We were excited for the Pro Cycle Challenge coming to Boulder this year. Our friends had a backyard party showing the movie American Flyers to kick off the weekend Friday night. It was the perfect movie to set the mood for the weekend. We hosted a Bloody Mary get together for our neighbors and friends Saturday morning. The riders came into boulder about noon just two blocks from the house! We walked down the street to the intersection of Broadway and Table Mesa. It was awesome to see 100s of folks lining the entire street. It was also awesome to hear the race day winner who lives in Boulder say that he got chills and goosebumps as he entered the south side of town and saw all the people! I forgot my camera during that part of the day! We then went downtown and watched them come through 17th Street just before the sprint line. We then rushed over to Melisa's house to watch the Flagstaff finish on TV. It was a great day for Boulder and was very fun to be a part of!

Lake McConaughy

We headed up to Nebraska this weekend to Lake McConaughy. We met Josh and Amber there with a couple more friends from Summit County. Maddie really loved swimming in the water and running around the campsite. She was so tired at the end of the weekend! She is still trying to recovery and has been sleeping ever since we left. Josh brought down the paddle board, which was a lot of fun. He got in some good kite boarding, which meant it was nice and windy. The camping was fun until our shade tent blew over about 8:30 PM and a downpour erupted. Chris had luckily set up for us to sleep inside the Xterra, but we had to throw in all the other stuff we didn't want to get wet. We were soaked by the time we got into the car! However, it made it an adventure!

July-August Update

Chris and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in July! Where does the time go? He took me downtown for an evening at the St. Julien, which was a nice break from the house remodeling. It was a great stay-cation! Ms. Slaughter came to town in late July. We took a very fun trip up to The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. We had a fun and scary ghost tour then a great dinner. We had a really fun visit with her. Chris has been working away in the garden and canned some apricots from our tree over the weekend. We also went up to Allenspark with Dave to do some climbing.

Ag Tour

We took an Ag Tour of the Boulder County Open Spaces on Tuesday. It was really interesting and a good time, but we really brought down the age demographic of the group! We stopped by an organic farm, cattle feed lot, and a large commercial farm. We learned a lot and it was nice to see the open space tax dollars being put to good use. I always think of open space as trails and mountains, but it also has done a good job keeping Boulder County rural and still farming. Chris is ready to be a farmer! He is off to a good start with a square foot garden. We are planning to expand next year. We've been enjoying learning how to cook bok choy and chard. I can't wait for the tomatoes and squash to be ready!

Basement Progress

I know we are going to be so happy with the basement once it is done. However, it has been an ongoing process. I know I took photo of it once we had taken out everything and before the demo...but I can't find them! I guess I deleted them before I saved them to the computer. I've attached some photos of the current progress.

Summer Update

As you know, it has been a while since we did a post. We've been busy with the remodel of the basement this summer. I can't wait for it to be done! Chris has worked hard on his garden. There was an infestation of ear wigs, but he got them under control. We've been eating chard and lettuce so far, which was very good. The carrots and tomatoes will be ready soon! We had a scare with Maddie when we got home from Memphis. We picked her up from the vet and she seemed fine, but was acting strange in the evening. The next day we discovered that she had bloat and we almost lost her. She is a fighter and pulled through after emergency surgery! We also had a wildfire scare earlier this month. Bear Peak caught fire. It covered our house in smoke and was raining ash when it first started. Luckily, they had a Type I team on standby and Mother Nature was cooperative. I am glad the fire is contained and we've been having so much rain this past week!

Trip Down South

Okay, so it has been a while since we had a post. We had some technical difficulties with changes to Picaso, but Chris figured them out for me. In April, we headed down to Mississippi. The first stop was a visit with Jason, which was really great. The next stop was The Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood, MS. This is where Viking is located. We ate at their restaurant that includes some yummy fried green tomatoes covered with lump crab meat..delicious. The next day we headed over to Clarksdale and stayed at the Shack Up Inn. I was happy to finally see this place. It is even cooler in person! We then headed up to Memphis and meet up with my parents. Our favorite stop was Sun Records. Graceland was very entertaining, but wore us out!