Colorado

So, I haven't done a blog post in years.  But I decided rather than just post the pictures to Facebook, I wanted to write about what was going on in the pictures.  I don't know why, and I don't expect anyone other than family to read this.  So this post will mostly be about some of the cool stuff Becs and I saw and did in Colorado.

We started off the trip with a very early trip to the airport and a flight off to Colorado. (I know, you don't have to say anything, I know I look fantastic even at 3:30 am)  A big thanks to Joan, who was watching the kids.  We stayed in Denver, but did a lot of day trips all over the place.  I will talk a lot about Rocky Mountain National Park, because, well, it was AWESOME!  If it was Becs typing, she would probably talk about something totally different.  But, she's not typing, she's watching Grey's Anatomy, and there's only so many times I can watch some disaster hit Seattle Grace, wait I mean Grey Sloan Memorial, so I'm typing.

So, here we are about to start our first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  We were a little worried about the altitude, and how it would affect us.  We felt great though, and didn't have any problems.  The first hike we did was up to Alberta Falls and Mills lake.  It was about a 6 mile round trip hike, and went up to about 10,000 feet.

There were some beautiful fall colors along the hike.  Our pictures don't quite do the colors justice, but it was really nice.

Here I am at Alberta Falls.  It was about 1 mile up the trail.  Probably one of the prettiest and most popular waterfalls in Rocky Mountain National Park.

This is us at Mills lake, our destination.  It was really nice.  We had packed a lunch, and ate it there at the lake.  We also took some beef jerky, which was surprisingly good.  We saw fish in the lake, and there was a little waterfall coming down the mountain into the lake.  It was probably one of the nicest lakes I've ever hiked to.  I would've jumped in, but it was way too cold.

A couple days later we did some more hiking in another part of Rocky Mountain National Park.  We went to a small waterfall, which was cool.  But one of the cool things was we saw a family of moose.  There was a big male, a female, and a baby with them.  They were kind of far away and hidden by the brush, so we didn't get any good pictures.  I put a circle around the male moose in the picture above.  It had a huge rack (Becca laughed a lot when I said that, I'm not sure why.)  The other picture is of some elk we saw.

Last pictures of Colorado.  We did some canoeing in a lake called Grand Lake, right at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was fun.  We got to canoe around the lake and see some of the huge cabins that we would buy if we were rich.

For the Grandparents

The Mother of All Catch-Ups

Okay, so I know it has been forever since we last posted. Please bare with me as we catch ourselves up. I'd like to promise that this won't happen again, but I'd probably be lying, so instead I promise to try really hard not to let so much time go by in between posts. For now enjoy all the pictures and try to endure to the end.

Cody's First Day of School in September.

Jade got a "big girl" bed.

Jade went to her first Princess Birthday Party in October.

Halloween

Scott built this amazing dog house for Dash.

Jade turned 3 at the end of November!

Which means Jade started Pre-School!

Jade's Birthday Party.

Christmas in Utah.

Jade's new hair cut.

Cody lost his first tooth in February.

Cody turned 6 at the end of February!

Jade's first "food coma" after eating too much.

Cody started soccer the beginning of April.

I am quite proud of these cup cakes I made for Cody's class party.

Cody's Easter Hat Parade!

The Governor of New Jersey had an Easter Egg Hunt at his mansion in Princeton for all the special needs kids ages 3-6 that we went to today!
Easter Bunny!

Governor Chris Christie.

So that's us in a nut shell since last September. I hope to have pics of the kids' Easter outfits and some much needed family photos soon!

Last Chance

Fall is in full swing here in Jersey and we love the clean, crisp air and bright colors of the leaves. The only down side is that the weather becomes too cold to do many of our favorite outdoor activities. But we were lucky enough to have a beautiful Saturday today and get one last family hike in. We went to Clayton Park in Monmouth County, which is a great place to "hike" with kids. Both of our kids did really well and Dash had a good time too.


Now bring on the snow so we can go skiing and snow boarding!

Pay Back!

So for Cody's last birthday my sister volunteered to make his birthday cake. It was a soccer ball and I think she did a fantastic job. Plus I was extremely excited not to have to make it myself. Now today we are celebrating her daughter's birthday. Somehow I found myself volunteering to make her birthday cake. You know what they say about pay backs. Anyway, she is having a barbie party and so a barbie cake it was. The first attempt at just physically baking the cake was a miserable failure, but I got it right the second time.

Cody's Cake

Lucy's Cake

So who do you think had the harder cake to make?

First Day of School!!!

Today was Cody's first day of Kindergarten. I am proud to say that our family made it through it without shedding a single tear. He has been looking forward to this all summer and was super excited this morning.

Getting the supplies together

All set to go

He is a walker.

Checking out what everyone brought

In he goes!!

To Infinity and Beyond!!!

Well, not really. We just went to Newport Beach, California and Disneyland! We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was int he high 60's all week and sunny. The only thing was the water was pretty cold, but as you can see from the pics below that really didn't stop my boys. It was wonderfully relaxing sitting on the sand and listening to the crashing waves. Scott's sister and her husband were able to join us. Cody and Jade couldn't get enough of Uncle Tyler and Aunt Summer. Scott's parents couldn't resist having us so close, well closer than usual, and not seeing us so we also got to see them and his little brother and sister on the weekend. All in all it was a great trip.

Such a cute family.

Our first few days were just spent lazily on the beach.

DISNEYLAND!!!!

First ride of the day.

Cody's favorite, the Buzz Lightyear ride!

Jade's favorite, the Carousel!

Classic Mickey!