Vacation Finale

As of midnight last night, we are home sweet home. Bags are already unpacked (can you believe it?!) :) and real life is back in full swing. Amazing how a week of vacation goes by so fast! We miss Colorado already and will cherish the great memories we made as a family! Here are some highlights of the remainder of our vacation:

On Tuesday morning we hiked up to Treasure Falls which begins at the base of Wolf Creek Pass in Pagosa Springs. What a beautiful view! It turned out to be a little colder than we thought so we were glad the hike wasn't too long as Teagan was pretty chilled by the end of it.

























On Tuesday afternoon/evening we headed an hour west to Durango. We had a great time perusing their beautiful, historic downtown and then headed to Cross Bar X Youth Ranch where I worked as a camp counselor during the summer of '01. The camp sits on a large hill and is surrounded by beautiful mountains and valleys. It is small, hosting about 25 - 30 kids a week during the summer. Largely due to donations, many of these kids come from inner cities and have never had the experience of camp/ranch life. What I love most is that Cross Bar X finds the worth of each child, showers them with God's love, teaches them amazing life lessons, and and in everything they do, from backpacking to swimming in the lake to hand feeding the lambs, points them towards starting or deepening their relationship with Christ!

While there, we were so blessed to have Nick and Tracy Brothers, the founders and executive directors of the camp, and their girls (all grown up!) host us for a delicious dinner! It was so wonderful to reconnect with them and for them to meet Tim and Teagan! It was also very special for me to show Tim Cross Bar X as my experience there 8 years ago has impacted me deeply and holds a special place in my heart! Tim loved it there and we can't wait to go back and visit again some time!


Enjoying my coffee from my favorite coffee shop in downtown Durango...The Steaming Bean.


Standing on the ridge overlooking the camp's lil' lake.


In front of the staff lodge.


Playing in the big field.


The Brothers Family (minus Amy)!



Some Final Photos:


Our condo


Loungin'

Headed home....

Highlights (so far...)

We've had some great times over the last couple of days here in Colorado! Here are some highlights...most of which are all FIRSTS for our lil' Teagie Bear!


First time BLOWING BUBBLES all by herself!



First time wearing PIGTAILS!





First time SWIMMING!




Ooohh....look what I found in the flower pot, Mommy!

We enjoyed taking a scenic drive through Blanco Basin yesterday morning and soaked in God's beautiful creation!



We visited the Pagosa Springs Wildlife Park earlier today. It's kind of a small place and we were actually the only visitors there which was kind of neat to take our time and walk around. Teagan LOVED seeing many of the animals that we read about in her books and wouldn't stop squealing and saying "oof oof" (dog) and "ooh ooh ahh ahh" (monkey)....even though neither of these animals were at the park. :)



We saw goats, sheep, a miniature donkey, a bobcat, mountain lions, an emu, an elk, coyotes, a porcipine, and wolves. We hoped to see the black bear but he was too busy napping (despite our many attempts at affectionately calling "cubby bear" like one of the staff told us to do to get him to come to us). :)










She loved collecting the rocks on the ground almost as much as seeing the animals. :)

We Heart Colorado

While we usually head south during Spring Break (the only time of year that Tim isn't bound to any snow plowing or lawn care contracts), we decided to venture west this year for a change of pace (and we figured it would be hard to relax on a beach with an active 15 month old). It was a pretty easy decision for us since if we had "another life," we'd choose to live in Colorado (plus, Mom and Dad O graciously gave us a deal on a condo through their timeshare). We LOVE it here!

Our family adventure began early Thursday morning with a drive to Chicago where our brother and sister in law, Matt and Kelly, live. Kelly graciously transported us and all of our gear to the airport. For those of you who know me, I can get a little frenzied with making sure everything is organized and planned out and running smoothly before/while leaving for trips. I tried really hard to just to "roll with the punches" while preparing to leave this week and Thursday was no exception despite the "circumstances" which challenged me otherwise:

Despite waking up super early, Teagan decidd to not sleep on the way to Chicago....I was counting on the fact that she would, knowing she most likely wouldn't sleep on the plane, making an already challenging situation more challenging (making an active 15 month old stay on our lap for over 4 hours).

We found great deals on airline tickets several months back and decided that although we enjoy road trips, 4 hours on a plane with a 15 month old was better than 24 in a car. I was very proud of my packing skills....we only had one suitcase we would have to check in (Northwest now charges for each piece of luggage checked) and Tim and I each had a carry on suitcase we were planning to take with us on the plane. I could take her diaper bag on the plane without it counting towards the carry on limit and we also had a stroller and Kelty back pack that we could check at the gate for free since it was baby gear. Whew.

