Half-pint Happenings...

I know, I'm a little behind; these are some of the things Half-pint has been up to recently: It's been a busy past few weeks for Half-pint! He started preschool this fall-at the same school he attended last year-with all the same friends and a few new ones. He was so excited to go and this year it's old hat, so there is some comfort in that for him (and me).

We took the boys on their first camping trip in August. Half-pint was so excited to sleep in a tent that it didn't matter that Quarter-pint kept us (mostly me) awake most of the night-both nights. Half-pint LOVED roasting marshmallows over the fire and playing with Aunt C6-they had secret forts under the low boughs of the trees between the camp sites. We also took Half-pint spelunking. He was super excited to go into a "spooky cave". He practically ran up the 3/4 mile (switch back) hiking trail to the cave entrance.

He took one look at the entrance and freaked out! There was NO WAY he was climbing into that hole-into the dark! Daddy and I spent a few minutes of talking, then bribing and he eventually decided to try. Once he got in he was a champ! We had a hard time keeping a good hold on him-he was trying to lead the whole group around in the dark. He even used a rope to climb up a few steep, slippery, muddy slopes. He crawled on his hands and knees, and generally loved the whole experience. We were so proud of him for facing his fear of the dark, cold cave!

Half-pint also tried his hand at fishing (another first) before we left the beautiful Sylvan Lake State Park campground. I don't think they caught anything though. We still had a great time with family for a few days in beautiful surroundings!

On our way home, we caught up with Grammy and Grandpa C in Dillon. We stayed another night there and the boys rode the alpine slide for the first time. They had a blast! Half-pint wasn't even afraid of the chair lift ride to the top. We also rented a pontoon boat and spent a few hours on the lake. The boys took turns driving the boat with Grandpa. They thought it was great fun!

Over Labor Day weekend we were back in Dillon. We took the boys on the train in Leadville (elevation 10,200 feet). Quarter-pint kept saying "Hoo-hoo!" (choo-choo). We ate popcorn and enjoyed the scenery. Then we took a "short cut" back towards the house-we went 4-wheeling over Mosquito Pass. It's notoriously very rocky. We bounced slowly along and both boys eventually fell asleep. After we reached the summit and started heading down the east side, the boys woke up. Half-pint chimed in "Daddy, let's go home. There's lots of rocks on this road!" Then he said "this thing needs new shocks!!!" The shocks on the jeep are fine-it was just REALLY rocky! We got out to look around an old mine-then near the bottom we explored the mine's mill house. Half-pint really wanted to go up the rickety, half decomposed, wooden steps to explore the top two levels-he just wanted to see it all! (I think he gets that from me-I really wanted to explore it ALL too, but it obviously wasn't safe.)

Now we're back into the swing of school and speech therapy schedules and just a regular routine. It's kind of nice (at least for me) to know what the week will hold-but we still have one weekday each week that's totally unscheduled-today we're headed to the zoo!