A Visit to Colorado: Jumping, Eating, (not) Sleeping

I had a few more pictures from our trip to Colorado that I'd like to share with you.

On Friday, Dale, Adelaida, and I were walking through a shopping area and saw something that caught our eyes: a store front with the name "Jumpin" and what appeared to be several giant blow-up bouncy castles inside. We were intrigued and walked in, and sure enough it was a store filled with giant blow-up bouncy castles! It was relatively empty (three or four other kids there), and their pricing scheme was so tempting (parents get in free; kids under 2 only $4) that we paid our $4, removed our shoes, and evaluated the different bouncy castles to see which one we wanted to try first.

There were traditional bouncy castles...


...and giant slides...


...and obstacle-course-style bouncy castles (complete with two kids who wanted so badly for Dale to play with them!)...


...and even a toddler play area with a small plastic playset and teeter-totter.


We had fun, Adelaida had fun, and it was well worth the $4 admission fee!

Another very notable part of this trip was Adelaida eating. We taught her the sign language for "eat" so that she can tell us when she's hungry. She's been using it for about two months, but while we were in Colorado she suddenly started using the sign all the time! We thought at first that she might just be testing the sign out -- using it frequently to confirm that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between her signing "eat" and us giving her food.

That theory was blown away when we saw how much she was eating each time she signed. She was really hungry! Our typical day would be: Adelaida wakes up and wants to eat, we feed her for about an hour, she plays for half an hour, Adelaida says she wants to eat, we feed her for an hour, she plays for half an hour, says she wants to eat, we feed her for an hour, and the whole process repeats. I really think she spent more time eating than she spent awake and not eating!

The fact that she was eating so much during the day made the night-times a little more understandable. Adelaida has always had a tendency to sleep poorly at night when we are traveling: she wakes up frequently, and since we are generally staying with friends or family, we are more likely to get her out of bed and nurse her rather than let her get back to sleep herself. This trip was no exception, and the first night we were on the road I nursed her three times in the middle of the night. The weird thing was that she was ravenously hungry all three times! Even after eating so much during the day, she still wanted to nurse for nutrition rather than just for comfort! The nights got progressively worse until the last night, when Adelaida woke up to nurse six times in the nine hours she slept. Dale and I were exhausted! The frequent night nursings continued after we came home, and we put up with them as long as Adelaida's day-time appetite was so large; for about a week now she's been back to a more normal appetite, so we've been weaning her back to one nursing at night, and last night she slept the entire night without nursing (she did wake up one time, but went back to sleep by herself). I'm really looking forward to regular uninterrupted sleep again!

A Visit to Colorado: Superbowl Party

When we made plans (in October) to visit Colorado, we consulted many calendars to find a weekend that would work for everyone involved, but somehow neglected to consider the Superbowl. So we found ourselves in Colorado for Superbowl weekend, where Brooke and Dave graciously accepted when we invited ourselves to their Superbowl party :)

The party was a whirlwind of food, laughter, reconnecting with old friends, playing with the kids, babysitting a stuffed cat (the babysitter kept "losing" her, but somehow kept being asked to babysit again!), and a third-quarter princess parade (fortunately the television was mounted relatively high and the princesses were all very short!).

Oh, and a football game that I'd rather not remember.

I think the pictures speak for themselves this time, so here they are:

Adelaida sat in the middle of the floor and played with balls while Mackenzie, Elise, and Alexa pretended to be lions (or tigers? or dogs? some four-legged mammal.)


Adelaida and I were proud Colts supporters -- which of course prompted several other, formerly undecided, party-goers to cheer for the Saints.


Part of the princess parade: Gentry, Kylie, Elise, Alexa, and Anna pose in their princess (and Avelanche cheerleader) finest.


Another shot of the princess parade: Anna, Gentry (I'm not sure how the drill made it into the parade?), Kylie, Elise, and Alexa


One of the princesses left her tiara on the coffee table, and Adelaida immediately latched on to it. She knew it was supposed to go on her head, but never quite got it on correctly. She didn't poke her eyes out, either!


