Memorial Day Weekend

Wow, we are pretty much caught up on our blogs!  Anyhoo, this past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and we had an action packed weekend.

Our first event wasn't even really planned.  Friday morning Julie got an email from Breckenridge Distillery asking if we wanted to help bottle whiskey later that night.  Of course we do!  We were both able to take off work and B+D generously offered to watch the kid for us, so off we went.  The bottling itself was super-duper fun, we both sanitized, filled, and corked the bottles before putting stickers on them, adding some shrink wrap and putting them into the cases.  During the process they had lots of beer and gave shots after finishing each barrel.  Julie was nice enough to refrain so that she could drive us home safely, and turns out it was really necessary.

On the way home she narrowly avoided hitting a moose (yeah, a real moose) by a few inches.  They also closed the highway coming home, so we had to take a detour through Denver, so our 2 hour drive home turned into a 3 1/2 hour drive.  Totally worth it though!  We both got bottles of whiskey to take home, so we shared it with our families over the weekend.

Sanitizing the bottles...with bourbon!

Julie filling the bottles

Putting the tamper proof stickers on

We made some new friends up there

The next day my Mom was scheduled to watch Noah for the night, so we met them for lunch and dropped the kid off.  My grandpa is back in town after spending the winter in Arizona, so we heard some of his stories and he told us about his new camper.  He'll be taking it down again this winter and enjoy the snow bird life!  That night we celebrated the holiday with some of Julie's friends at their house with a BBQ and then Julie and I had a night date night getting chocolate fondue in Manitou Springs.

We picked up the kid on Sunday morning at breakfast with my parents.  Noah walked all over the restaurant before he ate, and he walked out of the place when we were done.  He is such a good walker these days.

Monday was the Lamb's turn for a holiday BBQ, so we went up there and had a nice time.  Debbie bought a game petanque (or bocce ball maybe) that we played in their yard.  You toss a small ball out a few yards and then toss larger balls to try to get close to the small one.  The whole family played and we had a great time with it.  I think this may become family tradition!

Debbie showing us the proper form

Breckin did wonderfully with the game

Multitasking

All in all, it was a great holiday weekend, we're sad to see it end. 

Even though Easter was a few weeks ago

I have a few pictures of Noah and his Easter basket, so I thought I would post them for you!  He really enjoyed seeing new things and playing with the Easter eggs.  The Easter eggs were not a bad idea until he figured out that there was a jelly bean inside each one and wanted to eat them all!

Sometimes he likes to play the faces game, I think it is like Eskimo kisses!

Time for a walk

Well since we finally posted our blog about Florida, I think we should break the news that we have a walking baby in our house... or does that make him a toddler!?!  He is growing up so fast and it is so fun to watch him doing and trying new things all the time.  He has mastered climbing up and down the stairs, getting off the couch on his own, and he is now walking all over the place!  He will be moving up to the toddler room at daycare as soon as he gets a little bit better at drinking out of a cup, he isn't a baby anymore!  I am not sure I am ready for that, but I think it will be good for him and he will learn a lot from older kiddos.  He seems to be growing well and we even went over a whole month without a cold.  He is teething like crazy, he has five top teeth that are coming in.  He will be ready for steak this summer!

Other than that, the other big news is that I have gone part time at my job!  I am officially home for four whole days in a row and I get to spend them with Noah!  I am super excited about being around and loving on him more.  I did have to take a demotion at work, so that was a bummer, but to be able to go part time, it was a trade I couldn't pass up!

Michael has been doing physical therapy for his knee, ankle, and hip the last few months, he had his last appointment on Tuesday.   We are hoping that he will be able to continue strengthening his body so that he can get back into running and cycling.  He rode his bike to work last week and hopefully will be able to continue that throughout the summer!

That's about it.  I am going to try to write a few more blog posts since I will be home more, no promises, but maybe next week we will have another story to share!

Florida

Julie's parents went to Florida last month to hang out on the boat and sail it down to the Keys, and they invited us to join them for a portion of the vacation.  Julie figured it was about time for the kid to see the ocean and we booked a trip down.  We told Julie's cousin Allen about the trip, and he decided it sounded so fun, that he and Ashley would come down and leave the kids in Texas.  Turned out be a good family trip!

We landed in Fort Lauderdale and drove to the Keys, stopping to see Allen and Ashley and Bill and Debbie along the way.  We stayed on Duck Key which was in between where Allen and Ashley were staying and where Bill and Debbie were docked.   

For our first full day there, we checked out the sailboat and ate some lunch.  Then we went to Bahia Honda State Park to sit on the beach and play in the water.  The old Bahia Honda bridge was super neat, but they should fix that big section missing in it, someone could hurt themselves...

After getting some rest, we headed down to Key West.  The drive from Marathon was only about an hour and a half.  Parking was crazy expensive, but we found a spot and hit the town.  Our first stop was for some delicious Key Lime Pie which came with cold water and air conditioning.  Then we were off to the overlook bar, the lighthouse and the southernmost point.  Allen and Ashley came down to meet us for dinner and sunset in Mallory Square.  We ate at a Cuban restaurant for dinner and Noah really enjoyed playing with my coffee cup, it was just his size.  The sunset was gorgeous and the street performers haven't changed since Julie was there a few years ago.

The next day in the Keys, we went sailing!  It was nice but a bit slow because of the lack of wind.  We went to a snorkeling spot to see if we could find anything good to see, but we found only big waves.  We saw a few turtles in the water, and some fish, but didn't stay too long.  Noah was a good sport, but I think that is mostly because he was sound asleep for the first half of our adventure.  The second half he spent distracted by Julie and Debbie.  I was too busy watching the horizon and trying not to think about feeling seasick anymore.  Bill said it is something you have to get used to, and to not give up after one trip out!   Not sure that was enough for me to try again, but we will see.

We said our goodbyes to the Keys and drove up to West Palm Beach.  The traffic was pretty light and we made good time, getting there right when we could check into the hotel.  Since we made good time, we put on our bathing suits and took off for the beach.  Julie drove us around some of the nice houses on the island and we parked on the beach.  Noah really, really liked playing in the sand, he got it everywhere and even ate some of it before we caught him!  He did not like getting washed off in the water, which was still a bit cold.

Julie took us to get some ice cream at Sloans, and that hit the spot after the beach. We got Noah a scoop of banana flavored ice cream, and he loved it! We had some more Cuban food for dinner, and called it a night.

The next morning we had a tour of Palm Beach Atlantic scheduled, but it turned out it was the admissions tour.  We tagged along and got to check out all of the new buildings and Julie told tales of the old days at the school.  We stopped at the book store for some merchandise and then hit one of Julie's favorite places to eat just down the road for a nice trip down memory lane.  Since we were still in Florida, we hit the beach one more time, but the wind made it less fun this time.  We finished the night at City Place and ate some good pizza over there.


The fountain in City Place

We were sad to leave Florida, but it was great to see all of Julie's old stomping grounds and check out the sailboat in action.

Noah traveled like a champion. He slept through almost all of the turbulence we flew through, only got fussy near the end of the longer flights, and really enjoyed seeing all the new places. We had a long layover in Houston on the way back, which worked out to give him a lot of time to play and wear himself out. We went to the United Club since Julie has passes through her credit card, and they let us into the family room, which we had to ourselves the entire time. I think we'll be able to take Noah on all sorts of trips in the future!

In the United Club's family room, we had the place to ourselves