Monday, June 30, 2008

Zimmer Family Update!

Greetings my friends!

Well, I must apologize -- it has been too long since my last update! Sorry about that! It's just that with summer here, life has been quite hectic. The last update I sent was at Kimmee's birthday party. Shortly thereafter my hard drive crashed -- big time! Not only did I lose all my information, but also all the pictures of Kim! I hadn't backed up my picture folder since December, so all of my photos have been lost. But at least I still have the ones uploaded here on our blogspot. But another disappointment is that I lost everyone's email! So if you have not heard from me in a while, it's because I do not have your email address -- please send it my way! Otherwise, life is pretty good for us. Here's our family update:

May 1st. Kaleb turned 6! He decided that he wanted a Chuck E. Cheese party so that he could invite all of his friends from school. In the bottom left-hand corner of this picture is Maia (pronounced M-eye-Ah). The are best friends and have already discussed marriage. It's pretty cute. We all had a blast at the party!
















You can see from Kaleb's face that he was having a great time there with his friends!








Our not-so-little six year old man!

Here's a funny story I have to tell you. We went shopping this weekend and I found some awesome carpenter jeans for Kaleb. I brought them into the changing room and asked him if he liked them. He LOVED them! So I told him to try them on to make sure they fit okay. "That's okay, Dad. I'll just try them on at home." I told him, no -- that he needed to try them on here before we buy them. He leaned into me and whispered, "I forgot to wear underwear today!" I laughed and looked at him and said, "You didn't 'forget' you dork!" We bought the pants and trust that they will fit fine! That's my little boy!



My two little girls: Gwen and Kim. They are best of friends!











Here's the older kids lounging around. Gwen does get special privileges now and then to be allowed up on the couch. This was one of those days. It's a lovely picture -- one of my favorites!


For those who know me, my dog is a very important member of the family. Before adding Kim to our family, my biggest fear was that she was going to be 1.) afraid of the dog; or 2.) allergic to the dog. As you can tell in this photo, Kim is neither! In fact she loves Gwen (our dog) and Gwen loves her. It's a beautiful thing.


Kathy and I were able to sneak away for a Rockies game. Great game! And we go the hats for free :-) The Rockies won (surprise!). I think it was their last win before the current losing streak. It was a beautiful night -- great time for a summer game. We're going back this Friday night for the July 4th fireworks.


Um, okay. Kind of a bad picture -- but whatever. We had fun!











Friday, June 20th. Fort Collins Municipal Court. We finalized Kimmee's adoption. It involved us going to court and signing the adoption decree. Then Kim's previous documents were officially void -- the 14 months of her life wiped clean. A new birth certificate listing Kat and I as the birth parents is issued and Kim is now a U.S. citizen. Her place of birth is still listed as Korea. Pretty cool! 6 months of being a foster parent is over, we are now her mother and father!

















She was happy and playful in the judge's office!









The judge was really cool! You can tell that he loves this part of his job. We went into the court chambers just to make it look 'official'. The kids had fun playing with the microphone system. It was a beautiful day!


The Zimmer family and the judge who made it official!











Three generations of Korean orphans. It's interesting. Kathy went through a very similar process, but had to become naturilized as a citizen instead of changing the birth certificate. Not sure why/how this was different. But she and Young became US citizens in the late '80's after taking the classes and test. Not necessary for Kim, though. She is 100% American now.



Since I had taken the entire day off, we went to Elitches afterwards to celebrate. Here's the new (and improved) Zimmer Clan. We had a blast!











The two Zimmer sisters. They truly love each other. It's a beautiful thing!











Sunday, June 29th. Jade turned 9 years old. We had a party at our home with her friends. It was a great time, and she made an incredible carrot cake that was well received! She's just happy to be 3-years older than her brother again!



The Coloradan Zimmer Clan.













Here's a great shot of the boy (taken just last night). He is definitely growing quickly and sprouting up!








Our three children: Jade (9), Kim (14mos), and Kaleb (6).

Hope this gives you a decent enough update into our life!








This weekend is my birthday. We're going to the Rockies game and then chillin' at home for the 4th of July weekend. Then next weekend we're traveling to New Orlean's for a convention for Kathy. I'll try to get some updated pics posted in a few weeks. TRY is the key word here!


...

Monday, April 7, 2008

Happy B-Day Kim Mee Zee!!

Monday, April 7th was Kim Mee Zimmer's very first birthday -- yea! Boy that first year sure went fast ;-)
















The day began like any other day for her: breakfast!
















Love that smile!!

