A list of firsts...

My dad grew up in Iowa, and loves fishing and boating. He also recently started scroll-sawing, which is pretty cool.
When my parents came to visit me in Colorado this summer, he talked about trying some new things. Here is a list of firsts for him:
1. Ranch Dressing
2. Macaroni Grill -yummy pasta!
3. The city of Denver
4. Traffic in Denver- It took us almost 6 hours to get from Colorado Springs to Milliken, which should take 2-2 1/2 hours.
5. Heavy rain and traffic in Denver- Not a good combination!
6. Starbucks coffee
7. The Royal Gorge- BEAUTIFUL. We got to ride an aerial tram, an incline railway, and a carousel, and we walked across the bridge.


Click on the picture to read the captions.




8. Self-checkout-(at Home Depot). We built a shelf for my scrapbooking stuff.
9. Red Robin- Yummy hamburgers!
10. Helicopter Ride! When dad saw the helicoper from the bridge, he said, "I gotta do that!" So we took "the good ride." It was amazing because the guy really took us for a "ride". After a few of the completely sideways turns, the dips and dives, and flying low in the canyon with rocks on both sides...my stomach got a little queezy, but I was still giggling in the back. Chad had seen the helicopter the week before when he was white water rafting in the Gorge and he said "that helicopter guy was INSANE!" We were on the insane helicopter guys' ride:)
Mom took pictures for us had to get us water afterwords (while we sat down) because we were still a bit shakey:)
P.S. The helicopter ride is kind of a second, because Dad and I were the only ones that got to go on a little bubble helicopter ride over the Wisconsin Dells when I was younger.




This is what most of my picts inside the helicopter look like, because when I was ready to take a picture, we would take off- UP-DOWN-or SIDEWAYS!

This one of the Bridge from the copter turned out good.




Thanks Mom and Dad!

DMNS

Practice your balderdash skills. What does the title acronym stand for?


Answer: Denver Muesum of Nature and Science.
My parents visted Colorado this past week, and we had fun going here with Chad.

Quick trip to Nebraska

Last Sunday when I heard that that my sister Lori was in the hostpital, I decided it was one of the few times I could make a quick trip to help out. On the way out to Nebraska I hit some crazy rain and thunderstorms. I even saw lighting hit a telephone pole- twice. The sunset afterwords was beautiful.


Of course I had a lot of fun hanging out with Caleb, and keeping Lori company in the hospital. The nurses loved Caleb, and kept commenting on how cute he was.

Rapids Game

Major Leage Soccer is a big deal around the world. It's too bad it is not a bigger deal in the States. There are only 12 MLS teams in the U.S. Chad, his friend KP and I went to a Colorado Rapids soccer game last weekend. They were really good!

The temperature was really hot before the game (we were sweating in our seats) Right after the national anthem, the sun went behind the clouds, and it was beautiful Colorado weather. They lost 0-1 in the end...but it was definately a good experience.

Jeeping on the 4th

It was an AWESOME 4th of July. John has been telling me about "4-wheeling" or "jeeping" for a long time. This week, I got my first taste of what it is really like.
"Adventures in Jeeping" Volume 1
When we set out for the trails, I was super excited. It started out pretty rocky. Not as in "bad" rocky, just "bumpy" rocky.

But I was tuff enough for the trail!

We checked the map again and headed out.

Soon after, the rain started.


Then the Hail came with a bang.

It seemed like we were in the core of a popcorn popper, with the hail bouncing off the ground all around us.

Although it was pretty scary, we had a blast! I definitely screamed a few happy-scary-screams.


When we got to the top we stopped to check out the views.




After the top, we quickly stopped by some bushes for a pee break. All the rocky bumps, the hail storm, and the caffeine from Starbucks before the trail...were giving me a big urge to go. Even if it was in the bushes. I took a Pict of the jeeps at the stop.

John drove his parents jeep for a bit on the way down.

The lack of anything besides loose gravel next to the edge, made the sightseeing wonderful, and a bit frightful.


When we made it back to the highway, we stopped at a restaurant that was still in the Mts. After we finished eating, 4 fighter jets from the Air Force flew right over top of us in plain view. It was loud and exciting. Apparently they were flying back to the base after making an appearance in Denver for the 4th.

What a fun trip. Thank you Jack and Cherry! John is really excited to get his Land Cruiser going, and to take friends up to the Mts. 4-wheeling.

sky bling

Happy Fourth of July. I love fireworks. Last night we enjoyed a neighborhood show in Littleton, and we were so close that a shell fell on John (and after that-he moved back). I thought it was exciting. As we drove home through Denver (at around 9:30-10:30pm) we saw LOTS of fireworks displays on the horizon. At one time I did a scan across the sky and counted 16 different fireworks displays! There was so much to look at...and if that wasn't enough, There was some pretty awesome cloud to cloud lightning at the same time. Luckily, I wasn't driving...because there was so much to look at. On the way home we saw some insane road rage on I-25. It was kind of scary considering the fourth of July is the deadliest driving day of the year.
Well, we are home safe...and that wasn't even the most intense part of our 4th of July Day. That will come in the next post!

Transformers and other movies

John has been looking foreward to the movie all summer. I recently learned all the names of the good guys "Autobots" and the bad guys "Decepticons". Of course we were the first ones in the line for the 8:30 showing last night. It was exciting, funny, and a bit "epic". I recently added "bumblebee" to the background of our computer. I think a lot of you would like it. You don't have to take my word for it...but In case your wondering...I also liked "Live Free or Die Hard" which we saw a few days ago. That one was kind of like a 24 episode, and just as gory. My favorites are still romantic comedy, but not many guys want to see those in the theatre. Oh, and I also saw "Evan Almighty" last week. Man, I think that's the most movies I've seen in the theatre in a 1.5 week period ever. Evan Almighty was clever, creative, and funny...but not quite as funny as I thought it would be. It was very CLEAN though...and those movies are hard to find.

Pictures from my trip to Iowa

So I am back from Vaccation to Iowa, and i wanted to relax for a few days. So I took the easy way out and just put some picture on the blog. That's what people look at anyway-right? In Iowa, I got to hang out with Lori, Kyle and CALEB. I got to go shopping with my mom, and my parents and I went to see some cool scroll sawing art at dad's uncle's house. I went to a family reunion and saw a bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles. It was so much fun, and it went by way to fast.



I visited Sharla and Aiden in Rock Valley, and Sarah came up from central Iowa to visit too! Aiden has a really cute laugh!


Caleb and I in the park.