wavywards: September 2011

September 28, 2011

Camping With Dad

This past weekend, Stan took Casey camping with some friends in Telluride, while I stayed home for some relaxation and to host book club. It was quiet and a bit eerie in the house all alone, but was very nice to have no responsibility for a couple days before Baby Boy comes in a month and a half. Stan, Casey and Frisco left Friday morning and camped right outside of Telluride in the pop up camper on Friday night with our friends, Ken and Stacy and their 3 year old, Isaac. Saturday they went into Telluride to play on the playground and watch the VT game. They stayed in a hotel in the Village that night, so they got to go swimming in the hotel pool and got to ride the gondola from the Village into town for dinner. They got home Sunday evening, both exhausted. Casey went to bed at 5:30 and didn't get up until 8:00 the next morning.

Casey is doing great in her swim lessons. Still no face underwater, but she is getting more independent in the water and seems to enjoy the lesson now. Yesterday, Casey had school pictures. Her fake smile was kind of funny this year. She squints her eyes and does a funny grin. Hoping we'll get at least one good one! She seems to be more comfortable with her school. The past few weeks, drop off has gone much more smooth with her new full time teachers. She starts going Monday and Friday mornings next week, which we all think will help her develop independence even more. She always has fun at school and enjoys telling us stories about her day at dinner.

As for 3 year old behavior...At the moment, we are working on back talk. She is testing us constantly throughout the day. She wants to negotiate everything and when things do not go her way, she lets us know that she is not happy with a lovely tone of voice or crying fits. Needless to say, it's been an exhausting phase for all of us. Hoping it will pass by sooner than later.

Enjoy the pix.

Hiking with Rowan

The Campsite outside of Telluride

Isaac and Casey playing golf

Casey playing horseshoes

Cheese

September 20, 2011

We're Gonna Bowl Tonight

Casey went bowling for the first time this week. Saturday night we took her bowling with Sean, Kathy, Dillon and Connor. Though the kids were more interested in pushing the balls around the ball return, they did play a full game and were pretty good. The adults played their own game and pregnant me came out the winner!!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching the Hokies beat Arkansas State and preparing Casey's new room. Stan has been working hard painting the walls yellow and changing out the baseboard and trim. Casey even helped out with painting. She is very excited about her new room!

As for the rest of the week...Casey had her second swim lesson on Thursday. Still hasn't gone underwater, but she was jumping in to the teacher and getting her face wet and it didn't bother her at all.

Casey has become very opinionated and independent lately. She always has to pick out her own pajamas at night and underwear in the morning and really likes to choose what she is going to wear that day too. She likes to wear dresses and/or comfy pants (as Stan would say...I've created a monster). She also likes to choose her breakfast. If it's cereal, she comes into the kitchen, opens the pantry, picks her cereal, her bowl and her spoon, then gets up into her stool to eat.

She has become more and more verbal too, if you can imagine. She talks with her hands now and likes to try and have conversations.
"So Mommy...what are you doing today?"
On her pretend phones, "So, yea, I'm just playing with my cars. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh huh, yeah, well, i gotta go."

As for baby boy, he is doing well. He is constantly moving and kicking and hiccuping and making sure I know at all times he is in there. Casey still likes to call him a her, but also calls him her baby and is very excited about sharing certain toys and books with him when he comes out of mom's belly.

We didn't take too many pix this week, but enjoy the few we did take.

showing off her newly painted room

helping daddy paint

getting ready to bowl

actually watching her ball go down the lane...pretty sure it was a strike

connor, dillon and casey pushing the balls around the track

September 12, 2011

Living Off the Land

We spent a week living out of a pop up camper trailer in Winding River Resorts in Grand Lake, Colorado. We arrived the Friday of Labor Day weekend. The weekend was beautiful. The resort provided a pancake breakfast both Saturday and Sunday mornings and an ice cream social Saturday night. We got to pet the horses and the smaller animals at the animal park. There were bunnies, pigs, chickens, roosters, goats and sheep, a Shetland pony and a donkey. Casey could spend hours feeding the goats dandelions and grass.

Grand Lake has a great main street boardwalk with lots of restaurants, ice cream shops and souvenir shops. There is a marina and a beach area and a big playground, so Casey found plenty to do in town. We rented a pontoon boat for a couple hours and toured around Grand Lake and had a picnic lunch. Grand Lake is the smallest of the 3 lakes (there is Shadow Lake and Granby Lake too). We drove into Rocky Mountain National Park and took an easy 1/2 mile hike/walk along the river. With Casey the walk took over an hour, but she had fun, running to all the informational signs and testing out all the benches. We drove Trail Ridge Road to Horseshoe Park, then returned on Old Fall Road, a dirt road.

It rained Tuesday and Wednesday, but Casey was a trooper! She had fun reading books at the library and playing with her toys in the "clubhouse" (our camper). Wednesday, while Stan worked from the camper, Casey and I drove through the entire park, which take a good hour and 45 minutes one way. Though grumpy when we got to Bear Lake, she walked the 300 ft and let me get a picture in the rain.

Thursday, we drove to Dillon in the morning for Casey's first swim lesson. Casey had no problem going with her class and playing the little games. Her only issue is she doesn't go underwater yet. Half the class does, so we're hoping she will gain the courage before the 6 weeks is over. She seemed to have enjoyed it. We then picked Sarah and Rowan up and returned to the campsite. Casey was SO excited to have Rowan to play with. Friday morning the girls got to ride horses, while we led them around the campground. Neither girl was ready to get off the horse. They loved it. Casey rode the white horse, Star. Stan went for his first ever horseback ride too and seemed to enjoy it. He was the only one, so he got a private tour. We went into town for lunch, beach time, playground time after Brian got in town. Back to the campsite for hot dogs and smores. The girls played horseshoes, football, rode Casey's strider. Needless to say, Casey was exhausted!

Saturday we drove to Denver to hang with Steve and Stacia and watch College Football, Go Hokies!! We are now back home and Casey couldn't be more happy to see her toys.
"Mommy, I love our home." She pulled out every toy and book she could yesterday. We didn't here from her until dinner and then she went right back upstairs after dinner for a good hour and a half. She was devastated when she had to leave her books and come down for a bath.

The camper was AWESOME! We were hooked up to electric and water all week, so I wouldn't call it "roughing it." We also had a heater running off propane which worked out very nice, especially since after the rain, the nights got down to the lower 30's. The campground also provided really nice bathrooms with warm showers. Casey would get really excited when we returned to our campsite..."Look, there's our campsite and there's our port-a-potty!"

Casey wants to wish her cousin, Lily, a very Happy Birthday!!
On to pictures...