The Land of 10,000 Lakes

Last Wednesday, Lucy and I took our first mommy-daughter trip to see this wonderful little cheeser:

 Oh Miss Vienna, your smile and mop of hair, mixed with your deep voice just melt me! The initial purpose of our trip was to watch that little gem's baby brother being born, notice the pregnant woman in the background 

 Turns out, Boaz didn't want to make an appearance until the day we flew out, we missed him by 6 hours! Don't worry, I was able to convince myself it was better this way. I mean, at least he wasn't born while we were only 20 minutes away at the airport, that would've been torture.

Not to worry, we had a blast spending as much time as possible with the Johnson family and the lovely fall weather in Minnesota.

Isn't it cute that they have matching hats?! Elise, made them for them, I know, she should sell them.

And causing shenanigans in (almost) matching footie pjs

Sleepy cuddles

Bad situation turned good. We locked ourselves out of the house, it started raining. So, we took a walk and found a puddle. Luke rescued us in a matter of minutes

Watching herself brush her teeth

One of the last days as a family of 3

This is a quick walk from their house!

Waking up from a nap

Lucy was such a good traveler. I was so nervous to be taking her by myself, but she slept the whole way out and the whole way back! Then while we were there, I think she was showing off. She was happy and silly and independent and just a fantastic girl to be around.

These flowers were put here for the picking, right?

Buds

I am looking forward to many more mom-daughter trips with Lucy. Although, I missed the guys so much! (I may have cried when they met us at the airport)
P.S. A super big congratulations to Luke, Elise and Vienna for welcoming their gorgeous baby boy, Boaz Dean into the world!!!!!

Pre-K!!

He told me the sun was too bright

 His first day at Pre-K was a success, although he was EXHAUSTED when he got home.

Last year's first day picture

Red rover, red rover

He told me he made new friends with 2 boys and 1 girl. He can't remember their names, just their shirts or hair color. He is very excited to go back. Oh, and he enjoyed his lunch (crackers with cheese and ham, cantaloupe and strawberries, graham cracker snack pack and a juice box).

Major Milestone

Let it be recorded. I just packed Ethan's first school lunch. I know, epic. I almost shed tears thinking that I have one more year left till he's in "big" school. He'll probably be ready, I'm not. I've only had him for 4.5 years, it's not enough time!
Alright, enough of the sappy talk. Ethan's first day of Pre-K is tomorrow. He's there from 9am-1pm so he'll get to have lunch with all his friends. It's a good thing, they start prepping them on independence at lunch so when they go to the K word (I can do, I can...Kindergar...let's just wait on that one) they will be able to get their lunches open and dispose of their trash, and, hopefully, not forget their lunch boxes.
So tomorrow I will not cry when I drop him off, I will not wish away the day, I will not dread next year when I send him off to the big K. I will enjoy my pre-schooler and maybe spoil him with a few back to school treats.

Estes Park, CO

What's better then camping in late summer in Colorado, next to a river where you pull fish out by the bucket loads? Doing it in a cabin, with beds and running water! We spent an awesome 3.5ish days in Estes Park with Mike's parents in a cabin with a deck that hangs over the Big Thompson River.

Lucy loved fishing, well, she loved the fish.

 Michael did too. Mostly the fact that he caught a ton of them!

 Who needs toys? Lucy enjoyed the "amenities" of the cabin, the bucket, the cupboards, pots and pans...

 We met this guy in downtown Estes. Worst idea ever to let her pet him, from that moment on, anytime he was pulling passengers down the street Lucy would become insistent that we take her over to watch him. Until he was out of our line of sight. Yeah, she has a thing for animals.

 But then we distracted her with Blue bell ice cream, in a homemade waffle cone. never thought it possible to enjoy the cone more then the ice cream

 I wonder what he's looking for?

 Then Ethan fell and he and Pops had to walk it out

 The men. (all their idea)

 E was allowed to pick one toy during our shopping trip. At the third store he found a Police dress up kit, handcuffs, knife, gun, badge. The rest of the time we were shopping, he remembered that kit and we stopped and got it on the way out. We spent the rest of the trip taking turns being handcuffed.

 She spent much time in here, usually the rug and some teddy bears were in there with her

 There was only a shower so we improvised

 Then someone decided we should take this little box on this tiny cable to the top of this big mountain. we survived.

 and collected a few rocks to bring home

I took many, but the pictures of the view do not do it justice. It was beautiful

Ethan tamed a mountain lion

And waded into the middle of the river

Thursday was time to pack up and come home. Before we did, we stopped at Lake Estes. We saw a duck

And then out of nowhere, a herd of elk came splashing into the lake!

Then they turned and went straight toward Michael! Like they wanted to fish too.

They scared away the fish. It was AMAZING!!! We didn't expect to see any elk, it was still so warm and assumed they were all up higher in the mountains till fall.

But then it really was time to come home. We were tired