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!

sweet nothings

How time speeds by... I had a taste of being a stay at home mom again last week, and it was soooo nice! I could spend so much more time just playing with Luke, keeping me young! I did feel guilty about not being there to help out my coworkers, but I really did love having a more open schedule and being able to be with Luke all the time. I also found that it gave me a lot more time with Greg too, something I didn't really think about before hand, but it makes sense.

This week I am working hard to make up for last week, and then Thursday my sister gets here and on Saturday I am going to Colorado with my Mom's side of the family! Greg has to stay home, unfortunately, because he went fishing earlier. I can hardly wait to get to spend so much quality time with my sister. I hope sleeping in a room with Luke and I doesn't bother her sleep habits too much! I wish Greg could come too, he has never spent much time in the mountains and I know he would really enjoy this, plus I think Luke would really love to have him there with us too. When we got to Indiana and he saw Greg he stuck to him like glue for a couple of days, which was really neat to see, especially for Greg who often feels like Luke loves me best and Grandpa next.

Luke has continued to learn lots of signs lately. I need to get out our baby signs book and learn some more myself so I can teach him new ones. Several of his signs look similar to each other, kind of like how baby words can be difficult to understand, you gotta know the context! Please and bath look the same, thank you and bye-bye are identical, nursing, bird and lights all look the same too, and more and shoes look alike as well. He has others, I won't try to list them all now.

He also has some new teeth. He finally got the fourth bottom front tooth in last week and this morning he was grinding his teeth and I stuck my finger in his mouth to make sure he wasn't chewing on something he shouldn't have and felt a molar on his top right for the first time ever! I hate the sound of teeth grinding, but I was pretty excited about the new tooth!

Our church had a swimming party at the local pool and Luke went with his grandpa and then I met them there half way through. It always amazes me home well he does and how much he enjoys it. I always wish I could capture his face while we swim, maybe I should get a disposable underwater camera just for on this trip... Anyway, he likes to float on his tummy and kick with his head held high and a big grin on his face! It is a blast. He also still really enjoys kissing the other younger babies he sees and there were several both at church and at the pool! I think little Janessa will be his sweetheart!

Luke has started to ask us to watch his veggie tales videos lately! He brings them to us and holds them with one hand and points to it with his other as if just bringing it to us wouldn't be enough to get his point across! He loves to dance to the songs and wants to stand VERY close to the tv, but I always make him stand further back. He got upset when I wouldn't let him stand close this morning, I had to bring him back away from the screen several times, but each time I would let him make his choice again and ask him firmly to stand back from the tv. After three times of picking him up and moving him away from the tv he curled up on the ground and cried for a little while, and then slowly picked his head up to watch and then decided to get into a better position... I thought he was going to go close to the tv again but instead he just repositioned himself so that he was sitting up and started watching the video. He got up to dance and stuff several times after that but each time when I would remind him to stay back from the tv he listened and didn't go to close again! I was so proud of him for listening to me I almost cried!

Well, this isn't much of a post, but I thought I should get something on here. Hopefully I'll have pictures next time from Colorado!

Indiana pics...

These first pics are from the rehearsal dinner for my friend Bekah's wedding. She got married out at this beautiful park, I should have taken more pictures but my battery ran low. Her in-laws from California made all the food, three point steaks as the main course. It was amazing food, and I'm not big on large pieces of meat so that is saying something.

Bekah and I

Sarah, Bekah, and Bekah's sister Christy

Bekah's little boy Caleb and their friend John who watched out for Caleb most of the time while things were busy. They were buddies.

Isn't he a cutey!

We went to Bekah's hotel room after the rehearsal dinner to hang out and play with lil' man.

I don't have any pics of the wedding, I'm hoping to get some soon from Bekah, but until then you will have to wait in suspense.

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Here are some pics from Kaylene's reception. Greg had Luke with him so he didn't take any pictures at the wedding. Unfortunately most of the pictures we took at the reception didn't turn out great.

The hall and decorations were gorgeous...

And so were the bride and groom!

The kids had a blast dancing, Luke had no fear and turned in circles all by himself in the middle of the dance floor for two whole songs before we called him over to the side so the bride and groom could dance! We have a very long video of it, too long to upload unfortunately.

These next pics are from the day after the weddings. With lots of family in town we went to a local park and enjoyed a long afternoon together outside!

Hand and foot, the traditional card game of the Myers clan!

A version of bean bags was the favorite game of the day. The boards have the White Sox emblems on them and belonged to Kent and Kathy, but Greg is determined to make himself some similar. (-;

Luke really liked the game too,and always wanted to help!

Luke also enjoyed following his cousins around. He followed Cassia out to this volley ball sand pit...

I think he got stuck there!

These are from another day at Kent and Kathy's house...

The cousins put on a couple of very wild plays for us, I have video, but it's too long to post.

Above are all the Great-grand kids with Grandma Myers.

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Below are the Texas relatives and Grandma.

Yeah for cousins!

Kathy had the touch and was able to get Luke to play happily without me for a bit!

Playing dress-up with the kids.

Happy birthday to Mary, Gary, and me!

Luke wanted to do EVERYTHING with his cousins.

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It was a really fun trip, but we didn't take nearly enough pictures. I'm hoping to get more from the rest of the family soon!