Family

Experiencing the Broncos Combine

Experiencing the Broncos Combine

Romey

Earlier this month, the girls, our friend Brett, and I got to experience the Broncos Season Ticket Member Combine, where we got to take the field of Mile High Stadium and test our football-related skills. I’m grateful that I caught the email advertising this free event for Eason ticket holders and that I had the girls that weekend. There was a point earlier in the week when the girls had zero interest in going, seeing it as a frivolous trip to Denver; my middle schooler finally agreed to go but said she wouldn’t do any of the activities.

Days before, we had unseasonably warm weather, but with temperatures returning to normal and the highs in the 40s, I was worried that it would be too cold for us to enjoy it.

We rolled in and got to go directly into the lower tunnel entrance that’s typically gated off.

Once inside, we got to experience the Visiting Team Locker Room, which we were told “isn’t quite as nice”. The girls were blown away by the size, saying that the locker room was larger than our entire house. As you leave the locker room, you’re greeted with a wall reminding you of Mile High’s elevation.

After rounding the corner, we had direct access to the field through the Visitors Tunnel. It was cute watching the girls stage their entrance into the field.

Taking to the field at Mile High

Different stations were set up throughout the field, starting with the 40-yard dash. All of us tried it. Mariana ran it in about 11 seconds, and Clara clocked in at 7.25 seconds, beating me at 7.59 seconds.

Mariana running the 40-yard dash
Clara running the 40-yard dash

They also had an inflatable field goalpost and passing station, and the girls tried their hand at both and then saw how long and far they could jump. While Mariana was jumping, a photographer came by and snapped a photo, which is included in the recap email sent to all of the season ticket holders!

One of the neatest aspects of this event was bringing your football and playing in the middle of the field. The euphoria of being out in the field made up for my lack of skill. It was fun getting our shots and working on our touchdown dances.

Touchdown Celebrations:

We tried our hand at kicking some field goals, demonstrating that it’s absolutely harder than it looks.

The girls tried their hand at the 3-cone drill, running back and forth between three spaced cones. The last field activity was attempting to catch a punt. After watching grown men who struggled at it, Clara caught the punt on the first try!

We returned to the concourse and met former Broncos running back Gene Lang, who graciously signed their football, saw the Super Bowl trophies, the Broncos locker room from an outside window, the uniforms, the former injury cart, a throne, and a miniature Bucky statue.

We were blessed to experience it, and I’m grateful that the girls were receptive to trying all the different drills. Not many get to experience the field of that stadium, and we took away many unforgettable memories from the day.

Revamping Our Movie Room

Revamping Our Movie Room

Romey

When I was house-hunting thirteen years ago, one of the selling points of our chosen home was the finished basement, with a partially-divided large room that would become a fixture for entertaining guests. In the first decade of raising a family here, the room has served us well, especially being able to fill the game room with fun activities and sports memorabilia. The Movie/TV Room however, had changed very little after moving the original sectional that was previously in our townhome living room. The most recent update was adding the nursery leather recliner.

The “Before” photo of the basement movie room

Last summer, however, an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up fell into my lap. As a (very bad) habit, I troll estate sale auction sites for deals, when I found a set of 6 theater room-style recliners that were in great shape, especially when you consider it’s going to a family with tweens and doesn’t want to stress about keeping them pristine. Including the trailer rental, I was able to get all six of them them home for less than $125.

In order to maximize the theater experience, I wanted the back three chairs to be elevated over the heads of the front three. My sister, Christina, and brother-in-law, Tony, gifted me with the lumber (and Tony’s help) in building a platform, using 2×8’s and floor-graded plywood. We cut the wood in the garage and built it right downstairs, then painted it and used adhesive panel carpet for the surface. I applied some led-strip lighting under the small overhang for the finishing touches.

Now that we constructed the platform, we had the excruciating task of carrying the chairs downstairs and setting up the room. Attaching that final chair was a rewarding experience, but it quickly became apparent that the TV, previously on a stand, needed to be mounted on the wall.

While we were at it, I also wanted to focus on darkening the room, replacing the TV-backed maroon wall with Tuxedo Black, as well as some black-out curtains.

The space was starting to come together, but something was still missing. While watching movies is great, I also wanted the room to serve as an entertainment hub in our house during sporting events: “sports bar mode.” To enable this mode, I installed an HDMI splitter and threaded a long HDMI cable behind the wall so that it comes out behind the TV in the game room. This enables the TVs to be in sync when watching sporting events through streaming (both TVs are typically in sync when we watch over-the-air broadcasts).

We could comfortably seat six in the theater chairs, then two more at the bar, but I went back on the hunt to see if I could find a bar-height table behind the theater seating so that people could eat, play a game, or have seat extra people. It took months of trolling Marketplace and Estate Auctions, but I finally found two small tables that fit the bill. Shannon was kind enough to help me get them down the stairs and set up. They are the perfect height to go behind the recliners.

The last piece of the puzzle was building a candy wall. I found the idea on Pinterest and bought a floating frame, peg board, and shelf hooks. I built it over the weekend and had the surprise ready for the girls when they returned on Monday. I’m lucky that the girls like the idea of candy more than the actual candy. They’ve held to the rules we’ve established about only having candy while watching movies and sports.

After over six months of active work (and years of dreaming), here is how the room has turned out (so far).

