Quality Amy Time

There are few things better than QT with girlfriends who you rarely get to see. Amy & I roomed together in a 52 square foot apartment downtown Chicago during our Senior year of college. Well, maybe it was like 152 square feet. But we also shared that elaborate space with roaches the size of a small duck and another roommate. It was the best and most expensive semester of our college lives!

We've stayed attached at the hip ever since...mainly through girls get-away weekends. A couple weeks ago, Amy came to Denver with her little guy Jay so we could meet each other's kids for the first time. (They've never been invited to our girls getaways in the past). She also turned the Big 3-0 this past month, so we decided that some serious celebrating was in order. We stayed more than busy the 3 days they were here...went swimming with the boys, out to see the play Girls Only while my hubby babysat, visited glorious Evergreen, the Stock Show, Red Rocks...on and on. Dude loved the extra attention and his mom sure enjoyed it as well!

Little Jay man

A future blog post will show Amy's amazing amazing photography skills...she did a family photo shoot for us as a gift for my 30th! Check her out at http://www.amydeyoung.com/.

She can find "art" in just about anything visible to the human eye.

Half Way to 60

On January 12, 1979 my mom went in for a check up and started having contractions in the elevator. She went to the hospital immediately given the huge blizzard about to smack down on the Chicago metro area. Dadio raced over and the doctor eventually arrived on cross country skis. I entered this world in the blizzard of the century, which should have been telling for the dynamic I would bring to those around me.

Oprah always tells me (and a billion other viewers) to embrace your age. 50 is the new 30, she says. So I guess 30 is now the new….15? Well, I feel older and more mature than 15 most days, so I've chosen to fully embraced my official new age. Below is a quick 4 photo flashback for all of you who haven't been blessed to see me in all my glorious stages.

Little tyke me. Don't mock my dumbo ears...I grew into them.

Kind of.

This photo symbolizes my mushroom stage. Mom curled those silky locks every morning! And I flinched and burned my ears half of those mornings.

Ah yes. The perm. Enough said.

Cara has loved me unconditionally through our years, mullet or no mullet.

Turning 3-0 was a GREAT excuse to have a kick-ass (sorry, that’s really the only verbiage that truly gets it across) weekend. My hubby and bestest friend isn’t typically what one would call a “planner.” I subtly told him at this time last year that he should start thinking about the big 3-0 soon. Okay, I guess it wasn’t so subtle. Big surprise. It worked though, because my stud came through with flying colors. And then some.

He surprised me on Friday night with a group of 25 or so friends at a local restaurant. That was awesome to see all kinds of people I love together in one room. Saturday we dropped the dude off at his girlfriend Emma’s house for the night and we went on a mystery overnight to the Hyatt downtown. We ate at Bistro Vandome (little corner of heaven), swam in the hotel pool, had nightcaps on the 27th floor and slept in until 10:00am. Doesn’t get better than that.

It was a blissful weekend all around. My actual birthday brought 5 inches of unexpected snow, a 2 hour commute to work and an accident for Tim, so we chose to focus on how great the weekend was. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and love. I definitely felt (feel) like the most blessed 30 year old girl this side of the Mississippi.

Dude's First "Older Woman" Crush

If you know our little man, you know that he has rhythm and isn't afraid to show it. We jam to the radio beat in the car, to a catchy TV commercial ditty, to our Little Tykes boom box, or even to a cell phone going off in the store. It doesn't take much to start his head boppin', feet tappin' and arms wavin'.
We play new CDs throughout the week...he grooves, but hasn't shown favoritism to a particular artist...until last week. Ms. Janet Jackson was introduced to the dude and the rest is history. We haven't seem rhythm quite like what has been displayed since we pushed play on Janet's Greatest Hits album.
The video below shows one particular song that dude can't get enough of. He replays it for half hour straight and does the same song and dance each time. We thought it was only fair to share his quirkiness with you all.

My Parents...World Travelers

We didn’t fly as kids. 5 plane tickets is tough to tackle. We did our fair share of driving in whatever station wagon happened to grace us at the time, but my first introduction to take off and landing was to a skanky piece of Florida beach Sophomore year of college for Spring Break.

