Memorial Day '09

We had such a great Memorial Day yesterday BBQing with our neighbors. We pulled the grill down to the end of the cul-de-sac and everyone brought out chairs and one neighbor even brought a fire pit! We had marshmallows roasting over the fire pit and the joke of the day was that we were all "camping".

Laina enjoyed Taylor and Sage's car so much that she only got out of it once during the day, and that was to chase some amazingly huge bubbles. She squealed in high-pitched delight as she chased them down the street. I wish we could have gotten some video footage of that.

If we do have to move, one of the things I will miss the most is impromptu gatherings with our neighbors. I've probably said this before, but I know that God hand-picked this house and this neighborhood for us. The sense of community here just blows me away. So, enjoy some pictures from the the last few days (not all from Monday, but all still cute!)

Trains, Planes, Automobiles, and Grandparents

Laina's Grandma and Papa (Jay's mom and dad) came to visit last week, and she loved having even more attention than usual. The visit started off with the purchase of a belated birthday train table from a friend-of-a-friend's garage sale. It quickly became the center of Laina's play universe, where she can play trains, cars, etc.


After confirming her love of trains, we decided to head to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Laina loved the big trains, and kept yelling 'Woooah! Look at that!" The museum is great, though we didn't see why more of the trains weren't open for exploring. We'd love to go back when they do a 'steam up' or run the garden trains, as there wasn't much action the day we went. Laina, having her grandparents in the palm of her hands, got them to buy her a little Thomas the Tank Engine for her train set at the gift shop.


We also visited the Wildlife Experience with Grandma, and later turned what could've been a boring lawn-mower blade sharpening visit to the tractor shop into an exciting visit to the "Tractor Museum", where Laina got to see all kinds of big tractors. Of course she got a souvenir of her visit to each... a toy snake from the Wildlife Experience and a little 'John Deere 4020' tractor replica from the tractor shop.

We checked out Red Rocks later in the week, since we'd never been there. It was during some high school graduation ceremonies, but it was still incredible to see the gorgeous rock formations. And yes, we visited the gift shop, and Laina scored a dinosaur... with the most obnoxious electronic roar ever conceived by man.


A lot of time was spent just hanging out and playing, inside and out. Grandma and Papa took Laina to the park, riding her bike, playing in the backyard, etc.




Another cool stop we made was to the restaurant (Perfect Landing) at Centennial Airport. The food was just okay, nothing special, but the view was great. Laina loved watching the airplanes take off, land, and taxi, and Papa (former army pilot) might possibly have enjoyed it even more.

Even though we live 1000 miles from our families, its great when they are able to come out for a week or so to hang out with Laina (and us). Jenna's folks are back out in a couple of weeks for a longer duration, too, so Laina will get another week of intense grandparent visitation.