Favorite Denver Family Activity Comes Alive at the Georgetown Loop Rail Rail in Colorado.

 

At one of Colorado’s favorite historic sites in Georgetown the return of steam to the Georgetown Loop was hailed as locomotive No.12 emerges from a major overhaul, wearing a black and silver paint scheme reminiscent of the Colorado & Southern locomotive that once ran over the loop. Come enjoy all the exciting history by visiting and experiencing a real steam locomotive!

 

Listed below is our upcoming summer Denver train ride specials and Events. Please book early since we have had tremendous response last year. 

 

 

Moonlight in the Mountains Dinner Train

July 16 & 24, August 13 & 21, September 10 & 18

Returning this year is our Moonlight in the Mountains dinner train. A catered dinner on board our enclosed cars while atop the Devil’s Gate High Bridge divides the mountain beauty of dusk and dark into two unique experiences. Check our schedule for days, times & prices.

For more information about Denver family attractions and historic train rides visit www.georgetownlooprr.com.

With over 15 years experience in website design and development, Denver’s Pixo Web Design & Strategy has the expertise to build you a professional and flexible business website using the Concrete5 content management system (CMS).

Do you need a content management system for your small business website or is your current content management system not flexible enough to do what you want? Let Pixo Web Design & Strategy integrate Concrete5 into your current website or build you a new website using the world class tools of Concrete5!

Concrete5 for Small Business Website Content Management. Hands Down the Best!

Within minutes a non-technical person can add and edit pages to their website with Concrete5. You can also upload and edit photos in no time at all and with very little training. Concrete5 works the way a normal person does. No thick manuals. Like an Apple iphone it works intuitively where you just click where you think you should click and things start happening on your website.  No long do you have to wait for a web designer to make changes on your website for you.  Within 4 clicks most site edits can be completed when you want them done.

Pixo and Concrete5 Content Management
Pixo works closely with our clients to get the website design and funcationality that they need to have a successful website. Based in Denver, Colorado we work with clients around the world on Concrete5 content management implementations and then do full training and support with clients on Concrete5. We offer the follwing Concrete5 services:

• Concrete5 implementation,
• Concrete5 developers,
• Concrete5 website design,
• Concrete5 theme integration,
• Concrete5 add-on integration,
• Concrete5 ecommerce customization

Whether you need help installing Concrete5, a Concrete5 theme website design or a full-blown website Pixo can customize it’s website services for your needs.

Tips When Shopping Online For Used Audi Auto Parts

When a car breaks down Audi vehicle owners shopping for auto parts may prove to be a bit more difficult when compared with parts for domestic vehicles. If you are shopping around for new Audi auto parts for your German automobile, there are a few tips to keep in mind which may make the acquisition of parts go much smoother.

There are quite a few places in which you can pick up parts for your Audi. With that said, one of the best ways to obtain new Audi auto parts is via the Internet. By using the Internet to acquire parts for your Audi you are able to experience the convenience of not having to leave your home and shop a number of different auto parts retailers in a short period of time. In addition, buying auto parts online will often get you a better deal as opposed to purchasing the parts at a store’s physical location. Therefore, try to buy your Audi auto parts over the Internet whenever possible.

Finding the Exact Auto Part That You Need

Another tip to have in your back pocket when searching for OEM Audi auto parts is that prior to buying an automotive part for your car you should know exactly what part you are searching for. In other words, if you know that you need a new Audi engine or transmission for the vehicle, determine what model number is on your current part. This will make the ordering process go smoothly and prevent any mistakes from occurring which could delay the delivery and ultimately installation of your part.

Finding the Best Price for Your Audi Auto Part Online

Although many auto parts dealers will sell the same types of Audi auto parts, they will usually offer them at different prices. With that said, try not to jump at the first auto part you come across. If shopping online, it is even easier to survey the options by visiting different Audi auto parts websites such as www.dartauto.com and seeing what it costs for the part at each store. In addition, if you discover an auto parts retailer with which you would like to do business, see if they offer various forms of Audi auto parts. In other words, they may offer the desired part in new, used and refurbished forms. This way you can consider the options and get the best OEM car, truck or SUV part for what you need..

Denver’s Trinity Appliance Service has served Denver, Colorado’s appliance repair needs for 22 years. How has their success lasted so long? Quality, fast appliance service and repairat a reasonable price. Our Service Technicians carry a wide-range of quality parts on their trucks, so your repairs are done as quickly as possible. That is just one of the ways we keep your costs low and get your repair done right as fast as possible.

Trinity Appliance Services offers appliance services in Boulder, Longmont and the Denver area and are proud to have an A rating with theBetterBusiness Bureau.

