Yes. We. Can.

I was lucky enough to attend Barack Obama's acceptance speech last night. What a moment in history! I don't know how to even describe such an exciting evening...it was fantastic!
I knew that getting into an event with such national security implications would be an exercise in patience, but it was beyond anything I anticipated. We (Mom, Becca, Jordan and I) left my house about 12:45 and we finally got into the stadium about 7:00. Unbelievable! I won't bore you with the details of the hours and hours of serpentine lines through parking lots, but just imagine a single-file line of about 70,000 people. As my mom said, yesterday's line will be the standard that we judge all lines against for the rest of our lives. Anyways, it was totally worth it!

One of the several parking lots that we serpentined through: Not exactly a celebrity on my "must see" list, but oh well: The view from the nosebleeds. A slightly larger venue than the parking lot in Park City that we shook Obama's hand in last August.Just awesome!

Holy Tornado!

This was the third funnel I've seen this week. The others were little ones that sucked back up into the clouds pretty quickly, but this one was decent sized and we took refuge in the basement for a little while. I've never actually seen a funnel with my own eyes until this week & now I've seen three...crazy!

At Last!!

Look what opened in Parker today!!!

Rebound

Ben is a brand new kid today - yeah! So thankful for the 12 and 24 hour bugs.

And what is up with that crazy fast Jamaican track and field team?

Poor Guy

Since yesterday evening, Ben's been running a fever. It was all of the sudden...he seemed normal all day, then he told me he was cold and just started whimpering and crawled into my lap, and that's pretty much how he's been since. No throw-up or anything (at least not yet), but I think he just has the general all over yucks - poor guy. His fever's down to 100 today from 102 yesterday, but the poor little peanut just wants to cuddle with Mama. He fell asleep this morning in my lap all curled up like a turtle with his legs and arms tucked underneath and his head just burrowed into my stomach. There's nothing worse for this mama than my babies hurting.

This and that

We had several little get togethers this weekend. Friday, we got together with our Married With Children group from church for a BBQ. The other ladies and I surprised Sarah with a baby shower. Since Phoebe Alyssa will be their second girl, we gave them frozen meals and a diaper cake. (For the uninitiated, the cake is made up of little rolled up diapers and other baby stuff like pacifiers, onesies, socks, diaper cream, etc.)All of us contributed supplies for the diaper cake and Audra and I had an artsy-craftsy afternoon last week putting it together.

We welcomed the rain all weekend. Well, kind of. It was a nice break from the heat and we definitely needed the moisture, but it was a lot of rain! And it kicks up my allergies...stuffy nose and itchy eyes...yuck! Luckily, we live somewhere where this weather is the exception. We got a total of 6 inches!! We took an "official" measurement in the kiddie pool after the rain stopped since it was empty before it started raining. One of our friends had water flooding into their basement so we ran them over the shop-vac to help. Fortunately, we had no water damage ourselves, just a lovely green lawn and happy plants.

Saturday, the boys stayed overnight at the farm while Andrew and I went out to dinner and a movie. I love that the boys and their grandparents (and aunts and uncles since Becca and Jordan are still at the farm) get to spend time together when Andrew and I aren't around. I think it's good for all parties involved. And we enjoy our one-on-one time together too. :) Recommended flick: The Dark Knight.

Sunday, our good friends the Briggs came over for dinner. The Briggs made the move from Utah to Littleton last month and it was the first time we'd gotten together since then. It was fun to catch up and the kids had a blast playing together again.

Signs of the Season

Yes, it may be only August 11th, but there are little signs everywhere that fall is on its way. The neighbors have hung their Miami Dolphins flag for football season. And this morning was the first day of school - already! Max loves school, so he was very excited. He's going 3 mornings a week this year - last year he went 2 mornings. I think Benjamin remembered from last school year that his brother is only gone for a few hours, so there were no tears this morning from him like the first week we took Max to school last year. Here's Max, ready to go: And not to leave out the little brother, a picture of Benjamin (and Mason) as well:

More Camping

This weekend we took the pop-up down to Canon City and spent 2 nights camping at the Royal Gorge "Ogi Bear" (translation: Yogi Bear) campground. Saturday morning, we took a 2-hour ride on the Royal Gorge Railroad. The scenery was gorgeous! Interesting factoid: to build this bridge, they would drop a cable off each side of the gorge, connect them at the bottom, and then pull them taut from the top using oxen and tractors. There are 2100 cables that make up the bridge."Hi rafters!" (Yell this while waving wildly.) Maybe when the boys are older we'll see the gorge this way.The weather was perfect for the open-air car, but the boys really didn't like the sound of the brakes (they were really loud) as we came back down the gorge (which is why they're hiding), so we headed back into the covered cars for most of the ride.It was a fun little trip, with a beautiful and relaxing train ride. (And I've got to say, camping with paper plates was the deal!)

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream...

...for ice cream! This morning we took a tour of the local DQ with our MOMS Club. I don't know how you can really go wrong taking the little ones for ice cream - they even got to make their own ice cream sundaes! Awesome!

A New Chapter

Sunday, we went up to Ft. Collins with Becca and Jordan to see Jody and Whitneyone last time before their big move to Oregon for law school. (This is file footage. They weren't running a race this weekend, nor do they always match.) We will miss having them in Colorado, but we're excited for the new things in store for them as they open this new chapter in their lives!

A tuckered out Benjamin on the ride home:

Coolest Dessert Award

We got together with our Parker crew of friends this weekend. Adam, a very pregnant Karla, Amber, Peter, Thomas and Avery joined us Saturday evening for some barbecuing (Mev was working). Here are Avery & Max: And Karla definitely won a Coolest Dessert Award. She brought this awesome ice cream dessert that looks like a watermelon: It tasted delicious too!