Labor Day Weekend - Part 1

Over the long weekend we took road to trip to South Dakota. We left on Friday and spent the evening with Christina's cousin and his three daughters in Spearfish, SD. Christina had spent a summer in Spearfish 18 years ago as a kid so it was neat to see things that she remembered as a kid. We had a great time catching up with her cousin Matt and his kids. Lily had so much fun with the girls. Unfortunately, we did not get too many pictures that night. Here is a picture Varun took of the girls as they were watching the movie Tangled.


On Saturday morning we left Spearfish and took the scenic route to Mount Rushmore. We drove through Black Hills National Forest and through a few small towns to get there. We toured the museum, watched the informational video and walked the Presidential Trail at Mount Rushmore. We also took a ton of photos and ate lunch there.







Our next stop was Cosmos Mystery Area. Cosmos is an area where the laws of gravity mess with your head and balance. Balls roll uphill, trees curve down, and cabins are slanted, but level. Although Varun is sure the site is set up to be an optical illusion, we had fun on the 30 minute tour.




Before checking into our room at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, we took Lily to a park called Storybook Island. She did so well sitting in the car and sight seeing that we had a to give her a chance to run around and get some energy out. Storybook Island is a huge park/playground filled with characters and displays from popular nursery rhymes and stories. We got there shortly before the park closed for the evening, but Liliana made the most out of the visit and had a blast on the playground.

18 Months

Liliana turned 18 months old last week. We cannot believe how much of "big" girl she has become in the last few weeks. We had her 18 month doctor's appointment last week and our little peanut is getting pretty tall, but is still slowly gaining weight. She is almost 32 inches tall and is about 21 pounds.

Here are some things Liliana is up to at 18 months:

* She is a fabulous sleeper and enjoys her sleep. She is in bed between 8-9 and wakes up at about 8. She is not a very happy girl if we need to wake her up to leave the house early in the morning. She also takes a 2 hour nap most afternoons. If she is not tired, she will sit in her bed and read books until nap time is over.

* She will eat pretty much anything that is given to her. Her recent favorite foods are corn on the cob, cheese, honey nut cheerios with milk, canteloupe, bananas, and onions (we were quite surprised at this one; she will eat them cooked or raw).

* She is always on the move. She loves to run and never seems to run out of energy. She is also a dancer. She loves to move to any music, especially anything by The Fresh Beat Band on Nick Jr.

* Some of her favorite things to do are color, ride bikes, read books, and wrestle with Finnegan.

* She loves babies and seems to be excited about the new babies coming soon. She kisses Mommy's belly a lot and carries her baby doll around the house. She likes to give her baby rides in her shopping cart and rides on the sit n spin.

Here are some recent pictures of Liliana at 18 months...

Playing Mini Golf at Fort Fun last week

Having fun at Varun's squadron's family picnic

Playing around at home with her toys. Look how long her hair is getting!

Larimer County Fair

Over the weekend we went to the Larimer County Fair. Last year we did not have a chance to go since we had just moved here, so we wanted to check it out this year. It was free admission and there were a lot of things to do and see, even for Lily. We watched part of the Splash Dogs show where dogs ran and jumped off a diving board to catch a ball, went to the petting zoo, met up with some neighbors, rode a few kiddie rides, and went to the kiddie corner where Lily jumped around in the bouncy castle.

Here are some pictures of our evening at the fair.

Lily was a little nervous around the animals at first.

Getting a little braver...

After 5 minutes, she decided it was okay to pet them and call them dogs.

Waiting in line for the rides with Daddy.

Getting ready to ride the spinning bears

The giant slide; her favorite ride of the day.

I wonder what they are both looking at?

Yum! Enjoying an ice cold lemonade at the end of the evening with Mommy.

Cheyenne Frontier Days Air Show

Last week we took a trip to Cheyenne to see the Frontier Days Air Show. Varun was flying in the first act of the air show dropping the Air Force Academy jumpers to kick of the show. Lily and I took the new Sienna up to Cheyenne with our friend and her twin girls so we could see Varun fly and watch the rest of the show.

Lily and the twins had a blast! They loved looking at the airplanes and enjoyed the kiddie corner even more. After Varun's performance, he was able to hang out with us for the rest of the air show. We went in a few static display planes on the ground and saw quite a few planes perform.

Waiting for Varun's plane to fly by.

Here come the Air Force Academy jumpers dropped by Varun's plane.

Meeting up with Daddy after his plane landed.

She was so interested in every plane she saw.

Enjoying the bounce house towards the end of the show.

Lily's New Room

Last weekend we moved Lily to the smaller bedroom across the hall to make room for the twins nursery. We bought her new bedding and curtains, and converted her crib to a toddler bed to make the move more exciting for her. She LOVES her new bedroom! She sneaks away often during the day to her bedroom and we find her sitting on the floor or in her green chair reading books. She has also been sleeping and napping so well in there. Most nights she sleeps almost 12 hours without making a peep and she is still napping two hours a day even with the toddler bed change. Finnegan even loves the new room. We think he enjoys being able to jump on the bed with her. Here are a few pictures of her new bedroom. We still have a few small things to add, but all of her stuff is now moved.

Hanging Around the House

With the recent heat wave, we have been spending much of our day indoors lately. Lily has been a ball of energy since we haven't been able to play outside other than after dinner in the evenings. Luckily, we picked up some new toys for Lily at the neighborhood garage sale last weekend so she has plenty of new things to play with inside the house. Here are some pictures of Lily just hanging out at home this week.

Reading books in her bedroom

Enjoying a special treat...Chocolate chip cookies!

A new favorite thing to do, climbing on the kitchen chairs to color and read while Mommy makes dinner.

Playing with one her "new" sit and spin!


Getting some energy out with Finnegan

4th of July

We hope everyone had a fun and safe July 4th! Varun had a 4 day weekend over the 4th so we were able to catch up on stuff and get together with friends after being out of town for almost 2 weeks. We kept busy with two cookouts, a neighborhood pool party, and of course fireworks on the 4th. Luckily we were able to watch the fireworks set of in Windsor from our street so we did not have drive anywhere. A few neighbors also let off some pretty good ones behind our house. We did not take a lot of pictures over the weekend but we were able to snap a few of Lily watching fireworks last night with some of the neighborhood kids.

Waiting for the show to begin.

Watching the neighbor light small fireworks in the street.

Happy 4th of July!!!