Vacation, Part 3

Ok, let's see if I can get the rest of the photos up tonight...

We're at the top of the mountain and it was cold!

Colin LOVED these guys.  He kept saying "Ooooo"  "OOOOOOO".  People thought he was the cutest thing.  It was hard to pull him away.  He is such an animal lover.

After our drive to the top, we stopped at a little picnic area where we were quickly bombarded by birds and chipmunks wanting our food.  Kayla and Colin were highly amused by all of the critters and it took a great deal of effort to make sure they didn't take our food!  Colin of course, chose this spot to trip and fall down a small hill which scraped his forehead pretty bad.

Nice views although Kayla is not too sure.

Kayla was always on the lookout for deer and several times, spotted deer before we did!

Colin helping Daddy by pouring some dirt in the fire pit.  Shovels were a fun toy at each campground because of the dirt.  Kayla and Colin made dirt piles EVERYWHERE.

Hike to another waterfall.

Family pic at the rocks!  Notice Stinky the Skunk that Kayla is holding.  Stinky decided that he was too stinky and needed to take not one, but two baths in the creek water...

His baths explain Kayla's expression in this photo.  She was not pleased about him trying to float away in the creek.  And I have no words to explain Colin's expression.

Playing at our next lunch spot.

What??

Pudgie pies in the campfire!  Colin's trying to blow on the fire cause it's hot!

Kayla became a Junior Ranger at the Rockies!  She was so excited and still wears her badge on her jacket.  : )

Hey!  Who photo-bombed Kayla's picture!?

Goodbye Colorado, hello South Dakota!  Here's our campsite at Wind Cave National Park.  And seriously, how does Colin get that dirty so fast!?

And I'll have to finish up these photos later.  I'll leave you with this one until next time.  CHEEEEEEESE!!

Vacation, Part 2

Our campsite at the Rockies was on a very quiet road, so the kids were occasionally able to play out in the road.  I like this picture because it shows exactly how Kayla and Colin play.  Colin just follows exactly what Kayla does and all is well!

Colin didn't get to see too many campfires since he was in bed early but he was always very intrigued by the fires that he did get to see.

Here's Kayla doing what she did best around the campfire: playing Angry Birds!  She is such a whiz with the phone and never ceases to amaze me with what she can do with it.

A typical morning playing cars and planes.  : )

The deer in the Rockies were extremely tame and we could just about walk right up to them.  Kayla liked to 'bark' at the deer.  After many days of barking, Colin started joining in so at times we had two kids barking at all the deer and elk we saw.  I could only imagine what other people though of when they heard those two.  : )

Hike time!  (Poop time!)

Well, at least Jordan and I are smiling and looking at the camera

Mama and Colin

Rockies Vacation, Part 1

Vacation photos!

Our first stop on vacation was at a KOA in Kansas.  We stayed in a very nice little cabin, which had a bunk bed and full size bed.  Kayla was thrilled to sleep on the top bunk until it actually came time to go to sleep, so she slept with us.  Here she is opening up a 'driving' present to keep her entertained.  You can notice that we've moved on from the bandage on her hand to just a bandaid, but it took her till the end of vacation to not have a bandaid and another week or two after that to actually start using her hand again.

Here's the other side of the cabin and where Colin slept.

After Colin went to bed, Kayla played at the playground, which had a good ol' fashioned merry-go-round.  She also tried her hand at mini-golf in the dark.

Our next stop was the Great Sands Dunes National Park.  Our campsite is the back half of the photo.  Definitely big enough for the kids to roam.

From where we camped, it was about a 1/2 mile trek out to the dunes, so that by the time we got to them, we were all tired!

We learned on our trip how independent Colin wants to be when it comes to hiking.  He just about refused to ride in the backpack carrier and would much rather walk then get a free ride.  While this was nice on our backs, it made for slow walking, but he was such a trooper.  *It's important to note, that any picture you see of Colin on a hike, there is a very good chance that he also has a poopy diaper.  Not sure what about hiking makes him have to go, but it made for some stinky walks back.  : )

Kayla footprints...

Although sometimes, you just had to pick Colin up and move him along.  He usually didn't tolerate the pick-ups very long.  We look so small!

Morning silliness.

