Its been awhile since we have posted…we are slackers (and by that I mean Jake is a slacker as he vowed that this would be his “thing” to post about our lives). Anyways it has been crazy the past few weeks with everything going on. We finished our second album “Trinidad” just last week and are expecting our 1000 copies to come some time next week! Music is good – we have a few shows booked in July and have been getting rave reviews from our fans so that’s always fun. We might even have one of our songs featured in a commercial (not sure if this will actually happen yet), as its still in the works but we are super excited.

I went to Chicago last week to visit the family and see my lil’ Lucy-Bean, and celebrate Jenny’s baby shower. The trip to Chicago was really nice….I got to spend time with Joe, Julie and Lucy at their place. We went shopping, worked out in Julie’s studio (which was really hard) and meandered around the City…..It was really fun even just lounging around their pad and relaxing. On Saturday we went up to my parent’s place in Huntley, where we had Jenny’s shower, which was super fun. We ate a ton, tried to get Lucy to “drink booze” with us, and partied until late into the afternoon. We got to babysit for Lucy Saturday which was really fun, since I hardly ever get to spend time with her. I was her little play-thing the entire night and the next day, and she loved showing off her new moves (able to walk with some help on her walker-toy). Sunday was pretty mellow. That was the day we planned to leave for Colorado…did I mention the “we” was me, my mom, Aunt Pat and Aunt Eileen, and WE were going to DRIVE (not fly) to Colorado.

We left Sunday around 3pm, and good ol’ Aunt Pat was more than prepared with her notes on every detail, rest stop and McDonalds that was on the way. Our goal was to reach Omaha, NE by nightfall (and it looked promising). Everyone took driving in about 2 hour increments, and we all had to rotate one seat (like musical chairs) so that everyone got a different view and a different companion to sit next to. All went well until it was my turn to drive…my shift was the last one for the day too. We got  a text from Kristy’s John right after I took the wheel that massive thunderstorms were headed our way (or more accurately we were heading for the worst part of the massive thunderstorm). It hit us pretty fast and everyone was freaking out (which is an understatment)….well not EVERYONE, but a select few (namely my mom and Aunt Eileen). The sky was tornado-rific and ominous (probably one of the worst I’d seen). The bad news was that at this time we had just passed the last major city before Omaha/Council Bluffs….and there was quite literally NOTHING inbetween. When they hail started, we pulled off and thought we’d wait it out (hoping that it would pass quickly). My mom was on her droid and Aunt Pat on her i-Phone trying to find the closest motel or hotel that we could stay at, since we didn’t think we could make it another 40 miles into Omaha–and into the storm.

Needless to say, the storm didn’t really let up, although the hail subsided enough for me to decide that we needed to keep driving (although my mom was more than willing to pull over and knock on some random farm-house door to ask for shelter, and Aunt Eileen was willing to just sit on the side of the road until the storm passed completely). I was freaked by the crazy lightening show that took place above and around us, even though I knew logically we were safe in the car (until the tornados come looming). But either way I wasn’t ready to give up so I kept on trucking slowly and surely we got out of the storm and made it to Omaha (only about an hour later than planned). Our hotel was nice and it was really funny sharing a room with 4 people, especially 3 old ladies and myself (I have some funny pix i’ll have to post when I get them!).

We got to Colorado smoothly the following afternoon, and it was pretty much go-go-go. We went to Celestial Seasonings Tea tour, the Leaning Tree Museum, and the Coors Brewery to name a few. We ate at some really fun restaurants in Boulder and Golden and even went to the summit of Flagstaff Mountain for a picnic-dinner and sunset watching fiesta. We had so much fun and I know that we were all really worked by the end of the trip. Aunt Pat, Aunt Eileen and mom continued their journey to Arizona on Thursday, and I went back to the normal daily-grind of life.

Last night (Thursday) we had another little adventure in Boulder. We decided to go on the Thursday Night Cruisers, which has been a Boulder Tradition for almost 30 years. People all over Boulder come and meet up on their bikes (usually wearing costumes or decorating their bikes) and ride around the town “taking it back” from the motorists. It was super fun, we went with a couple of our friends Gina and Bryan. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as just riding around the town, we had to ride around during a severe thunderstorm, with all the same excitement as the drive through Iowa…but now we were on bikes and not in a car. It was still really fun even though we did get kind of soaked. After, we headed to the bar with our friends for some brew and hanging out….which is always good times!

This weekend will be a busy one, what with the 4th of July looming and parties just about every day. Hopefully we will get to do some climbing too, which is in the plan for now.

Until next time

Jilly C signing out.