Tater Comes to Town! - PART 2

The stupid blog won't let me post anymore pics on the last post, so I'll start another one. These are still from Katie's visit. Lunch after finding the waterfall.
Poor Tater got stuck on the side of the waterfall.Thank GOD Nick was there to save her and lift her to safety! The rapids were pretty fast and since she fell in she was too wet to grip anything!Kristi forced Nick & Katie to try these rapids in Denver on small inner tubes. Everybody does it, but with matress-sized rafts. We all learned an important lesson to NOT try this again.

They made it out alive!

Tater Comes to Town!

Katie and her friend Nick spent a week in July in Denver!!Tater Tot as Special Ed.
Tater floating back to the raft - her ONLY time in the water, unlike the rest of us!
Everyone looks tough - except for Kristi who was so afraid Katie would fly out...

...instead Katie was the ONLY ONE to stay in the boat - Beau went first and looking back he was "straddling" a boulder, next Nick flew out and then Kristi went overboard and Katie caught her to pull her in!

Went camping that night at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Manly Men got our fire started!

View from our campsite.

View from 12,000 feet.

No, they are not a couple. But, he is a Pitalian (half Polish/half Italian) like the Maggio girls.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Spent a great week in July at our summerhome in Lake Carroll.Sex MachineThe fam at the Palisades.We convinced Dad to make a fire pit on the condition WE built it. Figuring it wasn't hard we signed on. 3 hours later and as many broken backs, we finally finished. (Also, notice we have grass now!)Dad enjoying our hard work!
Drunk Adelle whispering the answers to Ang's puzzle!Sicily's FinestGood ol' Lisa!One of the beauties or the beast?

Lovin' the Lake

Kolka Wedding!!

Another great wedding - Adam & Kristi #2.

Mr. and Mrs. Adam LaPonte

From the left, American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, Kern-Mitzvah, and the Stalj

Best Men

Dancin' all night long!!

Conant guys....FUN TIME GUYS!

Kristi and Famous Dave playing drunken air guitar. Kristi stole that raquet from the bar, then left it in the hotel room registered to our names. Not a very good theif!

The Ladies...Kristi, Scha-Whitney, Dawn, and Skurlacker

Dead Rouse...don't even think about taking his beer!

Beau in his tux the next morning (already 90 degrees out), since he didn't pack anything to change into.

Crows @ Red Rocks

Saw Counting Crows and the Foo Foo Dolls at Red Rocks. Good show - although I kinda wanted to kill myself after all the sad music. Highlight: unexpected setlist change to add "Friend of the Devil"

Fourth of July Weekend

After a nice bicycle ride and bottle of wine shared by the Platte River, Kristi and I decided to stop by Mattina, a deli that coincidentally serves $6 pitchers of Bud...we drank a few!Kristi thought that it might be hurmorous to taunt me while I waited for what turned out to be one of the nastiest cheeseburgers I've ever had. One of the benefits of living in the Ballpark Lofts...free view of the fireworks show from the comfort of our own balcony!

Where the Women Instinctively Flock Like the Salmon of Capistrano

Aspen. Full Tuxedos and Prada stores.Independence Pass back to Denver. One lane yet two-way traffic...
Check out all that snow in July! 14ers surrounding us - and even fresh ski tracks in the snow!!
We're at 12,000 feet here, insane to look over and be in line with the surrounding mountains. The one to the left is Mount Elbert - the highest point in Colorado and the second-highest point in the 48 contiguous states: 14,440'.
Twin Lakes outside of Leadville, the home the $6 filet mignon. That fence went on for-ev-er!

Self-Sustainable Living-Carbondale, CO

On our way to Aspen, we stopped by Jammin' Jim's house in Carbondale, CO. He lives on the other side of a river which you must cross via a bridge made of a few logs bound together with iron plates. Jammin' juggles for a living at events and parties in and around Aspen. He says that his community hopes to be completely self-sustainable within the next three years.

This is a view of his house from the front

This is the back of his house. He hosts a garden in his backyard with everything from carrots to spinach. Jammin doesn't eat meat and uses his garden every day to season his meals which often consist of fresh fish caught in the river nearby.

This is the view from his back balcony, which overlooks the river we crossed to get there. Jammin's community is right in the foothills and is often visited by the local bear who loves to eat their leftovers

Weekend in Glennwood Springs

Glenwood Springs is located approximately 3 hours west of Denver on the other side of the mountains. Founded in the 1800's, it is the home to natural hot springs and the final resting place of Doc Holiday

This pool contains water filtered in from the natural hot springs. The water is 124 degrees before it is filtered, cooled down (to about 95-100), and poured into the pool.

Another cool view. It was literally Meineke with pee-warm water.

This is the view from the backyard of Bonk's (girl we stayed with) house

Quite a change from throwing bags in a back alley in Wrigleyville! ]Joe hanging out in the Bean-Bag bleacher section