Visiting Heather, icing on the vacation cake

On Thursday morning we packed up and Karen, Luke, & Katie drove us to a little town on Hwy 70 to meet Heather. We all had lunch together and we drove with Heather to her condo in Winter Park. We walked over a bridge from her place to the "Village". The slopes were right there. In the winter she walks to the chair lift. Pretty sweet location. We finally got to watch some of the Olympics. Heather and I went to North Park College in Chicago our freshman year together and then both transferred out. She stayed in Chicago and I went off to MA. We became good friends that first year and have stayed close for the past 27 years. We've been on many adventures together. It was so good to be together. 

Josie and Eric took a chairlift half way up the mountain and rode the alpine slide down. They both enjoyed it. Josie kept wanting to go faster.

Josie wanted to organize things at Heather's so first it was matches and letter silverware. I guess she wasn't that into the Olympics. 

The next day we rode the chairlift to the top of the mountain and Eric rode Heather's mountain bike on trails around and then eventually down the mountain and Heather and I hiked down with Josie on my back.

 

 

We walked around in some shops in the heart of Winter Park and then headed back to Heather's house in Denver. Heather actually lives outside of Denver in Edgewater. She has an adorable house and a cute little downtown. We walked to a pizza place for dinner and it was so nice and warm out. On the way we passed a little park and a guy was hanging out with a bunch of hula hoops waiting for people to use them. We ate some great pizza and cheered with everyone for the hometown Olympic favorite swimmer Missy. We had to wake up super early and Heather drove us to the airport and that was the end of a great vacation.

Such a big girl in her own seat.

Post reunion fun

After lunch on Sunday my parents and Roger, Caroline, Oliver, & Miller were in one mini van and we were in another with Karen, Luke, & Katie. We drove to Carbondale and arrived at bedtime. We made a bunch of stops along the way but it was probably a 4 hr drove. First stops were driving through Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.

Carbondale is a cute little town. We stayed at BRB Cabins for 4 nights right along the river. We had three cabins right in a row. Unfortunately they didn't have an open 4th one so Mom & Dad stayed at the Comfort Inn 6 miles away. That came in handy for watching some of the Olympics since it was going on that week. Josie slept on a futon pad on the floor and most nights rolled right off.

 

One day we drove about 30 min. to Aspen and took a bus to an area to view the Maroon Bells. We went on a great hike. It was gorgeous.

 

Another day we drove 20 min. to Glenwood Springs and rented bikes. We went on a 16 mile bike ride along the river and watched the rafters go by. It was a great path with lots of rest stops along the way.  Here's Oliver with all the bikes and Luke during one of our many drives.

Anderson Family Reunion July 27-29

On Thursday July 26th, our 4th anniversary, we boarded a plane to Denver. Karen, Luke and Katie picked us up and we drove to Estes Park. Ate dinner and headed to the YMCA Camp in Estes Park. Our family reunion started the next day. The grounds are quite beautiful with the mountains in the background.

The first evening after dinner we had get-to-know-you group games and then it was free time to chat or play more games or just sit by yourself and organize. Saturday night was the talent show. Jose and Gram sang You Are My Sunshine.

 

 We ate our meals together and then did different activities during the day on Sat. Katie and I climbed the rock wall and later a group of us went on a beautiful horse back ride on trails. Bottom pic is Linnea and Victoria at their first reunion just like Josie as they were adopted from Russia (?) the same time Josie was born. What a joy to have all three girls a part of the family.

 Mom celebrated her birthday on Sat July 28 (along with Eric's mom). What a surprise for her that we ordered a rainbow that afternoon and a birthday cake that evening.

 The whole group posed for a pic. We were about 30 people short from our last reunion here 3 years ago but we had fun together.

 Top right picture is the 3rd cousins. Josie got lots of attention from all the older cousins.

Allison's Send-off

Eric's niece, Allison made her way to University of Arizona and we sent her off with a delicious family dinner at Gaylynne & Bill's and some words of wisdom. Hard to believe Allison is in college. We will miss her.

We gave her this cute bag we found in Colorado and filled it with college necessities.

Happy Birthday Eric!

Breakfast in bed. Egg & bacon bagel sandwich with berries and juice on the side

Today is Eric's 45th birthday. Hey Babe hope you don't mind me sharing your age. You don't look a day over 40. :-) You've caught up to me and I guess we're finally middle age. You have a few more gray hairs but I think they're due to one little stinker pants in the family and not as a result of you getting older. Although you are in need of your reading glasses a lot more often then usual. You are moving up in the technology world with your new iPhone. Oh dear, next you'll want an iPad and then probably the dune buggy you've been day dreaming about and searching online for since I've met you. So happy to share life with you Eric and to celebrate another year of your life. May God be gracious and grant you another 45 healthy years.

Here are a few of Eric's favorite things (not counting food)....

2 1/2 years old

On Aug 2nd Josie turned 2.5. We were still on vacation so I'm a few days late but wanted to highlight some things from the past month before posting vacation pictures. Josie had a hard two weeks before we left making it to the potty on time but since we left for vacation 10 days ago she's done great. Whew, I hope she's through that. Today I changed a diaper while volunteering in the church nursery and realized I hadn't done that for Josie in over two months! Josie can now spell her name. She keeps practicing writing it but can't really write any letters yet. She's frequently asking what words mean or why things are done a certain way. Today watching Olympic volleyball she asked why do they push the ball over the net? She continues to make up songs and wants to sing songs in the car along with a cd. She's gotten pretty good with games/books/puzzles on my iphone which came in handy on some of the longer car rides and flights. Her current favorite thing to do is organize. When we arrived at my friend Heather's in Winter Park she immediately wanted to organize something.

I asked her to put away the utensils from the dishwasher and once she did she wanted to organize the whole drawer. So she had to put everything back in the holder.

Organizing blocks by color and by size.

 She loves to organize her beads.

 At Heather's vacation condo in Winter Park we were a little desperate to find stuff for her to organize. It was not Heather's idea to organize matches but she had a whole bag and it provided hours of organizing fun. At one point she had a huge "snake" of matches on the floor.

Organizing Heather's silverware.

As soon as we got home she found a box of hand-me-down shoes in her room and she quickly began to organize them and put  ribbons inside some of them

Dinosaur getting a time-out.

 

 We're now taking a break from swim lessons.

Karen and Katie came to watch the lesson after camping earlier in July. After swimming Josie likes to read books from the library in the lobby.

  

We found some tap shoes at the thrift store and now Josie doesn't have to use her "church" shoes for tap shoes. She loves her shoes so much she wore them for her nap.