28

I remember when 28 seemed so far away. When I was 10 I couldn't even fathom the day that I would turn 28 years old. In ninth grade we were instructed to do an "All About Me" project, which had to include a timeline of the past, present and future. Looking back at that timeline, I had NO idea where I would be by the time I turned 28 - according to that I would be married, with 3 kids being a stay-at-home mom. Boy was I wrong, and I am kinda glad that I was!

I feel so very lucky for all of the things that I have accomplished at this point in my life. I have a wonderful husband (that I have known for 9 of those years), an amazing child, and an established career. It's ok that I don't have 3 kids, but maybe someday I will. 28 is just the beginning!

Mead Sugar Beet Festival

We really didn't have much planned for this weekend, so I called up my brother Brian to see what he and his family were doing. It just so happened that they were going to Mead to the Sugar Beet Festival. He invited us along. We had a great time watching the garden tractor pull, petting animals in the petting zoo, riding on the "train", and walking around enjoying the weather and the company.

Kyler loved the big fat bunny best.



Here's your picture Mom!

Cool Cousins!

BOunCE!

Since my mom was in town, she decided that she wanted to spend one more day with Kyler. Today she stopped by Diane's and picked him up for a very special day. He was going to "Bounce" (a place where they have all those blow-up bouncy things for kids) with his cousins Jilly and Madi. Unfortunately Josh and I had to work, but we heard all about it! Apparently Kyler had a ball! He was definitely in his element - he LOVES running around and jumping and playing hard like a boy should.



Crazy Courtney!

Wanna race?

Weeeee! I won!

Thanks Mema! You're the BEST!

Weekend away!

Thanks to my mom being in town, Josh and I were able to get away for a grown-up weekend. We went up to the lovely, quaint town of Breckenridge, Colorado. Josh had entered in some contest to win a motorcycle, but instead he won a weekend in Breckenridge, with one small stipulation - we had to sit through one of those timeshare presentations. When I first heard about this "small stipulation", I could have given him a gut-punch, but it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

We headed up to the mountains on Friday night after school - making one short stop in Loveland for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery. Then on Saturday morning our internal alarm clocks (set to Kyler's schedule) went off at 6:30, so we decided to get up and seize the day. We had a few hours before the Oktoberfest Celebration got underway, so we decided to take a short drive up to the Continental Divide and hike around a little bit.




At about 10:30 we headed back down into town because Oktoberfest started at 11:00. Once we were in town, we got on line, purchased our one-liter beer steins and drink tickets and started celebrating! We were even able to meet up with some of our buddies! Our friends, Jeff and Jaime have access to a condo in Keystone, so they were up for the weekend too. (I'm still waiting on a picture from Jamie of me dressed up as a German girl.)



After drinking it up at Oktoberfest we went over to our timeshare presentation. I think us walking in with our beer steins told them that we weren't really there to buy a timeshare, but we were there for the party. They weren't obnoxiously pushy, in fact, the didn't even try to sell us anything! We had a great time, but I surly missed Ky! When we got home he was glad to see us and we were glad to see him!

Dancing Machine!

One of Kyler's favorite things to do is put on the "Kid Tunes" music station and really let loose! Actually it is one of our favorite things to do together. Hopefully he gets his daddy's rhythm, because we all know that I have none whatsoever!



Kids are just so carefree and innocent. Where does that go over time? I don't think I could put on a onesie and just twirl around the house without a worry - nor do I think Josh would appreciate that.

Kyler, just keep dancing like nobody's watching! I will love you no matter what!

It is just so crazy to me how kids develop such a connection to music at such a young age. As soon as the music comes on Kyler knows exactly what to do. Not only does Kyler love listening and dancing to music, but he also loves it when we sing to him (off key of course - but he doesn't care) and he is even starting to sing to himself. Music is such a crucial way of learning for children, and unfortunately many kids are missing out on that (but not Kyler, or Mrs. Kinyon's kindergartners!).

Sushi

Kyler had his first ever taste of SUSHI! Well, not real sushi, but he did have what is called the Ambrosia Roll which contains shrimp, cucumber, and avocado. We ordered this especially for him knowing that he LOVES cucumber and avocado. Once the waiter brought out our entire plate of sushi, Kyler started doing the sign for eat and saying, "At, at!" (that's his pronunciation for eat). Josh then placed an entire roll onto his plate. He picked it up, examined it closely and tried to take a bite out of it. He loved to rice on the outside but once he got to the seaweed paper he crinkled up his nose, yet continued to eat it. As we had predicted he ate up all of the cucumber and avocado leaving just a few scraps of shrimp on his plate. All in all he did a great job! Papa John would be proud!


Once we were finished with diner, the waiter brought us all a fortune cookie. Kyler gobbled his right up and then we read his fortune:

Isn't that the truth! Josh and I just had to chuckle!

Sushi night was a fantastic night - we should consider doing it more often!