Democratic National Convention 8/25 - 8/28

This year Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention during the last week of August. I know it was good for our city, but I was NOT crazy about it. Politics bring out the crazy in some people! Okay, some people.

I didn't really think too much about it until we started getting e-mails at work about road closures, additional building security, possible building lockdowns, etc. The rumor was that there would be a lot of high-profile people staying in the hotel that's attached to my building (I think Michelle Obama ended up staying there at least a couple of nights), and the same thing with Brad's building. We later found out that Senator Obama was staying at the hotel attached to Brad's building. I started freaking out the week before the convention because my entire family would be super close to all this potential chaos. You just never know what could happen! Especially when democrats are involved. hahaha Just kidding, Republicans are just as bad. It's just politicians in general. :)

I overreacted, which was okay with me! Everything was busier than normal, traffic SUCKED, most of the roads we used were shut down during different parts of the day (at least downtown), but for the most part it was no big deal. What normally took us 5-7 minutes to get to daycare ended up taking us about 20 minutes one night. It was so frustrating! And while we were sitting in that endless traffic, tourists would just absentmindedly walk across the street without paying attention to the signs. Are you kidding me??? That was the worst for me - it drives me nuts when people walk across the street when they're not supposed to.

We saw some cars/trucks that had signs and banners posted all over them saying crazy things with horrible, horrible pictures. There people were "rioting".....they weren't actually doing or saying anything though! I saw some stuff on the local news in the evening of some protests that got a little out of control, but nothing that was close to either of us during the day, so that was good. I saw this truck one day when I was leaving my building - it says "Today is day # 1099 since Katrina", and gives a location for a service honoring the victims/survivors on the 3rd anniversary of the hurricane.

On Wednesday of that week, I had left work a little bit early and was walking down to Brad's building to go home. (This was out of my way - he normally comes and picks me up, but with the street closures it was easier this way....sigh.) As I was coming up on the corner that I needed to cross to go inside, there were tons of people crowded around. So of course I pulled out my camera! It was Senator Obama arriving with his motorcade at his hotel. Lots of cars, an ambulance, lots of motorcycle cops, huge vans. They had the streets blocked off, so people were just standing in the street. I didn't see him, but I heard people start cheering, so I'm sure some of them caught a glimpse as he rushed into the hotel.

I didn't get a good picture of the motorcade going in, but here is the end of it under the hotel's awning.

The walkway connects The Westin on the left to the Tabor Center where Brad works on the right.

Luckily the big event of that week was Nolan walking for the first time and not something crazy or scary happening while we were downtown. This will be one of the most historic elections, so at least I can say that I remember being a part of it. With the state our country is in, we can only pray that the right person will be elected and things will start to get better. I know how I'm voting, I just have to figure out where to go to vote now! Hopefully you'll all do the same.....even though Brad says if he votes for the person I'm not voting for, they cancel each other out. We have this discussion a lot.....haha

Oh, I almost forgot! The best part about the convention for Brad, in his words......

"Every day for the past 2 1/2 years I've hit the same pothole on the same street until now. Suddenly the week before the convention, it's fixed!"

Nolan's 1st steps! 8/25

We'll always remember Brad's 28th birthday - the same day Nolan took his first steps! We had known it was coming for awhile because Nolan was cruising around the furniture pretty good, it was just a matter of when and where.

I was in the living room with him and he took a couple steps, so of course I frantically yelled for Brad. He came running out and Nolan kept doing it! I think we scared him a little because we got so excited! Not more than a few steps at a time, but he was definitely walking. So it's going in his baby book. (And if it never makes it there, at least it's on the blog, which is my backup baby book!)

I remember when my friends/siblings/relatives told me when their kids started walking or hit other big milestones, and of course it was exciting. But I guess I just didn't really appreciate how exciting it truly is until it was my own kid that hit that big milestone. You're so proud of them and they have no idea why, and then they're so proud of themselves! I'm sure this is one of many things that I'll feel that way about. I'll always remember that day - it was so sweet how Nolan would just throw himself into either me or Brad when he thought he was going to fall. Hopefully he'll still trust us like that as he gets older!

Here's a video of Nolan's new trick - Nuke kind of gets in the way, but you get the idea. He's much faster now!


Since we had just gotten home from Chicago, Brad didn't get his birthday dinner until the next weekend. In my family, I always remember getting to pick whatever you wanted for dinner when it was your birthday. I loved it! I think I always picked meatloaf. Anyway, I'm going to continue that tradition with my family. So Brad requested turkey and green bean casserole. Basically Thanksgiving dinner. I made it all (with mashed potatoes and gravy even!)and surprisingly it didn't turn out too bad! We had enough for him to have leftover turkey sandwiches the next day, so he thought that was even better. Now I'm ready if I ever have to make Thanksgiving dinner....but let's hope I don't!

Happy 28th birthday, Brad!

Indiana/Chicago 8/20 - 8/24

Way back in August (I know, it's been awhile!) we took a trip to Chicago by way of Indiana. Kind of our anniversary trip....Nolan got to stay with Nanny & Papa!

Anyway, we flew into Indy and Rhiannon and Molly picked us up. We stopped in Clay City for a couple of hours and then headed to Terre Haute for dinner at my parents house with the fam. The original plan was that Mom and Dad would meet us at the airport and we'd drop Nolan off with them, but I didn't want to miss seeing everyone else. So we hung out and then left the next morning to drive up to Chicago. We stayed downtown at The Avenue Hotel just off Michigan Avenue. We had so much fun! But we did miss Nolan. :) This was the first time I was away from him for more than a night. Surprise! We both did fine. Now, when I go to training in Arizona for work in December, that'll be a different story since I'll really be without either of my boys!

