The Second Third Birthday

Oh my, how time flies.
All the birthdays up til now... FFM's second third birthday was celebrated at our family mountain house, with Grannie Annie and Eric. NO big parties this year, maybe next year. However, as you can see silly birthday hats are still around.

I don't think he got a single wheeled thing at all this year.Dad and I snuck out and got him some surprise presents. Separately, so we didn't know what was in the packages from Mom and Dad. He got a pee-wee football* and frisbee from dad and I got him a piano to go with his guitar. Not just any piano, a KITTY** piano. It's got a drum machine, microphone, and you can make it sound like piano, bells, organ, and a CAT.

*While we were at the museum FFM got frustrated with an older child that was not part of our group and in a instantaneous fury clothesline tackled him. This kid outweighed and was taller than FFM by at least 30% and F had him flat on his back in a nanosecond. It was so blindingly fast even though both Travis and I were nearby and watching we couldn't do anything about it. So despite our best efforts to raise a golfer or swimmer (nice low injury sports) he might like to play football, we'll see.

**Cats win out over dogs every time for FFM. His 'lovey' is a gray stuffed cat that's literally been dragged around the world. One of the worst spots was when it was dragged/pushed along the bare concrete floor of the terminal at LAX while it was under construction and then cuddled the entire 14 hours to Brisbane. Eyew. Yesterday at the park a kid started barking at him so he'd get out of the way. FFM paused for a moment, and then meowed back. My mom and I nearly fell over we were laughing so hard. The barking kid moved.

A Camping We Will Go

Normally on our way through Rifle, Colorado we see sights like this: Where I-70 passes through Rifle it's a bit dusty, and the valley is littered with the metal spires of the oil and gas business that have been booming the last decade or so. So it was to my great surprise that my camping book rated a Rifle campground 5 stars. Really? Well, this I had to see. And if it was awful? Well, it's only a weekend after all.

Turns out, that if you travel just about half an hour off the interstate (we've never done that before in this part of the state) you get into country that looks like this instead. Who knew!? We camped at Rifle Falls State Park, a fantastic little park near several other state parks, all great places to play with an adventurous kiddo. Our campground had a grand total of 20 sites and the hike to the waterfalls started directly across the road from our site. FFM noticed the trailhead immediately and requested hikes 'into the jungle Daddy!' throughout our stay.

The 'jungle' hike also included endless caves to explore. Most were just big enough for our group of five to get into, but Travis and F disappeared into this one for long enough that I got worried! Travis said they never did find the end... the tiny bright spot is F shining the light on his face.

You could even hike back behind the waterfall. Tropical forest or Rocky Mountains?

Remember way way way back in about March 2009 when FFM drove his tractor off road over all the bumps he could find?

Poor frustrated kid can now legitimately off road and do mini jumps with his bike. Back at camp he found a great place to launch himself off of over and over and over and over.

Next camping trip is right around the corner, we can't wait!

The First Third Birthday

Travis jokes that when F was 1 he had two birthday parties, and when he was 2 he had three birthday parties, so that must mean when he turned 3 he was going to have four birthday parties. Um, nope. That's a tradition that stopped this year. It's a given that there's going to be a lot of hoopla simply because of when his birthday lands, it's within a week of the 4th of July and within a week of my birthday so it's just a time of year when there's a lot going on.

This year NONE of FFM's birthday's were on his actual birthday. Poor kid, and this is the year he figured out when his birthday was. He spent a month telling anyone that would listen that he was going to turn 'TREE ON JUNE TWENTY NINTH.'

His first celebration was while his cousin Audrey and her family were here. Who better to share cake with? FFM picked out his very own cake, I gave up on a homemade cake this year in a trade for clean sheets and no dust bunnies for our houseguests. Maybe next year.
The selected cake? Lightning McQueen of course, a violently yellow marshmallow ice cream cake with lots of frosting. This picture is for my Grandma Moore who took a picture of every single birthday cake anyone ever had.
This year we attempted a 'no wheeled things' gift. It was tough since everything F asked for was a truck, car, motorbike, plane, train, robotcartruckplanetrain, or accessory to go with one of the aforementioned items. After driving him around the toystore and explaining that we weren't going to get ANYTHING with wheels on it this year, F picked out this guitar. I checked it's label which said 'recommended age 7+. Hmmm. I'm not a stickler for those ages since he's a careful kid and likes to be challenged by his toys. I said heck with it, and got it anyway. He plays with it every day and it so careful it's scary.
When he's a famous rock-star-politician-who-waves-at-everybody you can say you knew him when. Or maybe he'll just be that annoying guy at the campsite next to you who can't quite play guitar. Either way, he's one super happy kiddo.

Some Relations Came to Stay

Way, way back in mid June (see, I told you I was behind...) Travis' family came to visit. His sister Suzie, her husband James, and their daughter Audrey came all the way from Pennsylvania. Travis' mom came up from Silverton, too. I had grand plans of big outdoor adventures, popsicles on the back deck, and trips to the zoo. And then the massive cold front moved in. We went from nearly 90F to barely 50F for most of a week. And it rained. Every. Single. Day.But the kids didn't care, and luckily Suzie called beforehand and I mentioned it was going to be cold so everyone had warm clothes. It's a drag to be all ready for summer and to have to pull out the coats and long pants again.Instead of the zoo we opted for a trip to the museum, where we met a lifelong friend of S&T, Cara. Cara and her husband have two kids, Abby's a year older than F and Aaron's about Audrey's age. It was a kick watching the Brownian motion of the four kids who all still managed to see pretty much everything in each room we visited.

We got creative on the rainy days, Grammie Pen Pen launched an impromtu music lesson one morning...

And then FINALLY, late in their visit, the SUN CAME OUT! Grammie Pen Pen celebrated by giving F his birthday present early - an entire tub of bubble blowing gear. The whole gang joined in on the bubble blowing fiesta.

On the last day we squeezed in the long awaited trip to the zoo. Here we are admiring the elephants.

F and me on the carousel.

Here we are riding right behind cousin Audrey and Aunt Suzie. Audrey is an engineer in the making, see she's scoping out how the up and down mechanism works. F's a celebrity or politician in the making, he's busy waving at the crowd.

Falling Behind

You know when you use someone else's computer and it's just not quite right? Sort of like putting your shoes on the wrong feet. I've been borrowing Travis' computer and it's just not the same. I'm going to submit that as my excuse for a serious lack of blogging. I'm WAY WAY WAY behind, I apologize. So here's a teaser, and it's all coming soon.

A visit from Cousin Audrey. Oh, and her parents, too. It rained a lot.
A birthday.
A camping trip.
Another birthday.
ALPINE COASTER!!!
One very very very rainy rodeo.
Oh, and I might have a birthday in there, too. I'm undecided.

So enjoy your 4th of July, and tune in again soon!