Black Hills Tourist Week

Cole got to play tourist with Grandpa Neill and GG when they came out the week before Landon’s birthday party.  They stayed at a hotel with a big indoor waterpark, and Cole loved going down the tubes on the slides with Grandpa and Dad.  They weathered the wind on top of Dinosaur Hill, visited Who’s Hobby Toy Store in Main Street Square, and frequented the arcade at Papa’s hotel as well.  Cole finally got to go to Reptile Gardens and see the giant 100 year old turtles.  Since I am working full time right now during training, Cole was able to spend the night at the hotel a few nights and loved it!

365 Days, 12 Months, 1 Year

October 22…Our little Landon is one year old, and we can’t believe how fast the year has gone by!  We celebrated Landon’s birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Barbour’s house with a baseball theme.  I was able to get much of the party-planning done either before we moved or the weekend before the party, so this party didn’t seem as intense as some of Cole’s have been.  Luckily, Aunt Emilee helped me decorate the cake pops and made the beautiful two-tiered cake, so that took a lot off my plate.  I made our family baseball shirts and the poster before we moved, so really I didn’t have too much to do once we got here.  Grandpa Neill and Elaine were able to drive up for the party as well, so we had a nice small party.  Landon had a blast flirting with all the ladies, especially Emilee’s mom.  He’s really starting to talk up a storm, too.  He likes to hold a whole conversation with you and will just start laughing after he says something.  Too cute.  We took Landon to the doctor for his 1 year check-up and shots…as much as the kid eats, he does NOT gain weight!  He’s just over 19 pounds (Cole was about 22 pounds at 1) and in the 6th percentile.  I’m sure he’ll make up the weight at some point; it’s not too surprising considering how fast he crawls and never stops moving.

    

 

Typical Cole being super cooperative for pictures

I did a cake smash the day after the party, and Landon loved eating the cake and digging into the frosting as much as he did during his party.  The kid just loves to eat and wouldn’t stop if you let him keep going.  He might’ve finished that whole baseball cake if I would’ve let him.  Cole barely touched his smash cake and cried when we stuck his fingers in it.  They couldn’t be more different.

 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

We’re officially in Rapid City!  The move went as smooth as it could have.  We filled up a giant trailer with more stuff than I thought we’d need, drove it across Wyoming, and took over just about every room in my parents’ house.  Everybody settled in just fine, and Matt and I have both started work.  Our first weekend in Rapid City, we found a pumpkin patch to take the boys to.  We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather in the beginning of October.  Cole had a blast picking up all the smaller pumpkins and loading them into the wagon.  Landon even got his hands on a baby pumpkin.

Steamboat Springs

We took a family vacation up to Steamboat Springs for a long weekend with Grandma Ruth, Uncle Luke, Aunt Sarah, and Cousin Benjamin.  We rented a 5-bedroom condo with 4 different levels.  The great part was, pretty much everyone got their own room (except poor Benjamin got a closet).  The bad part was, we had so much stuff and it was all spread out over 4 levels that we never could find where anything was!  I’ve never done so many stairs in one weekend!!  But the condo was super nice, fully stocked with everything we needed, including a life-size Pistol Pete.  Cole noticed him as soon as we walked in and identified him right away as Pistol Pete (the Wyoming Cowboys mascot).

One of the days we hiked to the Yampa River, where there are tons of natural hot springs.  We got in and played for a bit with the kids, and Grandma was nice enough to stay with the kids during naptime the next day so the parents could tube the river.  It was a little low and slow-going, but very relaxing!

  

The last night, we took a gondola up to the top of the mountain for a Sunset Happy Hour with dinner and music.  Cole had a look of pure joy as we launched from the gondola station into the air.  He had a lot of fun.  I did not, thanks to the height factor, the heat inside the gondola, and my motion sickness.  At first Cole didn’t like the music because it was too loud while he was trying to eat, but then he liked to dance with Grandma.  We didn’t stay on top of the mountain for the sunset, but caught it coming back on the gondola, where the ride was much cooler and more enjoyable for everyone.  Overall, it was a great trip, and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone.  Even though we’re only an hour drive away, we don’t get to see Benjamin, Luke, and Sarah outside of chaotic holidays and family get togethers, so it was especially fun for Cole to get some good cousin bonding in!

 

Go jump in the lake…

We drove up to Rapid for our second lake trip of the summer the first week in August.  This time, Cole had much more confidence in the water.  He just put on his little swim vest and swam around the pool by himself.  He even jumped in the freezing cold lake right away without hesitation.  One of the days at the lake was only 70 degrees and too cold to go out, so we went into Hot Springs and took Cole to Evans Plunge, the indoor water park.  He wanted to go down the big curvy slide with us, and after the first time, he loved it.  He would go down with Matt, and climb back up to go with me.  I only have the one picture of him coming out at the bottom…as you can see, Matt is completely submerged as Cole got held above water.  A few times though, we weren’t able to lift him all the way up and his head went completely under.  He would still pop out of the water, sputtering a little bit, asking to go again.  So we still had a fun time despite the unseasonal weather.

      

We went fishing on the dock in the morning before going out on the lake in the afternoon.  Cole’s bait wasn’t in the water more than 1.5 seconds at a time, so there was no way he was going to catch anything.  He had fun with Grandpa Scott though, although both he and I felt like we were about to lose our patience or an eye from the swinging hook at any moment.