Our appliance repair services include repairs for the following appliances:

- Washer
- Dryer
- furnace
- HVAC
- Microwave
- Stove
- Refridgerator

We do repairs for all major appliances including: Whirlpool, GE, LG, Kenmore, Frididare.

To learn more about Trinity Appliance Service visit www.trinityapplianceservice.com.

Health insurance is a special sort of insurance that can protect a family from financial ruin in case of serious illness to you or any of your family members. That’s because the insurer pays the medical costs of the insured. Most of us do not have health insurance on our minds while we are busy living our lives from day to day, but it the very first thing we think about when someone in our family becomes ill or has an accident. There are a wide variety of factors relating to health insurance coverage in Colorado.

Health insurance has become essential in Colorado, with the cost of medication claiming more than half of the family income every year. Health insurance covers all major expenses of routine and emergency medical procedures. There are various types of Colorado health insurances available both online and from the various insurance companies, brokers and local insurance agents.

Private Health Insurance

If you are self-employed, your employer does not provide adequate health insurance, or you are uninsured and do not qualify for a Colorado health insurance program, you can buy health insurance on your own.

You can buy health insurance directly from a health insurance company, such as Blue Cross, through an insurance agent who represents an insurance company, or online from reliable companies (such as the popular Roper Insurance). Consult with your insurance agent who may be able to help you find health insurance that fits your needs.

Since cost is often the most important factor when choosing a health plan, your answers to the following questions can help you decide which plan to purchase.

• How much is the monthly premium?
• How much will I have to pay before the health plan kicks in?
• Is there any limit on how much the health plan will pay for my care in a year – am I protected from large medical costs?
• How much is the copay for prescription medications and doctor’s visits?
• If I choose a PPO, how much will I have to pay if I use doctors or hospitals outside of the PPO’s network?

Other factors that may be important to you when choosing health insurance, are:

• What health services are not covered?
• If I have a medical condition (such as diabetes) will the health plan provide coverage immediately or do I have to wait six months or more? Starting in 2014, the health reform legislation will prevent health plans from deny coverage for a pre-existing condition.
• Does the health plan have a drug formulary that includes the medications I use?
• Is my doctor in the health plan’s provider network?

To help you answer these questions choose a local Denver insurance brokerage or agent that understands the unquie healthcare plans and laws in Denver, Colorado such as Roper Insurance at www.roperinsurance.com.

If you are trying to find the best Denver assisted living community for your situation, you need to know what your options are. You need to know what the criteria is for assisted living, you need to know what the different options cost so that you can determine if your financial resources are adequate for the time period you need the service, and you need to know which community is closest and/or has the service that you need and want.

Too often, I have Denver families come to me with questions that should have been answered months and years ago. For example, two days ago I received a call from a distressed lady in Denver who had been caring for her parents in her home. Her mom is “brittle diabetic” and her father’s dimentia is progressing rapidly. She is is stressed out and to the point that she is frustrated with her father’s behavior, her mom needs some peace and quiet in order to heal properly from a recent injury, and she (the daughter) is not enjoying her relationship with her parents as much as she was before having to care so much for their needs. She is becoming exhausted. Finances were definitely a concern although she still wanted to look into assisted living options.

I put her in contact with Springbrooke Retirement since they are inexpensive when compared to larger communities. I also spoke to her about a company that provides Denver home health and hopsice. It’s a company that I’ve used as an administrator in my assisted living community and have had nothing but the best service and care for my residents. Because her mother is brittle diabetic and receiving insulin, she qualifies for home health and this allows a registered nurse to come to her their home, take the blood sugar as needed each day and then provide insulin as needed as well. They can potentially provide a C.N.A. to come in and help with showers a few times a week and offer other valuable services that are all covered by Medicare. Options were given, choices were made, and she is now able to get some relief and assistance in this stressful time her life.

Prior to our conversation, she had no idea that these options were even available. At Springbrooke Retirement we are happy to share the years of experience in assisted living and in the healthcare industry with those that are in need of the information that will save time, money, and stress.

Springbrooke Retirement is a Denver assisted living community that offers independent living, assisted living, respite and memory care retirement home facilities.  Visit www.springbrookeretirement.com for more information.

In the world of RVs, knowledge is not just power, it is money in your pocket.

If you are a Denver or Lakewood, Colorado RV owner then this article will help you with your RV repair and if you can’t do-it-yourself then we can point one to someone in the Lakewood area who can.

As Medicare only pays for a short nursing home stay, after a major medical incident, seniors and their loved ones must evaluate if they want to private pay to stay in a nursing home or seek for alternative Denver in home senior care services.  Alternative senior care choices include options such as a 24 hour live in providing a Caregiver and Care Management in the home or relocating to Assisted Living.

