One Year Anniversay

Can you believe that we have been here one year already?! It was one year ago today that we drove into town. That day was a cold and snowy day. We were all full of nerves and excitement. We were also tired of sitting in the car. We had just spent 3 days driving across the country. Today, on the other hand is a beautiful and sunny day, perfect for a park trip.

We have had a lot of fun and done a lot of really cool things over the last year. We made it our goal to really get out and explore the area as long as we were here. We don't regret a moment of it. Two of our most memorable trips were the trips to the Sand Dunes and to Marble. Those were both long weekend trips but we also had some fabulous day trips mixed in there as well.

We could have done without Poppies stroke back in December, but there always has to be some bad with the good. At least his outcome was a good one. It's been great to meet family members we didn't know before coming here. We've made some great new friends but still miss our friends we left back in Greenville greatly!

We have more adventures planned for our second year here in Colorado. At the end of March we plan to go to Utah for a few days. We were supposed to do that over Christmas break, but plans changed. We also intend to go to Dinosaur National Park, Mesa Verde, New Mexico and possibly Arizona this year. We haven't made it skiing yet but still plan to. Stay tuned for our Year 2 adventures.

"Enjoy your farn"

The recovery wasn't as quick as I had hoped. I ended up taking Caleb back to the doctor on Friday. Dr. D was kind enough to inform me that this flu can last from 7-10 days. Friday was day #5. That news did not excite me very much. Lucky for us though, Caleb slept the entire night Friday night and we all woke up feeling tons better on Saturday.

To celebrate our feeling better we all went to Boulder. Aaron had a meeting with some guy that sells bamboo for woodworking. The kids and I did not go that meeting. We, instead, took that hour to eat breakfast and walk through the pet store. These kids love to walk through the pet store to look at the fish, birds, and mice. We were even lucky enough to see some kittens. When Aaron finished his meeting he picked us up and we proceeded with an impromptu tour of Boulder.

We went to a sculpture garden and a privately owned art museum. The sculptures were all done with brass and were huge. The kids were able to climb on some of them. They both enjoyed running around and climbing. Inside the museum were a bunch of paintings and smaller sculptures. Campbell did a scavenger hunt. She had to locate 20 items that she would find in the art work. It was a really fun way to kill an hour. We then headed over to the tea factory. I'm sure you have all seen the Celesti*al Season*ings tea in your local grocery store. The tea is apparently made in Boulder, CO. We wanted to tour the plant but Caleb couldn't go in. No one under 5 was allowed. Instead we just did the tea sampling and bought some goods from the store.

After those two small adventures we had lunch and walked through an outdoor shopping mall. Then we headed home. We decided to take the more scenic route. It just made for a very nice Saturday afternoon drive. We even went up to Idaho Falls. We got to see some beautiful frozen waterfalls along the way.

We knew the weather on Sunday was suppose to be beautiful. Because of that we decided to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. We were up and out of the house by 9am. )On the way there Campbell spilled a cup of hot cocoa in her lap so she got to walk around the zoo with a big brown stain on her khaki capris. Nice!) We arrived at the zoo around 10 and started our walk. This zoo is on top of a mountain so we definitely got our exercise walking around. The first stop was the giraffe exhibit. This is no ordinary giraffe exhibit. Here you get to actually feed the giraffes. The kids absolutely loved this! We spent about 30 minutes and $5 on feeding the giraffes. It was a lot of fun, I have to admit. Caleb was afraid to feed the big ones, but he did attempt feeding the baby giraffes.

The zoo had all the normal animals you would expect to see at the zoo. In addition, they had a petting zoo. Really the only thing you could pet were the goats. Caleb was all over this. He had a great time petting the goats. As we were leaving the petting zoo he said, "Bye bye doats. Enjoy your farn!" (When saying farm or barn he combines the two words and calls it a farn.) It was so very cute.

They had a nice gorilla exhibit. We got to see the baby gorilla riding on his mommy's back. The kids both thought that was very cute. Aaron got to see the daddy gorilla throw up and then eat it. Thankfully, the kids and I didn't see it but we did get to hear about it. Aaron also asked the zoo keeper about it. Apparently some gorillas do this when they eat something they really like. They like it so much that they want to taste it again. So there you go, folks. You learned something today.

We had a really great time at this zoo and plan to go again in the summer. (We will leave it at that and not tell you all about how poorly behaved the kids were today. They were decent at the zoo but the rest of the day...oh my!)

On The Mend

I think we may finally be on the mend. (Knock on wood, LOUDLY!) Campbell stayed home from school yesterday. She woke up with a low grade fever. After a full day of laying on the couch, watching cartoons, and sleeping she felt much better today. She did miss some mandatory state testing yesterday, but her teacher assuredus that there will be a make-up day for the testing. The teacher also informed me that Campbell was one of about 6 kids missing from school yesterday. Yes, Colorado is having a very difficult time with the flu.

