Hi. I'm Amanda...a happy wife and mom to three awesome guys. We've lived here in Fort Collins for more than 20 years and are proud to call it home. Before moving to CO, I worked at a city attorney's office, making use of my law and Master's degrees from Duke. After settling in Fort Collins, I homeschooled my three (now grown) sons and was delighted to experience music classes, soccer, karate, swim team, archery, Science Olympiad, First Lego League, parkour, and climbing (not all at the same time!). From 2005-10, I was also a contributing editor for a national scrapbooking magazine, authoring a book and a couple of monthly columns. From 2009-10, I founded and ran the Good Grief Blog. I enjoy learning new things, spending time with my family, volunteering with The Matthews House, traveling and indoor rock climbing.
1. Prism Papers is having another Guest Designer call!! Seriously, folks, I don't say it often enough but Prism is one stinkin' awesome company to work with! If the fun we've had with the latest group of guest designers is anything to go by, you should definitely throw your hat in the ring for this round. Check out all the details here, okay? Pretty please? (This is my main announcement for today, btw, and I'm really excited about it!)
2. If you happen to be in or around Fort Collins, stop by and check out my garage sale tomorrow! (Saturday from 8-2, please no early birds, lol) I'm not making any huge promises, but I probably have some scrappy stuff in the sale...mostly new. :)
3. Be sure to check back tomorrow for my really big announcement! (Yes, it's scrapbook related!)
Yup, today's Nathan's birthday! We're not doing anything huge today, though...did our gift to him last week during vacation...by surprising him with a hot air balloon ride over Steamboat Springs! Now, don't get your hopes up, because I've still only made it completely through the morning of the first day of vacation (sad, I know, but I took a LOT of photos, lol). But. The morning of our first day of vacation was Nathan's balloon ride (okay, Nathan and I both went...obviously I needed to go with him, right? LOL! The boys and their grandparents came with us to watch the launch...with Asher and Micah anxious to be tall enough to go on a ride of their own).
After much debate and indecision, here is a small selection of my favorite pictures from that morning (we had to be at the launch site at 6:45 am)...
Getting ready to launch...this particular balloon held 8 of us, plus a very fun pilot...
The view looking south after we first got airborne.
The view looking north.
The fire mechanism thingie (yeah, I wasn't pay attention to the lingo)...very cool...and it helped warm us up on the brisk morning. Glad I'm short, though...(the top of my head was warm enough as it was, lol!).
Our shadow looking to the west...
The cool winding river...
Us. Taken by the fun guy from the Virgin Islands that we chatted with during the ride...
Love this one...see our reflection down below?
When it came time to land, we were at the mercy of the winds to some extent. We thought we might end up landing in the middle of the highway. That's part of the balloon team down below, scurrying across the highway.
We ended up landing right next to the road on an off-ramp...had our Virgin Islands friend snap this shot before the second launch for the day took off. (Very impressed by the balloon team and the smooth exchange...they drove the new passengers to the landing, got us out and loaded them in...all without disrupting traffic too much and keeping everyone safe.)
A final shot of the balloon, itself, as it was taking off again. (I had Noah take some pictures as we were launching initially but neglected to adjust the ISO on my purse camera, so they're pretty grainy. Drat.)
Ta da. :)
So, happiest of birthdays to you, my love! Hope this one was one to remember!!
And. Stay tuned the next couple of days...exciting announcements both tomorrow and Saturday!
Whew. Awesome week in Steamboat. Home finally and sorting through laundry and almost 1300 pictures. If you don't hear from me again in 48 hours, come rescue me! :)
Posting today from Steamboat Springs, CO...on vacation with my guys and Nathan's parents. We're having a dandy time. :) Didn't remember to bring the ability to upload photos to this computer, so you'll have to wait. In the meantime, a few things before they get lost in the shuffle of catching up when we get home.
Please take a moment, first, to say a little prayer for my Uncle Matt...who died Tuesday following open heart surgery (they were trying to correct a stint and add another). It came as quite a surprise, as the operation was deemed "routine." Uncle Matt was my godfather and my oldest uncle on my dad's side of the family. He will definitely be missed and I'm sad that I won't make it home for the services.
Switching gears now, please check out the Prism blog today for a layout by moi. Sorry. I forgot to set up a sneak peek dealio before I left home, so don't have that image with me.
Micah, after celebrating his birthday last week, has taken to referring to himself as a "four year old Noah" for reasons unknown. He cracks us up.
I guess that was pretty much it. Lots of great photos to share when I get home and get them sorted. Happy start of August to you all!
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 09:55AM 
