Frank's 90th Birthday - August 2018

Clayton, Jackie, Frank and Christine

The original plan was to celebrate Frank's 90th birthday at Possum Kingdom.  Unfortunately, he had a brief hospital stint, so he was not quite up to a lake trip.  But, we still got to celebrate the event in Fort Worth.

Shawna was just home from a work trip to Manilla so was unable to make the weekend.  Keith flew in to Dallas from Minneapolis where he was working - Dick picked him up at the airport on the Thursday night.  He was able to work from Colleyville all day Friday.  The Friday night was dinner with Margaret, Owen, Josie, and Keith's parents at Fishtail.  Since dinner was early,we were also able to fit in Crazy Rich Asians at Colleyville Studio Movie Grill before going home - it was a great flick.

Keith woke up with Lily in the house - she had arrived by bus on Friday night but after Keith was fast asleep!  He was able to get a 1.5 hour workout in with Margaret at Lifetime Fitness - there was a spin bike so he could do a Peloton ride via the app.  Margaret dropped him back at home for a shower before heading out for the day's festivities.

Lily, Josie and Margaret

The first stop was lunch at Joe T Garcias - the famous Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth.  There were about 25 people there - the entire Dodds clan (less Boone) was there, plus Christine, Jackie, Clayton, Frank, the Browns, and a handful of others from the retirement community.  Keith sat next to Clayton and caught up with him.  The next stop was over to Trinity Terrace for cake and champagne and a few toasts to Frank.  We wrapped up the evening at 7:30, headed home, and Keith went to bed.

Graham

Keith's flight was Sunday mi-day, so the whole family (again, less Boone) went to Mockingbird Diner for brunch before the flight home.

Colorado - Aug 2018

Booth Lake Trail - Vail

We needed a break from the AZ heat and decided to go to Colorado for a week to work from there, hike and catch up with friends.

Well deserved beer in Vail

We arrived on Friday evening and drove out to Vail for the weekend.  We stayed at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort for two nights.  On Saturday, we hiked the Booth Lake Trail, which is a beautiful 8 mile and 3K elevation gain hike to a gorgeous mountain lake.  We didn't quite make it to the lake, turning around about a mile from it because the altitude started to get to Shawna.  It took us 5 hours to finish - we were quite sore but really enjoyed it. That evening, we went to dinner at Matsuhisa, sharing shishito peppers, yellowtail sashimi, tuna tatake, black cod and lamb chops (which Keith said were the best lamb he has ever had).  Everything was delicious!

Dinner at Matsuhisa 

On Sunday, we had planned on hiking again in Vail but it was raining so we drove back to Denver and instead did a 3.5 hour hike of the Matthews/Winters Park trail.  It took us a bit longer to do this than in times past, mainly due to being still sore from the day before.  We then checked into the apartment where we stayed for the week - a free guest suite at one of Keith's company's properties - Capstone at Vallagio.  The apartment was great with a separate bedroom and office and washer / drier!  That afternoon we saw Eighth Grade which was a bit too slow for our taste and then we grabbed dinner at Mod Market sharing the green chile and the bbq pizza.

Matthews/Winters Park - Denver

During the week, we both worked.  Keith visited properties and Shawna had to fly to New Jersey for two days for a client meeting.  We also both worked out of the apartment.  At night, we caught up with friends.  While Shawna was away, Keith caught up with Keith, Christy and Jennifer.  We both had dinner at Elizabeth and Joe's house where they served yummy steak and couscous.  We also met up with Patrick and Donnel, first having wine at their house and then having dinner at Tap & Dough where we shared brussel sprouts, meatballs, burrata, a salad and a pizza.  On Friday, we had a delicious dinner with Michele and Martin at Ambli, where we shared lobster shooters (which were amazing), tuna sashimi, shrimp, lamb and chicken.

Booth Lake Trail - Vail

On Saturday, we went for a 7 mile, three hour hike in White Ranch Park.  It was a nice moderate hike which we had done once before when we lived there.  That afternoon, we say BlacKkKlansman which was very good.  That night, we met up with Kristina and Jacqui at Tap & Dough where we had many of the same dishes as two nights prior.  We had an early flight back on Sunday, spending the day catching up on work before we both embarked on crazy work travel.

White Ranch Park