Josh Groban & RMNP

Lowell and Judy were in town the weekend after the 4th of July. On Friday night, we all went to Marczyk's for wine tasting and got some good meat to grill. They were adventurous enough to try grilled scallops - Dad wasn't a huge fan, but Mom liked them!

On Saturday, we took the Coors Brewery tour. Matt and I discovered that there's an express pass where you can go straight to the tasting room without having to stand in line to go on the tour. Unfortunately, we discovered this as we were leaving, but would take advantage of it in the future. After lunch, we hit up a deli in Golden to soak up all the beer. For dinner, we went out to Parker to have homemade pizzas with Jamie and Doug...and to tell old RAGRBRAI stories.
Sunday morning was a drive out to Rocky Mountain National Park, which included a walk around Sprague Lake. On the way back from RMNP, we stopped at a diner in Lyons. The diner was quite a find - good food and great homemade ice cream. Dad had a banana shake and Matt had a Dr. Pepper float. We'll definitely hit that up again!

Sunday night was the big event - Josh Groban and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Red Rocks. We tailgated beforehand and someone took a picture of us tailgating (apparently they'd never seen it before). The concert was excellent. The orchestra warmed up the crowd with some movie theme songs. Then Josh Groban took the stage and entertained us for two hours. He was actually quite funny - although I'm not sure Mom and Dad's generation got all of the jokes. :) The concert was a great ending to a fun weekend!

Volleyball Tournament

Last weekend was our mid season volleyball tournament.  While we have about 13 on our roster, we only had 7 that were able to make it.  Plus Matt's shoulder was still injured, so he played the whole day right handed.  We got to Washington park around 7:30 and we started pool play around 9.  Our first game we got smoked, and I'm pretty sure the other team had Karch Kiraly on their team.  I had a feeling that team would be playing in the final.

Our next games we came together and won the rest of the pool games to make the playoffs.  Some were close, others we were the better team by far.  One the playoffs started we played some better teams, but we outplayed them to reach the finals...against the team that smoked us the first game.  I think there were 2 differences in this game.  1) we were playing much better as a team, but we had to play the final with 4 players, since a few had to leave or were hurt.  2) they were drunk, we were not.  Those factors contributed to us beating them in 2 games out of 3 to win the championship!  Yay 'Set it and forget it'!

Karla and I had intended to go camping that night, but since we didn't even leave the park till after 5pm we went over to Naomi and Ryan's house.  We grilled out, made smores over a fire in their chimea and drank the beer we were taking camping.  Needless to say we crashed in one of their extra beds...so it was sort of like camping, right??

Sunday was a much needed day of relaxation, with a dinner trip to Parker to see the Eglseders and the twins.

Now we think teams should be afraid of us!!

Chill Weekend

This past weekend was a pretty chill weekend. On Friday night we saw Man of Steel. A little more sci-fi than we expected, but still a good movie. Saturday we checked out a new hiking spot just outside of Golden - Mt. Galbraith park. It was a really fun hike - 4-ish miles and just under 1,000 feet of elevation gain. That night we had dinner with Ryan, Naomi, and Naomi's parents at Jonesy's, a restaurant in Uptown. None of us had been there before, and it was really good! Sunday was a quick bike ride to Golden (~14 miles round trip) and then normal Sunday stuff - grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. Nothing too exciting, but a fun, relaxing weekend!

Lee Family Cruise

For Lowell and Judy's 40th anniversary, they wanted to take the family on a cruise. So Mom, Dad, Kathy, Jordan, Kristin, Amber, Matt and I headed to Galveston, TX where we took off on a 4-day cruise to Cozumel. Matt had never been on a cruise before, so he wasn't sure what to expect, but ended up having a lot of fun.

 Before we even left TX, we were all treated to a comedy show by George Lopez, then it was up to the top decks to enjoy the casting off. The ship was being escorted out of the bay by a Coast Guard boat that had a machine gun mounted on its bow. It was fun to watch other boats quickly get as far away as possible when they saw the Coast Guard boat! After casting off we all went to our rooms to relax since a lot of us had been up since 2am or 4am. We met back up for dinner at the Paris room where we ate every night. Our waiter, Romel, was really fun and memorized our names after the first night. The dining staff also treated us to singing and dancing throughout the cruise.

Friday was a day at sea. Matt and I got up early and went for a run on the track. Running on a cruise ship is a weird feeling, but we got our exercise in! After breakfast, we had a family mini-golf competition. Mom, Amber, Matt and me against Dad, Kristin, Kathy and Jordan. We did assess penalties - if you went off the course, it was a 1 stroke penalty; if your ball ended up in the ocean, it was a 10 stroke penalty (luckily no one lost their ball in the ocean). I'm happy to say that Mom's team won that round!
The rest of the day was spent laying out, going down the water slide, drinking margaritas, taking naps, reading books. After dinner, we went to the main show and were treated to some singing and dancing. Then we went over to the piano bar and Russell, the piano man, treated us to great sing-a-long songs.

