Weekend in the Mountains

We are just coming off of a great weekend in the mountains of Colorado. It was such a fun filled weekend that I don't think I will get it all posted tonight. However, I wanted to get some of the photos up and hopefully I'll get the rest up before we leave town for the 4th of July.

Saturday morning we packed the car and headed West toward Vail. Our goal was to get to Vail sometime in the afternoon to meet up with the Hess family. Before we did that, we wanted to get in a hike for some exercise and fresh air.

Oliver has been fussy lately and we think he may be teething even though we have yet to see actual teeth. We weren't sure the hike was going to go so well but it only took about 20 steps for him to calm down and start to perk up. We think that we have a mountain man in the making.

We hiked the Rock Creek Trail just north of Silverthorn, CO. The trail takes you to breath taking views of the Gore Mountain Range and an old mining site. It is about an hour West of our house on I-70 and then about 10 miles North of there. The hike was only 1.7 miles one way, but we thought that was plenty since we haven't really been hiking since before I was pregnant AND we were now doing it with a (potentially teething) 8.5 month old mountain man in the making.

Oliver did great on the hike and Keith and I felt rejuvenated to get back to hiking. When we were dating we used to go hiking nearly every summer weekend, usually in Estes or Rocky Mountain National Park.

On the way up, Oliver talked and talked the whole way. Once we go to the top we took him out of the pack and he got SO upset. We thought for sure the ride down would be miserable! We quickly enjoyed the view, loaded him up and headed down. It only took a few minutes before.... well, you'll have to look at the pictures for the rest of the story.

Oliver scoping out the bark on a tree. He is still deciding if he is happy to be hiking or not, but his senses are loading up on new things and he soon decides that hiking is on his list of favorite things to do. Besides, who wouldn't like hiking if someone else did all the work for you!!

I just love this photo. It shows off his crystal clear, bright blue eyes. You also get a great view of his bottom toothless gum. Hopefully it will sprout teeth soon! Do you see any? Out of nowhere, we noticed that Oliver had snagged an aspen branch. He loved it! As the wind blew he would wave it around. We soon noticed that his hands were out touching everything. Maybe he is a texture person, like his Mom.
I love this shot of Oliver and Keith amongst the Aspen trees. We may have to do this hike again in the fall when the leaves are gold.



Here I am!!! I don't just take the pictures but I actually do the hiking too!
Our first big glimpse of the Gore Range.
What on earth is this plant growing in the Colorado wild? It reminded us of something from a more tropical place. Then, we noticed that this small area was kind of like a rain forest. Check it out!
Gore Range

Family Self Portrait. We loved this hike because we were practically the only ones up there and it was beautiful. Good thing we are getting good at self portraits since we didn't have a fellow hiker to talk into being our photographer.
As we enjoyed this view for just a few minutes, Oliver decided to warn the wild life we were there by letting out a few sounds of dissatisfaction. Uh, oh... we better head back.
Maybe 5 minutes down the trail I noticed this head bobbing on the side of Keith's pack. Oliver had fallen asleep. He slept nearly the whole way down the trail.

Can you see Oliver's head sticking out by Keith's right shoulder?

Awake, just in time to see the end of the hike a couple of minutes from the trail head.
Time for a quick snack and then it's off to Vail.

Weekend Winding Down

It is Sunday night and another weekend is winding down. I thought I would share a couple of photos from the weekend.

Last night we went up to Conifer to see Jeff, Marian and Jin. Oliver LOVED the fresh mountain air and was quite a trooper. He even stayed up WAY past his bedtime until about 9 PM. Here are a few photos:

Oliver and Carrie on the deck

Oliver, Marian and Jin snuggling.
Oliver is thinking about taking a snooze.
Jin was so sweet petting Oliver's head and touching his hair. She saw me pull out the camera and took a break for her sippy cup just for the photo.
Oliver passed out on the love seat with Keith.

