Sedona, AZ (16½ Years Ago)

I am getting so excited for our Sedona trip!

How many days til we leave?
Hint: Look at the countdown. :D

So, Mike and I have actually been there before. It was the summer of 1994 when we went with Mike's family on the great bike ride across the United States (we only went as far as Colorado). Collin was just a little over a year old.

Here we are in Oak Creek Canyon. I remember standing there with Mike and saying, "It is so beautiful here. We HAVE to come back someday."

Gosh, we haven't aged a bit! SERIOUSLY.
I've just grown my bangs out a little.
Ha ha ha ha ha.

I remember Collin's swimming trunks kept falling down at Slide Rock State Park.
And he was slippin' and slidin' all over the place! Thanks for holding him up, Erin!



One of the things I am really looking forward to is the jeep tour I reserved.
At first I was looking at the Pink Jeep tours, but then I saw this one.
It's so cowboy-ish that I had to choose this one. If you know Mike, you know
that he secretly wants to be a cowboy. He'll love it. If it doesn't make him sick.



(pictures of the pictures on their website)



Can't wait!!!

Leadville, Here We Come!

Leadville, Colorado is a small town. In July 2009, the population was 2,740 people. The town's elevation is 10,152 feet; and it is actually the highest incorporated city in the United States. Its nickname is The Two-Mile-High City!

And it looks cute.

So, I started looking up vacation rentals for the crazy Leadville 100 Trail Race Mike is doing there in August. We will arrive on Wednesday so that Mike will be there for all of the pre-race stuff, and stay until Tuesday so that he has some time to recover before we fly home. That's six nights. It's not very practical for us to stay in a hotel that long, so I have been looking for a house to rent. I thought I had better start looking now since it's a small town. It's a good thing I started looking now, because there is barely anything available! The realtor I spoke with tonight said that people book a year in advance. Yikes!

We were a little picky since we wanted to be in town. Not only because it will be fun to be right there in town, but also because I will be leaving Mike and the boys on Thursday without a car so that I can drive Lauren to the airport in Denver (2 1/2 hrs away) so she can get back to work. She will be with us for a little over a week before that, and doesn't mind missing the race part of the trip. And since she is already asking for a week off in July for girls camp, she didn't want to be gone too long in August. So, ANYWAY, I am hoping to see a couple of friends in Denver and will be gone that whole day. I might even stay in Denver that night. Who knows? At any rate, I couldn't leave the boys in the boonies without a car.

Vacation rentals in downtown Leadville are slim pickins' for that time. I am so lucky to have found this place. It's a great size for our group. I'm not really sure if we will have people staying with us that weekend, but I hope they do. If Mike's parents come, which I am pretty sure they will, I hope they stay with us!

So, here are the details. All of the more affordable properties were not very modern looking. Who cares? And by more affordable, I don't mean all that affordable. They jack up the rates for that time because they know they can. And the lady said that the property was recently flooded, so there will be new stuff. That sounds good!

Leadville Colorado Vacation Rental

Name: Mueller Mailbox: Yes Address: 100 East 12th, Leadville CO Levels: 4 levels with decks Style: Nicely furnished Bedrooms: 5 (1Q, 2D,1 bunkbed, 1S - sleeps 9) Extras: View, microwave, game room, small kitchen Baths: 2 Pets: No Washer/Dryer: Yes Smoking: No Dishwasher: Yes Monthly: No TV: Yes with VCR

Don't you love the hexagon at the top? It's a cool house. Lots of rooms and lots of beds. And a dishwasher (some places didn't have one). It will be nice to be able to make our own meals and have room for everyone to spread out. I asked about WiFi, and she said that she didn't think they had it but we could probably get the free WiFi from the library across the street. Hahaha. The house is only a half mile from the race start and all the other race happenings. Cool beans!

An interesting sidenote: When I emailed the realtor over the weekend, she said her assistant would get back to me because she was in Foxboro watching the Patriots play. That would be the New England Patriots, going to the Super Bowl. So, after I booked the property I went on their website to check out some information. I looked up the lady's info on the site, and it says her son plays for the Patriots! He just got drafted this year! I don't know if he will play in the game, but I'll look for him. :)

So . . . Leadville, here we come!!!

