Fun in the Rockies!!!

This picture sums up our vacation to the Colorado National Rocky Mountains. Jackson had a BLAST the whole time!!! Totally recommend camping with a toddler (esp. when you have family for help). It was great! We are excited to do it again in a few years and think it will just get more and more fun. Jackson had so much fun playing around the campsite and on the hikes I think one of the highlights was wading in the water and looking for rocks with Mimi or playing diggers with Dow. It was a great trip and totally relaxing (kind of). Although it did help to have lots of help and not have to cook all the meals or prepare lunches!

So, on a 16 hour car ride, you can read your train book.....

Veg out watching Nemo (which Jackson is now obsessed with). Notice he couldn't even eat his pretzel because he was too into the movie....

OR go nuts and be totally silly because you don't take a nap!!

Here are some shots of the mountain trip:

Pancake breakfast one morning by the campfire

Reading books in the tent with Dow

Fun with a new digger at the campsite (presents from Mimi and Dow and he NEVER let them go the whole trip)

Jackson shows Daddy how to dig with the digger one morning before our hike

Jackson helping to cook (see the spoon)

Mountain view from our campsite

Jackson riding in style! (side note...we actually left Texas WITHOUT our hiker--the one thing we actually had to have on the trip but luckily a quick trip into town and you can rent them! Good to know for future events)

Mama, Daddy and Jackson on a hike to Emerald Lake

Stream on the hike (....so pretty)

SNOW!!! Jackson wasn't such a fan (as usual) but he thought it was cool to stomp in.

Hands up!! As we are crossing bridges we put our hands up

Mimi, Dow and Mike Laura and Jackson all in front of a cool old tree (it's the little things that amused us)

Very stormy afternoon by the fire (like the poncho??)

Hiking to Black Lake (which we didn't quite make it to)

View of Mills Lake (this was a spot we had lunch--right on that rock and Jackson waded in the freezing water)

Relaxing in the hammock (excuse the hair--I think this was day 3 of not showering!)

And after our time in the Mountains we headed back to civilization and spent a few days in Denver. This is Jackson gazing in awe at a large T-Rex skeleton at the Denver Nature and Science Museum (notice the dino skull in his hand)
Jackson and Mike digging for dinosaurs bones!

Homeless

So, we go to the mountains for a week and sell our house! Can you believe it? We have a contract on our house. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well but right now we are excited----and homeless! Well, we will be in another month if we don't start looking for a new home. Pictures of our vacation coming soon! (as soon as all 200+ pictures get downloaded and sorted....ugh!)

Boo Boos Galore

We have officially hit the band aid craze. And specifically the ELMO band aids, or melmo as Jackson says. We've heard kids love them and now we see what other parents have been talking about. After a pretty good fall in a parking lot we've had to doctor this boo boo several times a day. "Mama boo boo NOW" which can be translated to "I'm ready for a new band aid on my boo boo please my sweet Mother" (or more probably, "I need another band aid for my boo boo RIGHT NOW lady!")

Unusual but not cruel

This is Jackson saying "cheese mama" in Bear's crate. We just recently put it together again and it has been a morning full of new fun! If only Bear had as much fun in it.

Just hanging out! Seriously though, our sitter came today and that's ALL they did for the 45 min. before his nap is play in this crate!!!

Even Bear got in on the action

Selling the house

So yes, the house is officially on the market! Wish us luck. This was taken last weekend as we planted a few flowers in the front. Luckily since we just redid our beds we didn't have any other yard work to complete. Jackson thought "digging" was tons of fun (you can see his digger in the background--that worked well too on the dirt!). He's been a real help getting things packed and cleaned.

Music Together

This is our music class that Jackson just loves! For any of you who haven't tried Music Together with your children I urge you to do it. It's a fabulous class and the teachers must be trained (unlike many other music classes). It's hard to find one in our area but well worth the extra drive! Jackson loves it and unfortunately he looks a little stunned as he's trying to decide what instrument to play with. Usually he's dancing so fast I can't get him in a shot.

And on the way home he always requests to read the music book. I guess he wants to be extra prepared for the next class!

POOL TIME

Here is that fabulous new pool I mentioned in an earlier blog. Doesn't it look fun? This whole area is toddler friendly with just a little over 1 foot of water. The lazy river is to the left but it doesn't look as exciting.

