all those other bloggable things - in no particular order....

Mr Bendy Hop Along Bill took our trip with us... and made his way into MANY of the road trip photos. Mostly because I turned camera duties over to my oldest son, who shall hereafter be referred to as T Jr. (so as to avoid confusion... he IS quite manly and all boy... and he's not REALLY named after me...)

Remember these Shoes??? Yeah, well T Jr. is growing out of them. So, let's begin again - he got a lot of good art from family on this trip and should be able to get them completed by the end of the OTHER family reunion... as a matter of fact, he might need a whole other pair!

We went to see the amazing fireworks - had to enjoy it because usually it's so amazingly HOT that we have to watch from the safety of an air conditioned vehicle... T Jr. and I traded off the camera trying to keep it nice and steady - until we discovered that it was MUCH more fun to just shake the heck out of it and get some interesting shots!

Great, blurry AND sideways... but my point is that my friend Shelley makes some awesome goodies which she brought for the whole crowd when we got together. If you're a Coloradoan you should check her out... if you're not, don't make fun of Coloradoan, because REALLY... Utahn is FAR worse (just the word, not the people)...

Ha - don't we look luverly? more friends - this time at the park... we did take more attractive photos - but with my habit of making weird faces in all photos - it was much more flattering if everyone else was too! Luv you girls for playing along... and in case you didn't recognize quilter extraordinaire there on the right - check out her blog here.

all the cousins - you might recognize my little rugrats - but if you don't the tallest two are mine... and the boy inbetween them is mine too... even if he doesn't look thrilled about it! That little cutie on the right is mine... and the one second from the left is my CLONE so if you've ever met me you probably didn't have to be told THAT! The rest? well, they're just darn cute too... and even though this picture is less than 2 weeks old it's already outdated as my sister had another baby a few days ago... so just imagine a little newborn tucked in there somewhere.

some old friends and I met at a Karaoke bar... where I chickened out but had a grand time visiting with high school friends. Now when our 20 year comes around (in oh... say... 19 years... because of COURSE I'm that young...) I'll be able to recognize them all at first glance!! This one is K - who has always had an incredible singing voice and a wicked sense of humor - love her. (and everyone else too... but my pictures all turned out sucky... gotta go scour facebook for more!) (and... lest anyone worry - like my kids - I drank two tall glasses of ice water and had a yummy sandwich!)

One of the hidden gems in Colorado - Swetsville Zoo - no animals at all, and probably a grand place to hurt yourself if you run around crazy - but I love it! The entire place (every 40 foot dinosaur, snoopy, and humpty dumpty) are made from old car parts, gas cans, and assorted other junk that is now not cluttering up a landfill somewhere! If you're ever near Loveland, CO - this is worth a quick stop, really!

sideways again???? grrrrrr... okay - well, bonus points to anyone who can tell me what credit card company used this guy in their national ad campaign... or at least I THINK it was a credit card company... it's keeping me up nights!!!

seriously blurry on this one... just proving that the true bloggist in me had my camera out even at lunch... and apparently my sis has gotten into the photo spirit even though I've never seen a single photo over at her blog...

I made the mistake of introducing my kids to the old game of "hold your breath through the tunnel" What? you didn't play that game??? oh, you must not have every driven with my parents who would do ANYTHING for a few seconds of silence... it didn't work so well with my kids - because they'd all gang up on W and try to make him laugh. and then there was the Eisenhower tunnel incident...

Next (well, actually first, but I'm guessing you can't tell while reading this that I'm writing the post in reverse order... it's just easier that way) - I may have mentioned that T Jr. was in charge of the camera during the car trip???? I had to go twice around a roundabout in Grand Junction for him to snap a photo of a big dinosaur... and then he did this... creepier than the money guy from the Geico commercials any day!