Takin' It For A Test Drive

Jesse took his new GPS for a test drive on Saturday, the 14th.  Since Evelyn had her eye accident the day before and was still really light sensitive, she and I stayed home.

Of course that wouldn't stop Jesse.  He went to Ouray and hiked the Bear Creek Trail.  He came home excited about his adventure and showed me all the pictures he took.

Most of the trail was following along the edge of a cliff.  Just to the right of the snow before the drop off is the trail.  This is when I'm glad that Evie and I couldn't go.  I'm sure Jesse was too...that way he could be a little more adventurous!

 This is the view looking down...

 ...and here it is looking too the mountains.

He went a little over 2 miles before he chose to stop.  I'm sure glad he did!  I don't even want to imagine him trying to hike past this.

 Here is the close up where you can see that the trail goes right through the frozen waterfall.

Since Bear Creek was a bust he went back to town and hiked up to Cascade Falls.

Less frozen and much safer!  We plan on returning when the snow melts and would love to have you along!

Eye? Who Needs An Eye?

Evelyn had her first semi-major accident on Friday, April 13th.  We were sitting on the couch with Jesse enjoying his day off when she grabbed for my glasses.  Now, most of the time, glasses are off limits.  They are too expensive to be toys for cute little ladies.  So I got her $1 Target bargain bin glasses from the car.  She wore them longer than she ever has, then went back to the bedroom to admire herself in the mirror.  When she returned she was rubbing her eye and crying. We figured she poked herself with the glasses and didn't think much about it after she stopped crying.  She would rub it and act like it hurt so I figured there must have been something in it.  Since Jesse and I both wear contacts there is always an abundance of contact solution in our house.  So I rinsed her eye out with it...she really didn't like that.  Once she calmed down I put her down for her nap thinking whatever it was would work its way out and when she woke up she'd be fine.  Not so.

During most of her naps she sleeps soundly, not waking for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.  This time however she would wake up crying every half hour or so.  This is when I started to worry.  I called Charlotte and asked when I should worry about eye problems.  She told me that if there was a red mark in the white area of the eye it's not that big of a deal but that if there are marks in the colored area then it can be more serious.

The next time she woke up I looked in her eye and thought I saw something on her pupil.  I looked at it two more times and sure enough there was a gash across the center of her eye.  I didn't know what to do and new the ER probably would have me see an ophthalmologist, so I called my friend Katrina who's husband, Jared, just so happens to be one.

He had just closed his office for the day and said he'd meet me there in 5 minutes.  He numbed her eye, looked at it, and said whatever she did to it she'd done a good job.  Jared wrote her a prescription for an antibiotic, set up a follow up appointment for Monday, and dilated her eye to help with the pain.  Since she'd scratched the clear layer off of her eye it couldn't focus and was constantly trying to do so, which in turn caused more pain.  The dilation would stop her eye muscles of contacting and trying to focus.  Worse case scenario was that her eye could scar and cause permanent vision problems.

 

 

 

She was a real trooper and did a good job with Dr. Hadlock.  Her eye stayed dilated until Sunday morning and she didn't fuss about it after he numbed it in the office. 

At our return visit on Monday Jared checked her eye and said it had healed.  If she'd been more cooperative he could have taken a better look, but from what he saw he said there was little to no scaring. 

We feel very blessed that it wasn't worse and are grateful that her eye healed so quickly.  I know that my Father in Heaven was looking out for her and guided us in our decisions.  We are very blessed!

Birthday Bash

Jesse finished his 32nd year on April 5th.  (Sorry for the weird wording, he didn't want me to tell you how OLD he is!)  Since he was working a late shift we celebrated this monumental occasion over breakfast.  Evelyn and I got up early and made him special birthday french toast.  She helped by eating half of a piece before I could put it in the egg mixture.  What a lucky Daddy!

 

  

Here's the GPS he requested for his birthday and was no surprise.  Jesse's eyes are closed in most of the pictures I take of him.  This was take three after I had made fun of him for always closing his eyes.  I thought it looked pretty funny! 

 

Since we met and started spending time with our friends the Hirads, Jesse has wanted a Persian backgammon board.  He was totally surprised that I finally got him one.  It's Turkish, not Persian, but it beats the mini magnetic travel size one we use to play on!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful man I know! Thanks for everything you do and for all the effort you put into our little family.  I love you, babe!

Hello My Friends!

The last weekend in March we had a visit from our friends from Denver, Tony and Elizabeth Hirad.  They came for two and half fun filled days.  We were able to do many things some of which were: tennis, hiking the Baby Bath Trail in Ouray, tennis, a mini game of backgammon (literally...it was a tiny travel size board), tennis, energizing Evie kisses, and more tennis.

This is the beautiful creek we hiked along for part of our journey.  Evelyn liked it so much she gave it her snack cup on the way back to the car.

This is the view from the top.  I zoomed in so you can actually see what we were looking at.  What looks like a lake at the base of the mountains is beautiful Ouray.

