Manassa, CO 2009

We recently got back from Manassa, CO. Josh was born there and GG and Yo Papa (Josh's grandparents) still live here. They were so nice to have us and all of Josh's other siblings and parents stay at their house. Although it took quite a long time to get there (over 12 hours), it was well worth the drive. The kids did pretty good in the car. It was a good trip, here are some of the highlights... Lots of playing outside in the water. My kids could do this all day long, and they pretty much did! Since Tyler was the youngest (besides Mason, the 3 month old) he got picked on a little bit. He took it like a man though. Here's Tyler trying to get in on some of the bullying action...Uncle Greg invited us over to feed his new cow. Whitney was a little timid, but she helped out anyway.We had a little picnic and hiked around a bit over by Josh's parents property. The kids had a blast playing in the water and jumping on rocks.Tyler with his "nacks". This kid was searching for "nacks" pretty much the whole time we were there.

Manassa has a very good Pioneer Day celebration. The parade and carnival are just two of the main events.

Parade Goers...A wad of pearls was thrown from one of the floats. Josh caught them and gave them to Whitney. She was pretty happy about that.

GG and Tyler.

I've said it before, but what is it about kids and sunglasses that just makes me smile. It's so cute!Whitney holding on for dear life!Here are Ben and Matthew (MattMo) Lucky for them, they are VERY cute. You've never seen two boys so busy in your life!Ty Guy and Yo Papa.

My kids loved dancing to the live entertainment. If you've seen Tyler dance, you know it's just a series of arm shakes while walking around in a circle, and usually ending with some kind of ground roll. Oh, and don't forget the eyes- trying to see everything off to the side of him.

Another big highlight was the Alligator Farm. Whitney and I took a trip to Colorado Gators. It was pretty educational/scary for Whitney. Whitney touching a lizard.

They had these tortoises that would roam around the place. A little weird when they would start to move, but you got used to it.Me holding a baby alligator, Whitney was a little worried about this, as you can see. Do Ostriches freak anyone else out but me? They remind me of dinosaurs. Weird.

Anyway, it was a fun trip. Whitney loved all the cousins and family to play with. We're lucky to be part of such a great family.

Another dress and more dead fish

Had I known 50% of my fish were going to die this week, I wouldn't have blogged about the first one. Now I feel like I need to blog about each fish that dies- not for your sake, but for mine. First of all. Yesterday 'lil cat died, our upside down catfish. We only had him for over a week. I didn't really see him much. He was cool though. He swam upside down and skimmed the top of the water. Then tonight dear Bronco Mendenhall, our silver dollar fish, died. I'm afraid we've got some major problems in our tank(obviously!)We've had him since April. Poor thing.


On a happier note....

I made another dress for Whit today. My inspiration was these two dresses from Shabby Apple. I merged them together to make this...

The fabric is a Michael Miller print( who is my favorite after Amy Butler).The back of the dress.

I think I finally figured out how to do sleeves so this dress was a real breakthrough for me. The bodice has tuxedo ruffles on it, which I love. I may shorten it a little. It's looking sort of pioneerish.

Angel

I was afraid this might happen. Today we lost Angel, the angelfish. We only had her for a little over a week, but we will still mourn her passing. We will be checking the pH levels in our tank, so as to avoid anymore obituary type posts:( In case you are wondering, Whitney is not in the least bit sad about these fish dying. She handles death very well. It is a little worrisome to me. She talks about it all the time and is quite fascinated with the circle of life.(I'm mainly just bugged at the money I'm (literally) flushing down the toilet.)

Mojo

Today we mourn the loss of our dear catfish and friend, Mojo. Mojo was our most active fish in the tank. We will miss his spazzy antics and the beautiful creature that he was. We aren't quite sure how he died but in the end two of his friends were either trying to "wake him up" or they were trying to eat him. I think they were just getting back at him for being such a pushy little fish. Mojo is survived by Mckenna, Marley, Bronco Mendenhall, Angel, Roofie, 'lil cat, and dot.