Happy 3rd Birthday, Dawson!

We invited family up last Sunday for Dawson's birthday but not too many came.  He enjoyed opening his gifts and seemed actually more interested in the clothes than the car he got.  Maybe he'll be a style-conscious guy!

 

 

 

Then ON his actual birthday today, I picked him up from school and took him to Barnes & Noble.  I had a coupon for a free cupcake or cookie through the B&N Kids Club for his birthday.  I ordered a sandwich for my lunch and shared with him.  Then we shopped for a couple of books for his birthday present and went on home for his nap.

 

THAT'S a big cookie!

Dawson's First Day of Pre-School!

Can you believe it?  Dawson is starting school already!  I've been looking forward to this day!  I'm going to have some ME time for a couple hours every school day!

Dawson's First Day of School pictures:

 

He picked out his Elmo backpack himself.  It's perfect for him!

Meighan's First Day of Kindergarten

Wow!  Our little girl has started KINDERGARTEN!  She's only been with us for a little over 4 years (although she's always been our daughter!) but already she's starting Kindergarten!

My goal is to take a picture of each kid on their first day of school each year so that, along with their school pictures -- as geeky as they might be sometimes -- we can compare and see how they grow each year.  So, this is this year's First Day of School picture(s).

 

 Yes, she has an Angry Birds backpack.  She picked it out herself.

Estes Park Vacation!

I LOVE THE MOUNTAINS!  When Tony suggested a few days in Estes Park, CO, I was all for it!  I booked a motel with a pool, playground, extra large room and in a convenient but quiet location.  Then we just had to wait.

We left August 7 and came home on August 11.  That was about right with two little kids.  I found out a couple weeks before we left that my brother's family would still be there when we got there so we had supper together and then played mini golf.  We rode horses the morning after we got there.  It was perfect weather.  We shopped a bit and then went back for naps.  Then we took advantage of the pool and hot tub.  Ahhh, the hot tub!  We also got to see a herd of 20 elk near a property near us.  We took lots of pictures of them.  We were told that they come down out of the mountains about once a month and they happened to pick that day.

The next day we drove up Fall River Road and stopped several times to touch the cold river water and see the beautiful scenery.  We got LOTS of great pictures!  Towards the top it started raining, then sleeting, then hailing(!), then snowing!  It was 40 degrees, after all!  While we were at the top it started raining even more so we hung out for a bit in the Visitor's Center.  Soon after we started down Trail Ridge Road, the kids fell asleep but I took even more pictures!  We saw two big horn sheep, a coyote and some huge elk on a high mountainside.  Almost back to Estes Park we saw three more elk just laying in the grass.  We did a little more shopping downtown before going back to the hotel.

Saturday we had our family picture taken in an old-time photo place.  Quite fun!  And Dawson was so cute as cowboy and Meighan as an Indian!  We then drove out to Bear Lake.  We almost didn't get a parking spot as they were full but someone pulled out just in time so we got a place to park.  We decided to walk around the lake.  Shortly after we started, we had a family picture taken and then it started raining (and hailing on us!) so we ran back to a canopy until it stopped.  We decided to go around the lake the other way this time.  We got so many great pictures because the sky was so blue that day and there were so many fluffy white clouds in the sky!  I have a couple that I may print bigger and display somehow!  When we got back to the place we had a family picture taken, it started to lightly rain again!  I guess we weren't supposed to be in that spot!

We drove back to town and Dawson had JUST fallen asleep.  We found a parking place and went to Subway for a late lunch/early supper.  His short nap was NOT enough!  The kids played on a little playground for a bit and then we went back to the hotel.  We tried and tried to get Dawson to continue his nap but it was in vain.  Meighan and I went down to the pool for a bit.  She was braver this time and did more in the pool than just get in.  I sat in the hot tub for a short time again, too.

We decided to go play mini golf again and then we came back to the hotel and got the makin's for s'mores that the hotel provides every night if you are interested.  This was a fun little activity.

On Sunday, we got up, packed, loaded the car and checked out.  We got gas before heading down Big Thompson Canyon.  More beautiful scenery but I didn't take anymore pictures.  We ate breakfast in Loveland and then stopped for gas and lunch in North Platte.  Including those two stops it took us 10 hours (and those were NOT very long stops).

I put together a slideshow with music of some of the over 500 pictures we took on the trip.  It is 11 1/2 minutes long but I'm quite proud of it.  It's the first one I've done in Windows Live Movie Maker.  It was quite easy and I'm sure I'll make more!