rocky mountain highs and lows

Rest easy faithful fans as I have returned.  I spent last night and this morning catching up on all the doings in blog land.

I actually had a pretty good time, all the drama notwithstanding.  Well, the drama wasn’t blatant but you could tell it was rumbling under the surface.  Everyone was on their best behavior except for the niece who was doing what she has done since the day she was born which is to play her parents one against the other and they let her do it.  Neither parent wants to be the parent, they want to be the best friend so the child is spoiled and manipulative.  No wonder they got divorced.  Add a new, no nonsense type wife into the mix who gets blasted from both parents where the child is concerned and, well, I'm sure you get the picture. 

It was fun seeing all the cousins and sister and brothers and spouses, nieces and nephews. uncles and aunts.  Most of us there live here in Houston, one family group from Dallas and Austin, but we really don’t see each other much except at one of these functions.  Still, I’m glad it’s over with, glad to be home.

front door...five toed imperial dragon with flaming pearl

The best part of the trip was the part that came before the event we actually traveled for.  We got in early Wednesday, picked up the rental car.  We drove from Denver down to Colorado Springs to meet the architect that gave us a really great job last year.  He showed us some plans for a few other houses he is working on that he is going to try and get some art glass in.  He arranged for us to go over to the house and see the work we did last year which was really great.  It’s a beautiful house, contemporary Asian style, a very nice aesthetic.  

interior doors

master bath shower and toilet enclosures

shower enclosure

Afterwards, we headed back up to Denver and beyond.  We got caught in a traffic jam, not rush hour, turned out to be a wreck further up, which delayed us some.  Made it up to Boulder where we stopped for a break and called our friends in Nederland just to find out that Billy was there in Boulder getting ready to catch the bus at the station just across the street from where we had stopped.  So we picked him up and headed to his house.  Nederland is a small community about 20 miles up Boulder Canyon in the mountains.  It’s a beautiful and fun drive.  We had a great time with our friends, spent two nights and took two hikes.  

Tomorrow I’m going to post some pictures from the hikes.