Home is where the Air Force sends us....

B is for Broncos

September 13, 2015

So we ventured to Denver-AGAIN-for a family weekend. Since Darren's supervisor wanted him back for role call Sunday night, we left a day early and stayed at the Embassy Suites near Aurora for a couple nights, with the main purpose for the trip was for the Broncos Football game. We love staying at the Embassy Suites because it is child friendly, has a great breakfast buffet and free happy hour! Bradyn likes it because he enjoys riding up and down the elevators!

On our way to the hotel, we stopped to see Michael in Ft. Collins, where we were wined and dined during Comunity Hour at The Kitchen. Ahhmazing service, food and atmosphere. Every single drink and dish we were served was delicious. We were very impressed and Bradyn still comments, "Michael is in the restaurant." :D So cute.

Sunday was the big game. Since we only had two tickets, Darren decided to take Bradyn and I was able to get a little time to myself. It was painfully hot-90 degrees with no clouds in sight. We found a fundraiser parking lot and saved 50 bucks by parking away from the stadium then pregamed together outside Mile High for a couple hours before the boys went inside. Bradyn loved everything accept the heat and fell asleep in the second quarter. He slept with his football that night and even though we had to drive back right at half time, it was still a great trip. We have tickets for a November game, which should give me some time to forget how long of a drive that is for a quick weekend!

I love this face. Mr. Attitude

Garden Update!

September 1, 2015

Today on this first day of September, we harvested these beauties: our first ear of sweetcorn, the first cucumber and the first batch of Gretel eggplants. (What are those? :)) We are truly blessed by this garden. We never in a million years thought it would produce so much food. I've frozen and canned green beans and made delicious zucchini bread. This week I am on to tomatoes and made salsa and stewed more tomatoes today and have a couple pints for later. I got lazy with some of the riper ones and just froze them. Experimenting is fun and is taking up a lot of my time. Bradyn is helping with the picking. Darren should be helping with the eating, but he's more of a sweet corn and salsa person and we don't have a lot of that yet. :). All this work is going to pay off come winter. Beyond blessed!


The Pressure Cooker XL-must by!

I Expected the Rockies To Be A Little Rockier Than This!

August 28, 2015

You know us. If we have the opportunity to get away on the odd chance there is a three day weekend and Darren doesn't have to work or stay in the area, we are gone! So what do we do? Darren always thinks big. A 6 hour road trip to Denver to see the Rockies play. We actually made it in great time considering we had never done the drive before and stopped a couple times to refuel the tanks. (Our bellies and the car. :)) We also hit some heavy traffic about 20 miles outside of Denver, but not too bad. We found our hotel easily-the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Denver. Great location, about 1 block off 16th street shopping and restaurants. We quickly put our bags down after checking in and started walking to the stadium. Asking strangers for directions. Everyone was friendly and the streets were very clean. Impressive. It was about a 15 minute walk and the weather was perfect.

Darren had planned on getting a baseball jersey or shirt outside the stadium, but we ran out of time. So he walked away with an autograph bat signed by Charlie Blackman.

You won't be able to see in the picture below, but it was Star Wars night. Darn! Wish we would have known. I could have been Princess Laya. haha!

About 20 minutes into the game, Bradyn started to get antsy. We sat in the outfield and we weren't seeing much action-it is a baseball game after all. Some guy in the row below us threw him a small soft baseball and he thought that was pretty cool, but that high wore off quickly. We decided to take him to the playground just behind us and let him run around while we watched the game on the tv screen nearby. Not even 1 minute later we heard some loud cheering, A hit out towards left field. The Rockies scored three runs. Of course it would happen right after we got up!

Unfortunately the Rockies lost to the Mets 14-9, but we still had a great time. We departed early to beat the crowd and spotted a bike taxi driver who said he'd take us back to our hotel for 10 bucks. Yes, please! He was a very nice guy who took us all around the hot spots and was pretty good at driving around pedestrians and cutting through traffic. YIKES!

We did some shopping the next day in Loveland and spent a night at the Embassy Suites. We love this hotel with free happy hour and snacks and an amazing breakfast with made to order omelets in the morning. I also took Bradyn swimming while Darren watched-chicken. The water wasn't that cold.

Later that night we got a message from Michael saying he lived close to Loveland-we had completely forgotten he was in Ft. Collins working at "The Kitchen". So we met up with him for a few minutes on our way home. Next time it will be longer! So great to be able to visit these places AND see family.

3 Girls and A Little Bradyn

August 8, 2015

We just said goodbye to Holly, Roxanne and three little girls-Addy, Keera and Bella. :( We had the best time seeing some familiar and unfamiliar sites in the local area of Rapid City. Our favorite was Reptile Gardens. Addy got to be in the Bird Show while Keera and B got up close and personal to the snakes. Little ones have no fear!

Bradyn loved the boa!

Watching the prairie dogs have their snacks.

We also toured Main Street Square, Storybook Island, the Air and Space Museum, Mt. Rushmore and Legion Lake; while Darren and Roxanne drove to Sturgis for the 75th Biker Rally.

Holly and I were glad we chose to go to the lake. Sturgis was a bit too wild for our crew, but not for these two!

The rest of our time was spent making healthy meals, walking, playing disc golf, riding the UTV and drinking wine and other beverages on the deck!

We miss them already!

Not Born on the 4th of July

10 July 2015

So we took a little road trip back to Iowa to help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday. His actual birthday was June 24, but we threw a surprise party for him and invited close friends and family to join in on the fun. His response was, "This is neat. I'm a lucky guy. " Mission Accomplished.

We're the lucky ones, Dad.

We also went to the Fourth of July Parade in Clear Lake and got more candy than trick-or-treating on Halloween. While spending time with both sides of the family, Bradyn developed his swimming skills thanks to the pools at his aunt and uncles' houses. Creativity hats off to Joel and his playground water slide.

See the full Slideshow of pictures here.

It's Beginning To Feel Like Home

June 29, 2015

Our household goods have FINALLY arrived. We spent the weekend opening up boxes and discovering things we haven't seen since 2 moves ago. I'm on my tenth load of laundry and that's just my clothes. Darren has his man cave nearly perfect and B just likes playing in the boxes and using curtain rods as weapons. It's been three days, but there's definitely progress! At least there are more empty boxes than full. I am most proud of my kitchen and the fact that everything fits!