Dale found a fellow FCB-supporter in Levi.


Dale is watching the game; Charlotte is watching Adelaida; Adelaida is watching the bigger kids.


Looking back on the Superbowl party, I remember it very fondly, despite the disappointing outcome of the game. Only a fun group like we were with could make such a tough Superbowl loss a good memory!

A Visit to Colorado: Visiting with Friends and Family

After a rather harrowing start, we began our visit to Colorado by flying to Denver for a grand total of $100, for all three of us, round trip. Go Southwest!

Elise was very patient with Adelaida and enjoyed walking around with her

On arriving in Colorado, we reconnected with an old friend. Dale and Andy had worked together at Boeing in Los Angeles several years ago and have kept in touch since then, despite Dale moving to Albuquerque and Andy moving to Denver. When we told them we would be in Colorado, Andy and his wife Kim invited us to their house for some playtime with the kids (they have a two-and-a-half-year-old girl and a one-year-old girl) and dinner. We really enjoyed spending time with them and their kids and hope to see them again when we're in Denver.

Anna and Alexa couldn't get enough of Dale's rough-housing!

After dinner and lots of fun with Andy and Kim, we drove up to Loveland to spend two nights with Dave and Brooke, who we had last seen this time last year, when Adelaida was two months old and their girls (Elise, Alexa, and Anna) were four-and-a-half, three, and one-and-a-half. In addition to good opportunities to catch up with Dave and Brooke and to let the girls play together, we arranged for babysitters for both families, and Dave and Brooke joined us on a double date filled with fun and laughter!

Janet holds both Adelaida and Ian, who is two months older than Adelaida

No trip to Loveland is complete without a family get-together, so we met Charlotte, Aunt Karen, Aunt Janet and Uncle Steve, and Janet's daughter-in-law and two grandsons for lunch. It was a short visit, but we were able to spend some time with the family and let them see Adelaida -- a whole year after Janet and Karen had seen Adelaida last, and she had certainly changed in that time!

Adelaida plays with a straw while sitting on Karen's lap

We enjoyed seeing the family for lunch and wish we could have spent more time together, and to seen Dale's cousins who weren't able to attend the lunch. But, with only three days to see everyone, we were happy that Charlotte, Karen, Janet, Steve, Elizabeth, Evan, and Ian were able to meet with us on such short notice.

Adelaida and her Mamaw

After two nights with Dave and Brooke, we spent two days and nights with Charlotte. Adelaida loves her Mamaw and was really excited to see a whole container full of toys that she'd never played with before. We left Adelaida with her Mamaw while we went out on a date with Dave and Brooke, and I think both Adelaida and Charlotte had a good time :)

The short weekend was actually packed with other activities, which I'll post about later.

Touring Southern Colorado, Part 3: Durango

For the last few days of our vacation, we stayed in Durango, a cute little town in southwestern Colorado. We did a lot of walking around town in Durango and relaxing in our condo, so it really felt like a vacation.

We did take one hike near Durango, but didn't make it all the way to our destination. We tried to climb Engineer Mountain (Grant and Dale were really excited about this particular peak because of its name), a 12,927-foot peak northeast of Durango. Engineer Mountain doesn't have any maintained trails leading to it's summit, and you might understand why that is by looking at this picture of the peak.

The last few hundred feet are extremely steep, climbing up scree slopes and scrambling through boulders to the top. All four of us (Dale, Grant, Adelaida, and I) got pretty close to the top, but we didn't feel comfortable taking Adelaida up the scree (it really required both hands and both feet to climb), so Grant stayed at the base of the scree slope while Dale and I continued up a little farther. By the time we got close to the top, the sky was looking pretty black, so we started back down and almost beat the rain back to the car.

We also saw some beautiful columbines on the trail.


Adelaida enjoyed hanging out with Grant during one of our Durango meals.


