a day with thomas the train!

aunt susu came in september and took the family to a day out with thomas the train. we didn't tell the kids and hoped they would have one of those "world's funniest video" moments when they saw the train. not quite. i think they were more overwhelmed with all the people, trains, etc. we had to park and wait for a bus to take us to the colorado railroad museum.

townsend and aunt susu on the bus.
after we walked into the event area we got back in another line to get on "thomas" for our 20 minute ride. the ride ended up being 3 times around the museum. kinda funny.
the family on the thomas.
got my ticket!
after we got off the train, we waited in another line to get a picture in front of thomas. as soon as the next group of people got on the train it had to leave for the next trip. we got to the very front of the line and would have been next for our picture but the train left. oh well.
tattoos for everyone! james for ellory. she loves james.
marin got percy.
and townsend got thomas. of course.

we waited at a place where thomas would pass by and got this picture.
there was a petting zoo. i think marin was the least afraid. :)
and a thomas built all of legos.
and a firetruck that townsend got to sit in.

it was a fun morning. thank you aunt susu!

townsend's first day at preschool!

once again, these pictures are not quite in order. i'm trying to catch up on blogs and going too fast i guess.
anyway-there is a church right by our house that has a well recommended preschool. so back on FEBRUARY 4 (!!!) i waited in LINE to sign townsend and ellory up for SEPTEMBER 9! i could only sign up for one day so they both had mondays and we were on a wait list for a second day for both. a few days before preschool started i got the call saying that there was an opening on tuesdays for townsend's class. since the first monday in september is labor day there wasn't any school but townsend started the next day. (which is why it wasn't also ellory's first day) townsend does really well at school. he loves to hang up his backpack. put away his lunchkit and search for his nametag. his class is the crocodile class. i think he's a pretty shy little guy in class. but his teachers always seem to love him. :)
on another note-the following week we got the call that there was an opening on tuesdays for ellory's class. so now i have only marin for 4 hours on monday and tuesday mornings. you can do so much with only one child! (of course i didn't think that for the 5 months we had only townsend-i guess it's all perspective.)

bamaw and peepaw visit!

peepaw teaching the kids how to play golf.

mommy gets a haircut after about 7 months! thanks to my wonderful friend, michelle. :)
still golfing. peepaw would chip the balls and the kids would run after them.
another marin face. she sat on bamaw's lap alot.
at the hotel where my parents stayed. big bed=lots of jumping.
peepaw read alot too. i think he has this Christmas book memorized now.
my parents came out for a visit at the end of july. i was so happy and thankful they were able to do this. they stayed at a hotel with handicap accessibility and we went over most mornings and picked them up. didn't do a whole lot except hang out with the kids. but that was what i really wanted to do anyway. just let grandma and grandpa be with their grandkids. reading. building with train sets and legos. reading some more. because of the california fires, there was smoke over the mountains which was a bummer as they didn't get to see the beautiful scenery. and even the weather wasn't "perfect" in my opinion. high 80's. kinda hot for me. but they were coming from texas where there had been 70 straight days of temperatures over 100! so they were loving it. i keep telling them there is a house for sale right across the street. :) the week went by quickly but i know the kids feel like they know bamaw and peepaw alot better now as they continue to talk about them. pray for them at night. and want to see pictures of the visit. that makes me happy.

townsend's first backpacking trip!

these pictures actually go in reverse order. so you just watched his trip backwards. :)
a week after our first family camping trip, norton decided to take townsend backpacking. just the guys. they headed up towards guanella pass and started hiking towards lake ______. norton said that townsend was a great hiker. never complained. but every so often norton would stop and they would rest on a big rock. and after awhile townsend was stopping to rest on every rock! i think they hiked a little over a mile and set up camp. the scenery was beautiful as you can see. the next morning they walked another mile plus to the lake. again, beautiful. then back to the campsite to pack up and go to the car. the last little while norton carried townsend. but i'm so proud of how well he hiked!

first family camping trip!

