Well… we made it through another year; Yay! 2023 was awesome. Our health was great relatively speaking. We enjoyed adventures of many kinds, and we spent time with friends and family.
To complement all that positivity, we, as is the case for all of you, dealt with the ups and downs of the day-to-day. Our heart goes out to those people around the globe who are much less fortunate and who’s hardships are unimaginable to us. We are distressed by the horrible political polarization, prejudice and violence that appears to be plaguing our country. But at least both sides of this horrible polarization seem to be concerned about the preservation of democracy. With that said, I think we can all agree, “Long live democracy in the United States of America”.
We wish you all the best that life can offer during the holidays, for the upcoming year, and beyond! Thank you for visiting this blog.
And now here are some select highlights of 2023.
In the beginning…
The beginning of the year started with skiing our normal runs, but we mixed it up this year by taking a trip to Glenwood Springs to visit the slopes at Sunlight. Not only is this the beginning of the year in review, but Sunlight was also the beginning of my skiing in life; the very first skiing experience I ever had (with Jeff Reid, hello Jeff if you’re out there!) circa 1973-ish (a story for another time). In Glenwood Springs we stayed at Hotel Colorado and had some of the best Tomato Bisque I’ve ever had.
Mardi Gras
Matthew and I planned to do a weekend of travel together, so weeks in advance we arbitrarily decided to go to New Orleans since he hasn’t been there before. We randomly picked our dates and booked our trip. As we quickly discovered, WE WERE GOING ON MARDI GRAS WEEKEND!! That was soooo much fun!
We built a wall! (and Mexico didn’t pay for it)
Early Spring came with our tradition of updating the garden. It was a grueling month of several trips porting the wall rocks from the materials yard to our yard, putting the rocks in place, then shoveling three tons of dirt from the street to the back yard, and planting and irrigating.
I can’t wait to see and share what this will look like come Spring. Leslie did a phenomenal job planting the plants that will emerge when the cold weather turns warm.
Hail to Thee!
Somewhere in the middle of the night between May 9 and May 10 we were awakened by load noise. The hail ball above was a sample from the morning after, so it was even larger when it fell. The video tells it all, and I am pleased to say that we just finished getting our new roof installed last week.
Reunion in Wyoming
Leslie’s family held a reunion after many years without doing so. It was a great opportunity for me to meet all the great folks that came from parts of Oregon, North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. There were several activities planned – hats off particularly to Wayne and Tammy for designing the day 1 golf tournament!
Leslie’s Art
This year Leslie entered a couple of her quilts in the Headwater’s Quilt Show in Wyoming. “Rainbow Moon” (the quilt on the left below) won second place, Yay!
Leslie Goes Boxing
Leslie and members of her Book club, joined Corner Boxing in Boulder. The Rusty Gloves class was designed for, but is not limited to, people with Parkinson’s. They also have a class for “Old Broads”. In case you were wondering, we don’t hit each other.
Iceland
Bucket list item… check. I’ve pretty much said it in the blog entry here. This was an awesome trip, and I would be delighted to return and explore further this great island. Since we returned home, Iceland was in the news for volcanic activity that closed one of our favorite geothermal pools, the Blue Lagoon.
Dia de New Tradition
We hosted our first Dia de Los Muertos gathering this year. The turnout was great and I really enjoyed meeting some folks as well as gathering with friends and family that are near and dear. More details are shown here. I would like to make this a tradition for every year.
Giving Thanks
I’ve already shared the details of our Thanksgiving here, but I would be remiss to not at least include it in selected highlights since this is my favorite holiday.
There were many other great moments of the year. Various hikes including our annual Bear Peak jaunt. Paddleboarding. Porting our canoe to Gross Reservoir. Visiting Denver Botanic Gardens. The Eerie Erie 5k, Dining with friends, and more. Feel free to go to the top of this blog for a view of all the postings.
We filled another year with great memories, as we hope you and yours have done and will continue to do.
Season’s Greetings!