Play with us Uncle Jesse...

Israel & Uncle Jesse playing trains. This happened several times a day every day.

Uncle Jesse and London walking to the swing set.

Israel swinging. He kept Jesse busy pushing his faster and swinging him higher each time. He really enjoyed it when we'd tickle his feet and plug our noses to say PEE- YEW while he was swinging!

Jesse helping London down the slide. The girl has no fear, she would walk right off the edge.

Jesse and the kids resting, watching Caillou, and having snacks & drinks after playing hard all morning. Those kids sure wore Uncle Jesse out.
*Caillou's theme song was played so many time during our visit that the 1 time we snuck out of the house with out the kids Jesse and I were both singing it as we walked through IKEA.

Izzy showing off his tools that are just like daddy's.

Jesse getting Izzy, who had decided to walk around with a hamper on his head pretending to be a monster getting all of us.

Izzy getting Uncle Jesse. This was also a regular occurance during our trip. He especially loved chasing Jesse all around the house. He would point and Jesse and say run. Jesse normally caved and if for some reason Izzy didn't agree with Jesse's choice of wear to run he would correct him No that way.

Aiden and Uncle Jesse. Aiden's daddy Jared, Jesse's younger brother, is peaking out in the background as well. Aiden wasn't to sure about Uncle Jesse when he first met him. Infact he burst into tears at first sight, but it didn't take him long to warm up.

Look at those chubby cheeks.

Helping shred up the wrapping paper.

Laying on Uncle Jesse. Oops! He fell over. Aiden was such a happy baby. What a cutie!

Izzy copying Uncle Jesse, becaue Uncle Jesse was too tired to chase him anymore.

Dan & Brendon getting a little break from the kids while Jesse entertained them.

Jesse practicing his skills watching the football game and playing with the kids at the same time.

Amanda's visit...

Me & Amanda in 1987 celebrating the birth of my chubby little brother David.

Amanda and Lauren (Amanda's boyfriend's little sister)

Amanda & me @ The Bump & Grind for Drag Queen Brunch. She loved it. Our waiter/waitress was awesome. Amanda even got her picture taken with him/her.

Amanda cutting glass.

Me sprinkling glass pieces.

Enjoying some Little Man ice cream on the glider. It's fabulous!
I am not sure we could be any more different.

The Little Man Ice Cream shop.

On Saturday after my dye job Jesse and I headed over to Pasquini's (yes, that Pasquini's the same place I went with my other cousins when they were in town a month ago) for dinner with my cousin Amanda and her boyfriend's little sister. Amanda is dating and Australian and since his Visa is up she figured it was her turn to get a Visa and move to live with him for a few years. She's moving to Australia next month and probably won't be back for a few years. Who knows when we will see each other again. It's not like we've spent endless amounts of time with each other over the last few years or anything, but we were pretty close growing up. See Amanda and I are the oldest of the McBroom cousins. She is just 2yrs younger than me, so it was just the 2 of us for a long time and we liked it that way. The funny thing is we couldn't be more different. Aside from having black eyebrows, brown eyes, and being unbelievably pale skinned we don't have much else in common. Amanda is crazy tall especially for our short family. She's taller than everyone besides my brother & my dad. I on the other hand am the shortest one. She's got long blond hair and I have short brown hair (almost black @ the moment). She is skinny as a rail and I'm more curvy. She's very business savvy and athletic where I am more day dreamy and creative. I think the picture of us eating ice cream really shows are differences, right down to our choice of ice cream. I was all into the cupcake flavor w/sprinkles and a waffle cone and she was Mexican chocolate with a plain cone all the way. Despite our differences we've always been good friends and we never seem to run out of things to talk about. Amanda's boyfriend Chris's little sister is a nanny in Broomfield, so Amanda flew in on Friday night and stayed with Lauren until we met up in Saturday evening for dinner. On Sunday Amanda and I had a busy day. Jesse decided to stay home and watch football while we enjoyed what he called girly time. We went to the Bump & Grind for Drag Queen Brunch. This seems to have become a tradition, taking the sweet innocent relatives to the shocking and often trashy, but oh so tasty breakfast experience. After brunch we headed to an adorable little boutique called True Love. They sell adorable and affordable, purses, shoes, and jewelery that I knew Amanda would love and since we had time to kill, why not go? Amanda & I did some, what she called accidental shopping. :) Then we headed off to my surprise for her which was doing some glass fusing at Ceramics in the City. She decided to make a plate with a definite color scheme and pattern where as I went for a total abstract hodge podge of colors in a wall or window hanging (see what I mean very different). We spent the afternoon lounging around the house, reading, talking, watching some TV, and talking some more. We occasionally let Jesse into our conversations, but I think he was pretty content watching his football and napping most of the afternoon away. That evening we went out ice cream @ my new favorite neighborhood hang out Little Man Ice Cream. It's fabulous homemade ice cream and gelato in a cute setting. The building is an old milk canister and you can only eat outside on their big beautiful patio. We opted for the comfy old metal glider rather than the bistro seats. I think it reminded us of Grandma & Grandpa McBroom's old metal glider and how we always used to set in it on their patio at night all the time growing up. We did a lot of reminiscing about things and people from our childhood which at times was tearful, but sometimes you need that. Amanda did a little more accidental or purposeful shopping @ Target. Surprise, Surprise! That's actually funny, because for those of you who don't know Amanda works for Target's head quarters in Minneapolis. She's the one who designs the displays in the women's athletic area for all the stores all over the world (pretty cool job). We headed home again and she helped me bake some banana bread before we hit the hay. It was an early morning this morning, we left the house @ 4:35am to get her to her 6:30am flight. It was a great visit and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I hope she did too. Jesse and I wish her all the best on her travels and adventures. Amanda, If we ever win the lottery or some how become insanely rich in the next few years we will surely come visit you & Chris in Australia.

