5th of July

We planned to see the fireworks on the 4th at the Air Force Academy, but it was pretty cold and wet so we waited until July 5th to see a great show up in Woodland Park. It's a cute mountain town about 20 minutes west of our house. A bit chilly compared to the triple digit 4ths Zack and I both grew up with in Oklahoma and California, but we weren't complaining a bit!

Zack's new toy, high def video camera. Rockwell is already obsessed with technology!

Rockwell holding up 1 finger, he knows how old he is.

Nola is just one of the big kids now

Uncle Matt's bubbles steal the show!

Happy 4th!

Rockwell's Rock Star Party

Rockwell is 1!

We can't believe our baby boy is already one year old. He turned one on Friday, June 19. We celebrated last night with a big rock star birthday bash with all our friends and family.

Here are a few of Rockwell's favorite things ...

• Favorite Activity - Hugging and giving big slobbery kisses! He is such a cuddler.


• Favorite Trick - He likes to clap for himself when we say "yea"and he holds up one finger when we ask "how old are you." He also gets excited when we say "lift your hands in the air" and he throws his hands up high.


• Favorite Word - Da. He points and calls everything "Da" but why not when you have a big sister that can talk for you?


• Favorite Food - EVERYTHING! What a chunk, this boy can eat! He's a whoppin' 22 lbs. He really likes peas and green beans, we'll see how long that lasts.


• Favorite Nickname - No doubt, "Bubba." That's what we call him. And Nola is "Sissy"


• Favorite Mode of transportation - Crawling. He's such a fast little crawler and he has no interest in walking anytime soon, at least today. He also likes rides in the jogging stroller. We are training for Chicago Marathon in October and we take the kids on the short runs during the week. We learned (the hard way) that the long Saturday runs are better to do kid-less since it is 50 lbs. of babies and stroller we are pushing.

Thunderbirds

Every year for the Air Force Academy graduation, the Thunderbird jets put on quite a show. We can hear them flying over practicing, so Gammy and Grandbob took the grandkids to see what all noise was about.

Waiting for the show to start...

Nola really got into cheering on the jets. One hand on her lunch sack, one in the sky!

Rockwell was his usual self. He went along for the ride and ate the whole time, excuse the pink bib. It happens.

Fishy Fun

We spent the rest of our Memorial weekend on a fun family trip to Denver. We stayed at the beautiful Warwick Hotel downtown in hopes to swim in the outdoor pool on top. Since it rained all weekend, we did some other fun things instead.


Played chess in the hotel lobby with dad.

Rockwell won!

Nola's favorite color - pink.

Eating at restaurant that was not kid friendly, but the kids were stars and did so well.

Gourmet bananas, yumm...

We went to the Aquarium on Monday, and so did everyone else.

Rockwell sportin' his shark shirt in line

Nola loved the fish!

And sea turtles

Just in time for the shark feeding

Animal Track Territory

Our Memorial Weekend started out with thunderstorms, but that didn't stop the fun.

Gammy and Grandbob took Nola and the younger cousins on a guided hike at Cheyenne Mountain State Park where they learned to identify animal tracks and then casted real tracks.

Not sure who the kid in green is.

Ice cream sent Nola over the top with excitement about her excursion.

Henry casted a real deer track and Gus got a raccoon track. Nola's deer track is "yucky" that is what she called it.

Meanwhile, Zack and I met up with some friends around the corner in the historic Old Colorado City for the annual street festival called Territory Days. Interesting crowd - let's compare it to a county fair. Enough said. But Rockwell enjoyed being the center of attention with big sis gone on the hike.

The cowboy roped me, yikes!

Rockwell's Dedication

Rockwell had his baby dedication on Mother's day at First Baptist Black Forest. Since Grandbob did the dedication for Nola on Mother's day two years ago, we wanted the same for Rockwell. It was special for both babies because we were the only parents doing a dedication both times.

Despite ear, sinus, and bronchial infections, he did really well! Poor boy, you can tell in some of the photos that his eyes and nose were full of goo. His puppy dog tie made up for it.

It was a very special Mother's Day and my heart is full of love for my children and my Lord for the many blessings.