Mt. Evans a year later.

But first...some random cuteness. Check out the clashin'-est baby in town. It was chilly when we came downstairs yesterday morning and these are all the layers I could find without going back upstairs. He's a little color blind elf.
A pit stop on our way up the big mountain. We stopped for lunch and ice cream. Eli loved the blueberry muffin batter ice cream. He gave us blue kisses afterward in gratitude.
Just cute.
Looking for a fan.

Here we are a year ago today. We hiked up to the summit of Mt. Evans, at 14,255 feet. I was very pregnant. Eli was still head-up. We were more than a month from meeting him.
Today we ventured back up the big mountain with our big boy. We threw some layers on him (including his great Columbia jacket from the May Family, which is going to fit perfectly this winter), and went to hiking. It was actually snowing up there when we arrived. Think of that - snowing in August. That's Colorado.
I wore Eli's new pumpkin hat. My head is only slightly bigger than his.
Being all bundled up made us all excited about fall.
Eli loved hiking up the mountain all bundled up and riding in the front pack.
What's that face?
Our sweet mountain family.
Once we got to the top, Eli wanted to be let loose to climb. It made his parents very nervous, but he did quite well.
"Mama, let's GO!"
He's off.
He's a born rock climber.



Sweet mountain men.


We got back down mostly unscathed (as is our tradition, there was one fall. I took a spill on the way down with Eli in the pack. A lovely pack of Asian men came to my aid, and Eric wouldn't let go of the strap on the back of the pack for the rest of the hike).


And a parting video of Eli proudly signing for more fruit. He now has two signs - fan and more. We're a bit slack about teaching him signs, but we are trying for some of the major ones. His friend William just gave us two signing DVDs and Eli and I are taking a sing and sign class at the library in October, so hopefully we'll pick up some more.

Tiny Town

My apologies again for the photo overload. It's hard for a Mama to deem a photo of her son not blog-worthy. Just goofing around the house, being beautiful.
Shirt: "The best thing since sliced bread." True.
New pumpkin hat, and a fistful of puffs.
Eli got his first first birthday present! This great Eli puzzle stool came from the lovely Thomas Family. Thanks friends! He loves scooting it around the house, and trying to put the letters back in place. He's so smart!
And here begins the chronicles of our trip to World Famous Tiny Town and Railroad http://www.tinytownrailroad.com/ . It's just what it sounds like - a tiny town and a tiny train. It's about 5 minutes from our house, so some friends: Shana and Inara, Laura and Grace, Kirsten and Julia, Shasta and Christopher and Jackson, Amaya and William, and Kim and Jake - came up from Denver to Tiny Town. We toured the town, played on the playground, had a picnic and rode the train. Here Eli's checking in on the Tiny Town Tribune office.
William in his real estate office...
and his partner, Eli.
Soapy Smith's Saloon.
William and Eli chillin' on the tiny bench. They were so cute up there I could hardly stand to move them. (Eve - notice the Elmo hat on Williams. We've passed it on to him since Eli's gourd got too big for it.)
Such good buddies!
He kept his glasses on either his eyes or head all day - a first.
So handsome.
Tiny Town Library.
William and Eli checking out tee times at the Tiny Town club house.
Tiny Church.
Tiny Windmill.
The boys got sent to the clink. We sprung them shortly from the Tiny Town Jail.
No tiny hair for this boy. Fabulous faux hawk once again.
Flame shades.
"Hi Mama."
Sitting at the tiny picnic table with Grace.
And the tiny train. Tiny town was a big hit. It tuckered him out so well that he fell asleep in the five minute drive home and stayed asleep as I brought him in the house. So for the first time in months I got to hold my baby boy while he slept. We napped together for almost an hour. It was lovely.

Fun-Filled Weekend

Whew! We're worn out from all the fun we had this weekend! Eli went swimming, shopped for some fall clothes, had people over for dinner, ate two meals at restaurants with friends, went to William's house twice, enjoyed two picnics, and went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival...twice.

We'll start with the Balloon Fest. So, on our way to William's house for a morning walk on Friday, we encountered hot air balloons flying over the highway. It was really cool to see them all flying, so we did a little research and found out that the Hot Air Balloon Festival was happening all weekend.

We checked the website and made plans to go on Saturday and see the balloons and have a picnic. Eli got all decked out in his car shirt and shades.
But when we arrived, nary a balloon was seen. The website failed to mention that after the "mass ascension" in the morning, that's it, the balloons don't come back until the next launch time, which in this case was 7pm. All there was was a car show and booths where one could purchase the legs of turkeys, for eating apparently. Not really our shtick.
So, we sat next to the lake under a tree and had a lovely picnic. Enjoyable, but we were all pumped up to see some big balloons, so we were a bit let down.
So this morning I WOKE ELI (something I've never done before) early so we could catch the mass ascension before the balloons floated off into the sunrise. I zipped on his hoodie and snuggled him into the carseat and off we went.
It was so worth it! There were at least 40 balloons in various stages of lift off.
So, we sat on our blanket and had a breakfast picnic and watched the balloons.
Eli was engrossed. It was as close as I had ever been to a HAB, and it was really cool.
We compared his head size to balloons at varying distances.
bigger than this one...smaller than that one.
A quick smooch and off to church.
We also had friends over for dinner on Friday. Prior to their arrival Christa took Eli out to play on the trampoline and swing a bit.
Jumpin'.
"Can't catch me, Christa!"
"I caught Mama instead."
"And Vashti."
"You're next!"
Trampolines are good for snuggling.
Eli also got two chances to play at William's house this weekend! They had oodles of fun. We took a walk, swang (swung?) at the park, played with their dog Cuervo and with William's fun stash o' goodies. We were amazed at how babies teach each other things. William taught Eli to smell flowers and Eli taught William to climb the stairs (hence, Eli will not be invited over any more. Sorry William's parents!).
After church we went out to eat with the Runhows. Eli was a cut up.
He and their daughter Lexi had fake phone conversations across the table (don't worry, the phone is turned off - no cell signal/brain wave interaction).
Wish YOU were here!