happy birthday daddio!

last night we celebrated my dad’s birthday! we had root beer floats and took turns telling him what we love about him. it was so fun to reminisce about fun times we have had together and what a great dad he is…and has always been.

thanks dad for always supporting me in whatever i have done, for being an example of a worthy priesthood holder, for magnifying every calling you have had, for willingly serving without complaint, for working so hard, for teaching me the gospel through your words and actions, for being so fun and always playing with us, for your kindness and your constant love. you’re the best! i love you dad!

super grandpa! one of the things josh and myles said they loved about grandpa was that he reads them books. he is the best!

girl's night

tuesday night megan, maegan and i met up for dinner at the cheesecake factory. we have all been friends since at least elementary school and i *love* these girls! they are so much fun and great examples to me. i think it’s been about 2 years since we all got together but it’s like no time has passed…those are the best kinds of friendships! our waitress had to come back at least 3 times before we were ready to order because we were talking and neglected to look at the menu. we talked for a little over 3 hours and probably would have gone longer except meg had a hungry little guy at home. luckily we all live in the same place now so we won’t have to wait 2 more years to get together! thanks for such a fun night girls!

the good samaritan

monday night we went to my parent’s house for family home evening. angela and her kids are visiting and my mom prepared a lesson on the good samaritan. lexi opted to be the good samaritan complete with bandages to bind up the wounds of “the man” (head and leg wounds in this case) portrayed by josh. myles got his wish to be a “bad guy” and played the levite with some attitude, while dave showed his stellar acting skills as the snooty priest.

i was so touched by the kids’ understanding of the parable and the principles of love, service and kindness it teaches. they shared sweet testimonies of loving your neighbor, (everyone you meet) regardless of who they are. i sure love these kids!

myles couldn't quite make it through family scripture study

guys weekend in lake tahoe

a couple of weekends ago dave met up with my brother and brother-in-laws in lake tahoe for a guys weekend. i thought he might actually be the one to blog about it...but no luck. blogging is officially my thing i guess. even though i wasn't on the trip, i think i can sum up by noting a few activities/items:

• x-box 360 – yes, dave carefully and lovingly bubble-wrapped his x-box 360 and packed it into his suitcase for the trip, barely making the 50 pound luggage limit (only after moving his shaving kit to his carry-on). from what i understand many hours were spent playing halo 3 and trash-talking. there has even been a request to bring it to the family vacation in california next month so the guys have something to do while the women sit and talk for hours on end (totally true and bound to happen anytime the todd family…especially the todd women get together)
• junk food – i understand chips and pop were not only consumed as snacks, but also as breakfast (while playing x-box)
• guy talk. i know it happened and i am totally fine not knowing the details. i prefer ignorance.
• mountain biking – i think by the end dave was wishing he had a softer seat and padded shorts!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• fly fishing – despite multiple attempts at various times of the day (and night) fly fishing didn’t end up being very successful (much to matt’s chagrin). but my hubby sure looks cute in his waders!

congratulations!

on saturday dave's sister kari got engaged to sterling! he sent her on a scavenger hunt (with roses) and he, a ring and a proposal were the prize at the end. we are so excited for them! this has been *8 years* in the making and we can't wait until next june! congratulations you guys!

summer has begun!

last night for fhe dave and i headed to denver's amusement park, elitch gardens. we got season passes to the park which means we are going to be spending lots of quality time at elitch's over the next few months and i am totally excited. i can hardly wait. i LOVE rollercoasters!

last night we were on mister twister (see above). while we were going up the first big hill, the ride stopped and we just sat there for about 5 minutes while they checked on a "techincal difficulty." the ride finally started up again and i must admit, i don't know how safe i felt after the "technical difficulty," especially since it is a wooden rollercoaster that already feels a little shaky to begin with. but all ended well! bring on the summer!

