Drake has arrived!

Drake arrived 20 days early. He was only 5 lbs, 1 oz. I flew up to Idaho to meet him. I couldn't get over how small he is. So we took pictures of our body parts compared to his. Hence the foot shot.
Jordan and Drake.
Callie and Drake.
He is a calm sweet little baby.
I enjoyed my time with him. Is there anything sweeter than holding a new born?

Aunt Charlene

Aunt Charlene came to visit from the Dallas Texas area. The last time she was out was for Callie and Jordan's wedding so it was good to see her and show her our new home.

Charlene and I went out to lunch almost every day. That was a really fun treat for me since I have been working on the "Tarullo Tribes biggest Loser Competition" for the last 6 weeks. It was nice to "have to" to a break. I tried to eat sensibly and keep up with my exercise. I managed to stay at the same weight. Yea!

We visited with the girls, toured the tea house in Boulder, ran errands, went to gymnastic rehearsals, Cami's basketball game, looked at microfilms at the Family History Library and attended the "Retro Loud" at the Heritage Square Opera House. It was a very fun week!

Denver Zoo Parrots

We have been having beautiful weather in Denver so I decided to spend a morning at the zoo with Cara and Celeste. The Zoo has a really fun exhibit. It is a parrot enclosure. They sell small paper cups of nectar for $1.00 to be fed to the birds. Brandon really wanted to try it, so I bought him a cup. It is quite a thrill to have them "eating out of your hand". You can feel their beaks pressing against the cup and see their tongues lapping up the liquid. Most of them were territorial but I had two that had both their heads in my cup together. They didn't seem to mind the togetherness.

Brandon likes to repeat the same events. So when we got to a certain monkey enclosure with a bench, he had us sit and eat lunch. That is exactly the place where we had sat and eaten before. It is a fun out of the way place to watch the monkeys. Several came and hung on the net in front of the glass right by us.

Celeste and Cara were pushing the strollers so I was Brandon's "buddy," which means I held onto his monkey tail backpack and ran around after him. We had a good time and I got some good exercise out of the deal. Brandon always likes to pick up a zoo map and "follow along".

Arizona and my new grandson Indy!

I am currently in sunny Arizona visiting with Cassy, Taylor and Indy. Indy has four short legs and a waggy tail. This cute little puppy has two blue eyes and a wrinkly body. According to the vet, Indy is part sharpei, australian shepherd and maybe something else. He loves his new grandma! Yea.

Taylor puppy-sat Indy yesterday while Cassy took me on an outing to the Desert Museum. It was a fabulous afternoon wondering through the Sonora Desert, viewing native plants (cacti) and animals. We watched beavers, otters, Javelina (wild boar), snakes, tarantulas, lizards, and a beautiful moutain lion. It was a fun day!

Cassy treated me to my favorite meal - homemade tacos for dinner!

A week on the East Coast

Virginia is the place to be! Or is it Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, West Virgina or Pennsylvania? I hit them all last week. Actually, we visited them all in one day!

My sweetie had a conference to go to in Baltimore. We spent 3 days together touring around. We visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation. It is very beautiful. I was excited to have my picture taken on the steps of the same building on our nickle!

We drove the Skyline drive, and admired the Shenandoah Valley from several high vantage points. The fall colors were just beginning. It was truly beautiful. We had wonderful 80 degree weather the entire trip.

We toured Gettysburg. I thought the are a was very beautiful but the history was very sad. How hard it must have been to love our country so much and have families torn apart by the Civil war.

I spent three days with Jenny in Virginia. She picked me up in Baltimore on Tuesday evening. On the way home she said, "Ahh, there it is". I looked up and there was the Washington DC Temple rising above the tree line. It was a breath-taking sight!

We toured southern mansions together on our first day. We started with Mount Vernon which belonged to George Washington. Jenny was excited to get to visit the mansions with someone else who was also excited. I guess there is less enthusiasm for such things with her crew. It pays to have a sister come visit!

Day two, we spend in Harpers Ferry. We had ice cream for lunch and then hiked the Appalachian trail (Yea!). I always want to walk along the Appalachian trail whenever I am even remotely close to it. I was not disappointed! We found old trenches from the Civil War, beautiful fall leaves, fun ferns and lots of interesting lichens. Jenny showed us were a poison ivy vine was winding around a tree. The vine had put out lots of little roots. It reminded me of a giant centipede. I picked up lots of beautiful leaves for Caylee's school project. My friend Liz joined us that day. It was good to spend some time with her again.

Day three, Jenny and I loaded her bikes in her red truck and head for the monuments in DC. Rides bikes was a fabulous way to see all the monuments without wearing ourselves out. We ran into a Smithsonian building to see a sample of a giant squid and into an art museum to see one of Monet's paintings. I had my picture taken in front of the Lincoln monument. So now I have a penny picture and a nickle picture. I was a little dissappointed that Lincoln was marble. Somehow I had always pictured him in copper! We ended the day in Arlington Cemetery. I loved touring the Lee Mansion. We saw the Kennedy graves, the Pentagon (from a distance) the war memorials and the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We were able to visit with all of Jenny's family. It was a fun, fabulous trip!

Enjoying Layla!

Callie is a quarter of a century old!

We celebrated Callie's birthday with a little dinner outing to Macaroni Grill.