First family spring outing in Colorado

Brian decided we should go on a family camp out Friday night. It was sort of last minute, but we were so excited to make smores and sleep in tents! As we pulled up to a campsite, we found out that it and the other three camps in the area were sold out. Because we wanted to go to "Tiny Town" the next day, and because it was getting late, we didn't want to go very far from where we were. We decided to find a place in the camp to build a fire, roast marshmellows and make s'mores, and then we would just find a hotel for the night.

We soon discovered we couldn't find a fire pit to build a fire, so Brian built us a beautiful S'more roasting fire on a grill at a picnic part of the park. It was all about improvising--and we loved "roughing it" in the hotel (after we found one--the first two we went to were sold out as well...you would have thought it was a holiday weekend or something) :-)

Here's Kalen and daddy displaying our fire on a grill

And here's Trace and mommy sharing a s'more

And, I probably don't need to explain this one--it's Brady.

The next day we went to "Tiny Town," an adorable and fun tourist spot. They have a lot of small and playhouse sized houses, composing a town, and they are best known for their miniature train rides. We had soooo much fun!

Here are the boys with the conductors in front of the steam train.

This is Trace and Brady in front of the town's church with stained glass windows.

And Kalen in the lighthouse

All my boys in the Opera House

And Brady said his favorite part was the "jail"

Just some more fun pics--it was soooo windy...my hair doesn't

normally always look like that, I promise.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Colorado--there is so much for families to do! I can't wait to discover it all this summer.

It's mothers day today--Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there! As I sat reflecting on being a mom today I thought of each of my babies and what I love so much about them right now.

I love how big Trace is getting...he's talking so much now...quite early in comparison to his brothers, at only 19 months.

He also LOVES reading books--and he enjoys falling to sleep in his crib reading books each night--it's so cute when I say goodnight, hand him a book, and he plops down in his bed, pulls his blanket up over his lap, and opens the book. Each night, he passes out without a fuss, sometime during his book. I love it!

Brady is getting so smart as well. He is still hard to understand sometimes, but he's trying hard to work on his words--the hard ones are the ones that start with "tr" or "dr." What's amazing though is that he LOVES to cook and create in the kitchen, like his daddy. For those of you who read my last post, this is what I was talking about Brady did that I wanted to post about: I walked into the kitchen and saw this sight:

I said very calmly, after a deep breath, "Brady...what are you doing?" To which he replied, "I'm making A LOT of chocolate milk!" He had gotten the entire gallon of milk out of the fridge (luckily it was only half full) and squeezed half the chocolate syrup into it. He was so proud of himself, and didn't even make a mess until I distracted him. What 3 year old figures out he can do that with the entire gallon???

And Kalen is so loving with his little brothers. He really watches over them, and lets them "help" him in everything he does. He rarely minds their company, and he loves teaching them. I couldn't have asked for a better older brother for my other boys. We went bowling as a family the other night, and although Trace couldn't play, Kalen let Trace "help" roll the ball down each time. It was adorable.

And this is a regular for Kalen as well--and part of the reason I'm sure Trace is talking so much right now--Kalen loves sitting and practicing words and "reading" with Trace.

I love them all so much, and I am so grateful for the love and joy the bring to me in my life. Each beautiful little guy...they're just perfect, for me.