Slides and Fountains

When we returned to Colorado last week, I had an e-mail from a friend here. She had found a new fantastic park and wanted to share the find with us. On Saturday afternoon the kids and I decided to head over and check out this park.

We found the park and were immediately excited. There were two playgrounds right next to each other. One was for little ones like Caleb and the other was for bigger kids like Campbell. There was also a climbing wall. We played there for about a half hour. Both kids really enjoyed this. They both got to play where the felt comfortable.

Afther the playground we headed down the walkway. We had heard that there was an interactive fountain and we were determined to find it. Sure enought after walking about 100ft we could see the fountain. When we got there both kids took off their shoes and started splashing around and having fun. We spent almost an hour playing in the water. Both kids were soaked. When Caleb's arms tunred into little ice pops, we decided to go.

I didn't have a change of clothes for the kids, but lucky for them we had just been shopping. I had taken Caleb's shorts off to play in the water so he had dry shorts. I pulled a new shirt (intended for next summer) out of the bag and put that on him. He was good. Campbell was a little trickier. She had worn a dress which was now dripping with water. I had bought her a new shirt for school so she put that on. But what to do about pants? This is where having super skinny children comes in handy. I had bought some short for Caleb. Suprisingly Campbell was able to get them on. They were a bit snug but they worked. Both kids were able to go home fully dressed in dry clothes.

This park is also right down the street from where Aaron works, so one day we will have to pack a lunch and meet Daddy for a picnic.

We're Home

We are now home from Carolina. We made it home late Wednesday night. We all had a great time in Greenville.


We flew into Atlanta on the 17th. From there we drove to Greenville. It was so good to see country that we had driven through on numerous occasions. As soon as we got into Greenville Campbell wanted to stop at her favorite coffee shop to get an Italian soda. We picked that up and headed over to our friends house. It was fantastic to see M and D sitting on those steps. We have missed them so much. It was, however, strange to drive up to M's and not drive into our old driveway.


We spent the next couple of days hanging out with them and just having tons of fun. Even when we were just sitting in the house, we were having fun. Campbell was having a hard time being patient for the weekend, but she did well. On Friday, I had to go to training. I have volunteered to be the Omnbudsman for Aaron's reserve unit. I had training on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The training was great and I learned a ton of stuff. Also on Friday, Camppbell headed over to her friend J's house. She spent Friday and Saturday nights over there. Aaron also came up from GA to see us on Friday. That sure was nice to see him during the middle of his training.


On Sunday, Aaron took the kids to see Nanna. They spent the day up there playing and having fun. Aaron headed back GA that day. Campbell was scheduled to go to her friend O's house on Monday and go to a pool party. I had to go to work on Monday. It was about midnight when things went awry. Campbell got sick and threw up on me on her way to the bathroom. She got sick about 4 more times that night. The two of us didn't get much sleep that night. We decided that she would not be going to O's house which really disappointed her, but she was too ill to protest. I did still go into work to get some things done.


We discovered later that day that a whole bunch of people had gotten sick. They were all people that Campbell had been around Saturday night. Apparently one of the kids had shared her flu virus. Our friend's little boy D would get it two nights later right before we left.


Tuesday was our day of fun. We hit the zoo and Falls Park for some fountain fun. Wednesday morning on our way back to Atlanta we met Nanna for lunch. The kids enjoyed seeing her for a quick visit before we left town.


We wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a wonderful time!! It was so good to see our friends and hang out with them.

Updates

We were all up at 4 am today. We had to drop Aaron off at the airport. He is on his way to his 2 week reserve duty. After dropping him off the kids and I came home and went back to bed. In two days, we have have to make that same trip to the airport, although we probably need to leave a little earlier. The kids and I are flying to Greenville for a week. I have omnbudsman training Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We decided that since I needed to go anyway, we would make a good trip of it. Campbell has sleepovers and pool parties planned. I am just thrilled to be hanging with my friend. We'll also be fitting in a visit with Nanna.

We have been having Campbell's friend from school over for some play dates. She lives very close to us. It is only a five minute walk to her house, so it works out great. She is the cutest little girl. Her dad is in the Navy and is currently on a deployment to Asia. We have taken her to the park, to book club, and here to the house to play. I am so glad that Campbell has found such a sweet little girl to have as a friend.

