Festival of Trees!

The Festival of Trees is a fundraising event designed to raise money for Primary Children's Hospital, which is (obviously!), a cause which is near and dear to my heart. I got a call way back in October from my friend Necia, letting me know that she would be coming to town to volunteer at the festival! Necia and I met nine years ago when her sweet little girl Hallie was in my unit. She and I developed a strong and longlasting friendship during her stay at Primary's, and we still talk regularly, despite her living in Chicago now. Hallie's Grandmother also happens to be a member of the Primary Children's Fundraising Board, and plays a significant role in the organization of the Festival of Trees.

We decided to visit the Festival on Opening Night, along with most of the population of the state. I am often familiar with many of the children being honored at the Festival, so it can be a bittersweet event for me.

This year, the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner group, along with the nurses in my unit sponsored and decorated a tree for our well loved and respected Dr. Null, who is leaving our hospital in February. It turned out beautifully!

Dr. Null's Tree

My favorite tree, however, was the amazing tree that was decorated in honor of Hallie. The theme was loving life, and that is a perfect description of Miss Hallie's spirit. To learn more about my sweet Hallie Bug, visit HelpingHallie.com.

Hallie's Tree!

Taylee enjoyed the event, and wanted to take photos with just about every tree we saw.

And her crazy poses! This girl just kills me!

 

Fall Family Fotos (Fourteen)

A friend of ours took our family photos this fall. We decided to go for a "cityscape" this year, as our previous family photos have been done in a natural landscape. I really love how the pictures turned out, especially our cute kids!

 

Naturally Curious???

The day after Halloween was cold and rainy, so our original plan to go to Black Island Farms went out the window. We made a last minute plan to go down to Thanksgiving Point and check out the Museum of Natural Curiosity. It sure is a good time for a couple of kiddos, and Taylee and Aden were in heaven for hours! We had to drag them out  to meet up with poppi in Salt Lake. We were celebrating a little late with birthday dinner for poppi at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!! A fantastic ending to a fantastic little weekend!

Steering a Train Car around the track

Aden's Floating Head

Taylee's Floating Head - she wasn't so sure about this particular game!

Halloween 2014

We had a special treat this year for Halloween. Our sweet cousin Aden came to visit during his fall break, which allowed him to visit for the holiday weekend. Taylee had a great time playing with him all weekend long! We started off with some pumpkin carving...

 

Our fantastic jack-o-lantern carving! Aden's Cheshire Cat, Taylee's Tinkerbell (carved by Kent :), My Nightmare before Christmas-O'Lantern, and Skyler's original creation

On Thursday, Aden came and helped out with Taylee's class Halloween party. It was a blast. Taylee and her Kindergarten classmates put on a little costume parade that was super cute! Most of the kids loved the pass the pumpkin game. Taylee included!

Party Games!

 I worked Thursday night, and Taylee and Aden spent the night at Nana and Poppi's. Fun times for the kiddos. Once I was awake and moving on Halloween, we got Taylee and Aden dressed up and ready for some Trick or Treating. We took our little Rapunzel over to grandma and grandpa's house for a quick visit, and a photo op with Cody and Hunter.

 

Cody the Ninja, Hunter from Special Forces, and Rapunzel, (errr... I mean Taylee)

We headed back and made an obligatory stop at the neighbor's little Halloween pizza shindig, before arriving home and heading out for some Trick or Treating!

Peyton Manning had a party to get to, but we caught him for a quick photo before he left.  

Peyton, Rapunzel, and Raphael. This is the only picture I got of Aden on Halloween. Bummer.

Taylee and Aden trick or treated their hearts out! They went to twice as many houses as Taylee normally does. It was quite a workout!

 

And falling asleep on the couch is what happens when a little princess is all tuckered out from Halloween fun!

Denver vs San Francisco!

For our second trip over to Denver this year we went in mid-October to see the Broncos play the San Francisco 49ers. The best part---I was healthy! We were all healthy! The trip was a blast!
I can't remember exactly why, but we didn't fly into Denver until about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. This limited our time to play a little, but we definitely made the most of our evening. We enjoyed a pretty fabulous meal at The White Chocolate Grille. Yum! Kind of Cheesecake Factoryish... But with unique, amazing desserts, that were not cheesecake. Our meals were good, but our dessert was fantastic!
Sunday was a beautiful October day, with sunshine and warm temperatures. We spent the day in downtown Denver at the 16th Street Mall. We had lunch at the YardHouse, where we were able to watch the early games and relax. Eventually I dragged Kent, Scott, and Lisa out into downtown for some shopping. I had a great time! Not too sure about all the rest though... but it wasn't for long, because it was soon time to head for the stadium. This was yet another Sunday night game. We have never attended 2 evening games in one season, but it worked out well this year - we won them both!
Go Broncos!

Lisa, Scott, Kent, and me. A little pregame action.

And then there was this guy. What a character! Luckily, despite his scary appearance, he wasn't too mean after all! And quickly found his rightful seats. An entire section away from us.

And we had a chance to witness history!!



Kent and I celebrated the new Pat Bolen statue with a post-game photo op!

 

Besties

Taylee and her best friend Kate started posing for a spontaneous little photo shoot one day after school. They are just so stinkin' cute, and I love them so much that I just had to share these photos!

Ahhh... The joy of childhood best friends!

 

 

 

 

Denver vs Indy!

 We started off the Broncos 2014 season right, with a  trip to Denver for the home opener against the Indianapolis Colts. We flew in early Saturday morning, and headed straight for Elitch's. A day at the amusement park is always a good time! Even I had a pretty good time (when I was well medicated). Long story short, I went to Denver thinking I had some kind of nasty cold, causing body aches and nausea. I was on around the clock dosing of advil and tylenol, and only barely surviving. I believe I actually fell asleep on the bench at Elitch's while the others were on rides. Eeek! On Sunday morning, we went to InstaCare, where they diagnosed me with Enterovirus D68 (a new respiratory virus that was just hitting its peak in Denver at that time). Since they couldn't do anything for me, I continued with my advil/tylenol regimen and pushed on. By the time we were home on Monday I had worsened significantly, and by Tuesday when I saw my doctor I had full blown pneumonia. Go figure! The pneumonia story is long enough in itself, but after 3 more days, 3 Chest X-rays, 2 shots of Rocephin, 2 bags of IV fluids, a trip to the ER, and a course of oral antibiotics, I was on the mend! Phew!

My savvy little traveler.

Sun kissed fun! Taylee wasn't 100% sure this ride was fun and not scary.

There were many bright spots in our day at Elitch's, despite my illness, and I had many moments of fun with the family. And of course, Taylee and Aden were thrilled to play with each other, as always!

Just flyin' away!

I love these two cuties, and they sure love each other!

After our InstaCare visit on Sunday morning, I spent most of the day sleeping in the hotel room, while my mom took care of kid duty. Kent, Garrett, & Skyler took a little escapade over to the new Viewhouse Restaurant for some lunch and football. I can't wait for a chance to go with them!

 

I dragged my sorry self out of bed, put on my game face, and we headed over to the stadium in the late afternoon, for the Sunday night game.

Game Day!

The Season Opener is always an exciting game to attend, but even more so when it is the Sunday Night Opener! There is a palpable excitement in the air! We took plenty of photo ops before heading into the stadium.

Photo op with the SNF Bus!

See how Kent fits right in with all the players on the bus?!

Luckily, my illness gave me a bit of a reprieve that evening, and the four of us were able to truly enjoy the game. It was a nice, solid win against the Colts, and we were a happy bunch!

 

Check out the game faces! I <3 face="" free="" p="" painting="">