New Kitten and a Fathers' Day Surprise!

Hello good people!  We had a great week out here!  Including laundry day when Brooke stole my shirt out of the laundry, so we put it on!

To start, last Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight Brooke woke up crying, and we couldn't get her back to bed.  I went in and was holding her and rocking her in her chair.  She was at least calm, but didn't really fall asleep, and kept shifting around keeping me awake as well.  At around 1:30 in the morning she abruptly sat up (which she routinely did to get re-situated) and threw up on me twice...  I quickly took her to the bathroom, and she threw up again, but I wasn't ready yet, so that one went all over the floor!  Monica's mom sense kicked in and she came to see what was up, and immediately left so the smell didn't make her throw up...  Sigh...  Fast forward an hour or so and Brooke was all cleaned up and had a bath, the bathroom and Brooke's room had been wiped down with Clorox wipes, and we could finally settle down a little... except that Brooke wasn't in a settling mood.  So we came downstairs and started watching Frozen until about 3 in the morning.  During that time (the movie) I got to see both Josh and Michelle (Monica's family who was visiting), as they went upstairs to try to calm a crying Andy.  So sometime around 3 am literally all 7 persons in our home were awake!  What a night.

Monday morning I somehow felt fine so I went in to work, and everyone else eventually made it out to the pool.  Brooke even felt good enough to kiss a crocodile!

Brooke and I checked the mail when I got home, and when we got back Brooke had to push her stuffed kitty around in her stroller!

Then later that night (it was supposed to be after Brooke went to bed, but she wouldn't go to sleep so we brought her) we went to go pick up our kitten!  Yes a real live kitten!  We had to be a little selective in picking a cat because there are very few breeds that are hypoallergenic (Monica is allergic), and even fewer that have hair!  Brooke was through the moon when we got there and saw all the kittens!  After visiting with the folks for a little while we were back in the car to head home.

It's been fun having a kitten, and she's started to adjust to our house and to us.  The first few days she spent most of the day sleeping under our bed, but she likes to come out and see us now, and we're letting her roam the whole house.  Brooke has been doing really well so far too, aside from some tail grabbing!  She's very gentle with the kitty, and likes to try to play with her too (though she's usually too intense and the cat goes and hides!).  Also, this has been Monica's first time petting a cat, let alone playing with or holding one, since she was 7 years old!  So far allergies haven't been a problem, so it's looking like a success!

The trick with checking cat allergies though is that I got a cold on Tuesday, and Monica got it too around the same time.  I was home on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm doing mostly better now.  There was a lot of congestion, mixed with our seasonal allergies, but now that everything is clearing up it looks like Monica's cat allergies aren't much of an issue.

Sometime we made a family outing for groceries.  Brooke loves to get in the carts that she can drive!  All around the store she kept honking her horns and saying "beep beep!"

On Friday we went for a walk as a family, and Monica showed me a little rock maze that was at a local park.  I run through this park almost daily, but this was off a path that I don't take.  The maze ended up not being too maze-y as there was really only one path, but it wound around so that it took a while to get through.

Brooke eventually got to the end, and everyone cheered!

And we grabbed a family picture.

Brooke has also started to want to feed her self a lot more lately.  She's started to get a lot better at using her spoon too.  We had soup on Friday night and she fed herself the whole time.  Yes, much of the soup missed her mouth, but that's OK, the important thing is that mom and dad didn't have to feed her!  Here is a video of her feeding herself earlier in the week.

I think that's basically all of the news for us out here.  I hope everyone else has a fantastic week!

Happy Fathers' Day

Howdy all!  I received this gem just last night!  This is a picture of me and my brothers with our dad out to hike Mt. Elbert, 15 years ago!  It was a lot of fun, and we all thoroughly enjoyed Monte Cristo sandwiches the night before ;) !  I'm grateful I have a dad who was always willing to devote time to his children and take us out to do fun and challenging things.  I love you dad!

Brooke has taken to sitting on the stairs, which is a bit interesting and always worries me that she'll fall down.  No incidents yet, and she enjoys her new set of seats!

I started teaching Brooke to wrap her self up in her towel when she gets out of the bath.  She walked all around and had a blast!

On Thursday Michelle and Josh (and their kids) came out to visit.  We've been having a lot of fun over the past few days.  We like to go to a local ice cream place whenever people come to visit.  Waiting for visitors is a good idea so we don't go every day!  I shared my single scoop with Brooke!

On Saturday morning was the SEAKR 5K.  It was a lot of fun and I enjoy running it.  I really like running 5k's.  It's fun to head out to a race in the morning, and be back without losing too much of the day.  I ran it in 22:15 which comes out to 7:11 per mile.  I was a great way to kick off the weekend!

Later we went to a Rockies game.  We hadn't been to one since moving out here, and it was a lot of fun.  We took off a little early cause it started to rain, but when we took off the Rockies were up 5-1 with an inning to go!

And here's a pitch!  You can maybe see the ball if you zoom in, but maybe not...

And here's my attempt at a family picture!

I think that's about all the highlights for this week.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Ragnar, swimming, and Parker Days, Oh My!!

