Kelsie Graduates

We celebrated my cousin Kelsie's college graduation last weekend.  My mom & Grandpa Ted flew in for the festivities and it was nice that I had the whole weekend off, due to my ankle injury.  That meant I got my birthday off, Saturday to go shopping for party supplies (Since I haven't been able to drive since I fell, Mom drove my car and we had a lot of ground to cover!) and of course, Sunday was the BIG day!  

Mom & I getting ready to leave for the graduation ceremony.  Sean stayed home with the boys since we didn't think they could sit still in a folding chair for three hours.  

Four generations!

It was a beautiful day to be outside.  Metro did a great job taking care of us.  We parked in a handicapped space and they golf-carted us to the seating area.  With me in the boot and G'pa Ted being 94, Mom needed all the help she could get!!

Kelsie's cheering section.  :-)

The view looking back from our seats.  The Metro State campus is downtown, which makes for a fun location. 

Kelsie (left) on the big screen, getting her diploma!

Kels and Tyler at the party.

Grandpa Ted hates to travel, but he made an exception for his youngest granddaughter

.

The Costco cake was a hit!

So proud of our graduate!  I remember the day she was born and I cannot believe she is all grown up now...what a beautiful young woman she has become.  Love you lots, Kels!

Grandpa Ted and the Myers girls with their "kids".

The Beilmans with Kelsie Rae.

These two make such a cute couple!

Just the girls...

Cutest brother/sister pair ever.

Sean helped me a lot  for the party, since I wasn't able to do all the pre-party errands I usually do by myself.  Thanks, honey!

Taylor & Zach kept the boys (and us) entertained!

Fun day!!!!

"Pearl"

After (Sean) talking about this car for the past year or so, we are finally the proud owners of an all-electric Ford Focus.  (Sean sold his Jetta the first week it was listed on Craigslist!)  Since the car's color is pearl white, it seemed natural to name her "Pearl".  Clever, right?  And it sounds a lot more fun that calling it "the electric car".  The range is 75-100 miles on a single charge, so that means Pearl will only be used as our commuter car.  We will continue to use my car for trips and longer drives around town.  However, there do seem to be a good number of charging stations available around the metro area, it is just a matter of learning where they are and planning accordingly. 

So far, Sean loves the car.  He is happy to show/talk about it to anyone and everyone who will listen! ;-)  If you are thinking about getting your own electric car, you can read all about it here.  There are several reasons why he chose this car over the Nissan Leaf or the Prius plug-in Hybrid...if you are interested in all that, you'll have to ask him.  Frankly, I kind of started tuning it all out.  I just like the new car smell!

 The plug in spot lights up blue as it charges.  (I think it is funny that it looks like a tiny gas pump.) On a side note, Sean had the funny/dorky idea to cut the end off an extension cord and hang it from the back of the car, where the exhaust pipe would be in a gasoline car. :-)

It's My Birthday

Let's face it, turning 38 is not that cool.  But, I had a great day despite all that oldness.  My dear friend Megan had us over for a yummy lunch on Friday, complete with cupcakes!  The kids loved it, which is why I picked this pic to post.  I got to wear the traditional "birthday crown", made by one of Megan's girls, for the day. It was an honor.

Friday night, we headed to DIA to pick up Mimi & Grandpa Ted, who flew in for Kelsie's graduation.  We worked it into a birthday dinner at Ling & Louie.  Davis surprised us by eating everything we put in front of him: coconut shrimp, edamame, lo-mein noodles, you name it!

 What a lucky girl I am!

 Mimi & Grandpa Ted keep Davis in line.

 Four Generations 5-17-2013

What a wonderful birthday!

Happy Mother's Day 2013!

There is an up-side to injuring myself...time off work to spend with my family!!  It was wonderful to spend  Mother's Day this year going to brunch and doing outside projects (well, in my case, watching Sean do outside projects), like a normal family.  I hope that all of you moms out there were able to have the nice day that you deserve, too! I a blessed to have a wonderful mother, step-mother and Mother-in-Law in my life.  Love you ladies!

