Look Everyone! I want to feed myself!!

Carson has recently taken an interest in feeding himself--and it isn't pretty. I can tell that this is going to be one messy transition to hand the spoon over to him!
He hits his mouth about 30% of the time, but I'm sure that will get better....won't it?? :)

He is still cute--even with yogurt everywhere. Where does he get all of this independence???

Don't answer that.

Carson's Favorite Things...as of now

We have a ritual every morning when Carson gets up, and each night when he goes to sleep--and it involves all of the items on his dresser that you see in this picture. He waves to the sea horse in the picture, give a few pats to Marlin and Nemo on the lamp, and then spends some time giving kisses to the frog and especially the turtle. Then we wind up the Christmas snow globe and enjoy a round of "What Child is This?", and shake it up to get the full effect. Carson looks like Stevie Wonder as he enjoys the music, and then he is ready to get a move on with the rest of his day. :)
He absolutely LOVES this turtle that Jack & Phyllis Brown brought to the hospital when he was born. The snow globe was given to him by Crystal and Chad for Christmas, and all of a sudden he just loves it!

Big John gave Carson some new stuffed animals to play with. Now Carson has "Salmonella" and "Ecoli" to add to his fuzzy collection. Yup--John bought Carson some microbes to play with. When I asked him what he was thinking, he asked "does Carson have ecoli?? Salmonella??"--to which I answered "Umm....no"...and John said:

"Well, now he does".

Case closed, I guess. I would venture to bet that this isn't the end of Carson's bacteria collection... :)

A Visit to Boulder Reservoir

What a trip down memory lane for both Mike and myself--we both worked at Boulder Reservoir for a lot of years, and we finally went back there for a retirement party that honored a friend of ours that worked at the lake for 50 years. Since our friend Rick Marlowe was "asked to retire" from his Reservoir Manager job a few years ago, we had not been back to a place that holds some very dear memories of some great times. We still see our friends from the Res every summer--but it was pretty neat to go back to our stompin' grounds and take Carson with us!
This is an old-school pic of me with my lifeguard buddies in 2002. I've got two American Flags on my head because it was July 4th, which was our favorite day of the year to lifeguard. Please notice the flagrant orange guard shorts that we all wore. Rick and Pam Marlowe gave Carson a pair of swim trunks that reckoned back to our days at the beach, and he finally got the chance to show them off at the Res...

He seemed to feel right at home at a place where Mike and I spent countless Summer hours either working or enjoying the perks of being employed at a lake!

Time to explore...

and smile for everyone at the party--

he even showed off his teeth that have come in nicely. :)

At 13 months, Carson has developed some separation anxiety around strangers, and he stuck pretty close to either Mom or Dad most of the time. I mean--really close!!

Hey! Look at Daddy's new knee!!

Of course I had to get some pictures of him down at the waters edge. I always envisioned bringing my kids out to the Res all the time--and then things turned ugly when the city forced Rick out and everything changed. Here is Carson looking like a natural...

and definitely enjoying himself!

He loved the Hobie, so I'm sure we will have some sailing adventures eventually--

Don't those guard shorts look great? Now everyone in the family has worn the orange shorts at the Res!

It was bittersweet to go back out to the Reservoir, but mostly it was a great opportunity to see our friends and introduce Carson to a place that was a huge part of our lives for a very long time. Ahhh, the memories!!

I can only hope that Carson's guard shorts will fit him next swim season...oh HE WILL wear them again!!

A reminder about why I am a Teacher--you must see this!

This is Dalton Sherman. He was the keynote speaker in the Dallas School District as they kicked off the 2008-2009 school year last month. All I can say is that this district has one smart superintendent to pick this 9 year-old to deliver this speech. He reminded me of exactly why I am a teacher. :) Enjoy the inspiration!

http://www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm

Estes Park Scottish Festival 2008

I will readily admit that Carson stole the whole show this year now that he fits into his kilt:
We stayed in Estes Park Saturday and Sunday night this year for the annual Scottish Festival. It is such a fun time to reunite with friends, and the entire Lowe family always makes the trip to hang out together on this weekend. If it's not Scottish...it's crap!!

So once again we tried for the ever-elusive family picture...how GREAT would this pic be if Mike's eyes weren't closed?? I like it enough to still post it!! Here is the whole family in our Scottish attire:

Carson found a million different things to do, starting with this neat sword. I wonder what he will do with it

He is debating the use for such a sword, until...