Then we celebrated her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese -- YES!!















Her crown says it all: It's Party Time!!
















We let Kimmee ride a few of the rides, which as you can tell: she had a blast!





























































The cake was a huge hit! It was a ladybug cake with cupcakes for the feet and head. Very cute! Party Time!!




























































I enjoyed the black-frosted cupcake! Oh yeah!!!
















Hmmmm?? Vaguely familiar.....











My ladies -- and yes, that IS Jade!!















The Zimmer boyz!















We gave the cleaning honors to Grandma!















Love the bow!















Here is the birthday girl, sporting a lovely new necklace from grandma (ParMar).















To answer the question that everyone wants to know: yes!
Kimmee is now walking!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Big Bear C-League Champs!!!


As you may or may not know, I play recreational hockey at a local rink here in Denver: Big Bear Ice Area. Last night I played for the Big Bear C-League Championship hockey game at the Pepsi Center. This is the arena where our Colorado Avalanche play! This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and our game started 20-minutes after the Av's finished beating up Calgary.
Our team finished the season at .500 -- we had two losses to the number one team, and two losses to the number two team, plus an additional loss in a close game. In the playoffs, we beat the number one team 7-5 on Sunday night to advance to the finals at the Pepsi Center. We were seated at number 5 in the playoff bracket.
Last night (Monday, Mar. 24th) in front of a sold-out crowd of 30 fans, our team BEAT the number two seed, handing them an 8-to-2 loss! We were up 4-1 at the start of the 3rd period, then scored a short-handed goal at the start of the period, then just opened up on the goalie. It was an incredible rout! I did not score a goal last night, but I had 5 shots-on-goal in the first period alone (I play defense, and get very few shots-on-goals in the games). I had a great breakaway chance, and back-handed the shot thru a defender's legs, but the goalie pad-saved the puck. I did manage to score 2-assists in the game, which always feels great! Especially at the Pepsi Center when my daughter heard my name announced over the speaker system with my assists!
It was a fantastic night, and we celebrated our victory at Old Chicago's! Very, very cool!
Here's some highlight pics of the game for you to enjoy!





















Our team is the Fightin' Amish. We were wearing our white jerseys. Although I may look alone, I'm not. The rest of the team is on the attack, and I'm standing at the blue line. But I'm not being lazy. As you can see in the bottom of the shot, there is a "cherry picker" waiting to break out and take advantage of our defense. My job is to stay deep to reduce the odd-man attacks.





I'm the skater at the top of the pack with my stick in the air. This image is critical as it shows how we changed up our defense strategy. What you see is my defender partner taking on the guy with the puck. I'm moving to the boards to cover any loose pucks. And the additional teammate has dropped back to help on our defense, giving us 3-defenders instead of 2. It worked great and we shut them down!








































This is my breakaway chance. I beat all 3 of these "Catfish", but I still had one defender to beat. I ended up backhanding my shot thru the defender's legs and shot the puck on goal. Great shot, but the goalie had an amazing save on my shot. Bummer. I still managed 2-assists in the game, though!





This is a great candid shot of me on the bench. We didn't get to sit on the Av's side since we were the "visitors", but the benches were definitely top-notch!




















I was so happy that Kathy and Jade could make it to the game! It was a late night for Jade, she fell asleep in the car, but we let her go into school late this morning so she could sleep in. Good times!





















This is just a great shot of our team huddling during a period break. I'm standing next to Wick, our goalie.




















George, me, and Jason. Rearing to go!





















This is a great still shot -- just before the action!




















The winners and their smiles!




















Post-game congratulatory




















A beautiful sight!





















That would be US!




















Fighting Amish vs. Catfish Final Score: 8-2
C-League Champs! March 24th, 2008





















I was very, very elated! Top of the world!





















Love the rabbit!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Prairie Style Ranch Spec Home




















I recently worked on creating a spec. home for a client, but they decided to cancel their building project, therefore leaving me with a great design, but no home owners. If you are interested in developing this Prairie-style ranch home, I would be happy to meet with you and discuss this design further. I apologize if the scan is a bit pixelized, but I was limited in the quality settings on the scanner. This plan is for a 2500 sq. ft. ranch home with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and an open, flowing central space for the kitchen, great room, family room and dining area. It can accommodate a full basement, and I have designed an attached oversized 3-car garage with a workspace area. It is in the $500-600k construction budget and would work best on a south-facing lot (as it is currently configured.)


Please take a look at the initial concept and give me a call if you would like to discuss things further!


Aaron Zimmer
T*Rex Architex
303-388-2918