Friday after work, Lexi and I stopped in to a Final Friday show at CityArts, where Chance Armstrong had his finger paintings on display. Chance is a 2-year-old artist I wrote about last month who is financing various therapies by selling his finger paintings.
Lexi was more interested in the refreshments than the art.
Baby No. 2 is on the way for my friend Amy D., and today, Jill and I threw a little shower for her at my house.
The shower was Jill's idea, but because she's a JoCo resident now, she needed a local venue that would hold all these people.
The knitters in the group (which does not include moi) spent much of the shower making squares that Jill will later assemble into a baby blanket.
Said squares.
Hannah T. kept the little guests corralled in the back room most of the morning, and presided over their cake eating activities as well. The very day her mom decides she's old enough to babysit, she is so hired.
Tonight, as she often does, Jaime joined us. We agree that our walks are much more fun now that Lexi is actually willing to WALK on the walks.
The lady on the left kindly requests that you do NOT step on her shadow.
Mmmmm. Roughage.
These days, the walks take quite a while because Lexi also takes time for a little nature discovery. Here, she displays some prized plant matter she found on the ground.
And she somehow snuck this "magic stick" in the house tonight.
Nick, Lexi, mom and I drove to Denver Tuesday, where we picked up my aunt Cathy and cousins Katie, 17, and Taylor Anne, 19, who'd flown in from Joplin. We all crammed into the van (a tight fit with seven people's worth of luggage and ski stuff) and drove the hour and a half to Winter Park.
While the rest of us went skiing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Grammy stayed back at our condo with Lexi. I could not be more grateful to her for allowing me this time to ski uninterrupted, but she claimed to be happy to be doing it. Here they are on one of many snowball throwing outings.
It wasn't yellow.
Here's our condo -- Beaver Creek condominiums. Ours was a nice one. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, recently remodeled. We were in the unit on the far right, just above the snowbank.
I see a bad moon rising on Nick's forehead -- the result of forgotten sunscreen on our first day of sunny spring skiing. Look for it Monday.
It didn't say sunny the whole trip, but it did stay relatively warm, considering that Jaime, Nick and I are accustomed to sub-zero, crowd-free February skiing. I'll take the crowds. Here, Katie, Cathy and Taylor pose after holding up the lodge. Cathy wants this for their Christmas card.
Back at the ranch, more snowball throwing.
And snowman building.
We didn't have any carrots.
The next morning, Lexi took a brief break from Play-Doh to check on her snowman's well-being out the window.
A few notes about skiing. Both my cousins skied for the first time on Wednesday, and both picked it up immediately with very minimal instruction from me and Nick. But Katie, 17, is truly a natural skiier. By Friday, she was accompanying me on very ill-advised black runs, like the one pictured above. I'm still amazed we survived.
Can't wait until next year.
Part of our purpose was to persuade the guy to let us do a story on him. We failed, but I'm only sorta sorry. A story in the Eagle would destroy what he's doing (which TECHNICALLY is not on the up-and-up.) And what he's doing is pretty amazing.
This is the house. It's in Indian Hills. Doesn't look like a restaurant, does it?
This is the chef. He's a pretty interesting guy. He's remodeled his kitchen into a professional-grade workspace. Behind Joe's left shoulder is an eight-range gas pro-quality stove. 
Here's our first course -- Diver sea scallop ceviche, which was friggin awesome.
The main course was a churrasco ribeye with chimichurri sauce. My flash doesn't do it justice. I'm sorry I won't be doing this story, but not sorry that I'll be going back soon.
I'm not sure what this is all about, exactly, except that Sierra has to throw a crapload of parties, find a crapload of cute outfits to wear, and raise a crapload of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Tonight's event was a wine tasting at Joe Self BMW. I didn't realize until we arrived, by my dentist is also running for Man of the Year, and he and Sierra were sharing this event. My hygenist, Sandy was there. I love Sandy! We have so much in common but, sadly, we never get to talk because my mouth is full of floss and pokey tools and fluoride.
One of the items being auctioned off was this adorable puppy. But no one was bidding. This made me uncomfortable, plus Carrie was hot, we all were hungry, and Robin knew too many people at the party. We took the opportunity to scram.
Shortly after this was taken, I was dining on Bang Bang shrimp at Bonefish Grill with these women of the year.
It started Friday night, when we drove to Derby after school to play with Kyle, collect Lexi's present from Kyle (a My First Leap Pad!!!), run around like a nut with Kyle and say goodbye to Kyle's sold house.
Saturday morning, we headed to Joe's house in Jo.Co. so Lexi and her cousin could celebrate their shared birthday. (She was born the morning of his 1st birthday party.) They also shared a cake. Four candles on one side, three on the other.
Grammy and Grandpa were there, so there was yet another round of presents.
Lexi loves this disembodied Barbie head Joe and Jack gave her. The blue headband, though, has been on Lexi's head since this picture was taken.
I'm pretty sure Lexi had a great 3rd birthday. I only wish she could remember it past next week. Who knows? Maybe she will. I think my memories begin somewhere around age 3.
It started out this morning when I took her to school, armed with 15 sprinkle-covered cupcakes and some slinkie toys to pass out to her friends, who include the wonderful if a little bitey Emma and the earnestly charming Braden.
After school, we went out to dinner. Lexi got to pick, and she picked cheeseburgers.
Since it was her birthday, she got fries instead of veggies. Lucky.
When we got home, there were a few more presents. She got an awesome dance ribbon (which she LOVED) and some Play-Doh from Jack and Hannah, who were kept away from the party by a stubborn flu bug.
We got her a Moon Sand set. This stuff is a messy, awful invention, but she loves it.
Today, we took Nick's parents Wendy and Fred...
... and Lexi's new bunny, Bunny, out to brunch at the Eaton Steakhouse, where there's so much natural light it's nearly impossible to take a bad picture.
Last week, when Diane and Lori and I were lunching at the Eaton, the maitre d' pointed out what he said was Kirstie Alley's table. We were seated at that table today, and halfway through brunch, that same maitre d' came over, grinning widely, and whispered to me that Kirstie was there and was none too happy that we had her table. She got stuck in the corner. That's her with the long hair, back to us.
The food was so good. I had the eggs Benedict, although I forced myself to only eat one of those mounds of heaven on accounta I had to meet the girls for a Zumba class at Genesis an hour later.
Nick ordered this mascarpone cheese-stuffed crepe, which was definitely more dessert than breakfast.
Speaking of dessert, the Eaton has a pastry chef who is quite skilled with a frosting tip. Pictured above are not roses but rows of cupcakes.
How the hell...
...does she do that?????