Grant, Dale, and Adelaida on the trail, with Engineer Mountain in the background.

Touring Southern Colorado, Part 2: Mount Crested Butte

After leaving Pagosa Springs, we headed up to Mount Crested Butte, which was my favorite of the three towns we stayed in on this trip. (On our way to Crested Butte, we saw an actual wild moose, grazing by the side of the road! This was my first ever moose-sighting, so I was pretty excited about it.)

We again stayed in a condo, which is a great way to travel with a group -- we had plenty of space to play euchre, a full kitchen so we could cook our own meals and store food, and still had separate bedrooms and bathrooms. This was a two-bedroom condo, so Adelaida slept in the closet of our bedroom. We were lucky to be taking this trip while she was still not mobile!

Jamie decided not to join us on our one big hike in Crested Butte, so Dale, Grant, Adelaida, and I set out one morning in search of a mountain lake. We found it, after six miles, five stream crossings (including one in which we had to wade across a snow-melt stream that was about ten feet across and two feet deep -- and so cold!), and dozens of muscles that I had forgotten I had! The lake sure was beautiful, though.

Adelaida had a favorite chair at the condo that she just loved to sit in. It was a pretty big chair, and she's a pretty little girl.


The same chair served as a napping place for Jamie, Adelaida, and Grant, who were all exhausted after a walk around town.


Still another picture of Adelaida on her favorite chair, this time sharing the blanket with her daddy. I don't remember exactly why she didn't have any clothes on at this time -- maybe this was taken just before or after her bath?


Grant, Dale, and Adelaida wading across a stream on our hike.


We all sat around at the lake once we reached it, snacking and resting our legs and feet.

Touring Southern Colorado, Part 1: Pagosa Springs

This post and the pictures I'm including here are a little bit dated, but I wanted to share a trip we took this summer with all of my dedicated readers :)

Back in the middle of July, the stars aligned with Dale's work (he had a two-week lull on his program), my work (I was waiting for someone to fix my glovebox), Grant's work (he was being laid off and his company didn't really care if he went to work anyway), and Jamie's pregnancy (she was still able to fly and was seeing her doctor only every two weeks). Rather than just talking about what we might all do with our free time, we actually acted on it and took a ten-day vacation together in southern Colorado.

Our first stop was Pagosa Springs, which was a pretty neat small town -- in the mountains, with a sulfur spring in the middle of the town and several nearby hikes. The most memorable part of Pagosa Springs was "Vince Guitar," a waiter at a Cajun restaurant that we almost walked out of before we even sat down (it had a bit of a dank to it). Instead, we decided to stick it out and each ordered something different from the menu. And wow! it was amazingly good! The etouffee, the okra, the gumbo, the catfish, the sausage, it was all soooooo good. "Vince" made it even better with his antics, like proclaiming that he was the best thing on the menu and offering me himself, drenched in etouffee. A good time was had by all that night.

We took one long hike near Pagosa Springs,
up a canyon to a gorgeous waterfall. Although she was very pregnant at the time, Jamie did great, and of course Adelaida loved sleeping in her backpack on her daddy's back.

Pagosa Springs also has a very nice wild animal park that we visited, and we were lucky enough to be there at the time of their daily feeding tour. We saw a brown bear, several black bears, coyotes, wolves, an elk, mountain lions, and several other animals being fed. The keeper talked to us about the different animals and several of them performed tricks for us before they were fed.



Dale and Adelaida are ready to find the waterfall.


If you look really closely in this picture, you can see Dale (wearing a blue shirt) and Adelaida (wearing white), just to the right of the base of the waterfall, framed by a darker patch of rock.


This is another of my favorite pictures of Dale and Adelaida, taken on our Pagosa Springs hike. I have this picture set as my computer background on my home computer.

Telluride Vacation, Part 2

Here are more pictures from our fun family vacation to Telluride.

