Harvest Fest

 Pictures from our neighborhood's harvest fest...  

 

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I am shocked, absolutely shocked that he sat on this bull. 

 

Waiting for the hay ride.

Checking out the horses during the hayride. He had the perfect view.   

 

He couldn't get over the sound of the horse shoes. 

 

Here piggy piggy piggy.

 

He marched right up to this donkey and said, "neigh."  LOL!

 

Feeding the baby goats.  Joshua got a kick out of them eating right out of his hand. 

 

It is crazy to think that next year at the Harvest Fest we will have a 2.5 year old and 6.5 month old in tow.  

 

Joshua at 17 Months

Joshua is 17 months and loving life.  He is such a bundle of joy.  He is friendly, persistent, silly, inquisitive, a great communicator, loves babies and horses, affectionate and just so much fun!

Joshua loves balls. He hoards them and just hates sharing them. 
 

Look what he found after being at a b-day party
for less than 2 minutes...a handful of balls.

After having some kids try to take his balls
he hid them in a secret spot.

There, now no one can take his balls. 

 

He is so goofy and has a very good imagination.  He is always coming up with something silly. 

I love to sit back and just watch him play and problem solve.  I wish I could get into that little mind of his.

Lately he loves playing with these two bags.  He drags them everywhere putting things into them and when he eats he has to have them hanging on the back of his chair. 

Here he is after putting some toys in his bags...

...now he is trying to figure out how to get into his car with his bags.  The problem is that there is a baby, dog, and water bottle on his seat.  After he reached into one of his bags, pulled out keys and put them in the ignition I watched him try to solve this problem for 10 minutes. 

There, I did it!  I put the dog on the ground under my car and the baby in a bag.  HA!  This cracks me up because he was totally doing what he sees me doing.  Whenever we go someplace I always have my keys, purse (bags), water, and baby.  I can assure you though that I have never ever put my baby in a bag, he came up with that solution on his own.  LOL!

Occasionally, he can be found doing this...

...taking his toys out of his toy box one by one

and setting them on the kitchen table.   

 

We have really been working on teaching him not to go in the street while playing in the front yard.  Most days he is a great listener.  Sometimes a ball will roll in the street and he will ask one of us to get it instead of getting it himself.  The other day he kept trying to put his truck in the street.  I told him, "don't put your truck in the street."  So this is what he did instead.  He put it right on the slant.  Testing boundaries?  I think so.  

 

He loves doing art projects.  He likes to color, eat crayons, put stickers on paper, and paint.

 

 

 

Tissue paper art.

 

Loves putting my books and DVD's in the library book return. 

Hanging out with Papa. 

 

Loves being outside exploring.

 

We just love this little guy so much! 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Pumpkin Painting TIme

We took advantage of this beautiful fall day by putting on our painting clothes, going outside, and painting a pumpkin.  Well, Joshua painted the pumpkin while I did a photo shoot ;)  
 

I think I will start with yellow.

 

And now for some green. 

 

 

Is it okay to paint this table cloth Mom?  It's sort of plain looking.

 

No painting the table cloth?  How about my leg then?

 

All in all he got out of there pretty clean and only tried to eat the paint off the paint brush one time.  Afterwards he had just as much fun carrying around the different bottles of paint.  

 

Bed and Breakfast

Last week Daniel and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast at one of my favorite places, Estes Park.  We left Joshua with his Omah and Papa.  This was our first time leaving him overnight.  He did great and had so much fun!  When we went to pick him up I asked him if he wanted to go home.  The first time he shook his head no and the second time he signed more while saying "papa."  Now that is proof of a good time. 

This was our first stay at a Bed and Breakfast and we really enjoyed it.  It was so cozy and our hosts were so personable and welcoming.  I knew I was going to love them when we were greeted with chocolate covered strawberries =)

Hanging out on the porch at our B&B

 

We had such a relaxing time elk watching, hiking, enjoying the scenery and of course talking about Joshua. 



Here are some pictures...

A mama and her baby.

Watching the fish trying to swim upstream.

Came across this on our hike.  Ang and Dan carved into the tree.  What are the odds?

 

We hiked a trail that takes you to an old ghost town.  The homesteads were 7 miles into the mountains making it a 14 miler round trip.  We definitely were not prepared to do the whole 14 miles so we just did half of it which took us to one homestead. It seemed liked we were hiking forever with no mile markers or signs in sight that I was beginning to wonder if we were on the right trail.  We knew we were close when we came across this old car frame.

 

It baffles me how they got a car up this mountain.   

The home we hiked to belonged to a women named Sara Walker.  After outliving her husband and son she moved from town to the mountains where she lived for 15 years.  She survived with her milking cow, chickens, and garden.  When she needed supplies she would gather cream and eggs, hike down to the highway (about 3 miles) and get a ride into town to sell her goods and purchase the things she needed. 

Here is what was left of Sara's home.

 

I don't know if you can see it in the picture but this is the springs from her bed along metal tools, cans, and odds and ends.

 

Her stove.

 

To be standing on the grounds of history thinking about the life she lived and the life we live now was so fascinating. On the way down from our hike I kept thinking how spoiled we are and how hard people worked back then. We definitely want to make the trek to see the rest of the town in the future. Maybe on horses and when I am not pregnant.

 



 

Resting during our 6 mile hike

   

After our hike we grabbed some lunch and then snacks from one of our favorite shops in Estes, Hayley's.  We go to Estes every year and every year we stop at Hayley's from some homemade ice cream and other goodies. 

 

  It is not an Estes Trip unless you stop at Hayley's.

 

Taking a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park.

 

Meanwhile, back at Omah and Papa's house, guess what Joshua was doing???  Eating his FIRST ice cream cone (ice cream made from fruit puree).

 

 

I think he likes it.  

 



 

We had such a relaxing time and so grateful that Joshua has such loving grandparents taking such great care of him while we were gone.  Looking forward to next year's visit!

In Love

It's no secret, I am in love.  I am in love with a very sweet boy who measures right above my knees.  This boy has my heart. Yes, I am in love! 

I am in love with a boy who....

loves to read books
 

is a handyman just like his daddy

has quite the imagination and is always coming up with silly things to do

is fearless 

would rather socialize than sit still at story time 

 



 

loves to get in his toy box and play 

Yes, yes it is true. I am so in love with this boy.  He owns my heart and I would do anything for him.