New Year-New Blog

I will not be updating here anymore. Please go to Elementary Spirits to keep reading!

Well, Hello World!

Since we moved I am finding less and less time to blog. With all the fun stuff there is to do here, it is enough to get on and get my 'work' done (let alone help Carter play his Toontown game). I launched another new website with a friend this summer and have been busy promoting like crazy. Connors site is doing really well too :) Connor and Bob are both taking guitar lessons from this great guy literally 3 blocks over from us. So lucky to have found him. Connor is still liking his one day a week school. We have been out fishing a few more times. No real luck with the fish but great family time.

Below are some great pictures with some captions to tell you what else we have been up to!


Carter turned 10! Connor made the cake. Connor has gotten really into cooking lately. Thanks Grandma for helping the icing to come out right! He had a whole Batman theme going on. He got a lot of money for Build a Bear thanks to Grandma, Nicholas and Nana. He went the day after his birthday and bought three bears with plenty left over for the Fall. He is excited to go pick out a Halloween costume for one or two of them. Great gift for him, he couldn't be happier.









Carter, me and his new friend Tony going up the chair lift to the alpine slide. Carter went up once with me and Tony and then ditched me to spend the rest of the day with Tony. He works with an awesome program based out of Winter Park that does disabled outdoor sports. The program was amazing. Not at all competitive, just fun, which fits Carter perfectly. They have amazing trips that are all accessible including camping, rafting, and horseback riding.



I absolutely love this picture of Carter on the alpine slide at Winter Park. He looks so free and full of joy. Don't worry, Tony was actually right in front of him but he separated just for the picture. Connor and I were in the fast lane where I got rear ended and thrown out of the car. I had quite a few bruises and burns but it was all worth that incredible smile on his face! Con had a BLAST as well.


Carter being fit for his winter sit-ski. We will all take family ski lessons through the same program that we did the resort day with. Connor is so looking forward to learning how to snowboard.







Connors best friend, Connor came to spend some time with us. The boys had so much fun but it made my Connor miss 'home' even more. They are in the middle of the boat on this picture. I have never seen a ride soak you as much as this one. We were at Elitch Gardens which is a Six Flags amusement park. Both boys love it here. They have an little Main Street that sells Disney stuff so Carter is always happy! They have a water park here as well. We have been several times since moving here.

Connor and Connor on our back fence.








The weather is WILD here. Connor drew pictures in the hail one day. It is a toontown smilie face. We had three days of tornado warnings. One of the days we were smack in the middle of three of them with one touching down less than a mile from us at the lake.






This is Sammy the Salamander. We found him living in the playroom window well one day. He only comes out when it rains. By the size of him I am sure he has been there a very long time. We have many other wild friends. We have Sammy the Squirrel (don't know why we named him the same) and lots of chickadees and finches. We occasionally see deer and fox next to the house. It is hard for the kids to understand that they are wild and not pets but we are trying to just observe and give them some feeders so that the kids see them more. I have gotten really into the birds which the kids think is hilarious. They call me the freaky bird lady.

Beautiful picture from 13,000 feet at Winter Park. Carter and I went up there with Tony. Carter was not real happy with this ski lift as it was much steeper than the one for the slide or skiing. The crazy thing is that kids as young as 7 can be seen mountain biking down this. Our nephew Tyler would probably have a blast doing that as he is quite the little BMXer. If you click on the picture you will see all the brown trees. This is damage from a pine beetle that is literally killing the forest in the Rocky Mountains. It is so sad to see the devastating amount of damage that has been and is being done.





Just a gorgeous picture from our back patio after a summer rain. Pretty symbolic of our time so far in Colorado. Seems like good things are starting to come out of the darker clouds!

Have a great month everyone!








