Dylan is the "Birthday Boy"

Oh how we love summer!!! The boys and I went down with Modee to spend a few days on the front range with Nana and spent some quality time poolside. Both boys were so brave, going off the diving board and slide and swimming to the side by themselves. Dylan, the 2 yr old!!!!!, surprised us by climbing right up there the second day and following Colter right off the board. I wasn't even in the water. It was so much fun and makes me miss the water even more.

Nana's 80th birthday weekend was beautiful. I love my Nana and was so happy to spend some time with her. Almost all of our huge family made it for a BBQ at Sharon and Gary's house and we had fun watching the next generation chase each other around. Our parents thought it was busy with six of us, HA! Now that we have 10 under the age of 7 and an 11 yr old, watch out!!!!   The is a picture of Nana with all grandkids and spouses, but it is on Bryan's camera. Yeah, I know my sunglasses are cool, even if I am the only ones wearing them---still a cute picture. This pic with Nana and 10 of her 11 great-grandkids is hilarious and was quite the circus to set up. The series leading up to this photo could be it's own blog post.

Next up was a fun few days in Breckenridge with some of Trevor's family. Uncle Bill, Annt Linda, Aunt Sharon, Uncle Chuck, Aunt DeDe, Jason, Grandma and Mac-Mac were all there to celebrate Dylan's big birthday. We had a great time running and riding around and visiting with everyone.  Dylan wanted a motorcycle birthday this year and was not disappointed.  We found this little battery operated 4 wheeler that can go about 5 MPH, some cute little dirtbike pants and he is set. He spent most of the week saying "I am the birthday boy!".

The boys got the idea to make recycled boats and float them down the river. It was a great project that involved plastic bottles, duct tape, plastic silverware and plastic bags. All the boys, big and small had a great time racing the boats down the river.  Daddy took one for the team and had a major adventure catching the boats. It all ended with flying flip flops (which were recovered) and some sore feet. Still smiling, even soaking wet, and sitting on a rock before heading back to get warm. Birthday party take two. We had another cake and play with the Riebels and cousin Tim. Dylan wanted a motorcycle cake and picked out the happy face cake (yeah, on our grocery run--no hand made this year) and added the motorcycle puzzle pieces and number 3 sparklers. Of course all the motorized toys in the neighborhood were racing around and the kids were trying to see how many could fit on each one. This pic has Dylan, Colter, Jasmine and Roman on ours and not pictured is Rocky and Josh on theirs. So fun to see these kids growing up together. I can't believe how fast time is going by. Happy 3rd Birthday Big Boy Dylan!   WE LOVE YOU!!

Yippee....we love summer!

Look at that big boy! He is growing so fast and getting new skills and words everyday. Dylan talks non-stop, usually telling very detailed stories about his adventures and runs around with a smile on his face. I can't believe he is almost 3 and already planning his motorcycle birthday party.

Cedar Park has great parks and playscapes in an interconnected park system that is about 6 miles long. It has these great areas with fountains for the kids to run around in. This fountain was fun because the kids could "float" objects in it, like beachballs, crocs etc. Then they would run under the objects and make them fall down. We made a couple of trips to that park with Bonnie and Mimi. Along with daily swimming was trampolene jumping. Fun to watch Dylan develop his coordination as they launched each other and played endless games of "crack the egg" and "steamroller". They are enjoying playing together these days and had a great time exploring and experimenting.

We visited the Nature and Science Center near Zilker Park and had a great day playing with fossils, digging in the dino pit and checking out all the rescued animals they have on site. It is so fun to watch them discover and learn. Colter is very interested in fossils of all sorts, rocks, minerals, geodes and all animals. Dylan loves to follow Colter around and learn from him. Aunt Bonnie joined us for a ride on the Zilker Zepher, a little train that goes by Barton Springs and we went home for more bug and toad hunting. This is Colter's favorite toad, we call him the "flower pot toad"

We got to meet little Charlotte and visit with cousin Brooke! She is so cute. I love the age where they are all smiles and giggles and not yet mobile! She kicked her little legs in that floatie non-stop for about 30 minutes. We went out to Uncle Dave's house on Lake Travis for a couple of afternoon swims.

LOVE the 4th of July! And of course the fireworks AND the fireworks feature that Carrie and I discovered on our cameras. We took some wild pictures. The smiley face pic is on of our favorites and consisted of me and Colter using some teamwork with sparklers. If you ask him it goes a little like this "It was my MOM"s bright idea to swirl the sparks right over my HEAD!" Safety first----

Michael, Carrie and the boys at the fireworks show at the park. Aunt Bonnie and Colter "oohing and ahhing" at the fireworks display.

The black fuzzy wave behind my head is part of the million bats that fly out every night from a bridge on I35. Colter has been looking forward to that event since our visit last year when we forgot to go. He said it was worth the wait. It was pretty amazing to watch the organized chaos and it went on for a long time. Not a single mosquito bite from that area!

