Our First Three Days in Colorado

(As Posted by James on Facebook)

 

Right after getting off the plane on Friday we went for a super exclusive tour of the game developer studios for Lego-Universe, but we signed an agreement saying we wouldn't take pictures. Just imagine, so many Legos. Like you dream that you are in a warehouse full of Legos and you are drowning, and then you wake up and you are actually in a giant warehouse drowning in Legos. That's how it was.

But from there we went to a baseball game. And they allowed pictures.

Robert caught a baseball with his bare hands during practice. The ball actually has "Practice Ball" printed on it. I assume the balls they hit at the actual game have "Ebay price $1,000" printed on them.

He caught the ball when it bounced out of the glove of a kid sitting in front of us. We felt bad that the kid lost his chance for a ball, but the next time that same batter came up on rotation, he hit one right to the kid, and this time he caught it.

The funnest part of live baseball is heckling the outfielders during practice. America's favorite pastime: Heckling.

Clara loved the baseball game. So, exciting.

 

There is nothing unusual about this picture.

The wedding rehearsal was so fast. Clara hardly had time to run three circles around the old Manor house and it's grounds with dad chasing after her with a camera.

During the rehearsal one of these stung Andrea on the hand. Either the bees or the sunflower, we can't be sure, because she never saw it. She just screeched in mid practice and started dancing. Everyone thought to themselves, "Who invited the dancing Alaskan girl?"

Thankfully, no one was stung by bees the following day. However, there was more than a weddings fair share of shrieking and dancing. Oh my goodness.

 

I'm glad Clara had a good hat to wear. It was so hot. She sits down in her car seat and say "Hot! Hot!" and we say, "Oh, is it hot?" and she nods her head and goes to sleep.

 

During the rehearsal, Clara defeated her uncles Adam and Isaac in a pinecone fight, with the help of her daddy. Pinecone fights are like snowball fights. Only the snowballs have a bunch of knives hidden in them.

Isaac beat the chef at a thumb war at the rehearsal dinner, which was held at a little pizza place.

After the rehearsal dinner, The Kuennings and Andrea and I went to Bill Kuenning's house to make a recorded history. Bill set up high quality audio equipment and recorded the family discussing stories and singing songs. Clara made animal noises, and then everyone had to repeat them, because that is just something that happens I guess.

I think more people should record their families telling stories.

Andrea, Clara and I stayed Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with her cousin John Kuenning. They were amazing. Best free bed and breakfast in Colorado. Clara especially loved using a spoon. Spoons are so trendy. Spoons and iPods are top notch technology in Clara's opinion.

On Sunday morning we visited the Bear Valley Church of Christ. And of course Robert and Carol meet up with a friend of theirs that stayed with them 30 years ago in Germany. It doesn't matter where you go, and how big the congregation is. Someone always knows someone else from somewhere.

The wedding was outside. Very hot. Lots of rabbits all over. The sun was right in Robert's eyes and it was hard for him to read anything. He did a fantastic job though. I don't have pictures of the actual ceremony, because I was taking pictures with Robert's camera, but it was very smooth. I'm a guy though. Smooth is like the best possible description of a wedding.

Clara is surprisingly calm about people rubbing funny creams all over her face.
I enjoy pretending that Carol's hands in this picture are actually Clara's, and vice versa.

Clara loves exploring. For example, here she is discovering where all of the rabbits come from. Adam was playing the part of her trail guide, and I was documenting the discoveries.

Unfortunately, later in the evening we discovered burrs hidden in her stockings up and down her legs. No harm, but still... yikes! The hazards of exploration.

Here is Clara and her Sherpa guide on top of Mt.Everest.

Clara the Determined.

Clara the Triumphant.

Clara has a great habit of yelling "Momma! Mommma!" when she sees her mom across the room, or in the store, or walking down the aisle at a wedding, or during a wedding while she's standing with the bride. She was held back and effectively distracted for most of the wedding by her Grandma Kuenning.

Here is where the wedding took place. The "Manor House".
Isaac is seen here in full on dominance mode.

 

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life.  See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the Dancing Queen.

The bride and groom. Kara Kuenning and Jeremy Brown, seen here by their new names Jeremy and Kara Kinz. I don't know, just go with it.

The photographer was everywhere. I know they were probably paying her a bundle, but she really deserves every penny for the work she put into this evening.

Andrea fell in this hole and it was really embarrassing. She's pretty though, isn't she?

This is what Clouds look like in Colorado. Pretty normal. Later on in the evening there was heat lightening behind the mountains and you could point out the Alaskans because they were the ones that ran out on the hill and oohed and aahhed like there were fourth of July fireworks going off.

 

Andrea and her cousin Kara. Andrea was so pretty. they spent an hour on her nails the day before, while we were at the ball game. And then another hour or so doing her hair the day of the wedding. The dress was hard to come up with, and was altered by Aspen (Amazing Woman!). Andrea and her mom did her makeup. She had perfect shoes and her flowers were wonderful.
The bride also looked beautiful. I'm very happy for Kara and Jeremy. And it was an honor to be included in everything as it happened.

The party went on and on. It went from the ceremony, to a casual greeting time, to a dinner party, to cake and bouquet throwing, and then dancing (slow, and then fast), and then loud music and more fast dancing. At about 11:00 beer pong started and we realized that the bride and groom weren't going to be leaving any time soon. Clara had shut down several hours earlier. We left telling them we wished we could stay till they left, but Clara was tired and we had to go. They told us that at about 12:00 the party was going to move to a bar downtown for some "drinks" and we were invited to come along, and we could maybe come hang out with them tomorrow.

 

Hi!

. . . And here’s a Bonus from day 4 . . .   

Clara loves hotels. We left the room for a moment and she got right up and started to business.

We had a message on a phone later telling Marco to "print the magazines and ship them out tomorrow." I have to assume this message was meant for Clara who goes by the name Marco from time to time.

And here is Clara posting these pictures to Facebook and writing descriptions for them while pretending to be her daddy.