Big Hike/ Little Hike

On Sunday Joe and I decided to head to Crested Butte to go for a hike. Mikayla loves to go hiking, she gets so excited and the dogs get excited and then I get mad at the dogs for being too excited in the car!!! We decided to hike to a lake called Copley Lake. It is only 2 miles to the lake - not too bad, we were warned that it is a pretty steep hike. Thankfully Joe carried Mikayla on his back up to the lake - if I had done it we would not have made it! The trail was so steep it took us over an hour to get here - two miles in one hour is pretty darn slow! But when we got to the lake it was beautiful and quite. Mikayla had fun on the way up signing songs with Daddy, playing games, and holding as many flowers as we would give her.

I carried her on the way down and it still took us over 50 minutes. She did fall asleep in the backpack on the way down. For a while I could tell she was getting tired because she kept putting her head down. Then Joe turned around and said she was sleeping but she was still tossing around. Finally Mikayla found a spot for her head and settled down. At the end of the trail is a really steep section. Joe pulled her out of the backpack and carried her down himself - she slept through the whole time! But she did wake up in time for a late lunch.

Pregnancy update - I will be starting my fifth month of pregnancy on Friday - times does fly and I am getting big. I only have one or two pairs of pants that are not maternity that I can still wear and that is because they are a size 14. I cannot believe how big I am getting. I am trying to eat pretty healthy with a few more fun snacks than before. If you have not tried "No Pudge Brownies" you must. Excellent taste, moist and they taste great!!

Break Throughes in Potty Training

We have had two small break througes in potty training. While we were camping we took Mikayla's potty for her to use. At one point she said she had to go poppie but ended up not, then a little while later she was busy playing with Sienna, then next thing I knew Sienna said that Mikayla was saying she had to go potty, well we did not make it to the potty in time and Mikayla did poppie in her pants and the big thing was that she was upset about it. We called her down and told her that was ok and it happens. - Yea - she was upset at going in her pants!!

Yesterday evening I took her with me to run some errands. I realized as I was putting her in the car that she did not have a diaper on - I said oh well. At each stop I asked if she had to go potty and each time it was no. Luckily she was not guzzling liquids before we left. At the grocery store she told me she had to go potty and we went to the bathroom and she went. This was the first time she peed in a public toilet - yea!!!

I am determined on Monday to tell our daycare provided that Mikayla is not going to wear diapers unless she is napping. We will see how that goes.

Camping Trip

Our camping trip was a success - sorta of. We arrived at camp on Saturday around 1pm and Mikayla was sleeping in the back seat. I was shocked that she was still asleep because we covered very rough road in order to get to camp. We unloaded the car and Mikayla woke up just in time to help set up the tent. She loved running around, hiking the camp site, playing in the dirt. Every time I cleaned her face it was dirty 5 minutes later.

Our friend, Keith joined us at camp around 3pm and Mikayla had a blast playing with his 10 year old daughter - I thought - babysitter!! I can sit down and relax now. After a while Mikayla and I went for a little hike with the dogs down the road, but she still had more fun hiking to the "potty" at camp with mom.

We sat around the fire eating hamburgers, bratwurst, pasta salad for dinner. They boys decided to go 4-Wheeling after dinner and I used that chance to get Mikayla into bed. She did not go easily and cried for about 15 minutes and then she finally settled down. I eventually got tired of waiting on the boy to come back to camp so I went to bed as well. Shortly after I went to bed they came back to camp with their big trucks and made plenty of noise and of course Mikayla work up. So I pulled her into bed with me. Once Joe came to bed I realized how cold it was outside and so Mikayla would have to sleep with us. We have never spent the whole night with Mikayla in our bed. We were sleeping on a double size air mattress. We all did not sleep good that night, but Mikayla slept the best. Joe and I spent most of the night awake.

Finally morning rolled around and I was excited to see the sun - I kept waiting for it to warm up enough that I could crawl out of bed. Joe got up and started a fire so I was finally able to get out of bed. One of the other guys that was camping with us said he could go for a cup of coffee. I let him go on for a little bit and then I spoke up that I would love a cup of coffee. So Joe, Mikayla and I hoped in the truck and drove 30 minutes each way to get a cup of Camp 4 Coffee - the best coffee anywhere - better than Starbucks - but only served in Crested Butte. That was the best cup of coffee and it was so worth the 1 hour trip to get it.

Once we got back to camp we loaded up the camping gear and Joe wanted to do a little fishing. He caught a couple of tiny fish - only a few inches long. After that we went for a hike and saw a huge dear. We headed home around 1pm we were all tired. Mikayla quickly passed out in the car and stayed asleep until we got home and I was even able to put her in her crib at home and she slept for 4 hours! Joe and I both took long naps as well. We were exhausted.

So I think we will go camping again, probably not this season but maybe next summer and someplace warmer.

We left out camera at home so here are the only pictures we have. Saturday evening we climbed to the top of a cliff that was above our campsite.

Another Kid's Say the Darnest Things

While we were in New Jersey I was in line to buy some candles at a store. My husband and mother-in-law were entertaining Mikayla. They were gathered around a kid's size patio table and chairs. Mikayla sat in each chair and then turned to her daddy and said, Daddy I want this, Let's go pay now!!!

Well at least she knows she has to pay for that even if she has no idea of money.

Going Camping

Mikayla is going on her first camping trip. We are borrowing a huge army tent that will have plenty of room for her pack and play and for Joe and I to sleep on cots instead of the ground. Sleeping on the hard ground does NOT appeal to me anymore - especially since I am pregnant and my back is already bothering me. I think we are going up Cement Creek. Which for those of you who know, you turn down the road that takes you to CB South but instead of turning into CB South you keep going on the road. For those of you who do not know it is between Gunnison and Crested Butte and should take us no more than one hour to get there. I will try to post pictures when we get back. I know that I still have to post pictures for our NJ trip - but soon!

