Living in Munchkinland

Last Saturday, Suzy and I took the train downtown and met up with her girlfriends for a night out. We met her friends and had dinner at Linger, which is this awesome old mortuary turned restaurant. We shared some amazing tapas and wine and then walked down the street to sip and paint. I've never painted anything as I am a terrible artist, but I had a lot of fun and was really proud of my painting! After our artsy fun, we walked around the corner to a fabulously hip bar full of trees and fire pits. We sat in the corner and ate fries and drank more wine until it was time to go home. Suzy and I shared an uber and were home just before midnight. I really had such a good time and it was so great to make new friends in my new city.

We had a wonderful long weekend with Martha and Clark. They flew in late Thursday evening. Friday after school, the kids put on their costumes and we drove over to the Southglenn Mall for the Pumpkin Parade. Michael and the boys had made pumpkins and entered them into the contest. We took Leah with us and Suzy and Jason and Garrett all met us there. We enjoyed seeing the multitude of children in costumes and the kids trick or treated, got their faces painted and watched a magician. We voted for Davis and Sam's pumpkins and then had dinner at the Mellow Mushroom and enjoyed some delicious pizza and good company. The next day we loaded up the car and headed to the Denver Zoo. They were having the "Boo at the Zoo" event with trick or treated and lots more kids in costumes. It was a gloriously sunny day. The zoo was filled with fall color. We especially loved the art that was displayed around the zoo. Each statue was a giant sea creature made entirely out of trash washed u...

One of my very favorite things about living here is the trail that goes by our house. I love it. I walk the dog there almost every day. I follow the kids to the park at the end or the tennis courts. I've loved watching it change through summer and fall. It's about a 4 mile loop if you go around the hospital and back. It goes on further, but that's as far as I usually go. It is peaceful and gorgeous and from almost every place on the trail, you can see the mountains. Here are some pictures from a walk we took the other day.

We scattered my dad's ashes into the San Marcos river last weekend. We hope to scatter them in various rivers that my dad loved. My mom read a passage from Siddhartha. We all listened. The kids listened, too. We were totally in the moment. I loved this passage so much. It was perfect. I'm including it here because I never want to forget it. The river flowed on towards its goal. Siddhartha saw the river hasten, made up of himself and his relatives and all the people he had ever seen. All the waves and water hasted, suffering, towards goals, many goals, to the waterfall, to the sea, to the current, to the ocean and all goals were reached and each one was succeeded by another. The water changed to vapor and rose, became rain and came down again, became spring, took and river, changed anew, flowed anew. But the yearning voice had altered. It still echoed sorrowfully, searchingly, but other voices accompanied it, voices of pleasure and sorrow, good and evil voices, laughing and ...

My cousin Manie got married this last weekend and it was an AMAZING wedding. All the Davis family came in for the big day and we had such fun being with cousins and baby cousins and friends. We had huge pool parties and grilled burgers and ran up and down the hill to the river bottom and back. Manie had everything planned to perfection. Uncle Larry had transformed the river bottom. It was so special to have the wedding down on our river bottom. Uncle Larry and Aunt Joyce had married down there 35 years ago. I actually remember the wedding! Even though the floods have taken many of our trees, it still looked beautiful. Manie made dream catchers that hung above and used old doors to mark the entrance of the ceremony aisle. She and Sean made all the food and it was incredible. They had a choreographed first dance and amazing cake and a store's bonfire. We all danced and laughed and toasted her. They are an incredible couple and perfect for each other. I did a reading from my dad...

It was good. It was hard. This was my first trip home since my dad died. We moved two weeks after he passed away. It was easier here. I didn't have constant reminders. It was easy not to think of him when the hurting got to be too much. Going home was full of reminders. I didn't realize i was worried bout it until the night before we left when it hit me like a ton of bricks. As soon as we arrived we went to the powwow which my dad created and loved and then we did an honor dance for him and then I made a speech about him. And then we went back to his home and it was so good and so hard and all the feels. I'm not sure if I had a stomach virus all week or if my anxiety lodged in my stomach and twisted it up in knots for the duration of the trip. I was happy during the week. I hate to say a word of negativity as there was so much that was good. It's not that it was bad, but more that I was not quite right and I am trying to identify or explore why that was. I was seei...

After the powwow last weekend, Cheris and Rob brought the kids down to Casa Pacifica. It was so good to see them! We had seen them seven months ago when we visited them in Spain and hadn't seen them before that since the previous summer. It was a wonderful reunion. It made me feel settled inside and happy to be with Cheris again. It was good. We swam and hung out by the pool and I got to hear Rob play the guitar. I had missed that so much! The kids were extremely happy to be together. That evening we introduced them to the Simpsons and "Treehouse of Horror" episodes which was a huge milestone and a lot of fun. They had a sleepover on the couch. The next morning, Cheris studied and we all hung out and then had more pool party and bocce ball. Our friends Tom and Odille and their son Tommy came over and we all hung out some more. That evening we got pizza and watched the debate. It was very exciting as Trump had just been exposed in a video saying horribly sexist things ...