Happy Birthday to...

My Dad!!! My parents flew over last week to celebrate both my dad's and my birthday.

I just realized that I never took a picture of the delicious fresh California Orange Cake I made for my dad.  It was delicious!!!  Much better than the Raspberry Lemon Coconut Cake I made for Brooke's birthday.  Now I just need to find a cake to made for Troy's birthday at the end of this month.  I'm sure anything with pumpkin will do.

If you notice in the pic above we all have our lips puckered in hopes that Connor will copy and blow out the candle.  I think Brooke got to it before he did.

My mom fashioned a paper skirt and hair bow from the gift wrap for Brooke to prance around in.  She loved it and has been wanting to do a fashion show every day since.

 We drove up to Breckinridge to check out the fall colors.  Absolutely gorgeous.

We also drove through Hoosier Pass and had to grab a quick picture before all the old people from the tour bus got to the sign.  Good thing we're still spry and fit!

Our attempt at a family pic.  Connor has gotten to the point that he's now dubbed Mr. Squirmy Pants.  This kid is crazy active.  I couldn't get him to sit still so jumping up for the picture had to suffice.

After 5 1/2 years of living here I have finally hiked the Rock.  Kind of sad to say that it's taken this long but it's a great "hike" for the kids to do so we may have to do it more often instead of waiting every 5 years.

Connor was determined to hike by himself but if we had let him I think we'd still be trying to hike back down to the car!
It was a great birthday week moreso because my parents were able to come out.  I don't feel a day passed 25 but I have a feeling I'll be feeling it come this Saturday.  Wish us luck!!!!

Say What?!

Do you remember when I asked "where did the summer go?" well I guess my next question is "how is this the last week of September?!"

A quick catch up of the last couple of weeks:

Two weekends ago Brooke and Troy had a campout in the backyard. Probably the last time we'll be able to do it this season as the fall weather has moved in in the evenings and mornings and it's quite cool out. 

It's always fun to "help" dad set up the tent

Ready to call it a night after a campfire and smores.

Connor wanted in on the action so he was there for the wakeup call.

I think you could call the Friday night campout a success except for the 6:30 sunny wake up.  I think this will have to a yearly tradition.

Last Monday was a nice cool day so the kids and I headed up to the zoo. Perfect day to go. Great weather; not too warm/not too cold and it wasn't crowded.

Hanging out by the cheetahs. A lady stopped by and asked if I wanted to be in the picture so there's proof that I'm actually at things. So nice of her.

The obligatory pic in front of the penguin.  I love the I have one of these every year.  I guess you can consider it her growth chart.



Loving and wishing she could be a flamingo.



The Denver Zoo has a new exhibit that allows us to be closer to elephants.  This is as close as she wanted to be.

Connor loved the freedom to run around and climb up to see things.

Besides the zoo we've been hanging out here.

Preschool has been a blast for Brooke. She loves doing all the arts & crafts at Miss Terri's. She already knew her shapes but she loved making her new friends, Cindy the circle, Ricky the rectangle, Ollie the oval, Tilly the triangle (or Troy if you ask her), and Sally the square.

I pulled out the kids fall/winter clothes and Troy was neck deep in laundry.  He loved every minute of it!

I've managed to keep the kids busy enough that I've tucker them out.  Gotta love nap/bed time.

In honor of our Tough Mudder coming up in less than 2 weeks, I'm channeling my inner gibbon in hopes that it'll help me cross the monkey bars.

September?!

Where did the summer go?  Oh yeah, it was a crazy one.  Luckily we've finally gotten back into the groove of things.  It seems like August was the month to grow and learn new things.

Brooke has been asking me often to teach her how to play the piano.  I was hesitant about many things...a)would she actually listen to me? b)How in the world do I break it down for a barely 4-year old? c)do I have enough patience to do it d)does Brooke have enough patience to actually learn.  The list could go on but I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.  I figured I would teach her the basic basics and we'd go from there. 

Connor has been proving to me that I can't really not keep an eye on him at all times.  He's figured out how to get to higher places.  He's still unsure of how to get down though.

But who can get angry at a face like that.  He's always ready and willing to throw out a smile.

Brooke is becoming quite the fish in the pool.  We started doing private swim lessons last Friday and I think she'll benefit from it greatly.  I definitely benefit from it...it's free...as in I traded piano lessons with her teacher. 

We spent Saturday hanging out with Jonathan.  We trying to get in as much time with him before he finishes school here.  We haven't told Brooke that he'll be moving back to CA but it'll be a sad day when we do.

 Maybe we can somehow convince him that CO is where he wants to be...

A Jolly Good Fellow

After seven and a half years of taking exams, I finally have my FSA. The final step was heading to a 3 day admissions course in Toronto. Lots of ethics and professionalism classes, but it was also capped by a nice banquet, so Tracie decided to join. Tuesday night we headed to the CN Tower, 3rd highest tower in the world. The elevator ride up has two glass sides, and a couple of glass squares, so you can see the world disappearing below. Cool views, and a Canadian Moose.

We went at night, so here is a better shot during the day. Tracie spent one day at the Spa and the other two days covering as much of downtown Toronto on foot as she could.

One of the highlights was St. Lawrence Market. Lots of good meats, cheeses, breads and other items that we couldn't bring back to the US. Oh well, it was cool to walk around. Thursday night we went to Suser Lee's restaurant. It was delicious, especially the Singapore Slaw.

