Back to School!

I remember how hard it was to go back to school after a fun filled summer of laziness and no homework. But today I got a surprise - Miss Jenna Baro, our neighbor started her first day of kindergarten today. She stopped by to show me the crown that she had made in Mrs. Morris's class. She decided to let crenshaw in on the fun... since his head was too small (yes, he has a small head) for the crown, Jenna improvised and made a belt.

Crenshaw played along but gave us a few dramatic scenes reliving the days of the Safe-Cat Cat Jacket. [For those who don't know - I purchase a harness type jacket for crenshaw when he was little that had a handle on it. You could really pick him up like a lunch pail. When we would put it on him, he would wait until you were looking and dramatically collapse on the floor.]

Crenshaw enjoyed being part of the celebration. What a sport!!

Visit from Guy

This past weekend Guy (One of the KA Bro from Stanford) dropped in for a visit. He is on his way to Aspen for a week of fresh air and outdoor activities. He is also hopeful that he may land a Colorado Sugar Momma. The boys did an afternoon of golf, and then we had a late dinner at our house.



Guy showed up with a bottle of Cakebread wine as a welcome gift - he was proud to say that he had visited Cakebread while touring napa with the Etters. The Wine was delicious. After all of Guys talk about being a practiced drunk he was exhausted and in bed by 11:00.



We decided to play golf again on Saturday (with me this time) - and I was happy to convince Guy that we should share a cart - you know Mark, he is anti-cart. We strategically placed a cooler of beers in our back yard (hole 4) so that we could grab them as we passed. All was going well as we teed off on the 6th hole...



Thunderheads came rolling in and we started to see a lot of lightning around us. Guy and I were nervous but Mark and Josh made us push on. About 15 seconds after mark called us babies - the rain started pouring down and we had to make a run for the lightning shelter. It was like a party in here - and all was going well until... uh oh, we ran out of beer.



Fortunately, Brave Josh decided to venture out into the rain (take one for the team), run to his house (on the 6th hole) and bring us all back cold drinks. What a hero!!



We waited in the shelter with our fellow golfers for about 45 minutes until we decided to give up - Guy needed to be heading to Aspen, Lola needed to be collected from doggy-daycare and I was freezing (notice mark wearing a jacket).

Josh and Guy headed to josh's and mark and I braved the rain to return the cart. By the time we made it home I was soaked and dirty. We had a lot of fun with Guy and look forward to his yearly trip out west!

Back from Mexico

We are back from a fabulous week in Mexico with Scott and Julie - Zihuatanejo was wonderful. The weather was hot and humid which meant lots of cold beer and margarita's was really our only option to stay alive. Thank goodness we were up to the challenge!We spent the majority of our days on the beach reading and doing the crossword puzzle that was delivered in the NY Times Digest each day. Julie is excellent at the puzzle and I was easily addicted - until Friday rolled around and it was extremely difficult, even with 4 brains we were stumped.

Hotel Villa del Sol is lovely - there are many pools (including an infinity pool and a bar pool) and a fabulous beach. The water in all of the pools was an exact 98.6 degrees - it felt what we imagined a sensory deprivation pool might feel like.

One night at dinner (the food was awesome) Scott made a point to say that he wished people would write more on their blogs - you know me I am completely visual, but if Scott could remember that each picture I post is worth a thousand words, I might get the award for being the most prolific blogger around!



More Mexico stories to come...

Hola! Tomorrow morning we are off to Zihuatanejo for a week of fun in the sun. If all goes as planned we will be meeting Scott and Julie on the beach with tropical drinks! We can't wail. We aren't bringing laptops (thank goodness) so no blogging while we are away - of course I will overwhelm you with them when I return.  

Saturday we took Lola for a walk in the flat irons at Chitaquawa - here she is posing as a regal little pup. I was definitely styling in my puppy-fanny pack - fortunately boulder is filled with Dog owners and they think this look rocks!! After the long walk Lola played "Dead dog" under our table as we had lunch and a beer! 