Cousins

This is Oliver. He's Jackson's cousin. Many people we know spend lots of time with cousins. Well...in our case Jackson's cousins are some fish (very cool fish we might add---even a shark) and this sweet new addition, Oliver. We think Jackson is especially lucky because some cousins have to share toys and take turns on things---not Jackson and his cousins! Oliver came to visit for a long weekend and this was our first overnight sleep over with him. It has turned out to be lots of fun! He's really sweet and Jackson just adores him.

Just like other cousins it's hard to get them to all sit still for a picture. Too much playing!

Bear and Oliver are relaxing on her bed. They really wear themselves out which is great for us. Funny story: today Bear barked at us to feed her and Oliver turned around and slapped her across the face. It left a paw print! It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Bear was stunned and Oliver had this look like "that's right you just settle down over there"

So these have nothing to do with cousin time. Just some cute shots of Jackson wearing one of Mike's hats.

24 hour kid free weekend

So Mike and I discovered, on our night out in the Big D Saturday, that we are no longer hip. This is probably no big surprise to many of you however we were still thinking there might be a thread of hipness to us---not any more! We are now fully aware that we are not "cool" as we used to say in high school. Mike's brother and sister in law decided to keep Jackson and Bear for us so that we could have a belated anniversary get away. We started our kid-free time by dropping Jackson off for his nap Saturday afternoon. We had a successful shopping trip and bought Jackson a "big boy bed" which we won't start using for several months but it's just too hard to shop with him. Then we headed to the hotel. We stayed at the W--very hip hotel. We thought going to the pool would be a good idea but quickly changed our minds when we stepped off the elevator only to find the hippest, buffest young adults swarming the DJ and pool. So...we turned around (but not before grabbing the only "old" couple to take our picture with the skyline behind us) Then we headed back to the lobby for some nice people watching and a refreshing drink. Here's Laura relaxing on one of the beds. What happened to chairs? Are beds in the lobby the new thing?

After relaxing in the lobby and checking out the hotel room (I love to see what the bathrooms will look like!) we did some window shopping while scoping out the streets for a good dinner place. We found a great sushi restaurant. Apparently they have the largest sake list in the country. Who knew Dallas liked sake so much?? Here we are enjoying some edememe before our meal.

Thank you Jack and Barb for taking such good care of our kids for us!! We know Bear had a great time because she slept the whole next day and Jackson kept saying "more Dak, more Bab" (translation "more Jack, more Barb")

Surgery Success

Many of you know that Mike's mom was recently diagnosed with a form of breast cancer. We were able to visit her last month and had a great visit! She was doing great and seemed really optomistic about her big surgery day earlier this month. On July 2 Mike's mom underwent a massectimy of one of her breasts. During the surgery they tested her lymph nodes to determine if there were any cancer cells present, there were none. So...we are happy to report that although this was a major surgery it looks like there will be no follow up treatments needed. She is at home and recovering well, with the help of Mike's Dad and wonderful Aunt Sylvia. Thank you all for your prayers, they certainly worked!

Happy 4th of July

This year we decided to have a July 4 party and invited Laura's Mom2Mom group. Okay so what is the best way to kick off a 4th of July party?? Renting a margarita machine of course!! It was actually quite refreshing in the 100+ heat and we are sure it was a hit with our guests.

Jackson had been excited all day about our party so he couldn't wait until everyone arrived to try out the chips. He's having a little appetizer here before our guests arrive

Here's the gang! We missed you Becky....

Now why is it that all the mom's are with the kids?? Where are the dads? Drinking margaritas apparently

And what better way to finish off a good grilled dinner than with cupcakes with blue sprinkles. "More blue! More blue!" as Jackson kept saying

And of course you also have to have a good bubble maker! Not only can Mike grill incredible burgers and dogs but he can make HUGE bubbles that thrilled the kids (as you can see)

And last but not least a couple of swings in the new big boy swing! Wheeeeeeeeeeee

How does your garden grow?

Apparently ours is full of weeds!! Poor Jackson doesn't know if he's smelling a weed or basil.

Despite our "garden" Jackson is trying to take full advantage of the Texas heat so far this Summer and much to our dislike we have been sweating it out a lot in the backyard. Thankfully we just joined a pool which is going to be great fun. It has a zero entry toddler pool (but the same size as a normal pool just with 2 feet of water) with three water slides, at least 15 spraying fountains and a water table. There is also a lazy river with quite a current (Jackson likes that best as the slides are full of kids and a little intimidating right now). Hopefully we'll get some fun pictures of him in the water soon but unfortunately I also soaked so it's not a good place for a camera