happy birthday, ryan!

happy 42nd birthday today to ryan

love, laurie

preschool snapshots

noah loves when the weather is nice enough to play on the playground at preschool.  he sure gets creative and builds/creates all sorts of things.

love, laurie

summer shows

we've had our fair share of shows sprinkled across the calendar this summer.  this past weekend we worked a local jazz festival as well as a john denver tribute artist (who truly looked so much like the real john denver he had me doing a double take).

now we get a breather for two weeks until the next show, thank goodness!

love, laurie

police night out

our town held their annual police night out event last week.  there was a parade, the ribbon cutting of a new playground, a bounce house, ice cream, and lots of emergency service vehicles.  noah especially liked checking out the swat vehicle.  none of us had ever seen a swat truck in person before (luckily!).

love, laurie

preschool snapshots

some recent photos of noah at school.  for someone who claims that he doesn't want to go, he sure seems to have a lot of fun.

love, laurie

land of make believe

on sunday we took a trip to hope, new jersey to visit land of make believe.  it has been decades since i was there as a little kid and i only remembered bits and pieces of it.  it was nice to share it with noah.  we spent some time in the water park and then changed clothes and enjoyed the dry rides.

love, laurie

having fun at lakeland

in addition to seeing the butterflies at lakeland, noah had a fun afternoon with mom riding all of his favorite rides.

love, laurie

butterflies and blooms at lakeland orchard

it's august and that means it's butterfly season at lakeland orchard.  noah and i took a trip to lakeland over the weekend while ryan was working an event.  we visited the butterfly house and brought home some pretty zinnia flowers.

love, laurie

famous noah

we were so thrilled to see noah's photo published in the august 2026 issue of happenings magazine which featured photos of local residents celebrating america's 250th birthday on the fourth of july!

love, laurie

derek hough's "symphony of dance encore"

where do i even begin?  this is a long story, so i will abridge it . . . 

anyone who knows us knows that we are obsessed with dancing with the stars.  we have watched the show religiously for years (and it has always been leko's favorite show too).  back in january 2019 we found a last-minute chance to see the dancing with the stars live tour and it was so incredible.  we were in total awe and amazement at how wonderful the show was, and knew we wanted to go again sometime.  a year later in january 2020 we returned to the same venue in upstage new york to see the new version of the tour.  it was even better and i was crying because i was so happy.  after that, the pandemic shut down the world so we couldn't see the show again, and then noah came along.

this entire past year i have been saying that i really want to see the d.w.t.s. live tour again and i wanted to see derek hough's tour.  (we were supposed to see derek live at radio city music hall back in april 2015 when he was starring in the rockette's spring spectacular, but the day we went to see the show he injured his ankle and didn't perform.)  long story short, we were planning to see the shows this year and then because of a reason i won't even begin to get into, we couldn't and i have been devastated about it for the past 6+ months.

with only 24 hours before derek's "symphony of dance encore" tour came to town, i found a ticket and bought it.  it was really an emotional roller coaster to even decide to go, but i'm really glad i did because when i say this show was life changing, i'm not exaggerating.  it was the single best thing i think i've ever witnessed.  the artistry and athleticism was super human.  

i took a ton of photos and videos.  here are just a few pictures from the show.  derek and hayley are truly incredible.  for two hours i escaped from the real world and was healed by dance.  i was on cloud 9 in my 8th row orchestra seat and will never forget this.  

i even got to see derek's 6 d.w.t.s. mirror ball trophies in person too!

love, laurie