An All-American Fourth of July

The Fourth of July weekend this year was busy and awesome for us. We took my parents to the airport on Sunday after enjoying some yummy pancakes at a new(ish) breakfast spot near us. After that, Travis and I hit the store to stock up on food for our camping trip and swung by home to grab clothes, camping gear, and the Wy-Man. Then we were off to Horsetooth Reservoir to meet up with our friends at a boat-in camping site. This was Wyatt's first time on a boat, and I think that if he could talk, he would say that he had a blast.

Wyatt enjoying the wind in his ears.

The view from our campsite. This harbor was kind of the "party harbor". During the day there were a lot of boats and music!

Wyatt with his new best friend, Shala.

Travis wakeboarding.

Wyatt did try to jump off the boat once. We had taken the boat out and anchored it so that we could float on some rafts in the lake. Wyatt did not like the fact that I was in the water and he was not, even though Travis and Shala were still on the boat. He decided to try to join me and was not expecting it to be deep, so he panicked. Luckily a lot of guys were right there with him and got him right back on the boat. Poor guy. The next morning it took some convincing to get him back out and swimming to fetch sticks, but he warmed up to it again and had a blast. We had such a great time camping with our friends (made some new ones, too)! Boat-in camping is the way to do it!!

We headed back to Denver on Monday afternoon, took a quick nap, and headed over to the Daggetts to help them pick some cherries, hang out, and eat some barbeque. I was also happy to have another chance to hang out with Kai (their new son) :-). There were so many cherries! I came home with three bags full - plenty to do some baking with.

Jamie's mom up on the ladder pickin' some cherries.

Jamie and Travis working hard.

As if camping, wakeboarding, picking cherries, and eating barbeque didn't make for an American enough way to spend Independence Day, we closed out the holiday by heading over to Golden to watch some fireworks. The show was amazing. Actually, we just sat really, really close to where the fireworks were set off. It actually hurt the eyes somewhat. What a fun day!

The 'Rents Come to Visit

We've been busy! Aside from our normal busy-as-usual stuff, my parents came to town for a convention recently. It was fantastic having them in town for the ten days they were here. Even though they were staying downtown at the convention hotel for most of that time, it made it feel more like home to know they were nearby. We got to join them for a lot of their conference events and meet some of their friends they've been talking about for so long.  Between the parties, the big dinner event, tours, and more parties, they thoroughly wore me out (in a good way)!

This past Thursday (a week ago), I picked my mom and all their luggage up from the Hyatt Regency and brought her with me to Golden for the day. We went to lunch with Dani at my personal favorite, D'Deli, before I took care of some stuff in the lab and my mom explored downtown Golden a bit. I decided to take drive her up to the top of Lookout Mountain and take in the fantastic views, but as soon as we got to the top it started POURING down rain! It was still worth the trip.

View of Clear Creek Canyon from Windy Saddle.

My mom checking out the water temp (snow melt = cold).

A VERY full Clear Creek with a nice view of the "M".

Travis was working swing shifts Wednesday through Saturday (2 pm - 10 pm) but got to switch with someone and take Thursday off to play golf and poker with my dad, and enjoy a grill night with my parents, Dani, and her boyfriend, Andy. It was great to have him join us! Friday night we wandered down to Parisi, a restaurant in a cute little area not too far from us. There was an art walk of sorts going on so we enjoyed that after dinner, and spent some time exploring the street car tracks a construction crew was excavating! The rest of our weekend together involved a trip to the Golden Farmers' Market, more grilling, a hike with some friends up to the top of South Table Mountain to enjoy fireworks across the city, and a great breakfast on Sunday. Quite a full trip! More to come on the rest of our 4th of July weekend...