A Toast on a Most Auspicious Day!

Well folks, as of today our youngest of three kids, Nicholas W. Stauffer, has completed his coursework for his Bachelor's Degree in Restaurant, Food & Beverage Management! Seems like it was just yesterday when we dropped him off at JWU as a young freshman. ⤵

In fact, we couldn't resist the desire to park right about where we dropped him off in order to start celebrating as soon as possible today. We went and surprised him with balloons, confetti, and an air horn as he got out of his LAST class. embarrassing one's child is all part of good parenting. It is one of the rules that have no expiration date.

Nick was sidelined by his accident for just two trimesters during his senior year and then he went back in and finished out his degree like a true champion! Well done, son, we couldn't be prouder of you! Looking forward to May 18, when you walk out of the Robert E. Taylor Gates and on into your future!

Raise your glasses to Nick, everybody... raise 'em HIGH!

Last First-Day-Of-School

As is tradition in our home and likely in the homes of many of you, we take a first-day-of-school picture of our kids out in front of our house. This year marks what will likely be the last of those pictures as Nick embarks on the home stretch of his studies at JWU! He was kind enough to provide this selfie outside of his apartment yesterday before departing to his first class. Our pride continues to overflow, as not only does Nick expect to graduate with his bachelor's degree at the end of February, but he has set many personal goals for himself in preparation for his future in restaurant and hospitality management. Again, we'd like to thank all of you, Nick's family and friends, who have continued supporting Nick and giving him the strength and determination to live life to the fullest!





Also, for those of you wanting to see the final product of Nick's Red Rocks tattoo, here you go...

One year stronger

Not that we would ever try, but this kid just can't be held down! Today marks one year since his fall and Nick continues to show us just exactly how strong he really is, every single day. His Instagram post below illustrates this point better than I could hope to. It shows off his fresh ink of Red Rocks, a way of celebrating his own courage and triumph.

Thank you all, once again, for all the love and support that you have given to Nick and our family. We could not have gotten through this last 365 days without you!

***Update***
Thanks to a wonderful longtime family friend pulling some strings, Nick had the opportunity to meet Above & Beyond backstage at Red Rocks last night!

Stepping Out

Well. folks, what can I say? The last nine and a half months have been... I can't even come up with a word. Let's go with triumph, as triumph can only come after a lot of hard work, along with running the gambit of all other prerequisite human emotions. Today we are happy to announce that Nick moved out of our guest room to resume his life where he left off back in Denver! We could not be prouder of our young man as he takes this next big step in his recovery. Gosh, that sounds good! Did you hear that? "His next big STEP!" Nick has actually been taking many steps lately. With several weeks of physical therapy under his belt and a fancy new cane, he has become quite unstoppable! After cruising through his first, senior trimester at JWU, PT became the main focus for the remainder of the school year, as it should. He is of course planning on finishing his degree starting in September and with his new apartment being only 10 or 15 blocks away from JWU, he will have an extremely short commute.

We want to offer a huge "Thank You" to (from left to right above) Tyler, Kevin, Jeff, and Jake for doing the heavy lifting. And thanks of course to the man himself, Nick who hit up Burritos To Go early this morning in order to fuel up the moving team. You all took time away from your busy lives to make today go extremely smoothly, and we appreciate you!

As for Maura and me, we agree... it was lump-in-our-throats difficult to send our baby out to fly for the second time this morning. We will persevere, of course, because it's absolutely the right thing for Nick to be doing at this moment, perhaps even ahead of schedule.

To this kid... Go forward, child, we love you, you've got this!

We can rebuild him . . .

Today was an exceptionally good day. Having taken delivery of his new ottobock C-leg 4, Nick is now officially bioNick! It’s kind of humbling that we are at this point in Nick's recovery, with Veterans Day still in our rear view mirror; as this microprocessor controlled, hydraulic leg that will give our son his mobility back was developed to address what so many injured soldiers have required over the last few decades. We are extremely grateful for these technological advances and just seeing that new knee supporting our son today was about the best gift his mother and I could ask for! I’m pretty sure I can speak for Nick’s whole family when I say that we are eager for the next phase of his recovery because we’ll all get to take part in it - getting out and walking strong again!