Our Trip to Denver!

We left Thursday morning. Ingrid was super good on the plane, she just sat on my lap and we sang songs, watched Teletubbies, and ate snacks. We got settled at the hotel and then went downtown Denver to look around. The first night was tough, Ingrid wasn't used to her surroundings and was up every two hours or so...But we made it and she got better with each night.

Friday we went to Estes Park. It is a gorgeous drive with tons of great mountain views. Once there, we just got lunch and walked around. It was so cold! I forget how mountain weather is unpredictable. In Denver it was in the 70s, but way up in the mountains it was snowing.


Saturday was our friends Michelle and Alex's wedding, the reason we were there in the first place. It was gorgeous! It was at a park in Arvada, they had hot dogs and burgers and tons of goodies. Everyone mingled and played badminton and had a good time. Ingrid had fun with sidewalk chalk and the trees.

Sunday we took a drive over to Golden. Brendan has been looking at jobs at a lab there so we decided just to see how far from Denver it was and what the town was like. It's so cute! They have a little downtown and we took a walk along the river. It was another beautiful day and we took another drive to the mountains. This was our way of getting Ingrid to nap--she would only sleep in the car. And what better way to get her to nap than to drive through the mountains? It was so amazing.


After the drive, we met our friends for lunch and the Aquarium. It was pretty cool, Ingrid loved all the fish, she kept running from tank to tank.


And then finally on Monday we left to come home. I love it in Colorado and I hope so bad that Brendan can find a job there. I think we could have a lot of fun in the mountains!!

For more pictures, see my album on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149007&id=531087032&l=16e425f20d

Our Monday (and Book Sharing, Too!)

This morning has been pretty busy. Ingrid attacked, er, pet the cat. It is so funny how Fletcher takes this abuse, er, love. He meows pathetically and yet doesn't try at all to escape...

While Ingrid ate her "wa-foo" I cut out some squares from my box of scraps. Then when she went down for her nap, I sewed them together to make this:

I am just realizing that a couple of the boxes got put on upside down or sideways, and I thought I had been so careful! How do quilters make such masterpieces?? This is going to end up being a lovey or change pad anyway, so it will just be covered in drool or other bodily fluids. I guess an upside down block isn't that big of a deal.

And now onto Book Sharing Monday. Ingrid LOVES all the Carl books. We found two more at the library last week and she's taken to them right away. She'll just sit there and page through, looking at the pictures and talking to herself. For those that don't know, the Carl books are about a baby and the Rottweiler that babysits her. They get into all kinds of adventures and mischief while the mom goes about her business.



My mom saw them and said, "Can you imagine ever letting a big dog like that watch your child?!" Sadly, I can totally see Ingrid riding around a Rottweiler. She loves all dogs, but especially the big ones. Yesterday at the dog park she ran over excitedly when Sampson the Newfoundland came in. He came right up, slobbered all over her, and she smiled like she'd won the lottery. Go over to Serendipity to find out more about Book Sharing Monday!

Nature Walks (While We Can!)

It's getting to be rather fallish around here, so I'm trying extra hard to get outside for a good long walk every day. On Thursday I took Ingrid and Cody over by the lake. For some reason I took Ingrid out of the backpack and left it at the head of the trail. I thought she'd love to roam and use up some energy, which she usually does. However, about a second into the walk she decided that no, she'd rather be held after all. By that point I was just lazy enough to not want to walk back to the backpack and just optimistic enough to think my arms were strong enough to hold her. It was beautiful out, though, and we made it home in one piece. Hooray!

Yesterday we decided to go to the Arboretum. It never gets old, seriously. It is always so nice to park next to a busy hospital and then walk into a wooded wonderland. This time we took the backpack, and, thusly, Ingrid wanted to "wack" all over. (She loves to say that word and get Cody all excited.) We enjoyed more trees, the river, and watching Ingrid explore. Every leaf and stick and rock was so interesting to her. It really teaches you patience trying to hike with a child...

Hawaiian Babe

Once upon a time, long long ago, I bought this shirt for my future kid. Today Ingrid wore it and looked just as cute as I could've imagined! She only wore it for a couple hours, though, as it is polyester and doesn't breathe. The poor kid was sweating up a storm just walking around in it...

Camping With a One Year Old

Yesterday afternoon, Ingrid and I picked up Brendan from work and left to go camping. It was a short trip to the campground, where we found the site was nothing but dips and hills--absolutely no flat area to put up our tent! And you could only sit on one side of the picnic table because it was so tipsy. My first impression was not very good. I was already crabby after a long day, and Ingrid was as well, so...it was not much fun right from the start.

However, we made it happen. Brendan set up the tent on a major incline with some help from Ingrid.

We got a fire started and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

It started to get dark and Ingrid started to get really whiny and I realized it was about an hour past her normal bedtime. We had nothing but pit toilets so there would be no bathtime for Ingrid. We put her in her footy pjs and of course all she wanted to do was walk around and then fall because there was NO FLAT GROUND. The later it got, the more milk she had drank, and the more she cried, without falling asleep. I tried to rock her but sitting ON AN INCLINE and trying to hold a 25 lb. kid and rock rhythmically is no easy task. And then when I thought I had done it, she puked on me. Sigh.

Brendan finally got her to fall asleep as he walked around with her. We didn't bring a sling so it was just him holding dead weight. She slept for about an hour, then woke up every hour after that. I think we maybe got another hour of sleep before some people showed up with a cooler of beer and songs to sing at a nearby campsite. Hello, people, it's midnight, shut up!! Then at about 3:30am Ingrid had rolled so far down in the tent (did I mention we were on an incline??) she rolled into Cody, who was scrunched up in the corner. She woke up and thought it was really cool that Cody was there to play with. She thought it was pretty cool that we were in a tent, ooh, look, mama and daddy are here too! Let's hit them in the face! Let's talk really loudly, at 3:30am!! We tried everything and could not get her back to sleep for two hours. She fell asleep again around 5:30 and we all got two more hours of sleep before she was up again. How is it that she can get absolutely no sleep but be the happiest little camper around?

