State Fair

How have I not blogged about the fair? It is Ford (now Giles) family tradition to go to the fair every year. I love the fair. This year it was just me, my mom, and my sister. We do not go to the fair for the original reasons (livestock), or to ride rides. We go to eat, see shows, and people watch. One of the shows we have started to make a tradition is the African Acrobats. Not only are they super talented, but they are so full of joy.

Next, we try to hit the celebrity test kitchen at least once during the day. This is where chef's from around the area come and cook a sample for everyone to taste. This year we saw the chef's from McCormick and Schmidt. I am no foodie, but they made a seafood mac and cheese that was to die for. They also made a flour less chocolate cake but I was out on that. This was the most food we have ever gotten from the test kitchen. They could have fed a crowd of about 200 with the amount of food they prepared. We took it outside and sat and listened to the Killdare's. All and all a fabulous food outing.

I am frightened of fair rides, but I cannot go to the fair without riding the burlap sack slides. They are my favorite. This time we had enough tickets to hit a fun house as well. This fun house was a little ghetto. There were parts that didn't work pretty frequently, but it was still fun. The best part was the very skinny twisty slide that went down from the top to the bottom. It was completely enclose and Autumn screamed the entire way down. She is very claustrophobic so it was somewhat hysterical.


Lastly but definitely not least is the birds of prey show. This is Marilyn's favorite part of the fair. What is funny is how little it has changed in the past 5 years. Same show and we still love it. The difference this year was after the birds of prey show Marilyn paid money so that we could take our picture with a bald eagle. I sadly do not have that picture, but I will get it on the blog someday. In its place is Marilyn on a electronic balance board. Priceless.
I mean seriously - what is not to love about the fair?

Friend in Need

This is the blog of one of my frineds Chelsea. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet, not to mention an amazing teacher. http://www.thesals.blogspot.com/ I met her teaching at Freedom and only got to teach with her for two years before she went to teach at another school. Her husband has just been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and they are going in Monday to get more information. Please be in prayer for them and add Nick (her husband) to any ongoing prayer lists. I know they would appreciate it.

Pumpkins

My boys love pumpkins. They talked about pumpkins everyday of October. They could not wait to see pumpkins, decorate pumpkins, or buy pumpkins. They could not get enough of pumpkins. These are the two decorated pumpkins that sit at their breakfast seats. They were so proud. I especially love Beck's face - he matches his creation. Nash on the other hand has to have his match all the way. Once he went with one green thing he would not pick another color. It is so his personality

Cowboy Up!

As most of you know we are blessed to have wonderful in-laws on both sides of the family. Both of the boys grandmothers LOVE to buy the boys gifts and toys. In an effort to keep down the toy count in our house I put some dress up clothes on the boy's birthday list and boy was that a good call. They have so much fun putting on the costume and especially playing with the map. They go all over the house looking for the hidden treasure.

Bad Blogger

I know - I know... I am a bad blogger. I think now that friends from out of town are calling and telling me what a bad blogger I am I will finally get with the picture. so now everyone will just have to put up with me going back in time and catching up over the next couple of weeks.

First and foremost both of the boys had birthdays. I cannot believe that Nash is already 4 and my precious baby Beck is now 2. I don't say it enough but I love my boys. They are like sunshine everyday. The both are so sweet and yet so different. Nash is all about puzzles and building and figuring things out while still running around like a crazy man. Beck is all about being tough. When playing monster he does not run away from the monster, but turns and runs into the monster and hits him. He makes crazy faces and adores his older brother. Together they are thick as thieves and a joy to be around. Happy birthday to my two precious boys!

Happy birthday boys.

Nash Climbing

Last year we introduced Nash to rock climbing and he seemed to like it as long as the hand and foot holds looked like stairs. This year he has climbed more and more and last night he made it all the way up his first full climb. It was about 50 feet tall and he went all the way up. We were super impressed with his ability and fearlessness. Here are some links to video of him climbing. enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEbW6ygR-BE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJbbTErK604

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayjh4pSK0_k

Marilyn's Visit

Marilyn came to Durango for her yearly visit over the 4th of July weekend. It is always so much fun when she comes. Along with the Silverton 4th of July activites we went to the Bar-D chuckwagon show and dinner, went hiking, and basically hung out with the staff. Here are some pics of her visit.

