Some AZ pix

Pictures of the kids and Nana in her front yard.
Papa Tom and Collin.
The sundress Nana made for Kayla.
The kids swimming with Uncle Chris and Kelsey

Time to Go

It's always with mixed feelings that we leave Arizona.
It's nice to go home, but we have sooo much fun here!
Today we are keeping busy packing up our bags and car,
getting gas and water bottles and mapquesting.

This is a different departure though!
Yes, we are on our way back to CO, but we are stopping in Grand Junction before
heading to the Springs. We are so excited!
We will take part in an all day dinosaur dig in Fruita Colorado this Thursday.
We will celebrate the 4th of July with my parents and Grandparents in Grand Junction
the following day. Then we'll spend two days hiking, picknicking, and tooling around
downtown GJ. So our vacation is not yet over!
I do know that this Sunday will be a difficult day. We'll say goodbye to my parents and
head back to Colo Springs, ending the last of our three summer vacations this year.
That means getting ready for school to begin, dealing with our house in this horrible market
and getting back to the daily grind!
BUT it also means seeing friends we are missing, playing with the cousins, and seeing our puppies
after more than two weeks!

This vacation has been awesome. We swam and swam and swam some more. The kids rode their bikes
almost every day (or night actually) :)
We spent lots of time with Papa Tom... Collin cuddled with him every chance he could.
I had some great conversations with my father-in-law and we realized that we are
very politically like-minded. The best part was that Tim was able to vacation with us...
we travel to AZ without him so often, but he got to be here this time!

Here's what we did at Nana and chasing Papa's house:
Went for two evening wildlife drives (darn it we didn't see any snakes or bobcats, but did see some enormous jackrabbits)
We sewed Webkinz clothes with Nana and then she whipped up the most beautiful sundress for Kayla with some material she had. Looks as nice as a Baby Lulu dress!
Nana made rings with the kids. We made shrinky-dinks (I forgot how fun those are)
We put books together of the kids paintings and they made cute covers for their "books".
We learned to read lots of new words and Nana and Papa taught Kayla (OK and me) some math tricks.
Kayla played piano duets with Chris and Collin got to play with Chris's guitar.
Chris and Kelsey made us an amazing sweet potato quesadilla dinner and blended up some yummy drinks.
We took Drew to a dog park with a pond and tried to force him to swim.
We saw "Zohan" which was ridiculous and "Wall-E" which was awesome!!
We spent an afternoon with our good friends, Susan, Lauren and Hailey. It's nice to see how much
our kids love eachother, even after long periods of time without seeing one another.
We had lots of great meals with lots of great people!

What an amazing and full trip we had. We learned so much and experienced so much!!!
Now we are off to look for Allosaurus bones and teeth!

Arizona

We are enjoying our stay at Papa Tom's house this weekend.
It's nice to have no schedule and no place to be.
Well, I take that back... we have to be at the pool twice a day,
morning and night.
The kids can't get enough of it and they are having so much fun!
Collin is flying in to the pool with larger than life leaps.
Kayla is swimming independently which is so nice to see.
She jumps in and swims around the pool like a fish.
We had Chris and his lovely girlfriend, Kelsey over for a pool party
last night and tonight we are just finishing drying off and getting
ready for bed.

We have an upcoming week of BBQ's, more swimming, playdates with old
friends and we'll be staying with Nana and Papa starting on Tuesday.
Right now it is 9:00 and dark out... a James Dean biography is on TV in
the background (Tom and Tim watching)
and a cartoon in the office is on (Kayla and Collin)
Other than that I hear the hum of kitchen appliances as I type and
I am enjoying the satisfied feeling of swim exhaustion.
Goodnight!

And this is what we usually wake up to...

This will be a morning of pick torture like I wrote about in an earlier post!
I'll do my best to be gentle.

Cousins

I love how much these cousins love eachother!

Lucy, a Mom??

It seems like she just came home last week, but Lucy is 7 lbs, over 4 months old, and had her last shots yesterday.
The vet told us that her first "cycle" will be at 10 months old and that we could breed her after her second one.
So it is here, the decision... whether to find her a mate or spay her.
I am going to check out a litter of Cavachons in two weeks, which we might pick
a male from. I also know of two Cavalier breeders and I might ask if they would be willing to offer their male's "services."
Either way, there is a good chance that this time next year, Lucy might be a MOM!

Like they walked through just yesterday

This is a picture from our Morrison, CO trip on Saturday.
We learned about how the Red Rocks were formed and about
different types of mining done in the area over the past
couple hundred years.
Most exciting though, was viewing these dinosaur footprints.
They are so well preserved, it looks as though they just walked
through yesterday.

