Breakfast at the Zoo

This weekend both Alex and Taylor were able to come down to spend time with us. Since my family doesn't get to see the girls very often, Angie came up with the idea of making everyone breakfast at our house today. I swear she lives for this kind of stuff. She made blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and of course bacon. It was delicious. Angie also made sure we got a family photo, the first one in a long time!!!

After breakfast everyone received gifts from Nancy, my sister. She recently returned from a long trip to Europe which included a cruise and brought souvenirs back for all. We then got to see numerous pictures of her trip. She visited some very beautiful places like Spain, Greece, Italy, France, and Croatia.

License to Drive

Alex has not been able to come down all summer so we were very excited to have her this weekend. She's been busy working at Dairy Queen, attending basketball camps, 4H, and of course has all kinds of new found freedom from getting her driver's license. Look out for that Nissan Sentra if you're driving in Northern Colorado!!!!


Check it out, she's all grown up, driver's license, ATM card, cash....what more could a teenage girl want!

Back to School

Today it is back to school for Sidney. She was very excited and could hardly sleep last night. She is the big fish in the pond (5th grade) this year and is looking forward to it.



Angie and I waited with Sid at the bus stop and of course she had to be the first one on the bus. The 5th graders get to sit in the back of the bus because that's the cool place to sit. She was very sweet and had one of our neighbors Trent sit with her back there, even though he is just starting Kindergarten.



This is Sid and her little crew. Veronica (V or Roni) is the little one, and Sedona is her big sister. You've probably read about them before involving Sid's many sleepovers!

Speaking of Back to School, can family members save any "Boxtops for Education" tops you come across and send them to us? Sidney appreciates it!!!

Amazing Jakes

Tuesday night Angie and I took Sidney and her friend Lilly to Amazing Jakes for an all you can eat buffet, rides, and games. We lost count of how many time Sidney climbed the rock wall.

We also played air hockey, putt putt, lots of video games, laser tag, and rode the go-karts.


After the evening out, guess what, Sidney had another sleepover! Summer is almost over, so she needs to get them in while she can!

The dogs and I are starting to get into a routine where we get up early and go for a walk along the canal trail near our home. They get very excited about it. Soon we hope to recruit Angie as well. It's a good start to the day.

BBQs, Parties and Movies

This past week was a busy one at the zoo. Tuesday, Sidney had yet another sleepover. This time she spent the night at her friend Sedona and V's so Angie and I got a quiet evening alone. The sleepover worked out perfectly because on Wednesday I flew to Mountain View back to the Google mothership for a training class. I hadn't been back to the Mountain View campus for nearly 18 months, which was my 2nd week at Google. The campus is very different than working in an office outside of Mountain View serving a much larger variety of food and all 3 meals. I got my wheatgrass everyday!

Angie picked Taylor up on Friday because I didn't get home until nearly midnight. Saturday we relaxed for the first part of the day and went to "Centennial Night Under the Stars" in the evening. This was a fun event with lots of display booths, a twilight movie of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" followed by a fireworks "extravaganza"! We ended up getting home late again.

Taylor and Sidney attended their friend Rachel's birthday party on Sunday afternoon before Taylor went back to her mom's for the week.



Alex and Taylor start school already this coming week otherwise she would have liked to stay longer. Angie and I finished up the weekend by going to her company's summer BBQ.

Weld County Fair

Weld County Fair was last week and Alex and Taylor each had their projects.

Taylor was entered into several horse events, but a misstep of Rambo in her first event pretty much ended her fair festivities. She was very disappointed, but not nearly as scared as I was when I saw her nearly go over the top of Rambo's head as he did all he could to try to ensure she not hit the ground. Fortunately the only thing hurt was her pride. It was decided that it would be best to rest Rambo for the remainder of the fair.

Alex's fortune was much better. She has taken an interest in photography and had some projects take 3rd prize and 1 project took Grand Champion. She was very excited and may even attend the Colorado State Fair.

Wow, 3 updates in one day....don't get spoiled!

Google Picnic Week

Wow! Didn't have to wait long for an update did ya?

This past week Angie and I had a long weekend alone. We did some things around the house, took the boys to the dog park, and picked Sid up on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was the Google picnic at Elitch's. Before picking up Sidney, we picked up her friend Karina so she would have someone to hang around with for the day. We spent most of the day at the water park and the evening riding rides. Sidney and Karina had a sleepover Wednesday night...what a full day.

This weekend was mostly running around doing errands. I got both cars' oil changed and Angie's car washed. Saturday night Sid had another sleepover with her friend Sedona and Ronnie (V for short). Sunday was a well deserved relaxing day by the pool.