Some nights were pretty cold and our heater only worked on the days it had been charged while traveling, so for the first time ever, Colin actually fell asleep with us for a few nights.  It a wonder our camper didn't tip to one side with the four of us on one side.  : )

The next day, we hiked back out to the dunes to go sand sledding.  Here is a goofy picture of Kayla looking not at all pleased even though she had lots of fun sledding.

There they go!  Although, the sand did not make for fast travelling, so in reality, we creeped down the hill.

Colin would go all excited to go down the hill with Jordan until he was in his lap ready to go.  So the last round down, I took him.

Kayla's view from the playground

On our way to Rocky Mountain National Park, Kayla and Colin split a chocolate shake.  It kept them content for a good 20 minutes or so.  : )

Kayla announcing our arrival...

We got pretty lucky throughout our trip with big campsites.  Our site at the Rockies was by far the biggest.

Kayla and Colin have started being super good sharers when it comes to sweets (toys, not so much), but suckers, ice cream, candy, they are both really good at taking one bite, then letting the other have a bite (or lick in this case).  Now if we could just extend that kindness to their toys, we'll be set!

Lots of Updates

Yikes, it's been a long time since I've updated.

Colin has been picking up new words like crazy and when we were on vacation, it was just about one new word every day.  They are: book, jue (juice), choo (shoe), gock (sock), tane gue (thank you-and he knows when to say it too!), ball, do do dora, pancake, eat, all done, and just today...gayya (Kayla!).  It's amazing the words he knows and how much he actually understands us when we ask him to do something.  He repeats everything we say which is probably why his word list is so long.  He is also starting to become more independent from Mama (yay!!) by seeking out toys to play with on his own or just following Kayla around, which he does ALL THE TIME.  They are precious together.  We also were able to find a new daycare provider for him who we LOVE.  It didn't take him long at all to become very comfortable with her (having two very friendly cats and a baby probably helped).  He's growing up so fast!

Kayla started her new preschool room with a new teacher and adapted very quickly.  Already making new friends and enjoying her classroom.  I can't believe she is going to only be four next month.  Sometimes I look at her and wonder how she can only be three.  The things she says always amaze me.  Apparently when she or someone asks me to do something and I'm busy, I will say "Give me a minute."  Well Kayla, has taken that literally and it took me two times before realizing what she was doing, but she run off somewhere, come back, and tell me, "Here are your minutes Mama," while handing me some fake minutes.  Too cute!  On the flip side, she is getting quite the temper, and she has told me on a couple of occasions when she is mad at what I'm telling her, to "Stop talking to me!"  I'm always quite shocked when she says this, but we're working on the little temper of hers.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago, that Kayla and Colin were baptized at Jordan's home church.  They both handled the water very well and loved all the attention from all our family who came to watch.

Jordan usually takes Kayla up to children's time, and today was the first time he took Colin up.  Colin cried and cried until I went to sit with him, and then he had a good time.

Per usual, our family picture has kids either not smiling or not looking at the camera, or just plain acting goofy.

Colin is quite obsessed with our riding lawnmower.  He absolutely loves to ride with Jordan, but when he can't be outside with the mower (mean Mama making him go to bed at a decent time), he'll just stand by the window and watch.

We had gone down to Chicago one weekend for a wedding and stayed at my Mom's house.  Upon coming home, she told us that Kayla was all tucked in bed.  When we walked in this is what we found:

We asked Kayla the next morning about it, and she claims to have no idea how or why she was sleeping on the floor.  : )

We had mentioned that Kayla had to be taken to the emergency room a couple of months ago for a bad cut to her hand.  Well Colin decided that he needed to one-up Kayla and cut his finger on an aluminum can.  A series of unfortunate events led to his trip to the emergency room.  I was making dinner and was going to recycle the can but the bag had been taking outside, so I put it in the paper bag on the floor thinking I would put it away later.  Well after dinner, Colin thought he would play with what was in that bag even though he has never ever done this before.  That and the can still had the lid on it, so once his finger was caught, it was stuck which made the cut even worse.  By the time we were able to look at it at the hospital, the can had almost severed his whole finger pad!  Six stitches later, we were back to playing like nothing had happened.  If you're squeamish, don't look at the picture below, but here's what his finger looked like afterwards.  Since that incident, Colin has not stopped getting himself hurt.  I don't think he can go more than a couple of days without injuring himself by running into something or falling into something.  As everyone's been telling us, it's apparently a boy thing.  : )