Colorado!!!

First a few blurry picks of my baby before our trip. I don't know why they were so blurry, but he is so sweet I decided to post them anyway.

On August 18 my family (Mom, Dad, Becca, Tim, Wes, Luke and I) left at 5 am for Colorado. I had worked until 3:30 am and not slept at all before leaving, just getting ready last minute stuff. As soon as we got in the car Luke woke up and was WIDE awake for a LONG time. He was pretty happy, but did need to be entertained so I didn't get any sleep for a good long time until Mom relieved me and I got maybe an hour! Below are a few pics from our lunch stop.

We had a lot of fun getting some energy out, doing hand stands and cartwheels!

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We got to Denver before supper time and enjoyed an evening of swimming, pizza and watching movies in the hotel. The next day we went to the aquarium. Luke wanted to nurse soon after we walked in and since I had my new blankets and mei tai carrier it worked beautifully.

After nursing for a bit he fell asleep and missed almost the whole thing, but I really enjoyed it and we got him a bag full of marine animals and fish.

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After the aquarium we went to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant that Becca knew about from the two years when she had lived in Denver. It was amazing food!

That night my mom took care of Luke so I could go with the rest to see the newest Harry Potter movie. I was disappointed with it, but I suppose it wasn't terrible and I know I will still watch it many times in the future.

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The next day we went swimming one more time and then headed up to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. We had a cabin up there with my Bartel Grandparents and my uncle Larry's family. My aunt Annette and her family were also there but they had brought a camper. It was family camp so we were with a lot of other families as well, and there were scheduled hikes and recreation and bible studies etc, but you could chose how much or how little you wanted to participate, and having the cabin was really nice for afternoon naps for Luke and I especially.

The first full day at camp Luke and I decided to try the second easiest hike up to "Ice Falls". Almost everyone else in our group went on that hike as well, and it was really a good one for the first day.

Luke had a blast walking with Molly and Kate, two of my cousins, and he made it almost all the way up on his own that way without being carried right up until the last little bit which was extremely steep. I carried him that last little bit, and I was REALLY glad it wasn't longer.

Here we are at the falls, I gave Molly the camera and told her to get pics of everyone from our family who was there and she did a really good job!

On the way down I had Luke in the Mei Tai and he fell asleep really quickly. Becca helped me get down by walking about a foot in front of me and letting me put a hand on her shoulder just in case I got off balance. I really hate steep slopes, I'm afraid of falling and with a heavy baby I felt even more off balance, but with Becca walking right in front of me I just looked at my feet and it didn't seem nearly as bad.

That evening several of the adults watched some of the kids playing kick ball, I got a few action shots, mostly pretty blurry, but fun anyway!

Later that night everyone made shirts that had their relationship to Luke on them, Luke's Mommy, Luke's Grammy, etc. The next day most of us wore our shirts and I got a few pics of them below...

The second full day at camp we attempted to climb up to "Solution Pools". The trail started out beautifully and Luke was having a lot of fun walking with Grandpa and cousin Will.

(notice that Luke is wearing Will's KU hat, something that would drive Greg nuts, so we took extra pictures just for him!)

Luke had alot of fun walking with Will and his walking stick, he so wants to be like the big kids!

We got about 2/3rds of the way up but Luke was ready for his nap and the trail was REALLY steep for carrying a 24lb baby so Mom and I turned back.

Mom and I walked back to camp instead of waiting to get a ride at the base of the trail with the others. When we came around a bend and saw the rocks in the picture above we decided to take a pic and say we saw the top of those rocks, implying that we had climbed to the top! Luke slept all the way back, sweet baby!

The sunsets from the cabin deck were gorgeous, but impossible to capture. Tim and I tried one night, and you can see the beautiful colors but not the mountians. I guess the camera couldn't capture them in the twilight.

We took a nature walk on the last day at the camp (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Kate, Becca and Luke and I). There were tons of beautiful flowers along the way and it was nice to take it slow and just enjoy the Colorado scenery one more time.

We found the names for most of them while we were on our walk, but I only remember a few now. I'll put numbers by them and if you remember any names you can put them in the comments section!

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The nature trail had a booklet that went with it and markers every few feet where you were suposed to read about something that you could see there. It really made thehike a lot easier to be able to stop so often and I

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Enjoying each other and games at the cabin...

Above is my favorite picture of the mountians that I took, looking off the deck of our cabin.

Such a sweet little boy!

The last evening we had hot coacoa and s'mores together at the cabin.

A few last looks at the mountians as we drove towards home...

Bye-Bye!