Happy Birthday, Sam!

Sweetness!

We celebrated all day - with gifts, friends, going out to lunch and lots of playtime! Sam helped me bake his cake (vanilla!) and blow up balloons... and all he really wanted for his birthday was for someone to sing "Happy Birthday" to him so he could blow out candles! His wish came true - and so did mine! I love my sweet, sweet Sam.

moose

I often marvel at how fortunate the boys are to have some of the adventures they do... and yesterday was one of the more unique experiences any of us has ever had!

We drove about an hour up into the mountains and watched as our friends with the Division of Wildlife released 6 moose into the National Forest. As I understand it, last year there were several moose relocated from Utah to our neck of the woods. What we got to see was the relocation of several more from another part of Colorado - and that is the end of the project. From here on out I suppose the hope is for the two groups to meet, form a nice happy Western Colorado moose family and thrive right here in our backyard...

There were lots of kids there - either children of DOW officers or their friends... Hamp was equally enthralled with the wild animals and the number of fellow 6-year olds to play with!
Sam was somewhat unsure of the whole event!


Three DOW trailers with moose back into the trailhead...

... and here is one of the bulls...

... and one of the cows...

... and a cow and her calf running off into there new home!

Happy Birthday, Hamp!

Oh my gosh, I love this dude.

He is so funny, and so fun-loving. He crawled into my bed this morning at 6am (as he does most every morning!) and in my half-asleep state I thought to whisper "Happy Birthday" and he said, "Mom.... I'm six!" and then curled up next to me and laid quietly for another half an hour until he couldn't stand it anymore and had to go watch cartoons! (he knew it wasn't a school day!) He was pretty excited all day - and had a great day playing with friends, opening gifts and celebrating with his family!

spongebob squarepants

ski day 3

Hamp is now to the point of specific confidence that he can ride the lift

ALL BY HIMSELF...

... and then cruise on down like he owns the place!
Like I said, it's a specific confidence - he sticks with what he knows and does it well! Perhaps next trip we'll branch out a little and see how he does!

Oh, and as always Sammy had a great day too!

ski day 2

Our first ski day of 2010!

Happy New Year friends and family... may your lives be blessed with many

picture-worthy adventures!

Last Saturday was a great day on the slopes... J and Hamp had several good runs and all three boys enjoyed playing in the fresh snow!

Oh, and if you ever wondered what Sam does while big brother is out skiing... well, he just kind of hangs out in the ski lodge...

Christmas faves

OK... so there were over 100 pictures and all of them - in my opinion! - great. I could fill a whole page of all the fun things we did while visiting Yaya & Papa in Tennessee, but I chose to practice a little self-control (the first step in exercising my new year's resolution!) and only post some of my very favorite shots - ones that really epitomize our vacation...

Some of my favorite moments were seeing the cousins share some quiet play time together...

... and this is one of my favorite pictures of my niece, Miss Grace Hartley

One of the highlights of the week was the fire pit in the back yard and home-made s'mores!

What a wonderful time spent with family... gotta "rest-up" for another reunion this summer!