Crazy Weather

Starting on Sunday this week, we've had some really cool storms. On Sunday we stayed after church for a little bit talking to some people. When we were ready to go, it started hailing really, really hard. It continued to hail for 10-15 minutes and was the biggest hail I've ever seen. It came down so hard it was setting off car alarms. We were worried about it damaging our car, but it was fine. There was so much hail, it kind of looked like it had snowed...
And the hail was piled up on the ground at the end of the rain spouts...
These are the biggest hail stones I could find...
When we were finally able to go home we started hearing tornado sirens and when we got home, we saw the top (the bottom was blocked by some apartments) of a funnel cloud way off in the distance. Five tornadoes ended up touching down that afternoon. I only heard about damage from one which hit a mall, a Lowe's, and some houses. It overturned a couple of cars, blew out windows, blew in a garage, and threw tons of stuff everywhere. Here are some pictures I got off the internet...
The rest of this week has been filled with more thunderstorms and tornadoes in eastern Colorado. Mmm, I love summer thunderstorms. Yesterday afternoon we had a pretty long one and it ended with the biggest, most beautiful, vibrant rainbow we've ever seen. It was actually a double rainbow and the bottom one even had another faint rainbow under it.

(Just try to ignore the line in the middle. It's the best I could do with the panorama setting on our camera. I still need to figure out how it really works.)

Kathryn had her 9-month check-up on Tuesday and the doctor was happy with her progress. She now weighs 15lbs 5.5 oz (still only the 5th percentile, but at least she's back on the chart) and is 27 inches long. So she gained more than 4 lbs since her 6-month appointment which is great considering it took her from birth to 6 months to gain 4 lbs. Her first tooth also started coming in on Monday. So far she hasn't been too extra fussy, so that's a good sign. Here are a couple of cute pics I took of her on Sunday in her new dress...

Estes Park Trip

Last week, Kathryn and I had the chance to go up to Estes Park, CO for a few days with some friends and stay in some cabins that our friend's family had leftover time in from their family reunion. It was a lot of fun and so great to be back in the mountains. It had been way too long. We all left our hubbies at home so it was just like a big girl (and kids) party. There were 9 of us girls and 17 kids in total, so it was a little crazy but tons of fun. We spent our time just hanging out, going on some hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park, and doing lots of talking and picture taking. Here are some of the beautiful things we saw...
And some other pictures...
There were tons of elk everywhere. This is about as close as we got to one...
After we had checked out of the cabins, we went on one last little hike/walk up to a waterfall. It was really pretty and there were lots of cool rocks everywhere. I love rocks and was excited to let Kathryn look at them. There was one especially large and very cool-looking chunk of gneiss there, so I sat Kathryn next to it for her to take a look and hopefully find it as cool as I did. Well, she wasn't too interested in the rock, but did find the asphalt trail pretty fascinating for a few seconds...
But that soon turned into this...

Which turned into this...
And this...
So, much to my dismay, Kat's first exposure to cool rocks didn't go as I had imagined. (Just so you know, she only sat there crying like this for about 20 seconds-just long enough to get the pics.) I'll keep trying and maybe one day she'll like rocks as much as I do :) At least she was happy sitting on the rock with me.

