August 12 marked the third annual B-Shift (with some C-Shifters invited as well) Waterworld Excursion. It’s a day of slides, rides, challenges, and burns….yea, despite two applications of sun screen, sunburn seemingly was applied better. This year, the Waterworld challenge was made a little different: eat a full funnel cake, drink a 20oz Pepsi, then starting at the beach, sprint to the deep end of the wave pool and stay there for a complete wave session, the break between, then another complete wave session….all without touching bottom or the wall. There were a few sick faces….but it’s always fun.

Only one place that I know of where you can find these two items at the same time….your fair…..and we hit our county fair this afternoon. Yup, we found ourselves immersed into the world of pig, rooster, rabbit, funnel cake, tractor pulls, cow herding, sliding, and swinging. It was all a lot of fun (except for the swing….dizzy, and that’s not good on a full stomach), but it was especially fun to see Ezra discovering all of the animals. He took his first merry-go-round ride and was a little skeptical. He rode the slide – twice – and seemed to enjoy that. Ahna and I rode the swings and almost puked. Ahh, a day at the fair. If I could only get that smell out of my nose….

I met up with a friend this morning, and the three of us (Ezra) went to the morning practice session of the Denver Broncos training camp. Their facility is located just about 20 minutes from where we live, and it’s something of a wonder why a nearly-life-long Broncos fan has never made it to training camp before this morning. Wonder no more.

We arrived at the facility at 845am, which is when the practice started — it’s free and open to the public. We were thinking: Monday morning, morning practice, second week of camp, etc….no problems. Wrong. The main parking lot was full so we had to park across the street and down another. We walked into the camp and were immediately accosted about my camera being a ‘professional camera,’ to which I argued to no avail.  The stroller and camera had to be left at the entrance (thus the camera phone shots). We proceeded to walk down to the field and the grass where the fans are allowed to sit….I am guessing about 3000+ of them.

Since the practice had already begun, we had the chance to see the players up close and personal as we walked to our ‘seats’….like about 10 feet from them. The cool part of the experience ends here. We quickly realized that it was just a practice. No seriously, just a practice. A little light running, light drills – no contact, some lunges, some meetings, etc, etc. Nothing exciting or worth while. Which allowed our conversation to turn very quickly to wondering about all of the people being there. Take out the folks like us who where there as first timers and could now ‘check that off of the list.’ Take out the families with kids who were there for the autograph session after the practice. You’re left with a whole slew of people cheering during the shuttle drills, applauding during the passing drills, and ooo-ing and aaah-ing during the 7-on-7 drills. Who the heck are these people? Why aren’t they at work? I have one word to describe them: over-obsessive-loser-fans.

Okay, enough of that. Here are the exciting pictures (yea, that was our view…in an attempt to stay in the shade, and because we got there so late).

We met up this noon time with some friends in Washington Park for a picnic. Ezra and Barrett have spent some time together before – remember the trip to the casino, St. Mary’s Glacier, and the A-Basin bar? It was a beautiful day outside, well, in the shade; and we had a great time. It’s so fun to see the kiddos growing up….

So after spending a day and a half at the farm, it was time to head back towards the cities….oh, did I mention the weather? It has been nothing short of remarkable. Daytime highs in the mid-70’s, wind, a little clouds, and a rain drop or three. IE: not what you would expect in this area at this time of the year. It certainly made everything a little less sweaty, sort of.

Matthew needed to be back in the cities for some business, so we took this opportunity to spend a little extra time with them, as well as with Grandma and Grandpa. On Monday afternoon we headed over to the Como Park Zoo to visit with the animals for a little while. It’s a zoo and conservatory in the middle of Como Park, and is free (donation recommended) to all comers. It was a real pleasent stroll around the grounds, and we ended in the butterfly building – and we can now attest to the fact that you can in fact have thousands of butterflies in a small area. They were everywhere; landing on us, on the ground, on the camera lens, etc. Of course, they make good photography subjects, and they made me want a longer/macro lens….

First, here is the photo (although smaller, because it wasn’t e-mailed to me as promised…I had to steal it from another blog….Tori!!) from the Columbine House family reunion last weekend.

Secondly, here are some pictures from a fire that we had at work on Thursday afternoon. Super crazy story as to how it happened….a Park/Rec employee was filling a golf cart with fuel when static buildup from the filling process caused a fire. His shirt caught on fire, he ran. The fire then spread to the golf cart, and to the pickup (which was about 50 feet from the building). As the worker ran away, the fire burned through the brake lines in the truck, and the truck rolled down the hill and into the building. When it hit the building, it ran into the gas meter and that started some small explosions….catching the building on fire. Wew.