We visted Santa!

This morning, we went to the Cherry Creek mall in Denver because we heard there was a neat Polar Express train display with huge snow globes inside. We also heard Santa would be there. We got there and the line to see Santa was two hours long--Santa had a lunch break in there too to go feed the Reindeer. But, when we finally got to see Santa, he and little man had a really good conversation. We forgot to bring his letter (see the last post), but D was able to remember it all and Donovan came away from it very happy. He kept saying "I can't stop smiling".



They also took a family picture "on the back of the Polar Express caboose". A little cheesy, I admit...but still cute. Don't be surprised if this one shows up as our Christmas cards!

Christmas time in CO!

This past week, it snowed about 8 inches here. It's so beautiful! The snow on the foothills is breathtaking. With all the snow on the ground, it's beginning to feel like Christmas time to me. We've started listening to Christmas music at work, and it's really putting me in the Christmas spirit (and driving my coworkers nuts!).

The kiddo wrote his letter to Santa today:

It reads "Dear Santa, I have tried to be a good boy this year. Can I please have: Star Wars Figures, a plastic motorized train diesel 10, Pictionary, Jenga, Mouse Trap, I Spy Eagle Eye, Insaniquarium Deluxe. I will leave cookies and milk. Love, Donovan". We've been doing a family game night, so I think that's why he's asking for so many board games. He's tired of the same old same old.

We're looking forward to Christmas!

Back from Thanksgiving

We traveled to Missouri for Thanksgiving. A friend of mine got married in St. Louis, so we thought this was a good excuse for a road trip. Overall, the trip was great! The wedding was beautiful (here's a picture):

We spent a few days in SEMO with Aaron's side of the family, then we headed to SWMO to see mine. We ended in COMO and visited with friends. By the end of the week, we were all ready to go home and sleep in our own beds.

Clone Commander Rex goes Trick-or-Treating

The kiddo dressed up like Clone Commander Rex for Halloween. For those of you who don't know who that is, it's one of the clone troopers from Star Wars. That's two Star Wars costumes in a row for us (he was Darth Vader last year). Here's a couple pictures:

We started trick-or-treating about 6:30pm. We trick-or-treated down one side of our street to the street of one of his friends. There was a haunted house on that block that we walked through (and it was SCARY, but they toned it down for the kiddo and there were no nightmares last night). We went down that block and came back towards our block.

About halfway home he decided he should start doing a "trick" for his treat. Grandpa has been teaching him jokes and he decided that would be a good trick. So, he started telling two knock-knock jokes--one was "Boo...Boo who?...whatcha crying for" the other was "Ice Cream Soda...Ice cream soda who?...Icecreamsoda whole neighborhood can hear me!" and the other was "why did the clown go to the doctor? 'Cause he was feeling kinda funny". Those were the only ones we could remember. Anyway, in general the people answering the doors thought they were funny.

We quit trick-or-treating around 7:30. Kiddo wasn't feeling well and I think he was just exhauted. He had a blast handing out candy to kids at the door. We ran out of candy a little after 8pm and he was having so much fun, he wanted to give out his own candy (which he didn't have much of considering we didn't trick-or-treat long).

Overall, a fun night!

Halloween, DICKSON style

We carved some pumpkins for Halloween. We had a BLAST doing it too! D-man did a skull and cross bones, hubby did darth vader and I did John Mccain and Barack Obama. We're having a hard time getting a good photo of them all lit up. We'll keep trying and post when we get a good one. Until then, here's the kiddo with the pumpkins on the front porch:

Here's a shot of the pumpkins along with the spider web on the wall and the lights in the front window:

Happy Halloween, ya'll!

Little Man, Karate Master

The hubby and I decided that the little man needed some more physical activity, an additional way to make friends and an opportunity to learn self-control and discipline. So, we enrolled him in Taekwondo. It's really close to our house and there are a few kids from his school there that he already knew. Thursday was his first day.

His "nice" look.



His "mean" look.

He had a blast in the class and was eager to come home and practice. Needless to say, Friday morning, he was very sore. When it was time to go back to class today, he was a little upset that he would be sore again. I promised him that it wouldn't happen this time. Here's hoping he doesn't wake up tomorrow and prove me a liar!

I love you Thomas!

Last week I bought tickets for the fam to go to the "Day out with Thomas" in Golden. They have a life-size Thomas train that pulls cars you can ride on and lots of activities for the kiddos to do. We went to one in Branson several years ago and the kid loved it. We decided not to tell the kid what we were doing, just that we had a surprise for him.

We got up early this morning and headed down to Golden (about an hour drive) and got there around 8am. The kid's getting too smart because after we parked, he read a sign that said "Bus to Thomas" and he put two and two together and FREAKED OUT.

We rode Thomas (the scenery was beautiful from the open car):

They also had several large electric train tracks set up that the kid liked.

