Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you,

Nick is finally 3!!!!

I can't believe my little guy is 3 years old, man time flies by so fast.

I just finished reading this book Twilight (which was a small miracle, O.k. so everyone knows that I have a very short attention span, ya know that ADD thing, lol!), anyways it was sooooo good!!! My sister in-law Keilah told me about this book when we were up for the Butler reunion and she let me barrow it for the very long drive I had ahead of me. So I read this book during the entire drive to Colorado and back, poor Willie he had no one to talk too. Anyways I would definitely recommend this to anyone, it was a great read. Now I am off the library to see if they have the series, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We just got back!

We just spent a week camping outside of beautiful Salida Colorado. Some of the things we were able to do during our visit were white water rafting, ziplines, soaking in the hot springs swimming pool, visiting down town, playing at the parks, hanging out at the Royal Gorge, and we stopped by the Albuquerque Zoo on our way home. This is a view from our campsite it just got finished raining and I got this great picture of the clouds rolling over the mountains.

We went through the Independent Whitewater Rafting Company to go rafting on the Arkansas River. This was my third time and the boys second. We rafted through Browns Canyon which had class III-IV rapids, due to all of the snow this winter the water was running really high for this time of year. This year we ended up in the raft with the guide who did all of the rowing, in the beginning I was really disappointed because I thought it was not going to be as much fun as the previous years but after realizing how fast the water was going, and how great our guide was we turned out to be really lucky. The guide joked with us and pointed out lots of landmarks and gave us names for all of the cool looking rocks (pink panther, tombstone, and elephant rock). At one point throughout the day one of the rafts in our group flipped over while going through a big rapid, everybody was o.k. but I got to go in the newly recovered raft and help the guide travel down the river while we picked up her overboard crew. You might be wondering where Willie is in the pic., well he hurt is back and then reaggrivated it during the week (poor Willie)!

During our stay we visited the worlds highest suspension bridge at the Royal Gorge. The boys got to ride in the aerial tram, walk across the bridge, watch and gun show, and check out the animals at the wildlife park. Did I mention how hot it was but we still had fun. I forgot about Willies selected fear of heighst and now I know where Jordan gets it, the two of them were o.k. on bridge just as long as we kept walking fast and did not stop.

Some other things we did were ziplining at Captain Zipline tours. This was so much fun and was not as scary as I thought it would be. Here is a pic. of me in my gear and another of me on the zipline.







We did lots of soaking in the Salida Hot Springs swimming pool, which is always fun. This year I taught Jordan how to jump of the diving board, and this is where he hung out the entire time. Nick had lots of fun he only bit a hole in one pair of floaties, lol.

We are on our way to the Butler Reunion/Colorado Campout

I tried to get this post up before we left to Colorado but with all of the packing and stress never posted, so I am going to post even though it is a little late and we are already back.
This is the first year that we get to go to the Butler Family Reunion, we have either lived out of state or have been on the Colorado campout and have alwaysed missed it. Last year Willie's Aunt Gail wanted to celebrate Grandma Butler's birthday by making a quilt and having everyone add a square to the quilt. This is our square from last year and the slide show was put together by my sister-in-law Lyndsie (thanks lyndsie for letting my barrow this). In the blank gaps I added a poem, date, and names & ages of the kids. I then used an iron-on transfer to some fabric and then embelished the quilt square with some buttons.

4th of July Fun

The 4th of July was very wet and soggy this year! It rained all day and we were unsure of what the big plans were going to be. We finally decided it was inevitable that we were going to get wet, so we packed our umbrellas and blankets and headed to the park. We finally settled on a spot right on the golf course and set up camp. Jordan was a little hesitant about the location he wanted to be at the park so that he could find his friends and play, as the night went on he became happy with our sweet little spot on the course which had a great view and very few people. While waiting for the fireworks to start the boys played with their glow sticks, ran around chasing each other (of course whipping each other with their glow sticks), and snacking on lots of yummies. The 4th of July is truly one of my favorite holidays, I just love the excitement the day brings from the parade to the fireworks...

I do have to update everyone on Jordan's arm, he finally had surgery last month and had his plates taken out of his left arm. It has been a very slow month of recovery and trying to keep Jordan from playing like a boy has been very hard. We had strict orders from the doctors no riding bikes, scooters, jumping, and other things that involve pushing, pulling, lifting, or tugging. This is an almost impossible order that was given to Jordan, I honestly thought about investing in a roll of bubble wrap and on a daily basis wrapping Jordan's arm up and send him outside to play. Tomorrow we go in for Jordan's check-up and x-rays and I am a little nervous to see how his bones are growing, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.