Coconut Rum Cupcakes.

Yum. I made these for Jon's last soccer match on Tuesday. Coconut Rum Cupcakes with a Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. There were definitely a hit. I borrowed the recipe from Ming Makes Cupcakes and I am borrowing the peanut butter cupcake recipe for Duke's birthday this weekend.

By the way, it's Duke's birthday today! 2 years old.

The Recors Are Coming to Town!

(Picture taken by Anastasia Smith in Manistee, MI)

Jon and I will be making our pilgrimage to Michigan in May! We want to be able to see everyone before Jon dives head first into flight school. So if you're lucky enough to be in Michigan May 25 through May 29, we really want to see you. Please, please let us know if you can find some time to see the long lost Recors!

Distracted Driving.

We all do it. Turn on the radio, answer a phone call, eat our breakfast. We all probably also know how dangerous it is, but does that stop us? It will stop me now.

My mom was in an accident last night. She is fine, don't worry; she came out of it with a few bad bruises, a stiff neck, and a totaled car. But she was very lucky. She was sitting at a stoplight on Michigan Ave and a car slammed into the back of her van, going at least 45 mph. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and had a cat scan, but everything is okay, for her. The girl who was driving the car that hit her is dead.

We're not sure why this girl didn't stop when she saw the cars stopped at the light, but it is an eye opener to us all that driving should be a solitary effort. I, for one, am going to eliminate (to the best of my ability) all distractions while I am driving. It's a scary thing, driving on public roads. You life is not only in your hands, but the hands of the drivers around you.

Please keep this young (18 years) girl's family in your prayers. I don't know if any of us can fully understand what it is like to lose a family member that young.

Rain, Rain.

Today, Jon and I were able to eat our dinner (pizza bagels, if you were wondering) outside while watching a thunderstorm. Each and every day I think we both realize something new that we are going to miss when we leave Colorado. We really have made a home here. We have both talked about coming back here in about 20 years when Jon retires from the Air Force. It's a little early to make those plans yet, but its definitely crossed our minds. We will miss this beautiful state.

We are, however, VERY excited to move on to the Oklahoma/Flight School chapter of our lives. The United States Air Force definitely has us on a great roller coaster.



This picture was taken at Rocky Mountain National Park Summer 2009 by Anastasia Smith.

Duke.

As we near April 30th (Duke's 2nd birthday, or 21 in dog years) I find myself reminiscing about the little puppy we brought home just under 2 years ago. Sometimes its hard to believe he could have ever been that small. He has always been such a great dog, easy to train, eager to please, and oh so loving. I think Jon and I hit the jackpot with him!

I passed!

I am officially now certified to be a personal trainer through ACE! Yay!

Drumroll Please....

We have dates! Jon found out today that he will be officially on active duty June 8, 2010! He will have to report to Alabama for six weeks of training on June 14 (hopefully I will be with him) and then we'll be in Oklahoma before July 26!

As you may remember, we did not think we were going to be leaving Colorado until AFTER October of this year, so this came as quite a shock that we're leaving so early. It's bittersweet; we'll both really miss Colorado and are sad to leave it, but we are SO excited to start our Air Force life and to move on to the next chapter of our life. I don't know how much time we'll have to really think about any of this in the next two months, we've got so much to do to get ready.

So, if you were planning on using us as an excuse to finally get out to beautiful Colorado, you've got a deadline now!

Beautiful Colorado.

Since I featured an amazing sunrise from our backyard the other day, I figured I should probably show off our front yard too. We don't really get a lot of big sunsets where we live, since the sun ducks down behind the mountain before it gets too late (now, thats not to say we don't get some really cool clouds around that time of the day, but we don't really get to see a lot of actual sunsets). We do however get some pretty amazing mountain sunsets with rays of sunshine visible for miles. This picture was from the other day, and has not been edited at all, so this is what we see. Enjoy!

Life with two kids.

This weekend we got to spend 24 hours straight with Gib and Roxi, a pair of fun, energetic, and crazy kids. We got to play at the park, make dinner and breakfast together, do lots of coloring, and LOTS of playing pretend. It was a blast, and now Jon's napping.

Josephine.

I am lucky enough to be able to spend my days with the cutest, sweetest little 9 month old girl around. I'm a nanny to Josephine, and I love it. We have a blast hanging out and going for LOTS of walks. She has started crawling, clapping, waving, and pointing all in the last week and a half, and she has insisted on feeding herself every day at lunch. There is just something wonderful about going to work and having an adorable little baby with a big old grin on her face, so excited to see you. It makes my job easy.

Cookies!

I have become quite the baker in the last few years. I recently made my Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies for some of our friends who just found out they got pilot candidate slots! Sorry, secret recipe, I can't share...

Busy Week.

First of all, I apologize for leaving the blog untouched for so long, it has been a very busy week. I feel like I have seen my cute little husband for a total of about 2 hours all week. This weekend we have wonderful plans to just be together. We've decided to start P90X (an intense workout plan for those of you not in the know) together, so we'll be doing that this weekend. We also have plans to golf tomorrow morning, watch our friend's 4 year old tomorrow night (it was their anniversary yesterday), and watch the DVR'd State Game after that (so don't call us and tell us the outcome!). Who knows what we will do Sunday, but at least it will be together.

This week has been busy for both of us. Jon has had work and school (don't feel too bad for him, his busiest class is GOLF), plus a bunch of Air Force requirements that has kept him out until 10pm most nights this week. I have been studying like crazy (2 weeks and counting until my personal trainer certification test!! ah!), getting re-certified in CPR/AED, and watching our newest Netflix movies (the movie Adam is wonderful, if you're looking for a touching drama).

Since we will soon be moving to Oklahoma and an entirely different type of beauty, I always like to share pictures of the beautiful state we reside in now. This picture is of a sunrise one morning, shot from our guest room window. We really are pretty lucky with where we live. This is the view from the back, and the view from the front is the mountain trail we love to hike. Plus we only have neighbors on one side. I don't think I could ask for anything else!