The Town of Castle Rock sponsored it’s first ever fireworks show last night (there have been fireworks here for years, but they have either been sponsored by a neighborhood or the county) at a park in town. Jay, Karen, David, Cyrilla, Tanner, The Kirgans, Big David, and a few other friends returned to our now annual tradition of gathering for the 4th and staked out a place at Rhyolite Park. Food and drinks (non-alcoholic since they didn’t allow it) were plenty and so was the fun.

I have to admit that I was extremely skeptical about going to this and didn’t know what to expect, but the town pulled it off in high fashion. They had food vendors (although not enough), a few local artists selling their craft, a fire department display, a police department display, water rides, air-filled rides (bouncy stuff), a DJ, live music, and of course: the park itself…all free. Tanner and I jousted in one of the bouncy structures; and he knocked me off the pedestal once.

I don’t know that the official estimate on the number of people is going to be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was around 10,000. We got out there just after 5pm, and left when the fireworks show ended at 1015pm. The evening was rather perfect, except for the exit strategy (seems to be a problem with government these days)…and lead to a 1 hour drive home – for 5 miles. The ending of the fireworks show was dissapointing, which we later found out (from the news, not from anyone there) was cut short due to grass fires starting from the falling embers. Here’s the pictures:

Somehow the word “that” made it into consecutive blog entry titles. Hopefully it won’t happen three days in a row. We went to the Colorado Rockies game last night (against the San Diego Padres) to celebrate Tanner Dunn’s birthday – each of the last three years we have teamed up with Jay and Karen to take Tanner to a ballgame as his birthday gift. Also there with us were the Capocelli’s, Cyrilla, and the Allen’s. We got to the stadium right at 7pm, just as planned, to allow for Ezra to nurse while we where in the car…he decided to make it a 30 minute session, so we listened to the game on the radio and made it in during the second inning.

The game was fun and frustrating at the same time…the Rockies stormed to a 8-3 lead at the end of the fifth inning, which was fun…then gave up 5 runs in the sixth, which was frustrating. Right around the time that the Rockies laid a crapper, so did Ezra. He was in a sling (Hotsling that we used for the first time last night, and liked it. Perhaps a review coming in a few weeks) and it leaked out his diaper, through his shorts, onto his onesie, onto his shoes, and through the sling. Oh boy. We headed to a family restroom (if you have any influence over the temperature in a family restroom, please make sure it’s somewhere below 90) and changed everything. At that point we had been there for two hours and it was getting to be time to go…so we took the opportunity to leave while we were already out of our seats.

On the way home, we listened to the last two innings..and based on the final result, we are glad that we left when we did: the Padres scored 7 runs in the top of the ninth to win 15-8. And the other final result? Ezra nursed within 5 minutes of walking in the house. Here are some pictures taken using our camera-phones:

It turned out that yesterday was surprisingly full of good-byes. We knew that my grandparents were leaving early this morning to drive back to Florida, so when we went over there for brunch yesterday we knew that it would be difficult. We also invited Joel and Jenn down to brunch since we hadn’t seen them yet and they had yet to meet Ezra. As predicted, it was in fact sad to say good-bye to my grandparents, and they had a tough time saying good-bye to Ezra. It was incredibly special to have them here for a month, to share in time before Ezra was born, and to be there at the hospital as soon as he came to us. We sent along a bunch of pictures with them, but the good news is that we are thinking about flying there to visit with them and my Aunt and Uncle in October. 

We went up to Denver for our first Family Dinner since Ezra was born. For those that don’t know, there is a group of friends family that get together every week for a dinner (we rotate who has to cook and it’s location). This summer, we have decided to move the dinner time to Sunday evenings to coincide with Jazz in the Park – a summer tradition in City Park with free jazz and a few thousand people. We met up with Jennifer and Tori and enjoyed the very comfortable June evening. Ahna made some dinner (orzo goodness), Tori supplied us with some watermelon and margaritas, and Jennifer brought the most important part of the meal: cookies. We were able to make it up there and back in between feedings and while he was sleeping.

Following dinner, we had to say good-bye once again…this time to the Columbine House. Six years ago, Ahna, Tori, Mary, Jennifer and Erin moved into the house and set up community. Since then, Ahna and Erin have moved out, Sarah has moved in, and Gabe and Charlotte lived there for a while (by the way, this is the Family Dinner group). The house holds a lot of great memories (my favorite was learning to play craps) and lots of stories; but it was time to move on. All of the ladies that lived there are taking up residence in other parts of the city, so we all will still be in town. Returning the key to the house was closing a chapter of life. It’s so hard to think back and imagine that we all would be where we are six years later…