Ashley at 4 1/2

(not the best photo, but it's current)

• Asks in-depth questions (no more just why?)
• Loves the front wheeler (4 wheeler)
• Still loves to sing (can turn almost anything into a song)
• Is into pretend play (loves her doll house and all the people)
  
• Loves to be read to (especially at bed time)
• Sneaks into our bed in the middle of the night
• Fairly good eater (some meals are good some bad)
• Picky eater (not willing to try new foods)
• Hates to go to school and hates to leave school (go figure)
• Not a morning person
• Still wants hot milk when she wakes up
  
• Weighs a little under 40 lbs (wants to be in a booster seat real bad)
• Attends Pre-K at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (4 days)
  
• Trying to beat her nap (still naps at home but not at school)
• Turned into a fish at the lake this summer
• Can write her first name
• Is learning her letters, days of the week
• Can count to 20
• 1st chore - setting the table for dinner
• Loves her new cousin Hannah
• Says her best friend is Riley (misses her dearly)
• Excited about the new baby, always wants to know what the baby is saying
• Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn
• Wants a bow like Daddy
• Really into Space (thanks Uncle Chris) and Dinosaurs
  

Colorado Pictures

Bear Lake

Ashley and her fab smile.

The mountains

Go Karts

More Mountains

Bumper Boats

Some of the many Elk we saw

I don't have many photos, my brother in law Chris was the official photographer of the vacation, so I relied on him to get all the great shots. But these are a few.

P.S. I hate blogger and photos, so so hard to rearrange them, space them etc.

Ashley's First Day of School

Monday was Ashley's first full day of school. Technically school started last week but we were on vacation so she started a week late (oops!). We had visited the school for an ice cream social/meet the teacher night. After that she was pretty excited, there were kids everywhere and lots of new toys to play with in her classroom. We couldn't get her to leave. We also visited her classroom for an open house before we left for vacation, where the kids went with the teachers aide while her teacher went over a few things with the parents. So this was not the first time there.

Drop off was easy, she went right in and started playing, didn't even really say goodbye to me. When I picked her up she skipped out. Overall I think she enjoyed herself, just a couple of issues with nap time. She is not taking naps in the afternoon even though they lay down for an hour on cots. I hope she gets into the routine soon, because if not I will never get to see her. She fell asleep last night on the way home and slept thru til this morning (even missed dinner). I don't know if she just doesn't want to miss something, but I hope she gets some shut eye soon. Only a couple of crying moments from her about not wanting to nap and a few I want to go to Nicky's.

Here is the best 1st day picture, typical Ashley she didn't want her picture taken.

Small Town Blues

We ripped up our counter tops tonight, because they are installing our new counter tops tomorrow!!

Since our kitchen was a mess I headed to Taco Bell to pick up some dinner. I ordered a chili cheese burrito (AKA chilito) and the guy on the other side informed me that they didn't have chili cheese burritos, then when I got to the window he asked again what I ordered. Then looked at me like I was crazy because he had never heard of such thing. NO chili cheese burritos for me :(

P.S. I don't watch Bachelor Pad (but my sister in law does) but I had the channel on while blogging. I just saw the announcement for the new cast of Dancing with the Stars. Kurt Warner!!! Wow I might just have to start watching again.

Rocky Mountain National Park Day 6

• Back into the park and up and over the mountain to Grand Lake
• Lunch at Grand Lake
• Ashely played on the playground
• Up and over the mountain again to Estes Park
• Jamie basically passed out both times we went above 10,000 ft and came back to once we came back down
• Dinner and smores with Chris' brothers family from Denver (Greg, Lisa, Ben, Emery and Cooper)

Saturday we woke up early and headed home, drove 10 hours and 4 more hours on Sunday. Glad to be back to a normal elevation. My skin is happy to have some humidity, my lungs are happy to have more air and I am happy to have air conditioning.

Estes Park Day 5

• MacGregor Ranch Museum (1873 homestead and still a working ranch)
• Mexican Lunch Yum Yum
• A little shopping for the ladies
  
• More big slide rides and go cart races (this time Chris and Ashley won!)
  

Vacation Day 4

Dave flew home today so we headed towards the Denver airport to drop him off.

• Morning Drive to Golden Colorado (the gateway to the gold)
• Coors Brewery Tour (They really pushed that they were the biggest single site brewery... ha ha maybe because AB is really the #1 brewery. I felt like I was cheating on my home town.)
• Drinking three free samples each (the boys took advantage of my pregnancy and drank mine)
  
• Lunch at Woody's Pizza in Golden
• Drive to the Denver airport
• Bubbles
  
• Putting the kids to bed early because they were driving us all crazy