Mt. Bierstadt

I know, I know enough pictures of mountains and hiking. Um newsflash...we live in the Rockies!!! David and I have been wanting to climb a 14er since we've moved here. I realized that there was no way we could bring Grant. (darn it huh?) The Donohues were kind enough to let him wreck, uh I mean play at their house. We needed to leave our place by 5:00 am so we decided to drop him off on Friday night. Is there ever really a good age for boys to sleep at girls' homes? Yeah probably not but we figured 17 months is probably pretty harmless right? Thanks again guys, we own you big!

We woke up at 4:25am, grabbed our stuff and headed out the door in about 15 minutes, one of those luxuries of not having a kid to worry about. We had to drive about 1.5 hours and knew we needed to get a good start on the trail before the sun came up.

As the sun was rising it was so beautiful to watch it spilling through parts of the mountains. Every so often we would stop and just take in the scenery (ok maybe just maybe catch our breath) and it was amazing how many mountains were just popping up over other mountains. The hike itself was enjoyable, the wind on the other hand. Good grief! Once we made it to the top we were there for like 5 minutes, took pictures then got the heck out of there.My hat kept blowing off and there were times that the wind was literally blowing me away! I do kind of regret not spending more time up there. It was amazing how far you could see, and all the other mountains surrounding us below. It was fun to accomplish this with David and be able to stop and enjoy nature together (aw....)

I'm SO grateful that we went out before the sun was really shining. It was getting warm and to be honest the view just wasn't as pretty when the hot sun was blaring. We were probably the 6-7th people to reach the top that day and on our way down we counted over 200 people climbing up. Way too late for us to be hiking. Oh and I saw a girl I went to high school with-random.

 

ADRIAN! I look like Rocky right? Well minus the muscles and fact that I'm a girl, although the way I look in a hat (that is flying away) does resemble a boy. Just saying.

We love CRAIG

Craig, Colorado that is. In fact we love it so much that we went there twice in one week. I won't even tell you how many miles we've put on our "new" car. I think our families might be sick of seeing us (aka messing up every square inch of their homes) so being the sweetheart I am I decided to give them a break this week....don't worry we'll be back next Saturday!

The best part of Craig (besides the mullets and big trucks) is free babysitting!!!! David and I were able to hike Cedar Mountain while Grant played with David's mom. It was so nice to just be out together and not have to worry about if Grant was getting a sunburn or hungry or wet or tired. SO nice. Don't get me wrong it was fun to see him again and we probably spent 90% of the hike talking about him but still it was great to be together. It's a really pretty view from the top-it just looks out forever. My parents live out by the mountain so we kept calling them and looking through the binoculars to see each other. Now that I write that it sounds like the act of a creepy stalker...calling and peeking at each other. I promise it wasn't creepy.

This last weekend my sister and her family were up from AZ visiting. I LOVED watching Grant play with cousins-well to be honest I kind of ignored him (hey he was quiet and happy just playing) and talked with my sister most of the time. It's so nice to have him be entertained by someone else and they all seemed to get along great.

On Saturday we rode the gondola to the top of the ski mountain in Steamboat. Despite what this picture shows Grant really did enjoyed the ride. He of course just wanted to run around and climb up on everything. It was pretty cool we could see Cedar mountain from the top of the mountains in Steamboat. Have I mentioned how much I love mountains...well I do. A lot.

Until next week....

little lovelies-panera

mmmmm....I was first introduced to Panera by some girls in my ward in Milwaukee. I was hooked. I'm a sucker for their broccoli cheddar soup and asian chicken salad. I could easily drink the dressing that comes with that, oh  man it's tasty!

When I was pregnant with Grant I craved "man food" all day (and night)- pizza, burgers, hot wings etc. Panera was the only "Jodee" food that I really enjoyed. During the cold months in Milwaukee (Sept-May) I wished and wished that Panera had a drive-thru but sadly they didn't and I'd have to lug baby Grant in and out of the car with me to get my lil' panini to go. But wait, can it be true? I was driving around Denver the other day and what do I see? A DRIVE-THRU! Bummer that I can't justify eating a tasty sandwich everyday-don't get me wrong my homemade pb&j is great but a girl can dream right.

little lovelies-shabby apple

I was going to show a few of my favorite dresses, but that would basically be the whole website.
www.shabbyapple.com

Seriously how cute are the clothes? I could easily spend a whole month's....or year's salary on this website. Oh wait I don't have a job, guess I'll stick with my sweats and hoodies! Sigh.

nap time

I live for Grant's naps. He's out for a good 3-4 hours everyday so it's plenty of time for me to get things done around this place. We play play play in the mornings and have a blast but somedays 1:00 just can NOT come fast enough. Today I experienced reason #482 on why I hate living in an apt. Grant was tucked snug away in bed when all of the sudden- "eeeeeerrrrrrr, clank clank clank". Got to love maintenance men at all hours of the day. So much for our nap. Anyway I came to the conclusion that for Grant's safety he NEEDS naps. 

Example: during "nap time " today he; fell off the toilet and bumped his back on the wall (and managed to break a vase in the process), fell off our bed and bonked his head on the stationary bike. This one about killed me, I seriously thought his brains were going to pop out of his skull. A few hours later he pulled the blender out and it shattered all over the floor. Thank goodness I stocked up on grapes today because let me tell you they were about the only thing that could comfort this lil' kid. Man I'm exhausted just writing about this! 

hike it or not

Last weekend we strapped Grant in the carrier and headed to the mountains. We hiked the 'Royal Arch' in Boulder and this is definitely a hike I will remember. It was a little harder than we anticipated (and a LOT more rocky) but it was so pretty.

Kudos to David for luggin' that kid around. I'm sure it wasn't an easy task but he did great. Every person we passed (or should I say passed us) commented on what a 'sweet ride' Grant had. He was pretty content just looking around at everything, he was the most excited when he saw dogs though. 

not quite as cool as Moab but still a pretty view

 I'm so anxious for fall but it's weekends like this that make me wish warmer weather would stick around just a little longer.