weekend to celebrate.

 This weekend we headed up to Dallas.  The quote of the drive Friday night was Ryder continually saying, "I go to Dallas NOW!"  I don't think he even knows that Dallas is a city or what a city is, but he was excited to go SOMEwhere.  We went to see family, celebrate Trapper's 2nd Birthday, and celebrate our Anniversary!  :)  Ryder was super excited about Trapper's Buzz Light Year Party!  When we drove up and saw the Buzz bouncie he SCREAMED.  

Trap & Ryder enjoying some cake & ice cream! 

 Trapper got a little 4 wheeler thing - and loved it, but he needed a little help steering!

Ryder is really into parties right now in general.  Everything is a "party!"

Cash & Paisley had some fun too...

So sweet...

And we decided to celebrate these two little ones' birthdays together in a couple months since they are a day apart... should be fun!!!

Our 7th Anniversary was on Sunday, so Saturday night we went out to celebrate and left the kiddos with Mimi & Poppy!  We went to a nice dinner at Taverna.  I'd been there with the girls and knew Daniel would like it.  It was super yummy.  I had a pear, gorgonzola & walnut pasta that I am determined to re-create at home soon!  Then we went to get custard at Harry's!  It was a good little date night out.  My how our life has changed in 7 years!  Time is flying by.  Some people don't make a big deal of Anniversaries and I'm not saying you have to be extravegant or anything, but I think in todays culture it's something to be celebrated.  Marriage is hard work!  We are lucky to have some great examples paving the way.  {Both of our parents have now been married over 30 years & our grandparents up to 60!}  There are new challenges daily, but I can honestly say that I love this man more every single day. 

Each year is a new adventure it seems.  Can't wait to see what the next holds...

My girl

After her Momma's own heart.

St. Elmo & Farewell to Colorado!

This is the last and final Colorado blog!  (If you're just reading these scroll all the way down to part 1 first!)  So on Thursday morning some of us headed out to take the kids to St. Elmo, CO.  I'd never heard of the place, but Daniel had been as a kid.  It's pretty much an old ghost town in the middle of no where, but the crazy thing about it is the chipmunks!  There are tons of them and they come eat of your hands!  One of them actually crawled up in Paisley's lap and let her pet it!!!  (Of course none of the 10 cameras were pointing that way - so there's no picture of that!)  It was fun and Ryder is still talking about the "feeding the monks!" 

Heading out that morning - so sweet!

 THE BEST picture of Ryder's surprised face.  This is when he first saw the chipmunks coming!

Eating out of Daniel's hand...

And this is my hand...

On our way home we all stopped for ice cream.  think Ryder got enough?  He needed Grandpa's help!

That same day while we were on our outing Rachel and a couple others CLIMBED Mt Elbert!  They made it to the top!  Over 14,000 feet!  Took them around 9 hours.  That night we all gathered for a taco dinner at the cabin that Brandy & I cooked.  Friday we stayed at the lodge and took it easy and enjoyed our last day there.  Ryder spent a lot of time at the creek working on throwing the million rocks Grammy told him he could throw in!  Paisley got some good time during the week with Nana...

For dinner that night we drove down to Twin Lakes area and ate with the grandparents at a little lodge there.  On the way Ryder exclaimed, "I'm going to TOWN!"  We cracked up and agreed he'd gotten nice & comfortable with mountain life!  When we got back we went down to say goodbye to the creek, or as Ryder called it, "my waddie" (my water)!  

That night (about 45 mins after Daniel & I walked up from the hot tub!!!) we had a surprise guest.  Daniel was downstairs on the computer and I was asleep upstairs with the kids.  I'd heard something stirring outside, but I thought it was just rain or something.  Then I heard a lot of movement - which I thought was Ryder moving around or climbing out of his bed.  THEN I heard what I thought in my sleepy mind was Ryder falling down the stairs!  I lept out of bed and screamed, "RYDER!"  Well, Ryder was sound asleep!  ;)  It was Jonathan running down the stairs and everyone else running around trying to get a picture of the HUGE bear right out side our door rooting through our trash.  By the time I was awake enough to look he was gone.  He'd come back up twice and they all said that it had to have been about 8ft tall!  Thank goodness it was our last night or I'd have been terrified for the whole week!  

We headed out early Saturday morning on our long trek home!  We had a really great time with family.  The kids got a lot of quality grandparent time.  The great-grands all said they felt like they really got to know the kids and their sweet little personalities during the week.  Ryder got lots of time with his cousins.  He's asked about them every day since!  And we had good quality time with family and even a little relaxing time by ourselves!  

This was the view of Twin Lakes on our way out the next morning...

We made it to Amarillo Saturday night and stayed at the same hotel as Jonathan & Brandy.  The boys all thought that was so cool.  We let them play in the pool together and then headed our separate ways Sunday morning for the last leg of the trip!  We knew we were back in Texas when we had THIS for breakfast...

Hahaha.  Only in Texas, people.

THE End.  :)

Aspen. (Colorado Pt 4!)

After leaving the pass Daniel and I continued on over to Aspen for the day.  It was so nice to have a day to ourselves.  It was a beautiful day and the city is adorable in every way.  I just loved it.  After walking around a bit we stopped at the little tourist center and got a wonderful lunch recommendation... The Wild Fig.  We sat on the patio and had some awesome food & views. 

And yes, I took pictures of the food...  I had a prosciutto, arugula & gruyere panini. mmmm.  And Daniel had a herb chicken panini with pommes frites with white truffle oil!  yummmmm.

We just walked around all afternoon and shopped (window shopped!) and enjoyed our time together.  

On our way back we stopped along the pass to take some pictures with the beautiful Aspen trees!

We had a really great day together. 

Portraits & the Pass (Colorado Pt 3)

We started off Wednesday morning by taking a big family portrait.  It went surprisingly well with the number of people (and kids) involved.  Brandy actually took the picture, but these are our versions :)  The boys were not exactly excited about taking a picture...

It's smile time and we got one!  Paisley was not looking in any of them :(  The ground was way more interesting.  Grandma & Grandpa Williams are in the middle, Mike & Karen on left with daughters Jessica & Jade & son Jonathan & wife Brandy on the ground with sons Landon & Cooper.  On the right Daniel's parents, with his sisters Sarah & Rachel & and us.  :)

Grandma & Grandpa Williams - celebrating 60 years of marriage this year! 

And the Allen fam.

Sweet Paisley & the wildflowers.

After the morning pictures some of us headed up to Independence Pass.  The pass crosses over to Aspen, it's only open in the summer months (for good reasons!)  It's a steep, winding road to put it lightly.  I didn't get to freaked out going up, but coming back I was a little skiddish.  The top is on the continental divide at over 12,000 ft elevation!  We got out and walked around and took lots of pics!  It was crazy windy up there (thus the crazy hair)!

 Daniel's parents were celebrating their Anniversary that day!

And these are for some reason my favorite pictures I think of the whole trip.  There's just something about that sweet boy on his Daddy's shoulders checking out the WHOLE world in front of him!