Hotel Del - Go Broncos!

Mikey won a sales competition at work and the prize...

a trip to San Diego!

We took a chartered flight there, and were put up in the Hotel del Coronado, not too shabby! We had lots of fun all expense paid events while there, including the Bronco game of course!

A beach side villa we dreamed about staying in someday!

We got a sweet suite while at the hotel and as soon as we arrived were given a bucket of beer and wine.

Mikey got into "vacation mode" right away :)

In the lobby- this place was beautiful and was est. in 1888.

We wok up at 5:30 for deep sea fishing and first stop was the live bait station.

Lots of yucky birds and sea lions.

The crew was awesome. This guy was our favorite!

I was soooo excited to catch my first fish! These guys are part of Mikey's team at work.

Mikey did a good job catching one too. He also helped me catch the live bait and put a hook through it so I could fish. yuck.

It was fun, definitely something we've never done before! Here's the hotel.

It was like Victorian style but with lots of wood and Spanish influence- very neat.

We were right on the beach.

The tailgator on the beach before the big game.

A little horseshoe

The Bronco Game! Appropriately dressed in the "throw back" attire!

We got pregame field passes which was fun too!

OR Trip!

I have been on October break for the last week and ofcourse went to OR to see the babies! :)

I stayed in Portland for the beginning of the trip and actually left my Dad in CO to make sure I had time to come out!

It was chilly but we went on a walk to a nearby cafe- P rode his bike with Nate's help and Jess pushed Peyton

Parker LOVES playing outside in the dirt with all his vehicles. It doesn't matter if it's cold, he lays right down in the dirt :)

Beautiful Peyton sleeping. She has grown so much and is so cute and such a good baby!

Parker's playing with his early b-day gift from Aunt Rae Rae and Uncle Mikey- Transformer! He loved watching the cartoon, and asking what does "More than meets the eye" mean?

Peyton is just such a smiley little girl :)

Nate and Jess asked if I'd do some paintings for Peyton's birthday so I was busy in CO whipping some up so I could bring them during this trip.

Abstract loli-pop flowers and the Broadway bridge in Portland with city behind :) They were really fun to do for her!

Betsy and I drove to Mexico in tutus with the babies in the back and the radio on :) We also baked cookies together

We went to a nearby park to get outside in between the rain :)

Abs made great smooties and Bella didn't move her lips from the straw until it was done!

Bets is such a strong little monkey! We went to Denny's school after Betsy had preschool

Ohhh Bella, so grown up and cute! She's so funny and talking up a storm!

We went to the Wed. market with Nana in downtown

Bets had a hard time sharing her rasberries with her sissy who is always hungry :)

I had both girls one morning while Abs went to yogo and it was so fun :)

Bella just kept shoving it in!

Bets did a great job using my camera to take pics

We went to happy hour at a fun place called Cloud 9- all the girls :)

Even though it was cold, the girls had a blast running through the fountains!

Such a GREAT Trip!

My Dad :)

My dad just came out to visit from Oregon!

He came to school with me for an ENTIRE day and helped me out with the kids while I was sick and preparing for conferences.

He also went to visit Mikey's work at the Broncos and loved checking out all the premium seats.

We headed down to Fort Collins to attend the CSU Homecoming game in FREEZING weather. Mikey got us field passes so Dad got to relive his glory days as a player :)

The night he flew in we went to see WICKED with Chuck and Diane for his b-day. We had drinks and fancy dinner before hand and loved the play!

Evergreen with Javon :)

A couple weekends ago we took a nice little day trip to Evergreen with Mikey's "little brother" Javon.

We ofcourse went to our favorite place to eat...Country Road Cafe, and then walked around the lake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKEY :)

Happy Birthday to my Hubby- 29, WOW!!!

You are a wonderful man and I admire you more and more every year :)

San Diego Trip

Rachel and I are pretty excited to go to San Diego in October.  I won a trip through work, 3 nights, 4 days at Hotel Del Coronado http://www.hoteldel.com/ which looks awesome.  Private charter flight, lots of good meals, field passes & club seats for Chargers v Broncos MNF game.  And we're going to try deep sea fishing for the first time.   

Vegas!

