Top 10 unblogged, unexciting events of the summer

In (dis)honor of Mr. Letterman, i thought i'd highlight the Top 10 unhighlighted ongoings of our summer. In no particular order.

#1. Playing in our back yard. This summer we spent endless hours swinging, sliding, swimming, playing, pretending, picnicking, and enjoying every square foot of our backyard--reassuring me that buying a house because of the nearly perfect backyard really is a good idea

#2 Millions of Peaches. Okay, it was only about a hundred. But that song was in my head the whole four days that those peaches sat on our counter, making up about 90% of our calorie intake each day, and convincing me that i can make jam and jelly!

#3 Family Movie Nights We took the girls to see "Up" and "Monsters Vs. Aliens" this summer at a little cheap theater here. Grace and Abby LOVE movies. Eliza just wants to crawl around. So Reid and I usually take turns with her in the back of the theater. And we almost always grab something to eat at Johnny Mac's (owned and operated by Andy's dad). they've got yummy burgers, fries and shakes....you know, health food.

#4 The Full-Shade garden This is the third, but not final year of us attempting to grow our own vegetables. Why can't i just give up? Why can't i just accept that a green heart can't make-up for a black thumb?? dunno. This year i thought was going to be THE year. The day we planted our garden it looked like this:

A month later it looked like this:

So I was all sure that we'd actually have zucchini bread, tomato feta salads, and enough pumpkins to carve and eat. But, alas, even these big-leafed plants need more than 2-3 hours of sun to produce much fruit. We got exactly 3 tiny zucchinis, 1 tomato, and 1 pumpkin.


And I'll surely try again next year. It's like pregnancy--it always sucks, yet i do it again and again (perhaps my garden could do with the same five-year break my uterus is getting...hmm) I just love the idea of having my own garden so much that i think if I change just a few things--the compost, the plant choice, the magical all-natural fertilizer-- that it will actually work. i know the only real answer is to change the location, but I just can't bring myself to mess with our fantastic landscaping. So i stick with my annual failed garden and rely on farmer's markets, overly-generous neighbors & family, and Sunflower market. How hard is my life!

#5 Cirque Du Soleil--Kooza

In spite of the fact that I'm a total wimp and had to cover my eyes for a couple of the acts (i really wish I were kidding) we had a great time at the Cirque Du Soleil. Those people are amazing. Their talent blows the mind. I just have one question--why don't they use more nets?? this is all i want to know. Regardless, we had a great time.

This isn't my picture, but these are the girls we saw. amazing!!!

#6 Gettin' all artsy
It appears, so far, that my sweet children have acquired their mother's artistic inabilities. As much fun as we had finger painting, in the end, their blobs look exactly like the blobs I painted as a child. And when we made play-doh, their blobs looked exactly like the blobs i used to sculpt as a child. But we've had fun. Eliza's nap time has become our get-creative-and-let-loose-time. And our perfectly shaded back porch often provided the perfect studio this summer.

#7 Park days and nights.

The weather this summer was absolutely amazing. I don't think it ever hit 100 (don't quote me on that...) and it was mostly just in the 70's and 80's all summer long. (yet another reason for you to move here, marissa!) We hit up just about every park in our community. Grace and Abby brought their bike and scooter sometimes, which adds at least 30 minutes to the park day's life-span. And we'd often meet up with friends, or make new ones. Grace, who can be so insanely shy, also loves to make new friends when we're out and about. it's cute.

Here we are at Redstone Park. We went to feed the geese, and my camera died after this one picture.

#8 Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Red Rocks Amphitheater

We had a great time with our neighbors and good friends from law school at this concert. The choir was amazing, as to be expected. Tears were shed, as to be expected. But the rolling hills between the amphitheater and downtown Denver were covered in this perfect green, perfectly fresh late-spring grass--more beautiful than could have been expected--the prefect backdrop for such beautiful music. It was unforgettable.

And Thomas Monson, the President of our church, and a man we revere as a Prophet, was there--which was really fun to come home and tell our kids about. The whole evening was great, a definite highlight of my summer.

I was hoping to come up with some clever joke about "did you hear about the mormons, the catholics and the adventists who went to the Mormon Tab choir concert?"....but i'm nowhere near that clever. ML--care to take a crack? anybody????

#9 The Broncos Game

We took no pictures that night. But if we would have, here's what you'd see: 1st quarter--dudes sittin next to their ladies--leaning over us to comment to each other about the bad call, the interception, the injury, etc, while the ladies were leaning over their men talking about real-life issues--our kids, pedicures, etc. 2nd quarter--we all wise up and put the dudes together, and we ladies spend the entire remaining 3 quarters gabbing about all sorts of things, having the time of our lives...and not paying even a bit of attention to the game. I have no idea what the guys did. I can only assume they watched the game. And I swear to you, that in this moment i have no idea if we won or lost. Actually, I think we won, cause i don't remember a lot of tension as we left the stadium....oh, and cause I think the broncos have a perfect record this year...right? i'm a disgrace, i know...(lindsay, can we still be friends??!?!) Anyway, it was probably of a waste of the amazing VIP tickets we got from reid's work--except that is gabbing between ladies ever really a waste!?!?

#10 Starting Pre-school (and Joy-school)

Grace officially started preschool this year. She goes 3 days a week, and looks forward to it 4 days a week. She loves her teacher and she loves her friends at school.

Grace's first day of pre-school

She's changing so much, and slowly overcoming so many fears and anxieties. She is more and more fun to be with every day! And we're butting heads less and less throughout the day. We're reall starting to be good friends and have real conversations. She asks me such fun things, like "how does God hear all of our prayers at the same time?" or "Does He speak spanish, too?" and "what are apples made of?" and "how did Eliza get in your tummy?" -- I love the challenge that comes with answering her! I really do!

When Grace is in preschool, Abby goes to joyschool or dance class--both of which she's thoroughly enjoying. Those two girls really need that break, too. They play so well the days that they have a break from each other. And I enjoy the 2+ hours a week with just Eliza!!

Abby's first day of joy-school