On the way the the high country

This was going to be a wordless wendnesday but...

I thought I would fill in the gaps and explain a few of the pictures. Here we are relaxing not doing much these past few days. We are enjoying the Colorado Rocky Mountains with my family. Today we drove to Leadville and went to Buena Vista and visited St Elmo which is a ghost town. Funny thing about this ghost town is it is occupied by a tourist shop and cars on the street. Not all that ghostly in my opinion but still interesting to visit. It wasn't this way when we went there when I was little. Andy also fed the little chipmunks, they ate right out of his had. I remember doing this when I was little with my friend Holly, but didn't want all the little chipmunk germs on my hands this time.
We have a pet fox that visits below our balcony, the people below us think it is a Mexican fox because he likes tortillas :o)

We took Dane swimming for the first time. He loved it kicking around like a little fish and splashing like crazy. We tired the big pool first then we all moved to the baby pool because it was warmer (warmer for us grownups). My sister's and I aren't huge swimmers. We just like to float. Check it out he has adorable little flip flops that match his outfit. I couldn't resist.

Magnum the protector

We have witnessed this a few times where when Andy or I go out of sight and leave Dane sitting in the yard, like if we run in the house to grab something. (we still keep a close eye on him.) Anyway I was trying to get a picture of this. Magnum would only get close to the stroller when we both were out of sight. Andy went inside to watch from a window and I had to go around the corner of the house and sneak back. The second we were both out of sight Magnum steps close to the stroller in guard dog mode. I do hate his messes but what a great dog, always protecting his family.

In one foul swoop...

all of my carefully organized pictures were scrambled. Our laptop got a virus or something and when we took it in they fixed it, it works even better and faster now. The only problem is all of our pictures from the last 4 years or so that I worked so hard to keep organized in perfectly labeled folders with sub folders are all scrambled in no order what so ever. So discouraging. Not something I wanted to spend time fixing. I guess it could be worse, we could have lost them all. I will be able to walk down memory lane:o)

a weekend trip

This weekend we made a last minute trip to Galena, IL to visit Andy's brother and his family. It was fun to get the little cousins together and just spend some time visiting. Dane loved his sweet little cousin Aletheia. We went on a couple of walks and went to the ranch and saw some baby lambs and just had fun. It was good to see what we might be up against this next weekend as we drive to Colorado. And it may not be a fun drive, then again maybe the little guy will surprise us.

World Record Holder

That's right folks I am the proud new owner of the world's largest red onion... err... I mean a smaller than average head of cabbage.

Today Dane and I went to Walmart. Never a good idea without an organized list. I had a short list but not organized by section which I normally do. So I walked to the lotion section and then 13 miles over to the paper towel and kleenex section, then back another 13 miles to the lotion section where I forgot to look for an organization shelf, only to not be able to find what I am looking for. So we trekked back to the milk, egg and paper towel section to finish getting our paper goods. Did I mention I earned a whopping $0.25 recycling some pop cans? Yeah it was a small bag but apparently they didn't sell fresca and a few of the other diet variations I had brought in and you can only recycle what they sell in the store. I am a recycling novice. Not even our pop cans they had been left at our house. I told them to throw the rest away.
There were a few more trips from the back of the grocery section to the front of the grocery section and back again.
I picked out a few things of produce and headed to the check out. Have you ever noticed Walmart employees must not eat their veggies? They usually are confused when you pick something like asparagus or starfruit. Speaking of asparagus, I just noticed that was on my receipt. I didn't get asparagus, haven't since I realized it makes your pee smell funny.

Back to the original story... as she was ringing up my produce and I am frantically trying to load my cart back up and keep Dane from chewing on the plastic sacks, I asked if that was a 'red onion' she rang up. I didn't get a red onion, I protested. After her very baffled look I then informed her it was red cabbage. I also helped her locate it on the produce cheat sheet so she could ring it up. I did save my self a dollar. Maybe even more if I would have caught the asparagus mistake. She was probably getting ready to call the World Book of Genius Records and report the worlds largest red onion. Good thing I saved her the embarrassment.

To her credit it was a rather small head of cabbage. I took a comparison picture for you to see.

Extra credit if you can name all the produce shown.

Some pretty things from our yard

This may seem weird but in the spring I actually think a yard full of dandelions are really pretty. But only in the spring when things are still just turning green and starting to bloom and before they get uneven and gross. Oh yeah and as long as they are in someone else's yard. Fortunately I have no pictures of dandelions from our yard. We have a few just not a field of them.

Mother's Day

My first mother's day has been nice. Friday we went to The Picture People again and I got a mommy and Dane picture with my coupon for a free 10x13. Not sure they are happy about me not dropping a dime, but I have like 6 of these coupons, you would think they would stop sending them out if it was a problem and they dropped another one in my sack as I was leaving what I am I supposed to do use it or lose it I say.

Dane has been unbelievably happy and giggly which has been a ton of fun today and he slept in until 8 this morning. What more could you ask from a 6 month old? Well he did keep it real and the little turd (literally) had the blow out of a life time for me to clean up, but that's what mothers do right? Oh well it has been a fun day, I better go and finish spending it with my family, but here are a few more pictures, that make my blog more interesting and make up for my writing disability.Andy got him dressed this morning and picked out his 'apple of mommy's eye' onesie

Yup, here it is the blow out. I actually hear my sweet husband cleaning up his outfit right now. What a great man!

Graduation

He is done!!! The last 2 years of hard work have paid off and Andy graduated with his BA in business management today. Last weekend we had a graduation party for him and today we went to Oskaloosa so he could walk with the cap and gown and all. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out of him getting his diploma but here are a few of the past 2 weekends. Congratulations!!

Tulip Time

Dane and I attended our first Tulip Time yesterday. Tulip Time is a spring festival in Pella, Iowa that brings you a touch of Holland and known for their tulips, hence the name, that are all in full bloom. Needless to say we had a great time with our friends. We walked in the rain, watched a parade, Dane's favorite was the bands and all the noise they were making. We walked around some more, saw some crafts and ate some yummy dutch pastries, oh yeah and saw many people dressed in dutch attire wearing authentic wooden shoes. Here are a few pictures of our day.