When It Rains, It Pours

In the past we've been busy during the summer. However this year we have taken that concept to a new level.

In June we went to Disney World for 9 days, flying out there with Tiffany's sister, her husband and their kids. It was awesome, a fantastic family trip. We do family trips probably once a year and they are a lot of fun, but for a few years we've talked about going to Disney World with the kids while Micauley is still young enough and McKaiden is old enough. This was the "sweet spot" in ages and it seemed to work great. Aside from your typical issues with having 5 people in the same room (get out of the bathroom!)and together for 9 days straight, but that's expected. Overall, wonderful.

As for Disney World itself, I think our favorite was Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster. All of us were able to ride on it and it's a blast - shooting off at top speed, upside down, spinning, etc... all in pitch black (aside from some neon signs). McKaiden slide by the first two times, but on the final ride they declare him too short - even though we had a picture of him on it from the night before! In the end we learned to be happy that he got to go at all, because really, he was a hair too short. Aside from the roller coaster and my shot at acting in Hollywood Studios (yes, Dane, Micauley and I were turned into actors for one of the rides) my favorite was still Epcot. Well, half of Epcot - the world travel side. Yes, try not to fall over in stunned shock. I know I have a travel problem. Magic Kingdom was fun, especially since it has many of our favorites, but let's be honest Magic Kingdom against Disneyland isn't even a contest, Disneyland wins by a landslide. Animal Kingdom - I saw it, so check that off, but not really my thing.

Ahh, we return after our fun, exciting, awesome, yet draining 9 days in Florida (which by the way, Walt clearly never went there in the summer - it's ridiculous). Time to relax and recover, right? Wrong. Three days later we head off to lovely Las Vegas with our friends Michael & Denise. Yes, Julie the Cruise Director should be fired, but really there was no other choice (no, not going was not one of the available options). Denise's mom was coming out to watch their kids and that was the week, so away we go. In case you get the urge, go - and see LOVE (the Beatles show) and eat some deep fried Oreos. That is really all I'm going to say, because honestly there are just some people who read this blog that simply don't want to know how my life goes when I'm drinking 3 days straight. Frankly, I'm not that interested.

Touch down back at home, must be time to recharge and get ready for the rest of summer. Well, close. Ann and Aaron, et al came into town the next day. It was a lot of fun, yes even staying up until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. - my body was pissed, but it was well worth it just to catch up with them. Tuesday they and the rest of my family went horseback riding (oddly I actually had to work). Wednesday was a rafting day and it was awesome. I'd never been rafting on the Poudre and even though it was a simple easy section, it was tons of fun. Thursday came around and it was pain time! Micauley has been dying to play paintball, so we finally went out, Micauley, Aaron, me, Mark, and Aubrey and Alex. It's a 45 minute drive to the paintball field (Blitz Paintball). Let me draw you a picture. Micauley, Alex and Aubrey are all 15 year old boys. Alex has his own paintball gun (yes, I know the politically correct term is "marker") and he has a fancy uniform that they wear for tournaments. Micauley just got a paintball gun with a bunch of super accessories. So, put that all together and you have 45 minutes of 15 year olds talking smack - yes to us. None stop about how awesome they are and how fantastic their equipment is, etc... Our response - we didn't say a thing (and really how could you, you just can't come off well in a war of words with 15 year olds anyway). So we arrive and after getting set up the guy asks, Dads & sons on the same team or opposite team? The boys pick - they want to beat us. 3...2...1... go. I swear it was 2 minutes later and all three 15 year olds are "dead". They were in a panic like shock. Turns out, even with all the fancy equipment in the world, if you aren't willing to be aggressive, you still get pounded on. That's sort of how the day went, but we did mix the teams up. Bringing me to my favorite moment - these are giant fields and you generally can't even launch a paintball across them. Well, one game Aaron and I had to defend ourselves against the other four. The game began and Mark and I are just watching each other from across the field - too far to shoot. However, I had taken a couple of shots to see what the range was and for laughs I pointed the gun up in the air and fired a paintball like a mortar towards him. The plan was simply to be annoying, but the result was a "magic bb" as it flew through the air and hit him between the legs. As he stood there double, triple, quadruple checking, I busting into laughter curling up behind my barrier as I couldn't even look to see if anyone else was shooting at me I was laughing so hard. Lots of other stories, maybe I'll write them out, or maybe I'll spare you. Afterwards we came home for a BBQ and stayed up late into the night.

Ann & Aaron and clan headed back to Nebraska (no, don't ask me why anyone goes there - just kidding!!!) on Friday morning, just in time for us to prep for our annual Fourth of July trek out to Loveland Park. We did it again this year and for the first time in 15 years, it rained. For a couple of hours, but in the end the rain cleared and the fireworks blasted away. It was awesome (even if I was in a turd-like mood most of the day - I don't know why, but Tiffany suggested I go back on the pill, that's funny honey).

Ahh, the busy is over, right? Well, maybe playtime busy is over, but today we started a jury trial - it's possible I may pass out when this weekend hits...