And 6...

...pounds that we each gained at dinner last night...

Happy Anniversary, Linds! I can't imagine my life without you!

Happy Anniversary!

Well, today marks the day for another year of marriage. That makes 6 now. My, oh my, how time flies when you're having fun! So, after 6 years, 5 airplane trips across the Pacific, 4 trips to the Gorge, 3 college degrees, 2 job changes, and 1 child later... here we still are, happy as can be. Here's to many more happy years to come! I love you Dave!

Flamingo George

So here's the last account of our summer vacation. On Sunday, we drove to Flaming Gorge and met up with my family. It was so nice to get up there and have our huge tent all set up for us. It was also fun to have all of my aunts there, even the one's from Texas and California. We had lots of fun playing the usual camping games (Scrabble, Password, Apples to Apples, etc) and Ryan had lots of fun playing with the dogs in the "firetruck" (aka motorhome). Dave was bummed because he couldn't ski, but he enjoyed taking Ryan out on the waverunners. Swimming in the lake was also fun, and very refreshing (a bone-chilling 69 degrees). It was nice just to take it easy and lounge around all day, whether on the boat or back at camp. Of course, we had to chase Ryan around a lot and he fell a lot on the not-so-paved road, so he got lots of scrapes on his knees. We had a very fun time on our vacation, but it was nice to come home!

The Wedding

Saturday was the day of the big wedding. So we packed up and drove about 45 minutes west of Denver to another little town called Georgetown. It was such a fun little town nestled in the mountains. After the quick drive, we checked into our hotel early and took a nice little nap.

Let me give you a little background story about the wedding planning. To my understanding, Tyler and Kari (bride and groom) put a nice down payment to hold the date for the wedding at a different site. About a week and a half before the event, the went to pay for the rest, when they discovered the site was double-booked. Apparently the employee taking the down payment took the down payment and left town. So they relocated the wedding to this place in Georgetown and of course, were out a large sum of money. Then the Monday before the wedding, the photographer's wife and daughter were in a nasty car accident and had been in the hospital the entire week. He was still planning on photographing the event until Friday night when his daughter wasn't doing so well. So he had to cancel. Ronda, we got all the pictures we could! So was anybody at all surprised when....

....it rained the entire evening!!! Other than the weather, it was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting. Great food, great company, great flowers, great couple, and great cake! Congrats Tyler and Kari!

We'll post more pictures with the rest of our vacation in the next entry.

BBQ & Rockies Game

On Saturday, we attended the pre-wedding barbecue at Bruce & Ronda's house. They live about 30 minutes east of Denver in a little town called Strasburg (population 1,402 in the year 2000). The area looked just like what I picture Nebraska to be like - very flat with fields in every direction. We had a good time with Ronda's family and I finally got to meet Bruce Lee (Dave's uncle, not the kung fu master). Ryan even got to take a ride on Bruce's tractor. He thought it was just great!

After the BBQ, we headed to the Colorado Rockies game with the entire Lee clan. For those of you who haven't heard the score for the game, check out the box score:

Yes, you saw it correctly, 17 to 18 for the Rockies. And yes, it was every bit as long as it sounds. But we had a great time at the game and Ryan was uncharacteristically good. He didn't even try to run off. Dave and I were shocked! Can you believe that the Rockies scored like 5 or 6 home runs? Every time Colorado hits a home run, the fountains in the outfield go off, which I thought was fun.

Before homerun After homerun

Of course, with it being the 4th of July, we got to watch fireworks after the game. It was Ryan's first experience with fireworks and he seemed to like it. I think he would have shown a lot more excitement if it wasn't 11:00pm.

Watching the game Waiting for fireworks

Watching fireworks

All in all, it was a very fun 4th of July and we took part in the typical 4th of July festivities: BBQ, baseball, fireworks. We're so American. Actually, Dave's American. I'm only 1/2 American, so that would make Ryan 3/4 American, right?

