Denver

Chad and I went on another road trip this weekend to the Southwest Classic AAU Basketball Tournament in Thornton, Colorado.  I was a little bit worried when Chad was running a high fever two nights before the trip was scheduled, but he dragged himself from his deathbed to take one for the team (and because he was just a little bit excited about his first out of town tournament).  I promised Chad that we would find a non-chain restaurant to eat lunch at.  Sam always makes him eat at Subway or Taco Bell when they travel together but we were feeling much too adventurous to eat somewhere that boring.  So, here he is in Pueblo at Auntie Bev's Cafe waiting for a hamburger that was really quite awesome.  If you're driving through the Pueblo historic district, we highly recommend it.

And here Chad is in one of his uniforms.  He is quite proud of it, I must say.  I think he even stroked the fabric when he first got it.  The team played four games and lost all of them.  (You would not believe the skill level of some of the teams who come to these tournaments.)  But I didn't really care, because I was so mad at Chad's coach for only letting him play about 1 minute per half during the first couple of games.  I had a mini-melt down after game #2 and went to the bathroom to cry.  It was terribly embarrassing, especially because one of the other moms saw me.  Luckily, she sympathized and said she was about to murder the coach herself if he did not keep forcing half of the team to warm the bench for the majority of the game while trying to give the other half cardiac arrest.  What's the point of having 12 boys on your team if you're only going to play 6 of them, I ask you?  When the third game came along, Chad was furious by the time he went into the game.  Lucikly, that tends to make him quite aggressive so he went in, took a charge and made two baskets in quick succession - thus, ensuring himself a bit more time on the court for the rest of that game and the next.  But, in case you're wondering, I'm still mad.

And here is Chad at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  We'd never gone before but the rest of the team was going together so we decided to give it a try.  I loved the decorations and ambience.  I felt like I'd gone straight back into the early 1900's.  If only we hadn't had to park in downtown Denver.  Holy Cow, that is one seriously sprawling city.  We liked it though and I especially liked seeing Lyssa and her family in their fabulous 1912 home.  What a fun tour I got.  Thanks, Lyss!