January 18th, 2009
So…as most of you know…my brother and his family came to Colorado over Christmas break. What you may not know is that they are vegetarians. I tried my best to be a good hostess, not only having fresh sheets and towels, but also having vegetarian food for them to eat. We made Black Bean Chili and Pasta Felix with tofu sausage (both meals were excellent if I do say so myself) and we ate out at several vegetarian restaurants.
I started thinking after they left how much healthier we had eaten while they were here. So last week I made my usual meals, but substituted my regular meat for vegetarian meat. I was very impressed with how well it tasted as well as the lack of grease. This morning we even tried the meatless bacon…unfortunately it was not a hit at our house. Does this mean we are vegetarians? No (I ate steak at Chilies the other night and it was good!), but it is nice to try and eat more healthy at home. Here is a photo of Tris making “bacon” this morning.
January 5th, 2009
On December 26th the McClure Gang (Michael, Juli, Mikayla, Kennedi, and Julian) traveled to Denver for a visit. Everyone stayed at our house. Michael, Juli, and Julian slept in the basement and Mikayla and Kennedi slept on the air mattress in Jackson’s room. Jackson slept on the top bunk of his bed. We saved the bottom bunk for Nana Sawny who arrived the next day.
The adventures started right way with everyone heading to Cherry Creek Mall. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen and then started shopping. The kids and the men hung out at the playground in the middle of the mall. Michael said he would rather shop than hang out at the playground. As you can see from some of the photos…the playground was a zoo!
The next day we split up. Michael, Juli, Mikayla, Jackson, and Tris went skiing/snowboarding while Nana Sawny, Kennedi, Julian, Benjamin, and Amy went to the children’s museum. Jackson tried to bail on the snowboarding before he left. Luckily he has nice parents that forced his to go. As you can see from some of the photos, Jackson is still pouting during his snowboarding lesson. Everyone had a great time at Loveland Ski Resort. I have a feeling the McClure’s will be coming back soon to ski! Meanwhile, we were at the children’s museum playing in all the different areas. They had a fire station, grocery store, bubble makers, trains, underground forests, painting stations and more. Here are the photos from the Ski resort and the children’s museum.
The last full day was spent eating at City ‘O City (a vegetarian bar) and visiting the Denver Aquarium. The vegetarian bar was quite the adventure for us animal lovers, but we had fun trying new foods. The Aquarium was a great place to visit. The adults liked it just as much as the kids. Here are the photos of the aquarium.
October 28th, 2008
Jackson is playing basketball for the YMCA in Littleton. The Denver Nuggets (NBA Team) sponsor the YMCA basketball teams. The teams get light blue YMCA jerseys that resemble the jerseys worn by the Nuggets. Tris has volunteered to be the head coach and Doak is the assistant coach. Several of the boys on our street are playing which makes it a lot of fun for Jackson. Did I mention that the team is co-ed? And it’s a good thing too because the girls scored most of the points in the first game. Here are some pictures of Jackson playing his first game with Tris and Doak coaching. There is also video (coming soon) of Jackson bringing the ball up the court.
