Spike,
I had a client in Denver and I was flying out there every week for 9 months. Awesome place. One of the sunniest places in USA. When it snows, it really snows, but then it melts almost as quickly due to abundant sunshine. I was there during the huge storm in 2006/07 winter when the airport was shut down for 48 hours - turns out that unlike Chicago or New York their airport doesn't have industrial strength snow melters so they were caught by surprise. You'll get used to altitude within 2 weeks (headaches and possible nose bleeds before then).
The surroundings are absolutely awesome and there is always something to do outside. I loved the place. I stayed in Littleton (suburbs) but spent most of my free time downtown. Really nice, compact city center, safe and with everything you'd ever need. One thing I couldn't get over was that even homeless people looked happy, had clean clothes and looked well fed and nicely tanned.
I had no problem finding a place to rent, close to work and for less then I would pay for a similar place in Chicago burbs, so checkout burbs/parts of town that are not too far from your work/schools. Compared to Chicago, transport is easy - they don't know what traffic rush is, I only ever got slowed down by road works.
I'd definetly do as VF21 suggested and hit up Nuggets/Broncos boards to find out about different towns/neighborhoods and different school districts. Individual responses may not be reliable (people almost always favor their own neighborhoods) but if you get enough responses you can cross check.
