11 years celebrated with 11 hours on the lake

Yesterday marked 11 years of wedded bliss for Steve and I. Our celebration...11 hours on the lake with our kids and our friends.

The day was marked with a Kale no longer swims like this...

but on his own.

The McAllister's hung with the us the whole contire day and as you can see from Amber they are super cool!

The kids did a lot of swimming and a lot of this...

Brave, 5 year old Greer, took her first crack at water skiing and did far better that I did on my slalom ski. She only tried once but did pretty good, and one handed at that! I had to use 2 skis as I wasn't not going to not get up after Don gave a I gold medal performance. What I resort to so not to be "one upped" by him. We had a casual dining experience at the boat dock cafe and headed right back on the water to wrap up the day with a relaxing swim.

Another great day on the lake with the love of my life. Man, we are so in love!

Lucas Quotes from Vacation

"Mom, I accidentally touched another wiener"

After wrestling uncle Jamey

"I can't finish my lunch. My mouth is out of order."

Subway in Russel, KS

The end of the Yankees

Lucas & Big Daddy wrap up the baseball season with a pizza party tonight. The team got together at Lake Atalanta and chowed down on some pizza & ice cream. Lots of running around and playing on the play ground. Steve received a framed team picture that all the kids signed as well as a T-Shirt with each of the kids hand prints. The party was hit...you can't go wrong when you give a bunch of 5 year olds a trophy. The season was full of over throws, crazy base running, group dives for the ball, tackling, thrown helmets, kicked bats, playing in the sand. By the end of the year the boys were able to make a play at first, tag kids out at any base, and a couple could hit it in the outfield. Steve did a great job with the kids.

Rocky Mountain High

Breckenridge, CO - 2009 Vacation

Driving: 15 hours...both ways
Location: Cabin in South "Breck"
View: Mt. Quandry Peak
The Group: 3 Families = 5 Adults, 7 Kids
Steve, Shannon, Logan, Lucas, Kale; Ryan, Kasey, Emerson, Camden; Jamey, Myles, Ella

Day 1:Welcome to Quandry Peak Lodge

Day One brought:
lots of driving
Walkie Talkie Talking
Eastern Kansas Education by Prof. Steve
Extend viewing of I70
Exploring the best XM radio has to offer
Switching to Mountain Time
Arrival at Quandry Peak Lodge
Shortness of breath
Altitude Head aches
Brief Snow Storm
Chef Jamey on the grill

Day 2: A day in "Breck"

Our First Hike

Day 2 Brought:
Sunning streaking through the window at 5:30 6:30 am
Jillian Michaels Kasey and I take on a 3 mile walk/run...need Oxygen
Uncle Jamey bribes with $5 leads the kids to the top of North Start Summit
Lunch at Eric's & Yummy pizza bones that likened Pyramid Pizza
Stops in Shops
Magical Scraps Boutique
A purchase at the Jerky Wagon
Playing in the downtown park and river
Squashed dream of a Gondola Ride
Hiking where girls conquered and boys whined
Myles shoving accidentally knocking Logan in the creek
A frozen Logan
Another brief Snow Storm blocking our view of the mountains
Pizza & Margaritas & Hot Tubbin'

Day 3: Garden of the Gods

Train ride to the top of Pike's Peak

Day 3 brought:
A short drive to Colorado Springs
Antelope sighting
Short hike to the "stairway" to the top of Pike's Peak
Lunch at The Garden of the gods
Climbing all over rocks
Kids tormenting a rock climber who wasn't wearing a helmet
Coming off the path through a rock formation
Waiting at the Train Station
All aboard who's coming aboard
1.5 Hour COG ride to the top
Hot at the bottom freezing at the top
Water Falls, Rocks, Hidden Lakes, Timberline, Frozen snow
Gift Shop, bathroom break, Snow,Pictures
All aboard who's coming aboard
1.5 Hour COG ride to the bottom
Sleepy Lucas
Ice Cream cones for everyone
LoudDinner at the Breckenridge Brewhouse
Back to the Cabinet (Kale's name for the cabin)
Dip in the hot tub

Day 4: Mountain Experiences

Day 4 Brought:

Another big walk for Shannon & Kasey
Mountain bike riding for the Dad's - 13 miles in the mountains
Mountain bike riding for the kids
Aunt Shan pulls another Emerson tooth
Another hike to the top of North Star

Day 5: White Water Rafting & Hiking

Day 5 brought:
Short drive to Kremling, CO in the Rocky Mountain National Forest
5th time is a charm and we eat at Slam Burger
Gear up for White Water Rafting
Introduction to the swimsuitwearingnolegshavinginyourface family from Minnesota
Riding the camp vans to the launch sight
Gore Canyon Buffalo jump
Education on how to survive falling out of the raft
2 hour class 2/3 raft trip with our Arkansas guide through Gore Canyon
Bald Eagle sighting
Lucas loving the big waves
Old Cabin Tour
Uncle Steve leaving his Minnesota Family
Chocolate Shake in Kremeling
Getting some smoked brown trout & free range beef
Drive back to the cabinet
The moms, Logan, Myles, Ella & Emerson take the most amazing hike
Illegal transit to the start of the hike
Driving up the side of the mountain careful not to take the car over the edge
Raging water in the creek
2 hours of hiking up an old mining trail on McCullough Gulch Trail
Breathe taking views
Hidden Lake
Waterfalls
Climbing over trees
Fearing the "Trespassers will be shot on sight" sign
Rock hunting
Another death defying drive off the mountain
Good Eats from Chef Jamey & Shannon
Ending the day with Last Call in the Hot Tub

Day 6: So Long Quandry Peak Lodge

Hello Coors Field

Absolutely Not Funny Aunt Kasey!

