Roosevelt National Park

On August 1st we attempted to go camping at Poudre Canyon in the Roosevelt National Park, just outside of Ft. Collins. It was a great trip, until it wasn't. More on that later. We got a bit of a late start, but had a fabulous day playing at the river and whatnot.

Back at the campground we had a campfire, roasted marshmellows, and showed our relative inexperience as parents by letting Austin eat too many smores. A simple mistake, really.

8:30pm rolls around, and we figure we should keep Austin on somewhat of a normal schedule, so it's bedtime. Though normally a superb sleeper, back in the tent Austin wasn't falling asleep, possibly due to excessive smores, but mostly because it was just too far outside of his routine. 3 hours and 13 times through each of his 4 books later, Austin still wouldn't sleep. Keep in mind that every so often we would try, which would result in 15 minutes of extreme crying. Extreme crying in a quiet forest with a dozen other campsites in close proximity. No end in sight and he was miserable. It was kinda funny/sad to see him inadvertantly start to fall asleep while sitting-up (due to sheer exhaustion), only to be jolted awake as his body started to topple, which would result in 15 minutes of mega-extreme high voltage super crying in a quite forest with a dozen other campsites in close proximity. All this from the most fantastic, never-cry, awesome little guy of all time. No end in sight and he was miserable.

So we had to do it, we had to give him the benefit of the doubt and respect the fact that he is the most fantastic, never-cry, awesome little guy of all time, we had to save him. At midnight we packed-up camp and started the 2.5 hour journey home, knowing that he would sleep easy on the way home. And sleep he did. Until, of course, the gas build-up from excessive smores kicked-in and he woke-up in a delirious fury. But we made it home.

Whatya gonna do....

Swim Classes

For the past several weeks we've been taking Austin to swim classes at the local rec center. He absolutely loves it!

They have a water slide there as well:

Of course after a fun-filled evening of swimming, everything else just seems kinda boring. Everything, that is, except pulling the dog's tail and giving it a big hug to make amends. This second picture is definitely being archived for future use!

What So Proudly We Hailed at the Twilight's Last Gleaming

For the Fourth of July we went to Breckenridge. We had the chance to spend some time with an 'ol friend from Austin, go to Breck's 4th of July parade and spend the evening with some friends from Arizona.

It's funny to look back at these pictures now, because Austin doesn't use a pacifier anymore. He looks so much younger with a pacifier, but I suppose this was only a month ago.

E-I-E-I-O

In June we took Austin to a local animal farm, and I must say we thoroughly enjoyed watching him experience all these bizarre creatures for the first time. Seriously, many may disregard goats, donkeys and roosters as dirty, boring animals, but you definitely see them in a new light while watching a 16 mo little dude rear back in horror as he turns the corner to see some wacky, hairy creature with horns growing out of its head. I can only imagine if his vocabulary was only slightly more advanced he might say something like, "What the hell is that?!! DAAAAD!!!!!"

These next two pictures pretty-much say it all...

But he eventually warmed-up to the furry little fuckers, and before long he had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

By the end of the day he had taken his rightful spot at the top of the food chain. He loved the donkey ride, who doesn't! It's good to be human, not so good to be a donkey.

Then after a long day, it's nice to chill with dad on the bench swing and kick-back a juice or two:

Easter 2009

Easter was very fun! Thank you to everyone who sent Austin fun and yummy things for Easter!

Austin loved his Easter breakfast; blueberry pancakes! And thought he was super cool in his bunny ears!

Austin loved the Easter Bunny!

Finding the eggs was very fun! It was raining outside so we had to use the loft upstairs but Austin did not mind one bit! We did the egg "hunt" about 5 times :)

Trip to the Denver Zoo

We took Echo to the zoo on the 13th. This picture doesn't really show much of the zoo, but the moral of the picture is obvious, Echo looks super cute in his Tabasco hat!

St. Patty's 2009

We couldn't let Echo go without representing his half-breed Irish heritage. This gives new meaning to the term, "dirty Irishman."