So sweet

Elliot has said mama & dada for a long time now. Dada is his oldest and most favorite word. When Paul comes home from work he runs to the door excited and yelling over and over "DADA!" and when I come home he does the same, except "MAMA!"

Paul is out of town and yesterday Elliot was whining for him saying 'Dada, Dada Dada" over and over. Noah said in the sweetest voice to him. "Elliot, I miss daddy too. But, he will be home tomorrow." It was pretty sweet. Last night Elliot started whining for him again when he was tired, but instead of Dada, he said "Daddy" over and over. For the first time. Today he has only said "dada". I hope he says Daddy again for Paul when he gets home . It was so cute!

Diet Coke

I used to be addicted to it. Th height of my addiction was nursing school and working nights. I quit caffeine all together before getting pregnant with Noah wanting to do everything by the books. Well after being off it so long between pregnancy and nursing, I now really react to it. So I don't drink it much and when I do I have it fairly early or it will prevent me from sleeping. I still fall into my old habits if it's in the house though. So I only buy it out on occasion. I had one yesterday in the car from chick-fil-a. We had a picnic and playtime at the park. Noah was all red faced and sweaty as usual and finished his own drink. He was so thirsty and complaining. We were getting ready to head home, but I felt so bad for him and offered him some of my diet coke. He thinks he hates pop (besides cherry limeades from sonic we sometimes get), so I didn't think he'd take me up on the offer. But, he did. Then he asked for more, telling me it tasted really yummy in his tummy. Uh oh. When I wasn't looking he polished the rest off.

I guess I better be sure to continue my own policy of keeping it out of the house. That poor boy has inherited all of my unhealthy tendencies. Like me he loves sweets, and now, diet coke.

Fun City lives up to it's name

It's not a trip to Estes Park without a stop at Fun City. We started off on the slides. By Elliot's expression I couldn't tell if he hated it or loved it. He seemed pretty non-committal. But, he kept going back up to climb the stairs to the top. Noah's expression never leaves any doubt of his love for it. Noah belly laughs on the bumper cars and loves them, too. We ran out of camera battery (theme?) before Noah got brave and did the trampoline ride. They attached him to a harness and he bounced up REALLY high. Then we all did bumper boats (Elliot loved squirting Paul & Noah), and Paul & Noah did Go Karts.

We ended the trip with Noah riding solo down the slides. He realized he is a big boy and could do it alone. Fun City!

Flattop Mountain

After a couple days of acclimating I was ready to get in a good hike. Paul was planning on getting up at 4am and doing one alone and then I was going to do one with my sister, mom & Keith when he got back. Mom & Sam didn't think they were ready yet for Flattop, as it's rated a strenuous one. They wanted more time to work up to it. Mom generously volunteered to watch the boys so Paul & I could do it together. Yay! We were counting on them helping out so we could do a big anniversary hike alone later that week, so this was just a bonus hike. We took her up on her offer. Keith decided to tag along, too as he was excited to try it.

We forgot to charge our camera the night before so we ran out of juice about halfway up. So no gorgeous summit pictures. It is about a 9 mile round trip hike. We summitted in just over 3 hours. The elevation starts at 9,475 and ends at 12,324. It is a lung-buster at that altitude, but was doable. I didn't think it was any harder than Chasm Lake (where Paul & I got married) even though it was a little longer and higher altitude. The top was big and flat and has views of the Continental Divide. You continue walking over this big flat area and at the ledge you are right next to Tyndall Glacier. The valley and mountains at this view are stunning. You feel on top of the world. Just another 30-45 minute hike from here is Hallet's Peak. If we weren't planning on doing our big anniversary hike a couple days later we would have gone. Also the fact that mom was at home with the boys we didn't want to take too much extra time. But, next year, I want to climb even higher to Hallet's Peak.

This was taken from the car on our way up to the trailhead. I love the alpenglow and the clouds sitting on the mountains. It was totally clear when we summitted.

This was us at the Bear Lake Trailhead just before starting

One of the amazing views on the way up the mountain. And then, poof, camera died.

This was taken the next day from Sprague Lake. The white snow in the middle is Tyndall Glacier. The flat mountain top on the right is Flattop Mountain. We sat on a ledge just to the right of the glacier and picnicked. Hallet's Peak is the highest peak on the left only about 1/2 mile up from Flattop.

Noah's big hike

Every year we go to Colorado is a new milestone with Noah. When he was just under age 1, he had fun in the backpack. The year when he was just under 2 was the biggest "challenge". He didn't want the backpack and also didn't want to hike. He wanted to just stay in one spot and explore and play. It took us a day to really "get" that we needed to embrace that and encourage it and forget about our own selfish need to hike the way we'd accustomed to pre-kids. But, we did get it and let him do just that. We took turns on who got to hike and who got to stay with Noah at some lake letting him explore. Last year when he was almost 3 was an exciting milestone for us. He discovered that he loved to hike. Now his definition of hiking was a little different than ours, but we were so excited and enjoyed doing it as a family anyway. He was in no hurry and it was all about the journey. Last year we never reached a summit/destination/end point, but we trekked a lot of ground and had a lot of fun along the way. Noah discovered it was fun to climb rocks last year.

