July in Denver

This was the first month in awhile that we spent the entire month here in Denver.
We kicked off the month by celebrating July 4th at the Rockies game.

This was our first time at the Rockies game and as you can see, there are tons of people here waiting to get in. This was a 100% sold out game due to their traditional fireworks show they have at the end of the game.

People seated in a couple of the sections far ahead in the picture were able to come down on the field to watch the fireworks. The little children were loving this.

The fireworks were awesome. This was by far the best fireworks show I've ever seen.

Here is a short video clip of the finale. Let us know if you want to join us next year at the Rockies game! We are going to make it a Johnson family tradition.



This month has been the hottest month. There were some days that the high temperature reached 100 degrees. There is a water park here in Denver called "Waterworld". It is supposed to be the largest water park in the nation. Phil and I quickly became season pass holders and have splashed around in the cool water a couple of times. I thought I took my camera with me, but for some reason, I can't seem to find any pictures of us at the water park.

We also played lots of golf this month. We have this golf tournament going on that started in July. The July tournament was a two person best ball, and there is one in August which is a two person scramble, and the last tournament in September is a four person scramble. We played in the July tournament and even though we didn't win anything both of us played really well and we are very excited for the next two tourneys.

This was at the course where we are going to play the September tournament in. We wanted to go scope it out first. It is by far the best course we've played in Colorado. It is absolutely beautiful and the best part is the ladies tee box is placed with a good advantage.

This pic was taken at the 18th hole "gold" tee box. Luckily, I don't have to tee off from this one. The fairway is about 200 yards over this rock croppings.

This month, we spent some time planting some new trees around our house. Well, we wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for the letter we got from the HOA about replacing dead shrubs in the front of the house. But the thing is, when we start a project, we really start a project.

It turns out that we don't own anything that has to do with gardening. We went and got small and large shovels, peat moss to mix with the soil, mulch to put around it afterwards and our new trees. Here is Phil, removing all the small little weedy grass even in our next door neighbors area. This is the back of the house where our garage is, and even though there was no letter from the HOA about this area, we found some shrubs that were dying, so we got some cute little trees to go here as well.

Here is the final product. We named them "Burt and Ernie". Aren't they so cute? They were called "Little Gems" at the nursery.

These are Japanese Pines. They went in the front of the house. We hope some day we will have a really nice Japanese garden.

These are my struggling daisies. I am determined to revive them. This is an area that gets lots of sun all day long and I think they were dehydrated. Within few days of us planting them, they started to wilt. I have since given them miracle grow supplements and water them almost daily, so hopefully they will survive. These were the first ones that we planted, so I will be really sad if they die on me.

I also have been cooking more lately. Most of the stuff that I make is very simple and ordinary that doesn't deserve any camera time, but I made some that I did take pictures of.

Phil and I both get one Monday off a month and this month we didn't have any plans for that weekend, so I had plenty of time on my hands to make something yummy. The bowls are called "chicken donburi" and the round dish with dividers have different little Korean side dishes. There is a special sauce that goes into the "donburi" and I still can't make that sauce like my mom. When she was here last month, she made the sauce in a large jar for us and promised us that she will come back before the sauce runs out. :)

My schedule has changed and now I work from 1 to 7 three days a week, so again I have plenty of time in the morning to make some yummy breakfast. Phil loves Mexican food. He thinks he could eat Mexican food everyday and not get tired of it. So, I made him this breakfast burrito. Phil dove into it before I could get a picture, so I stopped him before he could take another bite.

The last weekend of the month was spent again at the Rockies game. This time we were up in the "Rockhenge" suite with all of my work people. My boss decided to have our work party at the Rockies game and I would have to say that it was the best idea ever. We had buffet style food, drinks, and the best of all were the seats.

As you can see, we are very happy!!!

We are not sure now if we can go back to regular seats after this. My boss says it's like flying first class. Once you have flown in first class, it's very hard to go back to the economy seats.

These are all of our hygienists and me. This is the inside of the suite.

Thank you for visiting our blog. I'll leave you with a picture of Gator. He is doing much better. He even runs around these days. His check-up is in August, so I'll let you know what I hear from his doctor. See you again in one month!

It's been one year!!!

Can you believe half of this year is already over?
June was a very busy month for The Johnsons.

On the 2nd of June, my parents came up for their second visit. They had stayed with us for a week and then they left to go see my sister in Salt Lake City for a week, and then they came back for a few more days with my sister and my nephews.

The first week they were with us, we rented a house by a river in Glenwood Springs and took a three day weekend trip with my parents. It was also to celebrate our one year anniversary.

We had heard about this place called "Hanging Lake" from so many people. So, we put it on the top of our agenda. Early in the morning on Saturday, we hiked up about 2 hours to see what the big hype is about this "Hanging Lake".

