2023 was a milestone year for many members in our family. In January, Bruce’s mom, Margie, turned 100 and my niece, Melissa, turned 40. My sister, Janet, and her friend, Trish, hosted a Fiesta 40 party for Melissa and Jamie (who turned 40 the month before, so is technically not one of the milestoners). I wasn’t able to attend, because we were buried in snow. In March, my grandniece, Violet, became a tween when she turned 10. She celebrated her birthday with a scavenger hunt at Target, a mani/pedi at the nail salon, and lunch at Chick-fil-A accompanied by several of her friends.
I celebrated my 70th birthday with a biking road trip across Kansas. I managed to bike 4 different trails, including the Prairie Spirit Trail in Ottawa (which had been on my bucket list since pre-COVID). I ended up in Kansas City where I took advantage of all those burned-off calories with an Oreo cookie jackhammer from Andy’s Frozen Custard. I got my picture taken with Janet’s birthday shirt – her 2023 substitution for the hated sombrero we used to have to wear.
In September, Courtney celebrated her 40th birthday with a trip across Utah. She started in Denver, and she and Bruce drove to Moab. Then she rented a car and headed out on her own. She ended up in Las Vegas where she met some of her friends. I’m going to throw Charlie into the milestone mix, since technically he’s a milestoner, too, being born on June 26th. Yes, we got a dog – a Goldendoodle who keeps us laughing. He loves to dig in the dirt and eat the mulch, but we’re hoping next year he’ll be calm enough to go on hiking trips with us.
I took a few out-of-town trips this year. In March, I went to San Diego to do some sketching and get out of the snow. In July, I went to Chicago to join Courtney in the Urban Sketchers Symposium. In August, I went to see Brian and Amber. Incidentally, Brian celebrated his half-milestone birthday (he turned 45). In October, I went to St Louis to see some of my teacher and robotics friends. Notice I seem to have a beer and ice cream theme going on in many of these photos…
Bruce and I spent a big chunk of the year xeriscaping our yard. We got a grant from the city of Aurora to rip out our grass lawn and replace it with a desert-style landscape. So we spent most of the spring and summer building a cobblestone creek bed, a fence, and some low retaining walls. We put in hundreds of drought-tolerant plants and hauled in tons (literally) of rock, mulch, and boulders. It was a lot of back-breaking work, but it was really nice this summer not to have to mow the grass.
We had a very long winter with lots of ice which really interfered with my outdoor activities, but I did manage to go snowshoeing a couple times and do a little winter hiking (wearing ice cleats of course). But when summer finally arrived, I went out biking at least a couple times a week. One week, the Bike Club went up to Frisco and rode to Breckenridge and back. The mountain views were gorgeous, but the air was considerably thinner than in Denver. I set a goal to bike the entire Highline Canal Trail and finished all 71 miles, except the few miles that were under construction. I participated in the neighborhood 5K and joined the Walking Club. Janet and I did several virtual walking challenges, including the 485-mile long Colorado Trail. I didn’t quite meet her 3,000,000-step goal, but I did manage to finish the year with 2,954,047 (that’s almost 1,500 miles!).
I continue to enjoy the neighborhood clubs. I taught the Craft Club how to do watercolor travel sketching, organized a movie trip to see 80 for Brady with the Girls Just Want to Have Fun Club, and gave a demo on Lego robotics tournaments to the Geek Club. I ran the volunteers for the Pickleball Round Robins over the summer and joined the Baking Club. I know it sounds like a lot, but my participation in these clubs isn’t very regular. My 2 favorite clubs are still the Biking Club and the Ladies Out to Lunch. So that’s 2023 in a nutshell. I tell you, living in this 55+ neighborhood is like being on one long giant cruise.
