Family!!

My parents, brother and sister came out to visit for a few days. Not long enough, in my book, but we had fun while they were here. We went up to RM National Park and drove a road that wound through the very tops of the mountains. It was beautiful, and windy, and a teensy bit nerve-wracking. But John was a very good driver and even managed to remain patient with my constant driving "advice". Sorry, hun. I get way too uptight when I'm nervous.

Here's my brother Brian and my sister Melissa at our first, of many, stops along the way.

I think this picture is my favorite, it cracks me up. At the first stop we didn't realize how cold it was, and windy! With cold wind blowing in your face, short sleeves, and the bright sun directly in your eyes, these kids convey perfectly how it felt up there!

Here's Em scowling at a chipmunk--notice the jacket. There were signs all over telling you not to feed the wildlife, but obviously it didn't deter people. These chipmunks were practically climbing on the kids' shoes looking for treats! (We didn't feed them.)My mom and Emily at another stop. Still windy, still cold! But great views. My mom gave the girls these little polkadot purses, and they hardly ever let go of them! My dad and Kimmie. See the purse?
Calvin posing for a picture. He's got the "cheese" down, now if we can just get him to look at the camera! We were in the car for a good 3-4 hours, and he didn't have a meltdown once! One close call, but overall he was such a trooper!
Brian and the view. I can't figure out when my little brother turned into a man. Weird.
Kimmie smiling for a picture! That's getting somewhat rare, lately. Unless, of course, it's Grandma or Grandpa taking the picture. Maybe I have to ply her with more treats before I ask her to smile. :) Ha. Sorry, not gonna happen. That's the grandparents' job.

Brian, Melissa, Kimmie, and Dad. Love it.

Calvin and John. We went down the other side of the mountains to build a fire and have dinner. John took Calvin down to the river to see the moose on the other side and to play in the water and do what boys do when they are camping. We saw elk, deer, and moose on the trip, and were serenaded during dinner by elk bugling. All in all, a very successful trip.

Emily collecting some flowers. The girls harvested a good deal of the wildflowers around our campfire. Kimmie brought some to Grandma and said they were for her wedding, in case she has another one... Calvin even got in on the action. He came running up to me, put a little buttercup in my hand saying, "For YOU!!!" and went running off again. Inherited both his father's kindness and subtlety, it would seem.

Cooking marshmallows, the favorite time of the night!!

Three campfire bugs, and the primary consumers of the bag of marshmallows, I suspect. Although I have to admit, I helped.

The crew! Minus John, who was taking the picture and was an integral part of the day even though he's not pictured here. I love my family! I love that we are close enough now that they can drive out to visit (albeit a very long drive). Thank you so much for coming out, we loved having you here. Come back soon!!!

Happy Birthday Calvin!

Calvin is now two. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He is an active, kind, headstrong, polite, loving, independent boy. And if that seems like a lot of contradictions all put together, well... then it is pretty accurate, because that's how life is with a two-year-old!
I made him a train cake. It turned out pretty cute. Nothing professional, of course, but he thought it was pretty darn cool, and that was what mattered.
We were so excited to have both my parents and John's parents here for the birthday celebration. Here is the picture of everyone at dinner... in our new house, with all this family there for a special day. I can't tell you how many times I wished for something like this while we were living out east, and I can't tell you how it felt to actually have it come true. Thank you all so much for coming and celebrating with us!!

Here's my dad with Emily and Calvin, as we were getting ready for the party. The kids had so much fun with all the attention they got! Now that they are gone, these next few days are going to be quite a let-down, I can tell you.This was such a great picture. Gary and Richard with all the kids piled on their laps reading two different books at the same time. Uncles are the best.
Blowing out the candles!! Can you see Emily coaching him in the background? She's so diligent about helping her younger siblings and keeping them in line. :) Calvin had more trouble with these than with my birthday cake, go figure! But we got there eventually. :) He still did them all by himself! This one's for Jason. And I'm sorry to say that this was about as messy as he got. He was more interested in the presents than eating cake. I don't think he even finished half of his piece. And not a smidge in the hair. Sorry. But it sure made clean-up easier!
Presents!!! It was so fun watching him open these. He wasn't very aggressive about opening them, but he was delighted with all the contents! I bought him a large dump truck for his birthday, and made the mistake of not wrapping it and just setting it by the other presents with a big red bow on it. Sometime while we were cleaning up dinner he discovered it. I didn't even get to see him take the bow off! First thing I knew, he was driving it all over the room. Oh well, at least he liked it. He kept driving it into the fireplace and saying, "Crash!!" Definitely a boy.
He got some giant legos (loved the little cat in the set), he's actually playing with those right now.

He also got this "giant googly ball." You can tell from the picture that he wasn't completely sure about the thing. It lights up when you bounce it, and John would squish it and it would look like a giant sea urchin from space. He was kind of morbidly fascinated with it.

I think one of the favorites of the night was the dinosaurs! Good job, Richard, in snapping this picture mid-roar!! He loved them. He was playing with Grandpa P. with them later, as I heard, and would alternate between screaming and running away when Grandpa's dinosaur would "roar" and swooping down to smash the dickens out of it with his own dinosaur. As I said, definitely a boy.

Happy Birthday, my little monkey! We love you tons, you bring so much joy to our family. I remember being so nervous about having a boy coming to our family (I was a wolf cub scout den leader at the time) but I wouldn't trade you for anything. I think I felt that way the moment you were born, all 10 pounds of you!!

Favorite food: Candy!

Favorite toy: scooter, then dinosaurs, or balls, or cars...

Favorite activity: jumping off the couch onto pillows. He could do that for hours.

Favorite word: "NO!" Then maybe "oops!" which he says as "Eups!" It's cute.

Favorite animal: Animals. Bugs included.

Favorite past-time: playing in water. Wherever he can find it. I don't think he's discovered the potty water yet. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Well, he did stick toys in it once, but I think I freaked out so much I scared him from doing it again. We'll keep our fingers double-crossed.

All together he is a smart (he's started counting to 10, and gets it all right except he keeps forgetting "2", he's also picking up colors and shapes), adorable (his little voice and those big brown eyes and one dimple on his left cheek, how can you resist?), active (scooter-riding, ladder-climbing, couch-jumping, and anything else he can think of), cuddly (for a limited amount of time, but if he can hold your fingers and suck his thumb, he'll be pretty docile for a while) and just the cutest two year old in the world, even with the tantrums and wanting to do things himself and automatically answering "no!" even when he means "yes"! We love you, bug!