Sunday morning we were out enjoying the sunshine in the grass. Madalyn was parading around in her new pink glitter collar. She even got a mini cat bath (with cat bath wipes) yesterday so her fur was extra soft and fuzzy. Notices how she is laying in the grass. Up until this summer she wanted nothing to do with the grass and would go out of her way to walk around it. Silly house cat!
Tonight we were winding down on the deck and Keith thought it was funny that Oliver was laying on me with his belly poking out. Check out Madalyn in the chair next to us.

Big 'ol Belly.
By the way... I love these new PJ's we got him from Old Navy. Super Comfy and perfect for summer.

This was the image from my view. What a cutie pie.
I was trying out some new settings on my camera and this is what I got. I thought it was kind of cool.

This video clip may not seem that exiting, but repeating syllables is a developmental milestone so in a sense it is. Check out Oliver having a friendly chat with his golf balls.

I asked Keith to keep an eye on Oliver for a minute and when I looked back, this is what I saw (see video). It turned out to be fun for the whole family (see following videos).

Saturday Nap Time

Oliver is taking a nap, Keith is at Home Depot.... SO, I thought I would update the blog. YAY!!! I thought that I could do some work around the house, maybe work on my tan or even brush the cat. Instead, I decided that you would all like to see new photos of the cutest kid born on Oct 14. (I think this is a safe claim since I don't know anyone he shares a birthday with)

We have had a busy morning today. We kicked it off bright and early with the Coors 5K run/walk. This is an annual event that is the morning of the company picnic. It is followed with a pancake breakfast with events like a car show, face painting, jumpy castles, fire truck demonstration, etc. It started at 7:30 AM with the kids run with the family run/walk to follow. We got there at 7:45 thinking there was no way they had started. Come to find out, we missed it by 10 minutes. We could have bagged out on it, but instead, we took off jogging!!! If you know me, you know I don't run. I suppose I might if I was being chased by the boogie man, but I usually choose not to. So, we actually participated in the run/walk, just as it says, run/walk. We finally caught up with the group and passed a few people so we weren't the last ones in. We were probably very close to the end, but not the VERY END! We really enjoyed ourselves and Oliver slept the whole way. We think he may have allergies because his nose is running and his eyes were running like a waterfall. His eyes stopped when we left the Golden Valley so hopefully it's just allergies. Of course, it could be a tooth, FINALLY! We say that for every little ailment and I'm sure it's just allergies.

Carrie and Oliver ready to head out on Oliver's first 5K run/walk.

Oliver at breakfast, SO glad to have time in the grass.

Doing a little dance with Mom.

Whew... taking a nap for a 5K and flashing my smile during breakfast is a lot of hard work!!!

Time for another nap.

So happy to be back in the backyard with my bongo drum!

This is a good picture of his bottom gums with no teeth. Someday he'll have teeth too!!!

We noticed that since I take most of the pictures there aren't many of me. Keith decided he wanted a picture of me with his "championship rose bush". It's going to climb the house before we know it.

Thursday evening we were treated to a visit from Keith's parents, Nana and Papa. They were in OK visiting her twin sister and they swung by here to spend the evening with Oliver. Keith and his Dad went golfing that afternoon and they said they had a great time. Oliver wasn't much for company that night but he eventually decided to cheer up for his guests. Evenings get shorter and shorter the further we go into the week. He just gets tuckered out from the busy days at school. I refer to our evenings as the 3 B's - Bath, Bottle, Bed.

Oliver with Papa.

I thought this was a good snap shot of me working in the back ground cleaning off the table. Since Keith wanted me to post pictures of me lounging last weekend while he worked in the yard, I thought it was only fair to show the other half of our story. HA!

