Where in the World Have We Been???

Clearly I will have to pick up the slack for my non-blogging husband. Poor guy has been so tired; what with carrying around a baby, packing a labor bag, and nesting like crazy, he hasn't had time to blog!

In all honesty, I have no idea what's happened to our time! It seems like so many nights after work are busy with meetings, appointments, baby prep, bike riding (Nick's, not mine!), dinner, schoolwork, etc. But Lindsey would not be happy if I were trying to offer up excuses...so I won't. In her words, "whomever is in charge of the blog is horrible." So, I will start today with a fresh blog for a new month!

We headed home to Illinois for a short visit with family and friends over spring break. We got to see Finley and Ethan in L-P, had a nice dinner in Chatham with our friends, and helped celebrate Cathy's 50th birthday. We also got to spend time with grandma and grandpa Brummer and pick out our baby quilt. What an amazing job grandma does!

Aunt Natalie with a not-so-happy Finley

Everyone is happy because the quilt has been selected...there were 25 quilts to choose from!

One night in early April, we got a phone call from Nick's uncle Rich. He and his wife Maureen were on a cross-country trip visiting their out-of-state children. Rich and Maureen came and saw us on their way from California to Fort Collins. We had a nice dinner of homemade mac-n-cheese and a great visit. Our guest bedroom is really coming in handy!

A few weeks back, Target had a sail on patio furniture, so we decided that was the time to get some new furniture that hopefully wouldn't blow away in the Colorado spring winds. It is so relaxing to sit out on the back deck in the sun and look at the mountains!

View to the east-ish

View to the west-ish

Eagle County Schools has an annual awards ceremony held up at Beaver Creek. The awards ceremony is at the Vilar and dinner and dancing is at the Hyatt in the village. The village businesses offer specials to go along with the celebration, so Nick and I decided to take advantage of one of our last free weekends without child :) We got a room at the Hyatt for very cheap and had a great time sitting in (or, in my case, on the ledge of) the hot tubs at the base of the mountain. Our room was awesome, the king-sized bed was just what I've needed and the 1/2-price breakfast buffet was great. We ended the morning sitting at the base of the mountain in 60-degree weather and sunny skies just talking and hanging out with Torrey, Alana, Jeff and Jess. It was awesome!

Us at the dinner/dance

Enjoying a warm, sunny morning at the base of Beaver Creek

April 18 was Nick's first triathlon. (It may also have been his last!) I think he much prefers just biking, but he did complete the triathlon and did very well! The tri was a challenge he and Torrey had set for themselves over the winter.

this pic makes me feel uncomfortable...

the boys swimming, Nick in red cap, Torrey in black

action shot!

We had Nick's dad, Frank, and sister, Anne Marie, out for a few nights in mid-April. They had been in Moab for a class and drove over to spend some time with us after their class. Nick took a day off work so the three of them could go snowboarding and biking. We capped their visit off with a sushi dinner at Paradigm's in Eagle. They even had a vegetable roll for me! It was an awesome visit and a great meal!

Nick and Anne Marie at Loveland

Frank and Anne Marie biking to our house from Glenwood Canyon

May is usually a busy month, and this one doesn't seem to be starting any differently! Lots of birthdays and anniversaries coming up: my favorite sister, Lindsey, has a birthday May 6. Ronnie and his wonderful wife, Michelle, have an anniversary May 22. Mike has a birthday on May 23 and dad has a birthday May 29 (don't tell grandma H. that's when we celebrate it - pretty sure she celebrated it May 28??), and Nick and I have our 2nd anniversary May 31 :)

We'll be adding one more birthday to the month of May...not sure when exactly! Nick and I are getting anxious to learn if it's a boy or girl. All this time, we've done pretty good not spending too much time wondering if it's a boy or girl, but now it seems the closer it gets, the harder it gets to not wonder. We went to Target today after church and bought a few more things we needed for the baby: disposable diapers to use until the baby grows into our cloth diapers, wet wipes and hand sanitizer (for our baby visitors!). The nursery is all ready to go, as far as we know! I'm sure there will be things we forgot, but that's just the way it goes!

me posing in the rocking chair we sanded and repainted

On Friday we hosted our last big shin-dig for a while - a wedding shower for Jeff and Jess here at our house. We had a cookout in the middle of a winter storm warning! It actually turned out to be better weather than we expected, and the boys braved the weather to eat and drink outside. The girls joined them for a nice fire with s'mores.

Jeff and Jess with their cake
see, there was only a little snow on the ground :)

snow and fire

School is well into the third trimester now. I have all of my lesson plans done for the rest of the year, so whenever I leave everything will be taken care of. Nick is finishing up with all of his IEP meetings for the rest of the year. He'll miss about 5 days of school to stay with me when the baby is born. Our second school year in Gypsum has been really good, but we're really looking forward to summer and time at home with the baby!

We'll be spending part of our summer traveling home. First we're heading to a wedding in Michigan (yay for Jeff and Jess), then we'll hit up L-P for family time, Springfield/Chatham for friend time and the baby's baptism, and T-town for more family time and grandma and grandpa Brummers' 70th wedding anniversary celebration.

I'm sure Nick has lots more to say about biking and that sort of thing, but I think you are, for the most part, all caught up now :)