Dye job...

Before...

And after.

The weather has been getting cooler around here, so I decided to darken my hair up in anticipation of the coming fall. It is no secret that I always enjoy my hair darker. I went on Saturday after work and the girl who normally does my hair was so over booked that day that I had to get washed out and styled by a new girl. I think it turned out great, but the new girls went a little crazy on spiking up the new do. I doubt I will do my hair like that on a normal day, because I sort of felt like a rooster. I still rocked the rooster do for day, even if it was only to prove to myself that I was cool enough to pull it off.

WOW...

I'm in a bubble.

WORLD OF WONDER MUSEUM

Peter & the ladies building an arch.
*Just like the one @ the Science Center in Iowa

Luke under the pin cushion board.

Dana & Luke playing with the pin cushion board.

Luke showing me how to play the horseshoes.

Luke testing out the wind experiments.

Climbing challenge.

Piano all lit up that you could see inside when you played it.

Hard to see, but this was a really cool light wall you can draw on.

Paintings from kids in Asia. They did an exchange of art work program.

Ball room. Maze games, a plinko like board, etc...

During the Museum's Annual Closure for clean up & repairs the Ed team went on a little field trip to the WOW Children's Museum in Lafayette, Co. They are a much smaller facility and don't do anywhere as many programs as we do, but they do have their perks. As you can see we sure had a good time playing around in a new museum.

Everything from Farm Animals to Sweet Treats...

Enjoying some chocolate bacon flavored ice cream with bacon sprinkles. Weird!

Ryan trying out the chocolate covered bacon. Neither of us were fans really.

Jesse belting out some tunes on Sunday.

Jesse and the guys rocking it at the bar-b-q show on Sunday.

Some of the goats who will be visiting the museum this month. My favorite!

Chickens & Ducks of all colors and varieties.

The miniature horse named Midnight.

One of the sheep bothering the bunnies.

This week has been a crazy one to say the least and this month seems to be headed in the same direction. Tuesday was the 1st which meant it was good old Target Tuesday for me. Strangely enough it was a calm one at the museum, so it was totally manageable. Wednesday was my last class with this section of the Nurturing Program, so we had a party and said congratulations to the graduates. Thursday night Jesse & I both got our hair cut... finally! Friday night we headed down to 1st Fridays on Tennyson to see the opening of a friends new sign printing & graphics design shop. My old friend Ryan, from high school, joined us. Saturday night was a good lazy night for me. Urban Farms came back to the Museum this week for every Thursday, Friday, & Saturday all month long. They opened on Thursday with a lot more set up and tear down on our part, so by Saturday I was feeling a little sore and Oh so tired from the long week. I think there was only 1 night that we got home before 9pm all week long. Exhausting. Sunday Ideal Father's had a big show @ the Larimer and I met some new friends. It was a great show, although I'm still not to sure about these early afternoon bar-b-q shows. They're fun, but mid-afternoon rock shows seem weird to me. I guess it's better for those of us who are starting to feel old and don't like staying out until 2am anymore. I prefer to be home and in bed by 11pm at the latest. I like my sleep. Today, Labor Day, Jesse stayed home to relax while my friend Ryan and I headed down to Taste of Colorado. We tried lots of tasty new treats including some odd ones as pictured above. As I said on facebook earlier... I learned something new today. Chocolate covered bacon is not for me, but chocolate bacon flavored ice cream isn't half bad. I think I'll take mine sans the bacon sprinkles next time, though. Tomorrow starts the 3day annual museum closure to spruce up the museum. Urban Farm will still be present to give those people who are unaware of the closure an activity, but other than that we will be going on a field trip to anther museum, helping clean up exhibits, and working on lots of trainings for the new folks. *Side note... My new program debuted on Friday and it was a huge hit. Special thanks to Melissa for taking the adorable pictures and to Paul, Debbie, My Dad, Sydney, and the star of the book Jasper for posing in the pictures. Everyone tells me its the cutest Playworks book yet. I even had a little boy and his mom say the book was meant for them, because he had a cousin named Sydney, and uncle named John, and a grandpa who had a farm. They loved it! I will be sending everyone hard copies of the book soon. I will probably send them all to my parents and have them distribute, so be looking for those in the next week or so. You guys are famous here in Denver at least with the under 6 crowd. To round out the week my cousin Amanda will be coming to visit us for the weekend before she makes her big move to Australia next month. We're very excited for her to come and I've planned a special surprise for her while she's here. It should be a nice relaxing weekend. Before you know it it will be the 16th and we'll be flying to Texas for Jesse's birthday. We're going to visit his sister and her family and his brother and his family. Jesse's brother's birthday is exactly a week after his, so we're going to have a joint party for the boys over the weekend. Should be fun! That about sums up over half the month. Woo Hoo! Bring on October. I only have 1 request could we slow it down a bit I would like to take some time to enjoy the month?