Memorial Day and Our Anniversary

Again, it has taken me forever to get this post up. Better late than never, huh? :) We had a fun Memorial Day weekend and 3-year anniversary, so I just wanted to post a few pictures. This Memorial Day was probably one of the least laid-back ones we've ever had, but it was definitely fun. We got up very early in the morning and rode a bus up to Boulder where I ran a 10K called the BolderBoulder with 4 friends from church (plus one of their husbands). It is the 2nd largest race in the US (5th largest in the world) and had over 50,000 runners, so it was really fun to participate in. They had live music and entertainment along the whole course and it ended in CU's football stadium. I hadn't run a race since track in 8th grade and I have never run this long of a race, so it was definitely a challenge, but well worth it. I finished in a little under 66 minutes and came in 21,864th place (yes that is a 5 digit number, but remember it's out of 50,000 people and I only really trained for 2 1/2 weeks). I was really happy with my time, though, because I went into it knowing I would be happy if I could finish it and especially if I could run the whole way (which I did).
My friend Susan really helped me out a lot in training for this and she stuck with me for pretty much the whole race (even though she could have run faster). I don't think I would have been able to do it if it weren't for her.
Drew was really sweet to come and support me even though he really deserved to sleep in :) It was so fun and nice to have him and Kathryn there.
An informal ward potluck picnic was planned for that afternoon. Unfortunately, it rained, so it got moved inside, but was still delicious and a lot of fun. We tried to be patriotic and made red, white, and blue cupcakes (check out this page on www.ourbestbites.com for the recipe). Drew did most of the work and they turned out really good.
It was a fun day, but definitely wore us out. I think I'm just now finally mostly recovered from the race. Next year I will definitely start training for it sooner than I did this year.

Our 3-year wedding anniversary was on May 26th. Drew had to go out of town that day, so we celebrated a day or two early. I gave Drew a new watch and he gave me (us, but mostly me) a new printer. It is really nice and is especially for printing pictures, but also prints regular things too. It is really sleek-looking and is a really, really good quality picture printer. I love pictures and am so excited to be able to print them so easily now. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 3 years already. We have had a lot of great experiences and have grown and changed in many ways. I am so thankful for Drew. He is a wonderful husband and father. He does so much for me and I'm so lucky to have him.

Surprise Trip to Dallas

I've been wanting to do this post for almost a week now, but obviously haven't, so here I am finally getting to it. A few weeks ago my brother-in-law, Mark, called me to see if I wanted to go to Dallas to surprise my sister, Sarah, for her birthday. I LOVE surprises so I readily agreed. Kathryn and I flew down there on Sarah's birthday (May 16th) and Mark and my niece (Adriana) picked us up from the airport. He had told Sarah that they were going to work on a project for her birthday so she wouldn't be suspicious of anything. When we got back to their house, he let me out in the driveway while he pulled into their garage. I waited a couple of minutes and then rang their doorbell. My sister answered and she was really surprised and shocked to see Kat and I on their doorstep. The look on her face was priceless. Anyway, it was so great to go down there and we had such a fun time together. Our two little girls had a blast too. Here are some pictures from our trip...

These first ones are all from the Dallas Arboretum (botanical gardens). It was so beautiful and a fun place to take pictures of these two cutie pies.

There was a spot with little benches and chairs that were just their size.

These are a few of my favorite flowers we saw there...

Speaking of beautiful flowers, I went running several times while we were down there in preparation for the 10K I ran on Memorial Day. It was fun to be on a new trail and it really made me think about how much the Lord loves us. I think being in a new place made me notice all of the beautiful things around me more and think about how they were all created for us. He didn't have to create all the things He did, let alone more than one type of flower/tree/butterfly/bird/other animals, etc., but He did for our enjoyment. It just felt so good to remember that in that way. I love being outside and I am so thankful for all of the beautiful things we have to enjoy and make life more interesting. Anyways, back to the rest of our trip...

While we were there we also got to see my cousin and her family, which was really fun. We also went shopping at the outlet mall where we found lots of good deals, played games, watched movies, hung out, went out for a delicious Mexican lunch, and even tried taking a dip in the pool. Unfortunately the water was pretty cold and neither of the girls liked it very much.

Oh well. We'll try again another time. They DID have fun in the bath though.

It was so fun to watch Kathryn and Adriana play together. Adriana loved kissing...

hugging...

(Can you tell how much Kathryn liked this?) :)

...and feeding Kathryn (sorry no pic). Just like the last time we were with them, Kathryn picked up something new from Adriana (last time she learned how to wave). We had seen her clap her hands a couple of times, but while we were there she really refined that skill. It's really cute and I love the sound her tiny little hands make. Kathryn loved having a playmate her size and has been bored without her since we've been home. They definitely played hard!

