Colorado Springs

As Varun gets ready to head out on another deployment, we decided to take a break from everything at home and go on a little road trip to Colorado Springs.  We spent two nights at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in C. Springs and had a good time sightseeing and relaxing as a family.  It was nice not to worry about making dinner, cleaning the house, or yard work.  It was a much needed family getaway before Varun leaves. 

We started our trip by stopping by the US Air Force Academy.  We drove around a bit and walked around the campus in the snow flurried weather.  It was a beautiful sunny 70 degree morning in Fort Collins when we hit the road and we were greeted by clouds, wind, and snow flurries as we drove in to the academy.  We did not spend to much time there since we were not prepared for the weather change.  We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just hanging out at our hotel.  We had a gorgeous view from our room and the resort had a few restaurants, three pools, a golf course, and so much more. 

The following day we took a drive up to Pikes Peak.  We drove up to the 14,115 foot summit and enjoyed the awesome views.  We had been to Rocky Mountain Park many times since we have lived in CO, but this is the first time Lily has been excited by the mountains.  She had so much fun on the drive and cried for more mountains as we made our way back down.  After Pikes Peak, we checked out Manitou Springs and let Lily choose a place for lunch.  Her pick was pizza, so we stopped at a small pizza restaurant for lunch before heading to Garden of the Gods.  This was our favorite stop of the day.  Garden of the Gods is a park in Colorado Springs with unusual red rock formations.  We took a small walk with the kids and watched a few guys rock climb while we were there. 

We finished our trip by heading to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo the next morning.  This zoo exceeded our expectations and we would definitely visit again.  The highlight of the zoo trip was letting Lily pet and feed the giraffes romaine lettuce.  We tried to get a picture of this, but unfortunately we could not get the camera out before one of the giraffes quickly ate the lettuce out of Lily's hand. 

We had a great time on our little weekend trip and hope to visit C. Springs again soon!

Air Force Academy Chapel

The awesome view from our balcony!

She loved watching cartoons on her hotel bed. 

Freezing cold at Pikes Peak

The view from the summit

Garden of the Gods

A balancing rock

Garden of the Gods

On our little 1 mile walk with the kids

Getting ready for their first trip to the pool

Jacob LOVED it!  Poor Jules feel asleep on the way to the pool so she missed out.

Of course Lily didn't want to get out of the water.

The giraffe that ate from Lily's hand

Finally brave enough to ride the carousel

Chickens and Hens!

Our three cuties at the zoo

6 Months

Jacob and Julia are 6 months old today!  We can';t believe our little peanuts are half a year old.  They are growing up way to fast!  Both Jacob and Jules have changed so much in the last two months. Here are some of the things they are up to at 6 months old.

* Both babies are now sleeping through the night :-) Julia has been an awesome sleeper from the begining but we had our challenges with Jacob.  He is finally sleeping through the night for about 10 hours although now he has become a 5:30 am riser. Luckily most mornings he is able to go back to sleep after a very early morning feeding. 

* We started solids with the twins about a month ago.  We try to give them what we are having for dinner instead of store bought baby food.  So far they have enjoyed most of the things we make for dinner.  They have had peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, pasta, black beans, pinto beans, rice, lentils, strawberries, mango, banana, blueberries, avocado, and more!  Julia loves everything except peas and Jacob seems to like everything.

*  Jacob and Julia can both sit up unassited.  One of their favorite things to do is to sit across from each other with a pile of toys in the middle.  They are starting to smile and grab at eachother while they play.

*  Jacob is our mover and is not too far away from crawling.  He has been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth for the past month.  He has found a way to scoot his body from one end of a room to the other.

*  Julia is our thinker and is always so alert.  She loves to be around people and will watch everything that happens around her.  She will laugh and giggle as she watches Lily play everyday.

* At just  13 pounds 4 ounces (Jacob) and 12 pounds 11 ounces (Julia), both babies are growing but are still quite small.  We'll see how the addition of more solids effects their weight gain.

Here are a few pics of the twins at 6 months (with a few of Lily of course).  We have had fantastic weather lately and have been trying to spend much of it outside.

Jacob was unsure of the swing at first

Julia loved the swing the entire time (although this pic doesn't show it)

Swinging in the sun

Eating a snack while Lily played on the slides

Just hanging out :)

One of the twenty trips down the slide

Picking Flowers

Getting ready for a backyard picnic

Easter Weekend

Varun was out of town all of last week, so we were happy to all be together for Easter weekend. The weather was beautiful here and we spent most of her time outdoors. Lily went had two Easter egg hunts, one with our Fort Collins MOMS Club, and another town of Fort Collins egg hunt sponsored by one of the local churches. She was so excited over the eggs, candy, and basket goodies this year. Jacob and Julia had a great first Easter. They had a few small goodies in their basket and enjoyed having daddy home after his trip. They are becoming quite the outdoor babies. Both seem to love going outside now that spring is here.
Ready for egg hunt #1!
Jacob and Julia are also ready to go!
Looking around for any missing eggs.
Egg Hunt #2
So happy to show us what she found.
Lily's job: apply the stickers to the colored eggs
Easter Morning
Jacob Bunny
Lily showing Jacob his new Easter toy
Cuties in the sun
They can both now sit on their own!
An attempt at photo of the kids (Lily is pointing to the airplane flying by)

Disney on Ice

Over the weekend we all went to see Disney on Ice at the Budweiser Events Center. Since Lily has been obsessed with Minnie Mouse lately, we thought that she would enjoy in. She loved every bit of it and sat still during the entire 2 hour show. She was dressed up in her Minnie Mouse dress and talked about the show all weekend. The twins were great during the show as well, just one little moment of crying from one of them that lasted only 2 minutes or so. We can't wait to go again next year!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a gorgeous 80 degree day here on Saturday. We got the kids up early and enjoyed a breakfast out before the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in Old Town Fort Collins. We met up with a friend and her twin girls to watch the parade and the kids had such a good time. We saw the CSU cheerleaders, a ton of dogs, horses, a dance team performance, and so many floats with balloons and music. The girls collected a bagful of candy at the parade and were on quiter a sugar hight. Even Jacob and Julia were happy during the entire two hour event.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Around 7:30 every morning we hear Lily singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Although the words are completely off, she has the tune down. Lately this has been her favorite song by far. She will sing in her bed, in the car, while eating snack, and we have caught her recently singing the song to the babies. One night before bed last night Lily asked to hold Julia in the glider. We sat Jules in Lily's lap and immediately she began to sing. I ran to get the camera hoping that she would continue to sing once I got back to the room. I caught the last half of her singing lullaby.

Fun at the Park

We had a beautiful spring-like day here in Colorado today. We took the kids to the park this morning since Varun was home during the day. It was so nice to spend some time outside without the cold and the wind of winter. We had a great time and hope to do something similar tomorrow since it will be even warmer!