TOP TEN!!

10. We had had a wonderful Saturday: breakfast, farmers market, Cowboy parade, bike riding, naps and then a night at Heidi's cabin.

9. Sunday afternoons are my favorite.

8. Jackson also enjoyed the time at Heidi's cabin....but he ran so much, he couldn't get out of the car..so ibuprofen for the pet. Mindy - any other suggestions?

7. Emma wanted to look at our wedding pictures. She was intently looking at all the pictures. Thoughtfully, she said:

Emma: This is when you and mommy got married.
Aaron: Yup.
Emma: Why did you do that?

6. The kids in the neighborhood have walked Jackson almost every night this week.

5. We throw all of our loose change into a big jar. Emma and I took the jar to the bank to start her a bank account. It was all really exciting until we were leaving the bank, she wanted her money back, became hysterical and started yelling "the bank took all my money." Repeatedly.

4. Hannah went to the pool for the first time.

3. Emma finished her swim lessons with flying colors AND went down the tube slide all by herself. Face first.

2. Aaron fell asleep in Emma's bed last night while reading stories and it was just about the cutest thing ever. Emma said, "Sshhhh - my daddy is sleeping."

1. Hannah has made it to the 3 month mark!

TOP TEN!!

10. The leaves are changing and it is absolutely beautiful around here.

9. Tomorrow, the girls and I are headed to pick peaches, apples, and pears! And Aaron is on the river for 2 days.

8. I have finally started running again and I outlasted the dog.

7. Favortie quote lately, "Now that Steinbrener is in heaven he'll make Jesus cut his hair."

6. Congratulations to Whitney & Todd on the birth of their daughter, May Jane!

5. Aaron and I were talking about how we are going to fund the girls' college education. He proudly announced that his baseball card collection was all we needed.

4. Hannah got her first pedicure compliments of her big sister.

3. Emma calls Jace a "poop doctor".

2. We caught Emma dancing to Madonna in her high-heel dress up shoes!

1. Aaron and I spent a great day on the river together.

Dear Aunt Marilyn

Dear Aunt Marilyn,

Thanks for the stickers.

Love, Emma

It's starting to feel like Fall....

The Booyeah Date

This past Sunday, Aaron and I were ready for a date. Just the two of us. We realized that just the two of us hadn't done anything for awhile. And although dinner and a movie is often a nice date, we typically prefer to get out and do something. And even though Aaron is out on the river all the time, I hadn't been on the boat since before Hannah was born. Plus, Aaron had been having great luck fishing his "Booyeah Ant" so we decided to go on a "Booyeah Mission". For those of you wondering what the booyeah ant is...it's Aaron's fly that he invented that catches a lot of big fish. I'd post a picture, but then I would have to kill you. Or Aaron would kill me.


The afternoon was great. It went a little like this:

3:45 Boat in the water.
3:52 First fish on the booyeah.
3:56 Cold red, white & blue.

Needless to say, Aaron and I totally enjoyed our afternoon on the water fishing at our own leisurely pace and catching plenty until the next time. Don't get me wrong - we love our kids and even talked about them (and didn't feel bad about talking about them while we were by ourselves), but it was a nice to have some time by ourselves.

And yes....we are both wearing camo...trend setters, I'd say.

Someone must have been tired - she didn't even eat dessert!

Grandpa comes to town!

Quick Trip to Wichita - The Wichita Zoo

After visiting with Granddad and Granny Gwen, we headed off to a secret adventure, The Wichita Zoo. The zoo is one of Emma's absolute favorite places to go. On the way there, we would tell Emma "we are going to a place with animals in cages" and then ask her where she thought we were going. Let's just say as we arrived, Emma was super excited!

Although Emma was excited to see this tiger...which really is right behind the glass and not fake as it somewhat appears...her favorite animal of the day...the deer. Right - because they are so exotic. The gorilla exhibit was also really cool but we didn't get any pictures. I would highly recommend the zoo to anyone in the Wichita area. It definitely beat out the Las Vegas Zoo!


Aaron, Granny and Emma drinking warm milk in hot, hot weather...yum!

Quick Trip to Wichita - Visiting Granddad and Granny Sevart

Aaron & Lunchpie

Granddad & Granny Gwen

Hanging out under the gazebo

Hannah really wasn't that upset :)

Hannah with Granny Gwen

Quick Trip to Wichita - Toronto

On Sunday, we drove out to Toronto Lake for a mini family reunion with the Rutherfords and the Sevarts. It was a great chance for Hannah to meet many of her great-aunts & uncles and their kids and for the rest of us to hang out together. Aaron even got a little more jetskiing in - but no action photos!

Emma with Ashley (or Hash)

Hannah meets Aunt Carol


Aaron & Uncle Kevin

Grace & Ashley

Hannah meets Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Jeff

Quick Trip to Wichita - A Day at El Dorado

Since I met Aaron, he has always talked about water skiing with his Uncle Kevin. But we have never had the chance to get out to the lake so I could see what he was talking about. So on Saturday, after Hillary aced her SATs, we all headed over to El Dorado, which is about 30 minutes from Wichita, to get some lake action.

When I arrived, the first thing I saw was Aaron and our friend, Greg Nunn, zipping around on the jet skis...but Greg was proudly sporting a mullet wig and a sweet "Boobies" hat. And I was slightly worried about what the day would bring - but we had a blast.