The Beavs played UNLV, so I had a perfect excuse to go to Vegas.  My sister, dad and two of my best friends, JMann and Vinnie, came along.  We saw our friend Bill, who hooked us up with tickets to watch OSU beat UNLV with a field goal with 7 seconds left.  Nice to finally see a Beaver win after going to 3 games last year, all losses. 

A new client at the Broncos hooked us up with a great room and lots of access - a private pool, vip booth at two awesome night clubs.  At one of the clubs we hung out with Rudy Ruttieger.  He was hilarious.

Bill, like my big brother, at tailgate.

Vinnie, me, J

J shaved his head and grew out a molest-ache.  He also rocked a wife beater w/ his aviators most days.  He said it was to try to keep all the ladies away. 

My sister and I gettng ready for the game.

2 biggest Beaver fans alive.

Beavs had a great turnout, about 7,000 fans.  Much louder and more visible than UNLV.  It was awesome.

An attempt to take a picture of Gary Payton.  When he showed up, the whole section busted out a "Gary, Gary" chant.  Love Payton.

View of the strip from our room, it was a good spot.

Oregon :)

I was able to take a four day weekend (even though it was the second week of teaching), to go to Oregon and be there for my new niece, Peyton's arrival, and my good HS friend Sara V's wedding...plus lots of time with family which is always wonderful :)

I had about 30 minutes with Peyton before my mom drove me to the airport on my last day in Portland. They let me in even though Jess wasn't in the recovery room yet, and I was the first person that got to see this beautiful, healthy girl! :)

The waiting room crew...check out the Bells BLOG for more baby pics!

The day before at the Pearl fountains

Lot of babies to watch!

Pizza picnic at the park

Parker and Bella really love the water :)

Hey Bella! She has grown up so much since just the last time I saw them a month ago!

Abby's such a good mommy :)

Hey! What are you reaching for, Bets?

The never ending walk! Took us about 40min. to get there and with each toddler on our back, we made it back in about 10! They love exploring and play so well together.

Parker asked for some privacy to do his "business" but allowed Bets to stay as long as she read him stories! :)

Parker dug out some old toys and found this cute but too small Halloween costume he insisted he squeeze into!

These two were amazing climbers! They're so athletic and coordinated already...track star and football player perhaps?

Bella wasn't too sure about this!

Just running up and down hills and stopping to observe some softball game

Natey giving in to Betsy's curiosity!

Ahh! Watch out for the giant stick! Nana taught them how to break sticks under they feet-pretty cool.

We loved playing in Parker's big boy room.

Uh, oh! The toddlers in the baby moses basket!

Huh, bubba-let me take a look at you!

Finally, some resemblance!

Too cute!

They had fun playing in their secret forest until Parker got stuck in one of the trees!

Oh it's fun to play in the dirt!

Spider Man!

Sara and her new husband Josh :) The wedding was a little over three hours away in beautiful eastern OR

Camping two weekends ago with friends!

Great Weather

Some nice hiking

Hey Melissa and Sean

Camping with Javon

My friend Jake and I took Javon and Jalil (Javon's little brother and Jake's Little Brother) camping this weekend near Mt. Evans. The boys had never been camping or done anything like it. They were pretty hilarious, starting with Jalil, about 10 miles from central Denver saying, "wow, look at the mountains, I can't believe how high we are!" For those that know Denver, we hadn't even passed Colfax on 6th Ave.

Here's a few pics...

Jalil had never cracked an egg. Both Javon & Jalil got a huge kick out of cracking eggs to make breakfast burritos.

First taste of s'mores. He was a huge fan. So funny to watch him roast a marshmallow for the first time.

Making the first s'more after a few practice runs on marshmallows.

Practicing scary faces. They wanted ghost stories and Jake and I made one up that scared them so bad they were waving the flashlights around and kept hearing noises, so we had to tell them it was pretend.

Hiking, before a few games of hide n seek.

On our hike. They wanted to see wildlife, so we told them they'd have to be quiet. We didn't see any wildlife, and they never got close to quiet.

Walking across a creek on a log. Jake was messing with them, bouncing on the log.

Jake and the boys after we got the tents set up, they were pretty excited. Cool camping spot by a creek in Arapahoe National Forest.

Boys with the firewood we collected.
With our hot dog & marshmallow sticks.

Summer fun with the Bains :)

Thank you Bains for coming out to visit us, and Joyces for sending them! We had such a GREAT time and are sad now that our home is empty and quiet!

