homemade christmas

alyssa and i have started a family tradition of "homemade christmas", meaning that we make gifts instead of buying gifts. apparently, cody (alyssa's bro) has always wanted me to draw him something, and he is a big bob dylan fan... what to do, what to do... i know, i will draw him a portrait of bob dylan!

four years, each better than the last...

We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by driving to valley view hot springs (about 3 1/2 hours south in the mountains) for a few days. This particular hot springs was "clothing optional." We don't particularly like looking at nude middle-aged hippies, but we love being naked... and nature:















this deer invited himself into our camp to beg for food. conor was surprised by the deer's courage. conor was also naked.
















a grueling hike up the mountain brought us to these three beautiful pools.
















we watched the sunset at this pool right before we were repeatedly dive-bombed by bats. conor squealed with delight, while alyssa sqealed in terror.
















as much as a camp site can kick ass, ours did.
















you wouldn't know it from these pictures, but alyssa walked around naked more than conor.
















there were more beautiful things to look at besides drunken pagan boobs and sage burning old man's saggy balls... like this sunset, for instance.




















how do you roast a weenie sans protective clothing? very carefully.
(don't worry: hand in view, junk blurred)

the more-phine the better!

just had scope surgery on my knee. that's right, team haggerty has 2 surgeries under it's belt in a month. i haven'y been out of the recovery room for more than an hour, needless to say, i'm still pretty fucking high. weeeee!

alyssa sans appendix

she went in thinking it was another kidney stone around noon. turns out it was appendicitis. she had surgery around 6, and stayed overnight but she's probably coming home today. she is doing really well.

we moved...

we love our new apartment, which is a first. we have moved every year since we've been married: four years, four apartments. our hope and prayer is that we will be happy enough here to stay for a few years. we'll upload pictures later.

pornography...

Bjork, from my (alyssa) perspective

The entire day leading up to the show I was so excited/nervous I was in the bathroom several times, if you know what I mean. On the way there I realized it had been some time since I was that excited for something.

When she came on stage I couldn't stop smiling. She opened with a new song "Earth Intruder's." The emotion and excitement was building. I thought, "I think I'm gonna handle this without crying, this is good." Then.......her second song was "Venus as a Boy" which happened to be the song I was singing while I was getting ready for the show....I lost it. Not only did I cry, but it was the ugly cry. I had to concentrate on stopping or I knew it would be non-stop the rest of the show. When she sang "All is full of Love" i cried more. Some of you might remember this was the song I walked down the isle to on our wedding day. It was full circle for me and Conor, Red Rocks is one of the first places Conor took me on my first trip to Denver and there we were watching the person perform that our equal love for got us talking 4 years ago.

The sound was incredible! it literally felt like all the worries of life fell away for the moment. But reality set in quickly after the show when Megan and I stood in line for the bathroom and a severly drunk girl ran in, dove under the sink counter to grab two huge industrial size rolls of paper towels, then ran back out pin-balling from wall to person to wall to the door to get out. This was followed by our long uphill walk to our parking spot which required walking in and out of a long line of cars. Try walking uphill with a ton of people in the thin mountain air trying not to inhale all of the car fumes.

Regardless, it was incredible. Words can not fully describe.

may 15th

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audio-gasm

stole this from alex's myspace... (fixed broken link)

seriously... that's some funny shite.

a little perspective

how many people died from the shootings @ VT on monday?

how many people died from bombs in baghdad today?

our hope...

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

anonnymous posting

now available... colin!

quick show of hands

really, does anyone read, or even know this is here?

quickey...

conor is busy as hell with school, a job, hanging out with his amazing bride, co-leading a small group (with alyssa and seth), and co-leading a book study (fredrick beuchner's 'a sacred journey') with bobby. alyssa is settling in to her new job, and doing a fine job at it. as well as co-leading the social justice group with conor and seth, she is involved in a prayer ministry @ church as well as a women's small group. ... in a nut shell.

Stop Bitching (Thanks Charissa)

So, I can't tell you how many people have complained about us not updating our blog. We have now and no one has posted, except Charissa. So, this post is dedicated to her!
God, I love you Charissa!

One more really important part of December

We were so blessed to have some amazing friends help fly us to MN to hang out at one of my favorite places on earth. I learned how to knit too! which is a new love of mine!

And we got to get our baby on!

TWO surprises birthdays for the price of one!

happy birthday bobby and amy!












some good looking fellows

a few details

so, a quick rundown of the last 10-or-so months:

-we moved out of our shitty apartment in april to stay with some friends (pete, amy, and their kiddo elliot) from our church for a couple months:











-alyssa went to costa rica with our church on a "missions trip" to love-up on those crazy costa ricans:

-wedding bells in august:











-alyssa had her tonsils removed in august after we got back from the wedding. our friends from chicago, megan and aaron, decided to get a mile-high. we are glad their here, in fact conor is very excited the megan let him borrow her f-me boots:













-in september, brandi and todd, and child cooper (sis, and bro in-law) came out to hang, and to watch the broncos do whatever they do:











-in october we celebrated 3 years of bliss in vail. the next weekend we celebrated my step-dad's 60th also in vail:




















-in november our minneapolis friends (and alyssa's college roomies) came to visit and later alyssa went home to iowa for thanksgiving:











-alyssa got a job as a nanny, loved the kids to death, but due to the crazy-ass parents chose to look for a new job doing kind of what she did before (residential treatment for abused and neglected kids) except in their own homes instead of a live-in treatment center.

-BLIZZARD!









-conor started school... again. it's been 8 years since his feet crossed the threshold of higher learning.

...in a nutshell

a miraculous ressurection!

we're back! how did we survive without a computer and internet access? ...like freakin' cave people., i swear.

-conor