Blah, Blah, Blah

Well not much exciting has been going on at our house. Joe has been busy painting a condo so that leaves me and Mikayla to ourselves in the evening and all day on Saturday. Joe did spend some extra time with us on Sunday. It seems as if during a normal work week Mikayla is clingy to me when I am home and I have been saying it is because she sees so little of me during the week. Monday through Friday she only spends from 5pm to 8pm with me, then on Saturdays I have been cleaning so she would only see me from noon on, but she would also nap for 3 hours and finally on Sunday she would have me all day. In contrast Joe gets to spend an extra hour with her every morning and he also gets to spend Tuesday and Thursdays afternoons with her and then all day Saturday and Sunday. But I noticed on Saturday night Mikayla was missing her daddy. After he got home from painting and we were relaxing in the living room she wanted to sit with daddy and not mommy.

As I have said many times this pregnancy has been a little harder on me, I have had to start wearing maternity clothes earlier and my back bothering me earlier than with Mikayla. Maybe we are having a boy - who knows. I have determined that cleaning my floors really gets my back going, so I am no longer going to clean other people's houses and Joe said he will have to take care of the floors, but he is so busy right now I don't see that happening. I am getting better at only cleaning the floors once a week instead of multiple times.

Finally on my other blog I have started an 8 week challenge. I am using this challenge to really work on strength training, I want killer arms and legs - hey just in time for winter so I can cover them up!!! Check it out and see if you want to join. Basically you need to commit to 3 days of 30 minutes of cardio, 2 days of 20 minutes of strength training and one extra goal every week. Not too bad - the government says we need at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

I went in to Mikayla's room this morning and after she said mama she said "My head hurts." At first I brushed it off but then she said it again. I started wondering why her head would hurt - 2 year olds don't have stress like you and me. I asked her "Why does your head hurt?" She responded "I hit it on my crib." Well no wonder it hurt, mine would hurt too.

LOL

New Jersey

We are back from New Jersey and we had a great time. We left on Friday, July 27th planning to catch a red-eye flight out of Denver at midnight and we would arrive in NJ at 5:30am. Perfect - so Mikayla can sleep and I don't have to take an extra day off of work since I don't get paid for vacation days yet. Denver is four hours from our home in Gunnison and we were about 2 hours into our trip to Denver and we received a call that our flight was cancelled due to weather but when we called our friends in NJ they said what weather? We decided to try to Denver and get a hotel room and deal with the situation on Saturday morning. Continental said that they had already rebooked us for a 5pm flight out of Denver on Sunday!! I told them that was not acceptable, I had a wedding in NJ at 2:30 on Saturday. Finally at one point I just wanted to get to NJ on Saturday so I would not have to pay for another hotel room.

We went to the airport on Saturday and they rebooked out of Denver Saturday night but we hung out at the airport because they had us on standby for earlier flights all day long in hopes we could get out earlier. Finally we boarded the plane at 5pm on Saturday and instead of the direct flight I had booked we had to fly to Houston and then catch another plane to Newark. Mikayla was wonderful. She was a chatter box all the way to Houston and they slept the whole flight to NJ.

We finally arrived in NJ Sunday morning at 1:30. I am very upset at Continental at cancelling out flight and then rebooking us for Sunday night therefore costing us money for a hotel room, missing the wedding which we had to buy new clothes for, and we lost 20 hours of our trip. My husband is going to write them a letter. From what I am hearing all of the airlines made money last quarter and they are doing this by cancelling flights that are only half full (red eyes or very early morning flights) and they claim it is due to weather since they do not have to do anything for you in that case. Also no one on the phone at Continental suggested to go to the airport to try and get on stand by they just kept saying that you have been rebooked for Sunday and that is all they could do. I am also planning on writing a letter to Travelocity. They are the ones who booked our trip and not once did they call us to let us know the flight had been cancelled. Since they have that stupid gnome with the Travelocity guarantee stating that is something is wrong they will work to make it better. Travelocity was worse than Continental - they kept us on hold forever and they could not do anything to help us. What has happened to customer service in this country?

Well once we finally arrived at Joe's parents house we were able to relax. We were going to go to Vermont for a couple of days to check it out but I was so tired from traveling I did not want to wake up Monday morning and get in the car for another 5 hours so we decided to skip that part of out trip. Mikayla had fun shopping with Grandma and playing in the kiddy pool Grandma bought her.

One night Joe and I went into New York City and had sushi with friends. That was a lot of fun. I enjoy going into the City and seeing different parts. Our highlight of the trip was going to the ocean. Mikayla loved running to the water but she expected me to be right behind her when the waves came! She loved it and did not want to leave.

I will post pictures as soon as I download them from the camera - and Sue please email me the ones we took with your camera.

We ended our trip late on Saturday. We caught a flight out of Newark at 5pm and that was another disaster due to Continental. With all of the rebooking on the front end of the flight no one bothered to rebook us on the return trip. They finally got us rebooked on the correct flight but we had three seats all over the plane. I told the person at the counter that would not work because I had a 2 year old. She said to the flight attendants on the plane. The first flight attendant I spoke with said there was nothing he could do about that but then the second flight attendant worked very hard to get all of us seats together - the first time the whole trip. Mikayla slept part of the flight and was awake for part of it. She does not sleep in her carseat like she use to. We arrived in Denver around 7:30 and we arrived at home at 12:30am! What a long day. Now back to the real world and working everyday!