Pretend

Levi has started a new important thing in his life--PRETEND. To be honest, I don't remember when Addison started pretending things, but am so suprised that Levi has already started it. Addison pretends things all day long-- everyday so I'm used to it-- and I know that it's a positive thing they need to do.
On Sunday we were playing outside at the playground at church and I saw Levi walk over to the picnic table and pretend to grab something to eat-- and then stick his hands in his mouth and chew up the pretend object. He walked away, turned around and went back to the table over and over again to continue eating it! Since then I've noticed him doing lots of pretend things. Yesterday Matt was flossing his teeth and Levi was watching and pretty soon had his hands up just like Matt has his and was doing it too. :) Age 1 is a lot of fun, they learn more and more every day.

Hunting

While we were driving around Estes Park we noticed an Elk Crossing sign close to our campground. Matt was telling Addison that we were looking for Elk-- to which she started saying "there's an elk, there's a deer....." and you know she's just making it up-- she does this at home too-- she'll stand at the window with binoculars and say "there's a bear behind the pond"....

So Matt said to her-- "Addison you'll have to come hunting with me cause you see so many animals...." she said "I can't go hunting daddy, I'm just a little girl..... I can only go hunting when I'm a daddy."

It was the cutest thing!!

Update

Looks like it's been over a month since I posted anything.... so I'll give a little update of where we've been this month, etc....

On June 19th we left on a trip to South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado & then home.... We had 10 days to do this trip, and it was WONDERFUL!

• The first day (Friday, 20th) we drove to Interior, SD and stayed at a dumpy little campground. After 500+ miles of promising a swimming pool to Addison, we pulled into the campground and she said "There's the 'cool'"-- Matt and I looked over to find it was empty...... She was a trooper and just kept saying "Sorry there's no 'cool' mom".... :) We made the best of it-- played awhile and went to bed.
• The second day (Saturday, 21st) we over-did it and went to Badlands, Wall-Drug, Custer State Park & Mt Rushmore, after all those things we drove through Deadwood on our way to Spearfish. Just a LONG day. From Custer to Mt Rushmore we took the "Needles Hwy"-- which was a lot of switchbacks, etc.... and then Levi threw up. Poor baby. Stayed at a nice campground, went swimming, did laundry, Addison got to feed a baby goat at the petting zoo, etc....
• The third day (Sunday, 22nd) we went to Devils Tower, WY. After seeing the tower started a LONG drive south-- into nothing! We drove all day and past 8 pm to finally arrive a another dumpy campground on Exit 2 of Wyoming. Again, promising a pool all day and again not getting one! Addison was still a little trooper and just apologized to us about the lack of a pool. What a sweetheart!
• The fourth day (Monday, 23rd) we drove into Colorado and swung through Windsor-- just to see if I could find CBC-- we did it first try, which I was amazed at-- the town is COMPLETELY different. But we found it. After that we headed down to Colorado Springs to find the cheap hotel I had booked. After we headed into the neighborhood of the hotel-- Matt stated "I can see why you got this place so cheap"-- it was a creepy neighborhood and a creepy hotel. :) Oh well, we survived, and it had a pool, so the kids were thrilled! We hooked up with Jenny Moriak that evening and took a tour of Garden of the Gods and then went to the Air Force Academy. It was a nice evening.
• The fifth day (Tuesday, 24th) we drove to Estes Park-- by way of Grand Lake and across Rocky Mtn National Park. Arrived at our campground (Jellystone)-- and it was TERRIBLE!! We got set up and decided that the next day we were going to leave-- even though I had made a 3 day reservation. It was so steep that I couldn't walk up it with the kids-- and Levi couldn't walk around cause he'd fall down. Addison & Matt swam for a little bit and we went to bed
• The sixth day (Wednesday, 25th) we wokeup to a rustling noise-- Matt went to see what it was and found a bear licking Levi's booster seat-- broke it. :( The bear ran off and after the kids got up I packed up the camper and Matt went down to cancel our reservation. We left by 9 am and drove down to Elk Meadow Rv park-- it was just before the entrance to RMNP and gorgeous! We got a site and set up camp. We all went for a swim in the pool and had a great day hanging out. That evening we went into town (Estes) and looked through shops, etc.... Just a nice day.
• The seventh day (Thursday, 26th) we drove into RMNP and found a spot to eat breakfast. We ate breakfast at a "Christmas Table" (as Addison calls a Picnic Table) and went to look at the river by where we ate. We drove some more as Matt wanted to get up to the Continental Divide that day. The kids slept through most of it-- but we saw dozens of elk as we went. It was a nice drive up the mountains. After that we went back to our site and relaxed-- of course then it rained the whole rest of the day, so we were stuck in the camper the whole day. We had our first ever "family movie night"-- and put in Madagascar to watch-- Addison was asleep within 30 minutes, Levi stood in his pack-n-play to watch and would have watched the whole thing if we didn't turn it off and make him go to bed!
• The eighth day (Friday, 27th) we packed up camp-- did our laundry, washed the dishes, emptied the sewer, etc... and headed into town. Matt wanted to go to a couple more shops-- he wanted to buy a rock and then to look at some carcasses at a shop. We did that, ate lunch and then headed down the road. The kids both fell asleep right away and we drove down to Loveland and then drove through Ft Collins and then to Windsor. We got checked into our dorm room and unpacked some stuff. Lori & Jason were already there-- greeted them briefly and got ready for the weekend! Sarah & Roy arrived next, followed by Adam & Stephanie, Megan & baby Jack, Sara & Matt, Kathie & Sam, Suzanne, & Chad... We saw others throughout the weekend as well. Had a relaxing evening catching up with old friends.
• The ninth day (Saturday, 28th)-- we stayed on campus all day and relaxed. It was a nice day. Had supper out with everyone and came back and had a bonfire.
• The tenth day (Sunday, 29th) we headed for home. We left Windsor about 9 am mountain time and arrived home shortly before 2 am central time. The kids were great and we were able to drive and drive and drive! :)

It was a great trip. We unpacked on Monday when we got home and cleaned up the truck & camper, returned it to mom & dad and worked on getting back to life-as-normal. The following Friday (3rd)-- I took the kids to LBBC for family camp and came home on Sunday (5th).... now we're all tired and paying for it!

What a great summer it has been so far! The baby is scheduled to arrive on August 20th, which gives us just over 5 weeks to get everything ready. When we got home on the 5th, we moved Levi's crib to Addison's room and they've been doing great sharing. :)

WHEW! That's the update for now. Will post a couple funny stories in a minute!