Separated at Birth

I run into Lola's sister all the time. Like seriously ALL the time.
They must be so happy to see each other. One day I'll have to
wait and meet the other owner so we can bond. :D


It's like a vision . . . Aaaaaahhhhhhh . . .
(can you hear the angels singing?)

i would normally blur out my license plate #, but that would defeat the purpose here.

Vacation Panning

I have found through experience that it is always good to have something to look forward to. Soooooo, I have three countdowns added to my blog.

COUNTDOWN #1: Anniversary Trip to Sedona, AZ

Mike and I decided two years ago that we should go on an anniversary trip together each year. It's a wonderful thing for our marriage, and always something to look forward to. We went to San Antonio the first year, Charleston last year, and this year we will go to Sedona. My niece is getting married in Arizona on March 3rd, so we thought it would be perfect to combine our anniversary trip with a trip out there for the wedding. We actually drove through Sedona almost 18 years ago when we were with Mike's parents for the big bike ride across America. It was beautiful! We always said we would go back someday. I can't believe it has taken this long!

Anyway, Mike has been super stressed out at work and is expecting the big promotion to Managing Director next month . . . so he completely lost his mind and said we should stay at a crazy expensive place. It's called The Enchantment Resort.

Our room is called a Casita :)

COUNTDOWN #2: Girls Rockin' Weekend in Chicago

How many girls' weekends does this make? I can't even remember when we started these. We went to Jennifer's house twice, Carrie's house once, and the weird Arizona local trip last year. So this must be our 5th year. Wow! Last year we did the crazy Girls Rockin' WEEK in Prince Edward Island which was the most amazingly fun trip ever. After that we decided not to do a local trip. Chicago it is! And it looks like we will have the same group as we did on the PEI trip.

It will be a long weekend (from Wednesday to Sunday) filled with sightseeing, good food, Penn Station Subs and Jersey Boys.

COUNTDOWN #3: Colorado Summer Vacation

Our family will be spending two weeks in the beautiful state of Colorado this August, starting out in Steamboat Springs. They have a lot of the same activities there that we enjoy in New Hampshire. It's going to be SO MUCH FUN. I think I am mostly looking forward to a full week of just us. We really need that time to just relax and enjoy each other. It will be great to have the time to go and do fun activities together, but also to have down days where we can just play games and hang out. I was hoping to have that last year, but it turned out that we only had like two days alone with all of us together.

After that first week, we go to Leadville for Mike's big 100 mile trail race. Yes, he is going to run ONE HUNDRED MILES all at once. Crazy, crazy!

You can see by the graph just how crazy it is. The elevation alone is killer. And that's partly why we are doing a week ahead of the race in Colorado, so he can get acclimated and do training up in the mountains. (mike is also going to leadville at the end of june for a special training camp where they go over the course with you over three days) And then there is the fact that he will be running over mountains for 24+ hours. The race starts on Saturday at 4am. The cutoff time to finish is 10am on Sunday. My question is - Do I have to stay up all night too? Lol! Just kidding. Mike has a friend who is coming to run with him part of the way on the back end. Hopefully he can get another friend or two to do the same. At any rate, it should be the experience of a lifetime.

We would love to have you join us in Leadville for the race! August 18-19 (probably after CA & AZ kids start school).


And those are my vacation countdowns. :D

Snow!

It has been the weirdest winter in Connecticut. First we had that huge freak snow storm in October that caused all of the power outages. And then there was no snow. No snow whatsoever. We've had super cold days, but we've also had some warm days.

Anyway, it finally snowed yesterday! I think we got about 6 inches. It's about time! The kids weren't outside for long (probably because it was so dang cold), so I didn't get any pictures. Just the one out the window.

Snow is so pretty.

Sick Day

We had no school yesterday and a 2 hour day this morning for ice and slush. Nice! I love sleeping in almost more than anything. And, man, I have not been sleeping well. I felt like I was getting better during the second week after surgery, and sleeping better. Last week (the 3rd week after surgery) was BAD. I slowly went dowwnnnhill. And sleeping was the worst! I was either super uncomfortable or in pain. I got a new prescription for pain meds to take at night, which I've only taken a few of, and took it super easy this weekend. I'm actually feeling a little better this morning.