I need to stop missing weeks!  There's always too much to talk about when I have to do two weeks together... but thus is life.  Last weekend was the Ragnar relay, so on Thursday we drove out to Utah.  About an hour and a half into the drive we heard Brooke make a choking sound and then start crying really hard.  Brooke had thrown up the applesauce pack she just ate all over herself! Poor Brooke!  Luckily there was a rest stop just in front of us so we stopped to get her cleaned up.  It took a little while to calm her and clean up as best we could.  It was all over the car seat.  Looking back I wish I had remembered to get a picture, but I was in a bit of a hurry to try to get to her.

Along the way we stopped at Little America so that Brooke could play on the playground as well as eat some ice cream.  Brooke enjoyed the slide and the ice cream!

About 45 minutes before we got to my parents house Brooke started to cry, and there was nothing I could do to cheer her up.  She was just done with the car!  We finally made it and got her inside and had to sit alone in a room for a while to calm her down.  Once she was calm she did have a good time, and I was surprised at how well she did with being around so many people!

Upon arrival I was also happy to see that the garden zombie I got my parents for Christmas a while back was still in the garden!  They even took out the bush that was growing over it!

Friday and Saturday I was gone running.  For those who don't know what Ragnar is, it's an approximately 200 mile race, with 12 participants on a team.  Each person runs 3 times throughout the race.  Here is a picture at one of the exchanges in the night.  GO TEAM!

While your team is running, it is for the most part, up to the rest of the team to hop out of the van along their runs and give them water, etc.  Here I am out waiting to support our runner on their night run!

There is one run that is called Ragnar Hill, which fell upon me this year.  It was a 6.5 mile run, with 3000 ft of elevation gain, and 1000 ft of elevation loss.  Basically the first 5 miles were up a mountain, and then I had to run a mile and a half back down.  Here's a view of the ski slope I was tasked to run up!

Along the way I crossed paths with the terrain park!

And at the top there was still snow!  In fact, the final climb was all snow covered.  They drove something over the snow to try to pack it down to make it a little better, but still, I had to run through snow in June!

The team did very well.  We finished in 32:20, which I believe is about 4 hours faster than we've ever done before (at least last year was 36 or more hours)!  I think everyone had a great time too!

On Sunday we went to church with my parents, and then drove back home.  Brooke did not throw up this time thankfully, though she had had enough with about two and a half hours to go.  We were a little smarter this time and reclined her car seat back as far as it could go to try to help her to sleep.  Fortunately that worked and she slept the rest of the way home!  It was a great trip and it was nice to go see our families (not mentioned previously, Monica went to visit her family while I was running).

Between the emotional taxing of driving to and from Utah, as well as getting another 2 teeth Brooke has not been having the best sleep of her life, which frequently ends with her in our bed.  This is how I found her when I got up.

Also, this picture has no real story (that I remember) but I thought it was really cute!

Last Tuesday one of the youth in our ward had his Eagle Scout project.  He collected a bunch of  fabric donations to make blankets for the hospital.  We went over to help tie the blankets.  I think Brooke did the best job of any of us!

This past week the temperatures were supposed to get into the upper 80's and even the 90's (and they did!)!!  It was finally time to go get Brooke a pool!  We picked this one because it has a slide, and because the alligator can shoot water out of it's nose, but Brooke doesn't like that part yet.

She really likes playing in the water, but doesn't usually want to be out there for too long.  I think it's because the water feels cold, and she usually won't stay in long enough to get used to it.

She loves to get buckets/cups and fill them with water and then dump them out.  While in the pool I was showing her how to scoop up water with her hands, which she dutifully mimicked!

On Saturday morning we found this ant beast in our house!  This is possibly the largest ant I've ever seen, well over an inch (maybe...)!  I scooped it up and tossed it out the door.  To give you a true idea of the size of the ant, when I flung it outside I actually heard it hit the ground!

This weekend was Parker Days, which is a big festival they do here each year.  You may remember it from last year when Brooke got her picture taken as a head of lettuce(It's toward the bottom).  We looked online before going and you had to be 36" to ride the kid rides, and Brooke was only 34" at her last doctors appointment, so she just missed out!  It might be for the best though because it was very hot out and Brooke does not do well in heat.  She was sweating so much and her face was all red!  We stopped by the food court area thing to get some cold lemonade and a pretzel.

And Brooke got a free milk drink from her pediatricians tent!

We mostly walked around looking at the various tents that were set up.  There were over 500 this year!  We stopped by one that had a ring toss game to win a free snow cone!  Monica stopped me because she was sure I'd be able to win one.  She was right!

The snow cone was a great idea because Brooke had been so hot.  We gave her a bunch and I think it helped her quite a bit.

The hospital had also put out some free sunscreen at various places.  That was a very good idea!  We did bring our own, but I'm sure there were a lot of people taking advantage of this.

I tried to get a picture of Brooke at the snow cone place with their little cut out scene.  Brooke was not happy to come out of her stroller at the time which made it quite difficult, but I did what I could.

When we got home we went out in her little pool again.  Somewhere along the way she got sunscreen in her left eye!  It's probably because she rubs her eyes/face whenever you try to put sun screen on her.  I still felt really bad for her though.

And finally, this morning Brooke found my shoes on the ground.  I saw her over by the door trying to put one on while I was making breakfast.  She came over to me with the shoe and asked for help, so we put it on!  She even took a few steps.... er.... shuffles with it on.  Guess her toes were holding it in place!

And with that I think you're all caught up!  We had a full two weeks, but it was a blast!  I hope everyone is doing great!