Running the Rainbow

Connor’s Birthday fell on Monday January 31 and Grandma Maria was visiting us for a special treat.  She made him Country fried steak for dinner and we made him wear a Birthday hat from my kindle class.  Connor has grown so much in the last year.  He has become more social and mature and is doing really well in school and at sports.  I am so proud of him. Then we had a 2nd celebration at Los Dos Potrillos and we got to embarrass him with a serenade. He really enjoyed talking and visiting with the family. Just before his birthday, he competed in 2022 Continental JV League Championships at Rock Canyon High School. He was up against some really tough competition and lost all of the matches. But, he learned a lot and had fun hanging out with his friends. Then, on Friday February 5, he went to JV State Championships at Northglenn High School. He lost the 1st match and got a nasty bloody nose. He then won 3 matches in a row. Grandpa Tom and G...

Lloyd had gotten Tool tickets as a gift for Connor in 2020 and COVID postponed it to 2022. I almost didn’t go because of all the kids activities but Lloyd said, “Tool & Tara just go together like hot wings & ranch dressing.” It is getting much harder to go to concerts now since they cost $150 or more for tickets, but we really wanted to give Connor this experience. I remember my 1st concert, Aerosmith and thinking how big and crazy the world was.  I saw people smoking pot, crowd surfing, wearing hardly any clothes, and acting crazy.  Connor got to experience it. Right off the bat, when we walked into the Ball Arena, we saw a fan in handcuffs getting arrested. When we went to the restroom, the men had a long line and there was no one in the women’s bathroom. I walked over to the mens line and said, “This is backwards!”  A man said, “Well, this concert is 90% men. We love having you women here but you are the odd ones out.” It felt like we ...

Fort Collins FAST Winter Swim Meet, Echo Mountain Sledding, Yeti Chase 5k and Loveland Snowboarding  1 Carly swam the 1000 Free for the first time and I got to hold the cool timing counters.  There was only 1 other 12 year old swimming the 1000.  She did great and kept the same pace for the whole event. She also swam 200 IM and 500 free.  She took off time in both events but came shy of making State. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Fort Collins so Carly could swim on Saturday too.  We zonked out hard and ate breakfast the next morning and had to be back at the pool by 6:40am. She swam 100 IM, 50 fly, 100 free, and 50 breast.  She took off time in all the events but only qualified for State in 50 breast. On Sunday, we went to Echo mountain for tubing. It was a beautiful day and we drank hot chocolate and coffee while waiting for our reservation. We did some solo sledding but it was much more fun to connect our tubes together. It was also fu...

We had a free stay at a Marriott hotel that was going to expire so we decided to spend it at Residence Inn Boulder for New Years Eve and New Years Day.  It was a nice new hotel and it was snowing when we got there. We walked around in the snow a while before we went to dinner. We made reservations at Osaka Japanese restaurant that was right next to our hotel. We loved everything about this place! It is Japanese tradition to eat a piping hot bowl of soba noodle soup called Toshikoshi Soba. It is supposed to melt away hardship of the past year and welcome the new journey ahead.  We all ordered this bowl. We also had Sakara sencha tea which has a flowery taste to it and was so delicious. Lloyd and I drank a bottle of sake called Ryujin. Nama zume sake has a bright citrus aroma with an elegant sweetness. It has a clean, sharp after taste. There is very limited availability, even in Japan. After dinner, we talked about our New Years resolut...