 

 

 

Can you say lopsided?  Not as good as they usually are, but I still think she looks cute!

We had a great time and only wish Denver was closer.  What great friends we have! Thanks for the great visit.

Can You Say...?

Lately our favorite game to play with Evelyn has been Can You Say...?  For example I might say "Evie, can you say horse?" and she will say "horse".  We have lots of fun playing this game and helping her learn new words.  She is a learning machine and it's neat to see her develop.  

The other night at dinner we played and after about 10 minutes Jesse asked "Evie can you say stinker? and she responded "dada!"  It was so funny I almost fell off of my chair.  I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it and decided right then that I needed to blog about it.

A few days later my note was still sitting on the table.  Jesse found it, read it, and said I was wrong, that she didn't say "dada", but that she said "stinker".  My thoughts on the whole thing?  You hear what you want to hear and I KNOW I heard right!

Pants in a Pinch

Jesse's Dad came for a visit last weekend and while he was here we went all over Montrose and the surrounding areas to see interesting things.  Unfortunately in our usual mad rush to get into the car we forgot the camera, so we have nothing more than fond memories of our adventures.  

Our first excursion was to the Black Canyon.  Most of it was blocked off for snowshoeing and cross country skiing and since we had neither with us we couldn't go past the visitors center.  So we went back to the highway to see some more sights.  We ended up going to Blue Mesa Reservoir (the largest body of water in Colorado) and to Morrow Point Dam where the Gunnison and Cimmaron Rivers meet.  

On Saturday we went to Ouray, drove up Million Dollar Highway to the end of Box Canyon, and took a wild ride in Yankee Boy Canyon.  There were amazing views of the Red Mountains and it was obvious once again why they refer to the area as America's Swizterland.  Darryl and Jesse played lots of tennis and even got in a little disc golf.  Overall it was a great visit and was only dampened by the fact that Evie was sick and limited what we were able to do.

While we were looking into the Black Canyon at the visitor's center all the sudden I started to smell something rather familiar.  So Evelyn and I walked back up to the top and headed for the changing table in the bathroom.  Much to my surprise Evie had had her first blowout since she was about 6 months old.  It was really unpleasant.  I didn't have much with me so I fashioned pants out of her coat, which worked surprisingly well.

So here they are...you can't tell from the back but the hood was in front so it's a little more obvious.  I held them up with the elastic that goes around the sunshade for my car.  I was impressed with my ability to make it work and had to document the moment when we got home.  Evelyn didn't want the picture as much as she wanted to play with the camera...hence the odd way her head is cut off in most of them and how she didn't want grandpa to help her stand still!  She had also pulled the pig tails out of her hair so she looks odd allover!

 

 

 

Adventures in Babyland

Evelyn is a bucket of fun and constantly keeps us on our toes.  Here are some of the things we have been doing lately. It's a little lengthy, but I couldn't bring myself to cut any more out. 

Evelyn is a fabulous helper and takes any chance she has to "help" me cook.  I don't know which she enjoys more, sitting on the counter or pouring, stirring, and tasting.  I love that she's interested, which is good because I can't imagine it will stop anytime soon.

We made oven pancakes and pico de gallo.  I'm sure you'll be shocked to know she didn't really appreciate the taste of either the onion or the lime peel.  She was a good sport for trying them though.

As I've told you before Evelyn LOVES the movie Tangled.  Anytime she watches it she will run to the bathroom to get my brush so she can "brush and brush and brush and brush [her] hair" just like Rapunzel does.  More often than not she decides her hair isn't as fun to brush as Mommy's and turns the brush on me.  You'll see that she didn't want to take the picture as much as brush my hair...

For a family date Jesse took us bowling.  Evelyn was so excited to see all the people, lights and bowling balls.  She entertained everyone around us by yelling "ball" every time she saw one and even improved my score by bowling a little herself.

 

 

Evelyn has been obsessed lately with putting her food in her hair.  She started out lightly by smashing her peas and rubbing them in her hair, but has moved on to just about anything that's put on her tray is eventually placed on her head.  It's not that big of a deal most of the time, but every once in a while I cringe at the thought. 

For example the we had pancakes for breakfast and where should she rub that pesky syrup? Of course it went directly to her head.  Now when we clean her up it turns a simple hand and face wash into a hair wash too.  Most of the time a wash cloth will suffice, but on special occasions she gets her hair washed in the sink. Hair must improve the taste...

Evie has always loved the camera and tolerates her parents picture taking pretty well. Lately when we ask her to smile we get a little more than we bargain for.  Instead of the sweet little smile of the past she throws her head back, squints her eyes, and opens her mouth.  It makes for some really "cute" pictures.  We lovingly refer to it as her horse smile, because that's kind of what she looks like...

 

 

 

She is a wonderful little girl and a total blessing in our lives.  We are certainly glad she's ours!