Baby Shower! {Colorado}

We had our first baby shower back home in Limon, Colorado over Father’s Day weekend. My awesome sister, sister-in-law and mom hosted…oh and Maelle helped for sure! Love these ladies.

They had awesomely, delicious, healthy yogurt & fruit parfaits and fun paper straws with the festive drinks.

It was so fun to see so many of my “moms” growing up in a small town. I had many of my “church moms”, “friend’s moms” and even my “Farm Credit moms” from when I worked there. I truly felt blessed to celebrate with all of these ladies.

Check out that adorable diaper cake from my cousins! The giraffe was made by my Gramps for my dad and his brothers – so it was a fun addition to the shower decorations and nice to have a piece of one of my favorite men there.

Lindsay had asked several of my “moms” along with my sister, mom and her to specify a characteristic that described me and to put a Bible verse with it to include on the mat of a picture frame.

They each explained why they chose that characteristic and verse – it was so meaningful! Lindsay noted that it would be a good reminder to me when days can be hard being a mother, but that I can remember these positive things and always lean on God.

Three of my best friends from high school surprised me by being there – they absolutely made my day and I was so glad to catch up with them!

Ronny showed up at the end of the shower to greet all of the ladies, and I’m glad we could get a picture with my Grams.

It was a great day, ending with a few maternity pictures by Lindsay.

Below is probably my favorite…. :) Thank you again Lindsay for your gift of helping us capture this fun time in our lives!

Hank gets a bath

Hank and I went to Orscheln’s in Seward on Sunday to support the Blue River Pet Rescue who were giving dog baths for donations. Our friend Brandi was happy to wash him, even though he wasn’t thrilled at first.


But afterwards, he seemed to have enjoyed it. :)

Colorado | a long weekend

Ronny, Hank and I were able to spend a long weekend in Colorado over the Father’s Day weekend. I was so excited to go home to Colorado as I hadn’t been there since Christmas!

On Saturday, Lindsay, Emily and Mom hosted a baby shower for me in Limon. More pictures to come – but they were super creative with putting together yummy, healthy yogurt parfaits. An effort by the whole family!

For Father’s Day, we went to church with Mom and Dad in Castle Rock, then all headed to Denver for the Rockies game.  It was fun to all be together with Dad for his special day and to celebrate Ryan’s first and Ronny’s kind-of first. :)

 

Miss Maelle was so excited for her first Rockies game!

We were able to just hang out with the fam on Monday, then headed to Breckenridge on Tuesday for the Colorado Livestock Association convention, and to just enjoy one last little vacation before Baby Pope arrives.

Cattlemen’s Ball

This past weekend I helped coordinate the “Raising Nebraska” tent at the Cattlemen’s Ball of Nebraska, and got to join in the fun festivities that come along with it. Cattlemen’s Ball is an event that moves around to different ranches each year and raises funds solely for cancer research in Nebraska.

The “Raising Nebraska” tent was all about the “raising” of corn and cattle, and the effect that cattle/feed/fuel have on Nebraska’s vitality and economy. It also tied into our attraction of having a hot air balloon.

So, speaking of the hot air balloon – it was awesome! The weather was rainy all morning so we weren’t sure that we’d even be able to get it aired up. But by dusk, the wind settled down and it turned out to be a beautiful evening! We set this up as an opportunity for Ball goers to go through our tent to learn about Nebraska agriculture, then receive a free tethered, hot air balloon ride.


I did get to go up in the balloon – even though I wasn’t planning on it and really didn’t want to. {Not a fan of heights}. But they insisted that I jump in, so I did.

I tried to take some pictures from the air, but with the darkness (and my shaky knees) they didn’t turn out. It was an amazing view being up in the balloon and something to cross of the bucket list! I even felt Baby Pope kicking, like “wheeee”! Ronny got to go up as well with another group. It was a pretty great night!

Garden 2013

I forgot to get pictures of my garden when I first planted it in May. But it has really been enjoying the rains and warmer days.

This year, I planted tomatoes (after not trying last year when they were sprayed by the lawn behind us the year before), but I moved them to the front of the garden box hoping that keeping them away from the fence would help.

I also planted green peppers, broccoli, cucumber and started carrots and lettuce from seed.

Last year, our vertical pumpkins experiment would have worked better if we didn’t have a drought. They just didn’t receive enough moisture in the tubs. So this year, we removed two bushes (they were taking over and I wanted my spirea bushes to have more space). I’ll eventually put something else in their spots, but decided to try putting two pumpkin plants in them to see what happens.

Of course, Hank always loves spending time in the yard with me – especially the shade. :)

My goal was to get the garden in, but I’m making no promises on how much of it will be harvested by the time Baby Pope gets here!