My View this Summer

Ice cream and swimming- that is our agenda for the summer and I am loving it!

Allowance, A Purse and A Lake First

Abby Lu cahsed in her first allowance this weekend. After reading a little, talking with friends and some prayer, we decided to give Abby money when she goes above and beyond. It could be helping me put away laundry, feeding the cat, or showing good character traits. We usually give her a quarter, sometimes more and sometime less.

This morning during breakfast we sorted and counted all her change. It was fun to do "math" with her in a way she could understand. Then, her and Marcus took her money to the coinstar at the grocery store to convert to dollar bills.

She was about $2 short of what she wanted, so we agreed to pay the remainder. She has been wanting this "sparkly A purse" for months. She saw it when we were in here in March and I refused to pay $15 for it. So, we began saving for it and Saturday was the big day! Doesn't she look excited?

Saturday night, we visited our friends Jay and Kristen at the new house they built in the far back of Steiner on the lake. It was a first for Abby- we took the golf cart down to the lake and she got to play. It was the most family friendly little spot on the lake that I have ever seen.

The docks are all owned by families with kids and they had built a big green lawn, a sandy beach with sea shells all hidden inside, swings, hammocks, you name it. We had lots of fun swimming in our clothes!

Ever After DVD Taping

I have had a pretty amazing two days. When we joined our new church late last year, we had no idea that Christian-author Vicki Courtney was in our church and part of the Sunday school group we joined. Getting to know her has been a joy and I love her husband's teaching just as much. 

Last December at the Christmas party, Vicki invited a few of us girls there to participate in her DVD for her book coming out in the summer called Ever After. We all agreed thinking how much fun it would be to participate. Fast forward to last month when Vicki gave us more information on the topics and questions she would be discussing.... woah, how we all need this book! Vicki covers all the fairy tales we are fed by society and the sugar coated version of reality that we buy into. Does "you had me at hello?" sound familiar? My husband has NEVER dreamt of busting into my book club or uttering those words. Do the pictures of happy families on Pinterest leave you wondering why your family photos always turn out wrong? See, you need this book, too!

The DVD study will come out in the fall with 6 sessions that follow the book and some bonus footage of the testimonies of a few of the ladies above, including my story of infertility. You always hope going through something painful like infertility will be used later. Thank you God for allowing me to share this day with these ladies and my story with others waiting on you.

It was so nice to have hair and makeup each day! I have never seen my eyes look so good. I want Stephanie to come live with me forever!

She even played with my hair and showed me all that a bobby pin can do!

Here is my before and after from this morning. Wow!

 In all seriousness, buy the book. I can't wait to start reading it now and doing the study in the Fall. It is going to be life changing. And, a huge thank you to Vicki for including me and my story this week.

Fun Times in Denver

 So, Sunday morning we left the Vail area and drove back to Denver. We had a mid-morning flight on Monday and didn't want to make the long drive in that morning. We first stopped off at Heritage Square park for a little fun!

Marcus tried out the ropes course they had- you are about 10 feet (or 20 feet if you go up another level) off the ground and harnessed into the structure while navigating different "floating steps". There were a handful of adults and kids all around the course. You do it at your own pace, just move around and challenge yourself.

Marcus was having fun UNTIL the log he was standing on came unbolted and fell! He was still harnessed in but his gut reaction was to grab the rope which he then tore his hands up on. No bueno.

As they were bandaging his hands, we learned the same thing happened the day before and they had only been open 3 days. Um, yikes. Refund please!

We then walked up the mountain to the alpine slide. You literally slide down a course dug out of the mountain on a plastic sled with a braking device. It was lots of fun!

We left Heritage Square and drove into Golden, Colorado. We decided to skip the Coors Light tour and instead visited a small local brewery, Mountain Toad. 

The town of Golden was super cute and the beer was cheap! Marcus paid $6 for this flight and enjoyed it on a patio in the 75 degree shade. We split a quesadilla from a local food trailer- fun little afternoon.

We then made the trek into Denver and checked into our downtown hotel. After resting up for 2 hours, we drove to Lime for dinner. We have visited Lim each time we are in Denver- we just love it. Last time we were there, I was pregnant. Crazy! 

I had the sweet corn tamale cakes- delish!

Marcus ordered the scorpions- jalapeno shrimp!

After dinner we parked the car back at the hotel and walked two blocks to Comedy Works to see Anjelah Johnson perform. We both really like her and it was a perfect fit since she was in Denver with us. This is my all time favorite bit of hers! Watch it- you'll laugh!