Caleb and I spent Tuesday evening at the Children's After Hours clinic. We could not get his fever to go down at all. Upon our arrival at the clinic his temperature was 103.2. They also determined that he had croup. He would cough then gasp for air. They call this "striding". I don't care what it's called it was very frightening. After a steroid dose and an hour of cold mist we were released to come home. He was feverish all day yesterday, but woke up fever free and in a great mood today.

Hopefully the sick bugs are gone for good. I spent the day yesterday cleaning everything with Lysol. I wiped every toy, door knob, outlet, surface, etc. in this house. I then sprayed the entire house with Lysol. I am continueing to wipe and spray today. Hopefully it all does some good.

Worth A Thousand Words

The picture pretty much says it all. Campbell started with a fever and aches on Saturday while we were out. She continued with the fever and aches through Sunday. She woke up feeling much better on Monday. Monday afternoon Caleb woke up from his nap with a fever of 102 degrees. He was complaining that his mouth and neck hurt. I took him straight to the doctor. The doctor swabbed his nose and confirmed that he has the flu. The doctor wrote a round of presrciptions for Tamaflu. I went to the pharmacy and stocked up. After receiving the bill for the prescriptions I should have just let us all get the flu and ride it out, but I don't feel like passing the flu back and forth. Caleb is still feverish today but in a better mood. Hopefully this is a short lived illness.

Update

Yesterday the weather was beautiful so I took the kids to the park. The high yesterday was 65 degrees. It was so warm outside that the kids were able to play outside in short sleeves. In fact, it was too warm to wear long sleeves. We took one of Campbell's friends with us. We all had a great time getting some much needed sunshine and outdoor activity. It's a good thing too because it's snowing again today.

The other day Caleb actually counted to 12. It was totally on his own. He was just eating crackers while we were watching the news and he started counting the crackers. I have to disclose that he did skip 5. He always skips 5. But I figure he's doing pretty well for a 28 month old kid.

Campbell is doing really well. She got an A on her Constitution unit at school. She was able to recite the Preamble word for word. She also got a 100% on the test. The extra credit she got for going to the caucus helped, too.

Well, that's pretty much it for our weekly update so far. I will end this by wishing you all a Very Happy Valentine's Day!

Mommy's New Toy

I got a new toy from the UPS man yesterday. Aaron has an AmEx that he earns rewards on. It was time for him to cash them in the other day. He had his mind made up that he was going to purchase himself a 40 pound weight belt for exercising. While looking for the belt he saw something. He thought of me when he saw it. He wants to make it as easy as possible for my to work from home.

Every month I have to print my timesheet, sign it, and send it with Aaron to work. He scans it and e-mails it to work for me. My new toy makes it so that he doesn't have to do that anymore. He got me a printer, fax, copier, and scanner all-in-one machine. This thing is pretty awesome. And, I was able to set it up all by myself in 30 minutes last night. That is saying something. I'm not the most technically inclined person when it comes to putting together and installing this type of stuff. I shall be playing with this thing for the next few days.

"Chee Owside"

I went to get the mail just before Caleb's nap at noon today. Upon stepping outside I made the decision that we would be taking a walk after naptime. In retrospect, I should have delayed the nap and gone for a walk right then.

Caleb woke up at 2:00 and we headed out for our walk. It was still warm outside but breezier. The temperature was 50 degrees and sunny though so we went walking. Because it was so warm, I just had a sweatshirt and Caleb had a fleace pullover. We took the 15 minute walk to the grocery store. It was perfect. I had even contemplated taking off my sweatshirt because it was so warm.

We headed into the store and picked up the few things we needed and could easily fit into the basket on the stroller. We also went to the pharmacy to pick up and prescription. Our visit at the store ended with a cup of coffee and some cookies. We were ready to go.

As soon as we stepped outside I knew we were going to have to walk much faster on the way home. The temperature felt like it had dropped 30 degrees. We later learned that it had infact dropped about 25 degrees. There was no longer a breeze. It had turned into full force arctic wind. It was a very cold walk home. The wind was so strong at times that I had a difficult time pushing the stroller against it. By the time we arrived at home our hands, cheeks, and noses were bright red. Caleb usually says it's "chee owside" when it's cold. Today, however, he busted out with "Code owside. Do home!" (By 3:30 it was snowing. UGH!)

Party Girl

Campbell has been quite the lucky girl as of late. She has had a good bit of one on one time with Aaron and I. The first evening was a little over a week ago. If you watch tv at all you know that the Hann*ah Mont*ana Concert movie is out in theatres for a limited time only. Due to the popularity (duh!) of this movie they have since added extra showings. Anyway, I decided to take her to the first night of the movie. We were ready to go as soon as Daddy walked in the door at 4:30. We dropped Caleb in his lap and went quickly to the theatre. It only takes us 5 minutes from our house and the first showing was at 5:30 so we thought we'd have time to get in the first show. We were wrong.

