S & J's Wedding Day

After a wonderful nights rest we were ready for Sarah and Jonathan's big day!

The wedding and reception were at the house where Sarah grew up. There was a hayride organized to take everyone from the hotels to the house but I got dropped off a little early with Anna. Even though I missed out on the ride it was nice having a chance to visit with Sarah while she was finishing up getting ready.

 

Hayride fun!

Sarah's parents were kind enough to let us have a room where we could put Anna down for naps. We brought our monitor too so we were able to still enjoy the festivities. 

They really lucked out on the weather. It had rained the night before and even that morning but it cleared out in plenty of time for the wedding. It was still hot but not nearly as hot as the day before which made being outside much more enjoyable.

They Newlyweds!

It was wonderful having the flexibility with Anna and we had so much fun celebrating with everyone.

Anna did well with getting passed around all of our friends and was so good for us. Everyone was so surprised that she was able to sleep through all of the noise but I think they are underestimating the power of a loud fan!

One of the coolest parts of the reception (besides the wedding cake that Sarah made herself) was Sarah and Jonathan's first dance. They had a Stanford friend compose a slower piano version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" that was incredible. This is Sarah's all time favorite song and it only seemed fitting that it would be their first dance.

It was a great wedding and I can't express enough how wonderful it was to see so many California buddies. Luckily we have two more weddings still this year where we will get to see even more of them!

Lake Champlain, VT

After Colorado, Kevin, Anna, and I were all headed to Vermont for a wedding. Getting there was a bit of an exhausting adventure. In order to make events on that Friday we decided to take a red eye flight from Denver to Albany, NY. From there Brian and Moria picked us up since it was on their way to Vermont.

Overnight flights in general aren't all that pleasant but with a baby it especially wasn't. She did sleep the entire flight but she didn't get much rest at the airport prior to boarding since there was way too much to look at. She was pretty much out but then we had to wake her up in between flights and then wake her up again once we made it to Albany. Then there was the two hour drive to where we were staying for the wedding and it was HOT. Going from the cool mountains to the heat and humidity was rough and we had one tired restless baby once we arrived.

A cool bath, milk, and a nap fixed most of that though!


From there it was time for a boat ride on Lake Champlain where we got to see so many people from Stanford. Since pretty much everyone was coming from out of town it was nice that they organized something for all of us so we'd have a chance to catch up.

The Happy Couple: Sarah and Jonathan

 The only problem with the boat ride was that it was so hot and we weren't allowed to get out to swim ever.

Bettina, Brian, Kevin, Anna, and Moria

Colin, Brian, and me

 It's crazy that it's been almost a year since we'd had so many of us together at Colin and Andi's wedding reception. Time does fly!

Anna with Andi and Colin

Poor Anna was so tired and so hot. We kept trying to get her cool water to help cool off but her little cheeks were so red :( I was able to get her to sleep for a bit but I personally don't like waking up hot so I can't imagine she did either. 

The view from the boat was stunning though. 

Kevin had seen Jonathan and Sarah a couple times when he'd traveled to Boston for work but it had been almost a year for me...way too long!

The guys back together again.

After getting back to the hotel we headed to a big dinner. It was fun seeing additional people that weren't on the boat ride earlier. I didn't get many pictures there since we had a fairly exhausted baby on our hands. I ended up taking my food to go and headed back to the hotel with Anna where she crashed. Luckily I went to bed shortly after and got the most consecutive hours of sleep I've had since well before Anna was born...it was amazing!

Family fun

Just a few other random pictures I wanted to include from our Colorado vacation.

This is from the night Grandpa and Serena joined the bunch. We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner. It's not always easy getting both girls looking towards the camera at the same time AND smiling at the same time!

Maintenance came and fixed the pool at the house so it wasn't quite so chilly. Anna enjoyed it much more then (until all the boys were in there and things got a bit rowdy for her)

Anna sure loves splishing and a splashing!

Outside the house for a short walk. Such a pretty view.

This little lady loves her lids and bowls. Definitely good to have with you when out to eat.

Beards are pretty awesome too. 

Our last day in Colorado also happened to be Kevin and Patti's anniversary. Since we had to go into the city anyway so we could get to the airport for a red eye we went out to eat at 240 Union Grill. Delicious!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for an amazing vacation!

Rocky Mountain National Park

We all went into Rocky Mountain National Park a few times since we were staying so close to it. The first day we drove up Trail Ridge Road and stopped up there for a bit.

The drive up there was breathtaking. I've been there before but it still doesn't fail to impress. A few of us decided to go ahead and make the trek up to the top. Anna was all cozy in the carrier and actually slept through the entire climb and descent.

Made it to the top!

I still can't get over the colors in the mountains. The blue looks so much bluer, the white seems so crisp. I love it.

Family photo

 Group shot with all of us.

During another trip into the park we took the one way road up instead. It too offered amazing views and some great spots to get out and wander around.

It was tough getting Anna to look at the camera for many photos since she much preferred watching the water.

Anna's first waterfall

So beautiful

We enjoyed all of our trips into the park so much. We've already talked about how we want to go camping there once Anna is a little bit older.

 

Up Up and Away!

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to go on a hot air balloon ride. Since the babies couldn't go we had to split up into two groups and go on different days. James, Scott, Kevin, and I were all in the first group.

We had to be there pretty early and there was breakfast while we waited and watched them get the balloons ready.

This is the balloon that we got to ride in. It was the biggest of all of them there. I asked the captain how much just the balloon cost and he told me this big one was $85,000. Whew!!!

All loaded up! Our captain, Ed, was pretty awesome and we learned a lot about hot air balloons. The world champion in hot air ballooning is actually from Kansas. Represent!

Patti and Kevin drove with us that morning and the plan was for them to follow us in the car. Unfortunately, James had the car keys with him and we didn't realize it until we were a couple thousand feet in the air. Whoops!

We are in the balloon in the upper right hand corner. They always have a test balloon that will go up high right away and find out what the wind is doing up there. We were the test balloon that day and we went to over 11,000 feet right away. It was fun seeing the other balloons that were at lower altitudes really moving with the wind but we were basically just over where we took off from. Later we came down and let the wind take us away.

The view was absolutely incredible. I thought I would be more nervous than I was. I think I was more nervous about dropping my binoculars so I just stopped using them so I could relax. 

I loved going over water so we could see our reflection. When you are close to land they call it skimming. 

When we were really high we could see Pike's Peak and downtown Denver off in the distance which was pretty cool. I think I liked be a little lower though so you could see what was going on below. 

It was a perfect day to be up there and we are so grateful for the opportunity to do something so incredible. The captain said the winter is actually the best time to go even though the season is in the summer months. I would love to go after a fresh snow!

Lily Lake

After a lazy morning we had some time to kill before we needed to head back into Denver to pick up Grandpa Kevin and Serena from the airport. (They had to come later for various reasons). A few of us decided to head over for a short walk around Lily Lake.

All loaded up!

 Anna seemed to enjoy looking at the beautiful mountains but she especially liked looking at her Daddy.

Anna and Daddy love! 

It was a pretty short walk but it was absolutely beautiful! It was so nice getting out of the heat and humidity.

I love how blue the sky looks.

And I'm a sucker for an awesome reflection in the water.

I'm so glad that Anna's first vacation could be in a place so gorgeous...even if she won't remember it.

First family vacation!