Author Mandy Sladden
Mark is hoping his only little good luck charm will bring success to the Jets this year! J-E-T-S!!
Grammie and Papa got us a zoo membership this year – on Monday Mindy and Elsie headed down to Denver to check out the animals. The headed out early in the morning so they could catch the animals in their… Continue Reading →
Elsie’s hair was starting to look like a full blown mullett and I decided it was time for a hair cut. We headed over to Lollylocks where Elsie chose a dinosaur to ride for the big event. I expected more… Continue Reading →
Mindy has been taking Elsie on all sorts of adventures. They began last week with a trip to the Aquarium in Denver. While its not like the Monterey Bay Aquarium – its really cool (we have a captains pass so… Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago when Grammie was visiting we decided to have a whole weekend of fun activities – first we headed to the Butterfly pavilion. In the building you start by looking at some bugs, and some aquariums… Continue Reading →
This is a much delayed post: pretend its really dated August 4th. After Lisa and Dirk’s wedding in Montana, Mark and I flew home without Elsie. She opted to stay in Montana with Grammie and Papa for a week of… Continue Reading →
Ok I am finally doing my last post on Costa Rica. Four years ago we headed to Zihuatanejo (the surface of the sun) for our first Team Vacation where we agreed to meet somewhere each year – in 2006 we… Continue Reading →
Elsie doesn’t just say water, she says “WAAAAAAA waa” and Costa rica was filled with it … the beach the over protective mother … Dad explaining tides of course the pool (dad, coaxing her in) But her favorite Waaaa Waaa… Continue Reading →
Sweet innocent little Elsie meet Nicholas (Bam Bam) Johnston. Finally Elsie and Nicholas are at an age where they actually play together (yes mom, I know its only parallel play, but it seems as if they are interacting to me)… Continue Reading →
We have been having great weather in Costa Rica … we expected some showers and some weather from the hurricane’s but we seemed to have come in at the right time. Our house is on a fantastic (secluded) beach so the first morning we woke up and… Continue Reading →
We had a great night in San Jose and enjoyed the breakfast at the Hampton Inn before heading to the airport. We arrived at 12:00 for a 1:30 flight – they told us we couldn’t check… Continue Reading →
Well we are off for our annual tropical anniversary vacation with the Johnstons! This year we headed to Costa Rica for a week in Tambor. We often use Luxury Link to search our locations we want to travel to and… Continue Reading →
Yesterday was Elsie’s first day at School (a bilingual day care in Boulder). Here are a few shots of her just before she left … with her suitcase packed with all the necessities (cuddles, wolfgang the dog, binky and an… Continue Reading →
My parents were here for a quick visit this weekend and they brought elsie a snuggable size “Mel-mo” which she has sinced pushed in her stroller, taken to lunch (wiped said lunch on) … well pretty much it has been… Continue Reading →
While in Montana Elsie got to spend some time with Ava and Flora Fink – and learn what its like to be a true princess, Ava and Flora graciously offered to babysit elsie while we played in Lisa’s wedding golf… Continue Reading →
Last Wednesday I flew up to Aspen (not, sadly, in a private jet!) for an Enterprise UI Summit hosted by Jive Software. We spent a couple days with a diverse group of people chatting about the future of enterprise software,… Continue Reading →
We have been up in Montana a lot this summer – for weddings, memorials, and more weddings. On a couple of occasions my Grandma Ruby (known as G.G. Ruby to the great grandkids) came up to babysit. We had a… Continue Reading →
Yancey was born on the 4th of July – we call him Captain America (for other reasons as well). This year we headed over to the Spruills on the 5th to have a BBQ. It started out quite warm so… Continue Reading →
Yes, I know its August, but better late than never. Each year our neighborhood (the greater Indian Peaks West) has a 4th of July Parade – kids decorate bikes and the firedepartment leads everyone around the blocks. Its very well… Continue Reading →
In Mark’s efforts to truly Go GREEN, he has asked us to not buy plastic toys* (although sometimes they just show up and I can’t really refuse them or find the slip to return them to target). Elsie had to… Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago my grandma Jan passed away. Fortunately we were in Montana when her health took a turn for the worst and we (as well as Elsie) spent some good time with her before she passed away. here… Continue Reading →
It has been HOT, HOT, HOT so we headed out to find Elsie a fun water toy. We ended up with a Gigantic Beach Ball that hooks to a hose and sprays water. After much blowing, I convinced mark to… Continue Reading →
Today Elsie’s birthday party was featured on Hostess with the Mostess (Real Parties). Hostess is one of my daily reads for lots of fabulous party ideas!
