The Last Lecture - Lessons Learned

Many of you who will read this have probably heard about Randy Pausch. He was recently in the news a lot. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and only given a few months to live. He lost his battle with cancer last week. He was on Oprah a few months ago and after I heard his story I had to get his book and read it. It is filled with advice on living, as he calls them, life lessons. You can not read this book and not be inspired. What an amazing man! I highly recommend reading this book. Talk about doing a lot with the little time that he had left. What an amazing legacy he left for his 3 young children. I only wish I had a fraction of his optimism and unbelievable outlook on life. One of the chapters in his book is dedicated to fulfilling childhood dreams. I felt inspired to take a look back to my childhood and try to remember what some of my dreams were and asked Michael to do the same. He was let's say, slightly reluctant, but I finally got 3 out of them. Here they are...

Jennifer's 3 Childhood Dreams

1. Become a teacher

2. Fly to the moon

3. Sleep in Cinderella's castle

Michael's 3 Childhood Dreams

1. Become a doctor

2. Drive a ferrari

3. Meet Michael Jordan

Maybe someday we will be able to achieve some of these dreams. I thank Randy Pausch for his inspiration and feel a great deal of sadness for the loss that his wife and children must be feeling at this time.

One Tired Girl

So today I put Sydney down for her nap right at 12:30, as I always try to do. She likes to watch Curious George before her nap. So nothing seemed to be different. Around 1ish Sydney sneeks down the stairs as if she was done with her nap, like I'm supposed to be dumb and not know that she never fell asleep. So after 3 attempts of taking her back to bed, I thought she was finally going to stay. And she did. Ashton woke up from his nap around 2 and so I went upstairs to get him. Well what do I hear, but Sydney playing in her room. The little stinker hadn't ever fallen asleep. I figured by that time it was a hopeless cause. So she played for a while and then around 3:30 I put Little Mermaid on for her in her room. Around 4 I realized I hadn't heard any noise coming from upstairs in a while, so I went to check on her. This is what I found.

Denver Zoo Pics

Sydney in front of the elephants.

Riding of the train. Sydney was very excited to ride on the train. It was nice to sit for a minute and get out of the sun.

Ashton wasn't quite sure what was going on. But he liked the ride.

It was really hot and so we enjoyed an ice cream. Ashton couldn't get enough!

Here's Sydney enjoying some good ole' cotton candy! She loves the stuff!

Downtown Aquarium Pics

Sydney with her favorite fish, Nemo and Dorie.

Sydney and Ashton posing in front of a huge fish tank. Ashton loved looking at all the fish.

I snapped this picture right as Sydney turned around and saw the shark. Priceless.

Sydney didn't want her face painted, but wanted it on her arm. She got a yellow Nemo with pink and purple stripes.

Here we are eating at the Aquarium Restaurant. Sydney had Baracuda Burgers and Ashton chomped on some carrot sticks. I enjoyed grilled chicken (sorry, I just don't care for seafood) and Michael had stuffed shrimp (shrimp stuffed with crab) he said it was pretty good. The food is pretty pricey, but it is really neat to eat right next to the tank and watch the fish swim right by.

Mini Vacation Summer 2008

We had wanted to go on a fun trip this year, but funds weren't going to allow for anything super spectacular, so we decided to go on a mini vacation up to Denver. We stayed 2 nights at La Quinta Inn, where we had a two room suite. It was really nice. The hotel also had a pool, kiddie pool and hot tub. Sydney was not a fan of the pool this time around and wouldn't let go of us, not even in the kids pool. There was also a game room where we played pool and air hockey. Sydney enjoyed this a lot more. She like playing air hockey and actually was pretty good. She also "helped" us out by putting the balls in the holes while we were playing pool. She is such a good helper. Ashton loved the pool and had fun splashing around. He sat in his stroller while we played pool and air hockey and loved watching the puck go back and forth.

We went to the Downtown Aquarium, went shopping at Park Meadows Mall (where Sydney got to throw pennies in the fountain), and went to the Denver Zoo. It was a fun few days!

4th of July

This year we went to the Monument town parade. It was really really really hot, but it was fun. Sydney loved watching all the animals that were in the parade. She saw dogs, horses, camels, and even 3 elephants. She also loved the clowns, but wasn't quite sure when one came up to her, but she did ok. Ashton loved being in the stroller, but didn't really see much of the parade. He fell asleep after the first half hour and even managed to stay asleep through all the noise. Here are some pics from the parade.


Here's the whole gang, Michael, my mom, my dad, Sydney and Ashton chilin' in the stroller.


Ashton was stylin' in his sunglasses and his 4th of July shirt that says, "Born in the USA".

It was really, really, really hot. Sydney was in the sun almost the entire time watching the parade from the street. So here she is trying to cool off with some water. Her 4th of July shirt says, "I'm a star studded cutie".

Elephants from the Renaissance Festival were a big hit with the crowd.

Michael liked all the cars that were in the parade. Here's what I'm told is a SHELBY MUSTANG GT500KR. Looks like a regular old mustang to me, but apparently it is much more than that.