Lo and behold- Marcus was chosen for a meet and greet after the show! She had a twitter contest and picked Marcus- he tweeted it was his birthday!

She even shared her opening act's birthday cake with Marcus! We tweeted this picture back to her and she asked why she looked more bald than Marcus- ha!

It was pretty amazing night- she will be in Austin in late September and we highly recommend her!

We woke up early Monday morning and flew home- easy peasy! Monday was actually Marcus' 39th birthday! We had a little fun in Austin before picking up Abby on Tuesday afternoon from Nana's house.

A Little Trip to the Mountains

So, Marcus was in Denver the week before Memorial Day for work and since he was done on Friday of a 3-day weekend which just happened to be his birthday, we decided to make a little vacation out of it! We hadn't been to the Vail area in a few years and never in the Spring. So, we booked a flight, redeemed some hotel points and left most of the schedule open. Rare for me :)

We stayed at the Westin in Beaver Creek/Avon. It was beautiful. 

We were upgraded to a beautiful condo for our stay! It makes it hard to only sleep in your room when your room is so wonderful. It beats the heck out of our first apartment :) 

The high on Wednesday when I was packing was to be mid-60s each day. It ended up being well over 80 degrees with lots of sunshine!

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast and set out just before lunchtime to Glenwood Springs, home of a local amusement park with open gondolas, a must on our list. 

 The gondola was a little scary for Marcus! He takes Zanax to help him fly, so he popped an extra pill and all was good. The gondola is the little orange boxes you see among the trees on the mountain below. 

It provided some beautiful scenery!

Glenwood Springs was fun- lots of kiddies rides and thrill rides for the big kids. We wanted to zip line while there, but it was too windy and after waiting in line for over 30 minutes, it was shut down due to the wind. So, we took a few pictures and rode the gondola back down.

We decided to take the scenic route home and drive to Aspen. I loved this little town and was impressed by the number of high end shops found there. Who knew Prada, LV, and Gucci had stores in little ol' Aspen? 

We took in the sights in the village and then stopped on a patio for a drink and to map out the rest of our day.  

There was a whole row of these pink trees, cherry blossom I presume. Loved the pink trees among the bright blue sky!

Marcus ran through the fountains on the way out- he wasn't fast enough to stay dry :)

So, rather than going back north and heading east in I-70, we took a back road known as Independence Pass. This is a screen shot of the route.... it was insane. I would have been much less nervous if we had filled up with gas prior to the 2 hour journey.

But, now that I know we survived, I can recommend it. On the drive, the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees and we found snow!

Is this not amazing! We were on the side of a mountain with snow/ice scattered her and there and then suddenly it felt like we were in the clouds and surrounded by snow!

We arrived in Vail in time for a yummy dinner at Blue Moose Pizza. It was recommended by multiple Facebook friends and was wonderful. 

Sunday morning, we had a big breakfast and drove back into Denver. Details on that super cool adventure up next!

Career Day

Abby's school did a little career day poster and they shared the picture with us on the last day.... Abby, what do you want to be when you grow up?

The First and Last Day of Pre-K 3

Today was Abby's last day of school until September 9th. She is excited that summer is here and we can see our friends more and go swimming. I love the freedom of summer, but I also love the structure of school and the freedom it gives me. Marcus and I had our last lunch date for a while today and I ran about 10 errands in my final five hours :) 

These pictures just amaze me- you don't see it when you see them everyday. Her hair has darkened, her little chin has changed, her face is much more of a girl than a baby, and her neck even seems longer!

In this full body, it appears she grew about a brick :) 

I have loved Abby's preschool and am excited she has another year there before Kindergarten comes! 

We aren't taking a vacation this summer, but Abby is spending some time with my sister, hosting her cousins, taking a bakery tour, spending 4 different weeks in gymnastics camp, and doing vacation bible school. I pray it is the right combination of fun and freedom for us both!

Splash Day

I am a little behind on blogging- we had way too much happen in a one week span! Last Wednesday (just before I left on vacation) was splash day at Abby's school. Her and all her schoolmates played outside on the inflatables brought in for the day. 

This is Abby's pre-K class made up of "older" 3 year olds and now younger 4 year olds. I am so glad they will all be back next year and Shining Stars together! Abby's friends that we hear about most are Harlyn (next to her) and Preston (in the green Batman shirt).

Their teacher in the Friday class made this poster for the hallway- I love it. Abby wants to be a magic fairy!

Here are a few of my favorite splash day photos of Abby and her friends....

The outside fun ended with popsicles! 

Tomorrow is our last day of school until September. We are sad and also so excited for the fun that comes with summer!