Durango, Colorado!

So to celebrate my new found unemployment, Lisa and I packed the car, packed the babies and headed to New Mexico and Colorado to camp for a few days. The kids did great, they loved the camping and hiking, although Lily was already a seasoned pro at camping. We met up with Ivy and Tom and Anne (Ivy's mom) at Jemez Springs, NM for our first night of camping in the Santa Fe National Forest, northwest of Albuquerque. John Milo and I took our first hike in his awesome hiking backpack early in the morning before anyone else was up (JM wakes up when it is light out, hence why he has heavy dark curtains in his room at home).

Then we headed to Durango, where we camped in the San Juan National Forest. We took the kiddos on a day hike to Engineer Mtn, which is a 12000+ peak between Durango and Silverton. We couldn't find the correct turn-off for the trail we were looking for as directed to us by the land management people, so we just hiked along a riverbed instead. Yes, I'm training him early to become a geologist!!! I made him memorize the stratigraphic section of SW Colorado before we left. Mostly he said "ga-ga-na...lola...", but I'm quite sure he was saying "Look at this fine example of the Fountain formation". And that last picture is of him holding his yellow bear bell...yes, we hiked (probably unnecessarily) with a bear bell!

John Milo shows his sensitive side by giving Lily hugs. Notice that Lily is not exactly sure she is okay with this situation! They were also quite helpful at unpacking the car.

Clearly we had many more adventures than this, hopefully I'll get the rest of the pics put on here before I have to deal with all the pictures I'll have of Brazil! Those will be less exciting though, since little buddy won't be making the trip with me :(

The Shop

It's hot here folks, like it is everywhere under the influence of the death ridge I suppose. Anyway, John wanted me to post pictures of his shop (almost finished) for his dad. And I'm sure he wants me to say that he worked outside on it alllll day in the heat. He was pretty stinky when he came back inside. So here you go, enjoy. And there is a token pic of the kiddo as well.

Happy Birthday JM!!

We went to one of John's sister's favorite places...a vegan restaurant!...called FairGrounds for breakfast. I thought this was a weird picture of the little guy...I have a feeling I'll be seeing that "Yeah, you're really not that funny mom, but I'll give you this token smirk" look quite a lot in the next few years!

I thought he looked like the E-trade baby in this picture!

We took some pics in John's parent's backyard the afternoon of JM's bday. Here's one of the family. He's chilling in his hawaiian shirt on account of it being a blistering hot day in the heartland. That's JM's cousin Lexi and her puppy dog Shelby, who John Milo looooved! Then John's mom with the grandkids.

PRESENTS!!!

Little Dude had a great time opening his presents, he did most of the opening himself too, so he was pretty excited. Elizabeth and fam got him some Little People, he loves them a lot, that's for sure! And always some books, which are a huge hit with the dude.

CAKE!!!!

Well, cupcake anyway! I made JM some cupcakes from weelicious, which is an excellent website for healthy recipes for kids, by the way. So I made him that with agave nectar instead of sugar in an effort to not make him totally sick on his birthday (we'll do that at Lily's party!). But of course no one else wanted to eat those, so John's mom got him a really cute cake with the requisite "Happy Birthday JM" on it that everyone else enjoyed. Somehow I didn't get a pic of it though. JM wouldn't dive in to the cupcake at all, he is quite the delicate little eater. So John had to mash it up for him, but then he ate the whole thing! Once he was getting toward the bottom of it he started offering it to other people (he does this all the time, too cute!). After all of that eating, it was time to work off the crazy sugar rush with some basketball.

John Milo gives this look in lots of pictures. John and I like to call it his "frat boy" look. I'm quite sure that in 19 or 20 years, there will exist pictures of JM in which he looks *exactly* like this...althought there will probably be a beer bong in the background...oh god, that gives me heartburn just thinking about it!

Welcome to Iowa...what's that smell?

Sorry so long between posts, in a short while I'll have plenty of time to post :) So we went to Iowa for John Milo's first birthday. Unfortunately we were all kind of sick, so we didn't get to do a whole lot while we were there, and I definitely didn't get in the requisite amount of shopping done. But we did introduce JM to golf! Here we are on #5 at the Elks Club in Iowa City. John rode around with John Milo in the cart while I played 9, and then I returned the favor later in the week. JM was really good, and loved all the fresh air. When John played, JM fell asleep by #7 and slept sooo sound for about 3 hours!