You know, this is my third shoulder surgery. Yes, my third! I have always slept on the couch sitting up for at least 6 weeks after the surgery. This time I have the beloved BedLounge which allows me to sleep in my bed, but this morning I was thinking I should try the couch. It's just so much more comfortable! And I don't remember having this kind of pain 3 weeks after the surgery. The rotator cuff surgery was probably the worst, but I don't think it was like this. And my last one was the easiest with the bone spur. Too bad I had to go and screw it up. ANYWAY, I'm hoping this week gets better and better. And I'm glad I see my doctor on Thursday.

So, poor little Michael (who isn't so little anymore) is sick today. He was reading in bed this morning with Jack curled up next to him. Isn't that the cutest thing?

Michael has a headache and just generally
feels icky. Hopefully it won't last long.
And hopefully Matthew won't get it!

CicLAvia Pic (Oct. '11)

I went through some piles of papers on the desk in our room, and found this picture from last October when Mike and I flew out to California. You can read the post HERE that it belongs in.

Laser Tag Party

On Friday after school we had Michael's Laser Tag Sleepover Birthday Party. In our family it is a tradition to wait until you turn 10 years old to have a sleepover party. I always dread it, but it's a promise I have made. The big rule though is that you can only invite a few friends. We narrowed Michael's list down to four of his closest friends, and then with Matthew and Michael we had six boys all together.

Mike was kind enough to come home super early on Friday to come along and help since I was having so much pain with my arm last week.

We drove 35 minutes to the laser tag place. (unfortunately our skating rink with the laser tag in the back closed down a few years ago) The boys played some arcade games while we waited for thei laser tag time.

They played two games before we pizza. And they had so much fun!
Mike and I weren't allowed to go in and watch, but they had a monitor that told it all.
The boys each had a code name like Wolf, Beast and Asteroid.
There were three teams: red, yellow and blue.
So, you could watch the teams accruing points and see who hit who...
but you had no idea who was who until they came out!

The owner was nice enough to set us up in a party room to
eat our pizza. The boys loved rehashing their laser tag games.

They're a good bunch.

Dean, Michael, Caleb, Daniel & Ryan

They played one more game before we headed back home.
And the boys were totally quiet in the car looking at their ipod games.

I was able to make the cake in the morning, but
I couldn't get the lid off the frosting! ha ha ha
Mike was so sweet and just started frosting the cake when
we got home. He even did Michael's initials with the sprinkles.

Happy Birthday!!!

After cake and ice cream, it was already 9:30pm! We started a movie and I waited at least an hour for the boys to settle down before I went upstairs to rest. I told Michael they needed to go to sleep at 11pm since all of them had basketball games in the morning.

So, I went downstairs at 11:05pm to tell the boys to turn off the lights. But the lights were already off! I thought for sure they were playing a trick on me! I whispered, "Michael! Are you sleeping?" Michael said, "Huh?" I said, "Are you sleeping?" Michael said, "Yeah. We have basketball in the morning!" I don't think they really went to sleep then, but they we quiet. And that sure was cute!

That was probably the easiest birthday party ever. And it was fun!

Happy 10th Birthday, Michael!

Michael's birthday was yesterday!

I cannot believe he is 10 years old!!!

He brought brownies to school,

and came home to balloons!

Michael opened his presents after dinner that night.
My arm was killing me, so everyone had to come to my bedroom where I was confined.
I took lousy one-handed, blurry pictures. At least I took pictures!

Michael opened his 3DS Mario game from Lauren & Matthew first.

He was so excited! He did a Mario dance and then went in for a hug. :)

Everything is better in gif, don't you think?

Next up was Collin's gift:

So funny! Michael really wants this update for the Mac.

He went in for a hug, but got a handshake.

A bit disappointing I think!

Michael is getting a skateboard from
Mike & I that he will pick out on Saturday.

And here is the fun card he got from
Grandma & Grandpa Shepherd.

You have to keep opening the card
to get to the big message inside.

Michael's party is tonight - laser tag & a sleepover
with just a few friends. Should be fun!