On another note Marilyn took Lance and I out to eat at Season's in Durango and it was so good. Everything I ate was excellent, but the ice cream crepe for dessert was divine. It was two crepes filled with homeade ice cream covered in all kinds of berries in their own sauce. I could have eaten another serving of it. Yummy!!

4th of July - Silverton Edition

I love the fourth of July. It really is one of my favorite holidays. This year though takes the cake for fun. We again spent the Fourth of July in Silverton, CO which is about 30 minutes from our condos. Our day started at 7:30 with a 5K run benefitting the Silverton Youth Association. First of all Silverton only has about 1 - 2 graduating seniors each year so I am sure the youth association is in high demand. Second of all when they went to describe the 5K route to all the participants I about fell over when they said we had to run up the beginner ski slope on the ski mountain. I really thought they were kidding, but no - they were serious. Only 4 of our staff did the run: Will, Emily (a fellow ACU'er), Lance, and I. Will came in 1st in the whole race and Emily came in 3rd for the whole race. Yeah - they are way more serious runners than Lance and I.

Next up was the fourth of July parade. This parade consisted of a lot of ATV's, jeeps, and old fire engines. Apparently the town of Silverton went on ebay and bought all the old mardi gras beads b/c that is what they threw out to the crowd. Here is Nash giving the thumbs up for the fourth of July.

Being a small town with only a volunteer fire department at the end of the parade they had a water fight. The fire department divides into two and they turn on all the fire hoses and try and fight the other side back. It was awesome to watch. Directly after the water fight is the "rhubarb festival". Apparently all the people in town bake rhubarb pies, rhubarb crumble, and rhubarb bread for the festival and we get to eat it. Next came the ducky derby. The ducky derby is when they release a bunch of rubber duckies down the river and whoever's ducky comes in first gets a prize. The river banks were crowded with people and we just had a good time hanging out watching the happenings.

The last event of the day before fireworks is the old west gunfight show. I am sorry to say that I did not get to see the gunfight show b/c Beck was scared to death of the guns going off that we had to walk away.

As our normal tradition we tried to get family pictures made on the fourth by one of our staffers. This year's lucky winner was Brian who spent time trying to get us all to look in the same direction. Those pictures will have to come later due to the fact that they are still on Brian's camera.

While waiting for fireworks to start some of the staff worked on our yoga out in the baseball field. I just love the fact that it is July and we have to wear fleece. Here's to another great fourth of July.

Guys Backpack

Sorry for the long delay in posts. I have a lot of catching up to do. This summer we have had a couple of breaks without groups so we decided to do boys and girls backpacks to scout routes for next year. The boys went first which left all of the girl staff at home with the little boys. I am sure Lance had a great time on his boys backpack but that is up to him to post about. The first day the boys were gone we went on a picnic to Haviland Lake which was going well until Beck threw up all over his clothes. Instead of leaving and going home we just stripped him down to his diaper and let him run around.

I felt a little like a bad mom but what the heck we are in Colorado.

The next day we went on a hike to Potato Lake. This was the first time that I had to carry Beck in the backpack carrier and it is heavier than I thought. Here is me with the boys hiking along.

We had a blast at the lake throwing rocks and hanging out. Nash had so much fun that he sat in the water and soaked his shorts. Follow the progression of pictures for how it turned out.

After potato lake we went out for a girls dinner at Cuckoo's Chicken House which is one of my favorite places in Durango to eat though Lance does not love it.

We had a great couple of days even with all of the boys craziness. I have to say I love the girls on my staff. There is never any drama and everyone gets along really well. Also they act like Nash and Beck's surrogate mothers. I love all of them.

Year 2

So for the second year in a row we have gone to ride Thomas the Tank Engine on the Durango Silverton Railroad. This year we went on Father's day. I do not know how Nash know the difference in all the trains but somehow he does. It really blows my mind. Even Beck can now say Thomas when he sees it. It is a little funny to see how boy heavy this event is. You barely find any girls there even when it is crowded. We had a good day out with the boys and they seemed to enjoy it even if they will not smile for a picture.

