Summertime!

I've been a little delinquent with posts lately, so forgive me (for the 2 of you that may occasionally check in) ;)  It's been a fun summer, and being outside with friends and family has obviously taken a priority over my picture uploading/editing and posting.  If you're not a big picture person, you may not know that it actually takes a good chunk of time to get your camera out, connect it to your computer, upload the photos, go through them and delete the blurry (or hideous) ones, edit some, choose which ones are post-able/appropriate, upload them, share them, print them, etc.  I mean, I need a good hour or two to sit down after a vacation to take care of all that.  Lately, that hour or two has been hard to find.

A few weekends ago we enjoyed an awesome camping trip with some new friends through our church (Denver Community Church).  It started as a supper group (like ours) last year but evolved into a good group of friends that have adopted folks like Matt and I and Keri and Joe (well, we were more adopted through Keri and Joe after they were adopted).  It's always great finding more friends here in Denver, and we had an awesome time.  We drove up on Friday after work to camp near Piney Lake north of Vail.  It was absolutely gorgeous, and we spent the night cooking smores, drinking beer, and singing whatever song came to mind courtesy of Matt on acoustic guitar.  We probably would have kept singing all night had Matt not broken a string (though we did bust out some awesome acappela versions of old church songs). :)

The next morning we went to Piney Lake (after a small detour when they were doing construction on the only dirt road out) and hiked before the storm clouds moved in.  It was such a great way to spend a Saturday!  Sadly, Matt and I had to head back down to Denver (the rest of the folks stayed that night) as Matt had to get up super early to play at church for Bluegrass Sunday.  I hear they had a great time after the rain passed.

Here are some pics of the 14 friends and 6 dogs. :)

Last week as I was getting Matt and I all packed up for our 6:45pm flight to Chicago, I got a call from my best friend Kari around 3pm who, as luck would have it, was going into labor.  She was a few weeks early but I had a feeling that her little baby would come while I was gone... and sure enough, he arrived the morning after I left!  Thankfully, thanks to my awesome friend Keri (different person, notice the one letter difference in spelling) who happens to work at the hospital on the high risk floor where Kari was admitted, I got to stop by and see her for about an hour before I took off.  Kari was in great spirits and I'm SO bummed I wasn't here for the birth of Noah.  I'm heading to see him tomorrow, so I can post pics then!

So, as I mentioned earlier, we flew into Chicago with my sister on Wednesday night (after flying through a few thunderstorms - BOOO - at which time I declared that I would take the train home) and met up with a few cousins for drinks downtown. We stayed the night at my cousin Aaron and his girlfriend Anne's place (woah, hello humidity!), and then drove to Michigan in the morning.  My family has had a tradition of going to the Lake for almost my whole life.  Sadly, in the last ten or so years, I haven't been much as work schedules and finances have made it tough.  My grandma is getting older (and she's the one who hosts and rents the cottage), so we didn't want to miss it this year.  I was also thrilled to be able to take Matt and show him how I spent many summers growing up.

We had a terrific time at the lake (in Union Pier, Michigan, near New Buffalo) and spent MANY hours in tubes relaxing in the water.  I don't think I can ever remember the water being so warm!  Of course, the trip was full of a LOT of family drama, but that's usually to be expected, so we were prepared.  It was great to spend time with cousins (even Matthew, who had been living in Australia, so we hadn't seen him in six years!) and aunts and uncles though, and my grandma was as sharp as usual, just much slower physically and I'd say even more blunt than her normal no-holding-back self.  We ate, drank, laughed, tubed, and played card games...I felt like a kid again being there (well, kid + beer/wine)!  Oddly, Matt's friend from college was staying nearby with his wife, so they came to hang out with us a few times which was great.  Each night we'd toss around the idea of doing a bonfire on the beach like the good old days, but somehow we always proved too lazy to get around to actually doing it. :)  I guess we're not kids afterall. 

Here are just a few pics from the trip (of course I took about 200...):

So, that's that for now.  Matt sadly got sick on the trip and has been at home for the past two days coughing like crazy.  Because of that, I put off my visit to meet little Noah Kozlowski for fear of getting him sick, but I look forward to meeting him tomorrow.  For now, it's back to getting some schoolwork done and preparing for Matt's parents' visit next week!