Yep.  I'm bringing sexy back...one Velcro boot at a time.

After brunch at Table Mountain Inn.  What a beautiful day!

Wacky pic with my two silly guys.  Love you boys SO much!

Carter took this one!

Mommy and Davis.

Give Her the Boot!

Sometimes life gives us lessons in a roundabout way.  Last Tuesday, I got that message loud & clear.  Slow down!!!  As I was rushing out the door to pick up Carter from school, I missed the bottom two stairs into the garage and badly sprained my ankle.  I honestly thought it was broken & so did my doctor at first.  Three x-rays and two consults later, turns out a bad sprain can be worse than a break in some ways.  Unfortunately for me, it's on my right foot--so no driving!

It is very difficult to go from an independent person to being SO dependent on others, several times a day.  The first two days I was in the boot and on crutches, so I couldn't even get myself a glass of water because there was no free hand to carry it.  Very humbling.  And frustrating.  And a lot of other things.  Thankfully, Sean has been a trooper and taken off work to take care of me and help with the boys since I was pretty useless at first.  It has been a true test of patience (for both of us) to have an engineer play the role of a nurse. I am glad he loves me enough to try!

After two days I was able to hobble along in my boot, but still not able to use my foot well enough to drive and can barely walk without the use of my boot, my new best friend.  Today, a week later, the doctor says I need to continue using the boot 90% of the time and stay off work at least another two weeks.  I need to be able to drive and stay on my feet for 12 hours straight without restrictions before I return.  Thank goodness I have great short-term disability benefits!

 Day 1--lots of swelling and pain

 Day 3--the swelling has gone down

 Beautiful bruise.

Gotta love wearing a boot on 80+ degree days.  It's not pretty, people.

May Memorial

Grampy's mom, Grandma Irene, passed away just after Christmas.  Her memorial was this past weekend and I was able to join the rest of the family for her service.  It was the first time in a long time that I have been away from my three guys overnight, let alone 2 1/2 days!!  It was a mini mommy vacation and a nice time to be with family/relax.  Plus, I got to see my favorite baby niece--Brinley!!!  When I told the boys that I would be gone for a few days, to visit Kansas City and see Brinley (I left out the funeral part), Carter told me "Mom, don't forget to bring baby Brinley home with you, okay?"  I told him that Brin would need to stay with Aunt Natalie & Uncle Josh, her mommy & daddy.  Carter was really not happy with this answer.  He said "FINE!  Then, I guess we'll never have a baby sister!"  Gotta love him for trying.  

Aunt Christy and I couldn't get enough of this girl in her baby jeggings!  So cute!

She loves her daddy!

Playing at Mimi & Grampy's.

Grampy sure is a funny guy!

Mom & me, with Aunt Sister up to no good in the background...

Two blue-eyed beauties!

I know it's blurry, but couldn't resist this pic of Brin in her walker.  So cute!

Two crazy aunts and a sweet girl!

Brinley loved her cousin, Presley.

Family pic after Grandma's memorial.  So glad we got to spend that time together!  Love you all.

Sunday Fun-day

I was cost-contained from work on Sunday morning, so we decided to make the most of the opportunity and go out to breakfast!  Snooze is our favorite AM eatery, hands down.  Sean had the Velvet Elvis pancakes that you can read about here.   The boys gobbled up peanut butter cup pancakes...surprise, surprise.  We don't get to visit Snooze very often anymore, since we moved, so this was a rare treat!

 Happy, happy!!!

After breakfast, we decided to take a family hike.  Sean advertised it as an easy hike, which it was, but it was about twice as long as I was expecting.  Not a big deal, except that I lost cell service (Bad because I was on-call and actually ended up getting called in!) and the boys each ended up being carried on my shoulders for part of our hike.  I must have "sucker" written all over me.  Anyway, it was a beautiful day and SO nice to be outside to enjoy it with my guys.  We played the role of a typical Colorado family and even took Macey along!

 You can see Sean & Carter off in the distance.  Davis kept falling behind because he was busy searching for rocks for his "collection". 

  Davis travelling in style!