rubber ducky, you're the one.

after discovering uncle swede's rubber ducky collection, the very first thing court wanted to do in denver was take a tubbie.
this shot was taken on our last night, after she found her very own pink sparkly and baseball ducks.

i love you girl.

enjoying some down time in denver. driveway art, compliments of court & jamie. at one point, i overheard court say to her
"i love you, girl." at least she didn't call her aunt sam.

"we're going on a bear hunt..."

...what a beautiful day! we're not scared..."

ok. i was a little bit scared. i blame the park rangers and their bear proof garbage cans and their signs all over the place and their "WARNING! BEARS LIVE HERE!" notices. how's a girl supposed to face her fears with all of these reminders? i think this was my first venture into serious bear country since our 1998 yellowstone non-camping trip... andy would have been so proud.

it's a win-win.

i didn't let her bring her flip flops. the ones that are tattered and stinky and make her trip every two seconds. the ones that she apparently live without. the ones she spoke to total strangers (who were wearing flip flops) about. "i have flip flops at home, but my mom didn't let me bring them"... you get the picture. as soon as i realized this was either going to cost me a new pair of flip flops or a therapy session, i began searching for their replacements. not an easy task the last week of august, in denver (or anywhere).

thank god for the internet and UPS. all is good in the life of our very determined three and a half year old...
(until her teacher tells her she can't wear them on the playground. stay tuned.)

exhausted, but in a good way.

we're home. and exhausted. and filled with really, really great memories. i wish i had a picture of jamie & stefan like this after our departure. "how do you do this EVERYday?", they wondered. someday, you'll know.

we left a trail of goldfish from denver to madison. they say that attracts bears...let's hope not.

{happy} eight year old.

he wanted an ipod. (and to become famous, but that's another story. i guess if your mom makes you a happy birthday video and then posts it on you tube, you could technically become famous someday if enough people happen to stumble upon it...) anyway, he was pretty happy with his very grown up present this year. what a wonderful day full of birthday wishes from so many... thanks for helping us make it special for him. xoxo, t

eight. years. old.

happy, happy birthday hayden.... i'm so lucky to be your mom. xoxo.

(ps you can turn off the blog music at the very bottom of this page so you don't hear both songs at once!)

sentences.

i had hayden keep a journal again this summer.... basically just to keep him writing and spelling and thinking and reading.
i love to watch the faces he makes as he is writing.

brewers birthday bash, part two.

brewers birthday bash, part one.

after much deliberation, hayden decided he really wanted a brewer birthday more than anything else...
he loves (loves!) the sausage races, so we had a sausage race themed tailgating party for him. who knew the actual
sausage characters would show up in the parking lot? the kids were lucky enough to crash the special event they were attending at the little league field. (kind of hard to resist three boys with noses pressed to the window, baseballs and sharpies in hand!) i hope it's a birthday he'll always remember. i know we will.

watermelon.

i love pictures of kids eating... especially pictures of them eating something as pretty as watermelon.

seven candles.

so glad we got to see gabe blow his candles out this year, (even if it wasn't on his real birthday)...
still can't believe he's already seven!

big kids, little kids.

one last super crazy week of get togethers before school starts! this one was to celebrate gabe's 7th (7th!) birthday and the fact that we all survived the weekend...

{my girl}

court calls ana "my girl" since she can't (for the life of her) EVER keep names straight.... (see jamie & sam- it's not just you!). aside from her looks, it's about the only thing she got from me. these girls are two peas in a pod. born almost exactly one year apart, they are adventurous, sweet AND sassy, half tomboy, half girlie girl. (did i mention ADVENTUROUS and sweet AND sassy??) they offer lipgloss to anyone and have dirtier feet than any of the boys. amy & i wouldn't want it any other (possibly less exhausting!) way.

ps missy has the last two pictures in this series on her camera... the girls in the tub and in their american girl tshirts.
(minus the mud!)

let's go packers. (i know...)

we spent an entire foggy, soggy and stormy weekend camping so that we could spend 45 minutes in these 45 yard line seats at lambeau field for packer's family fun night. in hindsight, it may have been worth it. definitely the highlight of the weekend!