Monday, January 09, 2023

The 70/70 Quest Is Complete!

 Yes! On the final day of 2022, we completed our 70/70 Quest with....

The Kendall & Paula Abode Tour!

What might that be, you ask? Well, it turns out that, during the 49 years that we have been a couple, we have had nine different homes in Boulder (a number we were unaware of until we decided to tackle this 70th item). And, as our grand finale for 70/70, we thought it would be rather fun to tour around Boulder to gaze upon each of these abodes (lurking around the outside of each, taking selfies - nothing weird about that, eh?). The bonus to this quest, in addition to revisiting our old haunts, is the reawakening of many fine memories.

Abode 1: Hastings – living with Kendall’s parents – and, thus, where I first met Kendall's parents!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 2: Canyon Creek – our first home together. A furnished apartment with two twin beds; Kendall's mom kindly showed us how to tie them together to make one comfy bed. It is also the apartment where we, for the first time, prepared a dinner for The Parents. We can’t quite remember what we prepared but are pretty sure it was something better than the steady diet of peas & potatoes that we were living on at the time.

 

 

 

Abode 3: Blue Spruce – an apartment complex next door to another apartment complex that actually had a pool. Kendall liked sneaking into that pool until the day they followed his wet footprints back to our apartment and put the kabosh on his pool hopping. This is also where we were living when I first met Kendall's big brother Steve.

 

 


 

 

 

 

Abode 4: Back to Canyon Creek, this time an efficiency apartment where, when Kendall surprised Paula with a birthday party, all the party goers had to hide in the bathroom (the only room with a door) until Paula came home!

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 5:  Arapahoe – our home when we became a married couple! Thus the home where we had a post-wedding party for friends who shot champagne corks from in front of our apartment to the field next to the apartment complex. Who knows? Those champagne corks could still be buried out there somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Abode 6: 18th & Aurora – the “flood” apartment…a basement apartment that seemed to have a propensity for flooding. It also had a set of steep-ish steps down to the apartment which liked to ice up. It was on one such icy day when we were coming home from Thanksgiving dinner with friends (to which we had brought many of the dishes), that Kendall slipped on the steps and broke all but one of the dishes. (We do still have that one dish!)

 

 

 

Abode #7: 15th & Euclid - another basement apartment and the apartment where we were living when both of us were in grad school making many friends for life. With its handy close-to-campus location, there was many a joyful party held within these walls.

 

 

 

 

 


Abode #8: 29th Street – our first house! We couldn’t believe all the space. We could both be in the house and not even see each other! And we could shout YooHoo’s! back and forth and not bother anybody! It was amazing! There were many momentous firsts while we lived here in addition to first house: first career jobs (Paula at CU, Kendall at the Children’s Museum), first dog (Loki, March 1981), and first child (Sasha, January, 1985)! The photo shows a second story on the house – added by the folks who bought the house from us. When we lived there, it was a one story, two-bedroom home with the original third bedroom having been converted to a bookshelf-lined den with a fireplace…the room that totally sold us on the house.


 

 ....And that brings us to Abode #9, Davidson Place, our current home...

our home of the past 37 years and filled with countless memories

…where Sasha took her first steps and learned to climb stairs.

…where Sasha’s little brother Paul spent his entire childhood.

…where we brought home Jester Bones VaughanMiller then Taz the Amazing Cattle Dog.

…where Kendall started many of his multiple careers: preschool teacher, parapro, librarian.

where we have enjoyed our retirement years.

…where we hatched many a quest.

 

 

 Hmmmm.... What's next?!