Four Years and Counting

Scott and I just celebrated our FOUR YEAR Anniversary! It is hard to believe that it has already been four years. We were so blessed to get married at such a young age because we are getting to finish "growing up" together. Each year we are married, we find that although marriage isnt always easy, it is still such a blessing. We love being married to eachother.

This last year has been filled with many changes for us: new house, new puppy, new baby, new car, and new church. We have definately had our up's and down's as we have adjusted to each of these new changes. We have gotten to share the joy and challenge of parenthood together, and the responsibility that comes with owning a home. We have been learning more and more about our strengths and weaknesses as each day passes, and we are learning to be a better team in the way we handle our daily adventures. Each new hurdle has offered a glimpse of God's grace and of God's mercy as we interact with eachother. Our prayer is that despite our lack of perfection in our marriage that God is glorified. It is by His grace that we are together and that we can continue to learn and grow together.

For our anniversary, Tricia volunteered to watch Adyson for us so we could stay the night up in Denver. Scott found a sweet deal on hotwire.com and we were able to get into a 4star hotel for the price of a not-so 4 star hotel. She came down on Thursday morning (6/11- our real anniversary date!) and we headed up to Denver. On our way up, we encountered some major flooding on the interstate from all of the rain. In the picture below you can see how flooded it was. Only trucks and SUV's could get acoss!

We got up to Denver early that afternoon, and we checked into our hotel, the Brown Palace. We stayed at TBP on our wedding night, but because we got there so late that evening and we were so tired from our wedding we didnt really get to see much of the hotel. It was exciting to go back and actually get to see the hotel with more attentive eyes. As we were checking in, I started making small talk with the consierge. I told him, "Wow! The last time we were here I was in a wedding gown and he was in a tux." The guy asked us when, and I said, "Four years ago, today!" He then upgraded our room to the TOP floor with a suite! Scott and I were floored. Our room was increddible! It was so generous of them to do that for us. What a blessing!

One of our favorite things to do now that we have Ady is to go on a movie date. We had heard so much about the new Star Trek movie that we decided to go see it that afternoon. It was so much fun! We walked around the 16th Street Mall for a while, and then we got ready for a lovely dinner at the hotel. The service was the best I've ever had, and the food was even better. They even gave me a rose since it was our anniversary. So sweet!

After getting to sleep in- no baby monitor for the first time in over 9 months!- we got breakfast and took our time packing up to get back home. It was absolutely wonderful.

Thanks to Tricia for taking the time to give us a nice break from reality and a wonderful 4th anniversary! Adyson had such a good time with Nana, too!

Here is our "official" 4th Anniversary picture.

Below is my favorite picture from our trip. We had such a lovely time!

A Day at the Lake

We all decided to go up to Loveland to visit Scott's parents a couple of weeks ago. We had a lovely visit! Bill and Tricia just moved into a house on Lake Loveland, and we went to check out their newly renevated home. It looks great! We had so much fun getting to visit with family and friends, and we loved getting to play in the lake. This was Charlie's first time really getting to play at the lake, and he had so much fun. Here are some pictures from our weekend up there.
Charlie and Scott

Great Aunt Bobbie and Great Gran with Adyson. Everyone took turns entertaining Ady under the pretty sun umbrella. She had so much fun!




Gran, Tricia, and Ady.


Aunt Donnie and Tricia

We had such a nice visit. We are excited to be back up in the area on the week of the 4th of July!

(part 2)

Well, as promised here are the other pictures from our trip to Ft. Myers,FL. There are quite a few of them. Enjoy!

Nana Rabbit with Ady:

We grabbed some icecream in town one night, and this is the view from the pier.

The palm trees at sunset

Adyson will probably hate us someday for taking this picture, but I think it's so cute. This was taken on Captiva.

Scott and me on Captiva.

Bill and Tricia before dinner at the Mucky Duck

I love this picture of Scott and Bill.

My favorite of Ady and her Daddy. She is such a Daddy's girl!!

A little light reading for the baby.

Grandparent bliss:

I think this is my most favorite of fussy Bill.

Me and Ady on Sanibel. I love how blond we both are.

Tricia swimming with Ady.

Fussy Pappy with his Fussy Pheasant.

I absolutely love this picture of Tricia. Isnt she lovely? I sure think so!

My lovely little girl. Thank you for her, Lord! What a gift! Scott had put a flower behind her ear on our walk that evening. Such a little doll!

Scott, my CPA, got some well-deserved rest in!

So did the Certified Baby....

All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures, and I hope this blog brings a smile to your face.

Lots of love to you!

Oh, and also... A shout out to my darling friend Heather. She is in labor right now with her twin girls (twinsesses as we all call them). I cant wait to meet them! I'm praying for you, Heather!

Trip time!! (part 1)

Scott's parents were so generous, and they invited us to go on a trip with them to Mexico. We were so excited about getting to spend some good quality time with them and to have Adyson experience her first trip. We got all of our passports updated (yes, Ady even has one too!), and we got all of our things in order to go. A couple weeks before we were supposed to leave, the outbreak of the Swine Flu hit. At first, none of us were really concerned, but as more and more cases started showing up in Mexico and from Mexico, we decided that we should probably not subject our 8 month old to those potential germs in another country. We thought that we would have to put a rain-check on our trip for a year, but we were so blessed because the company that Tricia got the travel plans through was willing to switch our reservation to another hotel. Tricia did much research (Thank you so much, Tricia), and we switched our plans to go to Ft. Myers, Florida instead. It ended up working out perfectly for us to go to The Pink Shell Beach Resort because it was more like a condo than a hotel room, so we had our own kitchen and plenty of space for our rolling little one to wiggle to her heart's content. It was such a lovely resort. The pool was gorgeous and very kid-friendly, and the ocean was just a few steps away. We just loved it.

We all left on Saturday, May 16 to go to Florida. This was Ady's first trip not only to the airport but on a plane. She did great. I was pretty nervous about getting through security with all of my stuff but also all of her stuff (mysterious white powder?! anyone?!) Haha! It was actually very easy to get through. Ady slept through most of the flights, so we didnt have to worry about a screaming blondie on the plane. Those around us, I'm sure, were quite pleased.). Tricia had to be quieted a few times, but she was the only blondie screaming. Just kidding. We are all blondies, though. So fun!

We werent supposed to sit by eachother (none of us!), but the airline was so sweet to find us seats last minute all by eachother. It was so nice having three adults to one baby. (Bill got to hang out with the pilots on the first flight... he's so cool!).

Here is a picture of the resort. Isnt it gorgeous? I would recommend it to anyone. We had such a lovely time, and the sand was so unbelievably soft.

Although it was cloudy for most of the trip, we still found plenty of time to relax and enjoy the water and sand around us. We spent one day over on Sanibel where I collected beautiful sea shells, Ady took her first dip in the ocean, and we had a delicious lunch at Scott's favorite lunch place "The Bubble Room".

We went to Captiva Island on Thursday afternoon, and we had a really nice time over there. I think this was my favorite beach that we went to because it was so soft, and the sea shells were increddible. We played frisbee on the beach- that is, until I launched the frisbee into the ocean. Never trust me to be able to focus enough to play frisbee when I am on a beach, with my baby and hot hubby,awesome parents-in-law, sea shells, and lots of awesome people to watch. I dont know what I was thinking! Clearly, not about Frisbee. Poor Scott, I lost his awesome frisbee. Bill tried to find it, but it was to no avail. Ady also played in the water and in the sand, so she had to take a shower in bottled water before dinner. She turned the beach into a nude beach for a couple minutes. But is there anything cuter than a naked baby bootie on a beach? I think not. That night, we ate at a restaurant called The Mucky Duck. It was delicious! .

We got a gorgeous sunny day on Friday, and we spent the whole day relaxing by the pool. That night, Bill and Tricia watched Adyson for me and Scott, and we got to go out to dinner just the two of us. That was such a treat! We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, and watched the sun go down. After dinner, we walked back up the beach to the resort. It was so nice to get to spend some quality time with my favorite person in the whole world! I love you, Scott! I think Bill and Tricia enjoyed some quality time with their new favorite person, too:) They are such wonderful grandparents to her (Go Pappy and Nana!).

We headed home on Saturday, May 23. It was such a wonderful trip! Scott and Ady got to snuggle on our flight to Denver. I couldnt get her to go to sleep, but as soon as I handed her to "daddy" she snuggled into his chest and fell asleep- for the WHOLE flight! It was adorable. He slept for about an hour of the flight, too. So cute!

I'll post a couple more of my favorite pictures on the next blog. For those of you who use facebook, there is a complete album of pictures on there to see.

Have a wonderful day!

Karen Ruth

New Yard!

Hello:)

It has been quite a while since I blogged. The last time I left you, I had almost killed poor Adyson. I am happy to report that we have had no more close calls, and Adyson is doing very well. She just turned nine months old on Saturday! I can hardly believe it! I have several blogs that I want to write, so I may post several in the next few days. It should be fun reading, though. Well, at least it will be fun writing. :)

Three weeks ago, we had some guys come put new sod into our back yard and our front yard! It is increddible to see the difference. When we bought our house last spring, it had been a foreclosed home for over a year and the grass looked like it. In fact, I would say that the grass was non-grass. We had dead grass all summer last year and a mud pit in the back yard this winter. As you can probably imagine, we have had quite the interesting cleaning extravaganza everytime Charlie would come in from playing outside. I am so excited about our new grass! Ady and I have gone outside to lay in the grass several times now, and we just love it!

Here are the pictures to document the transformation! It is crazy!

This is what our back yard looked like. Rocks. Dirt. Rocks. DIRT.

And below is a picture of our front yard.

The guy came and tore out some of the rock in our back yard so we could have a nice even grassy area instead of a crazy dog-bone shape that we had in the back before. Here's the dirt all fluffed and ready for sod.

Then the sod arrived....

It took a team of five guys to put in all the sod and an entire day, but it looks great. They even fixed the sprinkler system! They did such a great job!

We all just love the grass! Here is a picture of Ady and Charlie testing out the grass for the first time. So precious!