Most Denver Nursing Homes accept Medicare and Medicaid patients but there are a small percentage of nursing homes which only accept Medicare patients.  At the same time, some nursing homes only accept Medicaid payments after a patient has spent all of their assets and qualifies for Medicaid.  They will not accept new Medicaid patients.  In 2006, 48% of nursing home care was paid for by Medicaid which matches the trend industry experts report:  seniors are seeking an alternative to nursing home care.

Reasons seniors may opt for in home senior care to staying in a nursing home:

1) Staff to patient ratio:  nursing homes often staff one Nurse’s Aide to 12 to 15 patients.  The nursing aide is the person responsible for assisting with personal care, such as  showers and bathroom visits.  Each patient’s care depends on the ability of the aide to juggle the needs of multiple patients. 

2) Cost:  although the daily rate for care may be acceptable, sometimes the additional fees for everything from hair cuts to transportation can add up and cost much more than the cost of paying for an individual Caregiver in the home or a private apartment with part-time care in an Assisted Living Community.

3) Care needs:  many times a senior will recover from medical conditions which require rehabilitation in a nursing center, such as a stroke, heart attack or hip replacement, and be able to function on less care.

4) Specific care needs:  seniors who may need more specialized care for conditions such as memory loss or diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, may opt to find a community which specializes in this type of care.

5) Quality of nursing facility:  sometimes hospitals discharge patients to a nursing home for rehabilitation and do not consult with the patient on which facility they will be transferred to when they leave the hospital.  The nursing home may not suit the personal desires of the senior and this is often when families begin their search for elder care.

Ohomecare are experts on Denver senior healthcare, home respite care and in home snior care services.  To have your questions answered  about all of these aspects of elder care to assist seniors to find the right option for their home healthcare needs visit www.ohomecare.com.

The stakes were high for my 3-year-old son Bode’s first time on skis at Loveland Ski Area, a Colorado ski resort. The child was, after all, named after World Cup skiing sensation Bode Miller.

Better to live up to that than my namesake Forever Amber, a novel about a 17th-century prostitute.

I had never skied Loveland before and immediately fell in love because of its terrain (93 trails on 1,570 acres), affordability (discount tickets are $52) and proximity (just 53 miles from downtown Denver, directly off I-70).

This is the first year both of my children are old enough to ski so I enrolled them in the Loveland Ski and Ride School in Loveland Valley. A full-day lesson, lift ticket and lunch are $91, a veritable steal compared to other resorts. Enroll your child (or beginner adult) in three classes and they will receive a free season pass to work on their turns all season long.

Children may not start group lessons until they are 4 so we put Bode in a private lesson. He was tired and his check-in process did not go smoothly when he tried to walk around in his awkward ski boots.

I started wondering if we’d need to go with Plan B and put him in the on-site childcare center. While certainly not a bad option, we really wanted to get him on the slopes.

My husband Jamie and I left him there (as all good parents do), promising to check on him after his lesson started. The lift connecting Loveland Valley to the resort was not operating so we hopped on the free shuttle to Loveland Basin where we grabbed some demo skis and hit the slopes for the first time this season.

It was glorious…and a very cold -10 degrees Fahrenheit. We huddled up on the chairlift as we marveled at the sweeping views of the Continental Divide. It was early-season so only about 20% of the terrain was open. We didn’t care and found enough powder stashes off Lifts 1, 2 and 3 to keep us happy. The highest chairlift (Lift 9) soars to 12,900 feet so conditions are sometimes cold and windy but always epic.

After a couple of hours, Jamie and I fearfully rode the shuttle back to Loveland Valley. We weren’t sure what we would find. Bode crumbled up on the snow in tears? Screaming bloody murder? Or maybe he wouldn’t even make it to the slopes.

We were shocked and delighted to find our little Olympic hopeful grinning from ear-to-ear with his private (and utterly delightful) instructor Terry. His earlier discontent was forgotten. He rode the magic carpet like a pro and under Terry’s careful supervision, he skied down the bunny slope by himself.

As he zoomed past us at the record-breaking speed of 0.05-mile per hour, he squealed, “I wike it!”

He then pointed to the chairlift and steeper slope behind him. “I want to go dere,” he told his instructor. He spent the rest of the day on the more advanced terrain.

Hadley and Bode claimed lunch was “delicious” with corn dogs, tater tots, apples and cookies, followed by a surprise visit from skiing Santa.

Who was evidently slacking off from his duties that Christmas Eve.