wow, i am really getting behind here. sorry kids. we decided to take the whole family camping a couple of months ago. marin was still a question mark as to how she might do. but we took a chance. pretty much every campground that you could reserve a spot in was booked the entire summer so we just decided to start driving and see what opened up. we headed toward winter park and found a site on our second campground. the girls stayed in one tent and the boys in another. we also set up a "play" tent. the kids liked walking around, picking up sticks and such. norton built a great fire and rigged up the kids seats to where we could buckle them in. after the girls went to bed we made s'mores with townsend. and then all went to bed around 8pm. approximately 2 minutes after i had gotten into my sleeping bag marin woke up crying. she was in her pack and play and i think she was just confused because she kept looking around. she finally lay back down but she was up like this pretty much the entire night. i didn't have a watch so i was never sure of the time but i was a nervous wreck everytime she woke up because i was sure she was waking up everyone in the campground. it was one of the worst nights i can remember. finally i heard the zipper in the tent and norton was handing me a sippy cup with milk. for marin. he said it was 5:45am and that marin had actually slept for several hours. i took marin out and sat with her by the fire. trying to keep her quiet. 18 month olds don't understand what whispering is, you know. when some of the camping neighbors woke up i apologized for marin's crying. they said they hadn't heard a thing. i was very thankful but wish i had known that during the night when i was going crazy trying to get her to stop crying. anyway, we all survived. we even took a second camping trip a week ago.



marin and her faces. notice ellory has on townsend's sweatpants and tevas. the stinker stood there in the tent and peed all over herself.



the play tent.

the boys tent

sigh

i guess i had been a little too proud of the fact that none of my kids had ever colored on the walls. on their bodies and faces-sure. but not on the walls. marin regularly eats any crayon she gets her hands on but "at least" she's never drawn on the walls. today when townsend went to his room for quiet time he asked for the crayons/markers and paper. i asked him if he was going to draw on his face. no. his arms and legs? no. his bed? no. his floor? no, mommy. the paper? yes, mommy. and so i let him be. an hour later i go in and this is what i find. i really was at a loss for words. i basically said, "this is not ok. you are in big trouble." and then i left. i'm sure that took care of the problem! still don't know what i should do. i'm sure the "magic eraser" will get it off in about 30 seconds. we'll see what daddy says when he gets home. :)

sorry aunt susu

well, i finally did it. i got ellory's hair cut. despite protests from aunt susu. i love, love, love the long hair. but it had 2 layers and looked kinda shaggy most of the time. i trust that by trimming it to the same length it will continue to grow and look thicker and prettier. i meant to have a before and after pic but townsend and marin were being a little difficult at the salon and the gal started cutting before i remembered to get a pic. ellory sat fairly still but had a grumpy look on her face the whole time. she wasn't in a bad mood or anything. just being ellory. :)

a day at the "beach"

last week we went with our friends jenna, zoe, and eli to chatfield state park. they have a beach there with sand and all. the water is only about 1-2 feet deep. i was a bit nervous about taking all three to the water. but jenna was a great help. and the kids ended up playing in the sand more than wanting to go in the water. i bought some arm swimmy thingies and as you can see from the picture of marin, they were a bit too large. poor thing couldn't move her arms! as soon as we had them on, marin started walking right out into the water. since there were lots of waves from all the people she pretty quickly fell over, went under, swallowed a big gulp and started crying. kinda scared me. that was about it for her water experience. townsend and ellory were a little more steady but near the end of our time ellory went out a little farther, stumbled and fell backwards. the arm things kept her from going under but she too got a little scared and came out. even though i'm not a big beach person, it was fun. and the kids had a great time. we'll have to take daddy next time. :)

the cutest 4-eyes

so we finally got townsend's glasses. when the lady first put them on i thought they looked really large. didn't remember that from trying them on the previous week. i suppose they are still big but i guess we've gotten used to them now. for the first week he would take them off randomly and leave them on the ground. or on his bed. or somewhere that marin was sure to pick them up and break them. i found a band for them which goes around the back and i think that started helping and then about 4 days ago he seemed to get over the hump and just leaves them on all the time now. i don't know if he understands the concept of seeing more "clearly." if you ask him if he can see better he will say yes but i don't think he really understands what we're asking. but he looks pretty cute i think. of course.

messy marin's new smile

these are just some pictures of our messy little girl. they are funny to look at now but i'm sure i growled at the time. she has also started this little squint action thing when we take pictures. as soon as we say, "smile" she pretty much closes her eyes. she's so cute.