The view was amazing from every angle. The hike wasn't so easy, but my parents did great.

We are almost to the top!!! Because of how beautiful it was the whole way up the mountain, we had almost forgot about the "hanging lake".

This is "Hanging Lake". This picture does not do it justice. It is absolutely breathtaking. Who would have thought that there would be this beautiful waterfall lake on the top of a mountain? But, this was not the top.

This is the top. This place is called "Spouting Rock". The water comes flying out of small holes in the rocks. It was amazing. The 2 hour hike was definitely worth it.

From the top, you could see down on Hanging Lake. I still don't think any of these pictures show exactly how beautiful it is. So, what I suggest is for everyone to come out for a visit, and we'll take you up there ourselves to prove to you the beauty of this place. :)

After the hike, we came back to our rented house to just chill and enjoy the sound of the Roaring Fork river.

My parents are hanging out on the porch swing, reading up on what Glenwood Springs has to offer us for the weekend.
Glenwood Springs is also known for their hot springs. After a little break, we went to one of the largest hot spring pools in the world. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but you can find out about this place by checking out the website. http://www.hotspringspool.com/

At the end of the day, we all got ready for our one year celebration dinner. It's hard to see, but Phil got me these beautiful earings and necklace. It matched my outfit perfectly. How did he know???

The restaurant was right on the river as well. We will never forget the place where we celebrated our first year as a married couple.

The next day, we went up another mountain where they have caverns inside the mountain. We couldn't stay too long, because we had gotten a call from our vet with bad news. Gator was found in the morning not using his back legs. We hurried back and packed our stuff and drove back to Denver as fast as we could.

That Sunday afternoon, Gator went in for a MRI and was found to have ruptured a disc in his back. He went in for emergency surgery and stayed in the hospital until Friday.

We were so worried about him, but he made it through very well. When he got discharged, he had a little movement in his both back legs and now he can take a couple of steps with his back legs. He is definitely improving fast and hopefully he will be back to normal soon.

Before my parents left to go to Utah, we took them to this golf course just 30 minutes from our house called "Arrowhead". We had heard about it, but had never played it before.

The course is layed out amongst gigantic red rocks. It is probably one of the most beautiful golf courses I've ever played.

Here is another picture of the course. Again, I don't think these pictures do it justice at all. You will all just have to come out and see it yourselves.

For one week, we were back to just us and the kiddies.

But, not much later, my parents came back with Aggie, Paul and Joshua.

Paul is now 5 and he is full of energy. He is going to start Kindergarten this year.

Here is Joshua. He is going to be 2 in November. He is so stinking cute. He doesn't say much yet, but I could tell that he is thinking and processing a lot in his head right now.
We went to the Wildlife Experience, Water World and many visits to the playground. We had tons of fun.

After Aggie's family left, we all packed our bags and flew to Florida. We were attending one of my best friend's wedding in West Palm Beach.

This was at Disha's parent's house the night before the wedding. Isn't she beautiful? This was one of the many Indian outfits that we got to see this weekend.

This was the morning of the wedding. I was lucky to have found someone who let me borrow three of her Saris and Alissa, Anabel and I were able to wear Saris to Disha's wedding.

Here we are at the ceremony.

It was hard to take pictures at the ceremony and the ones that I took came out really blurry or too dark. This was the best one. Disha and Anuj are tied together in this picture by somekind of a string. I think it symbolizes the two families coming together by marriage. I just made that up. I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds pretty good.

The ceremony started around 10am and it ended around 1pm. We all took a little trip to the "City Place" after the ceremony and had lunch at this Greek restaurant called Taverna Opa.

Apparently, this restaurant gets crazy at night. I've never seen a sign like this at a restaurant before.

We all got dressed up in evening gowns and suits for the reception. Don't we all look so nice?

Here is us, the girls hanging out at the cocktail hour. I think the guys were checking on the Red Sox score on a blackberry.

This is us at the reception dinner. We had so much fun. It was so good to see everyone again. Can't wait for our next get together. Congratulations again to Disha and Anuj on your beautiful wedding.

I will leave you with this short video showing Gator's improvement.

A Busy Month of May

The month of May flew by us so quickly. Possibly because it was jam packed with so much fun and activities.

After the Furry Scurry on the first weekend of the month, we went on with our normal routine grind of working and playing with our kiddies.
Two days before Mother's day, I received a surprise gift at my work.

Everyone at my work got a big kick out of this one. One of them called her husband and told him that "Dr. Johnson received flowers from her dogs."
It was the most beautiful bouquet of lilies that I've ever received. They bloomed and lasted for more than a week.
"Thank you Gator and Ali!!!" (and mostly Phil!)

