Colorado

We had a great much needed get away recently to Colorado to visit Uncle Will and Aunt Emily!

Mike was super-dad and had both the kids sit with him on the plane

 while Holly and I got some good cousin time in our seats behind them!  :)

 Lily learned all about air-panes from Paw

 The kids did great and slept on both of the long legs of the trip.

 Then we rented a Suburban and all 8 of us piled in it!  Peter and Lily were hand-holding...

 and iPhone movie watching partners for the trip!   

 After leisurely making our way up to Steamboat, we arrived 18 hours after we'd gotten up!

Emily and Will had treats for the littlest loves... (i took these pics from them)

(love the camo paper!)

 

 a PURSE... with LIPSTICK!  (Lily LOVES the lipstick... sweet girl!)

On the first day, the adventurous ones had a ski outting.  

Emily and I had a girly outting (sounds more fun, huh?!)... lunch, manicures, shopping and margaritas!!  

and I got new boots to show off to my man...

Willie and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed their time with each other!!

 Lily and Glenda got to be good buddies!

Lily was really fascinated with this area at the bottom of the steps so Glenda played their with her often.

Lily liked to imitate the way Glenda was sitting ;)  So sweet and cute!

We declared Glenda our private preschool teacher for the week.

And Holly ("ha-dee") was added to the list of Lily's favorite people.

 Will and Emily took us on an amazing trip to Glenwood Springs.  It was an awesome, beautiful drive thru a canyon that follows the Colorado River.  I felt like I was in an IMAX movie!  Emily has more pics on her blog.  Lily came to love tun-nels & ask for them!

We hung out by the amazing Colorado river in Glenwood.

 Our whole gang of 10!

Then, as Emily put it, the grown ups took the little kids back home so the big kids could have an outting all our own.... dinner and a blue grass concert!  Thanks Will for arranging that!!

Emily and I went snow mobiling and snow shoeing one day.  It was my first time to snow shoe and I loved it!  

Mike was amazing Dad and enjoyed the kids a lot!  It was a great break for me and really sweet to watch.

On our last day, we headed up to Steamboat and got to see coal go by on the train!!  It was coal from the mine where Uncle Will is an engineer!  Peter was happy to see so many "coal cars" in real life after reading about them... and how cool that HIS uncle put it there!!!

OK, last hit from the trip, and oh was it a hit...  we promised that we wouldn't post but I have to (there's a ridiculous one of me too!)... the Wii and "So you think you can Dance"... I won't say anything except that the laughter was so therapeutic!  

 Thanks Will and Emily for giving us so much of your time & being great hosts.  Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us!  XOXO!

family of 5

Its been a hard 2 months.  I venture to say some of the hardest of my life.  (The other hard time that comes to mind to compete is the months before Morocco.)  Today and the last week has been better so I feel the slight motivation to write about/ document it.  I'm not sure why God has allowed the suffering & hard times, but He has.  Some of it feels too raw to write a lot about or post pics of.  Peter has been to the hospital twice (that is the part that rips my heart out, literally) and has been a great sport about it.  I am so proud of him.  Three days after he came home from the first stay, we found out that Lily's chin issue is herpes.  And two days after that, we found out I was pregnant.  I was hesitant, Mike was the rock that he is.  We totally embraced it by God's grace and Mike and I both would say to each other how excited we were to have another baby!  It did feel like the happy spot in a hard time.  Thankfully, by God's grace, I wasn't overly anxious about the pregnancy and just enjoyed it (I've always loved being pregnant and knew we'd probably only have 3, so I tried to embrace and enjoy it!).  I'd been anxious during the first trimester with P&L but just felt good about this one.  I looked forward to the 8 week ultrasound and kept telling Mike has much I was looking forward to it.  But we found out that our little one didn't have a heart beat.  It was 6 weeks and 4 days "big".... the day of Peter's elbow surgery, ironically.  By God's grace, he allowed us to get thru it.  Mike is a rock.  I love the man and would not have survived these 2 months without his strength and love and care.  We were sad but I don't know, surprised but not surprised.  It seems like a lot to go thru what we've been thru and be pregnant too.  So these pictures document our family of 5.  We took them (with raw eyelids) the afternoon that we found out the baby wasn't alive.  We are thankful for its little life, even tho we didn't get to meet him/her on this earth.

my precious babes

they've spent some fun eves at Gram and Pop's this week!

i love them, they are so precious!

Peter's Irish Blessing from Preschool

May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more
And nothing but happiness
Come through your door.


Amen, let it be so!
And he looked oh so handsome today in a new green and blue plaid shirt from Gram... I'll have to take a pic.
And oh, he's cast & pin free (4-5 inch pins- yow-zers!)
We are praying for safety and good times as we head to VACATION.