Ren Fest in Colorado!

So I have been a very bad blogger lately!! And I am so behind, yikes. Call me lazy but there really is no other explanation.

Last weekend we went to the Renaissance festival with Jess and Jaime. Jess was one of my roommates in college and one of the best gals ever! And Jaime is her sister who is also a lot of fun, and is now Jess's roomie. I have decided that Ren fest in the mountains is very enjoyable with the scenery and such, however the wind was awful and we all had dirt in our eyes, hair, clothes, well everywhere!






I enjoy the costumes and fancy outfits, this was one of the best fairies I have seen. Next year I may have to be a fairy!

Belly Dancers! Kaiden needs to see these gals, he is one and has some amazing belly moves already.

Swords!

Just before I grabbed this picture there elephants were entwtining thier trunks, it was so cute, but I missed it. I don't know if they were fighting or loving, but it was cute either way!

Jaime bought a couple of fun victorian corsets, here she is modeling for us. We convinced her she must wear it for the rest of the day! When else would you get to wear a corset around and totally fit in?

I gave Jess an apple from my bag and the horse loved it! He practically swallowed it whole, then green apple juice came spewing out of his mouth!





Playing with pirates, Jack Sparrow did make an appearance at the festival.

Victorian sisters being cute! They are both so tiny, of course they couldn't breath or laugh in those things.

Matt shooting arrows at hay bales.

Acrobats juggling swords while standing on one another!

Matt trying to win $5, if you climb this ladder (which they forget to tell you is impossible to do) you win the prize.

Matt was very good, but he ended up falling into the hay...

More acrobats

Irish music

Fun water wheel, I thought it was picturesque.

One must try on armor at the Ren fest!

And fun hats!

Now this was probably the coolest and most unique thing there. This guy calls himself Casting Bronze. He has taken bronze bells and made this instrument that he plays with hand and foot pedals. It was pretty amazing actually. Here is a link to a video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0PGGQbtyXg

The Ren Fest would not be complete without a good jousting! We rooted for the bad guy even though we knew he would die, how is it he dies every year?

Our trip back to KS

Over memorial day weekend we went home for Elisabeth's wedding and had a wonderful visit with family. We really hadn't been home since christmas so it was good to hang out with everybody. We drove in town just in time for me to make it to the bachelorette party. It was a tiring day since I had gotten off work at 8 am, we drove all day, then the party that night... but it was worth it. Stephen went all out and got a limo for the party and we had a progressive dinner at the Legend's.

Beth is showing me her glowing bling bling ring for the night!



This was the girls breakfast on the morning of the wedding.
More wedding festivities, Nan working on the bridal bouquet.
Ezra was the only boy allowed!

Matt seating granny and grandpa Bollinger

There was beautiful weather for the outdoor evening wedding. I like this picture because of the flower girls giddiness! Much joy and happiness for Beth and Stephen!!

That's quite a knife for cutting the cake!

The Diliberto girls!

The gazebo was magical all lit up at night!

Aunt Kelly and her dogs, I think they are inseprable. This was the day after the wedding, a lazy day to recoup, we watched star wars all afternoon!

Then we headed to KC to visit my family.

We attempted to go fishing with my brother and sister, we were quite unsuccessful, but the sunset was beatiful! The fish were just hiding from us.

These hibiscus make me happy every time I walk through them!

Lazy afternoon by the pool with miss Meggie

Here we are in Plattsburg visiting mom and Cayla!

This is Matt with Kinsley, the sweetest little girl ever! She looks just like her daddy. Kinsley is 4 months old and is the daughter of one of Matt's best friends since grade school. It was a great time to hang out with Dan and Melissa. (this is Matt in daddy training)

I am so sorry we didn't get to visit everyone! It was a very busy time. I surely do miss Kansas in the spring. Colorado is just not quite the same. I was sort of hoping for a good spring thunderstorm while we were home, but we didn't really get to see one. Today we were out biking in Colorado and it looked like a thunderstorm was coming our way and then it just blew over us! Nothing. I am sure it landed in Kansas though!

Oh yea the other exciting thing was that Matt's birthday was last week. I surprised him with a class at the local community college. It was a two day motorcycling rider class. So he is officially looking for a motorcycle, since he loved the class (of course). He has only been talking about it for a couple of years and here we are two years later! He was very happy though so we'll see what happens next...

So happy summer everyone!! I can't believe it but I am about halfway through my contract here in Colorado, so we'll have to start thinking about our new plans soon. The hospital I am currently working for does not know if they will be able to extend my contract here, we would really like to stay another three months, but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime we are checking out our options. This is the part of travel nursing that I find difficult to accept. It's like a roller coaster, you accept your contract, all is busy and a little stressful with preparations. You get to your assignment, (hopefully you like it) for the first 4-6 weeks you feel carefree, exploring and loving the fact that you get paid to travel. Then about halfway through it's time to figure out what happens next and then it's lots of phone calls, playing the timing game, trying to get your next contract or extending and working on your living arrangments. Now with leases coming due and not being certain what's coming next it is double frustrating! I know it will all work out and it is reassuring to know that God knows what is coming next!

Hiking and Biking!!

Well we have been busy just playing in our backyard!

Just to the west about 1/4 of a mile is this state park with some great trails for hiking and mountain biking and we have fallen in love with these trails!

Here we are just after a climb up a small foothill called Mount Carbon it's great to get to the top and take in the views!!

Our next place to play is Red Rocks, which is about 2 miles to the west of us.

Here we went hiking a bit, they have lots of trails and it is such beautiful place.

The big thing to do here on a weekday is to run the stairs of the amphitheatre for a great workout.

We found the fire department out here working out as well as many other groups of people!

We are hoping to see a concert here this summer, so far no one we are that interested in is coming, but we'll keep watching the schedule as it develops.

At the visitor center we learned that Red Rocks was built as an economic stiumlus back in the 1930's. The men who came to work were housed there in a camp and had food and lodging as well as weekly pay to send to their families. We also learned it was designed after an amphitheatre in Greece!

What a great picture!! Deosn't he look so happy to be in Colorado. Matt says he is still in recovery from Northern Virginia and is enjoying his time here much better!