Basketball, Burgers, and Birthday!

After a fun round of golf with Zach and Shawna (Thanks Keith!), we had a little barbeque for my birthday last night. As usual, the whole gang was there!

Riley insisted that I had to have a birthday cake with candles so we could make a wish. I can't remember the last time I blew out candles on my own birthday cake! I had a little help from my best Riley, though!

Lindsay enjoyed her Mimosas and Woodchucks!
Mary was glued to the TV for the Kansas-UNC game. She and Monica engaged in some..."colorful" banter as Mary is a huge Jayhawks fan, and Monica is a UNC Alum. The Jayhawks won, and Mary has vowed not to take that Kansas shirt off until KU wins on Monday!

Steve and Nick revisited their college days by taking on Mikayla (Cory's girlfriend) and Shawna in a game of beer pong. The girls won!

Cory shows off his Wii bowling form. Is it just me, or does Cory seem to be channeling a bit of Brandon Lane's awkward skinnyness and flair here? I've seen him do a little dance that looks suspiciously like Brandon's famous Friday Dance. B will be here this week, and at some point both Brandon and Cory will meet...I'm not sure what that will do to cosmic forces, but I can't wait to find out!
The best birthday hug ever!

Some Wicked Cool Art!

On Friday night Charline had her Art Opening at Geez Louise! Coffee Shop. Geez Louise! is a little place down off Colfax and Colorado with fabulous coffee and a really fun, kitschy atmosphere. Every few months they feature a different local artist, and our Charline's artwork is hung there from April through June! Char's art can only be described as amazing. She works in Prismacolor -- colored pencil. It's nearly impossible to believe that the vibrant colors can be produced from colored pencil, but it's true, I've watched her create several of the pieces that are hung at the shop! Truly incredible.

Lots of our friends and co-workers showed up to support Charline, as well as many patrons from the neighborhood. Everyone loved the colorful, cheerful art that brightened up the walls!

Here is Louise herself, all dressed up for the occasion. This is the second Louise, back in the late summer the original Louise was mannequin-napped from in front of the shop. Louise stands out front and welcomes coffee patrons in for a cuppa joe!

This is one of my absolute favorites. It was inspired by the ridges of an old weathered tree that Charline saw up on Mount Evans. I just happen to be the proud owner of a print of this original, which Charline gave me for my birthday yesterday! I can't wait to hang it in our family room, which is this same color motif! This picture doesn't do it justice at all!

This is Meg, our office manager, and her husband Chip. Chip just got an iPhone. He enjoyed taking pictures of everyone and everything, including me taking a picture of him! Behind them is some more of Char's fabulous work! The one with the two houses, called "Two Worlds" is Steve's favorite.

Here's a pic that Chipper took. Me, Char, Meg and Deb Geary, enjoying the art and atmosphere!

Some more of the fun and colorful art! The flower sculpture in the middle is made of MDF, and takes a lot of work to put together! I love the graphic, yet organic feel of all of the flowers!

Riley with his favorite Artist! He and Steve came straight over from the Rockies game...baseball and art, what a culture-filled day!

Congratulations, Charline, on a fantastic art show!!! If you haven't been down to Geez Louise! to check it out, you've gotta get there!

Rockies Opening Day

On Friday Steve and Riley went to their fourth Rockies Opening Day game together.  Riley went to his first opening day game when he was only 3 weeks old, and hasn't missed one yet!  I didn't get to go, since I have to take time off for the Palm Springs trip in a couple weeks, but the boys had a blast!  It was a gorgeous day for baseball, and even though the Rockies lost to the D-Backs, they all enjoyed the beginning of baseball season in Colorado!

Riley with Uncle Brad!

Those are some crazy cousins!

I had asked Steve to get a couple of good pictures of Riley with Brad and Nicole, since there don't seem to be many of them.  Nicole and I are always the ones taking pictures, so we don't appear in too many of them!

Below is the first attempt:

And the second attempt:

Finally, thanks to the beauty of HP Photosmart Studio...and a little bit of cropwork, I got something resembling a great picture of Riley and Nicole!  You almost can't tell where the two pics got stitched together.  Kinda cool...

Below:  Alyssa Jay, Steve Jay, and Steve, with the boys in their Rally Caps and Jaden Ashbrook!)

SixthMan Jam at the Downtown Aquarium

Tonight we went to the Denver Aquarium for a Denver Nuggets special event for season ticket holders.  Brad, Nicole, Andy and Kettie have a season package, and Andy and Kettie weren't able to go tonight, so we got to join Brad, Nic and O for an evening with the Nuggets!

They had food, games, and of course the aquarium exhibits were open for all to check out.  All the Nuggets players were in attendance, and we were able to get pictures with a few of the guys.

We ran into Yakhouba Diawara in the gift shop. And yes, I had to look up how to spell that!

And also Anthony Carter, who was really nice to the boys.

Linas Kleiza was hanging out by the bar.

And finally Coach George Karl and Eduardo Najera.  Najera went to the University of Oklahoma, so Steve got his attention by calling out "Boomer," to which Eduardo replied, "Sooner!" It's like some kind of weird Marco Polo for Middle America.  Steve told him that Riley was a future Sooner (we'll see about that!), and he wanted Riley to stand with him!

This is the back of Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony's heads.  This is pretty much all most people saw of them.  This was the only downside to the evening.  The two of them spent the entire evening hiding out behind the bar, even behind a wall so that they could chat and watch a basketball game on TV, and not interact much with the crowd.  I guess I understand, they live their lives in a "fishbowl," ironic, considering we were at the Aquarium...but this was an event for their true fans, the ticket holders, who spend a lot of money supporting them.  You'd think they'd at least come out and mingle a bit.  Oh well...

That's ok, though, because the kids still had a great time!  Riley enjoyed seeing the fish and the Sumatran tigers.  Thanks Brad and Nicole for inviting us!!!