Cheyene Mountain Zoo...

Amanda & Chris, my friends that moved to Colorado Springs. We had lunch with them and then we all went to the zoo and out for ice cream after. It was an awesome day.

Giant giraffe statue.

Jesse feeding the giraffe.

My hand feeding a cracker to the giraffe.

Me making silly faces as I feed the giraffes, because there was a little toddler next to me who was getting a really big kick out of the giraffes with their long tongues. *note the little hands on the left.

The giraffes begging me for more crackers.

It started out as an over cast day and even rained for a little bit before it cleared up, but I came prepared and we didn't let the rain stop us from enjoying ourselves.

Watching the elephants. They were extra playful. I think they really enjoyed the light rain.

Petting an adorable little wallaby.

Feeding birds in the aviary.

Jesse made a new friend. This bird decided to take up residence in Jesse's hair and he refused to move no matter what we tried to coax him off with. He was loving it up there. For a minute there I was afraid we might have to take him home with us. I told Jesse this might be a sign you really do need a haircut. Not to worry he will be getting his birds nest trimmed up on Thursday after work. I made us both appointments.

Chris & Amanda took several nice pictures for us. Thanks guys!

Jesse watching the tigers.

The views were amazing once the clouds cleared up and the sun came out. What a great idea to build a beautiful zoo on the side of a mountain. I loved it.
Hands down the best zoo experience ever.

Petting the fish in the kids area.

Resting my feet in the giant chair.

Petting the pet skunk in the educational area. Not to worry she was de-skunked for sure. She was actually really nice and pretty soft to the touch. We figured we should make friends since we have several stinky skunk neighbors near our home.

A possessed looking Jesse watching the penguins.

Jesse and I walking through the beautiful zoo. What a great day!

Out with the old & in with the new...

It's official we got a new car today. It's a 2008 Mazda 6i grand touring edition (which basically means it's got all the bells & whistles). It only has 6,800 miles on it and it's in immaculate condition. We scored a great deal on over $1,000 off the bluebook price. It was a big purchase and we won't official own it for a couple years, but we have it on our posession and we're loving it already. It has a sun/moon roof, IPOD hook up, 6 disc cd changer, heated seats, heated mirrors, a good safety rating, 4 doors like we wanted, it gets good gas mileage, and of course it's a hatch back like Jesse wanted. It looks like a sedan, but it's actually a hatchback which means it's got extra space for cargo. Not that we are ever hauling alot, but you never know. We're hoping to plan a road trip sometime in October to visit our friends Moe & Ben in Taos again. We are both so excited and we just can't wait to sell the Taurus and get the new car ready for the winter. I think we're going to go buy a nice new windshield scraper for it and everything. :)

Larmier Lounge's Backyard Bar-B-Q...

Highlight pictures from their bar-b-q show last Sunday afternoon. Their friend Parker from the band Accordian Crimes is the one playing the tamborine in the audience.

To Iowa and Back...

Melissa, Kyren, & Sydney at Casa Bonita.

Syd & Ky playing skee-ball.

Sydney playing school with her Kitty in the car during our long drive back to Denver.

Some flowers from grandma's garden.

Dave in the field. The corn was exceptionally tall this year, so grandma Rita wanted pictures of people standing next to it.

Grandma taking photos of Grandpa & Dave in the corn.

Grandma Rita, Grandpa Bob, and me.

Grandma & Grandpa in the corn.

Dave, me, and Grandpa.

Dave & me @ the McBroom Family Bar-B-Q.

Me and my serious faced family.

Me & Aunt Kelly, she says she's reliving her youth with braces & bangs.

Me & Grandpa Ron.

Hill Billy Golfers.

Jaime, Grandpa, Brett, Kelly, and Mom.

Me and Miss Odie. She was sneaking into my lap, because of the bad thunderstorm outside. She doesn't like storms.

Miss Teagan, Kasi, and me.

