August 27

Today is a pretty exciting day! It is Jim's parents' wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Jack and Kathy! It is also my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

My Godson, Mark, leaves for his freshman year at Georgetown tomorrow. So, Colleen (his other Godmother) and I took him out to say farewell today. First we hit some golf balls at a driving range. I was by far the worst golfer, and I'd like to blame it on the big pregnant belly I have, but the truth is that didn't make a big difference.

Mark was definitely the best:

Colleen had some skills. She even brought her own club (I borrowed mine from the course).

I wasn't even dressed properly.

After the driving range, we went to Carl's Drive-In for some delicious food and root beer. Mark had never been there before, and Colleen and I hadn't been since high school. It was a fun day, and we are going to miss Mark. Colleen and I cannot believe that he is going away to college tomorrow!

City Garden

Jack and I went to the City Garden today with our friends Nancy and Margo. Jack loved running through the fountains. If you plan to go, you should be aware that Jack's brown shirt was discolored from the chlorine. I was very surprised.

After playing in the fountains, we had some lunch and changed into dry clothes. Then we explored more of the garden.

Zoo

Today was a beautiful, unseasonably cool August day. Jack and I decided to go to the zoo. Most kids are back at school, so it wasn't too crowded. I will admit that I had ulterior motives, though. Jack didn't get much sleep last night and I knew he would need a nap today. Since he doesn't nap unless he falls asleep in the car, I decided to try to wear him out at the zoo and hope he would fall asleep on the way home. Well, we spent over 3.5 hours at the zoo. I didn't bring a stroller and I didn't carry Jack at all. I drove around for an hour on the way home, and despite many yawns, Jack did not fall asleep! This kid is amazing! I didn't want to drive around anymore, so we just came home and I put Jack down for a "nap." I can hear him upstairs running around his room playing. Such is life. At least he is staying in his room today.



We did have lots of fun at the zoo. First, we checked out the insectarium. We were able to see a lot of little insects and then we walked through a butterfly room.Next, we went to the River's Edge where we saw many animals. Here Jack is looking at the fish that swim with the hippos.

We were excited to see the elephants. In this picture Jack is watching one of the baby (3-year-old) elephants and her mommy.

Next we saw the two baby elephants together (one is 2 and one is 3).

We saw numerous other animals in the River's Edge. From there, we took the train one stop to the Red Rocks station. There we saw lions and tigers.

We saw some zebras.

Jack likes to climb on the little fence to see the animals better.

Alice the camel has two humps. Go Alice, Go! (if you don't know the song "Alice the Camel" then that probably makes no sense to you).

Jack and I saw some ostriches (not to be confused with emus - I really don't know the difference).

Here is a picture of me from January 2007 when I was pregnant with Jack. I am imitating the emu we saw while we were in Australia. Notice how different it is from the ostriches Jack and I saw today.
Jack and I found a nice, quiet place for lunch. We had Jack's favorite, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Jack calls them "jelly sandwiches." In fact, he even calls peanut butter "jelly sandwich." I gave him a slice of apple with peanut butter on it recently. He licked the peanut butter off it and handed it back to me saying, "more jelly sandwich, please." No matter how many times I emphasize that it is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he still just calls it a jelly sandwich. It's probably one of those things that when he starts to call it by the proper name, I will miss him calling it a jelly sandwich.

After lunch, we rode the train once more. It is definitely Jack's favorite part!

He has been putting his fingers in his mouth lately and I don't know why. Maybe he's getting another tooth???

I sure wish I had a picture of him napping to end this post. Someday...

Lazy Days of Summer

Since we returned from Colorado, we haven't done much. This is mostly because I have a nasty, lingering cough and I do not want to expose anyone else to it. Sunday was the worst day. I called Jim's parents in tears, and they came right over to watch Jack for the day while I slept. Since then I have felt a lot better.

Jim was still off work last week, and he did a number of things around the house while Jack and I played at home a lot. One afternoon I filled the pool in the backyard for Jack to play. He put his chair in the pool, along with his water cup and bucket. Funny. Jack then decided to fill the water pail and water all the plants and flowers in the yard. It was pretty sweet.

