August/September 2007 Highlights

September 20 - We're getting a new kitchen! After years of generally talking about it, and months of pretending to do something about it, we finally are! It's a low-budget remodel consisting of granite countertops, replacing the ugly fluorescent light/beast on the ceiling with can lighting, knocking out the wall between the kitchen and DR and creating a bartop there, and putting in an over-the-range microwave (freeing up space elsewhere). So exciting! If goes as planned, all should be complete by the time we celebrate Tombo's first birthday here on the 30th.

Highlights:

August 18-20 - Weekend in Arrowhead/Beaver Creek with birthday boy Tim Neyman, Sarita, and their 2-month-old, Olivia. A great weekend, capped off by a bonus visit from Terie & Casey the last night. Monday night 8/20, Lisa started classes again after slacking off all summer. "Career Counseling" Mondays from 4-7pm. Dull professor, but surprisingly interesting class so far!

August 24-26 - Dave & Nadia Roberts from Chicago, and their 5-month-old little man, Gabriel came to visit. It was wonderful to catch up with them and meet their little darling (truly, he is the angel Gabriel). All of us except Gabriel enjoyed the Georgetown Loop Railroad on Saturday (poor guy hated the teeth-rattling train whistle) and then pizza at the old standby, Beaujos in Idaho Springs.

September 1-3 - The kids had a few hours with the Bravo Family while John and I attended Rick & Lata's Indian-American wedding. It was lovely, and the highlight was the bride & groom and a dozen of their friends and family performing the "Bollywood" dance they had been practicing for months! Then, we rushed home to change clothes, and hopped in the car to head down to "Family Camp" at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp, west of Canon City in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our old Abiding Hope crew was there and we had a lovely weekend, complete with campfire songs, s'mores, a hoe-down, and more. Could become a Labor Day tradition for us! On the way home on Labor Day, we stopped in at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo for a few hours. A highlight, at least for us parents, was watching our daughter wait in a long line and then march up on stage to sit on a stool and milk a cow! She did not want our help, and she was oh-so-serious about it. Kind of surreal, for some reason!

September 7-9 - John turned 37 on the 8th, but we had a mini celebration for him here on the 6th prior to his departure to Vegas! Nothing like spending your birthday with some great friends (Mark Thoni and Olin Burrow in this case), tailgating and sitting in the stands to watch your alma mater play UNLV! He had a great time and even paid for some of his trip with his winnings!

September 15-16 - Weekend at home...birthday parties for the Camargo kids, and neighbor Elaine May. Hired our kitchen contractor and did some good work around the house, thanks to some gardening consulting by Beck!

Anne Peyton is a regular school girl now! Our new daycare's preschool program started a few weeks ago, and it's really cool. She comes home now with all sorts of papers and stories. Last week they made stick horses, and she finally got to bring the finished product home. I was out back, and asked AP to show me her horse. Shortly, she emerged from around the side of the house at a full gallop. It occured to me that she learned to gallop in preschool! She still has a really tough time saying goodbye to us in the mornings, continues to utter "I don't WANT to go to Marilyn's house"...but invariably at the end of the day she is full of smiles & wiggles & pride. We're very pleased with the choice, but we all miss the Bravos too. Definitely AP isn't the center of attention like she was, since age 4 months, with Kathy & her doting children. That would be hard for anyone to get used to!

Tombo isn't walking yet although Becky claims she saw him take his first step the other weekend! He's such an adorable crawler, with those long arms splaying out to either side; we'll miss it when he's done. Just tonight we realized we hadn't heard him scream in awhile. THAT we won't miss. He definitely is a hothead; doesn't take much for his cherubic face to turn all red and ticked-looking, accompanied by the loudest baby voice you ever heard. His favorite thing lately is clapping; he LOVES it especially when you join him.

For photos, please visit http://www.kodakgallery.com/coloradohofmeisters