Parade of Lights

Just after Thanksgiving came the Parade of Lights which, around here, means the kickoff to the holiday season.

We headed downtown with what seemed like the rest of the city, since the weather was quite warm for the beginning of December. To begin the parade the Colorado State University marching band puts on a little show. The trombonists wear blind folds while they play, and do a little dance routine. If their moves aren't perfect there is potential to get knocked in the head with a trombone. Scary! Can you see the guy bending over as the other guys swings his trombone right over the guy's head? Yep. That's how it works.

Being able to sit in the grandstands, rather than standing on the street, was a welcomed gift that evening since we had already been walking for what seemed like miles from where we parked.

The little kids were able to join in the fun this year since the weather was warm and they were able to keep up walking with us.

They all oohed and ahhed over almost every float that went by.

Cultures from all over the wold were represented.

Excel Energy sure knows how to light a float. I wonder how much energy that float used. It was quite bright and pretty!

New this year was this massive tiger balloon. It was the largest balloon in the parade.

A good friend of ours works for Autonation, which is a huge sponsor for the parade, meaning all of the trucks pulling the floats were from Autonation.

His daughter along with her friends, Rebecca, and our foster children's older siblings got to walk in the parade full of face paint and costumes. Our kids saw the big Autonation float coming and went to the rail to look for their friends! They thought it was so cool to see Rebecca and our friends in the parade.

Along the 16th Street Mall are random, painted pianos for the public to play at their leisure. A few of these pianos were jazzed up for the parade that evening.

9News was also a big sponsor for the the parade. In fact, if you watch the parade the MCs are from 9News and every so often you can see my husband's face on one of the lady's shoulders.

Mr. Waddles is the penguin mascot of the parade. When he arrives you know that it isn't much longer until you-know-who arrives.

Denver International Aiport houses some of the biggest snow plows that I've ever seen and they look really pretty all lit up.

A parade of lights just wouldn't be a great parade if there wasn't a live nativity, right?

Of course, after Jesus comes Santa to end the parade.

Before the parade begins they light up the city and county building which stays lit all season long. Isn't it beautiful?

Rockies with Kids

I got an email a few weeks ago from the Rockies saying that they were having a special on tickets for $4.10. Back in April there was a snowstorm and one of the games had to be cancelled. (We had tickets to that game, btw.) The makeup game was set for June 27 at 4:10pm, so the Rockies decided to have a special ticket sale. My friend Leon texted me to see if I had received that email. They were thinking of going to the game too!

After texting and talking to my Lutheran Stud we decided to bring all of the kids to the game. They love the Rockies as much as we do. I mean we've brainwashed them to believe it anyway. ;)

One thing we hadn't really thought about was that the game was on the very day that my older girls and Lutheran Stud were returning from the Catechism Retreat. That meant that they had to go straight to the game upon their return. There was no time to go home and shower and change. Oops!

The game started out well enough. Michael Cuddyer had a 20-something hitting streak going and we got to witness the extension of that hitting streak.

Todd Helton then came up and had a nice hit after Cuddy got his hit.

Todd, aka Todd Father, hit Cuddy in and we were winning!

Later that inning Rosario, aka Baby Bull, also scored.

We had some pretty good seats with a fine view of one of our favorite players, Michael Cuddyer, aka Cuddy.

Did I mention that it was super hot at the game? It was 95 degrees! We were lucky to be sitting in the shade, but could still feel the sweat dripping off of us.The usher lady in our section was kind enough to spray people with her squirt bottle when people sitting in the sun got too hot.

My Lutheran Stud bought me a purple margarita to cool off. It's my go-to drink when we are at Coors Field.

I can't imagine wearing that baseball uniform and standing the in that heat.

My friend Lisa came by for a visit during the game.

All of our children were getting a little antsy, so they got to visit for awhile. It was maybe a couple degrees cooler along the concourse.

Now back to the game. This is where things turned for the worse. The Mets hit a home run and we never recovered from it.

We tried and tried to make a come back, but it just didn't happen. I did capture some fun action shots though, don't you think?

The Mets won the game 3-2 and we left the game bummed, hot, sweaty, and tired from the heat. Here's to a better outcome next time.

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey

After a long morning of hunting for dinosaurs we headed home for lunch. While the little ones took naps us older adults, minus my mom, the babysitter, headed to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey for a tour and a taste of some of the finest whiskey around. There's no shortage of whiskey in this place.

This is our tour guide, Taylor. He poses at just the right time. No need to ask; he just does it.

I have no idea what is going on here. I think that guy there must be checking the temperature or something.

This tour was slightly similar to the Oskar Blues in that it was all over my head. They both did have these fermenters. That looked familiar. So, whiskey begins with beer. Did you know that? Then I got lost after that.

I tried really hard to listen and understand it all, but things seemed to get a bit more complicated than making just beer. There was a lof of chemistry talk about atoms and things. The equipment was pretty cool.

The whiskey does flow through this stuff for some reason. I think it had something to do with keeping the alcohol content high? Who knows. Perhaps you should visit Stranahan's for your own tour, or come and visit me and I'll take you. While I didn't understand everything it was still quite fascinating.

This was a beautiful room. It's filled with white oak barrels of aging whiskey. The whiskey ages for at least 2 years, but never more than 5 years. There's something about the whiskey being in white oak that gives it a lovely flavor. Also, in this room are misters. The humidity must always stay around 40% and the temperature is always around 64 degrees. It's a liquid loss thing.

The barrels are gorgeous aren't they? I wouldn't mind having a few around the house. We also learned about bung holes and how a gas pump handle is the perfect fit for a bung hole. That's right! How else do you fill all those barrels with whiskey? Again, Taylor poses right on cue! In all seriousness though, if you're going to tour Stranahan's try and see if Taylor is giving the tour. He's hilarious!

There was also this special barrel signed by governor Hickenlooper and some other important people. I'm not sure when it was barreled.

Here we are in the bottling room. This is where the magic happens. All of the whiskey goes into that big silver thing. Then it gets pumped into the bottles and down the line it goes to get labeled and packaged.

After the tour we all got a little taste of the whiskey. We learned to smell and swish, and then drink. Besides the burning sensation in my mouth it was fabulous. Then Taylor squirted a little water into each glass. Here's a fun fact for you, courtesy of Taylor: Stranahan's only uses the finest ingredients in their whiskey. That being said, for water, they don't use just plain tap water. They get their water from Eldorado Springs. That's right. And, to make it even better Eldorado Spring Water won 3rd place in the world's best tasting water competition. F'real! Anyway, adding that little squirt of water is supposed to take the edge off a bit. It did.

This is the big old truck out front. Awesome, right?

We left with a few goodies too!

We proudly, now, own a bottle of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. Once you've had this you'll never go back to Jim Beam and those other whiskeys. They just don't compare. While this whiskey is a bit strong for me I have to say I'm a huge fan of whiskey sours. I've been prohibited from using this whiskey for my sours, but we'll just see, won't we? How about you? Whiskey fan or whiskey sour fan?

What I love about small private companies like this, and Oskar Blues, is their signatures. Each bottle at Stranahan's is signed and approved by the distiller and a comment is often added. Our bottle says, Vail or Bust!