Cousins in Colorado

We had our first visitors to Estes last weekend. My little bro is back in the states for (work) training in Colorado Springs and his family decided to join him. We are excited to have them only 2 1/2 hours away for a couple of weeks and they were nice enough to spend their weekend with us.

Cooper couldn't wait to show his cousin, Pete all his toys and introduce him to his "elk friends". We walked around town and showed them around but mostly just hung out watching the kids be kids.

The visit ended with an (attempt) jaunt to a pumpkin patch that quicky turned into very ugly (3 yr old-ultimate-meltdown-disgrace-the-family-but-it-was-so-bad-we-didn't-care-what-total-strangers-thought-mostly-just-worried-if-we-had-lost-our-first-born-to-the-dark-side) kind of tantrum. Trust me, it was horrible. We've never had an episode that bad in public before and it was most definitely not the type of behavior that deserved pumpkin patch fun. So we aborted the mission and said a quick good bye.

Aside from the pumpkin patch fiasco, Coop 'n Cruz had an awesome time with their cousins and we had fun watching them....

Camera fun.

Bundled babies.

Matching babies.

Funky Town

Cruz wants to go to funky town!

You're already there, buddy.

There Goes the Neighborhood

It's hard to believe we've been here two weeks already. We're settling in and finally feel like we've made some progress with the paper and boxes battle. Cooper and Cruz are rediscovering all the toys that they haven't seen for nearly 7 months. Man, do we have a lot of toys. They are part of the problem as to why we had so many boxes to unpack. We really need to do a serious purging of toys. For now, every.single.toy.imaginable is getting new life. The neighbors are going to love us!!!!!!

Sunny morning cup of joe on the front porch........bliss!

Checking' out the hood.

A little yard maintenance.

Bike ride!

Lazy ride!

First ride!

It's good to be "home" and together.

Bittersweet Countdown

I've thought over and over about how I will capture into words what I am feeling as we countdown our departure for Colorado. There are no words. The emotions that have tangled with my heart this past month are indescribable.

Three weeks ago we were dealt a painful blow and weren't able to say goodbye to someone we loved very much. It makes our everyday "good byes" even harder.

Mark flew to Tennessee this past week to meet with the movers and pack up our stuff. He then flew to St. George yesterday to meet up with us and it's off to Colorado on Monday.

I am so happy to begin our journey to Colorado and to be together as a family again. But wow, is it going to be tough to say goodbye to my Mom and Dad and the place the boys and I have called home for the past 9 months!

I am forever grateful for the time we have spent and the memories we have created in St. George.
I will hold these memories close to my heart always and forever.

Thank-you Mom and Dad for giving us a home and putting up with all of our antics. Cooper, Cruz and I (and even Targhee and Kokanee) are going to miss you to the moon and back! And then some.........

Now I'm off to bed so I can wake up and cherish our last day before we leave like it is just another day. Doing our everyday things and relishing in the happy little routine we have created.
It really will be the little things that I'm going to miss the most.

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Love & Laughter

During the past several weeks as we've dealt with such a painful loss, I've been reminded of the healing powers of love and laughter. We are beyond grateful for all the support, love and prayers given to us by our friends and family. This love is deeply appreciated and will always be remembered.

In addition to many tears, we've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by the beautiful sound of Coop 'n Cruz giggles. Our little guys are much too young to understand the magnitude of such a loss and their sweet giggles are a constant reminder of the important things in life.

Thanks for showing us the way, boys. And for diverting our hearts away from some of the sorrow. We are truly blessed.






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Sad Day

Today we celebrated the life of Mark's dad, Toby who passed away on September 7th. We found a beautiful spot on a secluded beach overlooking Puget Sound. Very fitting and the sun shined down on our hearts.

We'll miss you Grandpa Toby!

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Still HOT!

Real hot. The temps in St. George are still close to the 110's so our normal daily activities still involve water. The downtown waterwalk is perfect. There's lots of shade and plenty of spots on the grass to lounge and picnic.

The other day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The local kiddos are back in school now so Coop, Cruz and I (along with one other family) had our own little sanctuary. Best of all, someone left their pink star-shaped floatie behind! Coop was quick to find plenty to do with it.