Some of Oliver's new developments:

Oliver decided to flip over and sleep on his tummy last night. This is a first! He was on his tummy for 2 hours last night from when he fell asleep to when we went to bed. I turned him back over so I wouldn't go to bed worrying that he wasn't on his back. At 1 AM I woke up to him fussing in his crib. I tip toed into his bedroom (I usually avoid this since I don't want him to want to get up, but I just thought I should check on him) and he was on his tummy again and pushing up looking around. I quickly flipped him back over, gave him his blanket and scooted out of there. He was back to sleep in no time. Hmm.... Maybe it's time to lower his mattress before he starts pulling himself up. We are starting to think that he is having parties in his crib but pretends that he's sleeping when we go to check on him. We find him at all kinds of angles in the crib. His favorite seems to be to shove his head as far up into the corner as possible with his nose in the corner. Well, I guess if he's happy. It was kind of fun to see him sleeping like me last night on his belly with his feet out from the blankets. He also sleeps with his arms above his head which Keith tells me is how I sleep. He also tells me that he steers clear of me while I'm in this position since he has received an elbow to the head a time or two. How can I possibly be to blame? I'm sleeping and innocent!!

Another thing that Oliver has started is talking with repeated words. I can't quite capture this on camera since every time I bring the camera around he clams up. We hear a lot of lalalala gagagaga babababa and some dadadada. We're working on mamama but it is still just mmmmmmm. Mmmmmmm is the universal signal for when he wants something, usually food or a nap. The best news for me is that this is suppose to be a developmental milestone, even if it sounds like gibberish. Today he was talking up a storm in the yard, which was very cute. Unfortunately, when I brought the camera out he clammed up. Here he is anyway, demonstrating his clapping skills.

That is the update from the Hamilton's House. We are enjoying the summer and hopefully my pasty white skin will get a tan one of these days. Darn that desk job that is indoors! ha ha!! Tonight we are headed to see our friends Jeff, Marian and Jin in Conifer. Tomorrow we are off to see Bob and Susan in Brighton. We are looking forward to it and maybe I'll have a few pictures to share.

Father Day Surprise, Part I

The first part of Keith's Fathers Day surprise was a new driver from Oliver. He had NO idea where we were going or what he was in for until I told him right before we got to the store. He was SO exited!! I think Oliver liked it too. He couldn't take his eye off the bright red head cover. After our shopping trip, we took advantage of being out on a Friday night and went to dinner.

Oliver's first fortune cookie?
By the way... this ball was left at our house and we don't know who it belongs too. Is it yours? Oliver LOVES it, so you might have to pry it out of his hands, but he is easily distracted, HA!

Fathers Day Surprise, Park II

Since Keith now has a new driver, he has to try it out! On Saturday we went to see our friends Geoff and Stephanie in Longmont. Stephanie and I arranged a tee time for the guys in celebration of Fathers Day. It was a last minute surprise that they found out about just before the big event. Geoff got the golf cart spiffed up and they headed off into the 90 degree heat. Stephanie, the kids and I headed to the pool to cool off! I forgot my camera for the pool so I don't have any photos. Stephanie took some so I'll post them when she sends them to me. Oliver wasn't a big fan of the pool. I don't think he liked the temperature. We'll keep working with him and hopefully he gets over it. We had a GREAT day with the Hess family and can't wait to spend another day with them soon. They have a daughter, Evelyn, who will be 2 in August. They are expecting Freddy to arrive in the next 3 weeks or so. Oliver and Evelyn got along famously and I can see them being buddies for many visits to come.

Oliver checking out the drivers seat of the golf cart. He'll have to wait a few years to drive it for real.

Keith and Geoff are loaded up and ready to roll out!
Oliver with sunscreen hair, ready for the pool! This really shows how much hair he has!!

Evelyn and Oliver hanging out before heading to the pool.

"My bags are packed and I'm ready for the pool, Mom."
Quick beverage before hitting the road.

Bath time after the pool.

This was Oliver's first bath with another kid and he did great!
Dad's back from golf!!! YAY!!!
Story time, courtesy of Keith, before bed.

Geoff and Keith have been friends for many years, since Keith was at CSU in Fort Collins.

Oliver was testing out Freddy's new crib. He slept like a champ. I think it passed the test.
Keith LOVED this salt and pepper shaker!
Geoff and Stephanie dining on the deck.
Dinnertime stories.