Happy Birthday to me (and Alyson)!

My birthday dinner at Carino's - it's Italian. If I were to give this place a review, I'd have to say the food is good, but not good enough to make up for atmosphere, which is super noisy from conversation and the kitchen noise, but that aside, it was really nice to get out with my honey and the kids and enjoy a nice dinner. Thank you sweetness for making my birthday special. :)

But, for all the rest of you, I won't reveal my age..... I'm 29 forever baby!

Zoo Day with the Doehrings

This weekend was Military Appreciation Weekend at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, so we saved over $12 per person, which was too good a deal to pass up. The weather was awesome - sunny and warm - and the company was perfect! Olivia just loves Jenna and Miss Judy - she absolutely talked our ears off. :) Andy, Drew and Luke were with us too - the guys - but Gary and Cole stayed home because Cole was sick. We missed them, but had a great time anyway! Take a look at some of our pictures!

Diana's Pumpkin Patch

Since Happy Apple Farm wasn't all we had hoped it would be, we decided to check out Diana's Pumpkin Patch in Canon City on Saturday. And although it was small, we were pleasantly surprised by the small-town hospitality and friendliness of the owners. It was actually a real pumpkin patch and we even got to go to the 'back' patch to pick out Bird Neck gourds - they look like geese - and some cinderella pumpkins and smaller pumpkins and gourds. We also had some yummy roasted sweet corn - it was delicious! Definitely worth the trip!

Happy Apple Farm

The kids had a day off from school, so my neighbor, Judy, and I decided to drive to Penrose and take the kids out to Happy Apple Farm to pick some apples and pumpkins. The farm wasn't that great and the produce was even worse, but we really enjoyed ourselves and had a great time! We picked berries, a couple apples and one pumpkin - and Olivia made a new best friend - Jenna (Judy's daughter). Overall it was a very nice day!

VOTE FOR OLIVIA!!

Click on the link below to vote for Olivia in the "Who's the Fairest One of All?" Disney contest!!

http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/princess-olivia-15261/

God Bless America

I feel really guilty that I had to ask why the flags were at half mast today ... sometimes we get so wrapped up in our daily lives that we forget about those who have given their lives for ours. Thank God for our troops serving, both at home and overseas, and the families that take care of the home front so they can do their jobs and we can sleep peacefully. God Bless America.

Today's the Day!! LIFT OFF!

Today we had a successful launch at the Colorado Balloon Festival. I don't think there were as many balloons as they anticipated - being the last day of the event, many had already left - but it was really neat to see. There is a slide show of pictures - I took too many to just post - and it was really cool! We can't wait until next year's "Hop" Air Balloon Festival! (That's what Olivia called it).

My two favorite photos...

A reflection off the lake of a balloon in the air.

This is the 'chase' balloon - it is the first to lift off and the balloon all others try to catch.

Slide Show ... (LOTS of pictures)

Pictures from a craft booth - the balloons are made out of light bulbs and copper wire and take anywhere from two weeks to many months to make. My favorite is the second picture - all are handmade and hand-painted and this one was probably the most intricate balloon he had made. The cost? $575.00! But absolutely beautiful!

A video of one of the balloons 'kissing' the lake - this one skimmed the surface of the water almost all the way across the lake. These balloon pilots are pretty talented to do it, but most of them touch and lift off. This was impressive enough that we thought it was worthy of a small video clip.

Colorado Balloon Classic

Labor Day weekend is the annual Colorado Balloon Classic where hot air balloons will launch en mass each morning - except this weekend, each launch has been canceled because of unfavorable weather conditions. However, it is really neat to go see the event, with lots of things to do, demonstrations, food (of course!), things for the kids to do and eventually some of the balloons inflated and lifted off. Also, Saturday and Sunday nights there is a balloon 'glow' scheduled - we're told it lights up the sky - hopefully we'll get to see tonight! We tried to see the launch this morning (but like we said it was canceled) so hopefully we can see it tomorrow! There are 83 balloons this year and it has been voted one of the top 100 things to do in America by the American Bus Association. Check out their website at www.balloonclassic.com or check out our pictures!

The first balloon up - NOT! :)

The first actual balloon to launch.

As we were leaving, random balloons inflated and launched - still pretty cool to see!

More pics at the event...

Cole's new haircut

Olivia has her nails done!

Bath time with Colvin

Olivia rides the bus to school!

Well, today is the day! My baby is finally riding the bus to school and I felt ready to cry! I know, I am so silly, but even after 4 years of Olivia going to school, I have never had to watch her ride away!! :( She has ridden the bus home, but never to school. She did GREAT, of course, and I think she is really going to like riding the bus!

I call that Success!!

Olivia rides the "Turtle" bus - the school district adopted a system of identifying the buses as objects (animal, plant, etc) instead of using routes so the students would know which bus they are on; and in the morning we get to see the Blue Butterfly bus and the Black Bear bus drive by before Olivia gets picked up. It's pretty cool!