End of the day in Denver

Day 6 Brought:

Good By Quandry Peak Lodge
Packing up the cars
Goofin' Cousins
Last pictures at the Cabinet
Drive to Denver
Check into the Downtown Sheridan
Bus ride to Coors Stadium - Rockies vs Devil Rays
2nd MLB stadium for the boys
$50 hot dog lunch
$30 rounds of beers
Kasey & Shannon befriend Roy the concession stand man
Snack, snacks & more snacks
A dancing Ella
Logan gets a make over he hates and is mad at Aunt Kasey for all of 5 minutes
Kasey sights a birthday message to Ryan in lights
Goodbye Uncle Jamey, Myles & Ella
Autographs after the game
Kale falls asleep on daddy
Connor the Security kid helps us play, "Player, not a player"
Kids first autograph from the winning pitcher
Drag the kids back to the bus stop
Dinner at a brew pub that brewed nasty beer
Lucas nearly loses his life to a bus
A little shopping at the Nike store
Jumping tricks between the hotel beds

Day 7: Drive to Kansas & Papa's 60th

Day 7 Brought:

Long drive back to Kansas
Search for food after leaving Denver
Near sighting of the Berens on the way to Payton's tournament
Papa's 60th Birthday Surprise
Cousin Mania

Logan the Hitter

My main man Logan played his last baseball game of '09 this week. We are totally bummed we will be missing the post season tournament. We were in 6th place going into the last game and had we held that position he would have been able to play in the first game of the tournament Friday night before we hit the road. Unfortunately, this is not the case. So Monday was his last game and he was awesome. We played the 1st place team and held them up to the last inning, finally losing 7 to 2. The big thing was that Logan was a rock star. He was a fielding phenom and got a great hit ($5 per hit motivation paid off!). His buddy Cole played amazing as well and even snagged a hit right out of the air for an out. Connor played before us so we were able to watch him play some and he stayed and watched Logan. Seems like by the time he is getting the hang of the sport the season is over. Even though I love watching them play baseball, I guess it will be kind of nice to have our lives back!

We wish the A's the best of luck in the tournament and will be pulling for them from a far.

Big Daddy is another year older

Stev-0 celebrates another year on this earth. Ask him how old he is and I'm not sure he can tell you the answer but it will always be a number bigger than mine! We are big fans of any birthday in our house and the birthday boy (or girl) pretty much gets their way. This is why we found ourselves eating at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner on Saturday night (yuck) and why I ate a Big Mac for lunch on Sunday (ughh...that was 600 calories I want to give back!). Steve was awarded a new baseball mitt from his fellas in honor of his big day with a new smoker in route.

We had 2 kid birthday parties to go to so I let Steve pick the one he got to attend. Attend for Steve ended up meaning dropping Logan off and heading to a restaurant bar with 4 other parents for drinks until pick up time. Attend for me meant sitting in Jump Zone with Kale on my lap for 2 hours wanting to play everything and nothing all at the same time while watching Lucas work up a sweat in the over air conditioned play arena. The party girl was the daughter of the little sister of a guy I went to high school with...small world huh? Visited with the parents of my high school friend for a while which was nice however, Steve got the better end of the deal. Marriage is all about sacrifice...

Kale, Lucas and I made cupcakes for Steve as they are his fav. We headed down to the neighbors for Dinner to complete the celebration of Steve.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIG DADDY!

Oh Happy Day...

School's out!!! The B boys have been ready for this day as it is absolutely not fair that the cousins got out of school 6 days before they did. However the last 2 days of school were free dress days and early out and that makes any uniform wearing kid very happy. Even if it's only awarded to them 'cuz the AC went out at school. They don't care. So being the mom of the year that I am, I walked my sweet babies into school with camera in tow and they each only let me snap 1 picture of them in their classroom. And they were absolutely not going to be with their teacher or wearing glasses. I then took the afternoon off from work and picked them up from school as Meredith (Connor's mom) and I had some fun things planned for them. From carline we headed to Braums for celebratory ice cream. There were about 20 SVdP kids there doing the same thing. Very cute to see a several of the big kids wanting Lucas to sit with them. They all poured over the year book together dripping ice cream everywhere. Then off to Lake Atalanta, a local park near a nature spring that that feeds a creek. The clientele of this park is always sketchy and we fit right in as Meredith thrusted a filled coozy in my hand. Between the 2 of us we make one excellent mother. I remembered the nerf guns, boats, walkie talkies, air planes, etc. Meredith brought the snacks, "drinks", duck food and blankets. Together we had everything we needed. They attacked the playground like crazy people. They terrorized the park and shot darts at each other around the young mother in her bikini (at a park, WTH?) with her diaper dressed toddler. They floated their boats down the creek about a hundred times. Lucas was soaked up to his ears in a 6" deep creek. Apparently he keep "falling"... and I was born yesterday. Then we were off to scare the $hit out of feed the ducks and geese. We did try to help a woman rescue of a duck whose leg was caught in fishing string and couldn't use it's leg however, it would let anyone near them so we backed away as not to add a distraction to the rescue. It was an absolutely fabulous start to their summer!

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