Here is Thomas pulling in -

Here is Lance and Beck on the train

Courtney and Nash on the train - no smiling allowed.

Family Picture - as good as it gets

Catch-Up 1

Even the best intentions go by the wayside sometimes when we are up here. It was my goal to blog 2-3 times a week and I am so behind so this post will serve as my catch-up and then I will hopefully do better.

This first picture is what I call "Beck vs. the mosquito". Guess who won?

This next picture is the hike from last week. We did not fully realize there would be this much snow.

Lastly - here is a picture of the boys being boys while the staff was out climbing. I want everyone to notice the mischievous look on Beck's face. I think this tells us something about his personality.

Milestone

Starting Summer

Well we are off to another summer in Durango! Our first group started this afternoon so we have been doing staff training for the past 5 days. This picture is from our staff hike on Saturday. It was 46 degrees and the wind was whipping! Hence the lovely hair. This staff hike was me and the staff while Lance stayed at the condo with the boys. He is so great. Our first hike on Thursday we took the boys with us and probably went about 6 - 7 miles. Nash was a trooper and walked most of the time though he did have moments when he wanted to be carried.

On another note. Those of you who know Lance and I well know that we have turned to crossfit as our workout plan of choice. This summer Lance has decided to keep crossfitting and has "invited" the staff to join. So everyday so far our staff has crossfitted together. It is comedy at its best. As Danielle knows - the family that squats together stays together.

Talk to you soon.

I love Moose

To give some background on these pictures about a month ago we checked out a book from the library about moose. The story was about a kid who wanted moose as pets and how great they were. Nash totally loved this story and has decided he wanted a moose as a pet. Flash forward a couple of weeks and one of my friends from school, Tammi, came to babysit the boys. Nash kept talking about how much he wanted a moose as a pet. Tammi, being who she is, loved that Nash loved moose and found two stuffed mooses (?) for the boys. Here are some pictures of the boys with their mooses (?). Thanks Tammi - they love the stuffed animals!!

Weekend in Poynor

This past weekend we took the boys out to Poynor. Poynor is where Lance's grandfather lived his whole life. Now that Papa Butler is gone Lance's parents have kept the house to show the grandkids where he lived. We had a great time out in the country.

Here is Nash flying a kite for the first time.

Here is cutie patootie Beck out in the field.

Nash feeding the horses.
This is Papaw Butlers old trcuk and so we obviously had to have a picture in it.

Ford Family Outing

A few Sundays ago we went for out second annual Ford family outing to the Dallas Arboretum. It was cold and windy, but we had a great time. This year (until December) the Arboretum has a bunch of play houses based on childrens books that the kids loved seeing. There was not too much inside the houses but they looked awesome. Nash and Beck both loved the pirate ship based on Peter Pan.
Here is Nash and his cousin Collette sitting in front of some beautiful mosaic sunflowers.

Here is Beck steering the Treasure Island boat.

Yeah for Ford Family outing!!

Spring - Cleaning and Walk

As many of you with kids know the toys just grow exponentially as the days go by, so in order to keep your sanity you have to weed out every once in a while. Now is that time for us. We are having a garage sale on April 4th so I am trying to get everything ready ahead of time. In order to see what we had, what had lost pieces, and what we needed to get rid of I had the boys help me bring ALL the toys into the living room. The picture really does not do it justice, but we had a great time getting all the toys out and purging.

The second picture is what it represents. Today we were out on a family walk when we walked by some beautiful hanging purple flowers. As we walked by Nash said to Lance"I am going to pick one of the purple flowers for my sweet mommy." Needless to say I was won over quickly. So when we got home we took a picture of our flowers.

Lastly here is a picture of Beck with his new haircut. When did he get so big? He looks so much like a little boy and no longer a baby.

