper said that free tickets for the rally were available so I grabbed one up (Kelly has to teach and the boys go to day-care on Thursdays). The following is one of the better pictures I was able to capture from the floor of the MetraPark Arena where I watched the speech.
Our friend Taylor Brown (through Kelly's previous work at KTVQ) even spoke before "W" arrived, and he and his wife can be seen in the background of the photo above. Kelly went up to the airport after teaching to try to get a glimpse of Air Force One, and I found her there after the speech and we watch the President depart en route to Elko, Nevada for another campaign stop.

Kelly has her first tutoring student coming over tonight for some calculus fun, and I am back to work Friday night for 4 midnight shifts (Yippeee).

Hope your Halloween was great, and that you don't get any bothersome campaign phone calls in the next week!!

Scott