My in-laws sure are a fun-loving bunch. Just take a look at how we spent part of our afternoon Monday.
Yes, that is a 100 foot long slip ‘n slide. Apparently someone thought this thick plastic was better suited for plunging down the hill than for a vapor barrier in the upcoming drywall project at Uncle Joe’s cabin. Now that I’m a father I thought that I better sit out from the sliding, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying watching others fly down the hill and into the lake below.
Wow, two zoo entries in the last two months. We took Trey out to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden this past Saturday. My mom, brother, and his girlfriend all came along for the fun. The month of May is the 25th annual Zoo Babies celebration at the zoo, which highlights all the latest babies in the zoo’s collection of animals.
Giraffes with new baby.
The biggest draw at the zoo right now is a baby Maasai Giraffe, Zuri, that was just born April 2, 2011. We headed directly to the giraffe ridge upon entry so we could catch the scheduled feeding. Though they did not feed the baby, I’m assuming it is still nursing, zoo visitors were able to feed both parents a cracker for $1 each.
Trey loves the zoo.
From there we spent the next four to five hours exploring all the different areas of the zoo. Though it did take some time, the zoo actually seemed much smaller than I remembered it to be growing up. Even so, my legs really felt it at the end of the day. Besides all the animals on display, some of which were more active than I have ever seen (gibbons and colobus monkeys especially), my favorite part of the zoo has to be the beer that is available for purchase. Not only beer, but craft beer! And to top it all off you can take the beer with you on your walk through the zoo.
Enjoying a beer.
What a great idea! Check out the rest of my mom’s pictures.
As of today Kim and I are no longer home owners. The closing on our house in Denver was yesterday and everything went exactly as planned. We have movers in the house today and tomorrow packing up all of our stuff and moving it out to Cincinnati, where it will sit in storage for a couple of months. I’ll miss our old house in Denver, not only because it was a great second house (really our first house since we only owned the one in Kansas City for around six months), but also because so many exciting things happened while we owned it. Kim and I were married and our son being born are obviously at the top of the list. I hope the new owners enjoy their time in the house as much as we did. We actually got to meet one of the new owners at the house to show him a few things about the place, and he reminded me a lot of myself four or five years ago. I’m sure they will love it and take good care of it.
Yesterday my dad ran the Flying Pig Marathon yet again and in doing so qualified for the Boston Marathon once again. He qualified by running the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama at the end of last  year with a time of 3:43:11, and even may have qualified at the Columbus Marathon earlier that year. But since they are changing the entrance selection to take those in each division with the quickest times, my dad wanted to improve his time with this run and he did. In what is his fastest time since when he was around my own current age, he finished at 3:38:32, over six minutes below the Boston qualifying time! I hope to see him fulfill his longtime dream of running in Boston next April 16 on his 56th birthday.
I just posted more pictures from our big drive on kimandedjr.com. Be sure to check those out. It’s been a crazy week for us as we adjust into a new routine and we juggle trying to close on both our old house in Denver and our new house in Cincinnati. We are really looking forward to a weekend to unwind with family and friends.
Hello from Cincinnati! We arrived Sunday in the early afternoon and had a nice day filled with family and friends for the remainder of the day. We left Denver on Thursday evening and drove the 1,200 miles over the course of the next few days. Our first night was spent in Hays, Kansas. We didn’t get there until late in the evening and our stay was limited to our hotel room and a brief breakfast in the hotel.
Friday we arrived in Kansas City, Missouri in the middle of the afternoon. We met up with our friend Doni and her parents at one of my old favorites, the 75th Street Brewery. After a nice lunch we checked into our hotel and then later met up with Doni and more of our friends at the Brooksider for a beer. The noise level inside quickly got to Trey, so we moved down the street to our friend Susan’s house for some carry out Waldo Pizza and a couple of Boulevard beers.
Saturday was our longest day on the road as we covered the seven hours or so between Kansas City and Terre Haute, Indiana. We only stopped a couple of times along the way so it was still a pretty easy drive. We wanted to get as far as we could on this day so we didn’t have a long way to drive on Easter Sunday to get to Cincinnati. We had a nice dinner out in Terre Haute at M. Moggers and even managed to spend some time at the pool hotel, which Trey really enjoyed.
It has already been so nice to have our family around as Kim is transitioning back to full-time work. The days have already had more rain than I think we had in Denver in four years, but it is worth it to see Trey smiling more and more each day.
Sunday was our official going away party that some friends of ours put together for us at Wash Park. The weather was a little cloudy but it never rained, though it has been a little rainier than usual recently. Mostly it was just a windy day with on and off sunshine. We were able to bring Trey to meet many of our friends for the first time, and overall he was pretty well-behaved. One thing we haven’t been able to figure out is how to get him to nap even with so much activity going on. That caused him to get a little fussy for a bit, but eventually he did fall asleep for a couple of hours. It was great seeing so many people come to send us off with one last party. We had plenty of food and lots of Denver Pale Ale on tap. As I posted on my Facebook and Twitter after the party, “Thank you Denver for being such a cool city and opening my eyes to the world. I will miss you but will visit often.”
The big purchases for us just keep going. We bought a new car on Saturday, a quartz brown 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander SE AWC with the Premium Package added:
So far we couldn’t be happier with our choice. We were down to either this car or a Subaru Outback. The biggest reason we went with the Outlander is due to the amazing warranty. Other advantages were the optional third row seats which allow for seven passengers, a slightly larger cargo area, and 0.9% financing. I’ve already added our Thule rack to the top and plan to get some bike racks so we can bring our bikes back to Cincinnati with us.
Kim put some more pictures of Trey on our family website.  Some of these are nearly a month old and it’s amazing for me to see just how much he continues to change with each passing moment.  These days he prefers to be sitting or standing up (with help) rather than lying around.  If he is laying down he needs to be either actively entertained or sleeping.  He is increasingly vocal and seems to expand his “vocabulary” every couple of days.  It’s hard to believe that he is already over three months old.  I have a feeling the rest of his first year of life is really going to fly by.
One week from today will be my last day as a Denver resident. It will be a sad day for me as I have really grown to love this city. But at the same time I am very happy and excited for the next chapter of my life. I hope that I have some free time to enjoy the fine things the city has to offer before leaving, but I fear that we have so much left to do before we can pack the car and be on our way. This next week is surely going to be very busy and don’t be surprised if my blogging takes a slight hit. I’ll try to update each day but I don’t have much to write about other than our move as it is completely taking control of all of my free time.
edpaffjr.com