Merry Christmas from Emmalyn and Drake

Drake loves everything about Christmas (what kid doesn't?!) but he especially loves Christmas Music. Emmie on the other hand loves any kind of music and has a very low "Dance Threshold", if she hears a tune she likes she can't help but dance! Merry Christmas!

The Obamas Sleep Tonight..Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh

Colorado is obviously a battleground this election season. But it is amazing how much we have been fortunate to be personally caught in the cross fires a couple of times now.
2 Weeks ago I was called into a meeting at work. When I arrived I found myself, the usual other managers and couple of Secret Service agents from the White House! We were informed that our hotel had been chosen to house the President, the First Lady, the security teams, the Air Force One crew and the communications team the night of the first Presidential Debate and for the Obama's 20 Wedding Anniversary! And then they said "don't tell anyone, not the staff, not even your families." So for two weeks I held my tongue with sheer excitement. Since I am a greeny at this job I was not liable for most of the ongoings, which meant I got to just be along for the ride. When I arrived at work on the 3rd it was like someone had stepped on an anthill, except instead of ants there was hundreds of Agents, Officers, Fire Fighters and EMTs all bustling around in preparation for the POTUS and the FLOTUS' arrival. The energy was indescribably awesome!

When we closer to the big arrival the Secret Service asked myself along with our Head of Security to close off the Elevator foyer and keep the public at bay. Since the guests had to go through an airport type security check at arrival they knew someone important was there and once the velvet ropes went up they all congregated in hopes of a quick look at the President on his way to elevator. Unbeknownst to them he used the service elevator and never came out to the front of house. The agents I was working with gave me these official Secret Service earpiece and lapel pin (the same kind Mitt Romney wore during the debate) Very cool!

The words around the shield say: "UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE"

I was also given tickets the Campaign Rally the next morning. We were not nearly as close as last time but we still had a good spot. My sister Kami was super bummed that she didn't get come to the Rally in Golden last month so I made sure she got a ticket this time. She was very happy for the second chance. Callie and Drake were going to come but it was a high of 40 degrees and we weren't close enough for the hand shake so they opted out.

Another cool thing was that performer will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas came and warmed up the crowd...litterally because it was friggen freazing! See video below:

It was all such a great experience and definitely another one for the books! Can't wait to see what happens next week. WINK ;)

Meeting The President!

We had the once in a life time chance to meet The President of the Unites States last week! Even though it's an election year and opinions are very divided, no matter who you are it's an amazing experience to shake the President's hand and have him hold your baby!


We were front and center!



A lot of people behind us were mad at Jordan for being so tall. Another tall guy next to him said that tall people get the short end of the stick with airplane leg room and in return they get the benefit of seeing everything at events and concerts. So true! 





President Obama started his speech by saying “Hello, Golden! You know, this is just too pretty. I don’t know how you guys get any work done around here!”
He also joked that he wanted to try out the water slide in the Golden Rec Center but that the Secret Service said NO WAY! 





You can click on this picture to see the yellow circle were we were.



After his speech he started down the line shaking hands. When we realized that he was coming our way we frantically tried to decide if it would be appropriate to hand him Emmie. He held a couple of babies before us so we knew it was on!



We had the honor of shaking his hand. (If you were wondering... his hands were strong and surprisingly very soft...)



When he saw Emmalyn he said "Oh my this little one is brand new!"



Emmie was only half awake for the hand off.

   

He asked Callie "What's her name?" Over the noise of the crowd Callie said "It's Emmalyn!" He misheard her and then said "Emily, that's a perfect name for such a beautiful girl!"
Afterward we joked that the name "Emmalyn" had been vetoed... :)

 

He rocked her back and forth and gently held her hand.





After keeping her calm he boasted how he "still had the magic touch."

  

He said "she is precious, you should be very proud."

  

When she started to open her eyes he was kind enough to shield them from the sun with his hand.



Emmalyn will have lots of bragging rights and will win a lot of "Have You Ever" games when she is older...

 ...and in 10 years or so Drake is going to be pretty angry that he was playing Superheroes at his friends house and was not present. In our defence though we knew he would not last the hours of standing in line and in place. On top of that we did not have any idea that we would be so close or even get to meet him.
But teenagers are pretty understanding...right?

Road Trip to KC Missouri

Jordan started a new job at the beginning of this month as the Night GM at The Hilton in Denver! His start date made it so we had an extra long Labor Day weekend and so we took full advantage of it with a visit to Kansas City to see Cara, Dave and the girls.

Drake wasn't excited or anything...

 

Beautiful Kansas...Bazinga! Which reminds me, we watched a Big Bang Theory marathon to and from. It's our new favorite show.

 

Drake, Layla and Jade were so happy to see each other.

 

They played and played and played



We went to a really cool free kids museum in KC. The kids loved it!



We visited Oklahoma Joe's BBQ. A very famous BBQ joint in a gas station down town KC. I know that doesn't sound like it would be worth a 1 hour wait in line but believe us it was!



#1 of 13 places to eat before you die...check!



Cara and Dave live 15 minutes from our church's historical Liberty Jail.



A really cool experience.



Still playing!



Emmie and Drake are very good kids on road trips. We are very lucky!

Emmalyn Grace Anderson

June 25th

June 25th

June 24th (1 Month!)

June 23rd

Considering Drake's invitation to play...

She is not sure what to think of Drake yet.

June 10th- Blessing Day. We did it early because there was a lot of family in town that weekend.

June 9th

June 2nd

May 29th

May 29th

May 27th