Springtime, finally!

Ok, settle in folks--this is going to be a long one! We have had a great month of adventure. As always it is hard to believe how quickly the boys are growing and changing. Dylan is adding words everyday, today's word is "no", that should be interesting. He loves "river, pool, boat" and anything with water. Colter keeps us on our toes with winners like "Oh for goodness sake, that's not going to work at all Mom!" And "when we move to Moab or Mexico, we'll just visit our friends in Telluride alot, Mom does it snow in Moab?" Yes, sometimes. "Oh, I guess it's Mexico then." And so many others that I need a tape recorder. Our trip to Moab was a much needed break from reality. We did something fun everyday and loved the hot weather. Outside at 7:30 am in shorts and t-shirts and we stayed there until after dark---I do love the heat! We rafted, camped, hiked, biked, played soccer, enjoyed the Roufa's house in town, played in Mill Creek down the Steelbender road, Canyonlands, Castle Valley, the amazing music park, Milt's, Milt's and more Milt's, moped rides (Dylan's favorite!), chased, caught and played with every bug imaginable, dug in the dirt, and so much more...it was very hard to head home. Funny saying that when we live in such a great place! The boys loved everything about Moab, especially all of the time with Daddy and Mommy with no distractions. We did two raft trips on the Colorado, one with Trevor's parents who joined us for a few days including Mother's Day and Mac's birthday and one full day with just the four of us. We had a nice visit with Mac and Carol and stayed busy the entire time touring the area and playing around town. Dylan isn't sold on the "updowns" on the river yet and spent his time in the waves saying "none, none...none, none...BACK!" and pointing up river. He'll come around I'm sure. It didn't help that he was taking a nap in back and a rogue wave splashed over the side and landed on his head. Oops. Colter is a bug man. We brought the bug catcher cage and he went nuts. He caught, named and took care of catapillars, ants, rolly-pollys, tadpoles, spiders, butterflies, crawdads, and anything else moving. I had no idea there were so many colors and types of ants and so many ways to squash them. He was protecting queen mommy, ya know. MacMac brought him a squirt gun and he didn't want to put it down the rest of the trip. Dylan woke up every morning, put on his "boop bops" (flip flops) and helmet and then went out to the moped and sat on it until Daddy took him for a ride. So cute. Colter is really good at starting and riding his big bike and was racing all over town. He has great balance and is building strength and stamina with each passing day. At this age, just biking or walking around town to the various parks and trails is entertaining for the boys. I hope our boys are always so happy just to be outside and enjoying nature. Trevor was able to ride his motorcycle a good bit, and I got to hike. It was very relaxing and will get us through the next few months of business as usual. I love travelling with Trevor and the boys and look forward to many more fun, family adventures!

We made it home at the beginning of the week and dove right back into work, literally. The fast and furious spring run off has been a challenge for the hydro plant. We have been putting on the rafting gear to wade through the intake pond atleast twice a day to clear rocks, leaves and other goodies from the screens. Even had to involve a backhoe twice already. So we are spending lots of time at Modee and Pappy's new house. The boys love to play there and Colter said it would be Ok if we stayed all summer. At this rate, we will be!

Easter and rafting pics

1. Rafting with his buddy Finn 2. Daddy and D rowing down the river 3. Construction Easter egg hunting, Colter dressed in his "fancy clothes" for the occassion 4. PEZ duck dispenser still brings a smile, he pointed to the camera and held it like that just so I would take his picture.

Gonna show you who's boss...

Oh the four year old mind! Colter decided the other day that he had enough and he said "mom, come over here, I'm gonna show you who's boss around here!" I truly have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, we have never said anything like that to him. Dylan is still saying new words, most requiring a good bit of translation, including "bop bop" (flip flop), dump truck, book, all kinds of animal sounds, colors, names, "moo" for yogurt, signs for turtle, shark and lizard. He is continuing on the potty training road and loves to pee off the deck---that must be a boy thing. He runs to the door and says "Ma, pee pee, ide" and strips down right there- very funny to watch, but I don't watch, I run or else he doesn't make it out on to the deck in time! Dylan's favorite word, besides Mama, Dada, Dolder, is "Owie", he screams it whether or not it is justified. He has figured out that someone will come running. We have been enjoying little bits of spring weather here and there. We helped Mom and Dad move into their new house last weekend and then went to visit Finn at his orcchard outside of Delta. Colter and Finn are such good buddies and they had a blast, one of his few friends that can outrun and outlast him! They really tire each other out. We stayed there and then went rafting on the Gunnison River on Sunday. The Trommers have two miles of river frontage and a great take-out/launch site at the orchard. It was a bit chilly, but we are looking forward to many more floats on that section. The orchard is amazing and everyone had a great time. We survived the audit, but the resulting payment (not as big as we thought it would be!) has committed us to a two week vacation in the desert close by and no big road trip around the west. Oh well, hopefully the weather warms up and we can explore Utah a bit more. On a sweeter note, Colter told me tonight that "Even though you and Daddy are different people, you are the best and I love you both!"

The winds of change

These are just fun pictures. We are still having fun with cardboard and made both boys a snowboard the other night. They snowboarded all over the house. It is springtime, kinda. We had beautiful warm weather in Jan. Feb. and even parts of March, but not now. The weather has been cold, windy, dusty and snowy for weeks now. We are starting our spring and summer travelling. We went to Moab for my birthday week and although it was very chilly for the desert, we still managed to have some fun. Colter was very impressed with the dinosaur tracks and caves we hiked to up the Potash Rd. It is always nice to get away for a few days and always nice to return home to Telluride. We finished off the ski season with a couple of sunny ski days and a fun party at Gorrono Ranch. Dylan skiied down lift 4 to Gorrono at 20 months! Next year will be even more adventurous I'm sure. This week we will experience our first IRS audit. That should be interesting. The result of that will determine how far we travel in May. The title you ask? On the way home from Moab my little ninja, knight, pirate Colter says "Mom, you know those things that go on your cowboy boots?" "Spurs?" "Yeah those, I don't have any of those. And Mom, I don't even have a kid sized cowboy hat. How am I supposed to dress up like a cowboy?" I guess we will be moving on to another phase of costumes. "Oh Mom, just one more question" (this is his famous line that we hear every night before bed and several times throughout the day) "If God owns the land that the Native Americans lived on, then why do people sell it?" Yup, that's where we are at. Colter is incredibly thoughtful and curious and I love learning what he is thinking. Dylan is expanding his vocabulary by the hour to include "up, more, backpacck, backhoe, purple, yellow, please, book, poo-poo, yeah, ouie...." It is fun to hear his voice. Speaking of, I can hear both of their voices now and should go find out why!

Spring Skiing

1. Dylan with his favorite stackable animal train, we have parades most nights. 2.I can't believe how big they both look in this picture! 3. I hope he likes shovelling five years from now. 4. Dylan and Daddy coming down Lift 10 5. Colter and Roark skiing down Lift 10 planning the next jump.

We have had a great time skiing these last few weeks. Yesterday the four of us skiied together and then Trevor and Colter stayed longer- they got home at almost 6pm after catching the last lift. I love the spring forward part the time change. Both boys are amazing and are enjoying the slopes as much as we are. Colter continues to go everywhere all the time, jumping off of anything in his path and even took an exciting powder run with Daddy through the trees. Dylan went down Lift 10 twice on the harness. For those of you who don't ski here much, Lift 10 is a very long green/blue lift that is a favorite of all ages- just not usually the 1 yr olds! He loves it and spends most of his time laughing or taking roll call to make sure everyone is accounted for. I have been skiing for the last few weeks with the boys and my ankle is doing pretty good. It has been so nice and sunny that we all have spring fever. It will be sad when it is snowing in April and May! Most of the snow around our house has melted, very different from last year when we were still waist deep in March. Grandma and Mac-Mac came for a visit. We had a great time and the boys were so excited. Ok, Colter was super excited and Dylan warmed up to the idea. I think he will remember them this time, he has been looking for them since they left. They did lots of book reading and paper airplane making (Colter's current favorite acitivity) Dylan calls roll everyday about ten times and it has expanded to "Mommy, Daddy, Dolt-da(Colter), Titi (Tim), Momoo (Modee), Pappy, E-i (Eli) and some form of Mimi and Mac Mac after they left. Colter keeps correcting him and saying "No Dylan, it's Grandma not Mimi" We'll see where that lands later. Dylan is teething- again. Brutal for him and me, he doesn't sleep well and just screams. Can't wait for that to be done. He still loves music, books and baths- anything with water and bubbles. Colter is really a funny guy. It is non-stop and I think he will be for years to come. I don't mean like little kid cute and entertaining, I mean make you belly laugh funny that has alot of thought behind it. Today he dressed up like a pirate and had me call our neighbor (our decks face each other) to come out on his deck. So Rocky comes out on his deck with little brother Josh and Colter stands up on his chair and yells "Hey Rockstar, Joshie- or should I say Ar-Bee-Dar me scurvy pirates" He loves to dress up in different costumes for any holiday real or imagined, I guess most of them were imagined by someone originally, and we go everywhere. I think people are more surprised to see him in normal clothes in public, most are used to the ninja, dragon, pirate, monkey, zebra.......... I love it and he is dressing himself, so it's fun to see him come out of his room everyday. He also continues to have an incredible memory and spouts off seemingly random facts that he picks up all day and everywhere. We definately have to be very mindful of what he is exposed to because every commercial, song, show and book sticks in his brain. Someday I think my voice might get in there too and I will be able to stop repeating myself- very selective hearing! Right now the favorites are spiders, snakes, dinosaurs, vikings, knights, and paper airplanes.The other day he asked me if I wanted this certain dishwasher soap that was on a commercial after his show ( I usually record shows and zap commercials- I was slacking) and I said "No thanks, I've got plenty" his answer "but Mom, this one leaves nothing behind but the shine!"

Mama, Mommy, MA

As always, it has been a busy few weeks. Kathleen says she can tell we are extra special busy when I haven't even taken the time at midnight to update this thing. We have had a good bit of cousin time and it has been really fun. Colter and Eli are getting along great and we spent several days and even a sleepover or so together. They are so funny and I am always amazed at the collective imagination of little boys, they come up with the best games. One day I thought we would put on a nice puppet show. So Colter and Eli each picked out a dolphin puppet (both dolphins are named Ava) then there was the shark and the parrot puppets- no names- then they proceded to show me how to catch and chomp up a dolphin about 700 different ways. Hmmm..
Gideon and Dylan are starting to interact a bit more and they had one morning of sitting on the floor playing Thomas the Train that was very sweet. They were even trading toys and Gideon was talking to Dylan. Dylan is still learning more signs and ways of communicating that are both very effective and mostly non-verbal. He can, however, say Mama, Mommy and MA in several different ways. He has a very clear word for Colter now "Dolder" and loves to yell for Dada/Daddy as well. He learned the sign for turtle today and was walking around the house showing everyone a picture of a turtle and then doing the sign, genius I tell ya! He has started using the potty quite a bit and thinks it is so special when everyone cheers for him, that and he likes to take the toilet paper off the roll like a cat. I don't want to curse the potential early potty training by posting this, but he is doing very well. He loves bathtime and any water play and is getting better at following Colter around without getting in his way. They are becoming more of a team these days.
Colter really surprised Trevor the other night when Trevor was reading a book about dinosaurs and extinct animals. Trevor was reading about a marsupial (still can't spell-sorry) and Colter says "Daddy, you know that word you just said" Trevor says "you mean marsupial" Colter says "yeah, did you know that not just kangaroos are that, also koala bears. They're not really bears" I think Trevor about passed out. He has an amazing memory for details, I can't wait to see what he does with that skill in his life.
We finally got some of the sickness going around. Not to bad just a head cold for Trevor, Colter and Dylan and it seems to be passing. Colter told me that he felt like he had two logs on either side of his head with nails and screws on top to tighten them together. He is very descriptive.
After eight weeks I finally tried out the ankle on the slopes. I took the boys skiing on a beautiful sunny springlike day and we had a great time. Dylan is standing on his skiis really well and seems to have no fear. Colter was skiing backwards down the Magic Carpet so that he could watch Dylan ski and Dylan loved it. I still have to be right there because Dylan can't stop, but he goes straight and giggles at Colter the entire time. Colter and I made a few runs on our own while Dylan went home and napped with Tim. Colter is a really good skier. He controls his speed with parallel turns and can stop whenever. He loves to jump and turn around to make sure slow Mom saw everything.
Days are getting longer and I can't wait for spring!

Firetrucks and anthills

I should have updated sooner, it has been a crazy week and I forgot most of the funnies that Colter has been spouting off. We went to Denver last weekend for Noah's surgery, that didn't happen as scheduled. He did have his surgery yesterday and is recovering well. Trevor, Mom, Sharon and I took five boys to the Children's Museum one day and it was so cute. They had a wonderdul time exploring the ant hill, the huge fire truck, building in the tool stations, shopping at the pretend grocery store. It was really cute and yes, Nana, we did dress them all in their matching CSU sweatshirts so that we could spot them easily. That worked out in our favor. We also played all around Sharon and Gary's house, the weather was wonderful. Sharon and Gary turned their garage into a giant play room and that was a big hit. Elijah and Colter were very busy climbing HUGE trees by the park. They have no fear of height, the only concern was who could climb higher. When we got home Colter and Daddy went skiing all over the place. They have so much fun together these days and go all over the mountain to find little jumps and walls to ride up and down. Our week back home was filled with sunshine and blue skies. Colter had Comets ski school on Friday and Dylan and I went to "Baby Coop". It is a fun mommy/baby group that trades off babysitting. Dylan and his little buddies get a chance to hang out and play a bit. Dylan continues to come into his own little self. He loves to follow Colter around and try to imitate whatever he is doing. He loves to play music and dance and his face lights up and he belly laughs if a flashlight is turned on- oh the little things! Colter and Elijah are having a sleep over tonight, so I should really try to get some sleep! Tomorrow will be a busy one-