Crystal

We spent the weekend in Crystal with Steff, Brynne, her boyfriend Peter, and Brynne's family.   Crystal is a ghost town between Marble and Crested Butte that used to be a mining town.  It has a few cabins that are left, including one built in 1880 by Brynne's Great-great Grandfather who ran the Lead King Mine.  Their family spends summers up there, and it is by far the most spectacular and beautiful place I have ever been in Colorado.  We feel so lucky that Brynne has shared Crystal with us so many times, and that James got to experience it for the first time this summer.  James loved it just as much as we knew he would, and he made a lot of new friends and admirers over the few days that we were there.

Here is the gang in front of the Anderson's Cabin-James is with his new best friend Peter.  Or as he says, "Pee-tah" a-la Fudge Hatcher.

A few more pictures of their cabin.  Everything is original from 1880 except for one room that has been added on in the back that has running water for a bathroom.  There is no electricty in the town at all.  The kitchen has a stove and fridge that run off of gas and a faucet with water that is piped in directly from a stream that isn't purified but is still potable.

The road up from Marble is about 4 miles and can only be accessed by 4 wheel drive vehicles.  The ride is pretty scary in a car so I felt better having James on an ATV.  Peter drove us up and Brynne drove up Steff and Tim and all of our stuff.  James fell madly in love with the "tractor," after some initial apprehension about the noise.  As soon as we started going, he spent the rest of the drive saying, "More tractor!"  I am sure having a baby on your back in an Ergo on a 4 Wheeler exceeds all kinds of safety standards.

Right when we got up to Crystal, James discovered a pile of trucks and dirt.  He was in heaven and was covered in dirt from head to toe in about 2 minutes flat.

Steff stayed with the 3 of us in the cabin behind the Anderson's which Brynne's mom got for us. The river runs right behind it, so James was lulled to sleep pretty easily by the sound of the rushing water.

Crystal is most well known for Crystal Mill. When the mines were operating, it used energy from the waterfall to crush up rocks to get out the ore.  It's original structure is still standing and it is pretty amazing.

 

One of the best parts of Crystal is eating! I don't know what it is, but all of the food that they cook up there tastes so good. We were spoiled with sweet corn, beans, macaroni salad, steak, corn fritters, and homemade biscuits among other things.  James loved the biscuits so much he woke up at 4 in the morning the day after he had them saying, "Biscuit please!"

As if there wasn't enough to love in Crystal, James' dream came true when he got to wear a motorcycle helmet.  For those of you who aren't aware, James is infatuated with helmets of all kinds and talks about them often.

We took the 4 wheelers about a mile up to a trailhead that goes to a beautiful lake.  James was much more in love with the "Tractor ride," than the hike.

The road got a little bit scary in some places so I would hop off and walk with James.

Lucky me got a break for most of the hike and James alternated between riding on Tim's back and hiking himself.

James and Steff were very excited when we finally reached our destination-Geneva Lake.

The weather was perfect the whole weekend.  Nice and warm during the days and pretty cool in the evenings and mornings.

One of our many favorite aspects of the cabin is the creek that runs out in front.  They keep a wire basket in it that they use to keep things cold-like watermelon and beer. James got to help with dinner one night by transporting the watermelon from the creek to the dinner table in his dump truck.

SteHiking up to the waterfall behind our cabin.

Being in Crystal literally feels like you are in another time and world.  Things are so simple and everything is so untouched and beautiful.  We are so grateful for the time that we get to spend there, we can't wait to take James back every summer.  Brynne's parents fell in love with James so much that they said we can come back anytime! Yay!!

Blue

James can correctly identify all the basic colors, but blue has taken on a whole new meaning lately.  Blue is his favorite color, but it has also become a synonym for his favorite or the best of something.  He asks for "blue" snack after nap, "blue" milk in the morning, told me he wants to be "blue" for Halloween, and that he wants a "blue" birthday.  Oh, and every night we have to listen to "blue" music before bed.  So something can be "blue" without actually being the color blue.  It is all very confusing, but luckily we have figured out when he is calling something the color blue and when something is just "blue."  Yesterday he picked out his own outfit, down to the hat and shoes.  It was both blue and "blue."

