Fall in the Rockies

When we first moved to Steamboat on October 1, 2004, Annie's parents helped move us in. The changing colors of the aspen trees were amazing that year and seemed to cast a spell on them. For every year since, they have returned for a weekend of fall foliage fun!

This year we headed up Buffalo Pass and the trees did not disappoint. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let these speak for themselves.

And of course, some of the fun included Emery spending time with his Nana and Papa.

Nana reading to Emery about the "Biggest Pumpkin Ever." She is getting him ready for the big pumpkin patch near Holyoke in mid October.

Emery tried to help Papa get his fly tied to the end of his rod. But, alas, there are no fish to be found in Dinosaur Lake!

Sweet Beginnings

This weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating Hill's mom's recent nuptials with lots of family and friends. She and Hugh Rice were married in San Francisco on September 13th. Hill's Aunts and Uncles hosted a lovely reception for the pair. Aunt Persis put out a wonderful spread of food and sentimental...yet sweet and funny toasts were offered by Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Chuck, Amy and Lauren. The evening was topped off with yummy cupcakes for all.

Here is to sweet beginnings and happily ever afters.

Emery could not be happier for his "Millie" and "Hugh Baby."

(And neither could we!)

Lillian Love

I think Emery has a thing for younger women.

Our friend's the Yender's have two beautiful little girls. Melaina is just six weeks younger than Emery and the two of them have played together always. But, last March when Melaina's sister was born, Emery became smitten with the younger of the two Yender ladies. If Lillian is in the room, Emery constantly checks in on her and makes sure she always has a toy to play with and sometimes even sneaks a kiss or two.

Sweet, huh?

Rubber Ducky Race

Every year the Yampa Valley Medical Center hosts a Rubber Ducky Race Fundraiser by sending thousands and thousands of little yellow rubber ducks down the Yampa River. It is quite a sight to behold as so many of the familiar bath toys take float.


Emery loved watching them come and go from a bridge about halfway through the race. Here he is with his buddy Caz.


We walked to the end of the race to see which ducky would win...it was not ours.

Four Years Ago Today...

Devil's Causeway

In our attempt to get in as much hiking as possible while Emery will still tolerate being in the backpack, we made the Flat Tops Wilderness Area our location of choice this weekend. The terrain was beautiful and the wildflowers were in full bloom. We chose the Devil's Causeway as our destination. As described in Hiking the Boat II, it is "a short, four-foot wide passageway over a cliff with 1,500-foot drops on either side, down to the valley far below." It was amazing and Emery loved the "exposure."


Emery and Hill approaching the Causeway...at this point Emery was on foot!


Emery sucked on the Camelback most of the 2 1/2 hour approach. He had a very full diaper!


Back into the backpack for the crossing.


The family...on the other side!


Emery and the Flat Tops.

Emeryism

Tonight Hill was reading "Horton Hears a Who" to Emery for his bedtime story. Hill got to the line in the book that read "...So, gently, and using the greatest of care, The elephant stretched his great trunk through the air," and Emery exclaimed "I have a trunk!" And Hill said "You have a nose. An elephant has a trunk." And Emery said again "I have a trunk!" He then hopped off the bed and ran to the end where we have a beautiful wooden chest that Merl Davidson made for us for a wedding gift. We keep Emery's stuffed animals in this chest. But, at one point, we must have refered to it as a trunk because Emery hit the wooden chest and said "Right Here! Right here Emery has a trunk!"

Cookie Monsters

Every Wednesday my friend Molly and I do a "Tot Swap." Her daughter Sydney comes to play at our house every other week and Emery does the same...vice versa. It is great to have a couple hours to myself to get errands done or just get caught up!

This week while Syd was over, we decided to make cookies.


They were both a big help dumping in the flour and the sugar.


After some mixing (and a little taste test of the cookie dough) they are ready to go in the oven.


And Syd loves the results!

Emeryism

While we were out and about today, I pulled up behind an Audi at a stop light. From the back seat Emery got very excited and said "The Olympics are on that car." (He saw the rings that made up the car's logo). It is simply amazing how his mind works!