Denver with the Dixes

Tamara asked me to do a blog post, apparently it's been a while. Over Memorial Day weekend we made our inaugural trip to Denver to visit the Dixes and experience the newest hate free zone we've been creating across the country. They've settled down there, we hadn't met their newest baby Camille, and we're pretty sure Warren had forgotten about us. Since the Nuggets were still playing I also hoped we'd run into the Birdman. As a shock to just about nobody, we had a great time. Let me run through some of the highlights. Dix and I went running through the backyards of some of the rich people in Denver. Very impressive. Then we sat around and were awesome for awhile. After that, we headed to downtown Denver. They blocked off a bunch of blocks from cars so you can walk around. Except buses come speeding through on a regular basis so it's not as though you can just hang out in the middle of the street. Stephanie and Tamara went to a chocolate store while Warren chased pigeons and played in the dirt. There was an art festival going on. I questioned an artist about some of her questionable techniques and Dix criticized artists for displaying simplified Chinese characters backwards. We really impressed ourselves. For lunch we killed a huge plate of nachos and a burrito the size of a bowling pin.
Though she doesn't read this, big shout out to Taylor's cousin for baby sitting for us so we could go to Dave and Buster's. It was my maiden voyage and I realized what a mistake I had been making all these years by not going. Taylor spent a lot of time racing heavily modified cars, motorcycles, and helicopters. Stephanie and Tamara were busy playing a game they couldn't explain to us but it spit out tickets. We decided to help them out so we went to the trivia game and took tickets from the four nice ladies sitting next to us. For four rounds. Then they realized we were a force to be reckoned with and left. S&T were on a roll with the tickets so we headed to a game where you get tickets for every quarter you push over the ledge. Very challenging. Apparently banging the machine to aid the quarters going over is looked down upon in Denver. I base this solely on the looks people gave me. I believe it was around this time that S&T made noises about winning blenders which were 4400 tickets each. Even with fake money that's a lot. Somehow they got really close, usurped my card and the last few games I wanted to play, won more tickets at the unexplained game and won two blenders. I've been excited by a few things about this, but this level of enjoyment was something else. There were several (yet unfulfilled) promises about how often these would be used. It also reminded me how much fun arcades and other forms of juveline entertainment can be.

The next day we went to Red Rocks after church. We were serenated by some aging hippies, with a Willie Nelson look-a-like, playing african drums. Their younger leader was wearing a purple tank top and jorts and was pretty entertaining, though not for the intended reasons. I think I had seen him with the renaissance group at BYU, battling with that guy with the red moustache. Apparently it's a pretty popular place to run up the stairs and there was a tremendous amount of spandex around. Somehow, Warren found puddles to jump in. We drove home in the most amazing downpour I've ever been part of. It was really freaking impressive. After that, we sat around and were hysterical. At some point right before we left, Warren even decided he liked us, which was a hard fought battle. I'm going to highly recommend Denver for anyone who's thought about going. It's almost a hidden secret how cool it is, much like Jamal. While we never did see the Birdman, the trip was a raging, though too short, success.