Family Reunion - July 6th

On July 6th the family reunion started at the Ringenberg's place in Buena Vista.  Charla and I went for a beautiful bike ride from their cabin to the trail head of Columbia and Harvard.  It was only 9 miles but it was a hard 9 miles.  I remember the last time I was that sweaty!  There was some beautiful scenery along the way!

 A log cabin at the trail head of Columbia.  It has to be 100 years old and it looks like it still has occupants. 

 Jim and Viv explore around the cabin.

 Charla, Viv, Pooh, Tigger, Ole and Lena (the Norwegian statue)

 Viv, Ole, and Lena

 Viv modeling her cute outfit from Hannah Anderson... Had to have her wearing Scandinavian clothes for the Norwegian family reunion.

 It poured here!!!!  Viv escaped out into the rain and she just giggled like there was no tomorrow!

Viv in the small bench Grandpa has had on the deck for years... He couldn't wait to have someone sit in it!

Viv to Uncle Paul - "Ehhhh" 

 Translated - Put me down, I want to walk!!!

 It's a cute hat but I don't like things on my head or in my hair!

 Checking out Uncle Erik's hair.

Great First Day!  Everyone else arrived at dinner time.  More pics of everyone tomorrow. 

4th of July

Luke and I are excited to get nearly a full week up in the mountains.  I've been looking forward to this for months!  We started off our week spending time at my parents cabin near Twin Lakes.  My dad has a fishing membership to Mt. Massive.  We love being able to be his guests to these fully stocked beautiful lakes! 

Viv and Andy:

 Viv shows Pops where she wants to be.

 Say What?

 Trying to pick the mountain flowers.

 After fishing the Ringenberg Family came over for a BBQ.  My grandma and grandpa cooked some amazing ribs and fried chicken.  Amazing!!!

Viv and Erik:

 Erik, Viv, Charla, and Paul:

 Paul and Viv:

 On the 5th - Nanana and Papapa watched Viv while mom and I went for a walk. 

 Luke and Viv at the lakes:

She really wanted to take Nana's hat:

 Getting a tiger trout:

 Viv touches her first fish and decided to check out this tiger trout's mouth... not her best idea. 

 Pops, Viv, and Nana:

 Uncle Andy caught a Viv sized fish.  She thought this was so funny!

Twin Lakes:

Now off to the Ringenberg cabin near Buena Vista for a family reunion.  More pics to come!!!

Play Date

Chandra is in town from the UAE!  She and Wes, her husband, teach there. We grew up across the street from each other and were maids of honor in each other's weddings.  I love getting the chance to spend time with her when she is back in town.  Viv and I picked her up for a zoo date! 

Many a great conversation was had on this swing in front of her house!

 Viv got to meet Tug.  Viv loves dogs! In fact, her first word was "woof." Most of the dogs she sees are big and have good sized snouts.  So when I started saying "woof, woof" when we introduced her to Tug, she was very confused.  After a moment, she looked up and said "E, E, E."  This is her monkey noise.  It cracked me up.  I guess she has a valid argument.  The pugs do have flatter faces like some monkeys. 

Needless to say, she was the most animated when we say monkeys at the zoo.

The new elephant exhibit is so cool.  Viv gets excited to see them. 

 Gorillas:

 Great to see my friend and to spend some time with my girl!

Zoo

Stacia and I braved the heat to go to the zoo.  I think it was the day we had a record breaking 105 temp.  We had fun but were ready to cool off by 11:30.  The kiddos did great!

 Got to see the new elephant exhibit:

 Viv pointing to show me what they were doing:

 Checking it out!

 Trying to keep cool!

It's more fun to go with people!  Thanks, Stac!

Family Pics

A few days ago we decided to do some family pictures.  Now I had two cute outfits picked out for Viv.  We had to do it in the evening because it's been 100+ degrees here.  So we go to downtown Golden and it rains on us.  Once it stops raining, Viv decides that she would rather do anything besides take pictures.  It was quite the challenge.  We managed to get a few good shots but gave up after 15 minutes and only one outfit. 

Viv will be 14 months in a couple of days.  She's walking well now.  She says "woof", "nana" (for banana) and "hi."  She never quite caught on to the whole clapping thing until a few days ago.  Now she claps for everything and it's so cute!  She is into everything now and following her around all day is exhausting!  She is also quite bossy.  Don't know where she gets that.  She will point and grunt to instruct you to do things for her.  She has a killer smile!  You won't see it in the pictures but trust me it's great!

 Using bubbles to get Viv to sit still... You can't see the bubbles but we're excited about them =-)

It's been so hot here.  Today was the 5th day of temps above 100 degrees.  It's crazy and our state is on fire...literally.  Some of our family from Colorado Springs has been evacuated.  Our family in Fort Collins are still in their homes.  Please pray for all those fighting the fires here!

Yard Work

Three years ago (the summer after we moved in) we started a few projects in our yard.  Our yard was very plan - grass with a rock border.  No plants except two trees in the front and 3 bushes in the front.  No plants or trees in the back. 

We started by making a flower bed and planting a Norwegian Spruce in the back corner.

 Three years later:

 Our front yard had this lovely rock bed with nothing in it. 

Three years ago:

 Now:

Two years ago we planted three dwarf spruces in our back yard.  Our hope was to cover the electric  box eventually.  Three weekends ago we decided to plant more spruces and make it a bed as well.  We put a retaining wall around the electric box.  Hopefully that will keep Viv away for awhile.   

 Half way...

 The finished product.

 Two years ago we took out the rock border at the back of the yard and put in bushes and flowers!  They've really grown!

The next goal is our basement but then we would like to redo our deck and retain our fence. Hopefully those changes will make it so we actually want to spend more time in our back yard!