Here's John and John Milo on #4. There was a dog park behind the tee-box and he was very interested in all the barking that was going on behind us!

We also visited John's Mom's flowershop of course. Here is John and JM taking in all the moneys! That little kid ran himself ragged in that shop, especially because Judy has a whole display of stuffed animals. JM turned the whole thing over on himself and loved it. Bill and I sat there and ate lunch with him too, and since he ran around so much he ate a ton!! A whole grilled cheese, apple sauce and milk-the entire kid's meal!!

3q321111111 (that was John Milo's contribution)

Hello! Take my picture!

Can I get some service around here?!

Chillin' in front of the cooler...

Alright Stacy, that's all I can handle tonight, I have to go to bed :) You'll just have to wait for part two and the cupcake and present pictures until tomorrow!! Hope everyone enjoys these, like I said, I'll be updating much more frequently before long.

Pi Day Wedding

Lisa and I traveled to DC on March 14 (3.14...pi day...get it nerds? I know you do!!). So here is Jeana and Lisa unpacking the bouquets. Jeana made these awesome Chinese knots and then we had orchids. Very cool.

Here is Todd and Tracy (officiating the ceremony) and Todd's parents. We were on an outdoor porch of Todd's Uncle's house (right?) in Columbia, Maryland. That arbor has pi symbols on it.

We were going to take Jeana out for the normal bacholorette sort of thing, but we just wound up at our hotel (which was near her house), since it took over 2 hours to drive (round-trip) to Columbia for the rehearsal and the dinner. We were all wiped out and just had drinks in the hotel bar. Oddly enough, I have no more pictures of the ceremony or the day after. I'll have to wait on Jeana to get them from her cousin so I can post some of them. Needless to say, it was beautiful and the food was really good. I didn't know vegan cake could taste so good :) My favorite quote of the weekend though was when Todd's dad was making a nice toast, and celebrating the fact that the Starbuck family was celebrating their 300th-something year in this country (what is it with people from Virginia?!?!), Emily Dial-Driver leans over and says "Yeah, well, our people met his people at the boat." Score on for the bride's family!!

There are so many things I'd like to say about this piece. It was at the uncle's house, in the bedroom where the wedding party was getting ready. She said she got it in Thailand. I really want to talk about the message this sends of subjugating the brown people, but I'll just leave it alone. John Milo, did you want one of these? :)

And one more obnoxious picture! After the wedding, Lisa and I figured it was the best time for us to try to head into DC and see some sights, since she had never been there. So we just randomly started driving south on a road. Seriously, it went down like this.

Jeana's awesome friend Yvette: "yeah, just head down highway (some number), you won't hit any traffic circles, it will take you to K street"

Me to Lisa: "Remember those numbers", which I knew was a bad call, half the time I think Lisa forgets my name. But she came up with some odd pneumonic for the route, and off we went.

So we're driving, and we hit a traffic circle.

Lisa: "Shit! She specifically said no traffic circles."

We successfully negotiated it anyway, and drove on for another 30 minutes. We top a hill and see the Washington Monument (my favorite). We proceed to drive towards it for awhile, and then our road dead-ends.

Lisa: "Isn't that the White House?"

Me: "Noooo...I didn't think you could drive this close to it. We're lost! I have no idea where to go!"...at which point Lisa points to the sign that says "White House", and we park only one block away. Nice navigating! We also decided we would never go anywhere with our husbands again, as that last hour of not knowing where we were and just driving would have resulted in numerous marital skirmishes of epic proportions.

This monument was on our walk to the white house. Lisa's comment: "Hahaha...looks like the founding fathers were gay for each other". Really, look at that crotch grab! So we decided us visiting DC together when we are 30 would yeild similar intellectual insights as if we had come in Junior High.

Lisa didn't bring anything to change into from the wedding, since we sort of called an audible by driving into the city. She had this big black wool funeral shawl on, and her pashmina. She looked like an ambassador's wife (or an ambassador I guess). So we reveled in our love of Tom Clancy as we (really, just her) walked around looking like we (she) belonged in DC.

Lisa playing batman at the base of the monument. Also, I'm pretty sure she aligned that pic of me on purpose. Shit that thing is pointy coming out of my head! 

We had tapas for dinner that night. You can't see it here, but we have two tables full of food. I refuse to comment further. Except that it was really really good.

Flying back into Oklahoma. Home sweet home.

Mama Mia!

Just chillin' at Uncle Vinny's with Lily, waiting for my garlic knots!!