9/20 - Cookout (or BBQ) with Melissa & Christy

I learned really quickly when I moved to Colorado that you don't have cookouts, you have BBQ's. It just doesn't make sense to me, but depending on who I'm talking to I have to use one or the other.

Anyway....since Melissa & Christy are both from the Midwest (Melissa from Ft. Wayne and Christy from Missouri), we had a cookout a few weeks ago. It was so much fun! The three used to work together at BKD and have stayed in touch and (try to) get together about once a month for dinner. (Side note - Brad asked me what we talked about when we got together. Like I'm going to tell him! That takes all the fun out of it!)

We were joined by Christy's husband Devon and 2-year old son Caden. Melissa brought along her husband Shaun too. It ended up being a doggie play-date as well, since Gunnison (the only girl dog) and Billy were able to join us. For the first few minutes it was crazy with the dogs! But after all butts were sniffed, things were good. Billy even learned how to use the doggie door! I wish I could have gotten a picture of all the dogs, but they never sat still long enough!

We had a great time, and it's always nice to catch up with old friends. Caden was even sweet enough to share his DVD player with Nolan. They were dressed alike too....how cute!

9/13 - Swimming Lessons

Since Nolan loves the bath so much, we thought it might be a good idea to get him into swimming lessons. Plus, we just thought it would be fun! :)

He loves it and he does a really good job. He can almost pull himself completely out of the water when you take him over to the ledge. It's so cute because he's always completely worn out when we're done! He's gone 4 weeks now (Saturday mornings for 1/2 hour), and next week will be the last one. I think we'll probably end up enrolling him for another session, if not the next one, then at the beginning of the year. I've even gotten in with him twice - it's not a bad workout! Except last week I dunked him and he did NOT like it....go figure!

Too sweet....


































I just think this is the funniest picture - it's like he's saying 'You want me to do what?'

















Hi, Mommy!

9/6 - Miller Farms

Brad's friend Mark invited us to join him and his two daughters, Brianna and Shelby for a fun day at Miller Farms. We got to pick our own vegetables - everything you could think of! - and play once we got back and unloaded everything. We had never been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. Next time we'll be more prepared with bug spray, a picnic, and canvas bags to carry our goodies in! Here are some pictures (and a pretty good video):


Brad taking a bite of something. We never figured out what it was - it smelled like cauliflower but didn't look like it. Looks like Nolan got a bite too!























I couldn't believe how big the cabbage was! Or 'salad' as Brianna called it :)


















We had to take turns with Nolan - he's getting heavy!

















They had all the 'Cars' characters - they were pretty good, but this one was my favorite.

















Shelby, Mark, and Brianna

















We had to take a turn too!
















What do you think - Farmer Brad?

















Does anyone know where I can get one of these? Seriously, Brad could have ridden this thing the ENTIRE time and it would have made his day!

This just cracks me up!

9/3 - Happy Anniversary!

It's been a quick 3 years! The past year has gone by especially fast. Chicago was kind of our anniversary celebration, so on the actual day we didn't do anything exciting. We joked about it because we came home from a pretty normal day and had French toast for dinner....haha I guess we're old an boring now, huh?

Who would have thought that just 5 1/2 years ago when Brad and I met at The Riviera in Las Vegas that we'd make it this far? I actually did, but I didn't tell anyone that for a long, long time. You know how they say that you 'just know'? Well, I just knew. :)

I'm glad we made it this far, and the last 3 years have been the best years of your life. Right?? Mine too. Love you, babe!

Exciting Labor Day!

With the 9/15 tax deadline, I was so busy that I ended up working on Labor Day. Not to worry, I can still take the time off later! Daycare was closed the following day for a teacher in-service, so Nolan got some quality time with Daddy for those two days. I think they both had fun... :)

Monday morning Brad called and said he thought Nolan had pink eye....not the best news! It was actually not bad timing since he was going to be home the next day already. We made our very first trip to Urgent Care (which is fortunately very close to home) and got started on the eye drops. What a little trooper - he never acted like it bothered him at all, and the drops were a breeze. Of course all this happened after a call to Nurse Polly!

Luckily Nolan made it back to daycare and no one in his class got it - whew!

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!