Summer 2026

Tyler's bestie, Nolan, moved to Virginia at the end of June. 😭 We made sure they got in some good bonding time together in early June. Auntie Malia gave us these Harry Potter 3D puzzles years ago, and the boys spent several hours working on them while Allison attended a summer Math League sponsored by her school district. 

We also took Nolan with us when we went to Elevate Trampoline park. Here are the kids falling into the giant pillow.

And Allison on the jumping video game. I really wish we could have something like this at home.

Oscar joined up with a group that needed one more runner for a relay race in Aspen. They were a team coming from Seattle who wanted to try doing a mountain race.

One of the runners celebrated a birthday on their final day, and the other group members bought her this unicorn balloon bundle. She couldn't keep it since she was flying home, so Oscar brought it back for Allison. She put on her unicorn clothes and got a picture with it.

We went on our trip to Missouri during mid June, and we got home the last day before Nolan moved. They got in a few hours of time at our house before we said our goodbyes.

On July 3rd I took Allison and her bestie, Aspen, to Elitch Gardens. It was busy! July 4th was on a Saturday this year, so it was a work holiday for many people. Our line to get in the park was REALLY long, but our lines in the park weren't too bad. I've learned the best choice is to go to the water park first. Most people save the water park for the hottest part of the day, so water park lines aren't too bad during the first couple hours of the day. 

After our water fun, we went into the theme park for some dry fun. The two of them rode the Tilt-a-Whirl around 5 times. 

We finished up on the kids' coaster, which they waited a pretty long line for. They wanted to stay longer, but I had taken a motion sickness medicine that was making me drowsy, and I had a long drive home. I was having problems staying awake sitting on a bench while I waited for them to ride.

In early July we took care of a little doggy for our friends the Fellows family while they were out of town. They also have a much larger dog, who stayed with Tyler's friend Thomas and his family. We briefly reunited them and took them for a walk together on Sunday the 5th.

Fireworks were cancelled this year due to Colorado wildfires, but plenty of people in the neighborhood still set them off. Tyler and I enjoyed a 360 degree show as we jumped on the trampoline. 

It took us over two months to put the pack n play away from the Havertz family visit. The basement is cold, so we kept using it as blanket storage. The Deacons came over one night for a video game activity, and Tyler hopped in the pack and play and played Mario Kart on his knees. He also created a way to open his curtains by creating a knob for them next to his bed.

On July 10th Tyler and I had a big fun day in Denver. I'd purchased tickets to a Harry Potter Drone Art show that evening, and we decided to make the most of our day in Denver before it started. First we went to the Denver Temple for a 9:00am baptisms session. It was a lovely, peaceful way to start our morning. We then went to Elitch Gardens. We did the water park plus a few rides, though they had a lot of operational issues with ride delays, and Tyler didn't want to stay there any longer. He changed into his Harry Potter matriosha doll t-shirt before we left. He hadn't liked what I'd pick up for lunch with my meal plan at the theme park, so I took him to the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A and let him get whatever he wanted. He ordered a 30 piece nugget and ate them all! It was about 4pm by the time we got there, so he was essentially eating both lunch and dinner.

After eating we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where we toured the Dinosaur exhibit and wandered the other exhibit halls. Tyler for scale of how large this dinosaur was. I liked how they put a projection on the dinosaur's body. They also did that with the elephant exhibit we saw here in Januray.

But the main reason we went to the museum was to see the Kpop Demon Hunters laser light show. It was amazing! Tyler was just enthralled! It was so good I was nearly in tears!

I pulled this video off Youtube from a recording made at the Pacific Science center in Seattle. The kids singing along are pretty loud in this video, but you can still get a good idea of what we were seeing. There were plenty of kids in our theater too, but they weren't singing along loudly during the show. It's also MUCH more immersive and mesmerizing to watch in person than to watch it on Youtube.