Kevin has recently purchased a new Mastercraft and I hear we're pretty lucky that he let us on the boat. Aaron got some wakeboard action in, but Blake, Aaron's cousin, was the real pro throwing tricks that kinda looked like barrel rolls (I'm not quite sure of the wakeboarding term...)We didn't get any footage, but here's a link of Blake's skills: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1388002508523&ref=mf


Kevin even let me attempt to wakeboard. I think I tried 4 times and all 4 times I went from in the water to in the water in about 2.5 seconds. It was fun to try and somehow I was sore the next day from my attempts. Maybe wakeboarding isn't my thing! :)


All of the other kids in the boat: Jeff, Chad, Hillary, and Max either wakeboarded, kneeboarded or surfed (which is super cool) that day. We even convinced Emma to ride in the boat.


And finally, Aaron was determined to barefoot even though he hasn't in probably 10 years. He got up a couple of times, but my pure enjoyment was watching him repeatedly somersault and slam into the water. Don't get me wrong - his persistence is what impressed me :)


Thanks to Kevin for making Aaron's day! And Beth and Marilyn for watching Lunchpie so I could get out on the boat! And Uncle Buck, too!

Granny with LP:
Aunt Marilyn with LP:

Team El Dorado (but where is Uncle Buck & Krista?):

The boat:

Quick Trip to Wichita - Hannah meets Uncle Jeff

This past weekend, we headed to Wichita so Hannah could meet our Kansas family. After arriving late and without car seats, we finally made it to Granny's house around midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning. And we got to stay a little longer than planned because our flight out of Wichita was delayed, therefore, causing us to miss the last flight into Durango - so we stayed another day. Who doesn't love a bonus round?

Uncle Jeff had been in Spain this summer when everyone else came out to visit, so this was his first chance to meet Hannah.

Sweet Pajama Time Girls

Hannah's First Festival

Over Labor Day Weekend, we headed over to Pagosa for the Pagosa Bluegrass Festival. We went for the Saturday lineup and had a wonderful time. Emma LOVES festivals. She loves to dance. And this was Hannah's first festival of many to come.

I was looking through some old pictures and I noticed that the girls were about the same age at their first festival and even had about the same photo:

Hannah at Pagosa:

Emma at Telluride:

More family-festivaling:

Bonnie & Josh get married!!

On August 28th, our good friends, Bonnie & Josh, finally got married!! They had a beautiful ceremony at the Rotary Park down by the river and then a sweet reception at the Lost Dog afterwards. Josh even showed up to the ceremony slightly late after arriving in the wrong suit the first time! I had a blast because we knew so many people from all different groups of people that all love Bonnie & Josh - and we got to hang out with all of them at the same time. Unfortunately, Aaron had to work that day, but he met up with us later at the reception.

Because the park was only a couple of blocks away from the reception site, they had a bike parade with about 100 wedding guests in it that went down the length of Main St and back to the Lost Dog. Although the girls and I did not participate, it was super cool to see the group riding down and everyone was honking their horns for Bonnie & Josh!

This picture isn't very good of the "parade" because it really only shows the bride and groom:


The reception was a lot of fun and we got to dance, Emma fell asleep on the couch in the bar (maybe candidates for parents-of-the-year?), and we celebrated with good food and drinks.

Emma with Bonnie:


Birdwell with Hannah:

Richard, Allison & McKenna:

Congratulations to the Klings!!

Angie comes to town!

So as Granny was leaving town, our good friend Angie arrived from Vail for a couple of days. Coincendentally, the day Angie arrived was also Hannah's first day of daycare - so I did what everyone else would do - took the day off! It was the first day that I didn't have both or one of the girls, so Angie and I headed up to hike Elbert Creek. Elbert Creek is one of my favorite trails in the area and we even took Jackson. Although, since Jackson hasn't gotten much excercise lately, we definitely wore him out.





Angie - thanks for coming to town to help with the girls, get me out of the house and give us someone to play Scrabble with!

Amy, Jimmy, Granny & Perri come to town

A couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough for Amy & Jimmy, Beth and Perri to come to town for the weekend to visit and for Amy, Jimmy and Perri to meet Lunchpie. Everyone arrived on Thursday and we didn't have a set agenda for the weekend, so we got to hang out and do things at a leisurely pace. It was awesome!


Friday was the only day that Aaron was not on the river working, so we decided it would be fun for everyone to ride bikes on the river trail and stop by the fish hatchery (Emma's favorite).

Saturday, we spent the afternoon in town. Its funny because the only time that we walk through all of the shops on Main Street is when we have visitors - so we enjoyed it because we hadn't done it in awhile.

Swimming at the hotel pool:

Another one of Emma's favorite things to do is hanging out at Trimble...and mine, too! So on Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Trimble swimming and relaxing and getting ready for the big event that night......The Bar-D Chuckwagon!!

We had never been there and secretly, I've always thought it was kinda hokey - but it was SOOO much fun! I think we all had a great time. They did a super funny song, Matt Palmer's Misfit Farm and if you want to check it out, click here: http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMlnK-zJxiI.

Hannah anticipating the excitment of the Bar-D:

Riding the "train" at the Bar-D:




More Bar-D action:


Amy & Jimmy with Lunchpie:

Amy, Jimmy, Perri and Beth - Thank you so much for spending the weekend with us! We hope you had fun!