Mark & Mandy

Swings are brilliant!

Two weekends ago we joined Saffie and crew to celebrate her first birthday (and Josh’s 35th). First birthday’s are hard … lots of people coming into your house and giving you the birthday look … saffie wasn’t so sure

She much prefered the hat off (because she wanted to show off her new hair clip of course!)

There was lots of bubbles (a hit!)

Sophie and Elsie were practicing blowing on their own…

Elsie isn’t quite ready to share grammie with saffie … but she is trying

Then it was time for cake! Saffie put on her tiara and held her septor ready for the big moment

But loud singing is not for babies …

Once everyone hushed up, it was time for yummy frosting

here is elsie patiently waiting with papa till its her turn to eat cake

There was lots of cheer at the party … here is miss caroline ready to party

Kai and Dave

Some join pinballing with Emma and Caroline

Lots of Rock band with Ryan, Jenna and David

And rolling around in the grass with Grammie, Elsie, Sophie and Papa

Quinn enjoyed lots of cake …

and finally no birthday would be complete without a political debate between the sladden’s and Yancey!

Happy first birthday Saffie!

Mark is hoping his only little good luck charm will bring success to the Jets this year! J-E-T-S!!

Grammie and Papa got us a zoo membership this year – on Monday Mindy and Elsie headed down to Denver to check out the animals. The headed out early in the morning so they could catch the animals in their most active state. Mindy got some photos of their adventure…

Of course the mama giraffe was sure Elsie belonged with the other giraffe’s …

But wouldn’t you know Elsie’s favorite animals were the on the carousel – she rode 4 different times so she could truly see if riding the ostrich, gorilla, zebra or peacock made a difference.

Here she is hoping no one catches her sneaking in for one more ride

Elsie’s hair was starting to look like a full blown mullett and I decided it was time for a hair cut. We headed over to Lollylocks where Elsie chose a dinosaur to ride for the big event.

I expected more from the hair cut. At one point the lady asked me if I wanted Elsie to have bangs? (clearly she didn’t realize my child didn’t have much hair) She then proceeded to literally snip 4 times. Here is elsie after the cut …

The only difference … $24.99 out of my pocket.

Next cut will be at Turkey weekend when Auntie Sandy can trim us up!

Mindy has been taking Elsie on all sorts of adventures. They began last week with a trip to the Aquarium in Denver. While its not like the Monterey Bay Aquarium – its really cool (we have a captains pass so we can frequent the underwater adventure.

Elsie checked out the fresh water fish first…

Then on to the tropical fish – Lion Fish must say “RRRROOOOAAAR” right?

A visit to the sharks

watching the tiger, not so sure

and finally channeling her surfer self …

Elsie was exhausted and decided a nap on the ride home would hit the spot

A couple of weeks ago when Grammie was visiting we decided to have a whole weekend of fun activities – first we headed to the Butterfly pavilion. In the building you start by looking at some bugs, and some aquariums – none of which are amazing … but then we opened the doors the the butterfly sanctuary which was amazing. The room was like being in the amazon basin (yuck, for those of you planning a trip to the amazon basin, skip it and just skip it and do like sarah palin – learn from books) but without all of the biting bugs and filled with beautiful butterflies that couldn’t go too far from the camera!

The next day we headed to the Broomfield Breakers pool with the Spruills and the Richau’s. We got a perfect space under the shade and spent some fun time in the pool.

This is a much delayed post: pretend its really dated August 4th.

After Lisa and Dirk’s wedding in Montana, Mark and I flew home without Elsie. She opted to stay in Montana with Grammie and Papa for a week of grandparent spoiling – as my mom says “but she really wanted to do it, so I let her”.

I finally convinced my mom to give me some photos of the week. Monday morning Grammie and Elsie headed out to “the country club” for a Mommy Grammie and Me swim lessons which lasted all week. They both had a blast

G.G. Ruby came out a couple of days to watch the bean in swim class, and one day Audrey joined in too.

One day after swim lessons, Karen (my mom’s friend) brought Kennedy (her grandaughter) to have a play date. Kennedy and Elsie were fast friends.

Each day after swim lessons they headed home for a nap followed by activities at home … like push fat cat around on the water bottle

Sometimes they watched superwhy

or waded in the froggy pool that papa got

Elsie even went for another play date with her BFF Finley Lauren (Grammie and heather couldn’t convince her to get a professional photo, so a backyard playdate was the ticket)

Each night they did the Richau tradition of heading out for dinner and meeting up with friends

Here they are at Fuddruckers where you can feed the ducks

and here is Elsie at the Club Barbeque with John

During the week while Elsie was in Montana Mark and I took full advantage of the time going to movies, dinner, and golfing – it was wonderful, but we were ready to have the bean back. Grammie and Elsie flew home on Friday and grammie stayed with us for the weekend.

It was a great week and a tradition we hope to continue!

Ok I am finally doing my last post on Costa Rica. Four years ago we headed to Zihuatanejo (the surface of the sun) for our first Team Vacation where we agreed to meet somewhere each year – in 2006 we stayed in Colorado at Grand Lake where we were joined by the dogs, 2007 we headed over to kauai with the chillin’s and this year we headed out of the country again with Toddlers.

Our trips are entirely focused around relaxation and yummy drinks …

Of course we still got gussied up for a couple of photo shoots

Some mom and Elsie shots (in our matchy matchy from auntie amy!)

We had such a lovely time with the Johnstons and are already looking forward to next year’s adventure – although we are contemplating a non-toddler adventure so bring on the grandparents.

Some Vacation Awards given by Mandy:

Scott wins the award for most books read (also the award for the dorkiest book read: Robots and Empire – the sequel to Robots and Dawn).

Julie wins the award for being having the most rigid adherance to beer o’clock (she doesn’t like drinks for breakfast).

Nicholas wins the award for littlest amount of food consumed on a vacation

Elsie wins the award for most spa water consumed – yuck!

Mark wins the award for best Vodka/Gin and Tonics created

Mark and Julie again with the joint award of best trip planners (and so Scott and I should win the award for best supporters of planners!)

Cheers to a great trip!