Mom's party

After our afternoon at the lake for my birthday party, we headed to the Greeley Stampede for M's party. What's better than an evening at the local fair--eating the greasy food and enjoying the fair rides.

We took Aunt R on the Merry-go-Round as our very first ride. It was about the only thing that C could go on also.

C was trying to be patient, but she just couldn't understand why she was stuck behind the fence while I got to have all the fun!

Before leaving we took some time to fish.

Wow, C caught the "big" one!

A lovely evening at the fair with the family she loves. M thinks she had a pretty good birthday also!

Day at the Lake

For my birthday party, I invited friends from Y school to enjoy a day at the lake with me. It was a hot, sunny day; perfect for a swim!Enjoying the water.

Warming up on the beach with my best friend P.

When we weren't in the water, we were building sand castles and moats.

Aunt R tried to bury C's toes.

M made a Minne Mouse cake for the birthday party. I guess she won't ever go into professional cake decorating, but working without a pattern I think she did pretty well. You can at least tell it's supposed to be a face with ears!!

All my friends singing Happy Birthday to me.

My friends and cousins who helped to share such a special day with me.

Birthday

For my birthday I made purple cupcakes. C even wanted to help me.To make the purple frosting, M added grape cool-aid with the frosting. It gave them a little punch!

I had fun putting the sprinkles on, but got a little messy doing it.

Purple cupcakes ready to share with my friends at Day Camp.

For my birthday supper, D picked up a pizza and we went to the park to eat, open presents and play just as a family.

Playing with D.

We called G&G when we got home so they could see me open their present. The summer I was born, G spent a good week restoring this tractor to its original John Deere green--fixing the chain, oiling all the parts, painting and decorating with decals. It was tractor M won when she was four from a local store's drawing. It was well loved by M, her siblings and all the daycare kids G watched. Now that I am four, it is mine to enjoy. Thanks G for all your hard work getting it ready for me!

Father's Day Weekend

Father's Day weekend found us camping in the mountains. We enjoyed a few evenings by the campfire, warming up with G under the blankets...

and a few days riding around on the ATV's!

The whole group.

Birthday pictures

One evening as we were outside enjoying the beautiful weather, M decided it was time to take our annual "look how much I've grown" pictures. M also realized that C probably didn't get these pictures taken of her at her birthday, but then again winter is not the best time to judge the growth of the tree. So we will take both of our pictures each summer. If you want to remember how we looked earlier, look here, here, here and here.M was pretty excited that both of us were willing to pose for pictures. She got some of the best pictures of us. Hope you enjoy also.

Look how tall the tree has grown. Can you believe it was knee high to M when she moved in 8 years ago? Wow, how time flies!

Random Fun

We've been busy with birthdays this month, but we still took time to just have fun. For my birthday I got some new playdough. It was C's first time playing with it. I think she enjoyed it!Our new neighbors moved in recently. This year we have Mama's and babies vs. the steers we've had the past few summers. C was impressed with the big animals so close to our backyard.

Aunt R is out enjoying Colorado this summer and comes down to our house almost every week to play with us at the park.

At the Relay for Life event there was a bouncy house to help entertain little ones while waiting for dinner. I've played in them before but C was new at the whole concept. She picked up on it pretty quickly.

M&D had gotten me a new bike for my birthday, but early in the month when they were cleaning the garage out I happened to find their hiding place. After much begging, M finally let me try out my new bike. I still have a lot of learning, but I am excited to ride and am learning a little more each day how to balance and pedal.

C has a cute little run. M calls it her waddle butt. I'm not sure if it is to compensate for balance or what, but it is kind of cute.

D helping me ride for the first time!

As anyone ever seen a child so excited to brush their teeth? Maybe we have a future dentist in the family. I guess right now it's a good thing she likes to brush because we have some concerns about the health of her new baby teeth and I have a feeling she will need to care for her teeth a little more than the average person.

Relay for Life

A few weekends ago, G invited C&I to walk the survivors lap with her at the local Relay for Life. G, along with a niece and 2 close friends was planning on attending. So D, M, C&I drove out to the fairgrounds on a sunny Saturday afternoon to walk a lap with G to honor her fight with breast cancer.P&G heading into the survivors dinner.

I decorated a heart for G and planted it in the Honor Garden they had on display.

P&G and her two close friends who are longtime survivors.

Cousin A manning the "Breast Friends" support table.

C&I sitting in the Honor & Memorial Garden.

While we waited for the dinner, we were entertained by a local tap dance group. I was a quick learner!

Camping and Grandma

After we landed in Denver, we headed straight up the mountains to finish the Memorial Day weekend camping with D. According to him it was the best night of the weekend. Warm and calm. We played games for a long time that night. My game was cup stacking.

We almost made it to the top before the cups tipped over.

Monday morning when we woke up it was starting to snow, so we packed up early and headed home. Since we got home so early we went over to G&P for the evening.

Hanging out by the hot tub with our water.G and her girls. Please continue to pray for G. She is fighting hard and we are here supporting her in her fight. C playing her game of kick the cans.

Flying with Mommy

M was being adventurous over Memorial Day and took C and I with her to OH to watch Aunt R run in the DIII National Outdoor Track Meet. M got us up at 3:30 on Thursday to make it to our 6 o'clock flight. C fell back asleep in the car, but I didn't. It was too exciting to be flying. In our layover in Nashville, we walked out of our gate right into a play area. M thought that was the best idea ever for an airport. Since we arrived early and already had a planned hour layover, M let us play and eat snacks for the next 45 minutes. Then we headed to our next flight 4 gates away.

Climbing all over the luggage carts!

We had a few meltdowns as we waited for our 2nd flight and after we landed waiting to be picked up. But all things considering (no nap for me and early morning) M thought we traveled very well.
On the way back to Denver, we found an empty section of the Columbus airport and ran off our energy. However, the weather didn't have the same ideas as M. After spending our 40 extra minutes and heading to the gate just in time for boarding, M found out that the flight was on hold due to fog in Chicago. So after sitting in the gate area for another 40 minutes (since the hold could be taken off at any minute and then immediate boarding we couldn't leave the gate area), we finally boarded and left an hour off schedule. M knew that we would be running really close with our layover. We only had a 45 minute scheduled layover and M didn't know how long the Denver flight had been on hold before getting to Chicago. So once we landed in Chicago, M gathered C and I up along with our one carry-on and ran the 10 gates to the Denver flight. We were the last ones to board. After some seat adjustment to find 2 seats next to each other, we were ready to push back. That's when the lightening started in the vicinity of the airport. So the ramp was shut down for about 15 minutes. When the ramp opened, the 2 planes on either side of us were pushed back and then another lightening strike. So after another 15 minutes delay we finally got pushed back and off the ground.

After all our adventures we were only an hour and half late to Denver. Once we got our luggage we headed to our car and up to the mountains to see D. M thought we traveled very well. It helped that once our bags were checked we only had a backpack each to carry, so all hands were free. It also helped that very kind people offered to help at all points--with luggage, with moving of seats on the planes, with letting us ahead in the security line, etc.
Playing Ring around the Rosy as we waited for G&G to pick us up for the Colombus airport.