Ugh, I'm Terrible at this!!!

Ok, so I try so hard to keep up on the blog, but it just doesn't work!

This post will be a brief update on what our fam has been up to since Carter's birthday (yeah, nearly three months ago!!!)

We went to Aspen over Labor Day weekend. Usually we have done a hike just behind our condo, but we decided to forgo that one this year and found a different path behind the condo. It took us to a really old cemetery, a play ground and eventually to the river. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

Kids playing in the fountains in town.

Hanging in the tee-pee at the park

The kids playing at the park

I love this picture of Haylee sitting by the river. She had a great time throwing rocks and twigs into the river and watching them sink or float!!!

At the end of September, Byron and I with Byron's brother Jason and sister in law Jen, headed to Las Vegas for a long weekend away! The Barrett-Jackson Car Auction was in Vegas that weekend so we had a great time hanging out there. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Happy Birthday Carter

Our little man is 1!

I can't believe that Carter is already 1. His first year FLEW by so much faster than Haylee's did. The theme for Carter's party was trains. I have been known to do some fun cakes for Haylee's birthday, so I couldn't not do a fun cake for Carter!

Here's a picture of his Choo-Choo Cake - Didn't Byron do a great job frosting the cake?

Carter's part of the cake he got to destroy was the caboose - he LOVED smashing it, but wasn't too interested in eating it!

We had so many family and friends over to help celebrate this special day with us.

Happy 1st Birthday Carter!

A Camping We Will Go....

We attempted to go camping at the beginning of June - that did not work out so well. It started raining on our way up to the campsite, so that was a bust. We decided when we got home that we were going to try again. So, we went camping at the beginning of August. We have been up to Carter Lake before, and because of that, and it being Carter's first camping trip, we went there again.

Our campsite was great this time. We were on the end of the drive, so we had TONS of space for the kids to run around. Also, right down from our site was a sandy beach. It was a great spot.

The kids "helping" Daddy start a fire.

Yummy S'Mores!

We went for a hike on Saturday morning, and Haylee walked the entire way! In total, she probably walked a mile and a half total!

While on our hike, Haylee found a caterpillar. She named him Harry, and kept him in her bug container.

She carried him the whole way back, and we told her that she could keep Harry until dinner, then she had to let him go so he could go back to his home for dinner. Unfortunately, it was so HOT that day, and we forgot to move Harry into the shade, that Harry went up to heaven. Haylee handled it so well saying, "oh well, Harry's dead, yep, he's dead".

Carter LOVED playing with my pony tail, and about 5 minutes into our way back to the car, he was asleep.

After nap time, we headed over to the swim beach...the water was a little chilly when we first got in, but felt GREAT after that. The kids had such a good time playing in the sand and getting all dirty!

We all had such a great time camping. Next year, we will venture out away from Carter Lake and try some more secluded camping (nothing too extreme yet! Carter isn't big enough to backpack his gear in yet.)

Adventures in the RV

My grandpa's 80th Birthday was this past July...to celebrate, we all headed out to Chicago for a week. Because there are 9 of us, financially it made more sense to rent an RV.

Here is a picture of us waiting to start our adventures....

We started out trip out in Dixon, Illinois...where Grandma and Grandpa have the farm. There were 20 of us in total at the three bedroom, 1 1/2 bath farm house. It was fantastic, and a lot of fun. We brought our slip n slides and kiddie pool with us since we had extra room on the RV, and we are so glad that we did. We all (parents included!) had fun running down and playing on the slip n slide.

We had so much fun just hanging out and talking, laughing, and enjoyi

ng each other's company.

The last time that we had everyone together like th

is was for Cori's wedding in September of 2009. So it was decided that we get a new family picture that included all of the new family members and the babies grown up slightly. Here is the family!

This was also a chance for our little family to get a good picture of the four of us. I think we have a pretty handsome family!

That's all for now, I'll write more about the trip tomorrow....