missions accomplished

It's official - I can now turn another year older.

Thanks to Mindy at Kids Place Live I received my birthday missions on Wednesday and here is the evidence to support completion of these dastardly tasks.

(I mean geesh, it's not like I could stay 35 forever?!?!! right???)

** for further explanation, go back to here **

mission #1:

lay down and have someone give you eye brows, a beard and a mustache made of whip cream!

mission #2:

sit backward on the toilet

(hey, I don't make this stuff up I just comply. Take any obscenity issues up with Mindy!)

mission #3:

re-write the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Wrinkle, wrinkle there you are

Thought I'd avoided you so far

But thirty-six snuck up on me

Now middle-age is what I see

Wrinkle, wrinkle there you are

Proof of a good life so far!

** this post is dedicated to ali! **

camp trip

A quick, mid-week adventure provided for an excellent "mini-vacay" for all of us and a great opportunity to not only spend time with good friends but a chance to see a part of the state that we weren't familiar with... Ouray

We set up camp and immediately got to work on lunch!

Then there was much exploring to be done... Ouray's surrounding mountains are home to some beautiful hiking with several great creeks and waterfalls to see!

The above picture was taken from the bridge shown below!

It sits atop an incredible canyon and waterfall...

with a man-made trail to take you to the creek at the bottom!

(where the boys did the most instinctual thing possible - throw rocks in the water!)

We took another hike to check out the huge waterfall on the perimeter trail, right off the town center... the kids were such troopers!

So after some fun hiking and sight-seeing, we had a terrific dinner in town... then back to the campsite for some s'mores and good night's sleep!

The next morning was perfect for a dip in the local hot springs pool...

The scenery was amazing and the company was fantastic, too!

A swim, a quick stop at the park, and a big, Mexican lunch wrapped up our visit and sent us home with a craving for more mountain time and some very tired little boys!

weekend fun

What a great weekend to have the girls stay with us!

There were just so many fun adventures to have...

First, there was Movie Under the Stars on Friday night.

We got to the park early to meet up with friends, grab some popcorn, and get set up for

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen!

Then we woke up the next morning and headed downtown for Community Appreciation Day:

The courthouse lawn was full of fun activities for the whole family!

waterslides:

bouncy houses:

art stations:

battle arena:

tattoo station:

coloring station:

and even a face painting clown that mesmerized the kids with her funny stories and

magic tricks!

But oh, the adventures did not end with the clown!

In fact, there was also an ice cream eating contest, and the Scoop-Off contest for best homemade ice cream!

(not to brag, but my own HH PeachBerry Surprise pulled out a first place win!!!)

And to top it all off, there was even some local flavor - we're quite lucky to have such neat families living in Meeker that are willing to share their culture and talent! - in the form of live music and dance from Samoa...

check them out in a short video taken from Jason's iphone:

We topped the weekend off with more live music on the courthouse lawn and more dancing and visiting with friends!

Have a great week! On to more adventures...

36

Today is my birthday.

This morning, over doughnuts and coffee my sweet husband started playing with his iPhone and he found this song for me!

Well, that spurred an iTunes search for all variety of birthday songs... and the game was on:

he would play Happy Birthday and I would guess the artist!

I didn't pick up at all on Conway Twitty, and Sam helped me figure out the Cookie Monster!

But I think my big win (and consequently the very dead give away that I was indeed a child of the 80's) was when I correctly named the artist(s) on this one.

Oh yeah, that would totally be NKOTB, without a doubt!

(1970 was a good, good year to be born!)***

*** DUDE! How did no one comment on this before?! Jason wanted to know why the heck 1970 was a good year to be born when in fact, I was born in 1975!!!!!! oops.

date night!

Jason and I took a night to ourselves in celebration of the school year and the summer vacation!

I can now positively confirm that there is no better place to spend a summer afternoon than slopeside in Beaver Creek with a bottle of wine and some yummy sushi rolls...

as we watched the horse trips come in off the mountain and the clouds roll past the green mountainside, we got ready for the main event:

the Indigo Girls!!!!!

It was awesome - great food, beautiful scenery and lovely weather, incredible music, even a dip in the hot tub before bed!

So here is a shot of me in my luxurious hotel robe with the morning mountains in view and my complimentary Starbucks coffee in hand:

(the best part was not having to hear anyone repeat "momma,momma,momma" all morning!)

* all previous photos are courtesy of Jason's iphone!

So just what did the little adventurers do while we were out living the dream?

Well, suffice it to say they were not put out one bit by our absence...

in fact, they weren't even too thrilled we came back!

Must have been all the fun they had at their friends' house... and really who would blame them? There were dogs and cats and bunnies and chickens and a pony and a slide and a huge yard to run around in.

So what did they do? Apparently all squished into the bathtub!!!!

Thank You Ann for keeping the kiddos - they had a blast!