National Western Stock Show

Giddy-up- Cowboy!

It's National Western Stock Show time again in Denver!!

We love the stock show.  We usually love to accompany it with the rodeo but we opted out this year since last year was a disaster with Oliver's asthma.  Maybe later, until then, we'll opt for exhibits of big trucks, big tractors, big horses, big cows and BIG HATS!

For years (seriously), I have wanted to get the boys their own cowboy hats.  Clearly, this year was THE year!  It was a tough choice, but eventually, they made the perfect choice.

I love how Kellan is puffing out his chest, showing off his cowboy tough side.

Oliver stretches in prep for riding a real live pony.

Giddy-up Cowboy.  Oliver's like an old pro on the pony.

While Kellan saddled up a pony for his first time and rode it all "by-self"!

Way to Go Cowboy!!  We are so proud of you!

After the pony rides, the boys escorted Jin to a choo-choo ride.

After we hit all of the must-see attractions (pony and choo choo rides) we headed out to the cattle barns.  It's always amazing to see the livestock.  I especially like when they are all clean and fluffy, not like what you really see out in the field.  Then... we saw the cow spa.  Without a doubt, I can guarantee you that I was not put on earth to be a real-live cowgirl.  No-way, no doubt in my mind.

Oliver, Jin and Kellan with the clean and fluffy cows.

Rows and rows of clean cows, just how I like 'em.

Whoa Betsy, that's One Big Bull!

This bull was huge, on all accounts and so sparkly white!!  They were grooming him up but his head stood nearly 7' tall.  No joke!  You can't really tell from this photo, but after we watched them groom him for a while the guy on the left stood by his head and he was a very tall cowboy.  When cows get that big, I give them the credit due and round up to 7'.  The moral of the story, I don't want to find myself on his side of the fence.

Kellan's favorite animals were the goats.  They were a bit more his size and speed.  He LOVED them and all of the kids loved petting them.

After our fill of live stock, it was time to grab lunch.  Keith and I have been on a crazy carb (carb, sugar, dairy, fruit) free diet in prep for Mexico and we get one cheat day a week.  We usually save this for the weekend and this weekend, it was Stock Show day.  MMmmmmmm  Corn Dogs!!!!  There is nothing like a fair-quality Corn Dog!

Kellan was a HUGE fan of the corn dogs as well.  A boy after his Mamas own taste buds.

Oliver is no stranger to a good corn dog.  The boys got taste!

While we dined on gourmet fair-style corn dogs, we watched the 4-H kids show their cows.

MMMooooo Cow!

Jin was loving Oliver while Oliver was playing hard to get.  He would "pretend" that he wasn't interested, but every once in a while we would catch him smiling under the brim of his hat.  I LOVED this photo!  Classic girl meets boy.

When we told Kellan we were going to the Stock Show, he translated that into The Farm.  He kept asking for the tractors so when we finally found them, he was so excited.  What he wasn't excited about was the fact that they didn't move.  We think that he's remembering our day on the Hops and Heifers farm in Longmont and he wanted to head back out to the rolling fields of tractor land.  Sorry buddy, no real test drives today.

Before the day was over, Jin wooed Oliver with some Sprite and they were seen Mending Fences over a soda.  Ahhh... young crush.

What a great day we had at the Stock Show!!!  We are already looking forward to finding some rodeos this summer to get our cowboy fix.

Skiing Loveland

Oliver and Mommy had a ski day recently and we had a blast!

We captured the whole day on camera and this video montage is a summary or our great day.

Oliver had incremental improvement in his speed control, turning and stopping throughout the day.  We are so very proud of his progress.  Now... if Mommy can just learn to let him fly free, he'll be a rock star on skis.
Click the square in the bottom right side.  The quality is a bit low because it's such a long video I had to decrease the quality for blogger to upload it.  Hopefully, you still find it entertaining.  Enjoy!

Spiders, Bugs and Butterflies, OH MY!

After a few weekends of laying low and weeks of colds and flu's, we needed to get out and have fun.  Oliver kept asking us what we were doing for fun and it dawned on us that we hadn't had any family outings in quite a while.  So, we opted for the Butterfly Pavilion.  Oliver and I had been there once with Grandma shortly after we had Kellan.  We thought that Oliver could use a special outing.  We were excited to finally take Kellan and Daddy and it was a BIG HIT!

Kellan looked at everything with bright eyes of wonder.  He LOVED it! 

He shivered and said "EWWW" with every bug he saw.  Every one!  You could hear his thrilled laughter in every room.  When Kellan is really excited, he laughs on the inhale and it's almost a gasp and giggle all at once.

The boys had an opportunity to hold Rosie, the tarantula.

Neither of the boys held her, but they kept a close eye on her.  

Take a close look.  See how far back the boys are?

What you don't see is that right here, Kellan pushed Oliver closer so they could get closer, but Oliver could still be in front of him.  It was a bit funny.

This was a great exhibit.  It was a bee hive and not only could you see inside, but there was a a tube that went outside and counted how many bees left the hive.  On this 10 degree day, 8 bees committed suicide left.

It kept trying to get a picture of Kellan's shiver, squeal, inhale giggle and EWWW face. 

There was a lot of bugs to look at before getting to the butterflies.

There was even some marine life.  This starfish tried sucking up Oliver's head.

This starfish was HUGE!

There was even sea life to touch.

I love how both of their tongues are hanging out in unison.

Then, it was time for the butterflies.  When we walked in, they were flying all around.  The boys were thrilled and danced around the soiree of butterflies.

There were many opportunities to test out my Christmas camera, on a flash free setting.

There were leaves that were HUGE!  Kellan could almost have laid on them to take a nap.

The boys even found a butterfly on the floor, right up close and personal.

They peered through the rainforest at the fish in the pond down below.

Between the branches they found turtles.

They even found this tortoise and yes, Oliver knew the differentiating definition between turtles and tortoise.

Kellan and Daddy peered upon this butterfly on this sign.

Then, I finally captured the "EWWW" face from Kellan.

We had a GREAT time at the Butterfly Pavilion.  It was a perfect way to spend the day together as a family.

What Was THAT?

Saturday was the BIG game.

The Broncos and Ravens playoff game.

Everyone knew that the Broncos would WIN.  Well, they at least hoped for it.  They didn't expect what the outcome was.  

At least, we had Kristi's guacamole!

The Dad's gave the game and the guac a thumbs up.  This was the beginning of the third quarter.

Kellan had been napping when the Martin's came over.  Oliver came to tell me that Kellan was up and I found Owen in the crib chatting with him.  I ran down to get the camera and came back to find Oliver in the crib.

Then, Owen joined back in.

I found out after the photos that one of the boys had delivered chips to Kellan.  No wonder why they were all happy in the crib together.  They had SNACKS!

Kellan eventually found his way downstairs and to the guac station.

I don't think he moved far from this table until his tummy was full.  Can you blame him?

The boys eventually made it to the kitchen table to eat some pizza and give me a few silly photo faces.

Somewhere, a head lamp surfaced to shed some light on our evening.  Too bad the Broncos didn't have a few headlamps to shed some lights on the game.  They could have really used them.

We watched the entire game on pins and needles with a circus of boys running around us.  In the second over time, the Ravens won over the Broncos.  It was shocking and disappointing.

We tried to watch the Packers and 49ers game, but the great game mood was quickly deflated with the Broncos loss.  It was so close and so shocking.  So... we called it a night.  Anti-climatic, I know, but after the playoff games, I don't think we can handle any more excitement in one weekend.

Holy Moly, thank goodness we had great Guacamole!