A cute story about Aidan and the caves

I forgot to mention this in my blog about Vail, but it was so cute I had to post it.

While in the caves, the guide told us about some cave explorers who in 1958 crawled through an area called Jam Crack to discover a huge part of the cave now known as The Barn. Anyway, Cam crack at it's widest point is only 8 1/2 inches so the cavers had to do something known in the caving world as compression breathing. It's where you take a deep breath, then try to fold your shoulders in towards you while squeezing through the crack. The guide asked us if we were ready to squeeze through Jam Crack. (Of course us adults knew he was kidding), but Aidan turns to me with a look of death on his face and whispers solemnly, "Mom, I don't want to do that."

Kids, they are such innocent little beings. Something I keep reminding myself when they behave so horribly. Gotta love them.

Vail, Colorado

This past weekend we spent up in the posh resort town of Vail. Can you say ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS? What can I say, going to the mountains in the fall is one of the best times. The aspens are all turning gold so the fall colors are amazing, plus it's not crowded so it's easy to get around, unless you have a stroller. (Vail is NOT stroller friendly, therefore not wheelchair friendly either.)

We had a great time. We drove to Glenwood Springs on Saturday (just an hour west of Vail) to spend some time at a place called Glenwood Caverns. You take a gondola up to the top of a mountain, tour a cave, (pretty cool and the kids were great. It was a 70 minute tour) rode the alpine slides and had fun.

We walked around various "villages" of Vail. We stayed in Lionshead Village which is just as nice, but smaller than Vail Village. We walked around The Betty Ford Alpine Garden which boasts it's the highest (elevation wise at 8200') bontanic garden around. Very beautiful.

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

Vail also has the nicest playgrounds I've ever seen. (Can you say ka-ching? Lots of money flows through Vail in the winter.) I thought the playgrounds around Castle Rock and San Jose were nice, but the ones in Vail tops those. I have one picture of the kids on one. I wish I took others, but I was usually feeding Curren in the car while the kids played at the playground.

We also spent a little time in Beaver Creek. Now that's a POSH place. Talk about beautiful and VERY, VERY expensive. It's like its own gated resort nestled in the mountains. I could totally live there or have a 2nd home there...that is, if I had millions of dollars to spare.

It was so nice to get away even though it was a trip for our family and not a vacation. (A preschool mom told me the difference. A trip is with kids, a vacation is without kids...don't you totally agree?) One of these days I dream of another vacation with Rick...that's a story for another time.

Curren is 2 months old today!

Wow I can't believe it, but Curren is 2 months old today. He loves to smile and "talk" to us. The older boys just love to get him to smile and spend most of their time with Curren doing just that.

We had his 2 month well-visit and here are his stats.:

Wt.: 12lbs. 7 oz. (1 lb. more than Aidan and 1lb. less than Kellen when they were 2 mos.)
Ht.: 24 in. (longer than both boys...we may have a tall kid in our family)
HC - 15 1/2 in. (smaller head than both boys...also surprising as we're a family of big heads)

As for his little personality and likes and dislikes?

He loves his little playmat. This is also usually where his brothers try hard to entertain him.
He loves to be held.
He loves to coo and interact with us.
He likes his baths.

He's slowly becoming a better sleeper. And I usually (when I'm home long enough) have success getting him to nap in his crib without me rocking or nursing him to sleep. I just can't let him cry it out yet, but I'll stand by his crib and pat his tummy if neccesary. At night I'm usually getting a good 4 hour sleep block. Curren will go about 5 hours between feedings...for the first half of the night, that is.

He's a pretty easy-going guy, but will definitely let you know if he's hungry, uncomfortable, overtired or just wants some attention.

We all just love this little guy. He fits perfectly in our family and as my brother would say about his youngest, he's our perfect caboose.

Happy 2 months Curren, we love you!

Sunday

To continue our quest for new things to discover as a family on Sundays we ventured over to my old stomping grounds again and went to Clement park. (I don't remember this park so I'm not sure if it was built after I moved to Cali.) Either way it's a great park and big one at that. It's also the site of the Columbine Memorial. (Columbine HS is right next door.) It's a very touching memorial to those kids and teachers who were killed by two very troubled HS students. I'm sure most of you remember, how could you not???? I got teary-eyed reading some of the quotes about that day.



A picture of the memorial from above.





After walking through the memorial we headed over to the lake so Kellen could try to see some fish. He wanted to catch some for dinner, but not having any fishing poles made that kind've hard. I'm not even sure if we're allowed to fish at the lake, but I definitely saw some fish jumping.





All in all another nice day for the Scott Clan. It's nice for just the five of us to spend time together even if we have moments of moodiness (Aidan), or whininess (Kellen), or crying (Curren) it's still good for just the 5 of us to bond for a few precious hours.




Me and two of my sweet boys.


By the lake... Curren getting hungry and trying to be patient.


Curren's favorite place. And the older boys favorite place to play with Curren.

Things...

I didn't know what to title this post since it's really just a hodge podge of things...latest pictures of Curren, some things we've been doing, etc.

Soooo, here's some pictures of Curren, my how he's grown.






I remember when I first put Curren in his little swing he was swallowed up by it. Now he fits in there nicely...not that he's in there all that much since in typical Scott boy fashion he LOVES to be held. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible since this will be my last time to snuggle with one of my own little babies. It doesn't last long, but I have to admit on the days I didn't have a good night it can feel like forever. He's such a cutie though and he's starting to smile so it makes it all worthwhile.


Also, on Sundays while the weather is nice we've been trying to go for drives and a walk/hike some place. Not always knowing where to go can be hard, but thankfully my sister has provided us with some options. It's nice for us to get out and spend some time as a family (since usually the boys...or Aidan mainly is outside playing with his friends all the time) and it makes it easier for them so they don't sit and complain about not being able to ride their bikes or play with their friends like they usually can on other days.


So last Sunday we went to a place called Waterton Canyon. We didn't get too far since Kellen was walking, but it was still nice. We'll have to go back again. Or Rick will with Aidan because where we walked the trail is flat and it's great for bike riding. When Curren gets older and can be in the bike trailer we'll all go. Hopefully Kellen will be proficient on his bike with training wheels.




I love the picture of Rick and Aidan and Kellen walking down the path holding hands. (Although I told Aidan to grab Kellen's hand...it makes for a good picture, I think.)


There are signs posted about the Big Horn Sheep in the area too so maybe one of these days we'll see one, that would be pretty cool. Also, seeing this picture of me is weird...I think because I still have 15 more stubborn pounds to lose. It's only be 7 1/2 weeks, but I'm impatient and determined to get to my pre-Curren size.

The sweetest story....

Today when I went to pick up Kellen from preschool the director stopped me and told me he was a little sad today during chapel time. I guess they read the story about Baby Moses and his teacher looked up from her reading to see Kellen with tears in his eyes! The directory rushed over and scooped him up in her lap and asked him why he was so sad. Like a typical 3 1/2 year old he couldn't really articulate why he was so sad, but when she asked if he was afraid someone would do that to his baby brother he said yes.

What a total sweetie! He was probably sad because he was afraid someone would put Curren in a little basket and set him off down the river. Thankfully the preschool director reminded him that the story ended well and he heard it for himself too.

My sweet little boy is so protective and loves his baby brother sooo much. He can't stop giving him kisses and singing songs to him. As for Aidan, I think I stated in a previous post that he always runs upstairs after eating breakfast to see how Curren is doing and loves to pick out his outfit every morning. This baby boy sure is loved!