". . .IF IT'S THE MOUNTAINS BENDING RIVERS, THEN YOU SHALL HAVE THEM. . ." -The Avett Brothers

THURSDAY

rubey came from austin and evan arrived from houston.

FRIDAY

most of the swim camp troops headed home,

except for adelaide and graham who stayed for a few extra days with grammy and poppa.

rubey, ev, and i started our twelve-hour-drive to denver.

we were more than a little excited to cross the state line.

we ate dinner at cracker barrel, stocked up on candy from the general store,

then landed at ruby's aunt and uncle's house in denver around 10pm.

SATURDAY

afternoon we headed to red rocks amphitheater for the avett brothers concert.

 just when i thought the night couldn't get any better, the avetts dad and sister came out and sang an old hymn with them.

we got to go backstage through the tunnel previous artists had signed afterward too.

best concert venue + favorite band +wonderful weather
with people i love = pretty much perfect night in my book.

SUNDAY

morning we got to worship with my great aunt and uncle at their home church,

then went to coors field for their hottest game of all-time (not really but my sunburn made it seem that way).

while watching the rockies play i dined on nachos for the third day in a row which clearly sums up vacation to me.

after the game we had to say good-bye to rubey who was staying longer in denver
then we left for an early anniversary stay in winter park.

hello beautiful mountains, 

peaceful streams,

and leisure dinner dates on patios

with temperatures that clearly call for sipping soup (at deno's).

MONDAY

i woke up to starbucks delivery then we drove to grand lake for breakfast at our favorite place there- the fat cat.

from there we drove along trail ridge road above the mountains.

evan thoroughly soaked up the time in one of his happiest places on earth.

he took pictures of wildlife, listened to favorite tunes, stopped along the way to check out brooks and cliffs,
and found the perfect souvenir rocks for the kids.

i was passed out most of the four hour drive due to nausea/perfect fullness of biscuits and gravy.
i woke up long enough to: 1) pretend i was really athletic.

2) eat some ice cream in estes park before we turned around and started the drive back to our condo.

i love him.

back in winter park, we walked over to the base of mountain and ordered appetizers and played giant jenga.

we braved the storms that night for perfect pizza at hernanado's and another dinner full of good conversation.

our trip was pretty much wonderful.

the kids said the same thing about theirs.

they visited a water park, spent hours playing in stepping stones,

discovered their love for sonic slushes (and now proudly know these are on the menu)

and soaked up wonderful grandparent time until they crashed.

TUESDAY
we drove back to abilene.

WEDNESDAY
we celebrated a fun fourth of july morning there,
then drove back to houston for our four family to be home together once again.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE (PART THREE)...

when we went to bed friday night i assumed the mystery saturday night plans had been
a made-up story to distract me from the surprise party and the surprise guests.

but the third and final SURPRISE of the birthday week really was to happen saturday night.
so the guessing began.

after spending most of the day guessing i knew:

we had a babysitter

dinner would be eaten there

there would be entertainment there

it was not the rodeo

it was not medieval times

not the melting pot

kristin and rubey were excited for me

but out of all of us i was going to be the most excited
it might be somewhere i'd been before

it might not

at 7pm the kids were bathed and in their pajamas.

and the grownups were dressed for a fun night out.

it's moments like this that i am glad i don't have any sense of direction.

i figured out we were headed near downtown but that could still mean so many places.

i tried to look up concerts on my phone but everyone else
in the car demanded that was cheating so i stopped.

then we turned into the parking garage at the toyota center.

i assumed the rockets weren't playing (since that wasn't my idea of a fun birthday surprise).

so maybe i was right that we were going to a concert.

as they checked our tickets i was told, "enjoy the concert," which confirmed that part.

i then decided we must be eating nachos from the concession stand (which i love)

but still didn't know who was in town that would sell out the toyota center.

as we approached our seats i realized the food was going to be even better than nachos
because we were walking toward a suite with a full buffet.

i looked  over the railing at this point and saw the merchandise booth.

from what i could make out it looked like all the shirts said radiohead!

way back when evan and i first started dating we were talking about music.
we had a conversation about who we would most like to see in concert in our lifetime.

i said my top three would be:

indigo girls

cat stevens

radiohead

little did i know almost ten years later he would make one of those happen in such a fun way!

i asked if i was preaching at church on sunday or maybe leading a parade,

since nothing would shock me now after all these surprises,

but they assured me this was really the final SURPRISE of the over-the-top, fun birthday weekend!

ROGER THAT, OVER AND OUT...

who wants to sing-along with roger creager on a weeknight (or any night for that matter)?
i do, i do, sign me up!















well tuesday after school we drove out to warrenton for a graduation party.
talk about being "cool kids on a school night."













evan's family had 6 cousins and close friends graduating this year from either high school, college, or law school. this was a loud and clear call for a celebration.













they booked roger creager (my favorite texas songwriter)
to come out to zapp hall, their dance hall, and he entertained us at a private party.













it was so much fun and i'll admit it was well worth staying up past my bedtime.
even adelaide agreed.

con-grad-u-lations
austan, brittany, chris, evan, lesslie, and shailey