Grand Lake

My parents invited us for a day of boating up at Grand Lake today. It was such a beautiful day. Clear skies, warm weather, and lots of changing fall colors. We drove through Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park over Trail Ridge Road. When we arrived, the water was stunning. We had lunch on the boat and Dad and Dan took turns seeing how much water they could splash mom and I. It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to next year when we can go again.

Auntie Jess Visits Texas

I decided to join mom and dad on a long weekend trip to Texas to visit Jamie and Craig. It was so much fun! Riley and Connor were there and we always have fun with those two.

Thursday we got in late, but Jamie took us to dinner at On the Border - one of our family favorites. Jax even woke up for the occasion.

Friday we had a low key morning and then went to a ladies lunch and shoe shopping. Jax came along too. He is just too cute not to drop everything and focus on him. I couldn't believe it, but shopping doesn't even compare when I can just hold him and talk to him.

Jamie thinks it is really funny to take a picture before cleaning up Jax or the person who he chooses to throw up on. Which on this trip was usually me. What a cutie!

Friday night,  I had a tent/movie date with Riley and Connor. Although I thought we would build our fort with blankets, they would have nothing of it. We used premade tents and watched Oliver and Company.

Saturday it was all about the kiddos. We all went to Riley's Groovy Girls soccer game. Boy was it hot. Luckily the games are kept pretty short because of the heat. Then we headed over to Connor's first football game of the season.  Texas  doesn't kid around with football even when the kids are in second grade. Full pads, names on their jerseys, cheerleaders, music, cameras, and a scoreboard!  Connor did really well and because it was later in the evening, it had even cooled down a bit...maybe like 85.

 Look at her go! I think she scored 6 goals...in the first quarter!

 Intermission photo shoot in the air conditioning before Connor's game.

 Number 14, just like his Dad.

 Happy baby ready to go home and try rice cereal for the first time!

We think he liked it.

The rest of the weekend went too fast and Monday morning came too soon. Jamie took us the airport and we came home already missing everyone. Looking forward to their visit in a few months!

GABF 2010

Last year we started going to the Great American Beer Festival with some friends. We continued the tradition this year. We met Matt and Hillary at Matt's house and headed to get in line. Luckily, Brie and Scott were already in line- we we angered a lot of people and snuck in line with them. With our pretzel necklaces in tow (made courtesy of Jess and Dan), we were welcomed with bag pipes into the Convention center.

Matt, Jon, Scott and Dan

Jess, Hillary, and Bri

Group shot...still early enough in the night

Low on the pretzel count...

Once again, it was a great night! I tried some interesting beers, jalapeno blonde and key lime pie. We finished the night with a sing a long cab ride and a series of YouTube videos and rock band sing alongs. The next morning we ate a great hangover breakfast at Hot Cakes. Mmmm...I had crispy french toast. What a great way to start the weekend!

Happy Apple Farms

Over Labor Day weekend, Dan and I were iching to do something different. We had heard about an orchard in Penrose, CO near Colorado Springs. We looked it up and decided to give it a try. With Starbucks in hand and Denver Post (I read to Dan while we drives) we set south.

Although it was a hot day, we had a really nice time picking blackberries, raspberries and apples.

The raspberries were slim pickings, but we found some!

I beat Dan...by a lot.

Brainard Lake

For a few months now, we have been trying to plan a camping trip with Jonathan and Kathy. We had plans to go to Moab in April, but the weather deterred us. Then we had another one planned in August and that got pushed back to Labor Day weekend. After going back and forth where to camp, we decided late Friday night before to just make a day trip up to Brainard Lake. Dan and I had snowshoed up there in March but it was so much different in the summer. It was beautiful. Some leaves were changing colors and the weather was perfect. We had a picnic by the lake and Jonathan had a yoga competition.

We then headed a little hike around Long Lake. It was a very easy, flat hike but not crowed and great views. We talked about cooking, life and somehow the subject of Zombie Apocalypse came up in conversation between Jonathan and Dan. Strange boys. We finished the night off by eating at Daphines (Kathy's favorite) and going to the pet store for their new cat, Oliver the Orphan :-)