Best Weekend!

I just got back from an AWESOME weekend with my mom and sisters! I left Ben and Audra in Denver and flew to Seattle to attend Time Out For Women (a women's conference put on by our church). It was absolutely wonderful!!!! I had the best time! I totally feel spiritually uplifted and ready to tackle the world (ok, maybe I won't go quite that far- the world is tough to conquer!). I will probably formalize some of my thoughts from all of the wonderful presenters and music we heard at the conference, but for right now I want to show a few pictures of the fun we had.

My mom got us this unbelievable room at the Hotel 1000- a 5 star hotel right next to the waterfront. I worked at a 5 star hotel before, and I can honestly say: it is MUCH nicer to stay as a guest then to clean it as a housekeeper!

Sorry, the pics are taken from my cell phone, so I apologize that they are not that great. Here is the bathroom sink- all granite countertops, and the water came out in a rectangular shape because that was the shape of the faucet head:

The bathtub. There are couple things about the tub which were pretty cool. Notice the glass wall behind the tub- there was a screen that would come down at the push of a button should one want privacy. Then, the craziest thing, the water came out of the ceiling! This must be something the rich enjoy- something exotic and exciting (my sister says it's very Moroccan). We found this to not be the ideal way to get water into a tub for two reasons: 1. Water splashed everywhere, and 2. If you were to lie in the tub as it filled up, the water would land on your tummy. Hmmm...not my idea of relaxing!

Hi-tech gadgets- of course! The TV would show pictures/paintings, and you could change the pictures depending on your art tastes.

VERY comfy beds!

Shower- all granite, very sleek looking. To close the bathroom, there was a gorgeous wooden sliding door- WOW!
Wet bar- again, all granite!
Here are some pics of Mom and Liss in Seattle. This is what I miss most about Seattle, besides my family of course. The water- I love it, and I miss the ocean. Chatfield Reservoir just doesn't cut it, even though Ben likes to think it somehow compares to the ocean.

Here is the stage at the actual conference. We sat up on the balcony and had perfect seats- it was so neat! I'll talk more about the spiritual aspects of the weekend when I have a little more time- so much happened, and it was all so inspiring! It will take awhile for me to get my thoughts together.

Monkey in the Middle

We went to the zoo today with one of my best friends, Danielle, and her adorable little boy Nathan. Needless to say, Audra and he hit it off (she has an awful lot of boyfriends, I must say!). Here are some of my favorite pics:

Though you really can't see it, there really is an orangutang in between Audra and Nathan- hence the title of this post.

Above is a picture outside the butterfly pavillion.

Here is a picture of me and Danielle with the kids:

Obviously, Nathan and Audra did "hit" if off (ok, totally lame pun intended). And, below, Audra with her true favorite person in the whole world: her daddy. (Who, by the way, we were both VERY excited to see- Audra couldn't stop coming up to him, hugging him, and running away laughing when she saw him. And I, of course, was ecstatic to finally see him after his eternally long flight- but that is another story entirely...)

It really was a great day, and I was so glad to see Danielle who I just absolutely love!!! What a great blessing to have so many wonderful friends!

The Reason I Came Early

I flew out a week earlier than Ben, and the reason is simple:I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my family. I never really knew my cousins growing up, and I regret that, so even though Audra won't remember this, I want her to know her cousins. At least she can have pictures of her with her cousins when she is older to help her remember. Here are some of the fun pictures thus far, with more surely to come:

This is with cousin Isaac.He told me that he thinks he is replacing Ben as her favorite person- he might be right, she absolutely LOVES him- all he has to do is look at her and she laughs and laughs and laughs- very cute!

Katie and Audra enjoyed playing in the water...well, they kind-of enjoyed it! The water was really cold, but the splasing was a blast!

Then there is a picture of everybody walking to the park- notice Isaac is pushing Audra, he absolutely insisted on pushing her!

More pictures will follow!

Grandma Fun

Audra and I flew (without Ben) yesterday to Seattle to visit my parents. To my surprse, she was great on the plane. I had been very nervous, and I was lucky because I sat next to this wonderful woman who was a grandma and just loved playing with Audra. I feel very blessed to have had her sitting next to us!

She has also done a great job even though she is in a new environment with new people, new house, new crib, and no daddy. Everything was going great, until about 7:15 Colorado time when she started freaking out. It was very rough getting her to fall asleep- I rocked her to sleep twice and twice she woke up as soon as I put her in the crib. I felt so bad for her! It must be tough, and she doesn't understand. But, tonight she was great- didn't fuss at all! Maybe she will sleep in later than 5 AM tomorrow morning! (Gotta love the time change!)

Here are some pictures of her adventures at Grandma's:

Alicia taught Audra to throw all of Grandma's CD's on the floor. What fun!

I couldn't find Audra and was calling for her looking for her, when I found her by the plant. The above picture is how Audra ended up (who knows how much dirt she ended up eating...)

Here is how the plant faired:

Guess I will have to watch out for the poor plant!!!!

On another note, we have some good news on the house. A young couple looked at our house a couple of weeks ago and they really liked the place. They don't know if they want to live in the suburbs or in downtonwn Denver, so they are going this week to look at some places downtown. If they decide to stay in the burbs, they will put an offer on our place!!! We feel relatively optimistic because in that price range we don't think you could find a very nice place downtown. Wish us luck!