Flower Pot

Being my father's daughter, I've developed an appreciation for pretty flora.

But I guess I have a real thing for flowering pots since I brought home a camera-full of pictures from Telluride of children with them!

Leaf It Up!

Sure every resident in the Four Corners decided to take the same drive we did at the exact same time, (we actually saw two families we know) but the crowds didn't get in the way of how gorgeous it is this time of year. I also learned there's a name for people who go out to look at the leaves changing. So here we are....

The Tree Peepers!

Things Are Still Going Swimmingly

My sorority sister, Kari (and her family), are vacaying in Telluride this week, so we decided to meet up in Ouray to try out the hot springs. The drive to Ouray is super beautiful/terrifying. And when you're the driver, I'd say it's 30% beautiful and 70% terrifying (especially for a Texan).
In case you were wondering, "Switzerland of America" is 5,000 some odd miles from the real Switzerland. (According to the sign I saw at the springs.)



See the railing? When we were getting back in the car Kyle actually told me, "Mommy, don't hit that." Even he knows when we're just a little too high up.


Unfortunately Kari and I didn't get a picture together, but here are all our boys. (And yes, we're still both in shock there's not a girl anywhere in the mix. Nobody likes a good dance routine like we do!) I also can't believe this is the only picture we got at the hot springs. The springs are surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and our background is an iron fence and towel. Nice.


Speaking of pitiful photo backdrops...On the way home JR and I decided a stop at the Big Foot Museum in Silverton (or as Reed calls it "Silver Town") would be a good idea.

Yep, Kyle spotted another one.

And where's Reed you might ask? He was right next to me. No way he was getting near one of these guys.

I'm Becoming My Dad

I'm wrapping up our Denver trip today. And as you'll see from these photos, I believe all my time in Texas with my dad rubbed off on me. Here are the two pictures I took from our mini golfing night. (We went to a really amazing course that I saw on my friend Jill's blog, so it wasn't like I didn't have plenty of photo opportunities.)

Photo 1: I sounded just like my dad when I said, "Oh Kyle. Go stand over there and let me take your picture in front of those beautiful impatiens."

I then found myself trying to have a conversation with Jason about how beautiful all the flowers were. Oh my goodness, WHO AM I?

Photo #2: I had taken a picture of the flora, so now it was time for the fauna.

Something about seeing a squirrel eating left-over dippin' dots just made me giggle.

Adam Richmond, Could You Give Me a Call?

JR is seriously obsessed with Adam Richmond and his show Man V Food. I probably hear Adam Richmond's name at least 15 times a day. While we were in Texas JR made all the grandparents watch Man V Food and talked about him so much that my dad even knows who he is. (Of course my dad refers to him as "That Food Man".)

I really don't understand JR's fascination with Adam. JR only eats about 3 foods, so to compulsively watch (Thanks Netflix on Wii) somebody else eat all kinds of things really makes no sense. But love him he does. So much so that we had to go to "Adam Richmond's favorite restaurant when he visits Denver. It was featured in the Carnivore Special, and Adam had a hamburger with jalapenos."

And if you're a crazed Man V Food fan like JR, then you'll know we ate at The Cherry Cricket. JR really wanted a burger just like Adam's, but he just couldn't bring himself to eat the jalapenos.

So if you happen to know Adam Richmond, or know a friend, of a friend, of a friend of Adam's, or know where he might be taping a show in the near future, I'll happily take any of that information because I do believe my child is "That Food Man's" biggest fan.

Polar Bears Bowling at the Love Shack

I took exactly one picture at the Denver Zoo. Obviously I have a thing for the giant polar bear measuring stick because I have exactly one picture from the Singapore Zoo and it's the same one! That's JR when he was Kyle and Reed's age (and his friend, Madeline). Kyle does appear to be taller than JR at 2 1/2, but he's not...just a lot skinner!


The zoo trip was almost blog-story-free until Reed pulled a fun little stunt. Being small and skinny seems to have its advantages, as Reed decided that the train line was much too long for his liking and snuck (undetected) to the front of the line (and we're talking passing up about 20 families). It wasn't until he got to the very front that somebody noticed him. And being the amazing parents Jason and I are, we hadn't noticed he was gone either.

Our hotel was near the Lucky Strike bowling alley so the kids basically begged to "go bowling ball" every second we were there. (Even after we had taken them.) Here's Kyle waiting his turn on the comfy couches.

Again, I only have one picture, not because anybody tried to sneak to the front of the line, but because bowling is quite an ordeal. Everybody wants to hold their own ball (Jason almost had his big toe smashed off) and JR thinks proper bowling form is to run up to the lane and heave the ball overhand as hard as he can. Unfortunately, on one of his turns, he dropped the ball in mid run and it actually rolled down the lane next to ours! It knocked down another little boys pins. The boy was about JR's age and his face was in utter shock. He handled it really well, cause JR would have completely freaked out if the situation had been reversed.

We ended that night with a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe, where I ordered up this little number.

