Welcome Home Dinner...prepared by Sam

Sam hosted quite a dinner the weekend I got back from LA...below is the email invite he sent to friends in our supper club:

Subject: Sunday Dinner de Provence -- presented by Sam, to demonstrate planning, and also a celebration of Laurie.

You are invited to a dinner to celebrate our great friendship on this Sunday evening.

It is my pleasure to present to you a menu influenced by Provenecal faire.

I am envisioning an afternoon of pleasant liesure, fine food, good wine, and delicious conversation. You may come at 3:30 if you would like to start the afternoon with a game of boulles (French for Bocce, and French for what the the Fudge's child now has displayed duo in full view of the ultrasonic camera). Laurie will beat you.

If you care to come for dinner, you may show up around 5:30, although you will miss some of the wine that Fudge and Joel have drunk.

The menu:
Grapes
Cheeses
Apples
Olives
Salad with Olives and Endives
Roast Chicken with Mustard and Thyme
Leeks and Green Beens
Pears Infused with Cherries, Melon, and Vanilla Custard

Laurie and I have 2 liters of our favorite white wine, lovely, chilled on a hot afternoon.

If you like, you may bring red wine, if you care for it, and can you please volunteer to bring some of the Grapes, Cheeses, Apples, and Olives bit.

I will follow this email up with an uncorrelated form of communication, the mobile, as I know that it is cumbersome to stay abreast of current happenings via the electronic mail system.

Cheerio,
Sam
also available at 303.842.5973 on the mobile.

Prior to the meal there was the first bottling of the home brew "Rookie Wheat" created by Sam and the Fudges while I was away. The guys are holding up their first capped beer which they sent home for their friend Jack whose stuff they are using this summer.

Then the Fudges had to keep bottling and bottling and bottling...we did not have enough bottles so the guys were drinking beer trying to keep up...we even ended up with a few wine bottles of beer and will see how those come out! The irony of the whole project is that Brittni won't even be able to have any of the beer (notice the baby bump).

Then it was time for dinner...we decided to use the non-plastic plates for the evening.

Brittni, Bri, Laurie, Megan

Our first of many courses, including a dessert that encorporated cherries from our trees out front! Sam spent a ton of time on the food and it was a lot of fun to sit down and have a great meal with friends!

Obama House Meeting

Getting back to Denver meant it was time to get moving with Obama stuff again...first step...host a House Meeting. Obama's focus all along has been building a strong grassroots foundation, the house meetings are one of the truest forms of doing just that. The idea of the house meeting is to invite others to come, invite them to get involved, have them then invite others and invite them to get involved. Building a solid structure from the ground up. It worked well in many of the primary and caucus states and we hope will work right on through to November!! Over 4000 house meetings were held on Saturday June 28th...with many many more to come!

OBAMA 08!!!

Rest of my stay in sunny CA

GRUB in the GUNDO-

While staying with my friend Jen in El Segundo (our old hood) I helped her host "Grub in the Gundo" which is a fun night of food where people go from house to house to eat. Jen's house was one of the stops, so she, Travis and I prepared the food and ate with folks as they stopped by.

Signs were put out front of each place so people knew where to go.
It was SO hot in LA while I was there and especially hot that day since we made so much food in the oven we decided to host outside and it was such a nice night!

GREEKBILL NIGHT OUT-

We went out for a work bowling night at Lucky Strike...I got them to put the Sox game on at the end of our lane! Ellie learned a new bowling technique which really stepped up her second game!

HANGING WITH FRIENDS-

I was able to see some friends while out there but as always it was a quick trip and so full that I never seem to get enough time with anyone!! Luckily I am sure I'll be back in the area sometime soon!

DG Convention

Work brought me to Desert Palms in the midst of summer (117 degrees!!) for the Delta Gamma Convention. Carly, Ellie, Jenni, Rob and I braved the heat (ok braved may be a bit strong as we never even left the hotel) to visit our favorite DGs. We were giving away a spa finder gift card so many of them stopped by our booth.

Here is Carly at our table...forgot to get a shot before we took down the full booth.

