Anderson Farms

October 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Bob planned a lovely day at Anderson Farms today. Its a GIANT farm north of Denver.

First we checked out the farm animals, including some goats, ducks, chickens and alpacas. Then we took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch. Along the way we stopped to feed some cows and a buffalo. They eat right out of people’s hands. Bob was excited he wore his Buffalo Bills sweatshirt so we could do this picture. Get it? Buffalo Bills:

Upon arriving at the pumpkin patch, a little girl who looked to be about 4 years old, jumped off the wagon and yelled “We get to smash the pumpkins” and quickly ran over to a pumpkin and kicked at as hard as she could. Her parents must have been horrified and told her that is not allowed.

On the way back the little girl realized she had a splinter in her foot and was whining about it and her dad said “oh, if you want to whine you have to get off this wagon. The whiney wagon is the one behind us. Do you want to get on that instead?”. Her dad said she is starting to repeat whatever she hears on TV and has been saying “Barrack I’ll Bomb ‘ya!”. She was too cute.

After we picked our perfect pumpkin we decided to try the corn maze. We didn’t realize the corn field was over 3 miles wide until we were somewhere in the middle. We were supposed to find 18 stations within the maze to complete it, but we only found about 3 and gave up.

We had a four-stage haunted feature to get to on the farm! The haunted feature was actually pretty good and weaved around a different corn field in and out of these various haunted buildings. It was about 3x as long as any haunted house thing we’ve done before. After we screamed a few times and survived men chasing us with chainsaws, we had a ‘smore and hot cider. Overall, we spent 5 hours on a farm and time flew by.

In other news both pets are doing great. Coda is SO happy that he finally gets to do a little off leash activity, and his leg is holding up great. You can’t tell anything was ever wrong. He’s playing fetch and playing chase around the living room. Paco also seems happy for Coda as he gets to attack him even more.

Filed Under: Adventure, Fun, Outdoors, Pets, Uncategorized

Christy and Tim got married!

October 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Bob and I headed home last weekend to partake in an event that was a long-time coming. We had a lovely rehearsal dinner at Hawethorne’s restaurant. The next day was the big wedding day so I was up at 7am so mom could do my  hair and I could do my make-up. I headed to Christy’s house where she was surprisingly cool as a cucumber while getting ready.

The ceremony was about half an hour long and featured a harpist. It was a very sweet ceremony that proved miracles can happen- because I never thought I would ever walk down the aisle with Brendan.

The reception hall was pretty, the food was yummy, and the company was amazing. Brendan served as the entertainment by dancing with nearly everybody- including my dad, briefly. And the biggest shock of all was that my mom danced with my dad- and she never dances! I have proof.

Overall, it was a great weekend and the bride and groom couldn’t have looked better. Christy and I have been planning our weddings together for years so it was nice to see it all come together in the end.

Filed Under: Friends, Fun, Wedding

Georgetown Loop Railroad

October 5, 2008 By 1 Comment

Bob and I ventured out to the tiny mountain town of Georgetown this weekend. It took about an hour and a half to get there and I was excited to see a bear on the way… until I realized it was a cow.

Georgetown is another old mining town that now has a railroad that weaves through 4 miles of the mountains for tourist purposes. We saw Clear Creek, pretty trees changing colours for fall, and got to ride over a bridge high above land. Thanks to the freezing mist- we got fashionable ponchos.

After the train ride we explored the main street in Georgetown and there happened to be a festival going on. ZZ Top’s cousin was there performing. The town is cute and still has the old original Victorian feel.

Georgetown is also an entrance to Guanella Pass Scenic and Historic Byway. So we decided to take the drive through more mountains- views we can never get sick of. This pass took us up to about 11,700 feet, which is above the level where the trees grow. We didn’t feel the effects of being up high like we did last time (slight head pressure… little dizzy.) But we did see some gorgeous views.

Filed Under: Adventure, Fun, Outdoors

Update on Coda’s Leg

October 1, 2008 By 2 Comments

As you know Coda had to have surgery on his leg because he had a partial tear in his ACL (knee). Since these ligaments don’t heal, you have to do something about it. So Coda had what is called a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy). Basically they cut a piece of Bone and slide it back and screw/plate it in there. That way the knee can’t slide off and doesn’t need the ligament. Coda still has a lot of his ligament intact, so they don’t get rid of that, but the surgery solves the problem.

It was a real stress/worry for me at first, but it wasn’t quite as difficult as I thought. Basically coda has been closed in to some extent for the past 9 weeks… typically in our living room with every chair turned, stairwell blocked, and couch covered so that he couldn’t do anything but lay on the floor. The recovery process takes about 3 months to fully heal, and 6 months to get back to full strength.

Well we got good news in his checkup today (9 weeks post-op). Coda is not only healing well, but he’s ahead of schedule. His leg looks closer to the 12 week point in the healing process, and Coda shows no symptoms of any trouble. He can start to return to normal (off-leash) activity in about 3 weeks. You start slow (say just our small backyard) and over the next couple months warm him back up to full go-crazy at the dog park health.

So here are his x-rays. Before Op, just after Op, and 9 weeks post Op.

Coda\'s TPLO

Filed Under: Pets