The Cabin at Red Feather

Last weekend, we were blessed with the gift of a cabin for four nights up in the mountains about an hour from here. Terry went alone for the first night and used it as a "retreat," and on Thursday after I taught my class, the kids and I drove on up.

The cabin was amazing--while it had all the comforts of home, we tried to remain in the mind frame of taking a "break" from normal life. No internet for four days--and for Terry and me, that is a really big deal! There was Dish Network, but we pretty much kept it off except for a Cubs game or two and movie for the kids. We just lived without an agenda or any major responsibilities for a couple of days.


On Friday, we had to drive back to town so Terry could sing at a wedding, and then we returned for another two days. We got up Saturday morning and went to have breakfast at a "hole in the wall" diner in Red Feather. The food was great and we needed naps immediately after! It rained all day Saturday, so lazing around was the perfect activity. On our way back to the cabin after breakfast, we drove past a cute church that was having a bazaar that day, so we stopped and went through it and bought a Christmas wreath for $5 and some baked goods. Aidan and I returned at noon for their fried chicken dinner fundraiser (Terry and Taylor ate a frozen pizza). This is just one of those things that we never do--I haven't done anything like that since I was a kid, but it was fun to experience.

Probably the best part of the weekend, at least for the kids, was the fact that our cabin was nestled in between the mountains. On either side were huge rock formations that the kids loved climbing. That is what these pictures are all of, and you can see how high they actually got! I tried to tell Aidan when we packed her clothes that she would need more than skirts for the mountains, but she didn't really listen. The last picture makes me laugh because she was actually climbing and hiking up these big ole rocks in a skirt and hot pink slip on shoes. But that's Aidan.

While we didn't do anything extremely outdoorsy, like kayak or go skiing (it is summer, after all), the kids adored the weekend, and I know they'll remember it. I was just happy to live without a schedule for a few days! :)

When I found out I was pregnant with Aidan, I wanted a little girl so badly. I kept telling myself it was a boy so I wouldn't be disappointed when it was...and then we found out it wasn't.

I can remember lying in my bed during the insomnia parts of pregnancy in the third trimester, wondering what a child made from Terry and Alicia might look like.

I can remember wondering if she'd be a tomboy or maybe girlie--if she'd like music as much as we do--if she'd grow up loving the Lord.

You can never accurately predict what your unborn child is going to be like. Terry mentioned a few days ago that had he prayed and asked for the most incredible kids and tried to describe what that was, he would have fallen short of what we actually got. We're biased, of course--they are our kids--but we are crazy about them. They're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but neither of us would want any two other kids or would want them to change in any way.


I am pregnant once again with another girl. This time I am not really bothering to try and figure out what this child will be like--I just anxiously await the day that we'll find out.

People tell me all the time that girls are easier when they're little, and then they turn into drama queens and are so hard. Maybe. But I also have a number of friends with little girls who are drama queens already. ;) Maybe she'll eventually get there, but I don't see a lot of that in Aidan so far. She has her bad moments like any kid would, but mostly, she is just really sweet.
Her latest "thing" is that she has to do everything just like I do. I have no idea why; every time she does it, I immediately think of the last time I yelled at her or something similar. Why would she want to be like me? But she won't get dressed in the morning until I do so that she can try to match it (a task that's increasingly hard since she owns mostly skirts and my preggo belly does not). Last night we both wore white tee shirts under tank tops and simple flip flops. She wants the same color nail polish as mine. She puts her towel around her waist when I do at the pool. She will crawl into bed with us in the morning and try to lay exactly like I am.

It is cute, and it is non-stop. Last night we were trying to hurry and eat dinner, throw the dishes in the dishwasher, and get to the church for practice, and she just incessantly was asking me questions like "which shoes are you wearing?" "what are you going to do with your hair, Mommy?" "are you taking a purse?" to the point that I just looked at Terry with that non-verbal communication: I just needed her to get her stuff and get in the car.

He reminded me, "In a few years, she's going to want to do anything BUT what you do. You better enjoy this now. It's sweet."

It is sweet. And so I am enjoying it.

Day Trip to Mountains

We took a day trip up to the mountains last Friday to Estes Park. The kids love the drive up with the river alongside the highway and the "tall mountain" (like on Dora). Aidan looks for different colored flowers, and Taylor just made up stories that had us laughing.



We've gone up a few times, but this time we decided to just go to one of the fun parks for the kids. They rode bumper cars, the big banana slide, go karts, played putt putt, and we all got soaked on the bumper boats. Mostly the kids had to take turns riding
with Terry since I wasn't so sure bumping into other cars would be good for the pregnant lady.

Every time we went to a different section of the fun park, Aidan would say, "Are we still in the mountains?" She didn't want to leave.


We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the river and then got ice cream, because according to Aidan and Taylor, the ice cream is the most important part of the trip.


I really love my family and feel so blessed on days like this that it doesn't take much for us to just have a really great day.