Our New House

October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

We moved into our new rental house about 2 months ago. The house is a tri-level built in 1977. If a realtor was going to list the house on the market, it may be described as “A 3 bedroom, 1.5 half bath home with a charming and original retro feel”.

In my words, I would say it is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home with ugly carpet and and ugly kitchen that hasn’t been updated since 1977. See for yourself.

Bob and I did some work and painted wood paneling in the living room the day after we moved in. Even Mike Brady would have approved of us painting over the paneling. We also painted the office and two bedrooms. I replaced dark navy blue fabric vertical blinds in the kitchen and hung lighter drapes in their place.

Now we just need some ore visitors! Looking forward to Jimmy, Beth, Kendall and Sydney visiting in February. We are taking reservations year-round, so let us know if you’d like to stay at la casa de Spryns.

There is a lake we can walk to from our house. It is called Standley lake and the Colorado state record for the largest walleye was caught there. The lake has bass, trout and panfish as well so Bob and I decided to try our fishing skills out there. We tried to fish from the shoreline but the water was so shallow where we were so we only caught weeds with our lures. I did, however, fish out two golf balls with the net, so we didn’t go home empty-handed.

Filed Under: Family, Home

Mountain Biking

May 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

Bob got a new mountain bike and helmet and, being the gentleman he is, gave me his old bike and helmet. He found out about an easy system of trails to try with me and I was actually excited about going when I woke up this morning. When we pulled into the trailhead parking lot, it was called the “Skunk Lot”. That was my first clue this biking trip might stink. I hopped on the bike and circled the parking lot to try to get used to it. I tried to push the petals backwards to put the brakes on, but apparently bikes don’t do that unless they are made for a 5 year old. I forgot “grown-up” bikes have brakes near the handlebars.

We found a couple of guys with bulging calf muscles in the parking lot and figured they would be perfect to ask which trails to go on. Bob made sure to tell them I had never been mountain biking before. They gave us some guidance, wished us luck and said “Maybe we’ll see you out on the trail in a bit!”. HA! The only way we’d see them on the trail is if they passed us on their way back to the parking lot, while Bob and I were still chugging along… just leaving the parking lot.

We saw some deer and got pretty close to them. One in particular didn’t seem too scared and I thought he was getting ready to attack me so I told Bob to get pedaling, and fast. After escaping with my life, we passed a few horses along the way and several near-pro bikers that whizzed by.

Yet another scary moment was the first big down-hill part of the trail. It was steep and had lots of rocks. Bob greeted the challenge with a smile and enjoyed it. I slammed on my grown-up brakes and walked down the hill. I’m the world’s biggest klutz, so a hill + rocks= trip to the emergency room. I wasn’t going to take my chances. The bottom of the hill took us to a lake. And by lake, I mean a really big pond (nothing compares to a lake after growing up near the great lakes).

At this point I realized Bob left the trail map in the car and was just guessing where to go. We ended up at a dead-end because the trail ran into a swift-moving stream. I wasn’t up for swimming across it with my hand-me-down bike, so we backtracked a bit and Bob finally got us back to the Skunk Lot. Bob enjoyed the trails and I think I may have accidentally agreed to go again with him.

Filed Under: Adventure, Family, Fun, Outdoors

Walt Disney for our delayed honeymoon

May 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jen and I finally decided to go ahead and take our little honeymoon at walt disney world. Our friends Antz and Katie will be there at the same time, so we have some friends to hang with.


View Disney Trip in a larger map

Filed Under: Family, Friends, Fun, Travel

You thought Rochester weather was unpredictable…

April 23, 2009 By 1 Comment

Mom was scheduled to fly in at 11pm Friday night but due to the possibility of 2 or more feet of snow, she got on a much earlier flight that morning. She arrived around 9:30 am and was safely at our house. By this time the heavy, wet snow started and didn’t stop. It couldn’t decide if it wanted to rain or snow, so it did both all day causing slushy road conditions. We didn’t go anywhere.

Saturday had warmed up but still called for contant rain all day. We decided to go on a tour of Hammond’s Candy factory. They make lots of hard candy and candy canes. Anyone in my family would appreciate a candy factory tour. We put on fancy-pants hats and watched the workers roll out candy canes while indulging in free samples. Good thing we had a few freebies because their chocolates were over $22 per pound!

We drove around downtown Denver in the rain so mom could see Investco Stadium where the Broncos play and Coors Field where the Rockies play. Then we mosied up to Boulder for the late evening. The rain let up and we had a chilly walk down Pearl Street where mom purchased some more candy (beacause free samples aren’t enough!). We took a little drive to Nederland so she could see a small mountain town, but we couldn’t see much of the town since it was covered in 3 feet of snow.

Sunday suddenly became sunny so we headed to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. I believe mom said “It is just so beautiful” about a trillion times, give or take one or two. She also took the same picture a trillion times because she just couldn’t get enough of the views. Her highlight was seeing the elk that we had told her about. Oh, and the prarie dogs. She loved those, too.

Monday afternoon we took her to Red Rocks amphitheater to see a cool, natural phenomenom. She was quite impressed with the views, but less impressed with the many steps she had to walk up to use the restroom there. I think that was the first time she realized the altitude can do a number on ya!

From there we went to Roxborough state park where Bob pelted me with snowballs. Mom decided we should ban together and shove Bob in the snow, and I stupidly agreed. When Bob was near me, I shoved him, and somehow I ended up getting more snow in my face. Mom tried to clobber Bob with some snowballs, but Bob grabbed me and used me as a human shield. Mom, your brilliant plan backfired and I had to pay the price. Thanks.

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

Accident Update

March 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Mom is back home with us now. She was discharged today. She’s sore in a bunch of spots and headaches come and go, but should hopefully improve from here on out. We’ll be keeping an eye on her. Mom is looking at a couple weeks to get back to full health.

Jen is doing ok as well. Her neck is still sore and hard to turn all the way to the left or right (kind of like a kink in the neck from sleeping.) Her nose is still sore as well, but she should be ok.

Hopefully everyone keeps improving from here, and Mom can enjoy a little bit of her stay.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers again. Bob

Filed Under: Family
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »