Catch Up #1-Vacation & Grady's Baptism

It's been ages, so here's catch up number one. Get together with my family in Alabama. Here's the girls swinging, Anne, Mae & Erin (don't know why she has that pacifier in her mouth-but I couldn't resist this pic.)
Here's Erin in the canoe-she didn't want to face forward-I was just glad she would get in :0) She's gotten less afraid of things lately-hooray!

Here we are passing "the boys" in the other canoe. Wilson, Bennett & Chris.
I know this one is blurry-but I was reading a Dora book to Anne, Erin & Mae then the boys joined in too. It was one of few still moments with the kiddos. We were usually playing the Wiggles DVD and dancing like crazy!!
Here's Erin & Mae throwing rocks in the water. Ah the simple things...Next for catch up is when our folks both came to town for Grady's baptism. Erin has always loved her MaMa's necklaces and even though she doesn't put them in her mouth anymore-she still loves to play with them.

We were able to go to the session at the pub with my folks on Thursday night where Erin and Grady regularly get to hang out with their substitute local grandparents-Chuck & Cheryl!
Here's Erin and her Daddy playing while waiting on our yummy BBQ at Nordy's.
Here's Me, Grady, Momma & Daddy at the top of the trail on Trail Ridge Road-that view never gets old!!

Here we are putting on Grady's baptism gown. It's the same one Bennett, Wilson, Mae, Erin and Anne wore. Here's the family after the baptism.After church we had a cookout at the Parrish's house. Here's Jean & Fran and my Mom.

Here's Shane, my Dad, Libby, Sarah & Justin.
Eric manned the grill-there were even some Yak burgers in the mix and some elk :0) It's always so amazing for me to look around and see all the people that love on us and our kiddos. To know that these people are a part of our lives and theirs makes me realize how blessed we are.Parting shot with the proud grandparents-It was great fun to have everyone in town!
We'll that catches me up to mid-August. Just the CA trip, TN/GA trip, every day life and Halloween to make up now ;0) Check out David & Red's blog (link on the right) for some fun pics of our time at their place.

A Recent Shot of Grady

For those of you wondering what he looks like now...
He's in 6-9 month clothes now. He's only 3 1/2 months old!!! It's not so much that he's big (almost 14 pounds), but he's pretty tall. So we have a petite little girl (25th percentile) and a tall boy (75th percentile). I wonder how old they'll be when he passes her? When I left for college David (3 years younger) fit under my chin.... now he's 6 ft. 6 :0) I don't know that Grady's on track to be THAT tall, but I'm pretty sure he'll pass us all.

Here are pics from my folks visit when Grady was just 1 week old. I'm REALLY behind with posting... and we've been really bad about taking pics this time around, but here's a few pics of life right now. We'll have some up soon of recent family visits (all the folks came out for Grady's baptism). But here the last week of May in captions...
Erin enjoying her xylophone and me enjoying her pigtails :0)
My dad with Grady and my Mom with Erin.
Here's Momma & Erin enjoying the carnival of the animals music and companion book-here they're being the donkeys :0)
Erin & Grady playing - now its not so novel when he holds her hand.
He's so little here.... He's so big now!!
Erin enjoying summer fun loft style... rooftop pool and umbrella.

Grady's First Hike

The first full week of June is a youth camp that our youth group goes to up at Estes Park every year. I love going up every year to have lots of great times with our youth as a chaperone. I did have the sense to know that I couldn't go for the whole week this time with a new born. But, I did plan to go up for the "free day" to do a hike and take Grady on his first ever. It was only fitting since Erin got her first hike before she was three weeks old. Here's Maddie, Micheal, Otis, Mary, Me w/Grady, Fran and Jerry before we headed up to Gem Lake.
Here we are all ready to go.

I'd done Gem Lake a while back but had forgotten how there's 1100 feet of elevation gain in 1.7 miles. Pretty much kicked my out of shape butt-my legs are still sore! But we survived and had a good time too. Here we are on the way down at an amazing view point along the way. Here's Otis, Fran, Jerry, Michael, Zach, Maddie, Mac, Jordyn, Mary, Jake, Me w/Grady, Leo, Tyler & Dario.
Here's a few more shots of Grady-here he is with eyes open being held by Cheryl.

Nap time on the couch!! :0)He was being such a little sleep rockstar (giving me 3 1/2 to 5 hour stretches of sleep at night) until 3 nights ago. The last 3 nights the best I've gotten is 2 1/2. Doh! Hoping that changes soon. I'm pretty dilirious!

This isn't the best picture of Erin, but I had to post it-she loves doing ballet on my barre. She can get her foot on the barre- next to her head!! Ah, to be young and flexible!
In other exciting news- Jen & Eric just got a new laptop, which means I'm buying Jen's old one-which I am currently using. YEAH! No more going down to the office to use the computer! So, now my only excuses for not updating here are two little people named Erin and Grady :0)