Testing out the underwater feature on the camera helped the boys learn to hold their breath longer, and jump off the side over and over and over........ We had to get the perfect shot! Both of their swimming improved so much while we were there. Colter could swim across the pool on his back (thanks to Aunt Bonnie"s "monkey, bird, soldier") and jump in and swim underwater. Dylan could swim from the ladder to me underwater by the last day. He loved the floaties and was wearing those most of the time with no life jacket.

We swam in the pool, we swam in the lake, all times of day, everyday. So, so, so love the warm water and nice weather! Dylan mastered "skateboarding" on the boogie board, he probably fell off 50 times and just kept climbing back up. He has amazing balance. Carrie doing some boatside bonding with the boys while the tube got blown up.

This is a full pteranadon skeleton hanging from the ceiling at the UT science museum. We went to all four floors and spent many happy hours looking at every mineral, fish, snake, fossil and animal they had to offer.

Tubing adventures! Michael and Colter held on just fine. However, Mommy and Dylan did not keep the hair dry the entire time. Good thing he had his life jacket on! Just kidding, I have two hands, one for my kiddo and one for the sunglasses. Also discovered a few under used muscles with a bit of wakeboarding.

Other fun activities that we did on our Texas adventure included;

glow in the dark putt-putt where Dylan got a hole-in-one, a creek hike and fossil hunt with Michael, walking to the farmer's market and barely escaping the huge downpour, driving adventures with Aunt Bonnie "who needs a navigation system anyway?" and "red light, red light, what do you say?". late night grocery store visits with Dylan entertaining the entire staff, visits with Mimi, Brooke, Charlotte and Uncle Dave, TV time with Uncle Lester-we are still talking about the River Monsters and Deadliest Catch, launching paper airplanes from the balcony, Toy Story 3, making a science sheet with Aunt Bonnie, experiments with everything from bugs to water, the daily over feeding of the dogs and cats (pretty sure they will miss Dylan), library visit where we made 4th of July windsock/hats, lego time with Michael, driving the ski boat with Uncle Lester..........we were busy everyday and had such a great trip again this year. Thanks to the Hahn's for opening up their house and letting us invade for a while, we appreciate it.

And the famous quotes from Dylan

"Wow, This is AWESOME!" and "Not me know"

Colter loves to go snake hunting with Mac-Mac. This time they found a huge snake under the hot tub and Mac-Mac let him hold and relocate it by himself. He was so proud and excited. Mommy, again, volunteered to stand back and take pictures. We were able to stay with Grandma and Mac-Mac for a couple of days after getting back from Texas and both boys loved the night they got to set off fireworks with Mac-Mac at the neighbors house. Dylan was dragging Mac-Mac all over the place and squealing with excitement the whole time.

When we got back to Telluride Daddy borrowed a friends motorcycle and took the boys for a ride in the area. Colter did good and also rode around the neighborhood to show me his new skills. He said he only fell over once and that was because he kept riding in circles and got dizzy.

Not sure what's next, we'll see what the second half of summer brings.

Moab and Father's Day

We spent Father's Day in Durango rafting, riding "Big Thomas" and eating good Texas style BBQ. Dylan has been looking forward to this day since last winter when he saw a picture of Colter with Thomas the Train. He was so excited and said "This is so AWESOME" and "Mom, this is SO exciting" over and over. The little conductor outfit scored him many points with the train staff and many pictures from random people. He picked out a Thomas "brella" as his treat and hasn't put it down since-"looks like rain mama" Rafting on the Animas was fun. We got to see Thomas go by on the tracks, which was an added bonus, and Dylan loved the "up downs". "Me no like the up downs in Moab, but me love these" The boys are growing so fast and I love seeing the pictures of them rowing the boat in Dad's lap each year. The one with Dylan followed this little quote "No worry Dad, me row boat, you just drink beer"---Trevor had a great Father's Day!

Bluegrass Festival was beautiful this year, not a cloud in the sky for four days! The boys and I spent some time learning about new toys. Colter loved the Chinese yo-yo and got pretty good at it. Dylan was trying to master the hula hoop, a favorite pass time in Telluride.

I love this picture!!!! We were hiking the Jurasic Trail behind our house and playing in the wildflowers.

"Crawdad Canyon" hike. From left to right: Colter, Gideon, Dylan, Noah and Eli and yes it did take us awhile to get all five sitting still and kind of looking at the camera. Totally worth it, they are so cute!

Dylan showing us how big the crawdads are. Eli, Colter, Dylan and Gideon chasing lizards.

Sheila and I took all five boys to Moab on a camping adventure. It was a huge success. The boys had so much fun lizard hunting, crawdad catching, playing in the water and hiking on the rocks. I love the ages that the boys are at, we are having such a great year of exploring!

Colter, Dylan and I are in Texas now enjoying family, daily adventures and swimming several times a day. Pics will follow in a few days. I uploaded these awhile ago and forgot to post it----oops.