Loveland’s Family-style Eats

If I were to have a tagline for Loveland Ski Area, it would be “We’re not fancy…we’re about family,” which is exactly how Jamie and I felt while eating lunch at their only lodge. The cafeteria was like a huge reunion as people reconnected while eating hearty sandwiches, Mexican food, savory pastas, homemade soups, made-to-order pizzas and more.

We ate at the Wedge Bar, appropriately named because it was wedged in the middle of the busy room. I ordered chili and a salad while Jamie opted for the Kobe Beef Sliders.

The next hour was spent in conversation with uproarious ski school instructors Mark and Michael, who were enjoying a day off. They divulged their favorite areas to ski (off Lifts 8 and 9 and Over the Rainbow) and the best thing about Loveland (everyone is very tight-knit and not pretentious).

When we picked the children up at the end of the day, they were jubilant and exhausted. As the youngest child in ski school, Bode had been adopted by some over-protective tweens. One of them told me, “If I had a little brother, I’d want him to be just like Bode!”

An appropriate sentiment at a resort where you feel like family.  Looking to ski or snowboard in Colorado this year?  Loveland is a Colorado Ski Resort with the best skiing and snowboarding just minutes from Denver.  Visit www.skiloveland.com.

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Ski and stay: While Loveland Ski Area is not known as a destination resort, it does offer lodging packages. Prices start at $115 per night for one night’s lodging and two lift tickets.

Understanding how home financing works in Denver can be the difference sometimes in getting a loan

Sometimes loans don’t close when they are supposed to close. What exactly can cause your loan closing to be delayed? In today’s environment, a refinance can get moved with the blink of an eye. You’ve been bumped! But a purchase, too?

You are all packed, and it’s the eleventh hour before closing. Your phone rings and it’s your home financing lender with bad news. Your loan’s not going to close tomorrow. Everything’s ready, the utilities are being turned off tomorrow, and the movers are showing up! Why is this happening?

There are so many moving pieces to a puzzle of a loan closing. Everything has to be coordinated to make it go smoothly. For instance, get the requested documents to your lender as soon as possible. If you dilly dally, you may run into problems. You see, your lender has a whole pipeline of loans, as do all the other mortgage lenders that work for that particular company. All of these loans have to be reviewed by an underwriter. So, basically, your loan has to take a number. And if you’re not prompt, your loan may go to the back of a very long line. Most people want their loans to close at the end of the month, so you can imagine the huge glut and back up that occurs. Thus, be prompt and responsive to your lender’s requests to allow everyone time to do their job.

Also, don’t quit your job and expect to close because your approval depends on you receiving proven income. On the day of closing, a lender is going to make a call to ensure you’re still employed. Funny, but your ability to repay the loan is important when someone’s fronting you thousands of dollars. No job, no moola.

Make sure you choose a Denver home financing expert.  There are lots lenders out there but make sure you have one that you can trust to get your loan done on time and understand’s the Denver market.

If you’re selling your home in Denver, be sure you’re ready for that final walk through. If the buyers are expecting you to leave the bathroom mirrors and the curtains, then don’t pack them up. The house should be broom clean (unless otherwise noted in the contract) and there shouldn’t be any new damage or sudden repairs needed that previously didn’t exist.

Weird things can happen, too. I know of a loan that was delayed in closing because two days prior to the deadline the title company found out that the builder/seller had filed bankruptcy. It seems that he was not in a position to sell the home anymore, and he failed to tell anyone (however, the new owner who got the property in bankruptcy was happy to sell, but closing was delayed). Another odd tale was that of the seller who failed to disclose he had a $49,000 tax lien outstanding on a property. He didn’t feel it necessary to mention this situation to anyone. It was pretty much a deal killer, as you can imagine.

Another thing that can cause a hiccup is failure to alert anyone that that one of the parties (buyers or sellers) will be out of  Denver for a closing. These situations aren’t insurmountable, but they require careful planning and coordination. Sometimes, the contract changes and the lender isn’t notified until after the loan is fully underwritten. Contract changes usually require a loan to be shot back through underwriting. Remember, you get in the back of the line.

With today’s refinance boom, the majority of lenders can’t give their customers a firm closing date when scheduling their refinance closing. Purchases will typically take precedence in this environment. That means although your refinance is waiting line patiently, it can get bumped. Like an oversold flight at the airport. You just have to be patient and get re-routed. Within reason of course. Just don’t lose sight of the end goal!

The moral of the story is to listen to your Denver home financing lender and keep an open line of dialogue going. Keep the him/her aware of changing situations. Email is great tool for use in accomplishing this purpose. It takes only a minute or two and can save everyone lots of heartache in the long run.

To being your Denver home financing visit www.jerrybeckerandassoc.com.  They are Denver’s experts in home loans.