I had to laugh as I cleaned up yesterday after they left... around the cute pictures of castles out of sidewalk chalk, the tiny pink hair clip in the bathroom, yellow kid-sunglasses in the beach bag, fingerprints on the very bottoms of everything in the kitchen, my necklaces they wore all around the house, fruit snacks and sippy cups to put away, one swim diaper on the shelf with the empty box of wipes, and then I put all the "breakables" back in their spots! :) You're missed already!

Mama and Bella on the way home from the airport! So happy that the flight went well and they got here safely from Oregon

Wow, those are great faces!

The Joyces came over and we enjoyed our new backyard for the first time (thanks Diane and Melissa for the help!)

Betsy had lots of fun toys to play with thanks to Diane!

I finally got to use this cute kid garden set I bought a year ago as Betsy and I planted flowers together.

Bets and Bella :)

Hey Party People!

Denny and Uncle John-enjoying the fun

Bella's the one who really loved the dirt! She got her hands into it and started flinging it up in the air and on herself with the biggest smile! Such a happy girl.

Bella wasn't quite sure about the bubbles :)

We set up the tent from my old classroom in the storage room in the basement and the girls had so much fun being crammed in their playing in the dark with a flashlight

This is what I'd wake up to in the early AM..."Hey Tia! Whacha doin? Can you come play now?" She loved putting my pink jewelry on with the pink pumps to match her pink poodle pj's :)

Bella and I got necklaces to wear as well...she walks so well on her own and we spent lots of time in the front yard with sidewalk chalk as Bets practiced her B "Straight line down, one bump, two bumps", and Bella tried to draw on her skin and eat it!

A little play-doh action

Then we went to the Joyces while Mikey was at work and had a very full day of fun-starting with the pool

Bets enjoyed cheering for Peter as he did cool tricks of the diving board but was a little hesitant to jump off herself

Bella in her adorable swimsuit from aunt Jess :) She loves water!

Lots of stuff going on with this family of four :)

We also celebrated Bella's late b-day and Aunt Betsy got to buy pink girlie party decorations for the first time since she has three boys

We played out in their beautiful backyard

Bella trying to hula-hoop, Betsy weary of the dog, Mikey and Tia at their service :)

Bella had a love-hate relationship with the dog Rocky, she'd want to see him and as soon as he was close she'd run!

Betsy was great with her little sissy who loves her so much! Every now and then she tries to pick her up-a little difficult since Bella's close to her weight!

Probably pointing out poop-Betsy's fascination :)

We were worried Bella might not go to all these new people but she did great!

Betsy super focused playing a game of shoot the cousins as they run by! She had amazing aim and wouldn't even smile as she concentrated so hard!

Bella's trying to figure out Johnny's party blower

No party's complete without a little hot tubbing...

...and roasting s'mores!

Betsy got a lot of sugar she wasn't used to on this trip, and she loved every bit!

Morning fun in the stairway with the girls! For some reason they loved playing on the stairs

It was so nice having City Park across the street to play at.

Bella wasn't quite sure about this whole swing thing

Always be prepared with snacks!

Farmer's Market on Sunday down the street from our house at East High School

Bella really wanted to go in the fountain water

GO ROCKIES! We got to go the Rockies game and Betsy got to be with just the grown-ups which was fun.

The icee and ice-cream cone was fun for her too!

She can sing the Barney song perfectly and had fun waving to Dinger between the photographers

Mikey also took her to the playground and they walked around the entire stadium!

We had friends over for Jazz in Park on Sunday night. Everyone brought their own picnic dinner and we did dessert and drinks at the park. There were lots of babies which was fun for everyone-especially their mommies who got a little break!

Jayden, Melissa and Luke

Fun to use our backyard again!

Me and Ash :) at City Park now

The rest of the girls :) Melissa, Kinsey, Stacia and Diane

Our whole party of around 25 people! Good turn out

So fun for my friends to be with my family!

Betsy's new little friend Kinsey- they played together all night-it was fun to watch 2 year olds interact

Ladies doing what they do best...chatting

Me and Erin and her newest baby-3month old!

Bella had fun with Ash :)

We went to the Zoo with the Joyces since it's so close to our house. Bella stayed in her stroller and Betsy ran all over the place excited to see every animal!