Dad picking sweet corn for dinner just before the big storm.

The Good Egg in Stuart's city park.

Grandma & Dad playing with Lori's new Great Dane pup, Sophia.

A week ago today I flew to Omaha and my parent's picked me up. I stayed with them Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I had a very limited time back home and I tried to make the most out of it since I won't be able to go back again until sometime next year. I visited my grandparents, a few friends, my cousins, and my brother. There was a trip to Des Moines for pampering and crazy pizza, a family cook out, lots & lots of sweet corn, a hunt for the perfect tenderloin sandwich, and a few minutes to spare where I tried to relax. On Tuesday morning I was up bright and early for breakfast with Dad, Dave, and Uncle Paul. After breakfast Dave and I headed to the grandparent's to say good bye and take some last minute photos in this years tall tall corn crop. I had Dave drop me off @ the Wilder's house for the start of my long trek home. Melissa and I took turns driving (to be honest she did most of the driving) and we stopped 2 times for meals, a few times for gas & bathroom breaks, but we still made great time. You've got to love that 75mph speed limit in Nebraska. We arrived home late Tuesday evening and tried to get the kids wound down and ready for bed. They didn't sleep 1 wink during the 10+hr trip. Wednesday morning we went out for breakfast and then headed to Water World. Melissa has some good shots from our crazy adventures there. We opted out of taking the nice cameras and instead used some disposable water safe cameras. After the water park we stopped for ice cream and headed back to my place for some r&r. Later that evening we all cleaned up and headed to Casa Bonita for dinner. As Syd would say "Jesse was a party pooper & chose not to join us," to be fair though he did have band practice. Thursday morning Ken arrived around 3am followed by Adam, Natalie, and Jasper just before 7am. Everyone was pretty exhausted except Mr. Jasper who was wired from the trip and curious about his new surroundings. We soon Discovered Jasper was not about to let anyone go back to sleep, so we all decided to have breakfast and get ready for the day. The Children's Museum was our 1st stop of the day. We met Melissa's friend Amy and her son Henry, who I often babysit for. Henry saw me and came a running. He's a really cutie. We played hard and wore the kids out after only a few short hours. Meltdowns were well on there way as we decided we were all ready for lunch and naps. We had lunch at Pasquini's a delicious Italian chain here in Denver. After lunch we all went our separate ways for nap time. Adam, Natalie, and Jasper got a hotel practically in the Invesco Field parking lot (go figure). After some real good napping on everyone, but Kyren's part we cleaned up and headed out for dinner. This time with Jesse in tow and we met up with Ryan Beaman (a fellow Stuart-an). It was a great dinner with even better conversation and the desert was so amazing (peanut butter chip cheese cake, Yum!). After dinner the Wilson's came to our house to pick up some things they forgot and check on directions. Jesse & Kyren decided to test Adam on his guitar hero skills while Sydney and Jasper were dancing fools to the music. We all decided to hit the hay early, so they could get up and pack up their stuff to leave when Jesse and I got up for work. We made great time this morning and as far as I could tell this morning nobody forgot anything. Hope their trip to Leadville went smoothly. I didn't take many pictures of our adventures, because Melissa & Adam both take lots of pictures and I am sure they will have blog posts about their trip up soon. Thanks for coming to visit everyone and thanks for buying a couple of my meals... that was really not necessary. I love having visitors and I only wished we had more time and a bigger house to accommodate everyone. You'll all have to come back and visit again sometime.

Rocketman...

Thursday was Jet Pack day at the Museum. Here are some highlight photos. The flight was only about 30seconds, but the kids loved it. He flew straight up in the air above the museum parking lot around 300ft high. The kids thought he was a superhero or something. He was the nicest guy. He shook hands, hugged, took photos with, answered questions for and autographed posters for every kid that was there. afterwards as the kids waited there turn to talk to Jet Pack Man they made jet packs of their own and practiced flying around the plaza. It was a pretty fun day at the museum.