Cheyenne Mountain Zoo - Trip 2 of the Summer

This morning we trekked on up to Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo with our friends, Brittney and Brinlie. It's been weird-cool (temperature wise) around here the past few days. It actually looked like it might poor down rain on us ... but nope ... we got lucky. Many of the animals were active (perhaps because of the cool temps?) -- giraffes were looking for hand-outs (you can feed them "giraffe crackers" at our zoo), monkey's were swinging on the ropes, wolves and grizzlies were out roaming around, and the river otters were swimming all over the place! We got to pet a baby wallaby which was totally neat-o. Ahhh, a fun little girl trip to the super-cool mountainside zoo!

Come visit us, we'll take you there! :)

Brinlie feeds giraffe -- oh what a tongue!

Kate gets to pet a baby wallaby (again)

VideoClip -- Kate comforts her baby

I'm so glad I captured this. I thought it was just too precious!

Went hiking! "Garden of Eden"

Today we went on a hike, sponsored by our church, up to the Green Mountain Falls area -- Garden of Eden. There were some gorgeous wildflowers! It was a 7-mile hike. Gene carried Kate in the pack up the mountain, and I carried her down. We had great weather and lots of fun. And whew, we were a bit soar the next day. We've gotta get hiking more often!

Big Brothers Big Sisters Week!

This past week was declared BBBS week by our mayor. Tiana, Kate, and I attended the annual picnic on Wednesday, went and toured the C-130s at the Air Force base on Thursday (and we were even on the news that night!), AND we've been working on our photo scavenger hunt over the summer. Tiana's 13 years old now, and we've been matched nearly 3 years! Tiana is so sweet about accepting Kate into our relationship and all of our activities. Kate absolutely adores her -- calls her na-naaa, because she can't quite say her name yet.

Okay - big news - stayed tuned for more details about a 1/2-marathon (my first!) I'm running on Labor Day with Team BBBS for a fundraiser!

Happy 18-month Bday!

Our little baby is already 1 1/2 years old. Yes, we're in shock! Here are her stats from today's wellness checkup with the doc...

19.2 lbs
30.25 inches tall
18" head circumference

She's still following the small curve on her growth chart (<5%)

Kate & the neighborhood girls!

Kate likes piggy back rides!

Denver Zoo -- annual summer trip

It was the 2nd annual trip up to the Denver Zoo with Kate. The rascal was supposed to sleep on the way there, but instead fell asleep as soon as we got her out of her carseat and into the stroller in the zoo parking lot! Oh well, we toured around slowly waiting for her to wake up. She got to see a penguin presentation, water being sprayed into the elephant's mouth, monkeys, and cool birds!

conked out when we were visiting the lions (and watching them get fed - whoa!)

these are the same cute lil monkeys she got excited about last year!
they have little 'old man' faces! :-p

you can kinda see the gray monkey out by the logs (in the grass)

Kate's 1st carnival

Well, we all know there are *kiddie rides* at the carnival, so we thought, "Why not"? Something different to go do with Kate on our precious weekend time with Daddy. She had a great time, got a little nervous on some of the kiddie rides, but LOVED her first taste of cotton candy and really liked just taking it all in... lots of stuff to watch at a carnival scene! Oh, and daddy let her play one carnival game "everybody's a winner", and that's how she got that silly purple monkey! The video of Kate and Mommy riding the whales is funny (imagine that -- us riding on the whale ride?!)

more words...

~hat
~yummy /nummy
~happy
~hot

and she used to sound Italian when she said mama ... she'd so ma-maaa, ma-maaaa ... but now she's gone British .. mum-mee, mum-mee, mum-mee

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo - Trip 1 of the Summer

We got a zoo membership -- way cool! (Have I mentioned this before?) So, today, we went with our friend, Linda. It was SO fun to feed the giraffes. After they ate the *giraffe crackers* out of Kate's hand, she would sign "thank you". Super sweet.

Kate signing 'thank you'

Linda holds Kate so she can pet a baby wallaby.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great FAMILY time weekend together! It started Friday night with a bluegrass show up at Cheyenne Mountain State Park & fireworks viewing from up on Cheyenne Mountain (here in Colorado Springs). Kate had on a very *festive* dress, which quickly required many layers cuz we all know it can get a lil chilly in Colorado at night -- especially when you're up a little bit higher in elevation! On the 4th -- we met some friends at a fun parade in the a.m., cruised over to their place for an afternoon BBQ, and well...since it was a rainy nasty afternoon and evening, we skipped another fireworks show. Kate slept through the fireworks show on Friday night anyways (2nd year in a row of sleeping through the ole fireworks -- well, it starts well past her bedtime!). Sunday was church, gym, pool, and chill. Monday night/tonight we went with the Noskers to the annual pie contest / ice cream social in Manitou Springs. We got dessert BEFORE dinner. Kate and Brinlie certainly loved THAT concept (so did Gene!).

Manitou Springs - Pie Contest & Ice Cream Social -- Brinlie & Kate (with "the evidence")

A Sweetie in a Sundress!

She may be in a sundress, but her favorite things to play with are rocks and trucks/cars. Right now she thinks she's saying 'truck', but it comes out as 'duck'. TRrrrr's aren't easy! Same goes for "drink" (=duck). Buckle = buck. Milk = muck ... although she's getting better at that one now and has even started adding an "eeeee" onto it -- MILKY MILKY.... and DOGGY DOGGY.

Other words she knows:
~mama, mommy
~dada, daddy
~book
~dog
~ball
~more
~done
~uh oh
~back
~backpack
~papa
~bug
~bye
~hi
~uck (for something yucky on floor or whatever)
~baby = bubby = bubba = bub-bbeeeee)
~butt (yes, really! must've been taught by daddy)
~no (ahh, we all love this word, don't we?!)
~daaaa = down
~baa = balloon (a favorite!)
~this = dis
~these = deez
...and I'm sure there are more that I haven't listed and more that I haven't been able to quite translate yet :)

And she's giving everybody good smooches now!! We eat 'em up!!

A weekend in Keystone

We recently returned from a 3-day trip to the mountains - Keystone, CO (with a jaunt to Boulder). Gene's company put us up at a nice hotel since the trip was for a Edward Jones regional meeting. He had to do SOME work, and I even had to go to a couple meetings/events, but all in all we had a fabulous weekend. Not a bad way to spend my bday I must say :) Other than unpacking the car in the pooring rain on Friday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous (as you'll see from the pics below!)

Carolyn, lil Kate, and Carolyn's friend, Michelle!
(Michelle lives in Breckenridge & we try to visit her whenever we're up in that area)

Kate LOVES playgrounds! Since that's a hard word to say, and she really does love trying to say words -- we call it "park"! And now, whenever we drive by a swingset, slide, etc etc. -- she goes "Park park park!" Here's a pic of her learning climbing techniques at the park in Boulder...