small town fourth of july

every time we went to pearl street, there were musicians sharing their talents. really cool!
just here we've got a classical piano guy, jazz singing girl, violinist teen, and a hillbilly band!

toby was pulled from the audience to keep the timer while this crazy magic guy escaped a straight jacket. he was cute, and actually took off when the guy told him to run after someone volunteeered their watch as teh timekeeper! it was funny!

little american boys....

since we checked out of our hotel at 12, we just hung around town waiting for nightfall for fireworks. but about 7, a big rain storm rolled in. we stuck it out for an hour and a half and it just kept getting worse. we decided there was no way fireworks would be happening, so i asked toby if he wanted us to wait and see. he said "that's ok, mommy. we don't have to see fireworks." love that easy going boy! and we left town at 830. turned out that boulder did do fireworks, at 1015 instead of 930. driving driving, dark, darker, darker, then, suddenly, out of nowhere, poof! like 4 minutes of fireworks came peeking out between 2 mountains ahead of us as we drove thru colorado toward utah. beautiful surprise!

extended family time in boulder

july 3, 2010
we met up with matthew's aunt edie, her husband, jim, and her son, jason for breakfast at a boulder institution, the buff. amazing breakfast! matthew starts asking deep questions about living in boulder.....housing market, snow, lifestyle, etc........................

and who should we run into, but my dear dear friend, anne webb's parents? they were making their way back to phoenix after selling their summer home in minnesota. as we were leaving the restaurant, i saw anne's uncle mike, the tall guy in the back. then i turned around, and there were alan and sandy hank! friends from arizona, stopping for breakfast at the buff!

after breakfast, we had to change our van's battery (it wouldn't start that morning, but then did exactly 3 times. once, to get us to breakfast, twice, to get us to checker, and thrice, so they could check it and tell us how to change it- thank you God! for these huge, small blessings!) this side adventure wore us all out, so we took a short break at the hotel. climbing on daddy is big fun!

in the afternoon, we went mini golfing with matthew's super cool 3rd cousin, lisa. she was in town for a funeral on her hubby's side of the family. how cute are her boys??

looks like i have a pretty opinionated caddy, huh?

see? he gets mad, sometimes!

falling in love with boulder........

july 2, 2010

love how many bike riders are in boulder. we have lunch at the tea room. miller tries lemon.

the beautiful boulder creek

hanging on pearl street

later that evening, we went to chatauqua park, right at the feet of the flatirons. this is where the colorado music festival is, that i performed in 3 summers ago with the phoenix symphony chorus.

and what do you know, a concert, conducted by michael christie, was going on...

driving driving driving santa fe (glorieta!) driving driving boulder!

we went on an old fashioned family road trip. we left a 1 am july 1st headed for boulder, colorado.

i did the long first 4 hours overnight, then matthew had a 3 hour turn, and then i finished driving into santa fe.....we bought this christmas ornament to mark the visit.

the market

thought this was a cool pic...

the miraculous staircase at the laredo chapel

we ate lunch in santa fe at a super cool place called the shed. this is the place (right where that stroller is) that toby gave himself his very first tattoo when he was 2.5. he was playing with a pencil and jammed it into his chin right there! they spot of gray has remained all these years- a tiny tattoo! i'll show you if you ask me......

on our way out of santa fe, we hit a huge rain storm, but i still had to drive thru my personal utopia, glorieta. i spent every summer vacation of my childhood here, made some incredible friends, and grew in my faith every time i came here.

these are as we're driving into boulder. and our hotel staircase. there are actually 5 pictures on our computer of the hotel room. matthew has a picture taking problem, i think!