So I finally did it. After years of being told to shut up when criticizing America because I'm not a citizen, I figured I'd pay the price of admission... Also, if this takes a year or less, I'll be able to vote in the midterm elections and help swing this purple state blue. I guess you know you're in the midwest when you're local Federal office is in Nebraska! 

And the Winner is... I am trying to document the invites that I have been doing lately - and what better place to store them than the blog! :) This invite is for a red carpet event in honor of Amy. The first comment from Josh's mouth was "I thought you hated center alignment" - its good to know I can step outside of my boundaries once and a while.  

TWO YEARS AND COUNTING!!! Yesterday Mark and I celebrated our second anniversary. We had a lovely dinner with our friends at Bloom - great place with fantastic wine flights, my favorite, the Rhone Ranger Flight. For our true celebration we are heading down to Zihuatanejo, Mexico for a week of fun in the sun - here we are jumping for joy!! [we took this picture 5 times, and never successfully captured us both jumping at the same time - thank goodness for photoshop] 

Lasso Love in the Big Sky State

I have been working on wedding invitations for a family friend, Rebecca Huntington and her fiance Reed. We worked with a graphic version of the columbine flower but wanted to give that rustic casual flair. It was a great project. I also was able to print borderless on the envelopes - yes this is cool in my world. My printer (the s9000 again proved to kick ass).

I did have issues printing from Illustrator CS and had to revert back to AI10 on my trusty old laptop - I wonder if Adobe has parties where they sit around and celebrate what a crap job they have done. I almost killed mark when he said, "why don't you just change applications and use macromedia" - but for all of you looking to start using a graphics application - Macromedia Freehand is your ticket!

Black Panther Attack!! Our little Cricket caught herselft a flying grasshopper. As she carried it through the grass it flapped its wings and looked like a bow-tie (can't really see in the photo). It was tons of fun taunting Hopper into flying (jumping) and then recapturing him.  

After our game of golf, Sonja and I whipped out the back fence. We pulled off the horizontal slats, put up wire and then reattached the wood. (its hard to see, but I am wearing my Happy Birthday Jonathan shirt - which is a very inspirational work shirt) 

Our Neighbors Sonja and Bernie are extremely handy - they have done all of their own landscaping and encourage us to build our own fence instead of paying to have it installed. So Saturday morning at 6:00 Sonja and I headed to golf (tough life), and Bernie and Mark headed to Home Depot. They rented a pole digger to dig holes for the posts and then set them in concrete - all in 100 degree heat. 

Cricket learned a new trick - playing dead. She spends much of her day snuggled up stairs in the warmth of all of our machines learning through osmosis. 

Even though Lola is around, the kitties still run this house. Here's the man snuggled up in his bed.  

Lola has quickly learned what beer o'clock is! Smart!! 

Lola now gets to play with her neighbor Shelby. Shelby is teaching Lola who's boss.  

Annie also showed Lola how to have a bit of fun in the sprinklers - Lola was suspicious - maybe next time she will dive in.  

July 20, 2005 - Our neighbor, Cathy and her dog Annie have signed up to help Lola learn the ropes. Cathy trains dogs as a hobby and our first lesson is to walk on the leash and sit before crossing the street. The first day was a success - she is a smarty pants! 

Happy Birthday to Lisa!!! This photo was snapped at Heather's big Gala event in Billings in February. Lisa snagged the winterland decoration - which obviously makes for a great photo prop. Here's to Lisa having a FABULOUS birthday!! We can't wait to see you in August!  

Lol loves her Aunt Amy, and Aunt Amy loves Lola - now she is after Uncle Josh's heart. She has a cute little belly of freckles (taking after her mom and dad) and quite a face. Amy brought over some fun toys (Pink Chew Ball and a Tugging Frisbee) and Lola is in heaven.