The Fabulous B@ker Blog

We are on day four of our Colorado odyssey and we're having a great time! We've been doing day trips every day and have been able to see a lot of the main attractions within a 2-hour radius of Denver. The best way to share our journey with you is to give a day-by-day blow, but I'll write in more detail (including links to the places mentioned) when I get home (we just left Breckenridge so I stopped into a Library to check e-mail and update the blog). In the meantime, here are some highlights: Saturday - We got in on time, picked up our car, and headed to the Capital Hill Inn, a beautify castle/mansion bed-and-breakfast in the capital region of the city. We walked over to the 16th Street Mall, which is a pedestrian mall, went through some shops, and went for a nice dinner at a trendy Mediterranean restaurant. Because I was tired and not used to the altitude, I got a little tipsy but mostly just had a bad wine headache. Then, we went to the B&B and crashed. Sunday - woke...

Today Mark and I leave for a week in Denver, Colorado - part fun, part business. We're going to explore the Denver area and beyond until Wednesday, when I'm attending a conference (and Mark is going fishing while I sit in a windowless room). Stay tuned for posts along the way, and what I'm sure will be some great pictures!

Today we celebrated Jasper's first birthday with a doggie sundae from Moonlight Creamery. We've been making a joke...now that he's one-year-old maybe he'll "settle down." If he settled down anymore than he already is, he'd never even lift his head up! Love from your family to our sweet pup!

This weekend we went to a wedding for Mark's cousin's daughter. It was one of the most beautiful, elegant weddings we've been to in a long time (and possibly, ever...it's been a while since we've been to a wedding - these events seem to come in waves). Some highlights: The ceremony was a in a quaint little chapel and featured a harp player for the procession/recession and music during the ceremony. The bride (Paula) was just beautiful, and the bridesmaids were very elegant in strapless black gowns. The roses were a deep, dark pink and very striking. We had a cocktail party between the wedding and the reception for Mark's cousins. We only see them once in a while, but we always enjoy getting together them. It was a sunny, warm day and perfect for hanging out on the porch and patio. There was a lot of wine involved. The reception was at the exclusive Oak Hill Country Club, and featured an open-bar cocktail party on the patio (with the harpist, again), followed by ...

I'm not sure how they got on the subject, but when my sister and my nephew were talking about the Pope's visit to NYC and the fact that he was going to be at Yankee Stadium, Drew could not understand what all the fuss was about. In fact, if the Pope was going to be at YS , why were the Yankees going to be in Baltimore at that time? Wasn't that the reason the Pope was going to Yankee Stadium...to see a Yankee's game? Doesn't everybody want to see the Yankees play? I wonder if they'll have Popec orn?

Today we took a day trip to one of my favorite nearby places: Lechworth State Park. The park features amazing gorges and waterfalls, and is just 45 minutes from Rochester. We took the dog along, and had fun going down the paths (and not so much fun going up and down stone stair steps - boy, am I out of shape after that long winter). Tomorrow it's back to work while the kids lounge at home complaining about how bored they are. Just about all their friends are either in Florida or some other vacation "hot spot" this week. Don't they know it's going to get up to 75 by the end of the week? I never understood the need to get away in April. Now February...that's a different story.

Among other news from the weekend is the opossum sighting in our backyard. What the heck was he doing there? There must be a litter of them around because my co-worker, Linda, who lives a couple of streets away, said there were two in her backyard last week (hanging in the tree and around the woodpile). Kind of weird. Other than that, not too exciting a weekend. On Saturday morning we took Jasper for his training class - he's in pet therapy training through K-9 Healers at the Fairport Bapstist Home. It's a class of mostly Goldens with a Chocolate Lab ( Teagan ), an Australian Cattle Dog (Rex), a Boxer (Sadie), some kind of Terrier (can't think of her name...), and an amazingly huge, drooly , and fluffy St. Bernard (Peyton) thrown in. We're mostly working on helping the dogs to de -stress and relax in strange situations (by "milking" their ears and massaging from head to toe), and be able to sit calmly when someone comes by to pet them (we've got a long ...

I'm 5' tall, so it's really not a stretch (no pun intended) that Cameron is finally taller than me. It is a relief, though. All his life he's travelled along the 5 th percentile in height and weight, and in the last couple of years I was getting really concerned that he was going to be extremely short. While he's had a great growth spurt this year, he still has a way to go, and I'm hoping he'll reach at least 5'8" or 5'10", like Mark. It's always amazing that every new "season" (mainly as fall and spring approach) we break out last season's clothes and try everything on again. And, as usual, both kids need all new shorts this year (Cameron grew out of a whopping eight pair...) and some new shirts. After separating the "what fits" and "what doesn't fit" into piles, Annalisse loves to hear the words, "Well, I guess you know what this means...", because of course, it means "Time to sh...

There's a relatively new site named Hulu on the Internet where you can watch (legally) movies and TV shows with limited commercials (that's how they make it legitimate). I was surprised to find The Partridge Family on the site the other day, so I took a look for some of my favorite episodes like: The one starring Mark Hamill as Laurie's boyfriend in the episode where Laurie got braces and was picking up radio stations from his transistor radio. ...Or how about the one where... The family got sprayed by a skunk and had to perform (one of my favorite PF songs) at the children's hospital wearing silly costumes. There isn't a huge amount of movies on Hulu yet, and the TV program offerings are kind of limited (for instance there aren't any shows at all from several major stations), but keep watching that space...I bet it will grow.

A happy birthday today to my wonderful cousin, Jeannie (or, "Bean")! Born exactly six months (to the day) after me, the family spotlight quickly turned from ME, to HER...after all, what's so great about the third of three girls when there's a new baby in the family?! I like to tease her, but we grew up very close and I wish her a great birthday!

Grandma Jeanne's cat, Mercy, is once again staying with us, this time for a month while she's in Turkey. Mercy has greater access to the house this time around, and she and Jasper are establishing their boundaries around each other (meaning: Mercy goes wherever she wants to, and Jasper follows if she lets him). He, of course, is petrified of her after a couple of hisses and swats on the nose. It sure does shake things up a little around here.

My mother-in-law, Jeanne (a.k.a. "Popo", the Chinese nickname for Grandmother), arrived in Turkey today for a one month visit with Dave, Amanda and baby Jackson. This is a very exciting time for her, coming on the heels of her retirement last Friday after 22 years as a church secretary. Relax and enjoy the first month of the rest of your life, Mom!

Nothing too exciting to report...I never got around to an April Fool's Day post when I might have told the story about how my sister and her husband wanted to "fool" their (sometimes hotheaded) son by telling him there's something wrong with the tire on his car..."it looks flat." So, out he went to check it, and they expected him to come storming back in seconds later saying there was nothing wrong with the tire. They waited and waited for his return...instead, he got in his car and drove to a gas station to get air... Or how about the one where my co-worker wanted to play a trick on her 8 th grade son so she said, "The Principal called today..." and he blurted out, "It wasn't my fault that I got in-school suspension..." as he continued on, vehemently defending himself, her face in shock. The tricks in our house were not as inspired...mostly "I can't believe it snowed again!" (it was a balmy 50 degrees) and "Camero...