We met Sir Topam Hat:

And since this was at the Train museum, they had LOTS of old trains that we could climb around and on:

And now for the title of this post. The kiddo kept saying, "This is the best day of my life!", which I thought was really sweet. But, at one point Thomas drove by:

and the kid screamed "I love you Thomas!".

He had a wonderful day and we had a great day watching him enjoy it.

1st day of 1st grade

Last Tuesday was the kid's first day of first grade. He was very excited. Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma all walked with him to the bus stop, where he posed for some pictures. One showing his book bag:




And a closeup (with Dad in the background):

And then the bus came around the corner and he got one and was gone:

He had a GREAT day. He loves his teacher and had made lots of friends.

Beautiful rainbow--and can you name that fruit?

This afternoon, a storm front moved through Colorado. There was VERY heavy rain and hail. Then as quickly as it started, the storm ended. I went outside to take pictures of our mystery tree (read on below) and found this:

It was the most beautiful and most complete double rainbow I've ever seen. This picture doesn't do it justice. In fact, you can hardly see the second rainbow just below the first. There was even another rainbow to the left. The kiddo thought it was pretty cool too.

So on to our mystery tree. We have a cute little tree in front yard:

Last week the tree started producing tiny little fruit.

Dad arrived this week and said it probably was a peach tree. However, our neighbors had a peach tree in their front yard and it had already produced fruit and the leaves don't look the same. Then he suggested it might be a nectarine. I'm not sure. I think it may be some plum variant. But, it has a little point on the end. Anyone have any suggestions?

We heart Visitors!

A while ago, Aaron's sister and daughter came through Colorado on their way to Oregon. They got to spend the night and D was very excited about seeing his cousin! He loves her!


We really enjoyed getting to spend a little time with them!

Then this past weekend, one of Aaron's closest friends called out of the blue on Sunday morning. His friend's father and son were in the area and wanted to visit. D and his friend's son are friends too. They stopped by for a visit and the boys got to swim together and have dinner together.

We're looking forward to spending some time with Dad and Kathy while they're here too!

Horesetooth "Falls" Hike

On Sunday, we decided to go for a hike up horsetooth mountain. My boss had mentioned that there was a short hike there that was appropriate for little legs. The weather was hot, but because of the low humidity, it wasn't that bad. The skies had a few clouds, but otherwise a beautiful day. The hike was a little difficult, considering I carried a 50 pound kid halfway (his asthma is working up again and he couldn't go very far without getting exhausted). We finally made it up to the falls...and it was a joke. We were expecting MUCH more water. There was a trickle coming down. I don't know if you can see it in the first picture, but the second is of me and the kid sticking our hands in the "falls". That was literally all the water that was coming down.





We also walked up to the top of the falls, where the mountains kept on going and going and going. Beautiful!

Rafting is FUN!

This morning, our lab went on a rafting trip on the Poudre (pronounced pooter) River. It was such a beautiful day! I swear the sky is a different shade of blue in Colorado. The part of the river we rafted goes through the Poudre canyon. There were beautiful rocky mountains surrounding us through the trip. Here's a great picture looking up the river.

The trip was a little more dangerous than I thought it would be. We went over some class 3 rapids, and there was one point that I was almost bucked out (actually shortly after this bridge), had I not had my proper foothold, I would've been in the drink.

What an AWESOME DAY!

And more pics from MO

And for those of you who didn't know, we left for the CO on the kiddo's birthday. So, on the Wednesday before we left, we threw him a birthday party. It was a GREAT success.




And on the day we left, we surprised him with a Ninetendo DS. He LOVED it!

Pics from Missouri

Before we left for the CO, we went to the STL zoo, where we took some silly pictures on the train:

and we saw the Sea Lion show:

More Colorado pics!

Today (after we got our cable, phone and internet installed), we went downtown to ride the streetcar. It's a beautiful streetcar that's been restored to how it looked in 1919. It runs about 1.5 miles from downtown to city park.






Once we got to city park, we got off the streetcar and rode the train in city park.

Overall, it was a fun day!

We're settled in!

We've made it to Colorado and love it so far. The weather is beautiful! It's been in the low 90's, but since there isn't any humidity, we've left the windows open. There's a beautiful park just up the road from us and we've taken a few walks up there. We went up there last night to watch the fireworks, as there's a hill with a great view of the town. We got to watch the fireworks in our town and several different surrounding towns.

We've both started our jobs and they're going pretty well. Since we both work on campus and the kiddo's going to a sports camp on campus, we're all riding in together. We're saving a ton of gas since Aaron's not commuting anymore.

I've attached pictures of the house for all to see. The pictures were taken when we were still unpacking, so it's a bit of a mess. Hope everyone can come visit and see for themselves!

This is the master bedroom.
This is the kiddo's bathroom-he wanted to make it like the ocean.
This is what we're using as the living room. It's just off the kitchen.

This is a view of the back of the house.

This is us at the front of the house.
This is the study/sitting room that's as you enter the front door.
This is a view of the kitchen/dining room from upstairs.

And the kid's room.