Kickin It Cabin Style

Memorial Day wouldn't be Memorial Day without a trip to the cabin. Rain or shine, it's the place to be. The Jansens are gracious enough to let our sorry Vogel selves join them year after year after year. For that, we're eternally grateful. Some of our fondest Colorado memories are based around that magical place up in the mountains. Duder loved trekking around the natural beauty of it all...we came home plenty dirty. A sure sign that tons of fun was had by all.

The Mouse in our House

Let me introduce to you dude's new found, most favorite friend. He's roughly 12 inches tall, has two unporportunately large ears, a black button nose and answers to the name "Mickey." About a week ago, duder found this small friend in the toy box upstairs and quickly decided to incorporate him into our daily activities. Mickey has to walk down each stair with us. He has to hold the fork at meal time. He has to sit next to us us in the car seat and in our stroller so he can see out. He gets his own tree swing and is pushed back and forth. His white, balloon-like hands close doors, put legos together and push balls down our ball game. He is also kissed a few times per day by his master (dude) and unfortunately by me too so as to avoid a fight if I say "no."

At the park the other day Dude stood at the base of the stairs and started yelling "Hi goooools" (girls) to the 10 year olds at the top. They asked him what his name was, to which he replied, "Mickey Mouse." They said, No, what's YOUR name?" This time he yelled, as loudly and clearly as his little voice box could muster, "MICKEY MOUSE!" Today we found Mickey Mouse in the sandbox, wet and covered in grossness. He's currently residing in the sink until dude realizes his best friend is out of commission.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Dude

What happened to this poor child's schnoz?

a). He tried to blow out a candle, unattended, and got a little too close.

b). A neighborhood dog thought it was a chew toy.

c). Too many Eskimo kisses from his adoring parents.

d). Tripped on the garden hose and landed in the window well, face down.

This is kinda fun!

e). Jammed his face into the side of the grill, while lit, to see the "hot fiya!"

f). While shaking his bootie, rolled down 5 basement stairs and landed on his face.

g). During a steep climb up the playground stairs, green ball in tow, fell off and landed in the wood chips. Face first.

h). Attempted to walk through the patio screen door one too many times.

Only one is fact, but all very possible. Cast your vote now and I'll update this minor face injury saga in an upcoming post. Can you deal with the suspense? I know...it's cruel.

Grub, Booze & a Pair of Red Shoes Part Dos

We hosted singer, songwriter, Jon Troast last year for a backyard concert that turned into a smashing success. Everyone was incredibly impressed with his natural vocal instrument and his ability to write songs that leave you thinking about life, love, family, the state of the world..ya know. The good stuff. When he announced that he would be touring the country for his 100 concerts in 100 days, we jumped on it. Why not make this an annual thing?

We rounded up a new guest list so as to add to Troast followers, filled coolers with booze (and soda which went untouched), loaded the table with snacky snacks and partied the night away with 30 or so random friends, neighbors, Troast fans and a couple newborns to boot. Once again, Jon and his red shoes dazzled the crowd (even left a few lady party goers in tears through many of his songs) and provided memories at the Vogelzang house that will be looked back on fondly.

If you haven't jammed to original Troast melodies yet, you're missin' out. Visit his website at http://www.jontroast.com/ and get a sampling. It'll leave you craving more. You too can host a living room concert some day. He's booked solid from here to Maine for the next few months, but get in line! Thanks for gracing our new living room Jon. It was a pleasure sharing your musical awesomeness with our peeps:)

Swingin'

I grew up with these awesomer than awesome tree swings. My mom is the queen of deals, so when she found them at TJ Max for cheap, she bought a dozen to give as gifts. 2 of them ended up in our backyard. Dude thinks they're the best chair in the joint and has spent hours swinging himself back and forth. And back and forth. And around and around. You get the picture. Thanks Nanna and Pappa!

We spent the past 2 weekends planting landscape in our bare bones backyard. We have a ways to go, but it's a start! The backyard is typically where you'll find us if it's over 55 degrees, so come on by any time. Just bring some Jack Daniel Lemonade if you do. It goes well with the tree swings.

Let the Swimming Season Begin

Dude's little $5 plastic pool has been our best investment of fun to date. Last summer duder enjoyed endless hours squealing and splashing around in our backyard. It was the perfect size for his 20th percentile body weight. When the weather sadly turned too frigid to swim without contracting pneumonia, my innovative light bulb went off (just momentarily) and told me to fill the pool with plastic balls and put it in our new basement. So we did. The fun factor increased even more. Our basement constantly looks like someone threw up colorful balls all over the joint, but that's okay. Gloomy winter calls for that kind of fun.

It's once again warm enough to fill that pool up with water, but after the first attempt, I found that he's a bit big for the $5 pool. None-the-less, dude thoroughly enjoyed his first summer 2009 backyard pool experience. Never fear, we already bought a big plastic blow up pool, slide included. We'll try that out for size soon and let you know how it goes.

T-Ball, Yaeger Shots, Flames & NBA Playoffs

How often do you combine all those elements in one weekend? Last weekend was a hodgepodge of activity (much of it was quality Tim n' me time for a change!) Which is fine with the dude since his babysitters Kat and Oma and Opa were WAY funner than us. Tim's company just opened a new hotel, a Loft, so we spent our Friday night kickin' it in Broomfield. Pretty sweet place if you live in Colorado and want to check it out. His work also gave us tickets to the Nuggets playoff game on Sunday. Yet another hot date for the two of us. Can't complain!

A Picture Worthy of its Own Post

Little people just don't come cuter than this. Had to share this shot of Dude with his best friends Bradster and PR.