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!