July Bunco

Bunco this month was a wedding theme...since summers are full of weddings. We were to each wear an old bridesmaid dress which added to the entertainment!!

Happy 4th of July!!

We spent the 4th of July camping in the mountains with my college crew. We decided to get the full experience and hit up the Summit County 4th of July parade in Frisco.

of COURSE the corner guy we saw a lot over the winter was part of the parade!
we soon learned that ANYONE can have a float
the dems
Julie, Jessica and me
Julie was so excited about her Otter Pop!!
some parade goers were WAY into it!!

Following the parade we went to the Jungmans's for BBQ #1 of the day and played Jason's new game...Polish horseshoes for HOURS.
Rules of the game: you must have a drink in one hand, the frisbee is 1 point if it hits the ground, the bottle on top is two points...all points can be avoided if the bottle and frisbee are caught. It is quite amusing to play...and watch.
Jungman and Ja trying to get the frisbee and bottle after the pole was hit.
the frisbee came in so fast most of the time...hard to catch (especially when Sam was throwing and I have bruises to prove it)
Kristin and Jen ready and waiting
Julie concentrating hard on her throw!
Sam and Mike

After the BBQ at the Jungmans we headed down to the Marina where Ja's parents had staked out a spot for us to hang out and view the fireworks.
such a great view at the lake
we lucked out with GREAT weather
Sam looking for satellites...he can look for hours!

then the fireworks
a great display!
and our camping spot
up in Peru Creek near Keystone

Baby Chloe

Chloe Faith Slotemaker was born June 23rd, 2008 to our friends Bridget and Steve.

Many of you know about our friend Bridget and her ongoing battle with cancer and we appreciate all prayers that you have prayed for her and her family. So many of you ask how they are doing, what's the latest, etc. so I wanted to post a link to a site that Steve created on Caringbridge to track what is going on. To log on you can simply use my email address. As you can see from the picture baby Chloe is still very tiny and has a long road ahead but so far has been quite a fighter! Please keep all of the Slotemakers (Steve, Bridget, Grace and Chloe) in your prayers as they all are facing different struggles with this tough time!

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!