She was telling the giraffe to look at her giraffe dress!

Time for another snack break!

The zoo crew :)

Bella also liked being on her mama's back

We went to Invesco to visit Mikey for lunch at his work!

Really, we did have a great time visiting Mikey at his work and getting to go on the field :)

*The pics end here although we still had fun our last couple days...Bella had a fever and was a little sick toward the end :(

A little late...PRAGUE :)

IRELAND :)

IRELAND

So, after a loooooong day of travel at the airports, and many delayed flights, we made it!!

We are in Galway and have been for the last three days and leave tomorrow for Kilarney. The weather has been wonderful-actually had to all use sunscreen today! Our place is fun as it's a hostel type townhouse where we each have our own personal room and bathroom and then share the kitchen-living area. The Joyces have been so much fun-it's way more entertaining with 7 people instead of just mikey and I :)

We each have our own car and we've been driving all over this beautiful island. The little stores and gas stations make this yummmmy vanilla ice-cream we've enjoyed often...and the food is actually really good(I've opted out of both the seafood and Guiness)! We've been impressed at every place we've been. It has awesome mountains, great water all around, and cool old stone structures. Mikey and John have been doing a great job driving on the Left hand side in very narrow roads at dangerous speeds! Something funny we didn't realize is that it stays light here til around 11:00 AT NIGHT! This kind of makes it hard to sleep and difficult to predict what time it is. We eat and hang out late everynight.

Okay! Gotta go be on vacation! We're loving it :)

Target, Home Depot, Container Store,...summer :)

Summer means time to go shopping and to do some house projects!

Here is our backyard with the new patio in. There used to be an overgrown flower/plant bed to the left that Mikey completely ripped out, then we tore out more than 300 bricks, and this week the concrete guys came and poured concrete (colored and stamped).

We're just waiting for the final power wash and seal and then we'll show the end results-we're excited to actually spend some time outside this summer and enjoy our backyard!

Mikey started this side stuff and I finished it. I went ahead and after that black carpet stuff went down, poured on the mulch! :) End result: Low Maintenance!

Our guest room when you first enter our house. Used to be a mismatch of all the randoms that had no place, now it actually goes together and has a theme!

We're repurposing old stuff (mirror from our bedroom, black shelf from entryway), and added a bunch of new things to get the whole blue/brown spa feeling.I found this mosaic piece at the Denver Arts Festival w/Melissa and thought it'd fit here perfectly!

Sorry-bad pic but this is our purposeful entryway! It's not finished yet (picture a mirror on the right, art above, and our letter/key holder to the left, clock on the wall), but now we have a place for everything instead of it leaving a trail throughout our house!

Good times in Corvallis :)

This is what I got to see after I got home from my trip...

Mike was BUSY!

He spent DAYS digging out these horrible. overgrown beds where we didn't know what was a weed and what wasn't!

He went to Home Depot and cut the black weed cloth and bought brand new plants that will be easy to maintain-YEAH!!!

What a great hubby, learning to do something new :)

I got to leave Thurs. night and fly to OR to visit my family and go to a friend's wedding. It was a wonderful trip, as always!

My Friday early morning greeting in front of the Bains' home :) Betsy was waiting for like 15 min. saying "Where's Tia? I don't know where she is?"

I love my two beautiful nieces! Betsy has gotten so mature and Bella has her own great personality now!

Betsy chewing gum showing me her cubby at preschool as she hangs up her Dora backpack and leaves mommy and I with ease-didn't even notice we left!

We got to see Denny after we dropped Bets off since her preschool is at the high school he works at-CV, where Abs and I went to school!

Bubby helping Bella get ready for our park walk (water, toys, she likes to stop and touch the plants on the way...:)

She is standing and walking some-so exciting. She's such a HAPPY baby.

She gets super excited to see Nana and starts bouncing her body and kicking her chubby little legs as she makes the funniest little "grinch" face :)

Denny wiht his girls! Bella loves her dada!

Buba got a pool for the kids and suprised Betsy by telling her to look out the upstairs window...her response was, "Oh my GOSH! I DO belive it!!"

Tag teaming with the suncreen :)

I love playing in the fountain with the girls.

