Colorado Trip- Part 1

Last month I had a really great week with great girlfriends!  Lisa and I flew together from Richmond to Colorado Spring and met up with Tijon and her daughter, Jocelyn. Even the flight with Lisa was great! That night we got our rental car, found our hotel, had fun catching up and swam in the pool.

On Sunday morning we stopped at a church in Colorado Springs for sacrament meeting and then hit the road! It was a beautiful drive and we had fun just talking and enjoying the scenery. We made sure to make a few fun stops along the way.

Lisa was a great driver!

We could not wait to get to surprise Janel!

Janel's mom, Diane, was wonderful! She was in on the plan and helped plan and execute the whole surprise. Janel's parents brought her to a picnic at a park.She ran home to grab a cooler that they forgot and when she came back we surprised her!

It was so great to see her! I think it totally shocked her to see her Virginia friends in CO!

After a nice picnic, we did a little exploring. Does anyone recognize this place from the old John Wayne movie? I didn't, but Tijon did.

We had a fun night.

We spent most of Monday at a really neat hot spring pool! It was actually 7 pools- each was a different temperature. It was awesome and we all loved just relaxing, being together, and taking in the breathtaking scenery. The town of Ouray is coined "the Switzerland of America". It is a little town surrounded by mountains. A really neat place.

A quick view from Janel's parent's cabin. It was a really cute house with great decks and huge windows with great views. We saw wild turkeys there, but fortunately no bears approached the cabin while we were there. Janel and Samantha usually see one each summer.

We spent most of Tuesday hiking. Jocelyn and Samantha came with us on the first hike to Ouray Falls. I had a great time taking pictures. And this is just a random sampling of those pics. We had to wipe our computer and all of our pictures are on an external hard drive and I don't want to go back to retrieve them right now, so the pictures that I loaded first are the ones I'll use.

Actually, all of those pictures were from our first of 3 hikes. Oops, I really am leaving out some neat ones. I might go back and switch a few around later.

Doesn't this homemade icecream look delicious? It was! Thanks Tijon!

Well, I am leaving a lot out, but it was a great trip and I just love those friends. Thanks again, ladies!

Christian turns 5!!!

Oh, boy, do we ever love this 5 year old!  Here are some really cute happy pictures from his actual birthday.

We had fun bowling in the morning. Then, that night we did something that Christian had been planning for nearly a year- we went to Build-a-Bear so that he could get a dog of his own! He has wanted one since Victoria got Lily last year for her birthday.  He picked out one that looked just like Lily, but a boy of course.

 

He stuffed it.

Chose a heart, made a wish, and

and put the heart inside his new dog, "Bruthen."

 

Grant had fun too. I wonder if he'll want a dog to join the group for his birthday.

Christian and Victoria bathed Bruthen. 

Then, Christian chose an outfit for him and got his birth certificate.

 

Christian loved his time at Build-a-bear

 

And couldn't be happier with his new dog, Bruthen! What a perfect  birthday present!

Next, he got a giant cookie at Bakers Crust. 

But, he couldn't wait to get to the car to introduce Bruthen to Lily!

 

It was an exciting moment for the big kids and their dogs. 

And by the way, he has played with his new dog a lot already! Christian has such a great imagination and plays so nicely with his stuffed animals.

Happy birthday, birthday boy!

Fourth of July

After Christian's birthday party we went to the town's firework display. We played in the bounce houses and mingled with friends for  a bit, but decided to hang out as a family in the back of our truck to watch the fireworks. It was nice.

We enjoyed the glow bracelets and necklaces from Christian's goody bags as well as the colorful popcorn.

Oh, and here's one that shows off Grants shiner really well. He got a black eye when he fell into a speaker at the Alpaca Farm at Geemaw Camp. Then when we were back and it was starting to look better, he hit the same spot on the playground at the YMCA and it came back even darker. Poor kid. And... he loves balls and gloves. More about that in a future post. 

 

The fourth of July actually fell on a Sunday this year, so we went to church and reflected about the blessings that come from living in this free land.  That afternoon we went to a friends house, the Hemmers, for a Fourth of July/Goodbye party for the Sherrods. LeeAnn is a friend who I met in Richmond through Amy, but got to know better after we moved here. They have been living here for a few years, but are moving back to Hanover. It was a fun cookout!

Christian's 5th Birthday!

As you all know, I am quite into themes when it comes to planning parties, but Christian isn't quite so much. I had been thinking about a Lego party for a while since Christian loves Legos and is so clever with them. He told me though, "Mom, I don't really want anything like that. I just want to hang out with my friends, play games, and have cake and ice cream." He also added that he wanted to go "Bobbing for apples."

Well, our guy had a great idea. It was a fun easy low key party and his game- bobbing for apples was a hit. By the way, we had the birthday party on July 3, so I sneaked in a red, white, and blue theme. He was ok with that. 

 

Bobbing for apples

 He got one!

 

The apples were delicious!

 

Balloon relay races

 

Popping balloons was just as fun

 

Making a wish while blowing out the candle of his American flag birthday cake that Danny made. Really. He makes it every Fourth of July and asked Christian if he could do it. Christian was excited about it.

 Christian and Mason tied in musical chairs. We played a couple more games, then opened presents. Christian's friends brought him neat things- a Spider man, 3D chalk, and a butterfly house to watch real larvae turn into caterpillars all the way to butterflies. We have had fun playing with those new things. We'll post about the butterflies when they come in the mail.

 

Cute little Avery peeking through the tire swing

 

Mason playing baseball.

 

Grant showed us a new trick that day.

.

 Christian, we loved your party and hope you had fun! We love you and are excited that you are turning 5 and going to kindergarten this year!

Livingston's Leave for Logan

Our friends, Liz, Shane, and Dennis moved away from Farmville and we'll miss them. Just a few pictures of the last couple times we played together in town. Not sure why V is in her pjs in both of these pics that she is in. I guess they were both taken near bedtime.

 Funny on the step picture.

 

Cute Dennis on the tire swing

Ludgates, Soderholms, and Livingstons- we had a fun pizza party before they left.

The last night before they moved, Liz and I went to see the 3rd Twilight movie together. We saw the 2nd together with Pam the week that we moved in. Liz, do you want to fly back to Farmville for the next one? 

Good luck in Logan!

My Dad Retired!

After 38 years of working for Traveler's Insurance Company, the last 20 serving as Regional Vice President  of Personal Lines, my dad retired. We are so proud of him and so thankful for all of the hard work he did to provide for our family.

It was neat to be invited to a retirement luncheon for him at Crab Louie's. There was a large turn out and it was great to hear from so many of the people who worked with him. They said such great things about him. Primarily, they spoke of his honor, respect, and integrity. 

They gave him a really thoughtful retirement present too! They know that he is excited to do missionary work for our church with my mom, so they made a really generous donation to the Missionary Fund for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Here are just a few pictures of the luncheon.

 

And another fun present- a new fishing rod to use at the rivah!

CONGRATS  DAD!