Happy Thanksgiving!

I borrowed these pictures from my sister-in-law Kim's blog because I love them and had to share them with you!  Holden looks so grown up in this picture! 

This picture is an exact replica of some pictures we have of us 4 kids with my dad 25 - 30 years ago.  Of course, in those pictures my dad has a kid sitting on each foot too (and a LOT less gray hair).

My parents were out last weekend for my great-aunt Case's funeral.  Bert & Case have lived in Colorado for 50 plus years.  They were married 58 wonderful years.  Her death was sudden, she had suffered with a very sore hip for 6 months, when she finally went to the hospital they discovered a 10 cm tumor in her hip.  Her cancer was stage 4 and all over her body.  She lived two weeks on hospice, said her goodbyes and helped plan her own funeral.  It was great to see some extended family and really great to learn so much about my aunts historical life. 

Mike & I are headed to Indiana/Michigan Wednesday.  Can't wait to see the family especially all our nieces and our nephew Johnny.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  Mike and I are truly blessed and we hope you have lots to be thankful for this year too! .

Here it is.....

My First Belly Pic.....

12 Weeks

I know most newly pregnant women try to push their belly out to emphasize their bump, but look at my face, doesn't it look like I'm trying to suck it in?  Well, there's no sucking that in! After a very positive ultrasound and doctors appointment on Monday, I felt confident enough to announce our new arrival to work yesterday.  I wore this shirt which emphasizes the bump and taped a clipart picture of a baby to my belly.  Several residents caught on right away, some said they thought so but didn't want to ask and others just asked me for more coffee!  Already yesterday, I had two women tell me not to take the stairs, one told me to slow down when I was walking and the best "advice" I got yesterday was from a lady who truly believes I shouldn't drive a car.  She seriously suggested Mike take me to and from work.  With advice like this from so many helpful "grandmas" the next 28 weeks are going to be really fun! 

Our next ultrasound is Monday, December 13th - that's when we'll find out what we're having!  In the meantime, we encourage you to vote in our baby poll at the top left hand side of our blog.  So far the majority is predicting another boy.  A little boy would cut down on our shopping since we already were preparing for two....but I sure would love a little girl.

On a side note.....I have to mention this was my most successful summer of gardening ever!  Or should I say fall???  I took this picture Monday...

Every September since Casey and I planted my first garden 7 years ago, I have spent one cold night in September, with a headlamp on, trying to save my veggies before the 1st frost got them.  Well, believe it or not Denver hasn't had a frost yet this year.  (Now that I said that, we'll be expecting a blizzard next week!)  I was prepared to go out on Sunday afternoon and cut everything down, but Mike encouraged me to wait till Monday, so I could say "Look what I picked from my garden on November 1st!"

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!

Long Overdue Post

I am the world's worst blogger!  I assure you it's because Mike and I are too busy living life to blog about it!  While camping season has come to a close for most, we're looking forward to the fall and having the mountains to ourselves :)  There's nothing better than waking up to a blanket of snow.  We take our coffee (and my tea!) with us for our morning hike and my lungs feel so alive and fresh!  Mike's mom, Mary Kay is coming out to see us this week and we're taking her camping over the weekend.  We're going to Meadow Creek Reservoir (past Winter Park), it' one of our favorite spots and its the best place for moose viewing!  We've had a such a good moose viewing season this summer and we're hoping to share our good luck with Mary Kay.  I'll post pics of her visit and the beautiful fall colors next week! 
But for now, I want to recap on a few events: 

Mary's Visit!

Our friend Mary came to see us from Austin.  In between jobs, Mary had some time off this summer so she and her adorable boxer Klio took a road trip out to see us.  Most of you remember Mary from our wedding.  She knew the fewest amount of people at the wedding, yet she won everyone over.  She's always up for a good time and Mike and I were so excited to have her come out. 

 Mike enjoyed lots of time fishing this summer.  We even took trout home for dinner a couple of times.  I love watchng him put on his waiters, fishing is very serious business, a few times he woke up early to fish and let me sleep in - till 7 AM!

Our puppies! 

No we didn't get a 3rd dog!  That adorable pup is Oliver, Casey & Robs dog.  He may be small but he works hard to keep up with the big dogs!  We've noticed quite a change in Hope this summer, while she still loves to get out-n-about we don't take her on our long hikes anymore.  At home she's having a lot of trouble getting comfortable,we listen to her "flop" on the hardwood floors all night. And sometimes, getting up is really hard for her :( She is 11 and a 1/2 now so I guess it's to be expected. 

 And now for our Moose......

