Sweet Titan...

Many of you received an email from Angie earlier letting you know of our painful decision to let Titan move on to the next stage. I'm sure I can not express our true feelings any better than Angie already has, so I will just copy her email here:

Hello All,

As most of you know, our sweet Titan has developed a neurological issue since November of last year. We have decided to let God take over and leave it to his hands. Titan has lived a full, blissful, happy 11 years and it is time where we believe his life isn't quality enough to continue the battle. This decision has been hard not only because we are losing a best friend, but he is mentally fine. As a family, we will lead Titan into another world Saturday morning. He will be deeply missed but we are excited for his journey.

Titan sends his lasting love.

Since Angie's email, we've received a number of replies providing support. Thank everyone of you for you thoughts and prayers. While this has been a difficult decision, we know it is for the best. Titan is being spoiled for the next few days before he goes to his favorite dog park to play with all his new friends. One day we will all be together again.

The Travelling Man

Pictures from NYC

This quarter has been a busy travel one for me. I've been out of town 4 of the past 5 weeks, visiting Mountain View, CA, New York, and Dublin. Travel is one part of my job I really enjoy, but when it all comes at once, it can be overwhelming. Add that to starting the process of selling the house, Angie finishing up school, taking tests, and Alex graduating has proven to be very busy times for us.

Pictures from Dublin

The Graduate!

It's hard to believe Alex's graduation day has finally arrived. Eighteen short years have passed and she has reached that milestone we all remember looking forward to throughout our teenage years.

Debbie and Robert flew in from NC to attend the graduation and we all spent the night at a hotel in Greeley the night before the graduation since the ceremony was at 8AM. Taylor stayed with us at the hotel and we all enjoyed sitting by the pool after dinner. My sister Nancy and my mom stayed at a nearby hotel, so we all met up and headed to the high school the next morning.

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day for the ceremony. The sun was shining and the skies were blue. If anything it was a bit too warm considering there was no shelter from the sun. It could have been much worse if the graduation took place later in the day.

After the ceremony, Michelle and Troy held a graduation party at their home. They cooked most everything, including delicious BBQ. Alex was so excited to be finally done with high school, you could just see the glow on her face. All in all it was truly a great day and I have never been so proud.

Alex recently accepted an appointment to the Air Force Academy prep school and is awaiting to find out when she reports. This has been a long time goal for her and we are all very proud.

WAY TO GO ALEX!!!

Horse Show

Many of Taylor's favorite activities include anything that has anything do with horses. She has been active in 4H over the past few years, nearly always involved in a horse project. Fortunately she has 2 horses she gets to take care of and enjoy. Every time I see her around them, she truly shines and is completely responsible for them.

Today was one of her horse shows, so I went up to Kersey to spend the day attending the events. I didn't get to spend too much time with Taylor, as she was very busy tending to the horses and participating in various events. She did very well, winning several ribbons and even Reserve Grand Champion in one of them.

When the show took a break for lunch, Alex, Taylor and I went to Kersey Pizza and enjoyed lunch together. It was great to spend some time with the busy girls.

Volunteering for Salvation Army

Every once in a while I get an email form the volunteer coordinator at the Salvation Army. My original intent was to volunteer around the holidays, serving food or something like that. It turns out they have many other opportunities throughout the year.

This opportunity came up due to the Avs being in the playoffs. The Pepsi Center solicited the assistance of the Salvation Army to put pom poms on every seat in the house, literally. We took advantage of the opportunity by bringing Sid and her friend Rachael to the event. We spent a couple hours hiking up and down the steps at the Pepsi Center and carefully placing each pom pom on the back of the chairs.

As a special treat, we were also able to see the morning practices for both the Avs and the Sharks, up close and personal. Thanks to our help the Avs won this game. At least that is what I like to think. Unfortunately the luck did not hold up for the remainder of the series.

Spring Break in San Francisco.

A few weeks before Sidney's spring break I found out I was going to be traveling for business to California during that time. Angie and I decided it would be fun for them to tag along and take a mini vacation while I worked.

The night before leaving we received a typical spring snow storm in Denver. We woke up to over a foot of snow (with it still coming down) as we prepared to head to the airport. Along the way, Angie found out that her flight was canceled, but was able to rebook on a different flight leaving around the same time. Instead of a non-stop flight, she had a layover in Reno, just long enough to spend the one dollar she had with her on a slot machine.

The first few days the girls spent some time browsing Castro Street in downtown Mountain View and visiting the famous Winchester Mystery House. Once the weekend rolled around we were able to do things together. We started the weekend out Friday night by going to our good friends' Lance and Katrina's home for grilled steaks and great company.

On Saturday, we drove into the city (San Francisco) for the touristy things like Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and Ghirardelli Square. We enjoyed lunch on the pier and then since it was such a gorgeous day we decided to take the Bay cruise on the Blue and Gold Fleet. The cruise took us under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz.

Sunday was the day for the girls to head home, but not until early evening. We got up a little early, had breakfast and headed to Santa Cruz. While in Santa Cruz we walked along the boardwalk, where Lost Boys was filmed (one of Angie's favorite movies) and relaxed on the beach for a while. Sidney finished up the day by taking a last dip in the hotel pool before I dropped them off at the airport for their trip home.

Spring Break with Taylor

This past week Taylor was on Spring break and decided to come for a visit. It had been a while since she last stayed with us, so we were very excited to have her.

We had an amazing week that started out with one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Los Dos Potrillos because she loves it just as much as the rest of us. It was a real treat.

Angie was happy to have another volunteer for facials and treatments so Taylor got to be pampered. One day Angie took Taylor and Sidney to the mall and yet another day Taylor came to work with me and brought Howie along. She is such an animal lover and has aspirations of becoming a veterinarian, which I think is her perfect calling

In the photo, you can see "movie night" where Sidney and Taylor made a bed in front of the TV and watched Zombieland, which I think may be their new favorite movie. Another night, they watched it again in addition to New Moon, which they both were very excited to come to pay per view.

For the New Moon "premiere" the girls had their friend Rachel over while Angie and I each enjoyed a night out of the house with our friends. Angie had a girls night with Danielle and a couple other ladies, while DJ and I coordinated a last minute poker party at the clubhouse. Sidney and Taylor get along so well most of the time, they truly are sisters.