Landon didn’t care too much for the beach this time.  Once he got on the boat though, he was fine with Grandma, his puffs and his water bottle.

 

Look who’s on the move…

Yep, that’s right.  Landon’s crawling, and we’re all trying to keep up.  Cole can’t believe how quickly Landon gets over to his toys and tries to knock his Duplo castle down (let’s just say he’s not thrilled about Landon’s newfound skill).  Dad and I can’t believe how sad it is that we will never be able to leave him on the floor and know he’s not going anywhere or getting into anything he’s not supposed to.  But it’s awesome, and it’s so cute how proud of himself he is.  To keep everything even between documenting the boys’ accomplishments, I of course made a little video of Landon’s journey to crawling.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100815697@N06/28515657656/in/dateposted-public/

Cole Digs Being 3!

We had a birthday party for Cole up in Rapid since Grandma and Grandpa weren’t able to make it for the Colorado party.  Aunt Emilee made the cutest cookie monster cupcakes that looked awesome and tasted delicious.  Cole enjoyed being blue for awhile!  Emilee and Tommy got him a Ninja Turtles playset with a mask and little swords.  Dad probably enjoyed it as much as Cole did!

The day of Cole’s birthday was a Thursday, so we did the traditional “take pictures with the chalkboard sign” and stayed in for dinner.  I made birthday French toast with sprinkles and candles, and he thought that was pretty exciting.

The Saturday after Cole’s birthday, we had a construction-themed party at our house with Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Neill and GG, Uncle Luke, Aunt Sarah, and Benjamin, Great-Grandpa Harold, and Amy, Will, and Nash.  It was “loads of fun.”  Cole had seen pictures of my birthday when I was little, and I had dirt cake in one of the pictures with GUMMY WORMS…he was sold!  So I built the whole theme of the party around the dirt cake, which turned out amazing.  I put it in his dump truck and found construction cone candles and little toy diggers to put in it.  Even though I didn’t think I went overboard on the rest of it, Matt does, but he agreed it was worth it.  Cole got all sorts of awesome gifts, including a trampoline, which we hope helps burn off some of that nonstop boy energy he has too much of.  He also got a rocket launcher, which was probably more fun for Dad and Uncle Luke, but Cole really enjoyed it too.  Thanks everyone for coming!

Fairytales and Fireworks

We went on our annual Storybook Island visit while in Rapid City, and since Cole is big into The Wizard of Oz, he was pumped (in his words) to see the Wicked Witch especially.  We rode the 30 mph carousel and I had to just try to look at Cole the whole time so I couldn’t see the park whizzing by and get sick.  Landon wasn’t too impressed with the whole experience…it was hot and he kept slouching lower and lower.  

We had a low-key 4th of July…I didn’t have to work, but Landon’s schedule doesn’t allow us to do a whole lot throughout the day.  Matt took Cole to the 4th of July Parade in Greeley with Papa Neill and GG and her family.  He had a great time, other than the King Soopers mascot (who knew King Soopers even had a mascot?).  He said, “I don’t really like that King mascot.”  Otherwise, he loved getting all the candy and other random free stuff.  We just spent the early evening grilling in our backyard with some friends and then normal bedtimes at 8, so no fireworks this year.

Summer Vacay

It’s that time of year again where we get to go to the LAKE!!  Cole loved it this year as much as the past few years, and Landon was pretty undecided.  He didn’t hate it, but he definitely enjoyed eating sand more than Cole did his first year (Cole was over a year old, Landon’s only 8 months, so I guess that’s the difference).  Uncle Tommy and Aunt Emilee came up for the day along with my cousin Kacey and her husband Joe, all the way from Las Vegas.  Cole made best friends with Kacey and Emilee and wouldn’t let anybody but them feed him, change him, play with him, etc.  LOL, he was sad to see them go!  Cole loved the water and swimming this year.  We just strapped him into his life jacket and he loved to “swim” by kicking and splashing around while we held him in the water.  Dad launched him in the air a few times, which he couldn’t get enough of!  Cole even stayed still long enough for us to make him into a sand starfish!                      

 

Cole was all about the toad catching this year, as long as he had his net!  He got a few at the trailer, but he was too busy playing in the lake this year to catch any at the beach.  One of the mornings, it was a bit chilly so we were going to wait for everyone to come down in the afternoon until we hit the beach.  We checked out the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, but Dad and I were more interested in the history than Cole was.  He got to do some digging for fossils and see some giant Manny the Mammoth replicas, so at least it was enough to entertain him for an hour.

We love you Mom and Dad

I’m finally having a chance to gather the pictures from Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and other random events of the spring/early summer.  For Mother’s Day, my lovely sons and husband served me breakfast in bed.  We took Cole to his first bowling experience at the Summit.  He had a lot of fun for about 30 minutes!  He used a ramp and bumpers and actually scored better than me one of the rounds.  Matt went golfing the weekend before Father’s Day and then we grilled up at our house.  We did breakfast in bed for him, too, since Cole thought that was so much fun!  On the actual Father’s Day weekend, he was out of town and Grandma and Grandpa Barbour came while I worked.

We also had a zoo trip on one of my weekends off.  We rolled the boys around in the wagon and had a really fun time!  The highlight of the zoo was “Cam the Ram” the bighorn sheep!

In other events of the early summer, we met up with Andy, Ivana, and their 1 year old Lukas!  The last time we all saw them was right after he was born (other than briefly at Christmas).  Lukas couldn’t get enough of hugging Cole!