Laura and Sarah, with her adorable toothy smile


Adelaida enjoys sliding down the slide at the Mountain Village playground


Elizabeth had fun throwing the frisbee in the town plaza


Elizabeth was quite taken with Adelaida and was very gentle with her


Elizabeth helped her Aunt Marie and Mamaw shell peas, while Adelaida watched


Adelaida took a long hike up to a waterfall on her daddy's back


We saw a beautiful waterfall on our hike


Adelaida hanging out with her Momma and Daddy at the top of a mountain


Sarah and Adelaida enjoyed watching each other have tummy time


Our rental house had a swing just the right size for Adelaida

Telluride Vacation, Part 1

Last weekend, Dale, Adelaida, and I met Dale's family in Colorado for a real vacation. We rented a little house in Telluride and met up with Charlotte and with Richard, Laura, and their two girls. This was the first time for Richard and Laura to meet Adelaida, and our first time to meet their younger daughter Sarah. The three girls were quite taken with each other -- Adelaida spent quite a bit of time just looking at Elizabeth and Sarah, and Elizabeth was especially generous in providing Adelaida with toys.

In addition to playing with her cousins, Adelaida got to spend some good time with her Mamaw, who may have been a little unprepared for Adelaida's new interest in grabbing people's faces and glasses! It's hard to live so far away from our family, and this was only Charlotte's third time seeing Adelaida: she came out to visit when Adelaida was only two weeks old, then we visited her in Colorado when Adelaida was ten weeks old. Of course, Adelaida is quite different now, at six months, than she was when Charlotte saw her last at ten weeks old!

Telluride is very much a tourist town, although its high season is predominantly the winter. There are ski slopes all around the town and ski lifts up the sides of the valley. Telluride also has a free gondola that operates year-round and ferries people between the town of Telluride and Telluride's sister town of Mountain Village, located just above Telluride. The first day of our vacation, we all rode the gondola up to Mountain Village and played a round of disc golf on Mountain Village's course (actually, Dale and Richard played a round of disc golf; Charlotte, Laura, and I all played about a hole-and-a-half before deciding that the it would be a great opportunity for the boys to catch up with each other).

We enjoyed walking around Mountain Village, which has a great playground, a rock-climbing wall, a duck pond, and plazas that we used to teach Elizabeth to throw a frisbee. We ate lunch, then took the gondola back to Telluride that afternoon. When we returned to Telluride, Dale, Adelaida, and I walked through town a bit and found a wonderful farmer's market. We bought steaks, bread, and salad greens and (after a brief and much-needed afternoon nap) cooked dinner at the house.



After dinner, we all celebrated Sarah's first birthday, a few weeks early. She opened her presents (with help from her older sister), then ate her birthday cupcake, using not only her hands and mouth, but her forehead, nose, cheeks, arms, and chest. Fortunately, Laura had the foresight to strip Sarah down to her diaper before giving her the cupcake!

The next day, we took a hike in the mountains just above Telluride, up to a beautiful waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls. At only 2 1/2 years old, Elizabeth was quite a trooper on the hike, but after about an hour was tired of both being carried and walking. She, Laura, Charlotte, and Sarah headed back to the house while Dale, Richard, Adelaida, and I continued. The waterfall was very pretty, and the view of Telluride from above the falls was spectacular. We rested that afternoon, then went out to a great restaurant in town that night for dinner.

The last day of our vacation, we headed back up the gondola toward Mountain Village, but decided to ride only to the first stop, Station St. Sophia, and hike the rest of the way. It was a nice hike through aspen groves and coniferous forests, with beautiful views of the valley below. We spent some time in Mountain Village before returning back to Telluride and a relaxing evening at the house.

We really enjoyed spending time with Charlotte and with Richard and Laura and their girls, and it was nice to do it in Telluride, where things like work and housework couldn't get in the way of enjoying each other's company! I'm especially glad that Adelaida got to spend time with her cousins, Elizabeth and Sarah. Although she may be too young to remember this visit several years from now, we have pictures of the three girls together that we'll always treasure.