I have been wanting to go to the Coal Creek Farm for pumpkins every year for the past 5 years or so. This year, we finally went. We went Saturday morning and it was a beautiful day. Riley enjoyed pointing at everything. We came home with 4 pumpkins.
Thanks to everyone that was able to celebrate Riley's big day with us. We had a full house of family and friends. Riley had lots of fun playing with the other 8 little ones.
See all the photos here.
This past Saturday was a ton of fun. It was all about dress shopping and then it was off to the Ballet. Saturday morning Betsy, Tara, Sam, Kylene, Jasmine and I met Ari, her mom and her sister, Emily for a day of dress shopping. We started at Emily's house where we started with some fruit and muffins while we waited for our ride. Ari had arranged for a limo to drive us around for the day from store to store. It was so much fun. We all got to chat and catch up and not worry about driving and parking. We found a couple great options for bridesmaid dresses and Ari tried on some beautiful dresses for her. It was such a fun day.
Again, I've fallen a little behind. I can't believe that Riley is 11 months. I think I say that every month, but time really does fly. It's weird to think that this time last year I was wrapping up my projects at work and getting ready to go on leave (forever). Every day that I'm home with Riley is a blessing. This past month, Riley has gotten really active. He pulls himself up on everything. He still loves the bath. He has learned how to stand at the edge of the tub and drop his toys over the side onto the floor.
He is starting to walk with support and he still talks and babbles up a storm. I don't realize how old he is starting to look until I see a picture of him. He is looking more like a little boy and less like a baby everyday.
We finally baby-proofed the office for real with a permanently installed fence/gate and we also invested in a short fence to keep him confined in the living room so he can't crawl over and put his hands in the dog's water bowl. I love the gate in the office. It's actually looks pretty nice and it works great.
Riley is officially mobile. Scooting, crawling, climbing, standing and walking while holding on to objects. There is nothing he won't try and pull himself up on. He has also learned how to break through the barricade by knocking the diaper box or suitcase over and crawling right over it. He hasn't been able to crawl over the toy bin yet, but he has been trying. I captured one of yesterday's many break threws on film.
After he knocked the suitcase over. He tried to crawl between the toy bin and the suitcase. When that didn't work then he decided to crawl over the suit case.
It's time to get a really baby fence and baby proof the rest of the house. Oh, we're in trouble.
Although we didn't go out of town for Labor Day weekend, we managed to pack it full with activities and get togethers. Tara and I started off the weekend by taking Riley and Koben to the pool on Friday afternoon. This was the last weekend that the pool was going to be open and we had been talking about going to the pool together all summer. Better late than never I guess. Riley and Koben had fun splashing around. Riley loves the water but he hates his hat. Although the coverage is great, as soon as it get's wet it flops in his face and he can't see. Nate also thinks it looks a little girly. Half way through we had to switch to his other hat because it got too wet and floppy.
Saturday evening was Ari and Jared's engagment party. The party was hosted by Ari's parents and was held at her sister Emily and Roger's house. The party was a great time. Great food, good company. It was a perfect night. (Side note: Earlier in the summer I had done a landscape plan for Emily and Roger's yard. They worked all summer to implement the plan and get the yard ready for the party. The night of the party was the first time I had seen their yard since they had begun work. I was very excited and proud of how it all came together. I need to go back during the day and take pictures.)
Sunday morning we meet Nick, Kathy, Chris and Tara for breakfast before Nick and Kathy flew back to Seattle. It was great to spend more time with them. Sunday afternoon we headed to Ari and Jared's for a "Mini Baby Shower" for Kylene and Tony and to watch the CU/CSU game. Ari, Sam and I all missed Kylene's official baby shower so we decided to have a little one of our own. We thought the game would be a perfect excuse to get together. Of course we couldn't get together for the game without making sure that the twins where ready to show their CU spirit.
Monday we finished up the holiday weekend by doing chores around the house and I caught up on some landscape design work that I had been putting off. It's hard to believe that it is already September. Where did this summer go? I'm glad to report that our summer experiment, our garden, is doing well. Just about everything grew and most things did better than imagined. Our tomatoes are thriving and we have jalapenos coming out of our ears. And after more than a month of our zucchini plant blooming like crazy but producing no zucchini, we now have 2 little zucchini growing. Now I need a compost bin and lots of worms. Hope everyone enjoyed their summer and their Labor Day weekend.
When I come into Riley's room when he has woken up from a nap, he is always sitting up in the corner of the crib closest to the door with his bear in between his legs. I call it "Baby Jail" since he is usually holding on to the vertical slats of the crib.
Riley has learned how to pull himself to his feet and he loves to stand. Although he's not much of a walker, I know it's just a matter of time. My baby barricade is still in use, although he breaks through it at least once or twice a day. He either crawls over Pooh or he empties all his toys out of the small green bid and moves it aside.