From there we drove down to the drone show. They opened a couple hours before the show started. Tyler played his tablet while I grabbed myself some Indian food and picked us up drinks at a beverage vendor with this fun beverage menu. The Butterbeer was awful! I was expecting a creamy drink like you'd get at the Universal parks, but it was basically just club soda with butterscotch syrup and not nearly enough of it. Fortunately Love Potion was delicious! The coconut cream was such a nice touch I may need to start adding it to all my drinks. On the show's website they'd advertised there would be Harry Potter treats, but I was disappointed that it was all packaged stuff you can easily find in stores (chocolate frogs/Bertie botts beans/etc.). I was hoping for some unique Harry Potter themed food and baked goods similar to what you'd find at the Universal theme parks.  

Fortunately that was my only disappointment of the evening. About 20 minutes before the show started, they did a pre-show sponsored by Audible to give us a taste of what was coming.

The drone show was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen! It completely blew us away. Seeing this made me want to watch more drone shows, especially immersive themed shows like this. They had Harry Potter movie music playing in the background including a live violinist with a glowing violin bow. They also gave us LED bracelets that glowed in multiple colors in sync with the show.

The pictures are great, so much better than what you would get from fireworks, but they still don't do it justice. If drone shows are the wave of the future gradually replacing or reducing fireworks, I'm all for it. 

Oscar sent a text saying "feel free to get a hotel" if I was too tired to drive back home, but I was totally fine. Tyler slept a bit in the car, but I was still so stimulated from the show that my mind was wired. I even struggled to fall asleep that evening and had to take sleep medicine to settle my brain. 

Back home the kids started a Pickleball League, we picked up a large dog kennel to turn into a future Catio for future cats, and we got another ground squirrel stuck in the window well. This has started happening frequently enough that Oscar has built little ramps for them to get out. This one took a bit to figure it out. He kept trying to jump and climb up the sides.

And I was finally able to perform the Norma Scene with the Vocal Arts Festival that I'd missed out on due to illness last year. Unfortunately Tiffany, who was the original Norma, had to bail for a family emergency the day after the Vocal Arts Festival began. Martile reached out to a student of hers in Denver, Michelle, who'd performed half of this same scene 20 years ago when she was doing the Vocal Arts Festival. Michelle used her music since it's too difficult of a scene to learn and memorize in the brief time she had, but she came through and saved the day. She also had a family emergency come up on Saturday and was asked to fly to California ASAP, but she delayed her flight until Monday so she could perform with me on Sunday. I am tremendously grateful to her for making that sacrifice, and I also hope I can still perform the scene with Tiffany someday. 

This is the beginning of the scene where I'm worried seeing how pale Norma looks. I'm then horrified when she says she's going to kill herself before asking me to care for her children. Kennedy, another participant in the festival, took fantastic photos at the dress rehearsal! I thanked her and told her how impressed I was with them, and she told me she spent years wanting to be a professional photographer. She really has talent!

Here's me refusing to marry Pollione and regretting coming between him and Norma

This is Norma begging me to take her children and my conflict at the situation.

Here's me telling Norma to keep her children and reassuring her that I will convince Pollione to come back to her and all will be well. The photos that aren't as high quality are the ones Oscar took of me during the actual performance. In his defense he was sitting off to the side while Kennedy was front and center. 

This was my favorite photo! Such a perfect opera singer shot!

Here we are singing the beautiful "Mira O Norma" duet followed by rejoicing together when Norma decides not to kill herself.

Oscar took these photos during the bows after our performance. The audience, which was much bigger than the other times I've performed with the vocal arts festival, was VERY receptive! Steve had explained how the scene was "cursed" before it began, and everyone was dying to see what all this cursed scene entailed. They appreciated me for finally doing this scene after illness and delaying it over a year, and they appreciated Michelle for preparing and performing last minute. We couldn't have asked for a better audience. 

Here are a few clips from most of the other scenes. I took photos after I changed and sat down in the balcony to watch my colleagues. 

I only participated in the one scene this year to be on the safe side health wise, but I'm in a much better place with my CLL these days and likely could have done all 3 weeks without a problem. I didn't attend the 2nd week's scenes since we were traveling, but I did attend the final week. It was well done, and the hall was once again packed with more people than I've ever seen there. Opera Theater of the Rockies must be doing some great advertising these days!