The Campanellis: June 22nd

Playing in the picnic area at the old Armory building

On Mark's 38th birthday (June 22nd) when Mark came home from work, Ella handed Mark his fortune cookie fortune from the previous night which said, "A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon". This was a coincidence that he received this the night before but it added to the fun. He handed it back and said something along the lines of, "we'll have to wait for that to happen" and went inside. I then told him that we have a "pleasant surprise" for him now, I set up a babysitter for the night so we could go on a date. This may not seem like a big deal but we NEVER had a babysitter before, EVER... we haven't had a date in over 3 years!!

I took him to Indulge Bistro and Wine Bar. We shared a bottle of wine and had one of the most delicious dinners we've had in a long time. Maybe it was so delicious because we could actually taste our food instead of shoving our mouths and getting out of the restaurant before the kids melt down.

After dinner we walked past our house (I admit, the restaurant was only one block from our house) to listen for crying. We didn't hear any so we continued on to the Golden City Brewery and had a beer in the beer Garden. About 15 minutes before we planned on being home the babysitter called and said Gordon was crying and she couldn't settle him down. We were less than a block away so we ran home, yes I said ran ; ) Beside Gordon crying at the end of the night, the babysitter said everything went well. She also gave us the biggest compliment a parent can get, she asked how we were raising them because they were so good compared to the other kids she babysits. Haha, wait until she gets to know them! I'm glad they behave for someone! Overall it was a fantastic evening, Mark said he was very surprised and had a really great time.

Mark was so kind to put up the tree branch decal I picked out for our living room. I'm getting sick of white and beige rental walls.

Ella made the Golden Transcript! Her picture was taken at the Summer Solstice festival last weekend. Apparently, there is a picture of Mark holding a flag around this age that made it into a local paper.

It was nearly 100 degrees this weekend so the river was packed. Mark is floating with Ella this afternoon as Gordon naps and I update the blog.

Ella was hiding behind me almost pushing me over.

Gordon spent most the the day following dogs around, barking at them and trying to pet them.

Mark and Ella heading out to get our growler filled.

Hanging around the house on Sunday morning

Going for a Sunday hike, we can walk to several trail heads from our house.

The plan was to hike to the top of "Castle Rock" but with temps nearing 100 we decided to turn back and try again next weekend.

Looking down on Golden!

Ella decided to hike down.

Last night we attended the Golden city cruise: Of course, dead men have little to do with a family-friendly bike ride, but the theme for tonight’s Golden Cruise is “pirates.” The gathering starts at 5 at Woody’s Pizza (1305 Washington Avenue) and the ride starts at 6:30. Enjoy $3 pints of New Belgium Beer, live music, and the chance to win a cruiser bike. Arrrgh, yarrr, ahoy matey, etc. Be there!

We had a thunderstorm yesterday that kept a lot of people away from the Golden cruise. Last month we couldn't believe how many bikers came out to join the ride. I took a video of part of the ride which you can view on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GTi83lIin4&feature=youtu.be

I had to take a picture of this cool float!

Some photos from an evening walk...

School of Mines campus is beautiful, I'll take more pictures next time we walk through. We live right on the edge of campus.

Morning snuggles

Our friends neighbors have some chickens and ducks that just rome the neighborhood, funny sight to be walking down the street and have a chicken walk up to us. These same neighbors had a mountain lion jump out from under their house when they raised it to redo the foundation after they bought it. The house was vacant for about 6 months before they bought it.