2009 In Review

Aaron has had a good year. He started the year still contracting. In March he transitioned to a full time position with benefits. He really enjoyed the job. However, in the fall he was able to transfer to a new position within the same company that is an even better fit for him. He loves the job. He has interviewed for a management position for the office and will find out next week if he gets the position. He traveled to San Diego once per month the entire past year for Navy Reserve training. He is currently training for his first marathon.



Darla has had an interesting year. The year started with me not working. I did a two month contract position in April and May. I was able to spend the summer at home with kids. We had a great time just hanging out. I started a new job at the end of August. I was scheduling natural gas flow for a gas transportation company. In the middle of December I was offered a new job. I will now be the Manager* of Donor Services for Girl* Scouts. I start the new job in January. I also ran my first 5k this year. Campbell and I ran it together.



Campbell probably had the "biggest" year of all of us. She started her last year of elementary school. She did her first season of track at her school. She ran her second season of cross country. She ran her first 5k. She went through HGH testing, had her first MRI, and started Human Growth Hormone treatments. As a result, she has actually grown this year. We have had to purchase her new clothes and shoes because she needed them. This is new to us. Lastly, our sweet girl has started her last year of elementary school.



Caleb has grown up a lot this year. He started the year going to pre-school part time. He then went to school full time for two months while I did a contract. He then spent the summer at home full time with me. He started school full time again in the fall when I went back to work. He transitioned through all of these changed smoothly. He has learned all of his ABC's and counting. He can spell his name. He can now draw things that are actually recognizable. He is growing up so fast.



We did not get in as many trips as we had hoped, but we did do a couple of fun trips. We started 2009 with great friends in SC. There could be no better way to start the year! In June, we had a great camping trip at Great Sand Dunes National Park with the Lawrence family. In September, we had a fun camping trip with just the four of us in Buena Vista. We hike in Cottonwood Pass and to Maroon Bells while there. In October, we did a weekend trip to Albequerque, NM for the Balloon Festival. That was a great trip and I reccommend it to everyone!



We tried snowshoeing this year. It was fun, but a lot of work. We attended a "beach party" in the snow. We tried some new local hikes. We found and spent some time at a local pick-your-own farm. We went to museums her in the Springs and in Denver.



We also had some visitors over the last year. Poppy visited a couple of times. Nanna visited for a couple of weeks during the summer. Grandma Roxie, Aunt Amanda, and cousin Landon also visited for a few days in August.



We all had a good 2009 and are wishing you all a Wonderful 2010!

Halloween 2009

I made both of their costumes this year. We had a gypsy and a wizard. The neigbors declared Caleb's cosutme the best.

An Odd First

The other day we experienced an odd first in parenting our daughter. This is something that most parents would consider definitely not odd. In fact, most parents probably would consider this to be a huge pain. What was this first? We actually went to the store purposely to purchase pants for Campbell. We bought these pants because she needed them, not because we were tired of seeing her in the same pants and decided to get something new.





She went to the doctor last week for her first 3 month follow-up appointment. She weighed in at 55 pounds and measured 49 3/4". This is a growth of 1 1/2" and 2 pounds.

Happy Birthday, Kiddos!

It's been awhile, so I'm just going to post a Happy Birthday pic of the kiddos. This picture was taken during our trip to Albequerque on October 10th. Happy 4th, Caleb! Happy 11th, Campbell.!

A Camping Trip

The kids are in school. I have started work again. Aaron seems to always be either at work or at "the Navy" as the kids call it when he is on reserve duty. I had a 3 day weekend for Labor Day. Aaron and Campbell each had 4 days off. We decided to take advantage of the breaks and go camping for the weekend.


We went to Buena Vista which is about a 2 hour drive from home. I didn't get out of work until 4:30 on Friday, but I had packed everything the night before. When Aaron and kids got home they put it all in the truck so that when I got home we just hopped in the truck and drove.


We set the tent up in the dark that night, but that's always part of the fun. The kids seem to think it's more fun to set up the tent in the dark rather than in the light. Saturday morning we woke early and headed into town for breakfast. After breakfast we headed over to Cottonwood Pass. We found some great campsites by Cottonwood Lake that we are going to remember for next summer. We did a great hike by Cottonwood Lake. We had a ton of fun.


On our way back from the pass, a bolt fell out of Aaron's truck. Of course the thing is going to fall apart, it's paid off. Anyway, he was having issues with the truck shiftin. We couldn't get it to stay in park. So when we got back in town we had to go to the parts store to get some tools to try to fix this problem. After about 2 hours in the parking lot, we got it fixed and the truck is working great now.


We spent the evening at the campsite cooking great food, roasting marshmallows, and just hanging out with family time. Sunday morning we woke up and had pancakes that were cooked on the campfire. Yummy!! That morning we spent hiking to Marroon Bells. It was another beautiful hike! After a couple of days of hiking we were tired and had some sore muscles. We decided to go to the Mt. Princeton hot springs to swim for the afternoon. It was the perfect way to spend the last afternoon of our camping trip. Monday morning we packed up and headed home. It was a fantastic family weekend!!

Our Advanced Child

We just got Campbell's state test results in. She scored Advanced in both Writing and Mathematics. That is in the advanced range for kids her age. We are beyond thrilled about these scores. Especially in Mathematics. She is not a fan of the math and if she struggles in any subject, math is it.

In Reading she scored Proficient. Not sure why she didn't score advanced in that but oh well. We think that she was just completely tired of all the testing. It was the last of the tests that week. We are very, very happy with our smarty smart girl.

A "Free" Experiment

Last week was Campbell's last week of summer break. I wanted to make a great week of it for her, but didn't want to break the bank in doing so. I felt it would be a good time to see what I could find around town that we could do for free. The experiment worked great.

On monday, we toured a candy factory. We got to go in the back and see how they made the different candies. During the tour, we also got samples of the candies that were being made. The tour lasted about an hour and the kids loved it.

On Tuesday, we went to the Pioneer Museum downtown. I was thrilled to find a museum that had free entry. It had some really interesting items and displays. The kids really liked seeing the doctor and dentis equipment from the 1800's. Caleb also loved all the guns. Outside, there were some statues and a huge gazebo. We spent about an hour out on the lawn just playing in the gazebo and around the statues.

On Wednesday, we toured the Olympic Training Center. I wish we had done this sooner. We probably would have hit it more than once over the summer. It started with a short movie which was just some highlights from the most recent olympic games. After the movie we headed out for the tour. We got to go into the gym where gymnasts and boxers train. We also got to tour the shooting range, the weight room, and the wrestling gym. We did not get to go in the pool area but we got to see it through the window. After the formal tour we got to take our time looking at the statues. The kids had a blast running around the statues.

Campbell had a sleepover here Wednesday night, so Thursday was spent here at the house playing with her friend. We also spent some time at the pool. Technically we pay our monthly fee for this, but we can swim whenever we feel like it.

Friday it was raining. My initial plan had been to go downtown and play in the water park. Since it was raining, that was out of the question. Instead we went to the mall and played in the play area for a bit. We also spent the afternoon cleaning the house.

All in all, we had a fantastic week and it was all free! I had to really search for these things to do which is disappointing. I'm sure there are more fun things out there that we aren't doing because we don't know about them. I will have to do more research and find them.