peacock

swimming in st louis

We arrived in St. Louis just in time for lunch. We hit my favorite place in town — Rigazzi’s. We enjoyed St. Louis pizza, fried ravioli, provel cheese sticks, and of course, fishbowls! It was an extremely indulgent lunch and we loved every minute of it. 
The sun was blazing, but my gals appeased me for a picture. 
We had planned to head to the city museum, but the girls were not the least bit interested. They were hot and had their mind set on swimming. We went back to my dad’s house and he hopped in with them. We watched some golf while the girls swam the afternoon away. 
My dad brought out a bunch of pool toys for the girls. It kept them entertained for hours. 

DIA staycation

We met up with B’s cousin, Amanda who was visiting Colorado for a work conference. It was great to see her! She is such a sweet gal. We grabbed lunch at 5280 Burger Bar downtown. We had plenty of time to catch up and we appreciate so much that she took time out of her visit to meet up with us. 
After lunch we dropped Ryan and Reagan off with B’s dad and we set off for the airport. We had an early morning flight…early, early! We treated ourselves to a stay at the airport. The price tag is hefty, but when you wake up in the morning you walk a few paces and are already at security. At 6 am that’s a wonderful benefit. 
We grabbed dinner at the hotel restaurant, Grill & Vine. It was ok. I think we need to give it another try during our next stay. We shared a few different small plates, but want to give the entrees a try. 
After dinner we hit the pool, which may have the most wonderful views I’ve seen in quite some time. The pool is on the top floor of the hotel and you look out over the runways. We were able to watch the airplanes line up for take off and one after one take off into the sky. It was a beautiful view! So lovely and relaxing. It was a night to remember. 
Taking in the views
Annabelle is the queen of the pool handstand.
Showers and slumber and ready for our big trip ahead. 

newsies

We got to spend an evening with Ryan and Reagan while their parents were in Hawaii. We had tickets to see Newsies and luckily were able to add two additional seats. We all had a great time at the show. It wasn’t one of my favorites before, but redeemed itself for me this evening. I really enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for some good tap dancing. 

happy birthday, annabelle

Happy, happy 11th birthday to our amazing Annabelle!
Both of our girls’ birthdays fall on Wednesday this year which just happens to be B’s busiest workday of the week. It’s not negotiable that he will be at the kitchen. He was disappointed to not be able to spend the entire day with the girls but made arrangements to be there in the evening. 
We spent our day in Boulder. We stopped by the Verizon store to get a phone upgrade, but were turned away because Annabelle had a tiny crack in her old phone. With insurance, it was $100 to replace the old phone and then simply turn around and return it for a new phone. There was a lot of soul searching on this one and Annabelle decided she wanted to use her birthday money to get her old phone fixed so she could go forward with the upgrade. Although it was her money to do as she pleased, we spent most of our lunch talking through the pros and cons of her decision. In the end the decision was hers and once it was made she didn’t look back. 
We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen in Boulder. I made a big stink about it being her birthday to both the host and the server, but they didn’t make a stink for her. I didn’t want a free dessert, I just wanted them to come out singing and embarrass her a little. Ha! We had a lovely lunch and the girls even let me snap a few pictures. 
This is my favorite. This is Annabelle. I love that laugh.
After lunch Annabelle requested a visit to the Celestial Seasonings Factory. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I can drink some tea! I really love it and the girls do too. 
We didn’t have to wait long for our tour, but we made great use our time in the tasting room. We tried so many different teas and found several new favorites. 
Annabelle’s favorite is the peppermint and she could easily outlast us in the “mint” room on the tour.
We made it home in time to pick up B and head out for dinner. Annabelle’s request was for salad at Olive Garden. After dinner we headed downtown for a special 40th anniversary showing of Grease at the IMAX. I haven’t watched that movie all the way through in quite some time. It was a blast seeing it on the big screen and watching the girls bop along in their seats. It was such a fun day celebrating our Miss Annabelle. I’m so lucky to be her mom!
I tried to gather 11 pictures of my sweet girl for this special day….but once I started I couldn’t stop with just 11. I sure do love this little lady.

paint with tape

I’ve been teaching classes at Color Me Mine and was ready for this week’s class. I was going to teach the kids to paint with tape. We had a small turnout and friends showed up to take me out for a late birthday celebration. My staff offered to take over the party for me. Everyone was happy and I was feeling quite spoiled. 

painting with bubbles (and stencils)

