Miss You Mondays

I miss our story time together.  I miss trying to convince you to read the book I picked out, even though I know you'll never give in!  So we end up reading both of our books, that is until Skippyjon came along.  I miss those the most, they are so much fun to read.  I miss you laughing out loud at my silly Spanish accent and how you always know just when to clap along.  I should have known that any story about a Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua would have been right up your alley!  I think Skippyjon's imagination might be as grand as yours. :)  I miss you, my little book worm.

Andrew and I would like to recommend a few of our favorite reads to you and your little book worms.

• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (Our favorite is Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones)
• Under the Sea by Anna Milbourne & Cathy Shimmen
• How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long & David Shannon
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• Hey, Al by Arthur Yorinks & Richard Egielski
• The Story of Ferdinand by Muro Leaf
• Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
• There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly by Pam Adams
• Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossom by Patricia Polacco
• The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

"TV.  If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they'll have with twenty-six.  Open your child's imagination.  Open a book."  ~Author Unknown

Baseball, Books, and Buildings

BASEBALL

Monday night we went to the Rockies vs. Braves game at Coors Field.  The stadium is super cool, very modern.  It sits on 76 acres, so it's a pretty BIG offensive ballpark!   Andrew danced the whole time, while Drew spouted stats, and I laughed and snapped photos.

 We got to "the house that beer built" about an hour early so we could check everything out and enjoy a good hot dog!

We had great seats at the Mile High Stadium!

 I took this for Mimi, she wanted a shot of her boys chowing down on some ballpark dogs!

 Fun Fact:  A ball travels 9 percent farther at 5,280 feet than at sea level.  It's estimated that a home run hit 400 feet in sea-level Yankee Stadium would travel about 408 feet in Atlanta and as far as 440 feet in the Mile High City! 

 Fun Fact #2:  The thinner air at this altitude also has an influence on pitching.  Curve balls will be a little less snappy, and fastballs will get about an extra six inches of giddy-up due to the decrease in resistance the thinner air provides.

BOOKS

Tuesday night after a prime rib dinner at The Keg Steakhouse in Denver's LoDo district we walked over the the Tattered Cover Bookstore in the historic Mercantile Building.  Besides the Rocky Mountain Nation Park this was my second favorite place in Denver.  I love old buildings and I love old bookstores!  This bookstore is quaint and cozy, full of history and great architecture.  

 Andrew and I found a great spot on the second floor. :)

 

BUILDINGS

 Union Station:  Built in 1881 by architect A. Taylor of Kansas City

In it's heyday it served six different railroads and 80 trains a day.

 This building was built in 1903 as a cold storage warehouse for Beatrice Creamery. 

Such A Bookworm

So far I've read 32 books this year!  Not bad considering we also built our home, moved into it, traveled, got married, and I work full time!  Let's face it I love to read.  No matter what's going on in my life I always take time to read a page or two of something everyday.  I've also noticed a trend this year...series books.  I'm one of those readers who can almost literally fall in love with a character and when an author only writes one novel about that character by the time I reach the last chapter I'm already dreading saying goodbye.  I know, what a nerd right! :)  I've always loved to read.  I can remember asking my Mom to read to me every night when I was little and my Dad always had a Louis L' Amour book in his hand. 
I was trying to remember what the first series I might have read...besides The Cat In the Hat and The Cat In the Hat Comes Back...I'm thinking it was probably Judy Blume's SuperFudge books.  (Definitely books I'll be reading with Andrew one summer.)  But I think the person who is responsible for my love of series books is my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Gaylord, who read Lynne Reid Banks' The Indian in the Cupboard to my class.  When she announced it was a series I remember my Mom taking me to the library and check out each of the five books as a read them.  I saw my library card as a passport to anywhere I wanted to go...and man have I been some places!  All over the world, experienced all types of cultures, traveled to outer space, into the future, blasted into the past, inside the human mind, inside the mind of alien buggers (thanks to my HS English teacher Mr. Cooper), I can only imagine where else I'll go.

Here are  the series I've read so far this year, I hope you'll check them out today!

• The Kane Chronicle- I just started this one.
• The Hunger Games Trilogy
• The Fallen Series
• The Charmed Life
• Three Kisses Series
• Sookie Stackhouse Novels
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Some of my all time favorites:

• Ender's Saga
• Twilight Series
• Harry Potter
• Redwall Series
• Chronicles of Narnia