Abby and her cute little cuddler

We had fun playing some of her preschool games like Red Light, Green Light

Oh yeah, first trip to American Dream...not the last :)

Betsy getting some drawing paper with daddy's help...look at those cute little buns :)

Oh yeah, Bella! Looks like the end of a long day of fun in the sun :)

"Cheeeese!"

Right after Parker came into town with Nate and Jess, this is what these two did

They had so much fun and got soaked

Cute, pregnant Jess holding Bella getting ready for her own little girl to come soon! :)

What we do the whole time...watch the babies!

Great jumpers!

Good buns shot as they look into the neighbor's yard--taking a break from the pool

And they're BACK!

Parker would stand on the edge of the couch and jump off.

Busy bodies.

Hey Bahama Baby :)

Betsy decided to try Parker's cool Dino undies on-backwards and big!

Just a little hand holding on the way to the fountains.

Parker ran up ahead of us as we walked downtown and said "mozart"! We thought, oh yeah, old guy with white hair, that makes sense...until we caught up with him and saw it REALLY WAS Mozart! What a smart little baby einstein :)

The looooooong walk to get there as these two explored everything!

Finally there and super excited!

Hey you two :)

Taking a necessary break on the way back to the car to refuel.

My doggie, no MY DOGGIE!

Pool got a lot of good use this weekend as it was 80's, YES 80's in OREGON the entire time I was there :)

Hey Cheeser :)

Very flexible, Bella :)

Puzzle time

Bubba toke this photo for Bets through the gate at the top of the stairs.

Bets took this one :)

Beautiful Bridesmaids...Brooklynn and Laura from HS

The Wedding! What I flew out for :) My friend Sarah from High School and her new husband Andrew.

The wedding and reception site were beautiful and I had so much fun with my old high school friends and their families.

Mom and dad came too :)

Katie and Chelsea

Girlfriends :) Chelsea, Laura, Katie, Brooklynn, Sara (and they all live in OR!)

Brooklynn and her parents

BFFs

Helping Bubba water-Parker loves to help out!

Betsy's about to help Parker out with his sandal

Getting wet, again :)

Grant and Brooklynn, one of many high school couples that got married :)

sisters

On your marks, get set, ...."Cheesburger!"

run run run

Abby did a great job leading the game

Denny did a great job ending it :)


Soooo strong, that Denny :)

Betsy with her dog Sarah that she drags aroud on a "leash" and feeds pizza crust :)

Hey Cutie pie

More puzzles at Dox Kids Church that my dad leads

The Other Week...

Mel and I braved Memorial weekend rain and went to the Downtown Denver Arts Festival :)

Yeah 3-Day Weekend!!

We've had a great Memorial Weekend...Every weekend should be 3 days!

We celebrated Jayden's 1st Birthday at Diane and Chuck's house. There were lots of people and TONS of good food and drink :)

All these parties have been good excuses for the girls to get together which we have thoroughly enjoyed :) Summer is so much fun!
Melissa's holding our friend Erin's new 7wk old baby-ahhhhhh, and Jeremy and Stacia came all the way down from the Springs, and Mikey's enjoying some catch and the Nugget's game.

Jayden's opening our gift-a fireman growth chart...Erin's 2yr old girl McKenzie is helping out :)

Poor Brant, a HUGE Nugget's fan, is not very impressed as he watches them LOSE!

Jayden shared his B-day cake with his Daddy :)

He got his hands pretty dirty as he enjoyed his first real experience with pure sugar!

He is soooo cute :)

Ricardo and Kendall with Mike

Early, Melissa and I went to our friend Brea's going away party. She is leaving for Virginia for officer training for the Marines!!! GO BREA!

• We also went to Farmer's Market with Kendall by East HS right by our house and it was fun trying a bunch of samples...we bought some meat and lots of treats!
• Javon and Mikey went to Old Chicagos, baked brownies, and played video games
• And I rearranged and organized CLOSETS!!! Felt really good :)