The Drive

We finally got to go on our summer vacation this week. We first stopped in Denver and then camped at Flaming Gorge on the way home. I'll tell you all about it, but it would take too long to do in one sitting. And who wants to read a really, really long entry all at once? So I'll give you the account in installments. Here is the first, entitled "The Drive."

We left on Thursday afternoon. Ryan was asleep before we left the valley. He slept clear to Evanston. Isn't that the best? No screaming child in the back seat...yet!

Ryan was so good in the car. We didn't even have to used the DVD player. He only got mad when he was hungry for dinner, about 15 minutes outside of Rawlins, WY, which is where we planned to stop for dinner/gas. So Ryan ate his first Happy Meal ever (with the apple dippers and apple juice substitutions, of course). Look at the stupid little toy he got. Come on McDonald's, can't you do better than this for my boy? I don't even know what it is or what it's supposed to do, but Ryan had fun with it in the car. New things are always fun, I guess.

Here's the best view of Wyoming.

We finally arrived in Denver, and as you can imagine, we were all very excited to be there and be out of the car after 8 hours of driving excitement. Next up...the wedding barbecue and Rockies game.

Lindsay, the auto mechanic!

So as our luck would have it, the battery on our older Civic died on Saturday, late enough for all of the auto shops to be closed. We got the car jump-started and got it home safely into the garage. This morning I called my friend Jessica to see if she could come over today and jump-start the car so I could take it in to get the battery replaced. Of course, the car was parked on the wrong side of the garage and the cables weren't long enough. So I thought I'd wait until Dave got home and we could pick up a battery and Dave could change it. But Jessica insisted that she'd take me to get a battery and we would do it ourselves. I thought that was pretty funny, because the only thing technical I know how to do is put in gas. But we changed it! And the car actually started! Thanks Jessica!

Bye-Bye Truck

Yesterday was an exciting, stressful, and somewhat sad day. After 7 & 1/2 years of driving up high in our truck, we decided it was time to trade it in. And in case you're wondering, yes, I did shed a couple of tears. So many fond memories. When looking into our garage, don't laugh too hard about the simpleness of our ways...

Yes, we are the proud owners of 2, yes 2, Honda Civics. What can I say? Honda makes a fine automobile. Can you believe that we almost got the same color as our 2004? The red and gray were our top choices with no preference for either. We just wanted to get our hands on whatever we could that wasn't Tafetta White or Atomic Blue. These cars are hard to come by these days. All 3 dealerships in the valley were out. So when we found a red one, Dave actually got to see it in person (and not just the pretty pictures), and he was pretty excited to have the red. So, here's to 40+ mpg!

Happy Father's Day

What a fun day! We went to my aunt Rose's house for dinner last night and had a fun time playing in her yard. Ryan really liked to jump off the big rocks that lined the flower beds. He also had such a great time wrestling with and chasing Daddy, now that Dave's able to play a little bit more. Ryan loves his Dad! Dave is the perfect father for Ry. It's fun to watch how much fun they have together and to see how proud Dave is of his little boy. I love you, Dave, and Happy Father's Day!

Smarty Pants

Well, there's not too much going on around here, but I though I'd better post something so that you know we're still alive and well. Ryan and I are recovering from another bout with the common cold and Dave is quickly (he doesn't think it's that quick) recovering from his surgery.

The other day, Dave and I were watching TV and Ryan was in the kitchen. We noticed he got really quiet, which usually means that he's up to no good. So we went to check on him. He took out all of the liquid soap bottles. No big deal, toddlers unload cupboards all the time. But check out what he did with the bottles...he lined them up from shortest to tallest. And look how proud he is of himself.

It's amazing how smart these little ones are, even if they don't talk. Speaking of talking, Ryan is really picking it up. He copies everything we say, and he's getting better with his the "r" sound. He can almost say fork without offending people, although I do miss the random F bombs being dropped at the dinner table.