We noticed three other families of young ones near us and I think they had similar nights. Most of them were gone by the time we left at 8am!

I got up with her and made breakfast, which she didn't want, she only wanted a "crack-oo." Dirt and all.

We took a walk down by the water, which was gorgeous in the early morning. There's my silver lining--if she hadn't gotten me up that early, I never would have seen how pretty it was!

Like I said, by 8am we were on the road. The people at the office were so nice and gave us a refund for the wood we didn't use and for the night we weren't going to stay. How nice is that? Maybe they knew they had given us the WORST campsite ever. Ingrid slept on the way home, as did I, and we all got naps later this afternoon. It was not a fun trip, but it was definitely a memorable one. I know this will be a story we'll tell her about the first time we took her camping and how Daddy said he was never going to take her anywhere overnight ever again!!

Honk.

Sometimes Ingrid does the funniest things. The other night she was really upset and crying. I went to go pick her up and hold her and the first thing she did was grab my nose and, amidst the tears, said "honk." Then she went back to crying.

Tonight she was all snuggled in my arms having a bottle before bed. She opened her mouth and when I took the bottle away she twisted in my arms so her mouth was on my arm. I thought she was going to bite me since she is chewing on EVERYTHING today, but she blew a raspberry on my arm instead. It sounded like a fart and she giggled.

Kids are so much fun.

Cute Stuff

I have a post about our Labor Day weekend but blogspot isn't letting me upload pictures. SO...for now I will just tell you the cute things Ingrid has done lately:

1. She started to count. She says "One, twooo, wooo!" Last night she was almost falling asleep in the swing and would barely move her mouth as she said it softly. It was so funny.

2. She now knows how to climb onto the kitchen table. First it was climbing into the kitchen chairs and sitting there. Then she realized if she went a little further she could make it to the table. Then she figured why not stand up? And if she leaned just a little further she could climb into her high chair all by herself. Oh lord help us now...

3. Now she says mama and daddy extremely well. Brendan thinks this is the best thing in the world and is always showing her pictures of himself asking "who's this?" to get her to say daddy.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures and you can see the fun time we had yesterday.

Happy Labor Day!

NO PICTURES>BOO!! Blogger is having problems and I can't get them to work. So just imagine Ingrid in a cute brown floral dress with little red sandals being cute cute cute while playing with her best bud Ben. And now...from Monday night:

Another summer gone by, can you believe it?? I'm actually ready for cooler weather and sweaters and scarves, though. Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves are actually changing color around here already, which is crazy. It seems rather early.

Yesterday we invited ourselves over to a family cookout. It was our friend Jami's family, I told her we needed something to do and we were going to invite ourselves along to whatever they were doing, and she agreed we shouldn't stay at home with nothing to do. So, off to her in-law's house we went. They live in a cute little village, Dixboro, which is in Ann Arbor but not? I don't know, their address is in Ann Arbor but when you go to their house there's a sign that says Dixboro Village and there's a Dixboro General Store. It's super cute.

The Lippens' house is great for kids. They have tons of toys and a swing, sandbox, huge yard. Ingrid was in heaven!! And the fact her best bud Ben was there was great, too. We watched the kids play, drank some beer, ate some great food, and had adult conversations, which is always a treat!

Ingrid almost fell asleep in the swing.

She tried out a bike but didn't understand how to keep her feet up.

And she played Legos with the boys.

It was a good afternoon!

Our Week

I realized I forgot to post some really cute pictures of Ingrid, so here goes:

Brendan put up the tent the other night and Ingrid had fun playing with him in it.

She also got some new legwarmers and diaper covers so she had to sport them for awhile before bath time.

Here she is out on the porch with Fletcher and Cody. I have been just opening the door and letting them come and go as they please.

Which means...

Ingrid gets into the flowers. There are now flower parts scattered all over the porch...

But it might not be from her, because yesterday we saw this little guy up in the hanging basket. I do have a zoom, but he got VERY close to me, I wasn't even zoomed in all the way!! He looked like he wanted to come inside, which I'm sure all the animals would enjoy. But I don't think I want Ingrid to get rabies or anything right now, so I'll keep him outside.

And finally, here is Miss Fabulous with my sunglasses on. I love her :)

Nerdy Chemistry Picnic

Yesterday we met Brendan in Ann Arbor for the University of Michigan Chemistry Department Picnic. They have it every year to welcome new graduate students, with burgers, hot dogs, chips, beer, soda, etc. It was so much fun! Ingrid had a good time running around the big field and eating chips, and everyone kept exclaiming over her pigtails, which had gotten kind of wonky after she fell asleep in the car on the way there.

It was so funny because they had a desert contest which was obviously chemistry themed. These were my two favorite entries:


Someone went to a LOT of trouble to make those!!

It was a very Ann Arbor evening, as there were four of us with kids sitting near each other. Ingrid got into the diaper bag and pulled out her diaper, and all the moms were like "oh, is that a FuzziBunz??" And a conversation about cloth diapering ensued, as all of us used them! I thought that was pretty cool, but it IS Ann Arbor. It's kind of the norm here to use slings and cloth diapers and be eco-friendly...

Ingrid had a good time with other babies and we got to eat outside and enjoy the last of the summer, so it was a good night all around!