Rascal Flats Concert

Mark's annoying work schedule paid off one weekend when Comfort Dental got us free tickets to Rascal Flats!!!  Some of my sisters and I are big fans of Rascal Flats so we were pretty excited when we heard they were coming to Denver!

Emilee and Ang flew in a little early so we could vacation too. On the first vacation day, we went out to dinner to a mexican restaurant--of course.  Mark was with us so how could we not?

  After dinner we went on a shopping spree at the nearby outlets. It was nice to shop and get opinions from my two younger sisters who are much more stylish and up with the trends. You two would be happy to know that I wore my brand new orange skirt today. Where would I be without you guys? :) 

 The next day we drove to Colorado Springs to see the rock formations at Garden of the Gods park.  

While there, we hiked to a rock formation called Siamese Twins...

 ...saw a great view of Pikes Peak...

 

...and also visited Balanced Rock.

 We spent the afternoon touring a Ghost Town Museum.  We enjoyed "turning our clocks back a hundred years" as we explored the town. 

 

 

  

This one's for you Dad! :)

 I loved seeing all the neat antiques they had! I even found a speck of gold while panning afterwards! I am a rich woman now!

 

 Fortunately I just happened to take a wrong turn on the way home--right onto a street where there were deer walking in front of our car!  

 We made it back to Denver just in time for the most exciting event. The concert included Eli Young Band and Little Big Town along with Rascal Flats. I thought the other two bands were great.  I guess Mark especially liked them because he said to me while Little Big Town was singing, "so this is Rascal Flats, huh?  They are pretty good. "   :)  (This was before Rascal Flats came out to sing of course)

 

Thanks to Ang I've got proof that we heard Rascal Flats live.

 

I left the concert liking Rascal Flats even more than I did before!  These girls were so fun to go with!!

 

The next day was Sunday so we made good use of our time before church.  We took a drive and saw Columbine High School...

...a cute little prairie dog town...

...and the Denver Temple.

I am so glad these two came out to visit.  I feel so lucky to have such great sisters.  I hope they come back soon!

Weekend Trip to Green River

One of the things that got Mark and me excited about moving back west was that we would be able to go on trips with our families to southern Utah. After not camping in Utah for several years, our choice of destination was obvious--Green River, Utah!  :)  Actually, I didn't realize that this little town existed until I did a search for a camping site with showers and found that besides the showers, this place had a lot to offer.  Apparently, Green River is famous for their watermelons and is in driving distance to many great sites in Utah. We had a blast camping and seeing some of these sites with my family over Labor Day Weekend.

 

We had a great camp site that included flushing toilets, lots of shady trees, and grass.  We spent our time here doing many exciting things like making a train out of camping chairs...

...and sitting on favorite cousins.

The first sites we saw in Green River included a museum about the explorer John Wesley Powell...

 

...Crystal Geyser...

 

...and Goblin Valley.

 

We had a lot of fun hiking around Goblin Valley and seeing the unique rock formations there.

 

 

All these two had to do to be cute was walk around.

We also got to do a little more celebrating for Lucy's birthday. A big smile came over Lucy's face when we got to the part "Dear Lucy" during the Happy Birthday song. She loved it.

 

The next morning she even got to open another birthday present from Grandma Mari and Grandpa Brad. In the beginning, Lucy's cousins watched patiently while Lucy started to open her present. 

 

Not too much time went by though until her cousins were gathered as close as possible to get in on the action.  I soon became the most popular aunt and Lucy was pushed to the outskirts of the circle. :)

 

Afterwards, we took a drive to see more sites in the area. I was blown away at the beautiful canyons and the uniqueness of the rock formations we drove through. 

 

Along the way, we were able to see petroglyphs...

 

...a real dinosaur footprint...

...and an old bridge that used to be part of the highway system.

As always, the trip sped by and it was soon time to go home.  I came home amazed that we did this as a family.  It seems like the bigger our family gets, the harder it is to make sure everyone schedules matches. This was a worthwhile trip and we look forward to doing this a lot more often in the future!

Lucy's Two!

Lucy turned two on August 28!

 

She started the fun by opening the first of her presents.   

 

We didn't open all of them because Mark was still at work but we did have a little sidewalk chalk celebration while he was gone.

  

We celebrated that night by going to Wendy's and letting Lucy have her very own frosty.  Afterwards, she got to open the rest of her presents.

 

One of her presents was a bubble machine!

I love this two year old stage with Lucy.  She spends her time doing the funniest things.  These are some of my favorites:

Lucy loves to find a seat in the most random places.  She has tried sitting in pots and pans, her diaperbag, and most recently an attachment to my wheat grinder. 

 

My favorite place she loves to sit though is in my lap.  I love it when I am sitting indian style on the floor and she backs up and sits on me unexpectedly.  I also love when she cuddles up next to me while I am laying in bed.  She pulls the covers way up so they are tucked under her chin. She is sweet when it comes to being close to us. 

 

I love watching the things Lucy figures out.  I fed her some raspberries the other day and she would only eat them if she stuck her fingers in the holes first.

It makes sense--it's just like eating olives the fun way!

 

One of my favorite routines is wrapping up Lucy in a towel after she takes a bath. She is only happy if I wrap it really tight around her so it stays up by itself.  It is so tight that she can't even move her arms.  Then she waddles off in these little baby steps to her room to get dressed.

Lucy has become a great helper.  She is good at helping me unload the dishwasher and pick up toys.  I think she thinks that it is helpful to give me things now because she is constantly bringing me random items and expecting me to give her a happy thank you.  Lately, I caught her sweeping the floor and mopping. I hope this stage lasts forever! ;) 

 Lucy has a shoe fetish.  She spends a lot of her play time trying on shoes.

  

She also likes to dress up in things.  One morning I caught her walking around in one of my pajama pant legs like it was a skirt.

 

I love how she tries to copy me. I caught her trying to put on my earrings, using my make up brush on her face, putting my chapstick on, and trying to hold her cup high enough to get a drink from the fridge. This morning while I was doing my hair, Lucy did hers. 

This was the front view...

 ...and the back view.

Lucy also likes to play with her push toys outside.

 

She liked switching off between this one...

...and this one...

 

until she realized she didn't have to choose between the two.  :) 

Other things I love is how Lucy kisses anything she likes whether it has lips or not, how she smells flowers whether they are real or not, how she tries to tickle my neck, how she fake laughs to try to fit in, how she tries to feed her puppy her drinks, how she imitates my "whee" and "whoo" when things are fun, and how she says "oo" when things are heavy or stuck.  We love Lucy because she brings us so much joy each day.