Summer Camping Trip

For the past two years we have had the opportunity to go on a group camping trip with our church. This has been such a great opportunity to fellowship and get to know others in a smaller setting. Although it can be a tiring weekend with small children we had a great time.

Every time we drive into the mountains I am in awe of God's creation. They are so majestic and beautiful. I could never get tired of seeing them. 

We went to a camp site about 2 and half hours away. We had to stop once for a diaper change break and then we got stuck in traffic through mountains for another 3 hours from an accident. We took turns getting the kids out and letting them stretch so they wouldn't get fussy. Ryan took the opportunity to pretend to drive and watched movies in the back.

On the first day, when we arrived it started raining right as we set up our tent. It was a light shower and ended soon but a few minutes later we saw a rainbow. It was beautiful to see over the mountains.

We spent Saturday morning at the lake where Josh skipped rocks and Ryan tried to do the same, which really was him throwing rocks into the lake but he had a lot of fun.

The whole weekend Ryan was pretty much a total mess but the worst was Saturday night when we had spaghetti and s'mores for dinner. He loved it!

Everytime we go on a trip like this I find myself wishing I had taken more pictures but I'm always grateful for the ones I did take!

Kayla is 7 months

People always tell you "don't blink" and "they grow up so fast" but its so true. I can't believe Kayla is already 7 months old. She seems to be growing so much faster than even Ryan did. It amazes me how much children learn in their first year of life. They go from being able to do nothing for themselves to eating, moving, and entertaining themselves. This month Kayla is becoming more interested in her surroundings. She gets upset if something is taken away from her and is letting herself be known when something happens that she doesn't like. She also loves interacting with Ryan and he loves to play with her. This morning I found him in her room by her crib saying "g-morning Kaywe" over and over and she was smiling up at him. These are such precious moments from the Lord and things I want to remember.

We are so blessed to have such a happy baby and I love watching her grow and become more and more interested in the world around her.

We celebrate 3 years of marriage and Ryan Turns 2!!!

Its back to the blog and hopefully I can get around to posting more. Today we celebrate three years of marriage and Ryan turns 2!! I can't believe how fast the last two years have gone. He has gone from a smiley happy baby to a fun, energetic, strong-willed, yet super sweet little boy. He is doing so much and learns more every day. I want to somehow write everything down so I don't forget a single moment.
 He loves trains and talks about his "choo choo rides" all day long. We took him to the Colorado Railroad Museum and he was so excited.
He also loves "choco mi" - or chocolate milk and treats and feez pops - (freezer pops).
His new favorite skill is jumping and he jumps all the time anywhere he can and he loves to go to the park and go down the slides.
He loves to give and receive hugs and kisses. Whenever he gets a scratch he wants a kiss and he thinks my freckles are scratches and tries to kiss them to make them "all better."
He loves Kayla and tries so hard to play with her. He loves to make her laugh and he gives her kisses every morning.
He knows his name and says "Rywe" and "Kaywe"and talks about himself when he wants something.

I could go on and on about all the things he's doing. I'm hoping that if I ever find the time I can make a scrapbook with all these things.

The Lord has been so gracious to us and we are so thankful for his blessings. He has taught us so much through this journey of marriage and parenting.

Josh and I celebrated last night with dinner and a night out thanks to our wonderful babysitter Kayla. It is so nice to go out to eat and enjoy my food without little ones trying to steal all my food :)

Here are just a few of the pics of Ryan through the last year. Although not in any particular order!

My next blog goal is Kayla at 7 months! Hopefully it will be coming soon!

Mini-Trip to Pagosa Springs

Wow! I’ve been meaning to write this post for about 2 weeks now. I don’t even know where my time goes except that I’m beginning to think there is never a “non-busy” time when you have little ones!  A couple of weeks ago Josh’s mom and stepdad had the opportunity to visit us for about a week. We were pretty excited about this trip since we haven’t seen them since Christmas last year (2012). While they were here, we took a mini-trip to Pagosa Springs so Josh and Tom could spend some time snowboarding/skiing. Pagosa Springs is supposed to get a lot of snow so we prepared for cold weather – it turned out to be 50 all week. This was a little disappointing for Josh since he wanted it to be cold with lots of snow, but it was great for Cheryl and me to walk around downtown and take Ryan outside to play.

Our trip had a little bit of a rough start when Ryan woke up on day one with a fever of 103. The last time this happened his fever lasted days and I was so worried our whole trip would be spent inside with a sick baby. The Lord was gracious however and Ryan’s fever broke the next day and we were able to enjoy the rest of our trip. (It turns out that fever was the beginning of an ear infection. His fever came back last week and we went to the dr. to get meds. )

We rented a little lakeside condo for the week, which was nice so the kids could be a little louder than if we had been in a hotel. We kept it low key for Saturday and Sunday so Ryan could get better, and then Monday we took him to a wildlife park in the area so he could see some of the animals. On Tuesday we took turns watching Ryan and Kayla so we could all get massages and spend some time relaxing and then we went shopping around downtown to some of the little antique stores.  Hopefully the pictures we took will tell a little more of the story!

Our little home away from home.

The view of the lake

The view from our back porch

Josh and Tom on the slopes

We spent the afternoon at the park

Ryan is a little scared of slides - unless mommy goes with him, then he has a blast!

Grandma and Ryan at the playground

Ready for the wildlife park

Watching the bear at lunch time

His favorite part, by far, was chasing the wild turkey's around the yard


 

This is the first picture of them sitting next to each other!

 

The drive home, he was so tired but he had so much fun!