Another Mother's day gift was to go see David Copperfield at the Center for Performing arts.

We had a quick bite to eat and did some shopping before the show.

Here we are at the "Back Stage" coffee shop nibbling on little treats before the show. Phil always wants some kind of treats before any kind of show, whether it be movies or concerts or even magic shows.

We gave Mom Johnson a quick jingle to say "Happy Mother's Day" before the show.

We didn't know what to expect. This was the first time that either of us had been to a live magic show. We thought it was incredible. After every little act, we looked at each other and asked "how did he do that???". The last act of the show was the biggest highlight. David Copperfield was going to make 13 people in the audience disappear. He had 13 giant balls tossed into the audience and we were suppose to toss it up while the music is playing and whoever holds the ball when the music ends has to come up to the stage. And guess what??? Phil caught a ball!!!! I was thrilled. I don't think Phil was as thrilled as I was, but he didn't have any choice but to walk up to the stage. All 13 of them sat on chairs and a cover was pulled over them and about a minute after when they were uncovered, all of them were gone and reappeared behind our seats. It was so exciting. Phil was given an autographed photo of David Copperfield and was told never to tell a soul what really happened. :)

I got it out of him after I took this picture how it happened. :)

The following weekend was time for our 2nd road trip since the Salt Lake City trip we took last year. We were headed to El Paso to see our friends Susie and Tony. They had just given birth to Sophia in March and their daughter Gabby was turning two in May.

Kiddies were very excited, but little did they know that they would be traveling for about 10 hours.
We filled up our gas tank to the rim and Phil picked up "Road treats" and we were on our way.
I just wanted to share with all of you what exactly Phil brought back from the store that he thought were good "Road Treats". He was very happy about his decisions. :)

We started our trip at 3:30pm on Friday. Our first stop on our trip was Albuquerque, NM.
We entered in the address of our hotel and our Navigation system "Natasha" told us that it was going to take us exactly 6 hours.

Road trips are fun because there is so much more wiggle room in the agenda. We also could take our kiddies with us. Although, it was pretty hard to travel with them. Ali cried almost every hour of the first night in the hotel. We assumed it was because it was a different place and she must have not liked it.
We arrived at the hotel in Albuquerque. Doesn't it look mystical? (sort of?)

We unpacked and got the kiddies settled in and walked over to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
The next day morning we got on the road at about 10 am for El Paso, TX.

Please meet Gabby and Sophie:
This is "care-free" Gabby in her PJ's.

This is "prettied-up" Gabby with her pig tails.

And.. This is Sophie who is only couple of months old.

Oh, and I can't leave out Albert, their first baby. Albert is named after The University of Florida's mascot.

We spent Saturday and Sunday with them and left their house on Sunday afternoon. It was a short trip, but we had so much fun with their little girls. It sort of was like a mini parenting workshop for us. Susie and Tony are such a good parenting team and we learned so much from them by just watching them. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Gotta love those hound dogs...

Albert knows to wait patiently for some food scraps.

Gator and Ali learned pretty quickly too.

Our Kiddies loved Gabby and I think Gabby enjoyed the attention from two other dogs as well.

Gabby is playing "mom" with Sophie.

Here is Super mom, Susie.

Gator is taking a nap with Albert.

Here is Gator taking a nap in the lawn. "Ah, This is a vacation!"

And here he is again, napping.

And, again.

There are so many more pictures, but I'll add just one more.

Gabby eating watermelon was one of the highlights of the trip. She ate it like in this picture for little bit, and then she would set the watermelon on a bowl and put her mouth to it and eat it that way too. At the end, she would take the bowl and slurp all the juice up. It was really cute. Susie and Tony, we had so much fun with your family. Thanks for your hospitality. We can't wait to get together again.

Since we came back to Denver, the weather has been really nice. There were some sunny days mixed in with some thunderstorms, but overall beautiful weather.

This month's addition to our house was this grill. As you can see in this picture, Phil was very excited to grill up some corn on the cob and some bbq meat.

One last thing planned for this month was to run in the BolderBoulder 10K.
This is me and Candi all geared up and ready to run. Candi has ran in this race for the last three years and she convinced me and Phil to run in it this year.

I told Phil that our goal is to finish strong to the end.
We did finish strong. We kept a good pace from the start to the finish, about 91/2 minutes per mile.
This was by far the best race we've ever ran in. The energy in the crowd was so good and it was amazing running into the CU stadium to finish. We are definitely going to make this our annual race.
We don't have any pictures from our actual run, but you can check out these links to see some pictures that were taken of us while on the race.
http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?53585592

http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?53585593

Thank you so much for keeping up with our blog. I'll end this long blog with a picture of Phil and the kiddies enjoying the beautiful weather.