Mountain Adventures: Jefferson, Colorado

Finally we threw in the towel and took a much needed break from our house and it's projects! We originally had plans to go to a hut party to celebrate Reid's friends' conquering the 7 summits, but after viewing the weather this morning, we decided to bail and go on our own hike.

Reid picked a hike outside Jefferson, Colorado which is just over Kenosha Pass. If you live in Colorado, sometimes you try to stay away from the 70 traffic. Who wants to spend an extra hour in the car, just sitting in traffic. In typically Jennings family fashion, we could not find the trail head and wandered around for 30 minutes trying to find something. We found a trail head and decided to see where it went. This turned out to be one of the prettier hikes and reminded both Reid and I of the Idaho panhandle and Western Montana. Another bonus about this hike was we saw NOBODY on the trail. It could have been the misty/rainy weather but it was glorious being on a hike again with no one around.

Carson: 15 Months

First off can I start out asking, where did August go?! And now, what has little man been up to lately. The most exciting is definitely walking! His first "walking" started at 14 months and 16 days, although he was taking steps the week prior to this. But on this day he was standing up and down on his own and walking in circles around the house :) After that he seemed to go on a hiatus. Maybe he thought it was overrated and crawling was just as efficient. So for a week he only walked in the evenings, and I couldn't get him to walk outside. Well exactly 7 days after this hiatus started, it was like he re-learned all over again. He now walks all over the house and we've been working more and more on walking outside.

So what else is new... I am starting to notice him understand concepts. For example, when we come back from outside I say, "can I take your shoes off" and his sticks his foot in the air. I'll then say, "ok can we put our shoes away," and after showing him where one goes, he crawls over and throws the other one in the shoe bin by the front door. He'll even try to put shoes on himself, but gets angry when he can't get them on. He will grab a dog toy and when I says, "can you give that to puppy," he'll go find Snyder and throw him the toy he has. And lastly when daddy isn't awake yet, I'll say "go find daddy" and he walks to our room and babbles with delight "dadada." He likes to push buttons on things and put objects together. The other day he took a plastic ball and put it on a small tupperware (it looked like an ice cream cone) and then walked all over the house! But the best is his dinosaur noises! The other day at My Gym open play, he was walking around "growling" and some little boy goes, "Yeah, you aren't that scary." Hahaha!! Oh Carson, you make us laugh and bring us so much joy.

There's No Place Like...Kansas

We took a quick trip to Kansas this past weekend and talk about humidity!! After not living in humidity for 5 years now, I am quickly reminded how horrible it is! But before our Kansas trip, Carson and I went to Shakespeare in the Park. It actually turned into me and two other mom friends chasing our kids around, lol. At least they got to enjoy some fresh, non-humid Colorado air on a gorgeous evening.

Looking at the ducks during a beautiful Colorado sunset

Carson with his friends Juno and Logan (picture by Erin Boardman)

Such a cutie! Thanks for the picture Erin Boardman

Play with me Logan (picture by Erin Boardman)

And now to our trip! My friend since elementary school and Reid's soccer friend got married this past weekend and we just couldn't miss it. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures because my phone died :( Guess I should have stole the hubby's! Also while we were back Nonni gave him his first haircut! So goodbye cute baby curls! They were turning into a rat tail.

Reid and Harry with their signature pose

Celebrating Mr. and Mrs. Travis at The Lodge at Ironwoods

Some of their rustic decor. Lindsay did a fantastic job with decoration planning!

First haircut

Carson did ok on the plane only because he never really screamed (for that long!). He just can't settle down so we were his climbing gym. All he wanted to do was get down off the seat then climb back up. On our way to KC we FINALLY got him settled on the 1hr 30min flight only to fall asleep 5 minutes before the wheels touched down. The way back there was no nap at all and he was just going stir crazy. Hopefully his plane etiquette gets better as we are flying with him twice more before the years end.

My Wish Has Been Granted...

I can not believe Carson is WALKING!! Of course he still prefers to crawl as he is still mastering it, but ever since he started getting up and down on his own and talking steps I think I can officially tell people he's walking (at least we know he knows how). This literally came out of nowhere. Earlier this week Reid and I were talking and noticed Carson standing on his own, then he took one tiny step. We both said out loud, "There's hope! It probably won't be much longer." Little did we know the progression he would make in less than a week. So from some of his first steps, to loving to walk toward you (if you stood him up first) to now getting up and down on his own and walking in circles through the house, I am finally having a proud mom moment and I can not stopping smiling when I see him walking so proudly! Every time he gets up he is babbling away with his arms in the air. Too cute!!

In other news we finalized our Seattle plans and are so excited to go back and visit. Carson is a lucky kid because on this trip he will get to go on a plane, ride in a car, take that car on a boat and take a train to a soccer game! Then we are off to the mountains for 3 nights of camping and wrapping up our trip with a visit to the ocean. This will be our first big family vacation with the 3 of us and I can't wait to make some memories. But for this weekend it's off to Kansas we go as one of my childhood friends is getting married! So excited for a date night!!