We got in and got settled at the hotel and then worked on our game plan. Now, I like to have things planned out, but for some reason I didn't do much 'research' before we took off. I mean, I had the basics down, like Sears Tower and a Cubs game, but other than that I had no clue what we were going to do. Pretty much as soon as we got outside once we figured out we'd hit the Sears Tower first, Brad and I started fighting. I guess bickering would be a better word. He wanted to try and take the bus, and I said let's either walk or take a cab. We don't even ride the bus in Denver! Plus I was getting hungry, so that's not a good combination with anything. We managed to get our act together though, and had a pretty good day. Sears Tower, Buckingham Fountain, Millennium Park, dinner, drinks, and uninterrupted sleep in a king-size bed. :)

View of Soldier Field from Sears Tower - if we would have been on top of things, we would have gotten tickets to a preseason Bears game too!


















View from Sears Tower - I didn't think I would enjoy Sears Tower much, but it was actually pretty interesting.

















View from Sears Tower - I thought the curvy building was neat.

















Brad had time to catch up with Michael Jordan for some one-on-one. People were laughing when I was taking the picture. Now that I think about it, it was actually pretty funny!






















Millennium Park - I have no idea what this thing is. It looks like a bean if you ask me.

















Us in the bean. I really should post all of the pictures that we tried before actually getting this one...haha
















View from our hotel room window...construction! We thought it was going to be like that commercial where every time the guy starts talking the jackhammer starts going. I love when he says "Really??" Cracks me up! What is that commercial even for, hotels.com? Because that's what we used! HA! Anyway, it ended up being no big deal at all.
















We headed to a Cubs game on Friday. We have a few friends in Denver that are from Chicago and are obviously Cubs fans, so they gave us the scoop on where to go before the game. We took the L (because we were cool enough to say that instead of 'the subway' even though we had no idea what it meant....at least I didn't!) and it was HOT. I'm not even kidding, I was sweating. Could be the humidity of the Midwest (that I do not miss, by the way), the 8 million people crammed on the subway, I mean, the L, or very little air conditioning. Anyway, once we got to Wrigley Field we went straight to the Cubbie Bear, a bar across from home plate that is where it's at pre-game. It was a pretty fun place, just crowded. And beers were the same price there as they were in the stadium. Guess it's the atmosphere.

As soon as we started across the street for the game, it started raining. Great! Brad had gotten our tickets on stubhub.com, so he was pretty sure they were covered so we went in to check it out. Now, the game is on a rain delay. But did that stop the stadium from filling up? No! I couldn't believe it. People just kept pouring in. If that were happening at Coors Field the seats would be empty. But the Rockies suck, the Cubs aren't doing too bad (at least they weren't a month ago). Neither of us had ever been to Wrigley Field so it was neat to see. Lots of history. I couldn't believe how old everything was though - I've gotten spoiled at Coors Field with the giant TVs everywhere and the lineups for both teams posted at all times. Wrigley Field just has the old school score, inning, number of player at bat and that's about it. We had a great time, and now we can cross this field off our list. We're trying to visit all the MLB fields. I think we'll probably get the Midwest ones covered pretty quickly.....wonder why? :)



















View from our seats - literally - I was sitting directly behind this post. I didn't care though, I could see most of it. I like to people watch, so that was hindered at all!

















We had a few things to keep us occupied during the hour-long rain delay.


















Packed seats! It was a really good game until about the 7th inning, then the other team (I can't even remember who it was!) hit a grand slam. The fans quieted down pretty quickly.....haha

















Saturday we went to Navy Pier. We had a great time! We just walked around and shopped for awhile. There was some kind of competition called City Race or something like that going on - it was like the Amazing Race - where two people were paired up doing a scavenger hunt type race. I got asked if they could tickle my foot and take a picture of it - twice!

There was a band playing on one of the stages they had set up - The Neverly Brothers - they were an oldies cover band and they were pretty good! That's what Brad listens to at work all day, so I've gotten used to listening to it in the car too. Probably because we can both agree on that....he hates country music, and I hate that alternative/grunge stuff he listens to. So we sat down and listened for awhile and had a beer in the beer garden. It was perfect weather! I tried to get Brad to dance with me but he wouldn't do it. The honeymoon must be over!! haha Just kidding, babe.... :)

















Brad had heard how good Dunkin Donuts coffee was, and there just happened to be one not far from our hotel. So after grabbing coffee and donuts, we hit the road back to Indy. We met my parents, Kylie, and Nolan at a park close to the airport to have lunch before catching our flight. Nolan is always pooped after going to Indiana - I think there's just a lot to take in!


Nolan with his buddy Kylie at the park before we left.

We had a great time on our trip! Thanks to Nanny and Papa for keeping Nolan for the weekend....and for wearing him out for the flight home!

Nolan's 1st Haircut

On August 16th, just shy of his 10-month mark, Nolan and I went to the grocery store. The cashier said "She's so beautiful!" As soon as we got home, I called and made an appointment for that afternoon at Cool Cuts 4 Kids for his first haircut! Brad had been bugging me for a couple of weeks, but I was trying to put it off until after his 1st birthday. I just couldn't handle someone thinking he looked like a girl, so I gave in.


Like always, Nolan was so good! It was a little pricey ($16.95), but I figure we'll do it on our own after this....or at least attempt it. They have movies you can pick from to keep them distracted, and you'll see the little fire engine he got to sit in. It was really quick - we were in and out in maybe 20 minutes total - and he didn't cry once!



Before....

During....

After!

He looks like such a big boy now, definitley not a baby anymore! It's really grown fast, so I'm glad I gave in a month ago!