Fourth of July Weekend

We were so lucky to have 4.5 days off over the Fourth and we were able to spend a lot of time with friends and have a lot of fun together as well.  On the actual 4th we were at a friend's house for a barbeque and fireworks. Their house is right by the lake where the fireworks were being set off so we were able to sit out on the deck during the show.  Not very long into the show we noticed a strange glow near the ground where the fireworks were being set off.  Turns out they set some brush on fire!  I guess the fire department wasn't too worried as they let the city finish the show before they put out the fire but we were close enough that we all smelled like smoke for the rest of the night and the fire made the news considering how everyone in this State is on super high alert regarding fires.  We also enjoyed another barbeque with Scott and Sue over the weekend but just like on the Fourth I didn't take a single picture.  I don't know what is wrong with me but we had a great time at both events.

I do have a couple pictures from the Pink Martini concert we went to at the Arvada Center outdoor amphitheater with some friends.  Pink Martini is such a fun band that has about 12 members with instruments ranging from violin to trumpet to piano.  Their music makes me feel like I should be drinking a fancy cocktail in some swanky club in Havana or Miami in the 40s.  Each instrument was featured prominently during different songs throughout the night and the lead singer was wonderful.  She reminded me of Charlize Theron only with some serious pipes.  It's kind of fun that most of the songs (mostly covers) are not in English.  For a couple of the songs they let people come up onto the stage to dance and for the final song they had everyone form a conga line.  What a fun atmosphere.

Also over the weekend we used more of our yummy produce from the farmer's market.  I was using tomatoes on everything and have made jalapeno/anaheim poppers, tuna nicoise pasta (using red potatoes and green beans), and Ryan made pickles, pickled jalapenos, and fried eggplant.

He also made yummy banana bread, which had nothing to do with farmer's market produce, but it was delicious.  He recently got this new foodsaver that he is obsessed with so he packaged up the banana bread just like he's been packaging up every other food item in the house.  However, the bread didn't stay sealed long considering I'm in the house scavenging for any sweet item I can find.

We decided over the weekend that we were tired of taking the girls in for grooming and thought we could do just as good a job for a one time investment in some clippers (which by the way, is about the cost of one professional grooming).  So we decided to work on China first since she is the calmer personality.  She was a perfect little client!  I thought "WOW those groomers have it easy with China - we are paying too much!"  The little sweetie even fell asleep in the middle of grooming!

Isn't she tuuuuttteeeee?  Even though we're not yet great at grooming I think China looks pretty stinking good for this being the first time we've ever groomed a dog.  Here's before and after:

Peanut...Peanut doesn't look as good as China.  Peanut was an awful client and squirmed and wiggled and huffed and puffed and she ended up looking like a freaky baboon/Clydesdale/bird hybrid.  I accidentally shaved her entire behind area (hence the baboon) once when she was squirming and then her legs were so difficult to do that from the elbow area to the foot are pretty bare but then the actual feet are really poofy and then on top of those basically shaved legs is a slighlty poofy chest and body area.  So I feel like everything we were overpaying on China we were probably underpaying on Peanut.  Here are the best before and after pictures I could get.  At least her little face looks good. 

A fun delivery we got over the holiday weekend was the crib and dresser for baby boy!!!  Courtesy of the excited Grammies and Grampies (Ryan's parents).  Ryan got everything set up in the baby room and since we already had all the stuff from the baby shower and from our friend Amy we're pretty well situated in there already!  We still need to hang the valance that we got and I still want a chair but we are definitely getting things ready bit by bit!