Bedtime Madness

Lance and I have known this day was coming for quite a while, but we have been putting it off for as long as possible. Sunday night I decided to suck it up and move the boys into the same room to sleep at night. They will have to sleep in the same room in Colorado and we want them to be used to it before we get up there. After talking to several people I went in thinking that the first couple night would be crazy but the newness would wear off quickly. So far I am totally wrong. It is night 5 and they have not fallen asleep before 10:00 yet. The good news is that they LOVE being in the same room. The bad news is that they love being in the same room. Nash just wants to have fun and Beck is all too happy to oblige. They sit in the room cracking up and talking to each other for hours. My question is at what point do they give it up and lay down? We find Nash in his bed, with his covers on, fast asleep, so we know that at some point he goes and gets himself in bed. What I would not give for a video camera that works in the dark.
At this point I am debating taking Beck back out so they can get some sleep because I have to tell you they are both cranky boys on less sleep. Should I wait it out and give it more time or do I seperate now and try again in a couple months. Help!! I have no answers

Boys Weekend

So for months I have been trying to figure out a way to have the boys by myself for a weekend. I have thought and thought and thought about how to get Courtney out of the house and leave me home alone with the boys. I want a chance to do some dangerous stuff that boys need to experience. You know like getting on the roof, running out in the street without looking both ways, streaking around the neighborhood and drinking a full 2 liter of Dr Pepper and shaving each others head. All the things a mother would frown upon.

Wel I could not think of anything to occupy her for three to four days. Canton...not long enough. Shopping at the big mall in Minnesota...too cold. A full spa weekend...I don't think she would enjoy it (really, who would?). So when in doubt, call Autumn (the sister).

Oh, by the way, did I mention that this June is Courtney's 30th birthday? She has mentioned it to me a time or two and let me know that she might like to do something big for this momentus occasion. Once again, big event=call Autumn (the sister).

Why didn't I think of this before? Combine my desire to have the boys to myself for a weekend and Courtney's big birthday event. Genius! I wonder if...she might...no way...well maybe...she really might...this could work...LET"S SEND HER TO NEW YORK CITY!

Since I am all out of material let me sum it up. Courtney, mom, sister and friend are going to NYC for the weekend over Memorial Day. Lance, boy 1 and boy 2 are hoping to stay out of the emergency room over Memorial Day weekend. Let's see who wins!

Tears from Hairven

So...my lovely, wonderful, spunky wife just cut her hair a little shorter that usual (see pictures above, in case you missed them). I will be upfront about my hair preference. "Long is never wrong" I just made that up! Seriously...that totally just happened! Copyright The Lancer 2009. OK, back on track. So I prefer her with long hair on her head (I know it is a guy thing. It may also be envy) but I fully support her desire for change and I absolutely think she and her hair look beautiful.

Now in the past when she has cut off the Courtney hair it has been quickly followed by tears, regret and my tongue bitten I told you so's. So I was fully prepared for this Wednesday night. I even called Autumn, her sister and personal stylist, to see how it went and to check Courtney's emotional status. Fortunately all was well and Courtney was very happy with the new do.

So when I heard sniffles yesterday, I was concerned. When I saw tears flowing in bed last night, I was very concerned. And when this afternoon I heard full on weeping and sobbing from the other room, I new the excitement of the short locks had worn off and the longing for a ponytail was the cause. I gathered my courage, psyched myself up and ran into the room prepared to assure her of her beauty and my fondness of her hair.

"What? You're not crying about your hair?...the book?...You have been crying for two days because of this book?..." Unbelievable! She loves the hair (as do I) and she loves the book although it has made her cry nonstop since opened it. Just when I think I have got her figured out...

Hair

So I did it again - I cut all my hair off last night. Thanks to my wonderfully talented sister Autumn it looks fabulous. Pictures will be coming soon I promise.
Thanks Autie

Random Catch-up Pics

Christmas Morning at the Giles. The boys are in their matching pajamas from Mamaw. We love them.

Our brand new frog tent from Christmas. The boys love playing in it!

Beck's latest war wound. With the flash it is not as prominant, but he has a huge line bruise across his cheek, and the inside corner of his eye is turning black. How did he get this you say? At the library of course - very dangerous place.