Look closely, that's a moose between me and Casey's heads!  We were hiking at Meadow Creek Reservoir, and Casey commented she'd never seen a moose.  I knew just how she felt because that was my chief complaint last summer if you remember!  So I promised her we'd see one and sure enough we rounded a corner and there was a BIG moose right on the trail.  This picture is a little better:

So, like I said I'll bore you with some more pictures of our beautiful state next weekend! 

Summer Guests

It's been a summer of visitors so far and we have more to come!  Father's Day weekend (I know I'm slow on the updates!!!!), Anyway, Father's day weekend we had my mom and dad, Mike's mom and sister Cathy and her two adorable kids visiting!  Add that to my sister Casey, brother-in-law Rob, brother Ian, sister-in-law Kim and their two adorable kids who all live here in Denver and we had a very busy 5 days together! 

Between backyard bbq's, a neighborhood street fair, walks around the lake, and City Park Jazz, we tried our best to wear the kids out!  Cathy, Mary Kay and the kids stayed with Mike & I and helped put our nursery to use!  Mom and Dad stayed with Holden and Everett while Ian and Kim enjoyed a little alone time in the mountains for Kim's friend Jess's wedding.  It was awesome - I just love taking a vacation and staying in Denver! 

Holden is so helpful now that she's 3!  She was very excited when her daddy came home and she could introduce him to her new friends Johnny & Layla!  She also tried to introduce her Uncle Mike to his niece and nephew  - we're working on explaining the family tree to her...

This past weekend we had a more adult visit with my college roommate and very good friend Jen!  Jen has two youngsters at home too and really deserved a weekend away!  It was a quick trip - it's hard to leave her adorable kids behind for too long - I understand!  We showed Jen a little "Colorado" while she was out here!  We took her camping Friday night to Jefferson Lake area.  We had 11 campers and 6 dogs with us to celebrate Jen's visit and Casey's 29th birthday!  (Yes, Casey really is only 29 - all weekend people couldn't believe she wasn't 30 yet - I think that's a sign all our friends are getting older!) 

It was so great to have Jen here!  The past few times we've been lucky enough to get together we've had so many other friends and family around us - it was wonderful to have her to myself and even better to show off my everyday life to her.  We've been friends for 15 years now - and live very different lives, yet she's still one of the dearest people to my heart.  I appreciate her visit so much! 

Mike and I have enjoyed several trips to the hills this summer.  We spent the 4th of July in one of our favorite mountain towns, Salida, CO.  We've been hiking, resting in our hammocks and taking a break from the city heat and busy work lives we both have down in Denver.  We haven't been fishing once this summer but that's about to change.  We're heading to Meadow Creek Reservoir next weekend - it was the 1st camping trip we ever took together when we were dating and always makes us happy to return there.  So many good memories in our camper that Mike calls our "Red Neck Paradise"...

Weddings!

What a great wedding season we've had so far!  Well - actually wedding season may be in full force but our involvement in it is over - our only two weddings for the summer of 2010 have come and gone.  My brother, Severin married his bride, Colleen, on May 15th.  And our good Denver friends, Zane & Sarah were married on June 5th.

Severin and Colleen were married at Brookside Gardens, a Hanou family favorite from our years living in Maryland!  They had beautiful weather and exceptionally beautiful flowers surrounding them.  Colleen's twin brother Brian was their officiant, however I believe Colleen wrote most of their ceremony!  Both Sev & Colleen wrote their own vows, it was beautiful.  The Hanou family and the Shane family fit quite well together and we had a great time (Colleen's one of four kids too - 2 boys 2 girls).   The newest Hanou couple honeymooned in the Grand Caymans and just celebrated their one month anniversary in their usual style - with her on business in Azerbaijan :(  Hopefully she'll be in town for the important 1 year anniversary!  (Or out of town with Severin!!!)

It was really good for Mike & I to get out of town and see some family and friends. 

Then 3 short weeks later we were travelling again! This time we took a roadtrip south to Santa Fe, New Mexico for Zane and Sarah's wedding, well 2nd wedding technically!  They were married at the Denver J.P. a few days prior.  But as you can see from the pictures below, the Santa Fe wedding was less "legal" but much prettier! 

It was a cowboy theme wedding, as you can tell.  Inzo needs a little more time to grow into Uncle Mike's cowboy hat - but it sure does provide good shade in the meantime!  Zane and Sarah also wrote their own vows and Sarah's friend Jody wrote the nicest ceremony - quoting many books and movies about marriage and adding a bit of her own humor as well! 

So with our summer weddings over, our future holds many camping opportunities for Mike and I.  Our one year anniversary is coming up and I can't think of anywhere I'd rather spend it than in the Colorado mountains with my honey and our dogs!