We are leaving for the mountains tonight and then heading up to Crystal to stay with our friend Brynne for a few days at her family's cabin.  I am sure there will be many pictures of James enjoying the great outdoors to share when we return on Monday.

Just because....

we never want to forget what his first attempts at running look like.  Right arm straight by his side, left arm curled up and pumping like crazy.  The faster he (tries to) run, the more rapidly he pumps that left arm.  Love. 

Zoo

We had a slow week last week-nothing blog worthy. Yesterday we met our friends Paula and Todd at the zoo for the afternoon.  I was not too psyched about spending a hot afternoon walking around the zoo, but the clouds rolled in right after we got there and it was very nice out. And going so close to closing time meant no crowds, so it ended up being a great afternoon.

The highlight of the trip for James was getting to ride the train with Tim.  It was his first time on the zoo train and he loved every second of it. Tim said that James kept saying, "Choo Choo!" the whole ride.

James favorite animals were the monkeys.

Getting up close and personal with an elephant (cut-out).

Sharing an ice cream cone with Daddy.

Potty Time!

James saw his friend John wearing Elmo underwear at the swimming pool the other day and got pretty excited about getting some of his own big boy underwear.  We took him to the store where he picked out his own Elmo underwear.  He wanted to try them on right away and started dancing around in circles holding the other pairs-pretty hilarious.

Then he wanted to try on the other pairs and tried to figure out how to wear more than one pair at a time.

This was his reaction when I told him he could only wear one pair at a time.

Who knew underwear could be so exciting?  This morning as soon as he went on the potty, he asked to wear his Elmo underwear.  He wore them for brief periods of time today at his request and did pretty well.  In other big boy news, James got a big boy haircut today. I am suffering from post haircut trauma so I am unable to take a picture of him with his new do yet. He can see better though and I don't think he will be mistaken for a girl for awhile.  But for now, I miss my shaggy haired Bubba :-(

Fire Trucks!

This morning made me so happy that we live in our neighborhood, it was the perfect morning. We walked to breakfast and then went to a parade (the 2nd parade already this month in Longmont) for the fire department's 100th anniversary.  It was super cute with a bunch of old fashioned fire trucks driving down Main Street ringing their bells and new fire trucks blaring their sirens.  There was a lot of very excited little kids-James included.

During the whole parade James alternated between waving, clapping, and saying, "Hi fire truck!"

After the parade all of the fire trucks were available for the kids to climb on and sit in and some even had their hoses out for kids to help spray.

We still miss a lot about living in the city, but Longmont is definitely growing on us.  I mean, seriously-what other town has multiple parades a month?

Zephyr's Visit

A very out of order random collection of photos from the rest of Jenny, Ian, and Zephyr's visit.

Here are James and Zephyr all dressed up to meet their extended family-The Bartles and DeMers and take part in their first BFD dinner.

James was madly in love with Joe and his moustache.  Sorry dad, I think you may need to try and grow one before you see him next.  He is already asking Tim to grown one, and that is physically impossible.

The whole crew minus my parents and Darcie :-( Hopefully at Thanksgiving, we can get everyone!

James and Z loved playing in the fountain in the backyard.

We ate lunch at The Sink when we were in Boulder on Thursday, so we had to add James and Zephyr's names to the ceiling.

James would not let go of his new CU football from Uncle EE, even to eat lunch.

With Uncle EE and Chip.

On CU's campus.

Books before bed with Z and Uncle EE.

Playing in his new favorite piece of clothing:his CU football jersey from Uncle EE.

A couple more from the Rockies game on Tuesday.

Trying on Zephyr's hat-too small.

Cousin bath time

This was the first time that James and Zephyr have been together that they have both been healthy and both been walking.  They became good buddies this visit and enjoyed playing together a lot. James woke up every morning this week yelling, "Zephyr! Uncle EE!" from his crib.  Even though my family does not live in Colorado, I am so glad that they are still such a huge part of James' life.