Nicaragua Trip

Kelley and I were in Nicaragua last week. We had a super time and learned a lot. One thing we didn't realize is that Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere (only Haiti is poorer).

We spent the first 2 days in a city called Granada which was the first Latin American city established by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500's. We spent a few hours sitting at this table near the main plaza while Kelley painted the yellow Cathedral in the background.

We took a fun boat ride through some small islands on a grand lake near Granada. We wished our nephews could have been with us as we had a visitor during our boat trip. He was very interested in the bananas we brought along.

During the drive from Granada to San Juan del Sur (our primary destination) we made a few short stops. One stop was at an active Volcano in a town called Masaya. (Yes, that is smoke rising out of the volcano...pretty crazy). Masaya was where we had lunch and did some shopping for Nicaraguan crafts.

We then visited a town called Catarina where we took in the beautiful views of the the lake and surround areas. You can see Granada off in the distance.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon to San Juan del Sur and had the chance to catch the sunset.

We started our morning Spanish lessons on Monday morning. Below is a photo of Kelley and here instructor, Christian. Not a bad location to study Spanish...maybe 50 yards from the Pacific Ocean!

Wednesday morning we got up early to hike up to the top of one of the cliffs surrounding San Juan del Sur and we saw that a cruise ship had arrived. Here you can see the cruise ship in the background...behind our friend Jose Rodulfo.

This is the view from the end of our hike. You can see all of San Juan del Sur.

Our last event before departing was to take a horseback ride. We saw some more monkeys during this activity.

This is the family we stayed with in San Juan del Sur. We stayed in a room on the 2nd floor of their home. Our room consisted of a bed and a fan. We took cold showers in a bathroom without a light, we washed our hands and brushed our teeth in the utility sink where they washed clothes. Every afternoon the power would go out for between 3-6 hours as the country does not have adequate power generation capacity. We really enjoyed getting to know the family and just about all of their neighbors.

High Tea at the Dushanbe Tea House

My friend Juliet and I shared wonderful outing to the Dushanbe Tea House. This amazing building was donated by Boulder's sister city in Tajikistan. The outside walls are covered with beautiful hand made tile.

The inside is also very ornate, with hand carved columns and ceiling. The lovely building was the perfect setting for such a fun event. We each had our own tea pot to in which to brew our tea. That was complemented with a tower of fresh pastries, fruit, deserts and creations from the farmer's market.Anyone planning to come and visit, mark this on your list of special Boulder activities.

Halloween Fun

Some of my foreign classmates got together to carve jack-o-lanterns a few weeks ago. I was the official instructor.

In this photo are: Lulu (Kuwait), Trent (USA), Craig (Taiwan), May (Thailand), Pui (Thailand) and Tim (Taiwan).

Our Final Game of the Season

Kelley is sad to say goodbye to her CU football games until next year. She has really enjoyed going. The Buff's had a tough game today. We are going to miss the final home game against Nebraska because we will be out of time.

Big win for UM today. I think I'm going to watch the UM vs Wisconsin game next week with some of my classmates from Michigan and Wisconsin.

Tony Stewart is my nephew.......

This is a Halloween photo of our nephew, Colin. He is crazy for Nascar and thus got suited up as Tony Stewart for the big day!

Trip Home and New Look

We headed home this past weekend. It was great. We visited some old friends, I went to Orbitform for a little while, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a huge party and even did some hayrides.

Kelley got to ride a horse her mom is watching.

My cousin Andrew, his wife Sara, and their children joined us for Thanksgiving!

It was a good time to be with my siblings.

Kelley encouraged me to go with a new style after we returned to Boulder. What do you think?

Fall Colors in Colorado

Hi all. Here is a photo of my lovely wife with one of her Colorado Buffaloes sweaters.

This creek is named Boulder Creek and it runs behind our apartment. It is basically the divider between downtown Boulder and the University. There is a path that follows the creek for miles and it is always being used by joggers, bikers, skateboarders, etc to travel east/west through town.

I'm getting ready for a rough mountain winter...hence the new beard action! The mountains about 10 miles out of Boulder already have snow on the tops. They are totally covered and it looks really pretty to see them.