Caleb's latest accomplishment is to say his name. He says it "Leb". It is very cute. Although, he is a comedian. He thinks it's funny to call everyone, including himself, by other names. He'll call himself mommy or daddy or LoLo and one of us Leb. When he does it he laughs like it's the greatest joke he's ever heard. It really is very cute.

Well, that's our quick little update. I will update with our trip adventures when we return. Wish me luck as I travel on a plane with both kids by myself. This should be a fun trip. Those business travelers will be thrilled with me I'm sure.

B Ball

That's what Caleb calls baseball.

Yesterday, we took the kids to their first baseball game. We went to watch the Rockies play the Phillies. We took the train downtown and walked the two long blocks to Coors Field. We went in and found our seats. We were actually right above the visitors dugout and had a great view of home plate. Where we were we could really see the game very well!

We were plenty early, so we went ahead and got our drinks and a hotdog. Caleb loved the hot dog. Although, he wouldn't pick it up to eat it. He just kept sticking his face in the plate to eat it, silly boy!

As the game was played, I had to explain the rules to Campbell. She seemed to really be into the game. She's not one for this type of sport thing (there are no pink twirly anything in baseball). But she had a great time.

Caleb LOVED it. He could not get enough. The only thing he didn't like is the amount of time between pitches and hits. He really enjoyed seeing the ball get hit. He cheered for whoever hit the ball. He didn't care if it was his team or not. He just like that ball getting hit.

In the bottom of the 6th inning we started seeing an awful lot of lightening so we decided to go. While we were going down the ramp to get out of the stadium, the rain really let loose. It was raining very hard and the wind was blowing like crazy. We later saw on the news that even the ball players were out on the field in the rain trying to cover the field with tarps. It was quite a rain storm. It hadn't rained in weeks here and the one day we decide to go to a ball game it really lets loose!

When we got out of the stadium it was still raining really hard. Lucky for us though, there was a kids on a bicycle with a little covered carriage. For $10 he gave us a dry ride to the train station.

Canoe Trip

On Saturday we headed up to Grand Lake to have a little canoe trip. We had rented the canoe for four hours. We were all very excited about our morning on the water. We had scheduled our trip to begin at 8am. We had a two hour drive to get there, so we left the house at 5am. We made great traveling time and arrived in Grand Lake at 7am. Luckily there was a little coffee shop right next door to the rental shop.

We sat outside and had our coffees and cocoa. We also took this time to slather everyone in sunscreen. At 8 o'clock Aaron headed next door to get the canoe all ready for us. We all put on our flotation devices and headed to the lake.

It was upon our arrival at the water's edge that Caleb freaked out. He kept screaming "Wawa,NOOOOOO!" He clearly did not want us to throw him in the water. The kids and I crawled into the canoe and Aaron pushed us into the water, then climbed in himself. We started paddling around the lake.

The lake was four miles around, but there were a couple of little places that we could also go for extra boating fun. We head through the canal to go from the smaller lake that we were on to the bigger lake. We paddled around a small island and watched the geese. We then went back onto the smaller lake. We looked at all the lake houses and the beautiful views. There were two inlets, the Eastern and the Northern, that we could paddle up. We went into both of those.

Caleb calmed down after about the first five minutes of the trip. But he refused to even twitch a muscle for the first 30 minutes. Finally, he relaxed and started enjoying the trip. He really liked to hold the oar and help me paddle. He never did warm up to waves of the boat wakes coming toward us though. Everytime he saw those waves, he freaked! But, he did relax enough to take a nap, as long as held him and did not try to put him down.

After our boating trip, we went to lunch and walked around the town. We then headed to the lake beach. Campbell thought she was going to swim. She decided that the lake water was much too cold to swim, so we build sand castles instead. Both kids loved digging in the sand. Caleb mostly enjoyed throwing the sand, but we all had fun. It was a great day at the lake, and something we will definitely do again!

Happy Birthday America

Happy 4th of July to everyone! We had a very lovely day.

This morning we headed off to a war memorial unveiling here in the little town we live in. Two years ago a Navy seal was killed in Afganistan. Today a statue of him was unveiled. Aaron was asked by his reserve unit to show up in uniform for the event. The entire unit was asked to show up; but I guess since it was voluntary only about 3-4 reservists showed up. At least there was a large showing of active dute sailors.