Saturday was when we docked in Cozumel. Mom and Dad went on a tour of the Mayan ruins. Kristin, Kathy, Jordan, and Amber went to a beach for some more sun - and Jordan and Amber went snorkeling. Matt and I went on the Xrail to Jade Caverns excursion. It was basically a sand dune buggy type machine and you drove it through multiple mud puddles/small ponds to get to a cave where you swam around and then drove back through some mud. We had a blast! We had read reviews of the excursion beforehand, so were prepared with shirts we could just throw away afterward and secretly giggled at the people who wore nice clothes and went quite slowly through the mud so they didn't get dirty. If you're not muddy, what's the point??  :)  After everyone's excursions, we all randomly saw each other on the boat dock and had a group margarita (well, some drank margaritas while others shopped). Matt and I got some weird looks while in line to get back on the ship - we had even tried to rinse off, but were still pretty darn muddy. After we cleaned up, we met up with everyone for dinner. Mom and Dad then went to the main show, while the "kids" hung out in Kathy and Jordan's room. We all met up later in the piano bar for some singing and drinks.

Sunday was another day at sea. After breakfast, we had round 2 of the family mini-golf tournament. Dad's team won this time, so we ended the cruise tied with 1 win a piece. Of course, I claim we let him win for Father's Day, but I don't think he bought that. After golfing and lunch, we all did our separate thing for a while...laying out, napping, hitting up the pizza buffet, having a margarita.

Once we all had enough sun, we brought the bottle of champagne Kristin brought on board, found a quiet place, and had a rousing game of Up and Down the River...a Lee family traditional card game. We toasted to Father's Day and a really fun cruise! After dinner, we all went to the main show, which was a tribute to New Orleans. I definitely liked it better than the first show! Then, of course, we all went to the piano bar for one last night with Russell. By that time the waiter in the piano bar knew us. Matt, Dad, and I were the first ones there and the waiter looked at me and recited what we've all been drinking the past three nights!

Monday morning was a quick breakfast and then debarking the ship. Matt and I were the first ones of our group to go because we had the earliest flight. Overall, we had a great time!! It was a great way to celebrate Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary. Now if we can only convince them to do the same thing for their 41st...or 42nd? :)

Fishing & Hiking weekend

Friday was Karla's Birthday, so we went out to a nice Italian dinner downtown.

On Saturday we decided to get up early(but not TOO early) and go to RMNP for some hiking and fishing with Clint.  We hiked up to Bierstadt lake and then did some fishing at Sprague lake and Lake Estes.  Matt didn't catch anything that day, and Clint had a few on, but they were with Matt's rod, so he claims part of that.  Karla wanted to see Star Trek for her birthday, so we went to see it Saturday night.  Good movie, and now we need to watch Wrath of Khan.  Today we are going to run Red Rocks, and get gear for our upcoming cruise on Thursday to Cozumel.

Kathy & Jordan's Visit

Kathy & Jordan were so happy school was out for the summer, they came to Denver for a visit.  We took them golfing in Evergreen, which was fun because we had never played there before.  The course wasn't in the best shape, but it was still fun as the setting was beautiful and there was one hole that was a blind par 3 shooting over a big boulder.  There was also elk walking around the area, so a bit of a hazard there!  Later that day we found a restaurant in evergreen that some employees/owners had apparently been to Karla's hometown area, as there were MANY road signs from Anthon, Schleswig and other towns in the area.  quite random.  On the way back to Denver we took them alpine sledding in Golden.  That night we just hung out and Kathy and Jordan tried grilled scallops for the first time.  Jordan was not a fan.

Sunday we went for a drive in the mountains, going through Golden Gate State park.  We came back and watched a Rockies game, good seats up behind home plate with lots of home runs.  That we grilled out and had a nice evening eating dinner on our rooftop deck.

Karla took off Monday to spend with them, and it was a relaxing day.  Kathy got caught up on grad school stuff, and then it was an early morning Tuesday
as they had to fly back.

Memorial Day in Angelfire

As has been tradition the last year or so, we went with Naomi & Ryan and drove down to Angel Fire for the weekend.  Ken, Nancy & Cooper joined us, and it was a nice relaxing weekend.  We ate great food, went on the Clear Creek Trail which Cooper loved because he could play in the creek and the pools by all the waterfalls.

We also played a 9 hold scramble golf tournament at the Angel Fire country club.  The kicker is the tourney was sponsored by Patron Tequila.  Pretty sure Nancy had something to do with that, as she loves tequila.  On one hole we had tequila shots, and on another there was a margarita station.  Surprisingly Matt's game got better with the tequila.  While we didn't get a prize, it was a good time, and everyone got to use their shots, as the teams were pretty even.

On the way back to Denver we stopped for Blizzards at DQ, which is also a prerequisite for a road trip I believe.  Hope to make it out there again before the fall, but this summer is filling up fast!