Labor Day Weekend in Arkansas

We were lucky enough to travel to Arkansas over the long Labor Day weekend to visit with both of our extended families.  

My mom moved back to Bella Vista and Max's family rented a lake house in the same town for a family reunion.  

We spent the first day with my mom and dad and had a lazy day at their new house.  The kids played in the sprinklers and on the swing set in their back yard while we caught up and grilled out.   

We spent the next day at Silver Dollar City in the Ozarks.  

Savannah was uncertain about the carousel....

But very clear about her detest for the bouncing frogs.  

Chance discovered his new love for roller coasters and yelled AGAIN at the end of every ride!

We all enjoyed our day walking around and seeing the sights together.  

My dad is recovering very well from his surgery and was really glad to be moving around.  

It was really fun to take Chance on some of the bigger thrill rides.  

He loved getting wet.  

We ended the day at the build a bear workshop where both Chance and Savannah got a little reward for being so amazing all day.  

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday with the McKennedy family at the lake house.  The family reunion was a huge success and almost all of the cousins were able to be there.  

The littlest cousins loved carrying Savannah around and they took care of her the entire weekend like she was a little doll.  Savannah loved all of the attention.  

Carol rented us a boat for an afternoon and we got to drive around and swim on the lake.  

It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. 

Sunday was a lazy lake day and we just rafted and swam off of the dock of the house.  

Max finally convinced Chance to get in the water after I accidentally dunked him the day before.  Oops.  

It was so amazing to be surrounded by all of our family for talks, support, swim time, sun time, dinners, and more.  We were so sad to see everyone go home.  All of the McKennedy cousins agreed that a reunion needs to happen every other year.  I hope that they really stick to that because we loved the weekend with everyone!

We spent our last day with my mom at a little drive through Safari.  I could not believe how many crazy animals there were on this one property.  

Savannah loved the walk around petting zoo at the end.  

My mom loved feeding the camels, 

and the highlight for Chance was getting to ride a pony.  

Thanks to everyone for making the weekend so special.  We love you all!

Summer Days

Seriously! Where did the summer go?  

The pictures on my phone indicate that....

We ride race cars....all of the time!

We have home projects...all of the time!

We go for runs with the DoubleBob...all of the time!

We ride our bikes...all of the time!

Sometimes...I want to pause time...

Chance likes sand and his pails,

and Savannah loves her slides. 

A Week of Goodbyes for Cook

Cook's departure from Denver was QUICK! He had been unhappy with his job for about a year, but we honestly thought it was just a 30something crisis...  No one in our group had any real idea that Cook was looking to relocate until  he told us that a recruiter was scouting for him and he had interviews with several major cities about professional sports marketing jobs.  

I knew when he stopped by our house for dinner after visiting Houston for a position with the Rockets that he was on his way out of mountain country.  Max and I talked that night and we couldn't decide if we wanted to be happy for him or sad for us!  

So we spent the next week...celebrating Cook and his friendship to us.  

We hit up a weeknight Rockies game.

Cook made sure to teach Savannah how to properly participate in the WAVE.  This is very important...especially when in the cheap seats!

We hired a babysitter and went out in LODO for the first time in ages.  

We learned that there is a reason that we do not go to LODO anymore, but it was fun to visit all of our twenty something and free spots with Cook one last time.  

We ended the night at a little bit more of our pace and reserved a spot on a rooftop for quiet conversations with friends.  

We celebrated our last farmer's market on Pearl Street near our home and brunched at the Black Pearl. 

The crew entertained me as I they toured some new model homes in the hood. 

We spent the afternoon and evening at City Park for a Jazz concert and volleyball.  

The Eakin's met up with us and the kids played so well together.  

Savannah would not stop standing over baby Ellis and waving/saying hiiiiiii.....

It was so funny.  

Savannah also made great friends with a Bernese Mountain Dog because she kept feeding him her pretzel sticks.  Lucky for us the owners of the dog were smitten with Savannah and did not care at all!

Sadly, we had to come around to our final goodbye.  We had a send off dinner at the York's house on the night before Cook's departure for Houston.  We all wished him luck and laughed about old, new, and favorite times.  Cook was a huge part of why we love Denver.  We are so sad to see him go, but want nothing but happiness for him.