The event turned into a pretty big deal. The Secretary of the Navy showed up and gave a speach. There was a fly over by the F18 jets. The mayor and the local congressman also came and gave their little speeches. The entire event was very moving and if you weren't already feeling emotional, the sister of the fallen sailor stood up and spoke. She is a beautiful girl and her words describing her heroe, her brother brought tears to even the toughest of men in the crowd. It was very, very touching and made this little family very thankful that Aaron is home with us right now.

This evening we went over to a little bar-be-cue. It was at the home of a childhood friend of Aaron's dad's. Poppie was in town, so he invited us over to celebrate the 4th with them. It was a really nice time. Holiday's like this are better when spent with friends and family, so it was nice to share it with Poppie. The kids were both thrilled to see Poppie show up at the front door this evening.

We hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July. We wish we could be with the entire family in Charleston this week. We miss and love you all!

LoLo Trash

We call Campbell LoLo. We aren't really sure where it came from, but it has stuck. Caleb does not say Campbell but he does say LoLo. Just a few minutes ago I heard Campbell tell him something immediately followed by his "I am the baby and should get whatever I want" scream. He then made his way up the stairs and into my lap. I asked him what was wrong and he said "LoLo trash". I asked him if Campbell threw something in the trash. He said "No, LoLo trash." I then asked him if he thought I needed to throw LoLo in the trash. His answer was "yes". Apparently when your sister makes you mad, you throw her in the trash.

The Trail That Almost Won

Friday night, Aaron went out with his work buddies for some drinks. Because of that, we decided to do our hike on Sunday rather than Saturday. Instead, on Saturday we went exploring. First we hit a shopping center that we had never been to. Upon arriving at said shopping center we discovered that they were also having an art festival. We wondered through the exhibits and then into the stores when it got too hot. We also headed over to a huge shopping center on the other side of town. We only made it into one store. It was the largest sporting goods store we had ever been to. We ended up getting a new hiking carrier for Caleb. The old one just wasn't made for the types of hikes we do and was starting to hurt Aaron's back. We had a great day as a family just exploring the local area.

On Sunday we got up at 6am and headed for Roosevelt Nat'l Forest. We had read about hike where you get to see old homesteads that were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Campbell absolutely loves the Little House book series, so we knew that something like this was right up her alley.

The hike started out fine. There was a quite a bit of uphill in this first leg. Campbell decided that she would rather clean her room than hike uphill with rocks. (She changed her mind on the way back when it was mostly downhill.) She did, however, make the 2 1/2 mile trek with little problems. She amazes us everytime we go on these hikes. She is such a tiny kid, but has more strength than we do at times.

We reached the point where we thought the homesteads were only to learn that we had to walk even further to find the homesteads. We decided to only see the two that were within a half mile of where we were. The first one was the home of the only female homesteader in that area. Campbell was thrilled to learn that a female had established a homestead. There was only the foundation of the cabin left on this one. The second one had about half the walls still up but no roof. It had been established in 1923. We sat on rock in front of this one and had our drinks and snacks. We had to keep shooing away a chipmunk, but otherwise it was a lovely picnic.

It was as we started back down the trail that all the trouble began. First, I stepped off the trail to let some other hikers go by us. Apparently the shoulder of the trail there was not good and I rolled my ankle. I knew I had to hike 2 1/2 miles to get out of the gulch, so I had no time for a twisted/sprained ankle. I walked through the pain. After a bit, I only felt the pain once in a while so we were good to go. I was thankful that we were going mostly downhill on the way back, especially in the rocky parts.

Then, Aaron was playing around with Caleb. Keep in mind that Caleb is on Aaron's back in the carrier. Well, Aaron kept spinning and got dizzy. He almost fell flat on his rear. Luckily he saved them from a fall. Caleb declared a very loud "OUCH!" No one was hurt in that incident.

Finally, we were about 100 yards from the end of the trail. Campbell really kicked it in gear to get to the car. Unfortunately, a rock got in her way and she tripped over it. She skinned up her knee. That slowed the pace for the last of the hike, but we all made it out alive.

After the hike we headed into town for a little festival they were having. It was small but fun. We got lots of yummy goodies and the best homemade rootbeer. We continued to walk around town and hit a few shops before leaving. It was during this easy walking that my foot really began to hurt. By the time we got home I was beginning to think that maybe I had broken it. It is much better today, so no broken bones.