Back from Vacation

We're back! From our Park City, Utah vacation that is. We had fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Nuetzel, and Mark, Piper and Jonah. It seems like we fit a lot of things into the week, train rides, trips to the zoo and children's museum, and Annie's favorite, hanging out at the pool. She is fast becoming a regular water baby, and by the end of the week she really wanted to swim off on her own, little does she know that she will probably sink like a stone to the bottom if we did let her go. Oh well, Tim and Reynee are back to work and Annie is back to school. She is excited because there is a petting zoo coming to her school on Wednesday, and she loves animals.

Yea Reynee, she turned 31 today!

Today we spent the afternoon back at Cherry Creek State Park. We packed a picnic lunch and hung out on the beach, playing in the sand and water, and making fun of the guy next to us that spent 45 minutes trying to get his canopy shade up. Annie had a great time and even dunked herself under the water a few times, and we finally got her to try and float on her back. She really didn't want to leave, but once we got back at the car she was already fast asleep.

Update on Annie and her vocabulary...her new favorite word is...."no". Darn it, she says it all the time now! Oh well, I guess it is a good thing that she is developing her own opinions. Next time around we are not going to use that word, we are going to simply say "I would prefer it if you wouldn't do that".

1st Camping Trip of the Summer

This weekend we went camping with our friends Tim and Erin, in the area around Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. Towards dusk on Saturday night, the dogs ran off to the road and started barking like crazy! We couldn't guess at what was going on until we heard a long and loud MOOOOO!!! The area we were camped in is also used by cows and a herd of them had walked up the road, only to be turned back by two braking dogs. We could just barely see the cows running back down the road in the moonlight. Today, Annie woke us up bright and early, and we had a breakfast of sausage and egg burritos and some fruit, then headed off for a hike. Tim wanted to drive up a dirt road we had found on a map, we got to the first big turn and came face to face with a bunch of big rock, that's as far as the truck got! Tim, Tim and Annie made it to the top of the mountain for some great views of Pikes Peak. I'll post some photos of the weekend soon.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great time on the 4th of July...after running a few errands in the morning, we set off to Cherry Creek State Park for a picnic lunch and a swim in the reservoir. Annie had no interested in the picnic, all her attention was focused on the sand, and burying her feet, Tim's feet and putting sand on my towel. After lunch, we headed to the water and Annie had a great time. It was all we could do to keep a hold of her, she kept trying to push away from us and swim off on her own. I don't think she realizes that she can't exactly swim. After that we headed to the shore and sat in the shallow water so Annie could splash around on her own. She loved it so much that I'm sure we will be headed back there sometime soon. As we were leaving we couldn't help but notice the line of cars waiting to get into the park, close to a mile long! Wow, I guess it is a good thing we showed up early! After the park, we went to a BBQ hosted by our friends Laura and Jeff and had some great burgers and a great time.