This year, Noah is almost 4. We took him on a popular hike that we suspected he could actually do. Alberta Falls is very popular for a couple of reasons. It is easy at just about a mile and it is beautiful. It attracts people without a lot of stamina, families with kids and people just trying to get acclimated. It is also on the way to a lot of other pretty hikes/lakes. The good news is we went a week later this year (Fall season) and with so many kids back to school, the trail wasn't too crowded.

Noah did not disappoint. He actually led the way. He didn't stop to explore a ton and just kept trekking along. He did stop to sit on a rock and ask me to take his picture fairly often, which I loved. After reaching our destination, he scared me climbing up steep rocks to the "perfect picnic spot" in his words. After enjoying our picnic, he said he wanted to go higher.

At this point, we let E stay out of the backpack and do his own exploring, trying to nurture his love for the mountains, too, like we did for Noah. Elliot is in an in between stage. He does great in the backpack, but also enjoys getting down and exploring. I'll be curious to see how he is next year. Paul stayed back and just let him play on the rocks and explore until we met him coming down the mountain.

Noah went quite awhile, but not high enough to reach any other lakes or anything. The tough part with him is he doesn't understand pacing himself or that he has to hike all the way down. So when he was "tired" we still had to continue hiking as much as we already had. It was downhill at least. I let him rest a few times and eat GORP, which helped energize him. We just encouraged him a lot, and Keith gave him a few shoulder rides until we got to the bottom. It was a great experience and a proud moment for us to reach this milestone. I love watching him mature more every year and see his love for hiking and the outdoors.

We stopped at Alberta Falls on the way down to get E in the backpack and let Noah have some GORP. Noah had to pee, so I took him to a tree in the woods and told him to go. He cracked me up as he was getting ready to do it and looked up and me and said, "Mom? Are you sure about this?" It was so funny, the way he said it! I told him I was sure and he proceeded to aim it back and forth all over the place telling me he was watering the plants so they would grow. He cracks me up!

Great day hiking with my boys. And an easy day for us all to get acclimated to the altitude before doing anything too hard. I heart Colorado.

Seeing him in all his gear makes me happy

You can't see it, but just to the left is a little bridge made of logs. My boy likes to take the more challenging way. I love it!

Noah & Grandma

Leading the way!

He just wanted to sit and take it in awhile

Such a pretty picture. I wish we'd had them take one of us with the same background

Yay, Noah!

Perfect picnic spot indeed

First time exploring the mountains

Elliot & his hiking partner

He completely passed out....

Until it got bumpy with Noah getting on Paul's shoulders. Nap over.

Rocky Mountains here we come!

We came home from our annual trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, CO this past weekend. With no internet access in the mountains, we were unable to keep up with blogging while we were there (so much easier) and busyness at home makes it hard to do a lot at a time. Hope to get it all caught up in the next day or so though.

Thanks to Southwest Airline's killer sale awhile back coupled with a credit I had expiring in October, I booked tickets for the 2 kids and me to fly there and back. We had to have the minivan so Paul drove down along with mom, Sam and her boyfriend, Keith. With Keith being an extra body with extra luggage it was a pretty tight fit once the boys & I were picked up in Denver. There is no way we could have all gone the whole trip together in one car otherwise.

Paul & the gang left Saturday morning a little after 7am, when Noah was still in bed. I told Noah that they were on their way to Colorado and that we would fly there later on an airplane. Our flight didn't leave until 4-something. Well Noah wanted to go right then. He kept asking all day if it was time to go. He packed his carry-on backpack with books and insisted on wearing it all day.

Flying alone with the boys went really well. I forgot E's shot records to "prove" he was actually his age to get his boarding pass as a lap-baby. I got them to call his doctor's office to verify when it was clear they weren't going to just take my word for it. Luckily our doctor's office is open 7 days a week. The boys both behaved well. I was able to snag a whole row of 3 seats for us since it wasn't completely full even though E was actually a lap-baby. The only tough part was taking Noah to the bathroom. I packed a TON of snacks and one (new) toy for each boy. Before I knew it, we landed!

That night we stayed in a hotel just outside of Boulder. This is not something we normally do, but cheaper rates"Fall Season" started Sunday. Plus, I have read staying in a lower altitude town for a night helps prevent altitude sickness in kids (something I'm pretty sure we endure every year). It really did help. The boys both slept well without any agitation or signs of altitude sickness. In addition to staying a night in lower altitude we let kept them hydrated letting them drink as much Gatorade as they wanted and spent a good part of Sunday in Boulder playing around. We couldn't check into our house until 3pm, so it just worked out really well.