We dropped YaYa off at the airport and then had to head down to Southlands. The sun was shining when we left but the skies quickly turned dark. We sat at the window and watched my car get struck with hail which was quite the bummer. 
Poor Yaya had to sit at the airport for about 6 extra hours waiting for her flight to leave because of weather delays. We were hoping they would just cancel that stupid flight so she could come hang out with us but it finally took off and she made it home safely. 
When the hail passed we hopped back in the car and headed back to our neck of the woods. I hosted my first summer paint session. It was a very small group which was nice and less intimidating for me. My little ladies rocked the plates they made. They used both bubbles and stencils and I can’t wait to see how these plates turn out after they are fired. 
Annabelle and her emojis
Poor Gwyneth got a wicked headache as we were wrapping things up. It was nothing a smoothie and a good night sleep couldn’t fix!

Pretty impressive unicorn from Miss Gwyneth!

hot springs

We have driven by the hot springs so many times, but never stopped….until today! I was so excited to finally visit the hot springs, introduce my girls to them, and see what all the hub bub was about. 
That water is called the “fountain of youth” and oh man, it’s  nicccce! It’s about 90 degrees and will ruin you for all other pools. The girls commented that it was a bit stinky but I didn’t think it was too bad.
The pool had a great diving board and we all took turns jumping off…including me and Yaya! There were also two great slides that kept the ladies entertained. Annabelle was drawn to the diving board while Gwyneth couldn’t get enough of the slides. 
My girls are little fish and could have stayed at the springs all weekend. I know for sure we’ll need to plan another trip up so we have more time. 
That view!
We headed back to the hotel to clean up, grab some lunch and check out. It was time to head back down the hill. It was a wonderfully quick trip and makes me love this beautiful state we live in so much. 

fathers day | strawberry festival

Happy, happy Father’s day! 
We were lucky enough to celebrate the day with this guy. He’s a pretty great dad and we were eager to show him a good time today. 
We drive the 3 hours up to Glendwood Springs this morning. The drive was pretty easy and the skies were clear. Everyone was pretty hungry when we arrived so we checked in our hotel and then headed over the bridge to downtown. 
After lunch we made our way to the Strawberry Festival. 
We were there just minutes before it started to rain. We stuck around for the pie eating contest which was under a big tent, but all the vendors started closing up. We missed the rides and food which was kind of a bummer. We had planned to spend most of our day here so we quickly had to come up with a new plan. 
We decided to walk to the corner store and pick up some cards. Our plan was to hang out in the hotel lobby and play some games until the weather cleared up. On our way to the store we stumbled along a beer garden that had an arcade and lots of board games. 
We ended up waiting out the storm playing games at this place for about 3 hours! We had so much fun. We laughed and laughed and had a blast. 
We ended our meal with dinner at a not so great Mexican restaurant and then sat on the patio and plays another few hours of card games. Even thought it didn’t go perfectly as planned it was really a great day and we were so glad to celebrate the best dad around. 

greek fest

I really enjoy the Greek Festival. Not sure that the rest of my family likes it all that much, but I drag them along. This year was cooler than prior years and it was easier to find tables to enjoy our festival food. Festival food is quite possibly the best food there is. 🙂 We enjoyed so many different tasty dishes.The music, the food, the beer…what’s not to love about festivals?!
My favs: gyro and beer Yum, yum, yum
Annabelle was adventurous and tried lots of different things. 
Greek donuts with honey and nuts
Greek fries. They had a lot of black pepper. Very tasty!
Lots of great tents to shop
Inside the temple
The girls had 2 coupons left to burn and stumbled across a tent selling watermelon. One coupon each was a steal and they were thrilled. They loved watermelon and gobbled these up!
It started to rain just as we were heading out. Perfect timing. 
The girls and I took YaYa to see Incredibles 2. 
I have never seen the first one but I got caught up pretty quick. It was a cute movie and Gwyneth giggled her way through it.

dance recital

Another dance recital in the books! 
We planned ahead and were ready to go with plenty of time to spare. A few minutes to grab a few pictures before heading to the performance..
My mom flies out each year for the recital. 

 Annabelle was all nerves and I shouldn’t have bugged her for pictures before the show. She did give me a good chuckle though…

The show was great. The girls were in 3 dances together. They did tap, jazz, and hip hop. It’s a long dance season and they work hard through the year to get here.

Gus came straight from the airport to see them dance. A very nice Godfather. 
 Gwyneth and her dear friend, Ella. They are such sweet friends!
 My girls! 
 Finally got a happy Annabelle picture after the show.