Punkin Patch

LT and Adler have embraced Halloween this year, fully. They are rarely seen in clothes other than "punkin" shirts or skeleton jammies. Their daily artwork is filled with Halloween themed art. It was only fitting that we made a trip to the Rock Creek Farm pumpkin patch last week. We were lucky to have Isaac, Jonah, Holden and Zack join us.
I told LT that he and Adler could each choose one pumpkin. The possibilities were endless, yet every one was perfect in their eyes.
Adler tripped over a vine shortly after this picture and decided being carried the remainder was a better idea.
I don't think our boys look much alike, but I hear that they do from strangers all the time. I guess this picture makes me see what others see in them. They are definitely brothers.
"Saaadows"


Trying to get a group of toddlers in a photo is challenging. After the pumpkin fields, we found their kid center. Several jumpy castles, hay bale mazes, a petting zoo were all big hits for these guys!

weekend photos

LT showing off a cupcake treat while sporting his Halloween jammies and pink sunglasses from the dentist.



Adler still using infant pacifiers (the exact same ones you get at the hospital when they are born) at two years old. It's the only kind he likes. He's particular like that.

Fall Hike

The leaves are changing and the temperatures are cooler, fall is coming, finally. Papa and grandma called to see if the boys and I could go for a beautiful fall hike. Here are a few pictures from our hike. LT is really amazing, he can hike pretty fast and for a long time.
Before any hike, its a good idea to play in dirt for awhile and have a big snack, so thats exactly what we did.

Even little Adler is turning into a strong hiker.
LT played a game where he threw a rock and then examined the dirt where the rock landed.
Adler carried rocks around.


LT carried this rock (same one he played the game with) the whole hike.

Big Truck

On Saturday we went to a fundraiser for the Fisher Early Learning Center (a daycare/preschool run by Denver University). It was a brilliant idea, especially for our boys, BIG trucks of all kinds for our kids to get into, drive and look at. There was a trash truck, fire truck, zamboni, cherry picker, mail truck, milk truck, moving truck, police car, ambulance, skip loader, backhoe, to name just a few! I only took one picture sadly, but the boys had a blast.

inevitability

It's unfair to broadly label the boy's personalities.  But I'll do it anyway. LT is the cautions and reserved one while Adler is the daring and fearless one. So I actually consider us pretty lucky to have made it two full years of Adler's life without taking Adler to the ER for stitches or a broken bone. Unfortunately, we didn't make it too far beyond two years. Today at nap time he was trying to get his water bottle off the bedside table and fell cut his head.

Kari picked me up at work on the way to the ER.  We took him to the new Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL which our pediatrician recommended.  They were friendly and efficient and it wasn't much more than an hour before we were on our way with five new stitches in little Adler's head.

As I'm sure would be the case for most two year olds, he wasn't too happy while getting sewed up. But we are home now and he's doing great. We are sitting in the front yard as I write this and he is laughing and talking and even playing a little football with his mom.

A Mountain Playground

Brian had a few weeks off of work and we took the boys to the mountains for a few nights. The weather was gorgeous and so we took the boys to a playground in Dillon, right on the lake. I had been eyeing it for the past year, but somehow the timing never worked out for us to take the boys until this past trip. It was worth it. The playground had a few little areas for Adler to "cook" sand, probably his favorite activity.
Serving daddy some food (probably noo noos).
The views of the lake, mountains and sailboats were incredible.
Next to cooking, the boys love swinging and going "weawwy high!"

swimming skills

Okay, so maybe we aren't headed to London for the 2012 Olympics but I'm still pretty proud of LT considering that just a couple months prior to this he would only go in baby pools or stay on the stairs.

Second round of Telluride

Okay, I've fallen way behind but here are some of photos from our trip to Telluride in July that Kari said I'd put up when she wrote about it two months ago.

 Kar and I only managed to sneak away for one mountain bike ride but it was a really enjoyable afternoon (perhaps thanks in part to the gondola assisted climbs).

The boys really did great on the long drive.  Sleeping and DVDs were among the tools for passing the time.

LT, like his dad, often had his camera with him and took a lot of pictures.

Even my mom got behind the camera (with a little coaching) to take a rare photo of Kari and I together before the wedding.

Inevitably traveling means eating out a lot.  Some meals went better than others.  The two pictures above are of a post hike lunch that went relatively well.

Some things are the same at home as they are on vacation.  Here the boys are fighting over a book before bed.

As Kari said, the pool at the hotel/lodge was the biggest hit of the trip for the boys.  The gondola was a close second and something they still talk about.  They even play a game together sometimes where LT pulls adler around on a chair or a pillow and calls it a gondola.

Here's LT, who just a few months ago wouldn't even leave the shallow stairs in a pool, about to jump in and swim a few yards to his mom.

Fearless.  Well, relatively fearless.  I've got some little videos of his new swimming skills too that I'll put up soon.

Adler liked the pool too.

Below are [links to] a few more photos from the trip on flickr.

Telluride, a set on Flickr.

Camping

We took the boys camping in early August.  It's only the second time Kar and I have camped since we've had kids and the first time with Adler (we went the first time with Z shortly after LT turned one).

The boys absolutely loved it and I have to admit I enjoyed it more than I had expected.  I got to introduce LT to throwing rocks and sticks into a river which we did together for hours while Adler napped one afternoon.  The boys loved playing with dirt, rocks and sticks and they even did pretty well sleeping in the tent.  LT (pictured above) wore his headlamp for a hike at 10am "just in case it gets dark."

Unfortunately we decided to cut our trip a night short (out of just two nights) after Adler burned his wrist on the portable stove.  He loves to pretend he is cooking and we foolishly let him play with the stove during the day thinking it was harmless. But it wasn't so harmless when he went for it right after we'd made dinner on it.  In retrospect we probably didn't need to leave early but, at the time, it seemed like the best thing to do.


Adler in his jammies and mom with her coffee enjoying the morning sun.


The essentials: coffee gear and sippy cups.


Again with the headlamp.


Turns out that rock didn't taste so good after all.


Playing in the dirt!