Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Downtown Bound

This post is, once again, long overdue! A couple of weekends ago we were incredibly blessed with a gift of a night downtown Denver. I kept it a secret from Robin and surprised him on a Friday afternoon (he thought we were just going on a dinner date, until I told him he wouldn't see his kids until the next day ;-). Robin's parents took the kids overnight (my first night away from Jersey!) and we headed downtown on our adventure. It was the most fabulously refreshing 24 hours away!!!

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Robin standing outside The Curtis hotel where we stayed.


Dinner date and a night out on the town!



The next day we explored the city, walking around 16th Street Mall and everything in between. It was so gorgeous and sunny and we had SUCH a wonderful time wandering around and not worrying about which kid needed to nap, and who to feed next before another diaper change, lol.


Our hotel was an adventure all by itself. Every floor had a different "theme" (movies, music, TV, etc) and the details were hilarious - right down to the Disney voices talking to you in the elevators and the awesome signage in the bathrooms... I couldn't resist taking some pics with my phone camera in the bathroom!



Enjoying our time in the sunshine.



The "Horror" 13th floor :)


The awesome gym, which we took full advantage of on Saturday morning! We haven't been able to work out TOGETHER for so long - it was a blast!


Hotel lobby...where you can borrow all kinds of books and games from their "library" to take up to your room!


Denver Arts...so beautiful. Can't wait to see a show there some day!


Walking around downtown there are pianos every couple of blocks called "Keys to the City." They were donated and then painted by various local artists. So cool! Anyone from the homeless to the wealthy tourist can just sit down and play them anytime. Robin even took a stab at it ;-)


Out to lunch at an old brewery downtown (the most quiet and enjoyable lunch I've had in quite some time! I didn't have to serve anyone, and MY lunch was delivered to me ;-).




Finishing up our time downtown!


We had so much fun together, but of course missed the kids and were excited to see them the next afternoon. Speaking of kids, they did great for Grandmommy and Pappy! Jersey's first slumber party was a success, and mom and dad came back refreshed and reconnected :) So thankful for the blessing of such a fun gift!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Garage Sale

Last weekend we had our first garage sale! I felt like I had "arrived" in adulthood, as that is surely a right of passage of some sort...

When we moved from Seattle we only had about two weeks notice, so we basically packed up everything we owned without taking time to go through any of it, and moved everything to Colorado. One of the many blessings of the house we live in now is that we have an unfinished basement for storage! It is wonderful to keep camping gear, baby items, off-season clothes, etc. However, there were quite a few boxes down there which were never unpacked after the move, and we weren't REALLY sure what was in them. We decided that having a garage sale would be the perfect excuse to make us clean out the basement, get rid of some stuff, and make a little bit of money at the same time. The plan worked beautifully as we sorted through ALL of our boxes, deciding what was worth keeping, and what wasn't (if we hadn't used it in the last year, we obviously didn't need it, no matter how "nice" or "great" it is!).

Friday mornings are the best traffic for garage sales, apparently, so I decided since I was by myself with the kids I would just do it from 8 - 11 am on Friday, and then we would do all day on Saturday if we had enough stuff left. Turned out that we sold MOST of our stuff on Friday morning - we definitely experienced the 8:00-serious-garage salers-rush!" I couldn't believe how many people stopped by that morning. That worked out well so we only did the sale until nap time on Saturday...and we made $200, selling who-knows-what!!! Needless to say we were quite happy with ourselves. I was able to use some of that money to shop at a HUGE community garage sale this weekend to stock up on some clothes and things for the kids - perfect! It was actually a pretty fun family day on Saturday as well all hung out in the garage, played on the lawn, Tyson charmed all of the people who stopped by, and we moved high chairs outside to eat lunch :)
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Father and daughter...drinking Starbucks and reading the Saturday morning paper as we started day 2 of our sale.

Tyson had price stickers all over him and thought that was the best part of the whole day. Every time someone asked him how much he "cost," he said: "I'm expensive." (And I said, "He might be half price by nap time" ;-)

Robin eating his smoothie and left over pizza, Tyson having lunch in his high chair, and Jersey just playing in her exersaucer :)

Teething...and chewing on EVERYTHING! (She finally got her first tooth 2 days ago!)



The girls, getting some sun! (I love how completely mismatched Jersey's outfit is in this picture...)


Whew! The end of a long, but fun weekend. Story time with daddy in their PJ's.


I just love hanging out with my little family. Even when it's something as simple as a garage sale weekend, we enjoy being home together :)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Dedication

This last Sunday at church was a special day for the Schween family. Jersey and Tyson were dedicated! As we talked about having Jersey dedicated at our church here in Castle Rock, we realized that in all of the job/moving commotion, we never dedicated Tyson...oops. That would be sad if he looked back at his baby pictures and realized we skipped that step! So we were very blessed to have them both dedicated on Sunday, and I think doing it together will always be a special memory for us.

Jersey looked like she was a flower girl, and Tyson looked pretty darn handsome in his first TIE! I was most nervous that Jersey would spit up on me, or the stage (or on our pastor, heaven forbid!), or cry if she got scared, but both kids did fabulously! Robin's parents came to our church for the occasion, and were a big help to me before we went up on stage since I would have had a hard time hanging on to both kids and keeping them quiet. And, side note, Tyson is usually in the nursery, but being out in the "big service" and watching daddy lead, he didn't take his eyes off of the drum kit during worship...he was captivated. I missed having my family there that morning, but we assigned someone to take pictures (thanks Lisa!) so they could get a glimpse of the event.
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Pastor Paul, reading scripture for us.

Blessing little Jersey girl (who didn't make a peep, even when Pastor Paul was holding her!).

Praying for our babies...



Jersey getting "Lion Kinged" ;-)


When Pastor Paul reached out towards Tyson, Ty of course thought he was trying to give him "five" and promptly "fived" him back. It was hilarious. I think Paul was a little caught off guard since he wasn't expecting that!


Photo opp after the service.




Surprisingly, the kids even sat together for a minute after the service (I figured they'd be falling apart by then!), so we got a couple of pictures. Nothing amazing, but better than I thought they would turn out after such a long morning.




Pretty girl all "dolled up" for the day. I know I'm biased, but I thought she was such a little beauty in her little outfit ;-)


It was a wonderful morning, and I felt so blessed to be at Castle Oaks Covenant for the occasion. Who knew when we moved that we would end up at such a fabulous church home. God definitely surprised me in that respect and I'm so glad that we've gotten to know and love so many people there! Tyson Lloyd and Jersey Joy...we love you so very much and thank the Lord for you every day!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Making our own water...

It officially hit 90 degrees this last week - SUMMER is here!!! I haven't taken the time to haul the kiddie pool out from the basement yet. And since Colorado is not known for it's large bodies of water (or small, for that matter), we decided to have our own water fun in the back yard. Two year olds really are content with the smallest adventures :)

A dish pan full of water, a cup, a few shovels, and a dump truck...what more does a boy need? NOTHING! Tyson played on our deck with water for quite some time, until I heard: "Ohhh no! Oh no, mommy!!" (Never a good sound coming from where your toddler is playing.) Fortunately, he had only drenched his shirt, shorts, sock, and shoes in the process (totally on accident, I'm sure) of playing. I promptly told him it was okay, stripped off his shirt, and sent him back outside. He was just fine with that idea. So here's my little nakey boy, looking so grown up to me playing in the yard by himself. He's a heart breaker already, I tell ya... Look at those abs! LOL.