Trip to Colorado

We just got back yesterday after being away for a little over a week. We started our vacation last weekend in Iowa. Saturday involved football, soccer, obstacle courses, shopping, the race expo, and homemade pizza.

Sarah and Mike have this great basement where the boys can play. This is Drew looking cute in his backwards hat.

Zach is going through the tent as part of the obstacle course. I also participated and I have to say it is hard to crawl through that tent and doing a somersault was harder than I remember.

Here is everyone in their Hawkeye gear playing with a toy that blows balls up into the air.

Anders took off with some of the balls.

Zach loves to make pizza with his Uncle Will - the picture is hazy because we filled the house with smoke from something on the pizza stones.

The pizza was as delicious as it looks.

After dinner, the boys got in some piano time before bed. They played quite well.

The next day was Sunday and time for the Des Moines 1/2 Marathon for me and Sarah. Sarah had a goal of finishing in 1 hour, 50 minutes and suggested I go along with that. She finished in 1 hour 46 minutes and I finished in 1 hour 55 minutes. We were both happy with our times, but we didn't get to celebrate with each other until something like an hour and half after I finished because we couldn't find each other for that long. It sucked. We both had to borrow a stranger's cell phone to call Mike at home to find out if the other called. We both checked the medical tent for the other, and we were both frustrated to find that there was a spot for every letter of the alphabet for family meeting places except V, W, X, Y and Z. When I mentioned to a volunteer coordinator that their family meeting places end at the letter U, she acted surprised and then said that it was implied that the rest of the alphabet would meet there to. Implied how? Anyway, about an hour after I called Mike, Sarah called him and he told her where I was.

Sunday night Will and Anders and I left for Colorado on the train. We had a berth (room) with room for 2 adults and 2 kids to sleep.

Here is Anders on his bed - we are just leaving the station and he was up way past his bed time.

Right before we left Sarah and Mike's house I did a mad search for my running hat and gloves. This picture is taken at the very moment that Sarah is telling me that her dog, Maggie, had hidden them under Drew's crib. Sarah said very sheepishly, "um, I found your hat and gloves under the crib." Obviously this cracked me up.

Here we are in Denver Monday morning! It was a good night. Anders slept really well in his bed and it was nice to wake up almost at our destination.

Monday was a beautiful day, after having breakfast with Aunt Becky, Cam, Myles, Grandma and Grandpa, Anders, my mom, and I headed to the park. Will and my dad went to the Colorado Railroad Museum, which happens to be a few miles from my parents house (lucky grand kids).

Anders is very comfortable walking now, but this ramp did throw him off a bit as he hasn't done a lot of walking on slopes.

My parents have a very patient dog and lots of fun containers that Anders enjoyed getting out of the cupboard. The whole time we were there he had plastic containers and pots and pans out all over the house. He also really enjoyed going up and down the stairs at their house. Sadie was frequently waiting for him at the top of the stairs and I think the first time he climbed our stairs at home yesterday, he wondered where the dog was that is supposed to be at the top of the stairs. Which reminds me, he says dog by making a K sound. He also says oh-oh, which is hilarious and today he pointed at the cow on his cup and did a darn good job of saying cow. He also uses the sign for milk for "I want that" - we aren't sure how that developed, but he combines that with pointing and the sign for please to communicate with us a lot. Then says oh-oh when we drop what ever he wants.

More piano playing, though he is really, really into drumming. He got to go to music at Aunt Becky and Uncle Tom's house on Friday and his favorite part was the drumming. So later that day when Becky and I went out for a few errands, I bought him a drum for Christmas. It is going to be all I can do to not give it to him early.

Here is Myles taking a snooze on his Mom's lap. He is just a month old and a cutie.

Here he is on the blanket I knitted for him. This is the same pattern that Joyce used for a blanket for Anders. I have to say this is probably the knitting project that I am most proud of to date. It turned out beautiful. It took 4 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Hummingbird. Thanks Joyce for the border pattern - it worked perfectly!

Here you can see the colors of the blanket better. Or you can just look at Myles.

Sadie really thinks she is a lap dog.

Anders seemed to like Myles. If you asked him were the baby was, he would point to Myles. Becky had just changed his diaper and Anders sat there watching very intently, it was very cute and I, of course, didn't have the camera out.

Anders is giving Aunt Becky a high five over how cute his little cousin is.

And now he is blowing her a kiss goodbye.

And now waving, to her. He also waves to passing cars and today was waving to nothing that I could see.

This time Cam shows Anders how to play some real rock and roll.

Our last dinner in Colorado. We also got to go to our favorite Colorado pizza place and favorite Mexican place while out there. Shortly after we finished dinner Friday night we packed up the car and headed downtown to catch the train. We had a deluxe family room for the ride home - it had a shower, toilet, and sink and room for 3 adults. Anders and Will slept on the double bunk and I slept up on the single bunk. I think I got the better end of the deal there as Anders moved around a lot. Will wanted the option to look out the window all night though...

Thanks everyone for hosting us. We had a really good trip. I am so not ready to get back to work tomorrow.