Last night at dinner I gave him a fork and a spoon. I usually just give him one or the other, depending on the meal. He decided that it would be a good idea to use both at once.

We had our first outing in a while this morning. We went to a children's concert at Tower Grove Park, and then played on the playground and in the fountain. Jack surprised me by sitting still for the entire concert (about an hour)! It was fun, but I didn't get any pictures because it was so crowded and I had Jack sit on my lap for most of it so he could see better. After another napless day, we have just been hanging out at home. Here are a couple pictures of my happy boy from this afternoon.

Jack has been saying some funny things lately. Here are a few that I can recall at the moment:

• When Jack hugs me he says, "Oooohhh, Mommy!"
• When I ask him what we should name the baby, his most recent answer is "Nana."
• Lately after I tell him something, that he clearly has heard, he'll say "What, Mommy?" When I repeat myself he says, "Oh."
• He loves to make "homeruns." It doesn't matter if he just hit the ball with a bat, or just threw it to someone. He will shout "Homerun!" and sometimes "Homerun baseball bat!" and then he runs around the room/yard/house, as if he is running the bases.
• He loves to talk on the phone (or the remote control or the i-pod or anything else that resembles a phone). His favorite person to talk to these days is Grandma. He really just says, "uh-huh" and "yes" a lot. I guess that is what he hears when we are on the phone.

Denver

On Saturday, Jim and I took Jack to the Denver Firefighters Museum. He got to dress up like a firefighter and "drive" a fire truck! I think Daddy was a little jealous that they didn't have firefighter gear in his size. :)

Jack and Jim put together a big fire truck puzzle, too.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a Brew Grass Festival. Jim and Kitty enjoyed a few tasty adult beverages and I enjoyed a sno cone. We listened to some music and Jack ran around. It was fun for all. No pictures, though.

Sunday morning, we met my cousin Kristen for brunch. She lives in Denver and I don't get to see her too often. It was fun to catch up with her.

After brunch, we walked to Coors Field to see a Rockies-Cubs game. We were happy to see the Cubs lose (and Lou Piniella was ejected from the game)! Even better, the Cardinals won their game! Here are a couple pictures from the game (we were not the only ones in the stadium with Cardinal gear on).

On our walk back to the car we passed a bar that advertised a free can of PBR with your game-day ticket. We had to stop.

All good things must come to an end. We are on our way home from our Colorado adventure. We are in a hotel in Topeka as I write this. Jack is sleeping in the bed next to me:

Rocky Mountain National Park

On Tuesday we drove to Denver to visit my friend, Kitty. We planned to spend Tuesday night at a hotel somewhere along the way, but decided just to drive straight through and arrived in Denver around midnight.

On Wednesday morning we drove up to Boulder and walked around downtown and had lunch. After lunch, we headed up the mountains to Estes Park where we rented a cottage on a river for a couple nights. We saw the Stanley Hotel (pictured below) which is the hotel from the movie The Shining. Redrum.

Jack helped Daddy grill dinner on Wednesday night.

Jack ate his dinner outside on the picnic table. Behind us is the playground, and the Big Thompson river is just beyond that.

There were a couple of basketball hoops, and Jack enjoyed shooting baskets after dinner.

On Thursday morning, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for a short hike.

When we reached Alberta Falls, we stopped for a picnic lunch.

The waterfall was beautiful! Jack represented St. Louis with his Cardinals shirt. We saw a number of other hikers with Cardinals, Mizzou, Royals, and other Missouri items of clothing. We even saw someone with a Rams shirt! You don't even see that in St. Louis too much these days.

Kitty and I in front of the falls. Look how tall I am!

Jim rented some fishing equipment and was able to fish in the river right by our cottage.

While Jim fished, Jack threw rocks into the river. After a while a bunch of ducks came over, thinking Jack was throwing food. I brought out some bread and Jack fed the ducks for a while. He loved it!

This morning we went back to Rocky Mountain National Park and drove along the Trail Ridge Road. There were some spectacular views!