Summer Review - June

The month started out great. Sarah and I spent a lot of time swimming at the pool and soaking up the sun. Then on June 14th my last living Grandpa died at the age of 90. He was an amazing man and disciple of Christ. He loved everyone and always made you feel welcome. As my Grandma put it, "He never made you feel broken". He had a very witty sense of humor and was a great story teller. Here is my favorite picture of him:

I made it out to his funeral in Salt Lake. It was wonderful to hear all the stories and memories everyone had of him. I learned things about him I never knew before. He is one of my heroes. I love and miss you Grandpa!

My dad came up for a visit in June as well. He took some time off of work and rode his Gold Wing (that’s a motorcycle for those of you who don’t know) from his home in San Diego up through Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and up into Canada to Banff National Park then back down again. He stayed with us while he was in Colorado and took a number of day trips from our house up to the mountains. On his way back down from Canada my step-mom, Rebecca flew in to Denver and stayed with us a few days as well. It was wonderful having them around and they loved playing with Sarah. It was so cute to see both of them run around and chase her. They are awesome grandparents and Sarah loved their visit. We miss you Grammy and Grampy!

Back in the Saddle Again

I know many of you have been chomping at the bit waiting for me to post an update. I have to apologize to those of you who faithfully check my blog. This summer has been a difficult one for me and in response I retreated from life. Sorry to let you all down but I am ready to jump back in!

At first I wasn't going to go into details about things we did this summer but after looking at the pictures I have taken I decided there are just too many cute pictures that I want to post. So stay tuned for updates on my summer (I promise I will have them out by the weekend!)

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Kevin got up early with Sarah and let me sleep in a bit. I woke up to Sarah coming in the room carrying Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host. It had two cards in it, one from Kevin and one from Sarah. Then we went downstairs and had a wonderful breakfast Kevin had prepared. We spent the remainder of the day going to church and relaxing around the house.

Now, I would have been happy with just the book Kevin had bought for me but he had something bigger in store. My biggest gift from Kevin was a trip to the salon to get my hair done. I have not been to a salon in nine years and it has been that long since I have even trimmed my hair. With my curly hair I just have not trusted it to others. My appointment was today and I went to a friend of mine. She did an amazing job. I got a weave to lighten my hair up a bit and I had about three inches trimmed off with some layers added as well. I aboslutely LOVE my hair now. It feels so healthy and soft and I love that I can wear it straight. Kevin loves it as well. It was money well spent. Thanks honey for such a wonderful Mother's Day!

Bath Fun!

The other day I was giving Sarah a bath and all of a sudden she lunged forward to grab one of her toys and ended up on her belly. She had never turned onto her belly before in the tub so she sat there for a minute making sure she was ok then she looked up at me, gave me a big grin and started kicking her legs. I kept telling her she was "swimming". Now whenever I give her a bath I tell her, "go swimming" and she flips over onto her belly and starts kicking and splashing. I think we are going to have a blast this summer in the pool together! Enjoy the pictures :)

I've Got a New Attitude!

A few weeks ago some of my girlfriends and I were sitting around talking about hair and my friend, Wylie, got the bright idea (it really was a good idea) to straighten my hair with a flat iron. Now, I have straightened my hair before but that was like 15 years ago. I used to straighten it with a round brush and blow dryer which took forever, about two hours, and the end result was still pretty frizzy. Ever since the flat irons came out I have wondered how they would work on my hair but was not willing to spend a lot of money to try it out. So when Wylie suggested we try it with my hair I got really excited. I ran home and took a shower then went back over to Wylie's. A few of my other friends were there as well. We turned on the movie Hairspray, which I had never seen before and the girls went to town on my hair. Wylie was standing on one side of me with her flat iron, and my friend Kim was on the other side with her flat iron. In half an hour my hair was done and this is what it looked like:

Holy cow! I love it. I went to church the next day and most people did not recognize me. Because of my new doo I am going to do something for Mother's Day that I have not done in NINE years...go get my hair done at a salon! I don't trust others with my hair so I never go to a salon but I am ready for some hi-lights and at least a trim...I don't know if I'm ready for a full-on cut yet but we'll see. A friend of mine works for a salon and I am going to see her next Friday. I'll post pictures again when it's all done. Yea for straight hair!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

My brother, Brian who lives here in the Denver area as well, loves to go kite flying. He has a few multi-line kites that he flies. All of them are various sizes. I don't know if they are considered stunt kites, but they are definitely not the $5 specials you get from the grocery store. These are serious kites. They are so big and strong that they drag him across the grass and sometimes he even catches air! Anyways, a few weeks ago Sarah and I met him at a park to watch him fly his kites and I took some pictures. It was hard to get both him and the kite in the same picture but I did get some of the kites on the ground. Later in the afternoon Kevin showed up and flew one himself but I wasn't smart enough to get pictures of him, sorry babe.

You Belong in the Zoo...

We took Sarah to the zoo for the first time on April 19th. She had so much fun looking at all the animals and seeing all the people. She was only interested in the animals that moved so if they were sleeping she didn't really care about them. Some of her favorites exhibits were the mongoose's. They were moving all over the place and going in and out of their holes. She stood there and just laughed and pointed as she got excited. She also liked the giraffe's. There was one that was trying to eat some leaves out of the tree and it had it's neck stretched way up high and kept sticking it's tongue out to reach the leaves. Sarah's favorite animals at the zoo were all the birds. Any bird she saw she would say, "Quack, quack". Even the birds that were wandering freely around the park, she would run up to them, stop about a foot away from them, point and say quack, quack.

At the Denver Zoo there is also a carousel and train you can ride so we took Sarah on both of them. It was at the end of the day so she was pretty tired but she did have a good time. She kept waving and blowing kisses to all the people as we went by on the train. It was so cute. We are so excited that Sarah is old enough to enjoy places like this. We look forward to many more outings with her. Enjoy the pictures!