...part deux

After we left Mark and Deb's, Luke, I and the kids stopped over to meet Kenley Kilcrease, the newest addition to Emily and Charles' family. She's absolutly adorable and I couldn't even hold her! I was recovering from the cough and didn't want to get her sick. We all got to go out to Red Robin for lunch and Jim and Sherry met us there. It was great to see the beaming grandparents, not that they noticed us, with their beautiful grand kids there and all.....but really good to get to spend the short time we could with all of them. Then up to mom's for dinner and time to relax. Luke grilled out for us and we got to hang out and go to bed at a reasonable time. Luke and Emmett went back down to Denver to meet Amy, Mark, Deb, Bobby and his long time friend Greg Watts with his little boy, Cooper, at the Piper. Mark had to go in for a few tests prior to his transplant on Thursday so they were going to be up and why not make a stop at the Piper for some hot wings. The following day, Luke and I left the kids with mom and went down for dinner with Mark and Deb and Donna the night before the big day, Mark's surgery! We spent the last part of the night at Eric and Ivy's. It was nice getting to spend a few hours chatting and then off to bed. The morning came too early when we had to leave at 4am to get the boys to the airport for the annual golf tourney at the lake. Back up to mom's...which they were all just waking up when I got there! We ran errands all day like usual...gotta get my Whole Food's fix!

The wedding...part one

Our vacation started with a journey to Colorado Springs to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. They agreed to watch the kids so Luke and I could attend his good friend's wedding. Matt Lutgen and his new bride Korrie got married on Saturday up in Parker at his sister's home. Her place was gorgeous and had the perfect setting to get married. A pretty pond with blooming flowers and a very nice tent set up for when it briefly rained(outdoor Colorado wedding...who knew!). It was a very nice wedding and we got to see so many people. What a night! Shannon, Tim's sister, wound up driving our drunk butts home and we had to walk a few miles to the car in the morning. We were not prepared to walk, hung over mind you, two miles in flip flops in the heat. Whew! Sunday we lounged around with the kids and cousins at Mark and Deb's. Matt and Luke ran around and played baseball with the kids in the back yard. It was really an awesome sight to see your husband and his brother with all of their kids playing in the grass and laughing/enjoying every minute of it. Just like family should be. Great memories.

Packing

I have been busy packing today for our upcoming trip. I have had a ton of help. Jolene seems to not like things in stacks. She immediately tears into anything that is neatly folded in a stack. Sure makes packing tough. Emmett is also very helpful these days. He chose his underwear and clothes that he wanted to bring and was told that he could bring one blanket and one stuffed dog.

This picture dictates what he must have actually heard.

Getting ready for denver

We leave for Denver trip in two days. Turns out I have Whooping Cough! What?! I have had a cough for about 3 weeks now and have chalked it up to a summer cold. I went to the doc 'cause mom and Chris both said that it was time to go. Good thing I went. I got a tetanus shot(because they now contain the vaccine for whooping cough) and a z-pak for antibiotics. Slightly worried since we will be staying with Mark and Deb and Mark is going in for his kidney surgery next week. We are still up in the air about what to do as I am contagious for a few more days... Kids have been vaccinated and anyone who has recently had a tetanus shot are fine. Crazy!!! Glad I finally went to the doc(Thanks Mom and Chris!). I should be back to normal in a few days. I decided to add a few updated pics of the kids. I took these a few minutes ago. Joey has certainly lost her peanut status. She is growing like a weed and I think Emmett is getting ready to. They both are eating like crazy and keep me on my toes when I am cooking. "Feed me!" "whatcha makin?" "WAHHHHH"(Jolene).

wild friday

Friday turned out to be a crazy hectic day. It wasn't supposed to be, but then our friend Dan drives up the driveway and hops out with his two kids, Wyatt and Kenley. I had offered to watch them but didn't realize it was this Friday. He drops them off at 8am and says he'll be back to pick them up around noon. I have already lined up a rental turn-around for my girlfriends mom who had asked for some help. She has a few rental properties in town and had people checking out at 11am and new renters coming in at 4pm. I had asked my neighbor,Chris, to watch the kiddos so I could help out cleaning the rental. But now I had 4 kids til noon!!! Luke agreed to take an early lunch and came home around 10:45am so I could get into town. I had no idea what I was getting into! I love to clean so I thought this would be no issue. 3 bathrooms and 5 beds later....and it was a stackable washer and dryer! Those things take forever to wash and dry 5 pairs of bed linens. Anyway, a few extra dollars in my pocket and 5 hours later, I went home to relieve Chris of the kids. Then made dinner and rushed over to Jessica's to help set up for our garage sale on Saturday morning. I was there til about 10pm (the bottle of wine that Jess and I polished off did not help matters!) and was back there at 6am. It was worth it because we got rid of a ton of stuff and I made about $120. I brought home the rest of the potential profits aka leftover stuff to put into my neighbor Chris' garage sale in about a month or so. Never a dull moment around here. Luke and I settled in and enjoyed our porch for basically the first time last night. Jolene was in bed and Emmett was cracking us up. Luke put a new fishing lure on his fishing pole(hooks removed!) and he was fishing off the front porch. Truly a sight to see so I videod the event. We thought Uncle Bill would be proud! Bedtime rolled around for Emmett and it was finally quiet and we sat and watched an amazing lightning storm roll in. Luke and I thought we were going to finally get hit hard with rain and it basically split around the house. I think it sprinkled a few drops and the wind gusted a few times as we watched it pour in town and go behind heart mtn. Oh well. It made for some great entertainment. Jolene is completely off bottles now, which will make traveling sooo much easier this next trip. I got really fed up and threw them all away. The bottles were the original ones we used with Emmett just with some new nipples. They were starting to crack and leak everywhere. I think that's when I cracked and threw every last bottle in the trash. She does fine on sippy cups. Problem solved.