Both 5:30 showings as well as both 7:30 showings were sold out by the time we arrived at 4:40. I would have purchased tickets online earlier but for this movie you couldn't. Our only choices at that time were 9:45 that night or 8:30 the next morning. I decided I'd take her to the late showing at 9:45. I purchased tickets after choking on the price. Apparently this was a special priced ticket not the regular movie ticket price. I think it's horrible enough for adult tickets to be $9.50 and kids tickets to be $7.25. For this movie the tickets were $15 each. She is one lucky girl! Not only did I spend a fortune for movie tickets I got to listen to a bunch of pre-teen girls screeming for an hour and a half.

This past Friday was Aaron's turn. It was the father/daughter dance at Campbell's school. They do this once per year. We had purchased Campbell a new dress, of course, for the occasion. I sat for an hour Friday evening curling her hair so she could be all princess-like. To make the evening more special, we all went to dinner as a family. After dinner, Caleb and I went home to hang out and Aaron and Campbell went to the dance.

They were at their dance for about an hour and a half. They both got to dance their little booties off. They both seemed to have had a great time. Campbell keeps saying how much fun she had. I got reports from the bus moms this morning that Campbell is quite the social butterfly. As if I didn't already know that.

Saturday evening she had a birthday party to attend. It was a sleepover birthday. The little girl lives in the same neighborhood we do, so we walked her to her party at 5:00 and left her for the night. She had a great time! This weekend she has 2 more birthday parties to attend. One is for her cousin Anna (Aaron's cousin's daughter) and one is for her best friend. Social butterfly indeed!

The Caucus

Campbell and I went to our local Democratic Caucus this evening. Aaron didn't get himself registered early enough so he stayed home with the little one. The fact that I missed my workout today because of an orthodontic appointment and the caucus didn't matter much. We had to park 8 blocks from the school where the caucus was being held. (Upon our return to the car, I also had to dig the car out of the snow that we had parked in.)

Upon arriving at the school we saw the huge line of people. Luckily, or so we thought, we knew our precinct number so we were able to go straight in and didn't have to wait in line. The cafeteria where the event was being held was definitely over the fire limits. We eventually made it back to our precinct table where we discovered that we could not yet signin because they ran out of signin sheets.

After some reorganization (they had to move precincts out into the hallways) the caucus got underway. We got signed in and did our strawpoll vote. For those that don't know, that's the pre-vote. After that vote, some discussion was held and then the Presidential vote was held. That's the vote that determines how many delegates each candidate receives. Once that was decided we did some senate votes and were then able to go.

I am extremely glad that Campbell was able to attend this with me. I want her to grow up being involved in her government. I think it's important for kids to understand the process. Most of the people in our precinct voiced their approval at her being in attendance as well.

The Weather Outside....

Is, well, snowy. It has snowed yet again. It snowed enough last night and made the roads bad enough to cause a school delay today. I find this very funny because school was delayed by 30 minutes. If we had received this much snow in SC they would have shut down the entire state for a week. Here the caucus will go on as planned this evening.

Now to our weekend update. We didn't do a whole lot but we had a fun weekend. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast then went to the home improvement store. Aaron wants to build a work bench for the basement. While there, we discovered they were doing kids project that morning. The project was a football shaped step stool. We decided that would be a fun activity for the kiddos. Caleb was only interested in the banging. He could have cared less about the screwdriver. He only wanted to use the hammer. It was a fun way to spend 30 minutes, though.

That evening we went to dinner at M and Ta's again. They made ribs and we provided guacamole and samosas. We had a great time just hanging out. Campbell ended up staying the night with them. And yes, it did snow that night.

Sunday we had plans to go to the neighbors house for the football showing. We went over at about 1:30. The kids had a great time playing. Campbell was the only girl child there, but she had fun with the boys. The neighbors actually work with Aaron. In fact, the wife's cubicle is right next to Aaron's. They just moved into our complex right next door to us. Only a wall seperates our living rooms. They have three little boys ages 8, 4, and 1. They also have their 20 yr old daughter who lives and works with them. They also have an older boy who is maybe 19 who lives with them. We had heard that they had 7 kids living in the house, but we only met 5 of their rumored 10 children!

Caleb and I ended up leaving a bit early. He didn't have a nap and it started to show after a couple of hours. He told me he wasn't tired but after only 5 minutes of sitting on the couch in our quiet house he was out. Aaron and Campbell stayed over there until half-time. We spent the rest of the evening watching the game and commercials. And it snowed again that evening.

It is safe to say that we had a nice weekend but we are all DONE with the snow. We started talking about what we are going to do during Campbell's spring break. Campbell said she didn't care as long as we went somewhere warm without snow. I think that says it all.