We did, too! We only got a couple of pictures of the two of us, but here's one since Leslie asked :) I thought about putting it on before, but my hair is kinda big in it. Maybe it will appear too small to really tell. Here's hoping :)
Thanks Sarah and Mark for having us come. We had an awesome time and can't wait to see you again!

Weekend Fun!

It's been a little while since we've done a post and we've done some fun things the past two weekends, so I thought it would be fun to put up some pictures. Two weekends ago, we had fun playing games on Friday night with our friends the Hreinson's and the Palmer's. On Saturday morning I was giving Kathryn a bath which has become difficult lately because she wants to grab anything in her reach. This can be a problem at bath time since she can reach the faucet. :) Anyway, I asked Drew to come help me and this was his solution...

In case you can't tell, that is his sweatband around her. It actually worked pretty well :)

That afternoon we went to look at some apartments because we are wanting to save some money. We had seen an ad for our apartment complex offering much lower rent, so we decided to check on that, too. To make a long story short, we signed a new lease for an apartment in our complex just like the one we're in now, minus the newer carpet, countertops, and paint, for $230 less than we're paying right now. We couldn't believe it and feel really blessed that we could do that. We're also very happy our apartment search is over. That evening, we went with our friends Deborah and Jaran to Boulder to try out a burger place that one of Drew's co-workers suggested. It is called Larkburger and they take pride in using all natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Their cups are made from corn and their utensils are made from potatoes-so they're called spudware :) (Of course it all looks normal, but it's cool to think about what it's made of.) Anyways, the burgers were really good and they also have delicious garlic fries and shakes. YUM! It was definitely worth the trip.
After we ate, to make the trip even more worth it, we decided to take a leisurely drive through the mountains. It was really pretty and we even saw some wild animals...at least Deborah thought we did...until we found out the "wolves" she thought she saw were actually dogs :) But that's okay. On our drive, we passed through this tiny town called Nederland-population 1,394.
There was a sign on the side of the road advertising a movie showing of "Knowing" at their community center.It was about 10 minutes before it started, so we decided to go in and see it. The movie was pretty good...at least until the aliens came in, but that's okay. It was fun to go to a movie again and especially in such a unique place. It reminded me of all the small towns in Iowa. Kathryn did really well during the movie too. It's always fun to do something spontaneous.

This past weekend, we went to the Park Meadows Mall for a date. They had a traveling exhibit there about the Titanic which was really cool to walk through. It was amazing to see all of the things they've been able to recover from the site where the Titanic sank. They had things like cuff links, money, a bathroom faucet, a mirror, clothes, bags, and a bunch of things that were made out of paper or cardboard. We couldn't believe that all of that had lasted for so long under water, especially the paper things. At the beginning of the exhibit we were each given a boarding pass with a passenger's name on it. Then at the end we saw if our person had survived or not. I was a first class passenger from Europe and Drew was a third class passenger from SCRANTON, PA (If you watch the Office, you'll know why that is so cool!) :) He didn't survive, but I did. It kind of reminded me of the movie Titanic. Anways, it was cool too because they took our picture...
After we looked at the exhibit we ate at a burger place at the mall. It was pretty good and they had amazing sweet potato fries--Yum!

Then on Saturday, we went downtown to participate in the MS (multiple sclerosis) walk. Drew's mom and my cousin have MS and so did my uncle, so we wanted to go support the cause. Unfortunately the website had some bad information and we got stuck waiting for 45 minutes in a high school parking lot for a shuttle to come pick us up. We finally made it over there as the walk was ending but we still had fun walking around and checking out the booths.
That night we made truffles! It was fun, pretty easy, and they turned out so good! We did 4 different flavors-plain chocolate, raspberry, orange, and almond butter. We're already excited to make them again!
Well, if you actually read that whole thing, I am impressed. Maybe we'll bring you some truffles the next time we make them :)