Welcome October!

New Friends

Nathan came to visit mommy at work today and he made friends with a new creature! Carmen, our resident exotic animal lover, got a coatimundi a few weeks ago. I had never heard of this adorable creature - and I am not one for exotics, but I feel like Elmira from that cartoon - I want to love him and squeeze him and dress him up! This little creature is a Costa Rican raccoon. He is only about 5 weeks old and it just precious, oh and his name is "Mango"!

Halloween Preview

Well, the poll was a tie between spider, duck, and turtle so I made the executive decision that Nathan's first Halloween he would sport the spider costume. It is so cute! It arrived today and consists of a hat and padded shirt. I purchased some tights and will need to find a long sleeved black onesie or something. He, of course, attempts to remove that hat ASAP.

Breckenridge, the final installation

Wednesday afternoon Trace decided I needed to experience the Alpine Slide...Basically a long slide down Peak 8. You ride up the lift, hop on a modified slide and you are off. Even Nathan took a ride!

A mule deer in the bushes, you can't really see it, but she was nestled down in the brush.

Daddy and baby taking an afternoon rest.

Thursday we took the short drive to Vail to see Betty Ford Gardens. If you ever have a chance, this is worth a trip, these gardens are absolutely beautiful! There is a path with many water features. After this stop we went outlet shopping in Silverthorne.

They also had a really awesome park that had seperate areas for young kids and older kids. Nathan was a little too young still, but he did hop on these big birds for a photo.

This is probably our only family photo of the whole trip!

On our trip home we stopped at South Park City in Fairplay, CO. This is a neat museum of an 1800's mining town. They have about 30 buildings that document the towns history in mining. There are homes, a chapel, animal housings, a post office, a general store, and many others, It was absolutely amazing the amount of artifacts here.

We stayed the night in Clayton, NM at the Holiday Motel. If you are ever in the area, this is an older (but much cheaper) place to spend the night. It was very clean and they had the towels folded into this elephant!

On the way home we detoured to Beaver, OK for Nathan's visit to the cow pattie holding beaver!

Breckenridge, part two

OK, this is going to be part two of a three part installation, so here we go...There are a bunch of pictures below.

Day two began with what I will call "The Incredible Journey." Nathan got a fancy little buggy that hooked onto the back of the bike, he was so good for trip! We had the bkes for four hours and decided that we could make it to Frisco and back - an 18 mi trip. It was an easy ride for the most of the way there. Then we hit some hills, and the hour trip there took about 2 1/2 hours on the return. As Trace put it, "We aren't unathletic people, we just don't do athletic things." Sad, but true and this adventure showed how true this is. We were completey exhausted! I have not felt that drained in years!

The ride was beautiful, this creek ran most of the way, we took one of our many breaks by this area.

Bottle time!

On day three we rented an off-road jeep. We dropped Nathan off at a child care center, I was very impressed with it and felt totally comfortable with him there. This was one part of the trip that I was nervous about. I wasn't crazy about leaving Nathan at some random daycare. And I was envisioning Trace taking us on some crazy road with a disastrous ending. But it was really fun. The views were lovely, although Trace thought that his trip to the Alpine Loop had better views.

This is us at the top of Georgia Pass.

We picked Nathan up that afternoon and went to Boreas Pass.

Don't worry, there was a carseat!

Mr. Off-Road!

Day four began with a "hike." At least as much of a hike that you can take with a 9 1/2 month old! It was cool and quiet in the woods, we only went in about 100 yards.

After the "hike" we went to Sapphire Point. A family friendly look with wonderful views of Dillon Lake/Reservoir.

Some type of bluebird. It had the most vibrant blue accents!

The boys

Chipmunks were everywhere! People bring peanuts and they are so cute! Nathan dropped his paci and they were on it instantly - the sterilizer came in handy that night!

Me and our boy

Ten Months

Another month has passed! And with it, our little guy is growing like a weed.

At 10 months he:

-remains a very happy little guy.
-talks all the time (see video).
-is pulling up on anything and everything, but hasn't really taken a step yet.
-still loves dogs, especially Wyatt!
-is eating chunkier foods.
-is going to have a sweet tooth!
-wears 12 mo clothes.
-weighs about 21 lbs.
-has tiny little feet!
-hates going to sleep by himself.

Pleading his case for release

Happy Labor Day

Breckenridge, part one

Well, we survived!! We had a wonderful, relaxing family vacation and this may take a few posts, but here are a sampling of our adventures.

Breckenridge is beautiful in September, the weather was cool in the morning, but warm during the day.  It was not too busy, mostly families with young children.  We arrived on Saturday night at the Grand Lodge on Peak 7, a new resort.  The room was lovely, I did not take pictures of it, so you just see snippets of the living room and the views from our balcony.

On Sunday, we went to church then off to explore downtown Breckenridge.  The flowers there were absolutely beautiful.  Petunias were very popular and there was a restaurant that had an unbelievable amount out front.

There was a dinosaur sculpture that was a photo op for Nathan in town.

 

To finish off the day we drove partway up Boreas Pass, beautiful views.