Random Updates/Stories

• At school this week, Rachel was teaching math and discussing pints, quarts and gallons. She asked the class, "which one is bigger?" And heard a voice from the side say, "you're big." She turned and saw a little boy twisiting another's arm. The boy getting twisted responded, "he said, 'you're big'." Then the funny kid doing the twisting added, not in any way trying to apologize, "I mean you're tall, too." I think this is hilarious.
• Rachel had another child do graffiti - and get suspended for it. Apparently since they can't buy spray paint at that age, the kids get colored spray paint. Pretty clever.
• They did a poem in Rae's class titled "if I was in charge of the world" and one kid's said "I'd cancel Mariah Carey." Another said he'd "get rid of screaming teachers".
• When the kids were especially bad, and anyone who knows Rae's class knows it's really tough, Rae reamed the kids for bad behavior, and her little chubby kid we both really like said, "yeah, some kids are here to learn. it's hard when other kids are messing around for the rest of us." Very sweet and mature. He's also on a diet - today he was running stairs and jump roaping as fast as he could during lunch. In 2nd grade.
• At my work this past week, we started farting on people during sales calls. Always good for a laugh and keeps me young.
• We also have a guy who accidently always calls 911 (dialing 9 to get out, 1 to call long distance and then hitting 1 again). Did twice in one day. When they called back he said, "yeah, it was me again."
• We also had a guy praticing the "most annoying noise in the world" from Dumb and Dumber. That really pissed off a girl on the other team and had me laughing so hard I choked on lunch.
• A co-worker said he'd give me $100 if I could run up and down all the stairs in the top level of Invesco in less than 1 hour. I did a little over 1/4 in 15 minutes and was wobbling. It's seriously steep and about 40 rows. No way I was going to make it. That was 2 days ago, still sore. Need to keep training - and cut back on ice cream.
• I won a little contest and won 2 round trip tickets on United anywhere in US. Not sure where to go yet. Any suggestions?
• On a sad note, one of the 2 dogs I grew up with, Harley, died this week. He lived with my mom and was a great dog. Please pray for my mom who was very close to him.
• On an even sadder note, Rachel's school was locked down today because the dad of a young boy there killed the child's mother this a.m.. She was a single mom and a great volunteer in the community. The dad is at large. Please pray for the little boy.

Recent Fun :)

Here's Mikey baking with his "little brother" Javon :) They have been together for over a year now and they're great together!

They made some African cookies for his cultural affairs project.

I'd never seen Mikey bake before-although he's a great cook, so this was fun to see. The cookies turned out really good.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, Tanner Joyce :)

We all ate out at this great Italian place-yuuuummmm! Look at this nice family...our cousins have gotten so old!

Happy Graduation, Sean! We had a fun BBQ at Melissa and Sean's and what's fun is they live at a complex that has a POOL! Felt just like summer :)


Our little dinosaur Jayden loved the water and got in and out the whole time.

College friends :)

30 years of marriage :)

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY, MOM & DAD!
Thank you for giving us such a wonderful example of a great marriage :)

Cars and College :)

Hey! We just bought two cars!

No, we were not intending on having to buy two new cars at the same time, it just kind of happened...

1. 2007 Mazda didn't have power features and was getting on our nerves so after months of craziness and false alarms we finally sold it-in March!
2. We decided to get a larger car that was meant for CO and our grandparents just happened to be getting rid of their Acura MDX but not til April
3. We were graciously given our Aunt and Uncle's cars to drive while we were in transition as they had a few extras to lend
4. Mikey's 95 Subaru started having some problems and while carpooling to work, after two weeks, atleast four attempts to get it fixed, and some $ later, it broke down for good...
5. Meanwhile, the driver who was bringing us the Acura from AZ, hit the CO snowstorm and unfortunately hit a ditch, leaving us with two cars in shops!
6. Subaru's final break down was right near a Toyata dealership where Mikey worked his sales magic and in 20minutes negotiated a deal for a beautiful 2007 Camry for a whopping good deal!
7. FINALLY...out of all that, we've got two great cars :)

For Diane's birthday, we got together all the old college roommates and spent the weekend in Fort Collins revisiting all our old stomping ground :)

We had a great time staying at a hotel, eating out, seeing a chic movie, driving past our old house, seeing new construction at CSU's campus, going to Old Town, and just reminiscing about our college days!

Dinner at Coopersmith's in Old Town Fort Collins
Little dancing at Washington's after dinner

Oh the RIO for some good margaritas :)

We loved our Hilton hotel room-really nice!

Pre going out fun

Little hot tubbing before going out

Working really hard to get off the cork after using a $1 corkscrew from the liquor store by the hotel!