Friday night was the big graduation banquet. Cocktail hour started at 6, our water and hors d'oeuvres were a nice start. At 7 we moved down to the ballroom for dinner. It was a large group, 200 actuaries plus their guests. Dinner was done at roughly 10, then they started calling names one by one to get the FSA certificate.

Befitting actuaries they started at a random letter, which turned out to be N. So my name was at least somewhat towards the beginning. It got pretty boring pretty quick, but we decided to spice it up by being the loudest table when one of us got called. After someone named Wan, I thought I would be next. The drama built than waned as not 2 or 3, but 6 Wans were called in a row. When my name was finally called, the table erupted. We were loud 3 other times for the guys at our table. 4 bright spots in a long couple of hours.

The final names were called just shy of midnight. Look how fresh we look!

Of course, after getting back to the hotel, packing, then getting up at 5:15 to make it to the airport for our 8:30 flight, we weren't quite as bright-eyed. Luckily we've had a long weekend to recover.

Firsts and More

Brooke started her first day of preschool 2 weeks ago.  She loved it except for the end of the day when she wasn't able to stand next to her friend and got mad.  Typical Brooke but she was fine the next day.  I'm thinking preschool will be a very good thing for her.

Connor has started snuggling with me and I love it!!!!!!  He's still squirmy 99% of the time but I love the rare moments when he'll lay his head on me.

We may have the first Olympian on either the Ware/Wu side.  I think she's trying to channel her inner Missy Franklin. 

This isn't the first but there was a first of many at one time.  She's starting to not nap in the afternoons anymore but luckily she'll still do quiet time in her room.  Every so often I'll find her fast asleep on her floor.

I ran my first Warrior Dash on Saturday, tutu and all.

Pre-race=clean

Post-mud/race=10 lbs. heavier

The race was a blast.  I did this as a very mild test run for the Tough Mudder in October.  If the TM is anything like this it'll be a breeze but we all know that the TM is much more difficult.  The good news: the obstacle I thought was a little intimidating wasn't in the least and I could actually pull myself up the wall so maybe I really don't need all the arm strength...who are we kidding?

And More:

The weather has finally started to cool down.  As in the low 80s.  It's been fabulous.  The kids love to go outside and play. 

Connor is now 15 months old.  Can't believe how fast the last 3 months have gone.  I know I say it everytime but seriously this summer just whizzed by us.  I'll admit though I'm kinda excited for fall and winter and all the holidays. 

His stats from his dr. appt. are:

Weight: 22 lbs. (15%)

Height: 31 in. (45%)

Head: 18 3/4 in. (62%)

Connor's favorite word is more.  

He loves his food.  He even knows where his snacks are and will go to that corner of the kitchen, point, and say dah.

 He notices every detail and will pick up the tiniest of things.

 Starting to develop the same love for books that Brooke has.

Loves, loves, LOVES the water.  Caught him the other day on the other side of the cul-de-sac sitting in the gutter water splashing.

He's definitely all boy and always full of energy.  We love it!!!!

Lazy Days of Summer

We've finally gotten back to the nice, relaxing, lazy days of summer...only to turn around and start the new school year tomorrow!!!

To help cap off our summer we decided to visit the Denver Nature & Science Museum with Coco and Auntie Jojo.  Only pic I got was of Connor in front of the big brown bear. 

Brooke was a fan of all the dioramas and running all over the place.  Connor also liked the freedom.  He konked out before we even got ouf of the parking lot.

We also hit up our community preparedness fair.  Brooke got to check out the ambulance and fire trucks that were on hand.

We also got to see the helicoptor take off.  Well, kind of...once it started to lift off it kicked up a bunch of sand and grit that we had to turn away.  It was still pretty cool.

 Brooke thought it was pretty cool to sit in the driver's seat of the fire truck.

Over the summer Connor finally conquered the stairs.  He actually did it while we were at Will and Kristin's house.  Thank goodness they have a split level house and wherever Connor wanted to be he had to figure out how to do the stairs.  He's a master now.

With the crazy hail storm we had at the beginning of summer we weren't sure how our garden would fare.

By the looks of it, not too shabby.  We planted 6 pumpkin seeds this year.  All took but 5 were destroyed by the hail.  This one pumpkin plant has at least 11 pumpkins on it and I wouldn't be surprised if more are going to pop up.

Our beans are doing well, finally!!!  After 2 years of being without them because the soil we used was too rich we decided to just plant them in CO fine soil and they took.  Yay!!!!

Our 2 watermelon plants came out of nowhere.  They took forever to come up but once they did it was off and running.  The 3 weeks that we were crazy busy with reunions this watermelon tripled in size.

I definitely thought we had lost our herbs but with much patience and watering they've all come back accept for the cilantro.

We were able to use our herbs for this delicious recipe, spaghetti in garlic gravy with herbs and lemon marinated chicken and cherry tomatoes.  I love being able to go out to the garden to pick my herbs.

In all my free time since we've been back I also managed to knock this out one afternoon.  I'd like to take all the credit for it but it couldn't have been done without my friend, Stacie.  Without her expertise I would have stuck at step one.  It's fabulously big and will be perfect for the pool.

Now it's off to shuttling one kid to preschool during the week, piano lessons, mutual on Wednesday nights (just got called to be YW first counselor and Troy's the YM second counselor), etc.  Let the craziness begin!!!