Beautiful Colorado

Cale took us on a few drives, and they were beautiful. Here are a few pictures of where we live. This is up Flagstaff Mountain, it is about 5 minutes from Jared's work to the base of the mountain.

This is Gregory Canyon, we didn't spend much time out of the car, as you can see it was pretty cold. We are excited to do some hiking in Gregory Canyon in the spring.

We drove up to Winter park, it is in the middle of the mountains so there was a ton of snow.

National Western Stock Show

On Monday we went to the National Stock Show in Denver. This is a really big two week event. It was inside that goodness, because it was about 10 degrees outside. We took the kids to the petting zoo. I don't think Brayden knew what to think of these new creatures.

Brayden wouldn't take his eyes off the animals to look at the camera...apparently neither would Jared.

They had so many animals to look at; we saw the pigs, horses, and cows. The pigs were so funny they would snort at the kids as we would walk by.

After we walked around we headed to the rodeo. This was a different experience for us all. Monday was Martin Luther King day and the rodeo celebrated the day, by having a MLK Rodeo. All the cowboys were black and they played hip hop music throughout the rodeo. It was very different from other rodeos that we have been too.

Central City

On Saturday we headed up the mountain to Central City. This used to be a mining town and when Cale used to live here it was very fun town preserving the mining environment. Since then it has changed into a gambling town...that wasn't very kid friendly. It would have been fun to walk around the town, but it was so cold. So we bundled the kids up and would walk quickly to each building. At the visitors center they recommend that we eat at a place called Milleys. It wasn't very kid friendly. We asked for two high chairs for the kids...they only had one. The food wasn't that great either.

And of course no changing table in the restroom.


Jared and Cale threw a dollar in the slot machine and Jared won seven dollars. So that at least paid for one not so great meal. It was a really pretty drive and we had a fun day as a family.

Some more visitors

We were very excited to have some more visitors. My sister and her family joined us for the past 10 days. We had so much fun together. Cale grew up in Colorado so he had some fun things that he wanted to show us and do while he was here. Brayden had so much fun with cousin Kira...I think Kira was probably tired of Brayden trying to get her. I think Kira did enjoy having some new toys to play with. She would often have a toy in her mouth and a toy in both hands.

They played pretty good together for the most part. I think that Brayden might have given Kira a few ideas. Some ideas good like eating better and some not so good like pulling cords. Kira spent a lot of time crawling slowly behind Brayden.
Brayden would start playing with something and Kira would slowly crawl over and want to get in on the action.
This was how Brayden handled the situation.

I have to mention that we played a new game while Hailey & Cale stayed with us. We were kinda obsessed with it. We played every night and stayed up way to late playing. The game is called Ticket to Ride and we can't wait to play it on line with Hailey & Cale.

Denver Aquarium

On Saturday we went to the Denver Aquarium. This was Brayden's first time seeing most of these animal...he didn't know what to think at first. You can see that Jared had a good time at the aquarium too.

Here is Brayden checking out some fish. When Jared would get him close to the tank we would grip Jared tighter and tighter.

There was a tiger exhibit, but the tiger wasn't trying to have his picture taken. We waited for like 5 minutes and he only raised his head up for about 5 seconds.
We had fun at the aquarium, except for the dessert exhibit...there were a few unexpected guests that surprised me.

Aunt Libby came to visit

On Thursday Aunt Libby came to visit. We were very excited to see Libby, but we were sad that my Aunt Teresa wasn't able to make the trip with her. Brayden loved Aunt Libby. He had so much fun with her. After his bath one night...we tried to spike his hair. His hair is so long on top so it was pretty funny. Brayden was constantly trying to get a bite of Libby.
This is Brayden's new church outfit that he got from Grandma Chris. He is so handsome.

Hey look...I'm standing

Brayden started standing on his own. He stood for the first time while Libby was here visiting. He has been doing it more and more. When he stands up he gets nervous and falls to the ground. He stands longer if he has something to distract him, like when he has a toy in his mouth.