To kick off their convention DG had the Evolution of Dance Guy come to speak/perform. See the video below and check out his site from the link...he was very funny! He has also added on to the dance below...and has a second one in the works.

June Bunco

Well since I have officially kicked off the Bunco Blog I won't be posting all of the Bunco pics on mine from now on...but just a few.

This month Sara hosted since her deck overlooks the botanic gardens and the Indigo Girls were in concert. It was such a gorgeous night out and so fun to be able to hear the concert while we rolled some dice!

Brooke and me pre-Bunco
the Botanic Gardens
the skyline as the sun started to go down...so pretty!

5 Year Anniversary

June 14th to those patriotic folks of you may be Flag Day...but to us it is our anniversary. This year we celebrated 5 years of being married. We decided we'd go for a fun weekend trip down to southern Colorado. We had quite the scenic drive down, but well worth the time. We then planted ourselves in Ridgway at a spa/lodge.

This is the view from our deck.

and our lodge also from our deck
Much to Sam's delight the little town was hosting their annual Brewfest.
We enjoyed the sun, some music and the beer.
ok...Sam enjoyed the beer...
then the town sheriff showed up for a little town time, ha!
we love the shadow pics
Our cheese plate appetizer...it was AMAZING!
Sam wanted to take a pic of his anniversary gift to me...the new flower ring.
sunset
Our last night...the moon looked so cool!

It has been an amazing 5 years, and still hard to believe it has been that long! It seems like just yesterday we celebrated with friends and family in Estes Park.

Where have all the fans gone??

Clare and I made use of our free tickets for a Rockies game that we got when we ran the Rockies 5k.

As you can see they give you the best seats in the house for free...
and when you're up this high...might as well keep going to hit the purple row MILE HIGH
as you can see by the scoreboard it was a pretty exciting game...oh wait it wasn't at all
big fat zeroes until the end of the 9th demonstrated by Clare and Jason

and then the Rockies win on a botched up play at home plate by SF

and back we go to where have all the fans gone...as you can see the Rockies were the NLCS champs last year
but if you look at the seats at least half the stadium is empty...and you may think this is due to it being toward the end of the game, but this is how it looked the whole time...that was one short ride on the bandwagon!

FINALLY!!

Last night marks the end to the primaries and Obama's final delegates needed to secure the nomination. Hillary has STILL yet to concede but hopefully that is coming soon. Time to look ahead to November which means back to work for Barack!

The Dude is DONE!!

My, not so little anymore, brother graduated from high school this weekend. Although I tease him about going the to "wrong" school he had a great time in high school and did very well...we are so proud of him! He is off to CU Boulder in the fall...following in my footsteps and we are so excited to see what this next year holds for him!

Some pics from graduation-

Just imagine Pomp and Circumstance playing over and over while going through these photos

The dude taking his seat, lucky for us he was right on the end!

Here is a video of him getting his diploma

posing for his pic with his favorite teacher Duvall who gave him his diploma

wooo hooo!

a high five from Sam

The fam

love those new pink shoes! :)

and after graduation...time for washers

and a nap

then the Wii!! Good thing I don't own one or I'd play all the time!

Landon tends to kick our butts!

but Sam adds some good animation

Sam teaching Landon a little guitar

Time to Party-

Scott and his friend's Ian and Austin who have all been friends since elementary school and have played in their band Jetson Saddle together for the past 5 years.

Scott's table at the party...Sam and I put together the basket on the ground full of CU stuff and stuff for the dorm...getting him ready for next year. The sign behind the table is the sign he made for my high school graduation party with the big CU buffalo...mom still had it and it is so cute it had to make an appearance.

Sam and Landon playing some Whiffle ball

Landon is wearing a Yankees hat...we know what we're getting him for his birthday!!

when you take a look at this wind up remember that Sam is pitching to an 8 year old!

The sisters
their cake (complete with their cd label)

Jetson Saddle Videos-

His Last Gift-

My parents gave Scott a guitar that Sam picked out for him so he has something to play in his dorm room since he won't be able to take his drum set along (we are all still not sure how he is going to survive without it!!)

Such a great weekend to celebrate his accomplishments!!