Sandy turns 21 (again)

Amy's mom found a stellar deal to come out the weekend that Kris headed to AZ with Jim and Carey to visit Karsten.  That trip in its own right is a whole different story.  It evidently rained forever in AZ... so ... what to do in Phoenix when it is raining?  Head to Vegas of Course!  Yup, trip to AZ ended up as a crazy last minute trip to visit the MGM pool.  But, I digress.... Back to mom's birthday! The deal she found happened to be her birthday weekend!  We took her out for special treats, played a lot of games together and even planted two flower pots and the flower boxes on our porch.  We were ready for summer!

During the potting process, Kasey found a new grasshopper friend, whom he swiftly named "Fruit Loop".  Fruit Loop did enjoy living with the Cannodes for a bit, but evidently couldn't find food or water in his new home... you know what happened next.  At least our flowers turned out pretty!

Yep, it was a fantastic, whirlwind weekend of fun for these two gals out on the town!  What a great last minute trip!  Lets do it Again! Oh... and if you are wondering.  My plants did Awesome this summer!

Colorado Weather Be Crazy!

Yup, just 5 days after that wonderful boating experience... we had a nice amount of snow! The weather was so nice out, we didn't even need coats!  And yes, if you hadn't noticed yet - my kids faces are not dirty - they have mustache tattoos.

It was a nice afternoon of smoking salmon, followed by some sweet tubing hills in our neighborhood.  As you can see in the pics, the kids really dislike our tough Colorado winters.

And what is the best thing to do after tubing outside?  Hot cocoa, a good book and some cuddles of course!

Ram Runner 2015

Yep! It's time to break her in for another season.  April 25th and it is a pretty gorgeous day out on the water!  We decided to throw on some long sleeves and hit the water for some good old fashioned Colorado fishing!

Don't these kids look happy on the boat?  Well... It didn't last.  Actually, we were out there for about 4 hours of blissful family time.  However, one innocent question made it go downhill rather quickly.  Kasey looked in our ski locker and asked Daddy why there was water in it.  Kris may have panicked... looked at me and stated we were "sinking".  Oh boy; the Tears that followed that statement~ wow.  Ok, now we had two crying kids and two panicked adults.  I took wheel and asked Kris to call his folks.  They were camp hosts at Chatfield and had a radio to call in for assistance (if needed).  What happened afterwards was a straight shot to the marina, one time of Amy hitting the prop to the ground of the lake (eek) and a lot of comforting words to calm the kids down.  We didn't end up needing the help of the rangers, but we did get to watch their Baywatch skills in action.  As we came into the marina; we saw them running down the ramp, pulling on their life vests and bolting right past us to go save ... um... us!  Ok, they missed us, but it was all good... we were inches from the dock at that point.  What an exciting and awful way to break in the boat for 2015.

For anyone who was curious... the issue was a poor job of winterization the prior year.  We paid someone for the first time in awhile and they screwed it up!  They broke one of our lines and didn't fess up to it.  Well, Kris got in there, figured out the parts needed and got us set up for the rest of the summer.  Guess we go back to winterizing the boat ourselves from now on!

Totally Sick Party, Dude

Leprino supports a community event each year called Totally Tennyson.  This was Amy's first year in attendance and What Fun it Was!  She even got Kris to dress up.  Although, I guess that was pretty easy when zero purchases were made for his 'costume'.  Yes, friends... He had ALL items in his closet already!  And I think he looked just deadly in it! 

The gist was to take your choice ticket to each location and get a sample of their finest food or drink.  We invited Tamira and her boyfriend, Bill, as well as Amy and Frankie Newman!  What a Gnarly Crew!

We had fun reliving our glory days... All right, Don't have a cow!  I admit that I was only 11 by the end of the decade and probably knew more about the Care Bear Stare than MTV, but   Oh well, we definitely Rocked this event!  The whole night was sick!

Yep, Amy and her girls looked Totally Wicked at this event.  A bodacious time was had by all.  And Bonus, we got to meet Jem (aka: coworker, Rachel).  Oh come on.. Jem!  You know, from "Jem and the Holograms"!  What? Were you more of a Ninja Turtle kid in the 80s?

Happy Teeth ~ Happy Smiles

When I was a little girl, we had a plaque on our bathroom wall with a very simple statement.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BRUSH ALL YOUR TEETH 

JUST THE ONES YOU WANT TO KEEP

Yes, Mom... I remember it and can still picture it to this day.  And Yes, you were correct... nothing could be more true. My boys started going to the dentist at a very young age and I am proud to say that at age 5 we have zero cavities in their tiny little mouths. I am told this is pretty impressive as about 50% of kids do at this age (what a sad statistic).

What can I say "duck face" was all the rage in 2015. Kasey was not to be left behind in the trend. Both our kiddos Enjoy and I mean "ENJOY" visiting the dentist. I was glad they got to meet Dr Porter (Amy used to work there and knows his daughter from HS) and start their dental visits off with him. He is super missed every time we go back to his practice. It is now called Serenity Dental and we see Dr Doukas, who is very sweet.  I'm sure the boys will love her too.

Yup, Karsten is too cool for school.  Keep up the good work, Boys!  Remember, the tooth fairy only brings money for the clean teeth!

Mutton Bustin' at the All Star Pro Rodeo

For years ~ and I mean Years... our boys have requested to ride the sheep when they see the Mutton Bustin at the National Western Stock Show (and other rodeos we attend frequently).  They finally both made the age and weight limit to sign up!  Kris pulled a few strings by reaching out to a good friend of ours to see if we could get on the list.

Once we found out the date, we invited our favorite Rodeo crew as well as the Colorado grandparents who were in town for the event.  No pics of Angie (not sure why), but she was here too!

These kids were so stoked to get out there.  In fact, I think Kasey got a little annoyed by all the pics and just wanted to get out there.  I was so proud of both my boys!  Neither made it all the way across the stadium (in fact... I am not sure you could even say they made the 8 second ride), however, they had a blast!  There was an immediate - "Lets do it Again!"  Yes, Lets!  NWSS Jan 2016?  Watch Out! the Cannode Boys are coming back to defend their title!

Easter Festivities

Yep - this first pic is of very excited kids and a delusional mommy.  She thought it would be great to take the kids to a Helicopter drop.  The helicopter flies over and drops the eggs all over the field in front of you. Sounds great in theory and seems super exciting (see smiling faces). It was Not anything we imagined.

Yes, the bunny showed up and yes, the helicopter did their job.  Afterwards was sheer chaos!  Talk about the best way to lose a child and have them ending up in tears.  Never again, Amy... Never again.  In fact, I am documenting this in our blog to remind myself that although the pics look great - it was nothing what we expected.

So... we still have smiling kids, but there is something different - they seem a little crazier than before the helicopter drop.  I'm just saying...

A chance to redeem myself.  Bass Pro had a egg hunt through their store. Yup, more our speed.  The kids hunted for eggs as we shopped for new toys (no, we did not buy a 4 wheeler). We even got to do an art project - super fun and super laid back. Now, this is what true happiness looks like.

No Easter is complete without dying Easter eggs! We had a ton of fun making Minons.  Anyone else seeing a pattern for 2015? Minons were all the rage!  Years from now, Kasey and Karsten will ask me what the heck a Minon is, but for now... just know that my kiddos love them.

 Easter service was beautiful and our kids really enjoyed joining us in church.  After, we decided to take some family photos.  What a cute bunch!  Can you say "Christmas Card?!" ... no, not the crazy one ~ the sweet photos that follow that one.

 He Has Risen

 He Has Risen, Indeed!