Baby Brinley!

If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you already know I am SO EXCITED to announce the arrival of my baby niece!  My brother, Josh & his wife, Natalie welcomed Brinley Virginia last night and she is just perfect.  Look at that sweet face!  

Here are some pics of her that I stole from the interweb, so that everyone could admire her.  We love you already, Brinley!  Welcome to our crazy family, sweet girl!

Josh and Brinley with Josh's nieces.  They look so happy to meet their new cousin!

Family Reunion-ing

Our big outing was at White Fence Farm where the entire Myers clan met for dinner on Saturday night.  The boys enjoyed playing in the barn area before we ate, but we missed out on the animals and other outdoor attractions due to another storm. However, it's hard to complain about more rain since we needed it so desperately. 

Carter mowing the turf

Giddy-up, cowboy!

Four Generations: Grandpa Ted, Mimi, myself and the boys.  I so wish my Grandma Shirley were around to meet my boys.  She would have loved them to pieces. 

 Grandpa Ted surprised us all by giving the analogy of his wearing swim trunks with suspenders as a "wardrobe malfunction" like Janet Jackson's...pretty impressive for a 93-year-old!

 Mimi & Grampy having fun at dinner

 Grampy and his buddy, "Dave".

 Three Generations!

 Mimi at her goofiest.  Love it!

Mystery person with Mimi & Aunt Debbie.  (Those free glasses that Davis scored were a big hit!)

Black-eyed Pea

Yes, the restaurant folks.  Not to be confused with the hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas.

  On our recent trip down to the Springs, we stopped for dinner at Grampy's favorite restaurant.  We like to humor him when he visits because it makes him so happy to go there...that, and he usually buys! 

 We even waited outside during the downpour Friday night for our table--B.E.P is a pretty happenin' place, apparently!

 Grampy was only slightly embarrassed by our table as I dumped my whole big glass of water on the floor and Davis had food all over the place...of course, he didn't spill a drop of his ice cream sundae & even drank the remains of his melted ice cream!  We have "classy" written all over us.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

After hearing from several mommy friends that the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was worth the drive to Colorado Springs, we decided to check it out for ourselves!  The zoo did not disappoint and the highlight was being able to feed the giraffes!  We had never been this close to a wild animal before (I guess giraffes are wild?) and it was a thrill to feed and pet them!  Sean's funniest comment was "Their ears were a lot harder than I thought they'd be."   So, there you have it!  Our giraffe experience in a nutshell.  :-)

 You can buy lettuce leaves at the zoo and feed the giraffes until your heart's content.  Incidentally, the people next to us decided to put a lettuce leaf on their toddler's head & that turned out to be a bad idea (duh!) as the giraffe nibbled a little bit of blond hair along with the lettuce.  Live and learn, people!

 Check out the super long giraffe tongue reaching down (above Carter's head) for the lettuce!

 We had a great time exploring this zoo & would love to go back sometime.  The only downside was the fact that it started pouring rain at lunch time, forcing us all inside for a $40 lunch!  (I told Sean that this was good preparation for our Disney trip coming up this Fall!)

 Did I mention the zoo is built on the side of a mountain?!  Lots of good exercise to be had while you're checking out the animals.  

 Sean assessing the progress on the zoo's new elephant habitat.  Is he an engineer, or what?!

 What's a trip to the zoo without a ride on a zoo train?  We were bummed to miss out on the Sky Ride (a ski lift ride to the top of the mountain) which was also closed due to rain.  Maybe next time!

 Three Beilmans in a circle, looking for Tigers...

 ...and two Beilmans in an Otter cave!

Grandpa, Grampy & Mimi Visit

We have been enjoying a weekend of grandparents, family fun & NO WORK!  Mimi, Grampy and my Grandpa Ted drove out for our family reunion and spent some extra time at our house.  This was Grandpa Ted's first time to our house and he reported sleeping better in Carter's robot room than he does at his own house!  Sounds like we might have a repeat visitor...  

Mimi kicked off the visit with some new beach towels for the pool.  Then she & the boys played "beach" on the floor of the family room.  

Grampy found his biggest fan in Davis.  Davis loved sitting on "Drampy's" lap.. 

 ...following him from chair to chair!

Grandpa Ted watching the boys do puzzles...

 Grampy was hitting it pretty hard on the front porch, just making sure the patio furniture didn't blow away I guess.  

Happy Independence Day!

We had a great Fourth and hope you did, too!  Davis is finally better after eight days of vomiting, diarrhea and Strep--that in and of itself is something to celebrate!  Sean had the day off, so we tackled some yard work, took naps (well, Sean didn't) and had a lot of fun hanging out with our neighbors and their kids...it seems everyone was doing a low-key July 4th this year, due to the lack of fireworks.  

Sean hung our new flag outside and I LOVE it.  My Grandma Shirley would be so proud at our patriotic-ness.  Happy Birthday, America!  Let the celebration continue as Mimi, Grampy & Great-Grandpa Ted arrive tonight for our family reunion.

That's My Boy!

Carter made these two drawings the other day and we thought they were hilarious.  The first picture is a side view of our house, back yard and fence.  Carter pointed out to us that the house is empty, because...

...we are all at Olive Garden!  See the person in the window on the right? That's Carter. Those lines below are the parking spaces and our car is parked on the far right.  Guess he's been craving some salad & bread sticks!  I couldn't be more proud...those boys really are mine, even if they don't look a thing like me.

Robot Room

After living here for 13 months, Carter's robot room is finally coming together.  I'm not finished with it, but finding robot decor is proving to be pretty difficult, so this will just be a constant work in progress.  

Here's the "before", in all of its boring white glory:

And now:

 There's that stainless table that Sean refurbished for me a while back.  Doesn't it look great in here?

 This picture is my favorite.  The photograph above the vintage robot poster is of Sean (on the right) and two of his engineering school buddies in college.  Zach (the guy in the robot suit) built that costume & they walked around campus one day "controlling" the robot.  Ahh, engineers.  Their sense of humor is, well, unique.  Anyway, this photo was the inspiration for the room.  I love it & so does Carter.