Baby Aidan!

We were fortunate to be able to go to Colorado Springs twice in the past couple weeks to visit Derek's sister Dawn, her husband Matt and their new addition to the family, Baby Aidan. Here are a few highlights of our visits with the cutest baby ever!

Derek feeds his nephew, a few moments after seeing him for the first time. When a baby's gotta eat, a baby's gotta eat!


I get to hold baby Aidan for the first time! He's so sweet!


Dawn, Matt and Aidan! The happy family!


Baby's first outing... to Rockbottom. Here with his mom and uncle!


Derek holding his nephew on our second visit, a week later.


A close-up! Aidan has really funny hand positions, such as this one.
Note the bib: "I love my uncle!"

Mt. Bierstadt!

Before leaving Colorado, I just had to hike a 14'er. And so Derek, Brianna and I headed for Mt. Bierstadt at 5:30am, arriving around 8:00am to begin hiking the trail to the top. First we walked on a wooden boardwalk through a large bog, then up the incline on a dirt path, and for the last (difficult) part, we walked from boulder to boulder, climbing up to the summit at 14,000 feet. In terms of altitude sickness, I was only affected by a slight headache and stomach rumbling (lasting for only a few minutes) but I generally felt drunk in terms of sense of balance and weak in the legs from just before the boulders and on. It was such a strange feeling; I had to go slow and take little breaks to catch my breath, literally! Anyway, here are a few pictures from our climb:

Derek, Brianna and I after we'd climbed past the bog and up part of the dirt trail


Snow! and us. Just before climbing up that pile of boulders to the summit.


Brianna and Derek after signing the sheet at the summit to prove we actually did it!


At the summit! 14,000 feet in the air and ready to eat the best sandwiches in the world.


Derek and I with one of the views from the top. Derek is clearly elated.


I'm not kidding about those boulders! This was the pile we had to climb up/down to/from the summit. Apparantly I'm not from around here because I thought there was just a nice dirt path leading to a dirt plateau at the top of every mountain... notsomuch.


Looking back at the field of boulders we climbed, then walked along the ledge on the left, then made the final climb up the pile of boulders...


Pretty scenery on the way down... I think that's Sawtooth? Apparantly, if you're more ambitious than we are, you could climb that in the same hike.

Good times at the Sun

Junk burgers at Mountain Sun were a must-do for us, since we're trying to do all our favorite Boulder things in July... and so Mason, Pam, Ryan & Shannon joined us for the delicious culinary adventure that is Mountain Sun. Later, it was time for L-dog where Katja joined us and between six people, we could not finish a brownie sundae. Pathetic, eh?

Pam loves beer samplers.


Derek and Ryan talk Fantasy Football.
(for hours.)
It's a very involved subject, don't you know?


Mason expresses how much he is going to miss us when he goes halfway around the world and abandons his poor, jealous friends


Katja and I take perhaps the only nice, normal picture of the night.

Happy Birthday, Kobe!

Kobe has already written about his 2nd (human year) birthday on his dogster page, but here is the photographic evidence:

So what if dogs don't eat off of plates?


Shown small becuase it's a blurry picture... Buster's water dish magic is hard to capture at times! (Buster is shown here with the random dogpark dog who likes to go between women's legs and has two different colored eyes)


Getting ready to disperse the birthday treats. (Can't you just hear all the commands? "Sit! Buster, Sit! Kobe, Sit! Chloey, Sit! Lilah... Lilah, where did you go?")

Ooh, all four in the same general area!!
(As you can see, Kobe loves all kinds - small, big, black, white, spotted... He doesn't discriminate. His momma taught him well.)


Dogs and humans picture!!!
Not an overly successful one, but one at that!
Brianna and Lilah; Derek, Kobe and I; Emma and Chloey; Blake, Elana and Buster (also: random white dog who didn't understand about our exclusive party!)


Aww. Almost!

Blake is 30!

(minus one). And we celebrated with charcoal grill adventures, chili burgers, pretty pretty princess decorations and copious rounds of Catch Phrase.

Aww. The birthday princess blows out his candles.


Another shot of that hat... just because.


Mason displays his ability to take self-pics while I become confused about the aim of this photo: to tough or not to tough?


Derek being all rule-Natzi-ish about Catch Phrase.


"Um, you know that thing.... you use it... you know..."

4th Festivities

Our Fourth of July celebrated with a BBQ hosted by Jared can be summed up like this:

Kobe meets Skyler.
Kobe chases Skyler.
Kobe kisses Skyler.
(Repeatedly).

Also there was: cookout food, "canadian golf," beer, fireworks and a few hilarious rounds of catch phrase to even out the night.

Kobe during the process of making out with Skyler.
(He likes her, he really likes her!!)


So, Food Guy, about that food....


Phew, five hours of playing is hard work!


Jared is super tough. Can you tell?


Excellent firework photography skills. Thankyouverymuch.

A camping we will go....

Newsflash: KOBE ABBOTAGE DECLARED A CAMPING DOG!!!

(July 2, 2006; Longmont, Colorado). Kobe Abbotage was officially proclaimed a "camping dog" by his owners, Dawn and Derek, upon successful completion of a one-night camping adventure at the local Union Reservoir, despite a wounded paw. Attached to a 40ft tie-out anchored by the campsite's picnic table, Abbotage simply sniffed the ground and silently watched neighboring campers go about their business. He kept his distance from the fire when his owners were making s'mores and hot dogs and promptly hopped into the tent when the door was open. Perhaps his most significant achievement was a bark-free* overnight, allowing his owners to get as much sleep as they could on a hard surface, due to the mechanism failure of the air mattress. All in all, Abbotage was given his doggie camping license and plans for future camping trips are in the works.

*The term "bark-free" implies quietness during the overnight hours, with two small yelps admissible.

Abbotage stands watch over the final put-together tent.

Abbotage steers clear of Food Girl, as she roasts perfect marshmellows.

Abbotage being slightly cheeky and attempting to occupy the pillow space within the tent.

Rawr.

The End.