Here is elsie in her flowers … If you take a closer look you will see that she had a fight with the sidewalk and her nose lost …
On Sunday we headed over to Lake Valley to have a visit with the Spruill’s – today we tried out our new giraffe suit (me tarzan, you jane)… I wasn’t sure if Elsie would be into the water, but instantly… Continue Reading →
Ok the final batch of photos… On Sunday we did more of the same, hanging out, having drinks and enjoying the backyard. Niko quickly found the three little pigs house (aka doghouse) which was a huge hit. Perfect size for… Continue Reading →
Ok, I took way too many photos so I am breaking the Johnston visit into three posts – filled to the brim with photos of the kids 🙂 On Saturday we woke up and had some play time and a… Continue Reading →
Niko, Scott, Jul and Sumo came to Colorado for memorial weekend … we had so much fun. Friday afternoon we headed to the airport to pick up the crew … Elsie was all decked out in her pig tails and… Continue Reading →
More of our mother’s day weekend in Montana … Pat and Shelley hosted a fabulous dinner for us on Saturday so we could spend some more time relaxing and hanging out … here is grammie with Elsie and Finley doing… Continue Reading →
We headed up to Montana for Mother’s day weekend – Grammie, Elsie and I did the Montana Women’s Run – well it was more of a walk with tons and tons of strollers. We walked with Heather, Shelley, Riley and… Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago (slacker poster here!) there was a Tulip Fairy Parade in Boulder. Mark wasn’t feeling well so we ended up not making the parade … but I did make Elsie some wings and parade her around our… Continue Reading →
the spruill’s hosted a Zinfandel Tasting on Saturday and I offered to do some collateral for the event. There were 10 participants tasting 7 wines so I created color coded wine tags and tasting notes. This time I added a… Continue Reading →
Amy has started a play group and this month they met at the Golden Community Center in Golden. This was our first time attending but we couldn’t pass up swimming and social time with other babies. The pool was awesome… Continue Reading →
Elsie got a fabulous Tea Set and Tea hat from the Johnston’s for her birthday. She is still learning how to be a lady who sips tea, and doesn’t destroy the nice tea settings mom has put out… We invited… Continue Reading →
For Elsie’s birthday, grammie and grandpa got her a Sand and Water Table – a perfect height for a little girl, and a kneeling dad… While dad likes to build sand castles, elsie much prefers to SPLASH! One waterproof smock… Continue Reading →
This weekend we were invited to an afternoon gathering – we arrived without the most important item for a translucent baby girl with red hair – a sun hat! Fortunately Bill and Linda offered up some hats from their boys… Continue Reading →
Heather and Finley came down for a visit and we had so much fun! We captured some photos of the girls playing on the grass – we can tell they are already best friends. here they are gossiping about their… Continue Reading →
Grammie gave Elsie her first crayons and they spent some time coloring together. For those of you who don’t know, my mom is an amazing drawer – if you ever have the chance to play pictionary fight to have her… Continue Reading →
We had a great time at Elsie’s first birthday … we had lots of friends join us for an afternoon of chatting and eating. Elsie was a princess in her birthday outfit from Heather and Finley (who flew in to… Continue Reading →