Hair

Why is it fun to have curly hair?
(I wouldn't know)
BUT, it's fun that Kayla has curly hair.
While some days we wake up and it looks as though
she was in a tornado and we have to torture her
trying to pick through it, every now and again she
wakes up and it looks so cute!
Today was one of those days.
Attached is a picture. Also attached is a picture of Lucy after
her first groom.

slideshows

Check out my website at www.robindphotography.com.
On the Proof page you can see a slideshow of Kayla's kinder days
and one of our Michigan trip.
Have a great weekend!

Summer fun

We had a little summer fun at the beginning of the week before the cold weather came in on Tuesday!
We swam for several hours on Monday and really soaked up the sun... and wind. :(
Also, while going through boxes for our garage sale recently, Kayla was horrified to find her "My Twinn" doll in a box, covered with dust and her hair a mess!
She got the doll for her 4th birthday. I guess she remained in a box after a move.
Poor Kayla doll (that is the doll's name).
So we sent Kayla doll off to the My Twinn Hospital on Toy Lane in Virginia somewhere.
She came back all cleaned up with new hair to look even more like Kayla!
Here are a couple of pictures from this week.

Photoshop-less

I am without photoshop (my photo editing software) and for me it is as though I am without words. I deleted it from my hard drive to make room for a trial version of a new photoshop version. Well, my trial ran out in while I was in Michigan.
We are in the process of trying to track down a version that is not crazy expensive.
I have many great pictures from our trip to Michigan. We had such an amazing time.

I got to visit the house I lived in as a little girl and it was beautiful.
We stopped at an old fashioned ice cream shop and I had Superman ice-cream!!
This was my favorite as a kid and it is very very hard to find outside of the midwest. Kayla and I had such nice long visits with both of my grandmothers and they just adore her and Collin.
And it was so fun to be dressed up and pretty for a night of fun at my cousin's wedding. I haven't worn a dress in years and years!

I decided to put the pictures in to a slideshow, which should be up by this weekend on my website. I just need to go through them once I have my software!
I will also be posting a slideshow of Kayla's kinder days.
I'll post the link to both here soon!

Lots of posts to come once I am able to edit pictures again.

Baby to Big Girl

I don't know how it happened so fast, but my preschooler/kindergartner has turned in to a big kid. I know it happens around the age of 6. I watched my nephew turn from a baby boy in to a handsome young man around this age.
It's like their body stretches out and their interests begin to shift... all at once!
Here are Kayla's latest questions and curiosities:
-What is it called when two boys marry eachother?
-What is a mortgage?
-What is a good age to get married?
-Can I live at home when I go to college or do I have to live there?
And today I almost lost it when I heard her and Collin fighting. I looked over the railing of the stairs and saw her standing with her hands on her hips staring him down and she said, "Show me what you got boy, bring it on"

SOOOOO, instead of fretting too much about my changing child and missing my baby girl, I've decided to celebrate and bring in the new times with a bang!
Here are some pictures of my evening with Kayla.
I bought a bag of chocolates, a book for Kayla to read and a magazine for myself.
And we got pedicures!!!

The beginning of summer

I don't know what it is, but today officially feels like my first day of summer.
Our house is sparkling, our garage sale is over, and we're done with school and most of our classes.
Today is beautiful and Kayla learned to ride her bike without training wheels.
Now she is taking off with the kids in the neighborhood feeling like a true BIG KID.
Collin is riding behind them all as fast as he can on his little bike.
Now he wants to take his training wheels off, but I think he's a bit young.
Although it seems like boys get the hang of it pretty fast, like my nephews.

Now that our garage is cleaned out, and I have a quiet moment while the kids are at the zoo with Tim I realized we are leaving for a trip in a few days!
Yikes... the time has flown!
Kayla and I are very excited to travel to Michigan and visit the great-Grandmas.
While we are there we will visit the house I lived in when I was her age.
It is a big old house in Yale, Michigan. I'm convinced it was haunted, so I'll be excited to talk to the current owners to see if they've had any creepy experiences.
Kayla will stay with Great Grandma and Great Aunt Sandy while I attend my cousin's wedding on Friday night.
I can't wait! I haven't been to a wedding in years!

Although I'm a little bummed that we aren't all going (airfare- yuck!) I'm glad we're waiting to spend the big bucks on a vacation for the four of us.
We tentatively planned on Disneyland for this November, and I am more motivated than ever after looking at all the great pictures of Susan's family trip to Disneyworld! It looks like such a blast, and I am itching to make our trip now!

As for the rest of this summer, we have a week long trip to AZ planned for three weeks from now and a dinosaur dig here in CO over the 4th of July.
It is a pretty mellow summer for us but I love that!
Now enough with this wind and chilly weather that keeps visiting us here in the Springs!