Greg Laswell @ The Walnut Room

This was my first time at The Walnut Room in downtown Denver. It was quaint, cozy, (needed more seating), and totally AWESOME!

Elizabeth and the Catapult opened for Greg Laswell to make for a great chill night.

My fabulous friend, Heather, joined me.... this type of music was right up her alley.

After standing in the back and listening to the opening act, we decided to make our way to the front and sit on the floor. The smart ones followed. This is where I met Amber, and come to find out she is just as passionate (if not more) about folk/indie music and going to lots and lots of concerts! I have a feeling I'll be seeing her around :)

He's worth checking out:

High and Low a live version

How the Day Sounds music video

Comes and Goes heather's favorite :)

And Then You my favorite

I'd be Lying Amber's favorite

This is Greg! He looks tired...hahaha

Super nice, though :)

Pediatric Dentistry of the Rockies @ a Rockies Game...

My awesome boss treated me, my co-workers and our friends and family to a night at a Rockies v. Arizona Cardinals game! It was a perfect night, weather wise, and a good game.... we won!

Thanks Dr. Keith :)

Well.... the weather was perfect until the drive home when we got caught in downpour rainstorm and a deafening, traffic stopping hail storm. Crazy!

Redheads, Bubbles and Barbeque

Grannie Annie.... my favorite redhead.... comes to visit.

Gluebaby was really REALLY excited! :0)

We got bubble crazy...

....water crazy.....

....play crazy...

... and silly crazy, too.

Dinner time....mmmm.......

Cooper's first corn on the cob. Can you tell?

Got Milk?

Spring is in the Summer Air

While most people look to the West towards the mountains and beautiful sunsets....

I look to the East and find some great weather shots.

As most of you know, Colorado's summer got a late start. It's been rainy and cooler than usual.

I'm not complaining.... I've been loving it. Especially with these shots I've collected in the last month or so.

Unmodified.....

I was driving home late from an after-party-after-kickball-game, and in the East was a huge thunderstorm. The kind where there is no rain and you can't really hear anything..... just constant lightning. I mean CONSTANT.....bolt after bolt that lit up these clouds. I pulled over and set my camera's shutter speed to stay open extra long, and this is what I got.

This one was taken one evening outside our front door. It was a full rainbow that didn't fit inside my camera frame. It was even a double rainbow for a little while....you can kinda see the second one to the right.

This one was also taken in the field outside our home, during the weeks we were getting all the rain. Something was brewing here.

Some "stay-at-home-mom" days are a lot of fun!!! This was one...

Summer has been a little crazy busy....

between some of the trips I've taken, getting settled at my new part-time job, and life things in general...... I realized it had been awhile since I had just a normal "stay-at-home-mom-pay-attention-to-the-kiddo" kind of day. The kind where you have no work, no babysitters, no plans, no errands to run, no sleep to catch up on, no luggage to pack or unpack, no projects to work on, (i'm not good at the cleaning thing anyway), etc etc....

..... but to just play.

I was in the mood for fun... the kind where you don't pay attention to the time.

After Cooper's nap, we headed to one of my favorite places in the fort.... Old Town :)

We snacked on some delicious smoothies at Mugs (a favorite coffee shop of mine).

This little guy attracted a lot of attention.... especially with this smile

After a little shopping (ok, I had a couple errands to run....haha),

we headed to this very fun fountain park in Old Town. The funnest part about it is that the water shoots out randomly.... so little kids are even more intrigued when they see it.... and then they don't. So any excuse to get wet, have silly fun, run around and play works for this little guy. Anyway, these are some of the fun shots I got...

Bookclub

This is my bookclub (half of it, anyway)

Sometimes we are serious, sometimes we are goofs..... and sometimes we just need a reason to gab and not talk about books at all.

Ali on the left started the bookclub. She is such an amazing spirit and the glue of the group. Becca on the right was recently published, and her debut novel Hush Hush will be released Oct 13th. I can't wait to read it!!! It's been a neat experience seeing her on her journey. I'm so proud of her.

Hottie-you-wanna-love-a-lottie comes to visit....(yay!)

After picking up my friend, Marisa, from the airport, we met up with my other friend, Candace, for an adventurous tubing trip down the Poudre..... girls only!
Besides the water being ice cold (baby), getting scraped up a bit on some rocks, and the random naked man in the bushes.....

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!....even the faster bumpier rapid sections.
After 3 miles, we had enough adventure for the day.

(With the water being so high this season.... definately wear a life jacket!!! We each took our turn being flipped flopped into the water)

Then dinner and a night out on the Old Town!

On this day....

we slept in, got breakfast at Panera, lounged by the pool, went out to lunch at Spicy Pickle.....

..... took a long bike ride, lost a little shoe, and ended the perfectly warm sunny day running thru this fountain park in a neighborhood next to mine. Cooper loves this place.

And this was just SOME of the fun we had. I love this girl. Hope she comes back soon!!!!

Cedaredge Fourth of July

For the Fourth this year, we invited our friends Tim, Amy, Kurt and Taryn to Cameron's grandparents' vacant property in Cedaredge, Colorado for a few days. We "camped" in an empty house on 3 beautiful acres of green-green grass, surrounded by ripened cherry tree orchards, the soothing sounds of a rushing river, and lots of room to play...

Cherry tree picking was fun and meditative.... and delish..... eating them straight from the tree :)

While the boys played basketball.....

....the girls golfed a little....

.....and cartwheeled a lot!

What else do you do in a big open field?

It was so fun acting like 10-year-olds again. I stretched a lot of unused muscles doing those cartwheels.... hadn't done one in so long.

A little Bocce Ball

.... and then a break from the sun, driving to Tony's for lunch and icecream.

4th generation Mocha Whip taster....

yup...... he's a Loucks.

Sucked it all the way down, barely taking in a breath. And apparently immune to brain freezes.

Then we played some more in the awesome sun!

Volleyball!

Cooper loves Guinness..... Kurt's new puppy :)

He was soooo gentle and well-mannered with Cooper, too.

kiss kiss

On the way to pick up some local pizza, we girls stopped to take pictures of the neighbor's beautiful white horse in the beautiful field and with the beautiful lighting from the setting sun.

After dinner, the girls showered, I hung out down by the river and took more pictures, and the boys played with guns.

Safety first Tim. Safety first.

And then, more games.

The next day was hike day. After sleeping in a bit, we got ready to hike Crag's Crest. I was excited but also hesitant because we started smack in the middle of Cooper's nap time. AND he'd never been in a hiking-back-pack-carryier-thingy.

We was AWESOME! Barely fussed at all.

at the top...

Cooper was so tired:(

and still so good :)

The whole group!

After the hike and after an icecream stop at Tony's (of course), we drove to Delta for the local fireworks show. It's a small little town with few restaurants for dinner.... so we decided on a Wendy's picnic.

While waiting for the sun to set, Cam and I goofed around doing headstands....

.... and Cooper was fascinated with this boy's fireworks.

and finally..... cause for celebration FIREWORKS!

... and then more games back at the pad :)

The trip was so fun. The company great. and the fresh air much needed.

My favorite part was resting under a cherry tree at dusk, listening to my ipod and thinking.

The river.

The cherries.

The beauty.

The end.

oh yeah..... the drive home....... blah!

I dropped Cameron off in parachute for work and drove the rest of the way home alone with two dogs and the baby. 5 hours was 8 hours of mostly 5 mile an hour traffic.

BUT... I conquer all :)