It was quite helpful while "entertaining" JR with my rendition of Love Shack. (Surprisingly, Jason knew most of the lyrics; we had quite the little performance going.) JR finally quit rolling his eyes long enough to ask me how I knew all the words. My reply, "Oh JR. You just don't know how cool your mom is."

Is There a Doctor in the House?

I'll be posting some of the highlights from our touristy escapades around Denver in the days to come, so we'll start today with a visit to the Children's Museum. And as you can see...real scientists wear their protective eyewear upside down.

Who knew the Denver Children's Museum doubled as a veterinarian residency hospital? Good thing, cause these Ingy boys were doing some serious animal doctoring.

Dr. Reed (who calls himself Dr. Me) not only likes to call the shots, but he likes to give them too.

Dr. JR made sure all the X-rays lined up just right.

Scissor work was a staple of Dr. Kyle's health care. Thank goodness for plastic scissors or every cat in the place would've been tailless.

And just like scientists and their protective eye wear, real vets wear their stethoscopes backwards.

Here's What We Woke Up To

I have to say it's quite odd to wake up to the sound of the snowplow in the middle of June!

Only One to Pose

But we all made it. We're here in Breckenridge and expecting snow the next two days. You can imagine how excited I am!

Thanks from the Tourists

We're off on a little road trip, and its nice to see Pagosa Springs is keeping up the tradition of serving ice cream to the tourists. Goodness knows the fit Coloradans aren't the ones eating it! (And as native Texans we feel more at home in the tourist category than the 'fit' Coloradan.)

Rule of Life #63

When making a day trip to Telluride, make sure you have a change of clothes in the diaper bag. It's fun to go see how the rich and famous live, but not so fun to shop where they shop. I was hoping Kyle would run into Suri Cruise this afternoon so they could chat about his new $35 pajamas (as seen here).
I can absolutely guarantee you I will never (as in never, ever, ever) venture over to Telluride without a few spare outfits in toe.

The Durangoans Will Be So Proud

I have pictures to prove it. The Ingersolls are not just hunters...but friends to the animals. Grandpa Gary is visiting us and has some friends with an elk ranch in Pagosa Springs (about an hour from here). We drove over today, and 2 of the female elk "love to snuggle"! So here's those Ingy hunters with their new friends.

You're Such a Sasquatch!

We made a quick stop in Silverton where we couldn't help but visit Bigfoot Central. Oh yes, Silverton is home to a Bigfoot Museum. Jason, being the consummate 'prove it to me' guy, was busy trying to justify the non-existence of Bigfoot by saying "if they exist, then why hasn't anybody found a dead one, or a skeleton?" Where as I'm perfectly happy to just laugh and not believe...I need no scientific proof one way or another. So here we are "learning" all about Bigfoot.

Bigfoot is bigger than Jason.


And apparently Yetis have great abs.

Box Canyon

It's absolutely amazing how fast we were able to site-see in Ouray without 3 kids in tow. Everyone in Jason's office was telling him we needed to go see Box Canyon Waterfall. And wouldn't you know it, we just happened to show up on opening day. We weren't really dressed for waterfalling (we were both wearing flipflops) but I did my best and avoided any major slippage. The park ranger/gift shop clerk was quick to tell us to be careful on the slippery rocks. As he put it, "You slip in, and you're gone." Um, gotcha. Not to worry, Dude, not really interested in falling in slightly above freezing water only to be washed away and "gone". And due to the "slippage and gone" situation, we really didn't get a good picture of us with the waterfall, but I did get a quick video so you could hear how loud it is...Jason and I had to yell to hear each other...and you know how loud we are just on a normal basis!

That's just the bottom of the waterfall. So being the oh-so-adventurous-ones we are, we then hiked up the trail that led to a better view from the top. (Yes, hike. We live in Colorado now, so hiking is kind of a prerequist to them letting us live here...flipflops or not.)

See, we were way up high! That's the town in the background of Jason's picture.

"Green Table" Part 2

Some great scenery pictures from yesterday...

Mesa Verde

We took the kids to Mesa Verde yesterday. (I still think "Mesa Verde" sounds like a name for a Mexican Food restaurant.) And I couldn't believe they actually let you walk around on the cliff dwellings! We hiked down (the path is paved, but I'm still going to call it a hike) to Spruce Tree House. The kids thought it was just about the neatest thing ever, and especially loved climbing down into the kiva (an underground chamber). If you're ever in the 4 Corners area, I highly recommend a visit.

*My camera finally died yesterday so some of the pictures aren't the greatest quality since I took them with my camera phone. (BTW, I got a new camera today...Yeah!)

On the hike down. You can see Spruce Tree House in the background.



I still can't believe they let you touch it!


Checking out the kiva.

heading down

Surely you didn't think I'd miss checking it out?


Jumpin' and Jivin' in the kiva. It was a lot bigger in there than I thought it'd be.

Going up


The babies were furious that we didn't let them go in the kiva. They were so mad they tried to wiggle and climb out of their stroller and kept pointing and screaming at it.