Meeting Aunt Barb

We always have so much fun when we hang out with Alice and Richie.  We were extra lucky in August because their grandma, my Aunt Barb, was visiting to help their family with the transition back to school (do you see a theme here?).  We had them over for dinner and a splash day.  So much fun and a great time introducing Aunt Barb to Laura!

Daisy Girls

Peach Festival

One of the best parts of living in FoCo is the number of summer festivals we have.  Most are free to get in to and have a great selection of food and activities (especially for Grace!).  We headed to the Peach Festival in August and had a great time (minus a grouchy Grace).  We had pancakes with peach syrup and we even got to try peach beer.  Who knew peaches were such a big deal in Colorado?!?

Faces of Laura--August 25

Laura in her sweet outfit from her Great Auntie Laura!

Hanging with Nana

We were so incredibly lucky to have Mark's mom here for just over two weeks as I transitioned back to work.  It allowed us to keep Laura out of day care for a few more weeks.  We had lots of fun with Nana.  Here Laura is hanging out on Nana's lap when we made a pit stop on a trip down to Denver.

 

First Day of School

It was a bittersweet day heading back to school on August 20th.  I have ALWAYS loved the first day of school.  But the first day of school this year meant the end of days hanging out with my baby.  I loved my time at home with Laura and am so lucky to have a flexible schedule where I'm only teaching two days a week this year so those are the only days she has to go to day care.  It will be a struggle to balance my research with caring for Laura the other three days but hopefully I can manage, still be productive, and not go crazy :-) 

 "What Mom?!?!  You're not going to stay home and hang out with me???"

It was also Grace's first day of Pre-K.  She transitioned to the 4's class for the summer back in June but August 20th was the first day that they started the Pre-K curriculum.  Grace was so excited because all of her friends that stayed in the 3's transitioned up for the start of school.  Her teacher told us that she immediately saw a difference in Grace as she came out of her shell when the classmates that she'd been with the last year came into the class.  It's amazing the friendships she's formed with those kids.  It will be such a fun year as we watch all she learns in Pre-K with her teachers, Ms. Jenni, Ms. Joy, and Ms. Christie.

Vail

So, I'm incredibly behind on the blog...give me time, my goal is to catch up before Laura's 1st birthday.  I'm still capturing all of our fun moments and all of Laura's firsts.  I just haven't got them up here...eventually...I promise!

The weekend before school started for me, we headed down to Vail for a weekend away.  Mark's mom was in town for a few weeks to help us transition back to work and treated us to a fun weekend in the mountains.  We drove up on Saturday morning and got to the village just in time for lunch, and a little splash in the river...

Then it was off to the pool so Grace could show off her new swimming skills.  She's quite the little fish!  She actually swam between Mark and his mom and then between Mark and I.  The lessons are paying off!

That evening we did a beer tasting at the hotel and got to roast some S'Mores outside.  It was a low key, fun night!

You may be asking yourself, where was Laura?  Well, she was with us...sleeping most of the time.

Here she was at breakfast...

And here she is hanging out in the room.  She did a great job for her first night away from home.

The next morning we walked along the river to the village and explored the farmer's market.  It was the perfect summer morning.

Lego Car

Splashing in the fountains

Face Paint

I had promised Grace that we would go up the gondola so before we left she and I headed to the top of the mountain.

 

 

 

 

Lunch before we left.

It was a great weekend.  Definitely a tradition we would like to start for the weekend before classes start!