He realizes there is a huge dragon right in front of him who needs to be stabbed a few times!!

Job well done, Carson. He gave this dragon quite a beating, and then seemed satisfied--dropped the sword and walked away. All in a day's work at the Scottish Festival!!!

Here is Carson with Uncle Bryan and Daddy. Uncle Bryan flies in from Alabama every year for the festival, and we love hanging out with him all weekend! He taught Carson how to "Hi Five" :)

Carson loves doggies--almost too much because he is used to nice Kava...but these little scotties were happy to oblige some petting from him:

He wanted to walk around EVERYWHERE. He caused a commotion everywhere he went because he is so dang cute!

Uncle Kevin and I walked around with Carson to find Bagpipes which he was especially fond of. He would dance around to the pipes and drums.

Carson was happy to wear his kilt all weekend. I actually think he noticed that he was dressed the same as the rest of the family!

Here, Carson is jamming out to the Marine Corp Party Band (the best kind of band in my opinion!!). They were fantastic, and Carson let them know with some enthusiastic clapping after each song :)

Carson loves planes. Every year, there are numerous fly-byes by different military aircraft, and he was in heaven when the planes flew by the stadium:

This kid is going to LOVE this event for years to come--planes, cannons, bagpipes--what more do you need in life?

On Sunday night, we took Carson with us to the honored guests Banquet. He was so good, and once again he really enjoyed the music.

I just love this picture of him--I wonder what he is thinking? I also love that he is holding his belt like he has seen a hundred cowboy movies already... :)

What a great weekend!

Where's Carson??

There you are!! I should have guessed...

CU Buffs are victorious...again.

Every year, the Mile High Classic football game is played on Labor Day weekend between the University of Colorado and Colorado State. In the past, this has turned into somewhat of a rivalry as both teams tend to make it a toss-up as to who will win each year regardless of rankings, etc...

So EVERY year, our CSU friends get their hopes up that their team will somehow miraculously be victorious...usually there is graffiti involved...sometimes late night phone calls with "Rams Rule, Buffaloes Suck!!" messages...and when some of our CSU friends moved to Cleveland--there is internet trash-talking with pictures!

Naturally, we responded in kind.

The game this year was pretty boring, but we did miss having the Shellbergs across the street where we could write all over their driveway and rub it in one more year that the BUFFS RULE!!

We just couldn't stay away...

Carson, Crystal, Ruth (Crystal's Mom), Jeff and I all went down to Denver when the Democratic National Convention was in town. It was such a great atmosphere--really crowded, but very exciting!
There were all kinds of exhibits, but I was especially interested in the Lincoln museum that is traveling the country. As you know, I am a Lincoln fanatic--and this semi-trailer of information did not disappoint. This satellite museum has artifacts from the Lincoln museum located in Springfield, Ill. Since I don't believe I will be making a trip to Springfield anytime soon, this was just really neat to see!

There was a "Presidential Experience" exbihit right outside Mile High Stadium. NO--we did not go down there on Thursday when Obama made his speech, so it wasn't a total zoo. It was still crowded though. There was a copy of the Declaration of Independence on display, and many other cool things to see.

This is a bipartisan exhibit, and it traveled to the Twin Cities for the RNC when it left Denver. There was a portion of Reagan's Air Force One plane to tour, and a replica of the Oval Office. They had a president "shoe" exhibit, which I thought was a little weird...

Air Force One--"W's" plane is considerably larger than this one, which is scary!

Here we are in on Air Force One--

Carson and Jeff always have a good time!

Jeff and I tried to put ourselves in a pressure situation in the Oval Office. This desk is actually the Restitution desk (have you seen National Treasure 2??), and there are only 2 like it in the world. The other desk is in Buckingham Palace. My favorite thing on the desk was the big "easy" red button. I would push that all the time if I was president...ha ha ha

We drove around downtown and it was crowded! I love this picture--Denver taxpayers will be happy to know what all of that extra law enforcement man-power was doing during the convention!!

Ummmm....wrong convention people!!

I am so glad that we actually went into Denver to witness this event. It was really neat to see all of the hoopla. Denver seems to host conventions every 100 years, so I'm glad we were able to see this one!