Final Exams then we Come home

I have one final exam on each day Monday-Wednesday next week then Kelley and I hop on plane first thing Thursday morning. We are vey excited about heading home.

Wanted to Hike but Needed Ski's

Kelley and I headed up to a town called Ward today. It's about a 45 minute drive from Boulder. We had planned to hike to Isabella Lake. When we got there we realized that we weren't prepared to hike through the SNOW! Woah. Crazy.

Kelley may have been somewhat prepared but as you can see, I was not.

We ended up going for a short walk on the road around the lake below. This lake is at 10,300 feet.

We had lunch in the vehicle and chalked it up to lessons learned. I guess we'll have to come back in about 6 months after the roads reopen.

Colorado beats No. 3 Ranked Oklahoma!

Wow. Kelley and I saw quite a game. It was prbably the most exciting game I have ever seen except for the 2006 football game in Collegeville, MN when my cousin John and Bethel beat St. Johns.

Kelley and I sure feel like we are getting spoiled by seeing such a game. Colorado has had a tough stretch of about 10 years and this is by far the biggest win in a long time!

I don't think the students (or myself) got too excited.............

This is a photo of the student section when Colorado is kicking off.

We're going to Nicaragua

Kelley and I just made plans to go to Nicaragua for the week of Thanksgiving. It's going to be a mixture of vacation, Spanish training and service. We are going to an up-and-coming spot named San Juan del Sur. It is pretty famous for surfing and it starting to become a popular place for American's to purchase vacation homes. The city is only about 4,000 people large. This is a photo of the bay.

Mom and Dad Shirkey visit!!!

We had another set of parents here last weekend. It was super to have them around and show them our new world. We took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and also took in the Colorado vs Florida State football game. Mom got a kick out of all the students who wanted to give dad a high-five! They were wearing their new Colorado sweatshirts!

We had a nice hike also. We saw some elk.

Buffaloes knock off Miami of Ohio

Today's game was a blowout. Pretty weather and a fun time. Kelley sure loves when Ralphie runs out onto the field.

Next week should be a lot tougher when Oklahoma visits Folsom Field. Let us know if you want to come out for the game.

3 midterms this week.

Our semester is split up into two (2), seven (7) week periods. We have 4 classes for the first 7 weeks and 3 classes the 2nd 7 weeks. so even thought we are only in week #4 of sch0ol, it's already midterm week. i just finished my last midterm for this week and i'm am very glad to be done.

weather is beautiful. should have some new blogs from my parents visit last weekend up soon.

bye.

David

p.s. everytime i turn around there is a new article about Kent and Marilyn's family! Wow!

Todays Adventures in Boulder

Today Kelley and Mom went for a morning bike ride and then went shopping in the afternoon. Dad Fannin and I studied all morning and then chilled out while the ladies went out. I got to watch Phil Mickelson win the golf tournament. We all met up and headed up to a nearby mountain top that gives very good views of Boulder.

On the way up the mountain we stopped for a shot of Mom and Dad over the city.

I showed everyone where the business school building is on campus. My finger marks the spot.

As we climbed up the moutain we had some nice views and some scary moments such as when Dad tried to jump all the way back down to Boulder in one bound.

Kelley and Mom posed for a nice shot on top of Flagstaff mountain as well.

Kelley's Early Birthday Party

Kelley got to celebrate with her parents tonight. It is still a couple of days early, but it was super nice to have Mom and Dad Fannin here for Kelley's birthday.

We had a nice Mediterranean dinner and then got some cake and ice cream.

I got a nice surprise also, Mom Fannin brought me a shirt with Mexico on it!

Sunday in Colorado with Ma/Pa Fannin

Dad and I did some studying again this morning. After breakfast we all headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park and took all kinds of great photos.

We took the scenic route on the way and check out a town named Nederland. We had a bible study by the river,

hiked to a waterfall

and saw some amazing elk up close and personal.

At the end of the day Kelley made some chocolate chip cookies and we shared them with some of our neighbors from family housing and some of my MBA classmates.

Fun Day!!!!