Well, my "perfect plan" proved not to be so perfect after all. The piece of luggage that we checked in was apparently 2 pounds "overweight" according to Northwest's policy. It was going to cost us $90 to check it unless I took out 2 pounds worth of stuff. Apparently, a box of crackers, a couple of books, a blanket and a bottle of hairspray (which ended up in the trash since I could't take this on the plane) proved to weigh 7 pounds (whatever) and were transferred to my now disorganized carry on luggage. We were good to go or so we thought. Upon arriving at the gate to the plane, we were told that the plane was too small for our carry on luggage so they had to take it along with stroller and backpack and put in in storage underneath the plane. To say the least, I was not happy as one of these carry on's was packed with some food and new lil' activities/toys I had bought special for Teagan to occupy her on the plane ride. While the whole plane waited for us, I scrambled to transfer and stuff as much food and trinkets into the diaper bag (the only thing I could actually take with us on the plane) and with the help of my more rational thinking husband, reminded myself that all would be okay. :) After finding our seats on the small plane and trying to get comfortable while crammed with Teagan on our lap, we were informed that there was going to be a delay due to weather in Memphis (where we had a layover). Although delays can be frustrating (but understandable), we've discovered they take on a whole new level of frustration when traveling with an active, over tired, hungry child! Over an hour later, and after exhausting most of our "special activities/distractions", the plane finally took off. The hour and 1/2 flight to Memphis seemed to take four hours but we survived (barely) and landed just in time to do a diaper change, transfer some new toys to the diaper bag and take off for another 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Denver. Since Teagan was spent from the first leg of the journey (okay, us too), I prayed for an extra measure of strength for the second leg since without God's intervention, the 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Denver was not going to be pretty. Praise God for helping us through! Amazingly, Teagan did much better this leg of the journey (sticking one of her special new toys, a pack of gel cling-on flowers, to the back of the seat proved to be a highlight and a lengthy distraction for our lil' one) and after just a short melt-down, she fell asleep for the last 45 minutes of the flight. Many people on the plan (who graciously played many rounds of "peek-a-boo" with her), commented on how well she did. We are quite proud of our Teagie Bear and for her endurance during this VERY long day!

Well, we landed in Denver and the mountain view made all things better. :) We stayed the night in Denver where the Lord blessed us with a good nights rest after an exhausting day. Yesterday morning we got in our rental car and took a beautiful 6 hour drive south to Pagosa Springs where we'll be staying for the remainder of the week. Pagosa is about an hour away from Durango where I worked as a camp counselor one summer 8 years ago. We're looking forward to taking a day trip there so I can show Tim the camp and reminisce of days past. :) We're also looking forward to doing some hiking and checking out the hot springs here in town! Right now Teagan is sleeping and Tim and I are relaxing and looking forward to continuing to soak in some good family time together!

We're looking forward to a great week and hope you all have one as well!









We taught Teagan how to "pop" her ears when they got plugged from going up and down the mountains (she kept putting her fingers in her ears...poor baby didn't know what was going on). We don't know if this actually helps her, but it's been cute watching her try. :)


We woke up to several inches of snow this morning! Yikes! Supposedly it's suppose to warm up over the next few days so that's good news. :)

Boat For Sale

Tim and I are selling a boat we bought last summer. Long story short, soon after making this purchase, my parents bought a new boat and offered to sell their old boat to us. This was a hard offer to pass up since this was the boat I grew up on and we can now "keep it in the family" (I am quite sentimental for those that don't know), it has been so well taken care of (thanks, dad!), and the price was hard to pass up (again, thanks mom and dad o!). SO....as you can gather, we opted to purchase my parent's old boat and now need to sell the one we bought just prior to that.

If you or someone you know may be interested, please let us know!! This is the perfect family boat and it is in great shape!

1985 FOUR WINNS HORIZON
17 FT.
SHORELAND'R TRAILER
2 COVERS
230 HORSEPOWER, 305 CU.IN, MERCRUISER V8
OPEN BOW, SUN DECK, SWIM PLATFORM

Asking $4,200 OBO

Daddy's Girl

Teagan loves spending time with her daddy (and her daddy is just a little smitten with her as well!). :)






Tim's new favorite "toy" (a tractor for the business).


Training Teagan to be a John Deere girl and one day take over the business. :)






Teagan also loves her "big brother," Bailey. He brings her so much joy!! :) He's such a good sport to constantly let her climb all over him and give him hugs and kisses! :)

Ezra Alexander Foreman

Our adorable nephew joined the world on March 12! Praise God that everything went well and that Ezra is healthy (he weighed in at 9lb 7oz!! - way to go, Tara!) :)

We were able to take a quick road trip to Cincinnati last weekend and visit Tara and Mark and their precious boys and we miss them already!