Check out Carts blog to read his stories: Carters World

The Month of July

Still feel like I am playing catch up with everything but it is starting to get better. I will try to give you a little run down on the last month. We have been outside so much! We have been to WaterWorld, which is billed as being the largest in the nation. Carter had a blast in the wave pool which surprised us all. Connor fell in love with a slide that is alot like a giant toilet bowel that spins you around and then flushes you out. We had our buddy Nicholas come and stay. We had a blast at Dave and Busters and the Zoo with him. We have been out fishing, including today up in the mountains at Estes Park. It is about 1 1/2 hours from Denver, past Boulder and into the mountains. I was happy because Boulder has an Original Pancake House (like the one in GVR) that we stopped at on the way up. We went to Trout Haven which was like shooting fish in a barrel but the boys needed to be successful with this as they were getting pretty burnt out not catching anything in the lakes down here. It has been 'hot' here. They call out weather alerts when it gets over 90 and it has been over 90 for 18 days straight. That has heated up the lakes here so it is almost impossible to catch things from piers. Lets see what else? We went to the Spina Bifida family picnic here and went paddle boating. Carter spent a night in the ER for the staph infection in his leg that came back. We had a great time at the Museum of Nature and Science. Carter saw his first Mummy there. Totally freaked him out. The boys have been swimming alot. Connor is starting to make some neighborhood friends. The kids across the street have a roller hockey rink in their basement so that has been a lot of fun. He is taking a rock climbing class. He signed up for a school program that is one day a week. It focuses on global economics so it is perfect for him. He will be going to school downtown close to Bob on Tuesdays. He is starting an ice hockey league, and then tryout for basketball start. The middle schools here don't have competitive sports so they play on club leagues based on where they would go to school. That worked out perfectly for him! His good buddy, 'the other Connor' is coming to spend next week with us. They plan to hit Elitch Gardens and WaterWorld. Carters 10th birthday is coming up soon. He choose to have a dinner at Dave and Busters that night. I will take pictures. Speaking of pictures, below are some recent fishing ones. Fishing has been good for Bob and Connor. It is forcing them both to learn a little bit of patience (especially with each other). The first set, the really light ones (still can't find the battery to my good digital camera) on the pier are from a few weeks ago at the lake about a mile from the house. They didn't catch anything. The darker ones are from today where they took home 5 trout. Connor had the biggest at about 18 inches but Carter caught the first fish of the day. I am honestly about to throw up at the thought of eating them. My return to being a vegetarian again is getting closer and closer.

Pictures From Our Fourth

Nala enjoying ice for the first time









Carter making frog legs














Connor hanging out and waiting for the burgers he made to be cooked









Bob and Nala snuggling at the fireworks






Con and Cart snuggling at the fireworks

Carters New Blog

Carter set up a blog for all of his stories to come. Please visit it and leave a comment. He is really excited about it and I want to encourage him to write.

http://cartersworld10.blogspot.com/

I Got A New Altitude

First off, our move was a horrible, horrible, let me say that again, HORRIBLE, mess. We still have 66 boxes missing, furniture destroyed, Carter's ramps gone and on and on and on. But, I can't dwell on the negative anymore. It just isn't what I want to think about.

It is BEAUTIFUL here. My Vegas and Phoenix friends shall drool at the fact that I took a wonderful, meandering walk through tall fields and pine forests and it was 65 degrees out tonight! Don't worry I will suck it up and take your bragging when it is snowing here and you all are running around in shorts.

Everyone here is scarily friendly. No seriously, I am afraid to drink the CO koolaid. I didn't realize how jaded I had become in Vegas until I got here and everyone you talk to is nice. There must be some nasty people around here somewhere....(heehee)

I went to the garden center today and signed up for some classes. I am so excited to grow flowers!!!

Connor is loving the community pool. He can walk over by himself. Carter and I have been twice this last week. Our new homeschool co-op has park days on Wed so we will check that out next week. This week I have someone coming to give me an estimate on making the house more accessible. I have heard that the library two blocks away loves homeschoolers and runs lots of classes during the school year for us.

Boxes, boxes, busy, busy....miss everyone! Pictures next time!

Adios Amigo's!!!

We will be leaving on Saturday. To everyone we have not had a chance to say goodbye to in person: Thank you for making our time in Vegas so much better for having the chance to have known you. Our house here is not even on the market yet so I know we will back to visit :)