Rocky Mountain National Park

We all went into Rocky Mountain National Park a few times since we were staying so close to it. The first day we drove up Trail Ridge Road and stopped up there for a bit.

The drive up there was breathtaking. I've been there before but it still doesn't fail to impress. A few of us decided to go ahead and make the trek up to the top. Anna was all cozy in the carrier and actually slept through the entire climb and descent.

Made it to the top!

I still can't get over the colors in the mountains. The blue looks so much bluer, the white seems so crisp. I love it.

Family photo

 Group shot with all of us.

During another trip into the park we took the one way road up instead. It too offered amazing views and some great spots to get out and wander around.

It was tough getting Anna to look at the camera for many photos since she much preferred watching the water.

Anna's first waterfall

So beautiful

We enjoyed all of our trips into the park so much. We've already talked about how we want to go camping there once Anna is a little bit older.

 

Up Up and Away!

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to go on a hot air balloon ride. Since the babies couldn't go we had to split up into two groups and go on different days. James, Scott, Kevin, and I were all in the first group.

We had to be there pretty early and there was breakfast while we waited and watched them get the balloons ready.

This is the balloon that we got to ride in. It was the biggest of all of them there. I asked the captain how much just the balloon cost and he told me this big one was $85,000. Whew!!!

All loaded up! Our captain, Ed, was pretty awesome and we learned a lot about hot air balloons. The world champion in hot air ballooning is actually from Kansas. Represent!

Patti and Kevin drove with us that morning and the plan was for them to follow us in the car. Unfortunately, James had the car keys with him and we didn't realize it until we were a couple thousand feet in the air. Whoops!

We are in the balloon in the upper right hand corner. They always have a test balloon that will go up high right away and find out what the wind is doing up there. We were the test balloon that day and we went to over 11,000 feet right away. It was fun seeing the other balloons that were at lower altitudes really moving with the wind but we were basically just over where we took off from. Later we came down and let the wind take us away.

The view was absolutely incredible. I thought I would be more nervous than I was. I think I was more nervous about dropping my binoculars so I just stopped using them so I could relax. 

I loved going over water so we could see our reflection. When you are close to land they call it skimming. 

When we were really high we could see Pike's Peak and downtown Denver off in the distance which was pretty cool. I think I liked be a little lower though so you could see what was going on below. 

It was a perfect day to be up there and we are so grateful for the opportunity to do something so incredible. The captain said the winter is actually the best time to go even though the season is in the summer months. I would love to go after a fresh snow!

Lily Lake

After a lazy morning we had some time to kill before we needed to head back into Denver to pick up Grandpa Kevin and Serena from the airport. (They had to come later for various reasons). A few of us decided to head over for a short walk around Lily Lake.

All loaded up!

 Anna seemed to enjoy looking at the beautiful mountains but she especially liked looking at her Daddy.

Anna and Daddy love! 

It was a pretty short walk but it was absolutely beautiful! It was so nice getting out of the heat and humidity.

I love how blue the sky looks.

And I'm a sucker for an awesome reflection in the water.

I'm so glad that Anna's first vacation could be in a place so gorgeous...even if she won't remember it.

First family vacation!

Vacation!

We've been back a few days now from our crazy vacation. Now that I've had a chance to sort through pictures I'm going try and get these posts up.

The first phase of vacation was in Colorado with the Kent side of the family. Kevin, Anna, and I flew with Thomas and Adell to Denver where we met up with Joe.

From there we made the drive to the rental house that Grandma and Grandpa rented in the mountains not far from Estes Park.

We got there at night and when we woke up we got to see the amazing view! Our first day was spent relaxing and enjoying our surroundings, swimming, and playing games.

The pool was a little chilly for Anna so we decided to take her swimming in one of the jacuzzi tubs instead.

Anna seemed to enjoy the bubbles.

The girls in their new outfits!

It was lovely being able to hang out and not have to worry about getting somewhere. I sure love this little lady!

It was awesome having Anna and Adell get to spend lots of time together. Adell loves her little cousin and Anna gets so excited whenever she sees Adell.

4th of July

We couldn't have asked for better weather for Anna's first 4th of July. After how hot it was last year the slightly cooler day was amazing!


Anna got to sport her patriotic tutu for a little bit. Eventually Kevin put it on top of her head so that was the end of that. 

Our little firecracker did pretty well with all the people that were over at the Kent's. She got a little uneasy when neighbors started setting off some loud fireworks but it was also close to her bedtime.

 
It's so nice that Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Patti have a house by the lake. It's a perfect spot to watch the big fireworks show without having to worry about parking and walking to watch them. I was able to put Anna to bed before the show started. Thank goodness for white noise. She slept through the entire thing!

We're off tomorrow for a crazy trip. Colorado, Vermont, and then New York. There will definitely be lots to post about when we get back!

7 months!

I'm late as usual but Anna turned 7 months last week! 7 months?!? When did that happen? My baby is closer to being a year old then a newborn!


We've had a fun month of introducing new foods to Miss Anna. So far she has had avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal, butternut squash, green beans, peaches, bananas, apples, carrots, barley, pears, and peas. She's been pretty willing to eat everything so far but I'd say that her favorites are pears, sweet potatoes, and the squash. She'll gobble those up very quickly!

Anna was already a grabby little thing but she's become even more so. She's also much faster and puts her entire body into it when there is something that she really really wants. She's just busy busy. 

Our little bug is also quite the talker. Her favorite word right now is Blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. She'll also shriek at you. If you shriek too it can go back and forth for quite awhile.

We made it to Baby Bookworms at the library one week and Anna loved looking at all the other babies there. It's as if she's looking at what the older ones are doing and thinking....maybe I can do that to!

Anna has also started protesting when toys are taken away from her. She's more likely to get upset when she's starting to get tired but it's beginning to happen more and more. While Anna has been able to sit unassisted for awhile now she is getting better and better at it all the time. Her "falls" have become a little more graceful and she doesn't get as upset about it as she used to. She continues to roll all over the place and she has been trying to scoot places. I think we're going to be in trouble once she starts crawling...

We're so in love with our little bug and we are constantly amazed at her. We love watching her take the world in and learn new things all the time. Looking forward to seeing what the next month brings!