visit from the taylors

last weekend my sister suzi and her family visited from logan. we had a great time hanging out, barbecuing and playing with the kids. on saturday we went on a hike to devil's head. i have great memories growing up of hiking devil's head every memorial day with families from our ward. at the end of the hike there is a fire tower that you can climb up to. there is an incredible view from the top in all directions. when i was 3 years old my family hiked devil's head. when we reached the top my dad was going to take my sisters and brother up the 143 steps to the top and left me with my mom. i didn't like the idea of being left behind and decided to climb to the top on my own. my mom, who is scared of heights, was too scared to follow after me. so she yelled for me to be careful and i joined my dad and siblings at the top! this last visit my brave mom climbed to the top with us! the boys loved climbing the rocks and we had a great time with the taylors. we're ready for you to move to colorado any time, guys! wink, wink ;)

down in durango

i just dropped dave off at the airport for his "guys weekend" in lake tahoe with my brother and brother-in-laws. i came home and the house felt *very* empty. we have been apart a couple of times since we got married, but i have always been the one going out of town. so this time i get to stay home and hold down the fort. so i decided to finally catch up on some blogging
(warning: this post contains lots of pictures...i went a little crazy).

dave and i headed down to durango in southern colorado the last weekend in may for a little vacation.

on the road

dave attended college down in durango and it was fun to have him show me around campus and the town.

me in front of the clocktower on campus. all of the building were made of beautiful sandstone

we even snuck into dave's freshman dorm and found his room

the weather was gorgeous and it was a perfect weekend...with only one small glitch. dave's old mentor from college, marc and his wife marty were kind enough to let us stay with them for the weekend. they were the greatest host/hostess, the ultimate tour guides and killer domino players (we couldn't beat them)! plus at the end of the day we got to relax in their hot tub and look at the incredible stars (they really know how to treat their guests right)

the small glitch was dave had an allergic reaction to a little chihuahua who had previously stayed in our room and he couldn't breathe (a slight problem). so at 11:30 pm our first night there we had to come up with a plan b. luckily marc and marty had recently purchased a pop-up trailer (aka the cub) that was parked at their house and we stayed there.

we were officially the first people to sleep in the cub

ever since i met dave i have heard about "mama's boy," dave's favorite italian restaurant. i finally got to try it and it was delicious.

there are a couple really old, beautiful hotels on main street. this was an old elevator in one of them. i thought it was so cute and dave was obviously excited about it

fun, big bear

giddy up

on saturday we started out our day at the farmer's market. i loved it...i felt like we were locals (although all that went out the window when i pulled out the camera for a picture). we had an amazing breakfast tamale, burrito and pastry (yes, lots of good food). i felt like we were there with the most popular people in town. marc and marty knew everyone!

after the farmer's market we headed to telluride, a gorgeous town a few hours away (trivia: tom cruise and katie holmes spend the holidays in telluride, but they weren't there that day). on the way there we saw 2 things that made my day:

while we were driving along we ran into a cow "roadblock." they were just taking their time, crossing the street. i loved seeing them up close. especially the little "mooers!"

the other best thing was the house we drove by that randomly had a camel (i told you marc was the best tour guide. he knew all the hot spots). who would expect to see a camel in southern colorado?!

i loved telluride! we rode the gondola into town (that is telluride down below)

we wandered around the town, ate at a cute little place called "maggie's" (and met maggie's husband), looked at the little shops

and got ice cream at "the sweet life" (featured on rachel ray's show and visited by jennifer love hewitt). a totally cute sweet shop with amazing ice cream

we had a great weekend enjoying a beautiful part of our state and spending time with marc and marty. thanks again for your hospitality guys!

vacation at home

i decided to extend my vacation one more day after we got home. we slept in, went out for breakfast, laid by the pool and hung out. it was fantastic!

my sister-in-law kari and i went and got pedicures...our feet were in desperate need of some pampering

later that night we went with our friends jd and amanda to a colorado crush arena football game. it was our first time and quite interesting...especially the crowd. i haven't seen that many mullets and wife-beaters in a long time. it was definitely some good people watching. we even got to move down closer at half-time (with only a little bit of trouble from the security). we had a lot of fun and were glad we could spend some time with jd and amanda before they headed to new york.