I'm Baaaaack.

So, we have been here in Colorado for about 3 weeks. I think we are finally starting to feel settled. I was quite overwhelmed at the beginning, I was living in a house full of boxes, I don't like being that unorganized. It's tough having your life packed in boxes and not being able to even find your socks. Well, I finally found my camera, so I can now get my blog caught up to date. It seems like Emma's birthday and Christmas was ages ago, so those posts aren't as detailed as they should be.

We miss our friends in Utah. There are days that are long and I wish I had my Kaysville neighbors to visit with, but I have made a few friends at church. I cannot wait for the weather to warm up, so that we can go for walks, and check out the neighborhood a little better. The house is really nice. Some people thought that I was crazy to let Ryan pick out a house without me seeing it first, but he did a great job and Braxton's school is practically in our backyard, which we love. I will post pictures soon. Wellington is a nice little town and I think we are going to enjoy our stay here. But I am hoping that we can host some out of town guests while we are here too. You all know who you are.

Denver Aquarium

Last Saturday, we went to the aquarium in downtown Denver. I still couldn't find my camera then, but I was able to shoot some video. The aquarium is so fun, we can't wait to go back. We loved the sea otters, sharks and the tigers. We ate at the restaurant there too, we sat and watched the fish swim by us as we ate. See the video below.

Red Rum, Red Rum

I really miss living close to the mountains. I can see mountains from our house, but they are in the distance. On Saturday, we drove up to Estes Park. It is about 30 minutes away, it is surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park, it's beautiful there. It's almost like a mini Park City. Downtown has lots of fun little shops. We ate yummy fudge, taffy, and candy. It was quite cold there, so we look forward to going back up there when it warms up a little.

One neat place we visited was the Stanley Hotel. It's an older hotel, some people say it is haunted, they do ghost tours. A very cool part of the history of the Stanley is that Stephen King stayed there and it was his inspiration for the novel "The Shining". He actually began writing "The Shining" while he was staying in Room 217. I think it looks a lot like the hotel in the movie.

The Stanley Hotel

Cool staircase in the Stanley Pretty

Science Fair

Last Thursday, was Science Fair Night at Braxton's school. The 3rd grader did a class project, "Does Hand Sanitizer Really Kill Germs?" The students split into 3 groups, those that used sanitizer, that washed with soap and water and those that didn't use either. Of course, my son, volunteered to be in the dirty hands group. Anyway, they swabbed their hands and rubbed it on a petri dish and then went to the science lab every day and checked for germs. The hand sanitizer group had least amount of germs growing in their petri dishes. So, yes, hand sanitizer does kill germs. They also had some hands-on activities. The kids got to see and touch cow livers, kidneys and hearts. We also got to look through some telescopes and look at the moon, Orion's belt and Mars. Very cool.

Tornado in a bottle

Christmas 2009

Since we were getting ready to move at the end of December, we decided to have a nice, low-key Christmas at our house in Kaysville. On Christmas Eve, we did go to Wyoming to visit Ryan's family. Braxton got his interactive dinosaur, D-Rex, Santa actually left a note for Braxton saying that D-Rex couldn't fit in his bag, so he left D-Rex on the roof. Ryan climbed up there and sure enough, D-Rex was up there. Emma got a stroller and a doll. She would hug every present that she opened. It was very cute.

Excited Girl

Cookies for Santa

D-Rex

She loves her new baby

Christmas mess is the best mess

Emma's 1st Birthday

On December 15th, Emma had her 1st birthday. What a great day. I still can't believe that she is a year old already. Where did the time go? Emma has brought so much joy into our home. This joy has really made me forgot about the heartache and frustration that occurred last year. I can't really remember what life was like without her.

Opening presents with Braxton's help

Emma loved her cupcake, but she didn't enjoy having frosting all over her hands and face. She is such a dainty girl. I just remember Braxton being covered in cake and frosting on his first bday. Emma would not have any part of that mess.