mandy b's 29th bday!

the birthday girl!

me and my hubby

crystal and mike

and ann & jerry...they're so cute!

yummy dessert plate and she went for it!

beat the heat

the stordahl family went to the water park with the gross family and had tons of fun while we were trying to keep cool. miss elizabeth is to the right of the water post

smile molly

elizabeth acting like a tiger in the water sprays


this is what happens to tana after 5 hours at the water park!!!

lyrics...

i took off my glasses
while you were yelling
at me once
more than once

so as not to
see you
see me
react

should'a put 'em
should'a put 'em on again
so i could see you
see me
sincerely yelling back

~fiona apple, parting gift

4th of july

we ventured down to castle rock for their red, white, and blue celebration. if a couple hundred screaming, crying, fit-throwing children is your cup of tea you would have really enjoyed yourself.

we waited in line for about 60 minutes for face painting. miss elizabeth decided she did not want to put it on her face because then she wouldn't be able to see it. she did have a good point...

it turned out very lovely didn't it?

tana just wanted to do what her sister did. hey...when in rome...

of course, we waited in line longer than tana's stayed on her body. after about 30 minutes she picked it off, but we did manager to get a picture together prior to her scratching it off.

they had fairies, which would've been another 30 minutes of waiting to have our picture taken with her and elizabeth said (in a very irritated tone) "just take a picture of her with those kids. " so i did as instructed. i don't know who those children are, but the fairy was extremely pretty. (i insert a disclaimer of apology to the parents of those children as i posted their pics without permission...you'll forgive me, won't you?)

so this is close to the spot where we watched the 'works. they were launched from the top of that lovely hill there. we were a little disappointed though, because there was no big finale. i mean...who has a fireworks show with absolutely no finale? so we flipped off the town of castle rock with the rest of the crowd who were also sitting there in disbelief muffling various i-can't-believe-it's, got into our car and sat in the 30 minute procession of exiting vehicles. then when we pulled out of the parking area and up the main road about a 1/2 mile when we noticed that the back of that lovely hill was on fire. i would say about an acre. so we retracted our flip-off and hushed comments as a public statement to those in the car (elizabeth and tana totally understood) and watched as the talented firemen of the town of castle rock (hell ye-ah firemen!!!) put out the fire. here's a brief video of the show (not the hill on fire, the actual fireworks)...

needless to say it was a very eventful and exciting evening. balloons, face painting, cotton candy and hundreds of brats...er...i mean wonderful children running all over the place. we really did have a good time; it was fun watching the kids laugh and play together. wooh-hoo 4th of july!

t-town visit

it was so nice being back and seeing everyone. thanks to mom who put everything together so quickly and the leitner's for allowing us to intrude. love and miss you all!!! enjoy...