Estes Park, CO

We took a family trip to Estes Park, CO with Ralph, Carole, Catherine and Michael. We rented a cabin by the river, spent much time walking around the cute town of Estes Park, playing outside, eating delicious food and just hanging out. Although now that we're back home, we do see more of our families, but times away like this are so important too. The girls love hanging out with Catherine and Michael and we love seeing the relationship and bonds between our girls and their aunt and uncle grow deeper. Ralph and Carole are so good about initiating a trip together each summer and we love going. Thanks for such a wonderful weekend...late spring snow and all!


Coley and Uncle Mike hanging out while Nonna and Catherine shop for jewelry.


David and Michael helped "Grandma" from Grandma's Cookies carry in all her cookie dough. Their payment was free cookies. These are 2 of the free cookies. They were huge and Coley ate every bite of her cookie. And it totally ruined her lunch.


Hanging out in downtown Estes Park

The next morning we got up and went up to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We were completely surprised by the snow. The higher we drove in elevation, the deeper the snow. The funny thing was, under all that snow was green grass. Snow and all, it was beautiful sight.

David and Mylie took little walk on one of the trails


And Ainsley and I stayed in the car with Miss Coley because she just couldn't stay awake any longer!


She did wake up once we got to the top of the mountain. Barely awake.


Mylie played her harmonica. She didn't realize there was a small crowd of people watching her and she was embarrassed when she finished her song and everyone started clapping.




And once again I stayed in the car with Ainsley. She is still eating every 3 hours, so I felt like I was always in the car feeding her!


There were elk everywhere...much to Ralph's delight.


This beautiful, but creepy, hotel was the inspiration for Stephen King's book "The Shining." David and I ventured out one night and walked through the halls on the hotel...the floors are wooden and creak with every step. Apparently there are some haunted rooms in the hotel...creepy.


David suggested we take the girls for ice cream...I didn't object! There are a lot of ice cream parlors along the main street. Notice the lady smiling in the background...she loved the girls and talked to us the entire time we were eating our ice cream.


We were so excited when the rain and clouds went away. It warmed up just enough to go outside and play.











The cabin had a lot of kids toys and books. The girls typically never sit still long enough for us to read them a book, but they asked David to read them a story before bed.


Our last morning in Estes Park before we headed home.

Our friends Michelle and Ross live in Denver so we met them for lunch on our way back home. We got to Denver earlier than expected, so we stopped at Washington Park to let the girls play. This park is so big and super cool. There were tons and tons of people walking, running, playing volleyball, giving fly fishing lessons...David was in heaven. I like the outdoors a lot (some), but David just thought this park was amazing.






Here are the Whiteaker's. I didn't get a picture of us all together and remembered as we were pulling out of the restaurant parking lot.


Such a great trip! We had never been to Estes Park before so it was fun to get away for a long weekend!

Mother's Day

We had such a sweet day. I love these girls. They make me so happy and bring so much joy. I cannot imagine my life without them. The best was hearing them say "Happy Mother's Day" to me ALL DAY LONG. David trained them well.

April Wrap-Up

It looks like I'm averaging one post per month, so until I get better about uploading pictures, I'll summarize one month at a time. So, here's April!

One of my favorite and bestest childhood friends and her family came to ABQ on their spring break to get out of the Colorado cold. They stayed at my mom's house and we had so much fun hanging out and letting the girls play together. Mylie followed Michelle's oldest around and Coley and Michelle's youngest became fast friends. It was so good to see them and my fingers are officially "crossed" that ABQ will become home for them once they are done with school in CO.





Easter Sunday
Here are some pictures from our busy, but wonderful Easter Sunday. We started off the day at church, then off to lunch and an egg hunt at Aunt Cheryl's.








Then off to my mom's house for another egg hunt and dinner with everyone.






Ainsley had a Sip n See! David's mom, Carole, my mom and my dad's wife, Cindy hosted a wonderful afternoon with old and new friends coming to meet Miss Ainsley! It was such a great time with Ainsley and we, once again, realize how blessed we are by our family and friends!







And of course, we cannot forget about the big sisters! They got to come over after the shower was over.




Coley turns 2!!!
Sweet Coley turned 2 on the 18th! She is such a sweet girl and we are just so happy that she is ours! Coley loves, loves, loves her sisters. She follows Mylie around, does everything she does always wants to be with her. And she loves little Ainsley too! She always wants to kiss her, asks to hold her and rubs her head. Sometimes she doesn't realize that Ainsley doesn't like it when she pokes her eyes, so we have to keep a close watch on them. Coley loves to play outside with bubbles, water and take walks. She is now in the Barney phase, likes Yo Gabba Gabba, but will only watch a few minutes and is off to play. She loves to play with her babies and feed them. It is the most precious thing. She and Mylie will build with blocks, color with crayons and markers and wrestle...which always turns into someone crying. I'd like to report that Mylie and Coley are the best of friends, but at this age, that just isn't the case. I do spend my time playing referee, but I am confident this will pass and they will be blessed with a wonderful friendship as they get older. Coley LOVES to eat. She will eat almost anything, but pretty regularly asks for chocolate...thanks to all the Easter egg hunts. She likes cheese, turkey, mac n cheese, PBJ's, juice, smoothies, grapes, mandarin oranges, blueberries, raspberries, sometimes strawberries, mashed potatoes, but I think her favorite food right now is pinto beans...that's right...she LOVES beans. She will ask for them. It's too funny. She knows and says a lot of words and can tell us what she needs, but we do still find ourselves saying, "What???" to her often. We love our little Coley-bear. And know that God has wonderful things in store for her precious life.

We celebrated her birthday at the park with a picnic lunch and cupcakes with the Hamburger's...





...and with cinnamon rolls with Grandpa, Cindy & Uncle RyRy...




...and a new tricycle from Nonna & Papa & dinner at Outback!




Moments like these are still the sweetest!!!



David Runs for the Zoo!
We are so proud of David! He ran in the Run for the Zoo 5K and did great! He came in 10th for his division and was 120th out of 2,300 runners! We had fun watching him cross the finish line too! Great job, David! We're proud of you!







Pictures of Ainsley!

And here are some pictures of our girl over the past month. She is just the sweetest little thing! She is sleeping great (will wake up at 10:30pm to eat and then again at 4:00am-ish), eating great and is growing so fast. At first she was having some troubles getting back to her birth weight, but when we went back in on her 1 month birthday, she had finally reached 7lbs 1oz. We'll go in next week to make sure she's still on the right track with her weight.











6 weeks old!!!