Colorado and New Mexico 6/11-6/18

Ellen and I went to Colorado Springs to see my family. My parents were there visiting too. While we were there, we drove to Taos, New Mexico for a long weekend. This is the view from the house that we stayed in. It was a beautiful place. There was so much to do and enjoy and the weather was perfect.

Everyone was together except Korey. Unfortunately he had to work. Front row: Ellen, Sawyer, Carson, Meridian. 2nd row: Tammi, Acadia, Austin, Riana. 3rd row: Dawn, Mom, Dad, Jeremy.
Back: Eric.

Ellen had so much fun being outside and playing with her cousins.

About 70 miles from Taos is Bandalier National Monument. It is ancient Native American cliff dwellings. We got to climb up in them. What an amazing place. The kids had a blast!

Meridian, Ellen, Sawyer, Austin, and Acadia in one of the cliff dwellings.

It was so nice and cool in the cliff dwellings. No wonder the Natives lived there. It was about 90 degrees outside and felt like air conditioning inside.

When we returned to Colorado Springs, we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Ellen got to feed the giraffes. Notice Ellen and the giraffe both have their mouth open. Ellen wanted to eat the cracker for the giraffe and cried when the giraffe ate the cracker.

Ellen is One!!

I know I'm so behind but I've been very busy. We went to Idaho the last week of May (see next posting for details). Then when we got home, it was the last week of school, which is always very busy. The day after school got out, we had Ellen's birthday party and now I'm getting ready to go to Colorado and New Mexico tomorrow.

Ellen had a party in Boise with all of Korey's family. She didn't like the hat very much (she hates things on her head).

She ate a little bit of her cake (with cousin Shelby's help) but mostly had fun making a mess with it.

On her actual birthday, June 7th, we had a party at our house with a few friends. Ellen loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her. She danced and then would say, "Ha ba," until we would sing it again. She did not get this big cake (it was for everyone else). She had her own small cake.

She made quite the mess again. I don't think she actually ate much cake but she had fun tearing it apart and throwing it all over.

Ellen couldn't resist getting into her presents. I can't believe she is one already! Where did the time go?

Trip To Idaho 5/24-5/31

We went to Boise for Teal's graduation. It was a really nice ceremony. How did this happen so soon? It seems like just yesterday she was Ellen's age. Teal will be attending The College of Idaho in the fall. We got to go see her school. It is really nice and seems like a great fit for her.

We also were able to celebrate Teal's 18th birthday on May 24th.

SISTERS! It is amazing how much they look alike. There are some pictures of Teal at Ellen's age and it is almost hard to tell them apart. They had a lot of fun together. We sure do wish they could spend more time together.

As you can see, Ellen is standing very well and she has even started walking a bit. She has taken up to 6 steps by herself. She is very good at crawling so doesn't work too hard on the walking but it sure is cute when she does it.

Ellen went for her first boat ride in the paddle boat. Everytime she got in, she immediately fell asleep. I think it was just too relaxing and she couldn't move in her life jacket!

Korey got to do a lot of fishing. Ellen fished with him a little bit. She liked the "ball" the most. She is very into anything that is a ball right now. It's one of her favorite words.

She didn't even mind touching the fish or the worms. She has no idea that they are gross or slimy yet.

Korey got to do a little fishing with Teal too. He was very happy that he got to fish with both of his girls.

This is the big catfish that he caught. It weighed 14.5 pounds. Boy was he excited!

This is one of the big carps he caught. One day he was pulling in big fish left and right of every variety.

Korey got to take me and Ellen to Cabela's for our first time. Ellen liked looking at all of the big animals and the fish in the aquarium.

Ellen got to meet all of her cousins on Korey's side of the family and her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Peery. She had never met any of them before. Grandma and Grandpa surprised us by coming to Boise. We didn't know they were going to be there. The boys are Nathan, Mitchell and Michial. The girls are MacKenzie, Shelby, Ellen and Teal.