A panoramic photo of the game room and movie room. Left o right: Arcade, air hockey table, pool table, bar, theater recliners, two bar-height chairs
Santa comes early for divorced families

Santa comes early for divorced families

Romey

Last week, Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” came back into my life through this Reel/clip of Phil Collins recording the drum tracks for this song. Despite having an ear for drums in songs, I never really appreciated the intricacy of Collins’ part. I can relate to the faces he makes while recording the track.

This is a terrible Christmas song by any means. As much as I admire their desire to give their time and talent to a noble cause, the lyrics are problematic. “Well tonight thank God it’s them/ instead of you” doesn’t ring of holiday cheer. However, I’ve been reflecting on this song, my feelings about this time of year, and its resonance with me.

With my divorce, this will be the second time I won’t be able to be with my daughters on Christmas week. When I experienced this for the first time two years ago, I ended up spending most of the day in bed with crippling sadness. During the previous year, my wife was unraveling our marriage through infidelity, which was at its peak in December. While I didn’t know what exactly was happening at the time, I was desperately trying to save our marriage and shield our kids from home distress. Christmas in the 2020’s have been marred with challenge.

I have yet to find an effective way to counter this struggle, but I have learned that I must start by allowing myself to “feel my feelings” and then find more effective ways to channel them. Lately, it’s been biking on the Peloton.

Two years ago, when I was going through this for the first time, their mom and I agreed that Santa would visit her house and contribute to the “Santa” gifts that would be opened at her home on Christmas morning. Feeling left out, I ended up buying a few extra “from dad” gifts that awaited them upon their return on the second week of Christmas break. When they spent Christmas at my house last year, I handled all of the “Santa” gifts.

This year, I asked the girls how they would like to handle Santa’s gifts, offering the possibility of celebrating the weekend before if they’re like that.

“I think Santa makes some trips before Christmas for families with divorced parents.” Santa visited our house on Friday night, delivering some early Christmas magic.

This morning, I had to hug the girls goodbye for the week. While I’m still working through the season’s sadness, I’m grateful for the grace given to our little family and the ability to share in these experiences, regardless of the day. When I shared this picture with my family, my brother-in-law beautifully responded, “Santa’s got a big heart and always thinks of everyone’s situation.”

I want to think that time will make this easier, but I have my doubts. In the meantime, I appreciate everyone in my life who meet me where I’m at and help me through this season.

Balderramas in California 2024: Ride Reviews

Balderramas in California 2024: Ride Reviews

Romey

As I wrap up my posts about our California trip, I wanted to share a fun video I put together. After many rides at Disneyland, I made a point to briefly interview my daughters to see what they thought of each ride. I hope it’ll be fun for their future versions to reflect on this as a bit of a time capsule and relive some memories. However, some of this was too cute to sit on, so I hope they don’t mind indulging me in sharing this. In the video, there’s one ride where Mariana was absolutely not a fan. Enjoy!

Mariana’s New Bedroom!

Romey

Last weekend, we took on the weekend project of re-imagining Mariana’s bedroom. This has been her bedroom since her birth, but before that, it was also Clara’s nursery. While upgrades have been made to her room over the years, her room has still been virtually based on the same color scheme and layout up to this point.

A baby nursery with blue walls, a pink stripe on the salls, a brown chair and a wooden crib.
Clara’s Nursery back in 2013
Mariana standing in her blue room with a pink stripe, filled with a bed, table, desk, and toys everywhere.
Mariana’s room in 2022 (it normally wasn’t this messy, but she created one of her many shops out of her room).

With Clara being busy at a dance competition all weekend, this was a great opportunity for Mariana and me to be productive in the house. Mariana picked out the colors, and we took to Pinterest to get some ideas. After exploring many options, Mariana narrowed her choice down to a grey bedroom with a light blue accent wall, rejecting complex shapes and patterns that were floated to her.

The project went into full force last Wednesday when I took all of the furniture out of her room (Maraina was with her mom for the next two nights).

Mariana's blue room with a pink stripe, mostly empty, with a white bed turned on its side.

The next night I focused on getting everything off of the walls and doing a lot of patching.

The same bedroom, but now with the walls bare and covered in white spackle.

When I got the girls back Friday morning, we picked up the paint and went to town. My mom joined us and both girls were amazing helpers, and we were reminded how satisfying painting can be.

By day’s end, the paint dried enough to set up Mariana’s bed and move some furniture back into the room. She was excited to sleep in this in-progress project.

Mariana (and George, who we’re pet-setting for Shannon) spending the first night in her newly painted room

Saturday came, and Clara spent the day at her dance competition. My mom came over, and the three of us started getting the lights, shelving, wall fixtures, and all of the furnishings into the room. We had a lot of fun playing with string lights, threading them along the ceiling down her dresser wall. We swapped the location of her bed and dresser, and I replaced her nursery dresser with an amazing wooden dresser I got in an estate auction. My mom also replaced Mariana’s desk with a new-to-her desk. I also mounted Mariana’s TV to the wall to open up her dresser space. We tried to be more selective about adding things back into the room, taking the opportunity to de-clutter as much as we can.

Here is the current result, with a few more decorations to add, along with some on-the-wall shelving that will arrive next week.

Mariana's finished bedroom, with grey walls, with a sky-blue wall on the right, her bed, brown dresser, desk, and shelving.

Mariana is excitedto offer a tour:

I’m so very grateful for all the people who helped make this happen: my mom, who helped paint and decorate; Shannon, who helped me get the dresser. Next up: Clara’s room this summer? Stay tuned!