Big City Big Fun! New York with the girls....

When Jen was out in Colorado this summer she casually mentioned how great it would be if I could come back east for Erica's Baby shower in October.  I was looking for an excuse to see the University of Delaware Girls and this was my opportunity to see most of them at one time!  Friday night Deb picked me up in the city and we drove out to Long Island to see Erica - ALL of Erica!  As you can see below little Madelyn Elsie Geldmacher (Maddie Moo as Erica and Joe have nicknamed her) is nearly ready to make her worldly appearance.  Erica is due right before Thanksgiving.

Deb couldn't make it to Erica's shower, but Marisa, Jen and Jen's kids Melanie & Thomas drove up. 

I have NEVER seen a baby shower quite like this!  70 plus woman in attendance!  I know what you're all thinking....did the gift opening take hours????  But the answer is no.....these women had quite the gift opening system.  It was an assembly line of sorts....or is it an un-assembly line?  She had all sorts of helpers opening gifts, deciphering and recording what each gift was and sorting out trash.  It was so efficient and seamless.  One of Erica's favorite gifts were 3 little Al Gore onsies Jen ordered.  I noticed Erica updated her facebook profile to be this picture...

Jens kids are adorable, well behaved and the most technologically gifted kids I've ever met!  Seriously, they played what I would consider bigger kid level games on her iPad.  Remember the game Memory from when we were kids?  When we played it was a deck of cards face down on the floor and you had to turn over a card and find its match on your next turn to make a pair.  We wasted so much time just setting the game up and then shuffling to play it again.  Not Thomas, this 2 year old just touched the screen and made his matches.  It was so nice to finally meet Melanie and Thomas!

It was a very quick weekend - and not at all like the weekends we used to spend together!  We spent Saturday night in a hotel room with Jen's kids sleeping next door.  Jen and Marisa enjoyed a couple bottles of wine while Erica and I devoured room service and we all watched Sex & the City 2 on demand.  It was so great to catch up face to face.  We're hoping we'll have another chance to get together at a wedding next spring or summer! Keep us posted Deb and Marisa.....

Our Michigan Mom Visits!

Mary Kay flew in Wednesday for a fall visit.  We discovered the last 4 times she has been in Colorado she has shared our attention with other family members.  Last year she was here for the food taste testing, bridal shower, wedding (where she shared us with 143 of you!) and most recently, she was here Father's Day weekend with my parents and Cathy, Johnny & Layla.  So...it was nice to have her to ourselves! 
I was able to take a couple days off from work which, combined with my 3 day weekend turned out to be a nice 5 day break (yay!).  Mostly we've done a whole lot of relaxing!  But as promised we took Mary Kay in our camper for a nice fall get-a-way to our favorite spot....Meadow Creek Reservoir.  Just for fun, mom wheeled her LARGE suitcase out to the kitchen and asked Mike to load it in the camper for her.  His eyes were wide but he agreed and went to lug the thing outside, until he heard us snickering!  Seriously, she did very well "travelling light" and I think felt quite comfortable in our redneck paradise. 

We took a few a short hikes, spent some time reading and eating in the sun and huddled around the campfire at night.  We had our first indoor dinner of the year because the wind picked up after dark and we all agreed it would be much more enjoyable inside.  But at least we got lunch outside!  Mike caught a few cutthroat trout and we cooked them up with our eggs in the morning....yum!  We didn't spot a moose this weekend.....bummer.  But we did catch some golden yellow aspens changing color.

So.....tomorrow is our first ultrasound (for those of you who didn't know we are pregnant again....SURPRISE!!!).  We'll let you know if this is what we see....

It's a twin cucumber that grew in my garden this summer!  Is it a sign???  We'll let you know!