Traveling through Boulder for several years, Paul & I are kind of over the whole Pearl Street Mall thing unless actually wanting to go out to eat/drink. So we let Sam & Keith off there and then headed to the riverfront and played. I took E on a walk to get him a much needed nap. After lunch, we all headed back to the river and now E was ready to join in the fun. Noah stayed in so long and threw so many rocks, my mom was convinced that he changed the course of the river. How his feet didn't go numb in the cold water, we don't know. E didn't just get his feet wet. He ended up getting wet everywhere, and it didn't seem to faze him either.

Here are some pictures of our time playing in Boulder.

The clothes lasted maybe 5 minutes....

Brave Fish Wall of Fame

My nephew, Charlie has been staying with us this week while my sister has been working. We've had a lot of fun. Yesterday we were planning an afternoon trip to the pool when it started to rain. We decided to head to the YMCA. They have an indoor pool and we could play in their outdoor spraypark area when it cleared up, too (which it was cleared by the time we got there).

When you swim at the Y, the kids have to wear an armband. Orange for non-swimmers and Green for swimmers. To wear green you have to pass a swim test. The last time we had gone swimming there Noah was just learning to swim on his own and not ready for the test. I knew he was ready to pass it. Charlie is a great swimmer and I knew he'd pass too.

Well a really cool thing about the Y is they open free to the public on heat advisory days. So being about 100 degrees yesterday it was pretty crowded. Noah was a bit intimidated by the big crowd, but I encouraged him to do it anyway. Charlie cannon-balled right into the water and swam the lap lane and passed first. Noah got in a bit hesitantly and did the same thing. I was so proud of him and I could see how proud he was, too. His swim teacher from earlier this summer was doing a private lesson in the next lap lane so she saw him and cheered for him, too.

Noah & Charlie got to be the proud wearer of the green armband! This means they can swim in the deep end alone and go down the fast yellow slides, too. They both had a lot of fun swimming with more freedom, and of course, going down the slides. I wish I had my camera, but didn't think about it ahead of time. So here are some low quality pics with my cell phone.

Showing of their green armbands on the sprayground

Putting their fish with their names on them up on the "Brave Fish Wall of Fame".

In the blink of an eye

Nearly six years before to the day, I got married to a wonderful woman. When I took those vows, I knew that it would be new and exciting territory, but I never fully realized what a life-changing event it would be, and as we discussed what led us to that point over dinner yesterday, it occurred to me how different my day-to-day routine now is compared to what it was when we were first married.

In a week or so, we hope to be at the exact spot we were both engaged, and married - 11,800 feet above sea level, at a place called Chasm Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. Kids were but a distant thought at both times, and it’s kind of funny how fully they’ve taken over our lives. It’s even more astounding at how quickly that time has gone.

When I got home from work tonight, Noah and Elliot started playing on this $10 Little Tykes slide that Mandy bought off of Craigslist three years ago. I flashed back to a memory of Noah’s first attempts going down that slide, and it struck me how long it had been since we first had Noah.

Schlitterbahn

Paul & I took Noah to Kansas City's newest waterpark, Schlitterbahn. Although, Elliot could have come for free (and would have LOVED the kid's play area), we chose to leave him at home with our babysitter Claire. I knew Noah would just want to do the wild rides the whole time, and that E would not last nearly as long. Plus, Elliot absolutely loves Claire and gets so excited when she comes over. That turned out to be a good choice. We were there for about 6 hours (3 of which, Elliot was napping at home). And Noah lasted only about 2 minutes in the kid's area, even though it was really cool.

We started out on the waterslides. There were 3 that were rated high thrill. Noah went on 2 of them, but the 3rd (the black knight) he was scared of at first because it was black and a tunnel. Well, when we rode on the water roller coaster, which also was black and in a tunnel, he decided it was fun. So then he was cool with riding the black knight. We got there right when it opened so at first we didn't have to deal with lines. But, later in the day, we had to wait in lines, which was a bit challenging for Noah.

Luckily, the torrent river which you float on in a tube and get pushed around by big waves, has no waiting. We rode that a lot. That's really all the pictures we have, as there is no way to take them on the waterslides. Noah was able to ride everything. There is no height limit to ride with a parent in a tube made for two people. He did great and loved it! Noah also got off the tube in the river quite a bit to swim and ride the waves.

We brought in food for our lunch and only bought Noah a green icee for a treat. Most people brought in huge coolers on wheels with tons of food and drinks. That is the way to go for sure!

Noah & I at the start of the Torrent River

Just casually floating, waiting for a wave

Noah would yell "WATCH OUT, PAUL!" when waves came. He must have heard me say it.

WEEEEE!

Another fun one! Paul was swimming and he'd push our tube to the good spots to catch big waves and push our tube so Noah would go really high into it. Over and over. Until lifeguards whistled for us to keep moving haha!

Such a fun day with our big boy! He loved his surprise. We didn't tell him what we were doing until we got there. I think next year, E will be ready to join us on some of the wild fun!