Once my bros and I were out of the house, however, my parents started to take advantage of the miracle of flight and have traveled a decent chunk of the world. Mom takes the prize with all her mission trips through her job at Trinity College. Recently, they took in Egypt and all that comes with it. I’m pretty proud of all their experiences and journeys and thought I’d share a few pictures from their most recent adventure. Below is an excerpt from an email they sent while away.

It's now late Sunday evening in Cairo. Outside this small computer room, the students are having their last night together as a whole group (and their laughter is even drowning out the incessant honking of the traffic in the street below.) More than half of us, in just a few hours, will be heading to the Cairo airport to begin our day of homeward travel. Would you believe we have a 1:30 AM wake-up call? This evening we dined in style in an elegant restaurant, overlooking the Nile. We had lamb, beef, and chicken, special desserts, traditional breads and appetizers...more than we could eat. Today we visited the second oldest Christian Church in the world and walked narrow passages which, according to lore, were walked by Mary, Joseph, and the Baby.What can we say about the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum with all the wonders of King Tut? Simply magnificent. We have felt the protection of the Lord over and over, and have been blessed beyond our imagination. Love to all - thank you for allowing this tour to happen.

Nancy & the Egypt team

2 Little Girlfriends in Waiting

Our dear friends Lance and Katie were blessed a while back with the news that 2 little tykes would be taking over Katie’s tiny frame. Then they were blessed with the news that it was 2 little girls planning their entrance into the world. Not only that…2 identical girls. We’re extremely pumped to meet little Chloe and Caroline in the coming weeks (Katie’s has been recently blessed with the gift of bed rest). Luckily, before her doctor packaged that in a bow, we were able to have a shower for the little dearies. I never stop to look at the girl section, but man is there some spankin’ cute stuff out there. Congrats Lance and Katie (on getting through the majority of the pregnancy thing) and we’ll congrat you again when they arrive!

Dude's Kind of New Year

It gets lonely not having immediate fam here in the Mile High City, but that makes visits from our loved ones that much more exhilarating. Mom and Marc came out for a New Years visit and provided endless fun and laughter for our little man (and for us of course). We went to dude's favorite fish house (the aquarium) and once again found much enjoyment out of the bubble machine. Do they make those things for residential use? We all went out for a nice dinner, Tim and I were treated to a movie out, we made steak for new years and tested our dart playing abilities. We even fit in a trip to the park since it was a balmy winter weekend. Dude took immediately to his Grandma and Grandpa Marc and could have cared less if Tim or I were in the same city as him.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Marc for taking time out of your crazy schedule to visit us and spoil us rotten. We love you much!

Mom has a killer dart throw...shocking really.


Dude's new ATV...he was quite taken with it's ability to move him across the room.

A random assortment of videos from the past few weeks.

December Wrap Up

Normal life has commenced, so I'm attempting to get back into the blogging swing again. Our little clan went to Chicago on C-mas Eve for a 5 day vaca with my family. Spirits were high as we left home, parked off site and took the glamorous shuttle to the airport. Dude made friends with the entire terminal and had everyone in stitches. Things were looking good! Until the kid got motion sick all over his loving mother toward the end of the flight. Mood....dampened. Mom....stinky.

Moving past the unpleasantness. It's not often that my 2 brothers, sister in law, nephew, parents and us are under one roof, but we pulled it off! Dude wasn't quite sure what to make of the chaos, but adjusted eventually. Lots of eating, drinking, game playing, & present opening took place in my parents beautifully decorated home.

We were able to have a kid free dinner with the VP's & Warps and visited the Warps young ones. Poor Emmers just wanted to hug dude and was deeply hurt by his very firm "no" that followed each attempt. We were fortunate enough to go to the Rieger twin boys' baptism too...precious little dudes. It was awesome to finally meet them. Pappa took dude to a CCHS basketball game and to his empty high school gym to run around, which was priceless free entertainment. It was a relaxing break! Sad not to see any of Mile High Dad's fam, but we were lucky enough to get Mom and Marc out our way shortly after. That post is yet to come!