I think that it's time to invest in a real safety "fence". Luckily he is still entertained by most of his toys. He loves to pull the bins over and pull all his toys out of the bins. I can tell when he is getting sleepy because he has started to snuggle his face on all his soft stuffed animals. It's pretty darn cute. He says "Mamma" all the time and I'm pretty sure he is saying it on purpose.
Riley loves to eat and he'll keep opening his mouth as long as you have food. We are starting to get more adventurous with the finger foods. He'll eat just about anything. It's been fun to feed him different things that we are eating and see how he likes it. We discovered at Mark and Amy's BBQ that Riley likes corn on the cob.
Riley and Deanna
The following morning was a farewell breakfast and another opportunity for all of us to hang out and catch up. It was another beautiful Colorado day and we enjoyed being outside. Thanks Amy and Matt for giving us a great excuse to get together and catch up. Hope you had a great time in Alaska. See all the photos here.
So I have some catching up to do... A couple weekends ago we went up to Grand Lake with Pauline and Dave (Nate's mom and step dad). We went to see a Winding River Guest Ranch owned by one of Pauline's friends. The ranch is in a beautiful spot and the Colorado River runs right through the property. The ranch offers horse rides and while we were there we were greeted by the new addition, Bunny. Born on Easter, Bunny was a very friendly, curious foal. Riley got so excited and kept squirming and giggling. Momma and baby were free to roam around the ranch and Bunny checked Riley out several times while we were there.
The Colorado River
Wow, 10 months. How is that possible? Riley is so much fun. He still isn't officially crawling but that doesn't stop him from moving everywhere. It's a combination between rolling, army crawling on his belly and pushing up onto his hands and knees and then flopping forward. I've had to create a barricade in the office with luggage and toy bins to stop him from getting into mischief (see picture below). He goes straight under the desk and tries to grab the cords. I've tried moving him and distracting him with something else but he is not fooled. So the barricade became necessary. I'm sure it is only a matter of a day or 2 before he figures out how to break through. But I'm so lucky because he loves to play and entertain himself on the floor with his toys.
Other Riley milestones are that he can pull himself up on to his knees from a seated position and he can also stand by himself (for quite a while) while holding on to something. He has also been sleeping through the night for over a month now which has been great. Although I still wake up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom, at least I get to crawl back in bed. Riley loves to eat and he is a great chewer which makes me feel better since choking is always in the back of my mind. He also manages to find the tiniest rock or whatever on the floor and picks it up. Luckily nothing has made it's way into his mouth but again, it's only a matter of time. I'm also realizing that I need to start cleaning more.He is always babbling and "singing". He also seems to understand a lot of what we say to him which is so cool. I can't wait for him to start talking and tell me what is going on in his little head. He loves to wave and he gets so excited when the dogs come to check him out. He usually starts giggling and squealing. Bella also has him trained at meal time to extend his hand in her direction so she can eat the food out of his hand. We're so excited for the milestones still to come!
Me, Bo Reynolds (yes the DJ), MK (my roommate) and Teresa Anderson
Every year Betsy and Lee plan a group camping trip for anyone who wants to come. This years location was outside of Buena Vista, Co at the base of Mt. Huron, one of Colorado's 14ers. Nate decided to take Friday off of work so that we could make it to camp before it got dark. He had been working for the past several weeks on the Land Cruiser. He bought a roof rack and customized it to fit the rocket box. He was so excited to pack it up and take it for another ride.
It took us about 2.5 hours to get to camp. Once you turned off the highway, the dirt road lead to an old ghost mining town called Winfield. Then you continued up the road to our camp spot. The last 2.1 miles of the road was pretty rough but it was worth it. The camp site was a beautiful spot.
We set up our tent and got settled for the evening. At this point there were 8 of us (plus Koben and Riley) and 3 dogs. Ari, Jared, Sam and Trapper had planned on leaving Denver after work to head up. At about 11pm, we were all starting to get a little worried that they hadn't showed up yet. We stayed up as long as we could but headed to bed around 11:30pm. They finally made it to camp at about 2am after leaving Sam and Trapper's camper 2 miles back down the road. Luckily, after a good night's rest, Sam and Trapper were in better spirits and decided to stay the weekend. Saturday morning half of the group (now 12 people and 5 dogs) decided to climb Mt Huron while the other half stayed behind and enjoyed some fishing in the creek and relaxed around camp. Later that afternoon Betsy and Lee's friend Brandon arrived adding 4 more people and 3 more dogs. As the evening progressed more people showed up and the final count was 18 people, 2 babies and 10 dogs.
Riley did really well and other than not sleeping much, we had a great time.
Thanks Betsy and Lee for finding a beautiful spot and organizing a great trip.
(Nate coming in to land)
