Echo's world and the rest of us

New Years Eve 2011

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Shhhh...we silently let the evening come to an end. Spending a quiet evening on the couch, snuggled with Echo watching children's movies and eating popcorn.

The trumpets may blow, fireworks my burst in the air and confetti and champagne bring in the New Year, but I am at peace knowing that I have spent one more year surrounded by love both near and far.

Life is unexpected, exciting and wonderful. I may have moments of stress, anger, pain but it all pales in comparison to what I we have around us if we just sit back for a moment and take notice.

Many people I know have had an extremely hard time and personal tragedy this year. I don't make New Year's resolutions, however, this year I may just change my mind on this. This year I will take a moment each day to reflect on what is good. If I must face challenges or adversity, at least I will know in my heart that I have been very lucky and blessed.

Love and Peace to all in 2012.

Better Late than Never

2011-12-26T14:48:00.003-07:00

So there's been this "Build a Gingerbread" box sitting on the counter for well over a week. Echo and I were supposed to put it together before Christmas, but we never seemed to have the time. Better late than never I guess!

Christmas Day Begins!!!

2011-12-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

Once daylight began to stream through the early hours, Echo launched herself onto Daddy saying "Good Morning!!! It's Christmas!!!"

She snuck downstairs looking over the banister to see that Santa had really come to visit. There were left over cookie residue left on the plate and a smidge of milk left in the cup. Oh, and there were presents too!!!

She got quite a few of her items on the Santa list, including the Figit Friend, Dance 3 for Wii, Glo-Dome, Pillow Pet...and it goes on. She did open them each very carefully and examine them at length rather than shredding through the paper from one to the next.

She did laugh when she opened up the socks and underwear from MOM. Mom always gives all the kids plus Dad new socks and underwear. Not too exciting, but a tradition none the less.

Echo played, Dad worked in his office and I scoured down the kitchen from the cookie making spree. Then off to our chinese dinner at our favorite restaurant (known to us as Angela's)

Later for dessert, Echo had mixed up her "Pink" hot chocolate (yes Pink) and we had a Peppermint Peep floating on the top.

The evening was spent playing games on the Wii (my arm is tired). Plus, Mom busted out her dance moves to the Dance 3. By the end of the night both Echo and Mom were pooped out.

It was a super fun day!!!

A Perfect Moment

2011-12-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Christmas morning, before sunrise.

A small girl snuggles next to her Mom in bed, whispering in her ear "I love you".

Mom whispers back, "I love you too. You are my most perfect Christmas present ever".

The girl snuggles tighter, "My best present ever is that you came and got me from the orphanage".

Mom's eyes fill with tears, "I had to come...you are my girl".

"Are you crying?" the little voice says.

"Yes", I respond.

"Me too" she says.

And we lay there quietly, safe and warm, waiting for Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve with Marie

2011-12-24T21:43:00.001-07:00

Marie, the Mom of Echo's adopted brother,Matt, invited us to come spend some time on Christmas Eve at her house. Echo got to actually wear a dress for the evening and we spent a few hours visiting. We weren't there very long, Echo was excited to get home for Santa's arrival.

Thank you Marie for a wonderful evening!

Echo fell asleep in the car and didn't have the energy to leave out the cookies for Santa. Mom took care of it though. We couldn't let Santa get hungry!

Not Just Your Average Elf

2011-12-23T18:25:00.005-07:00

Echo came home to find her Elf, wrapped carefully in red tissue paper and placed in a Christmas basket on the front door step. She carefully unwrapped her and read the letter from Santa...

Dear Echo,

My dear little Echo how fast you have grown,
I send you this Elf (no she isn't a gnome),

I'm busy right now making wishes come true,
She's here to make sure your wishes do too,

At day she is quiet and oh so still,
Waiting and watching all day up until,

You fall asleep soundly then off she will fly,
Up to the North Pole through darkness of night,

You tell her your secrets and wishes and dreams,
She takes all your favorites and tell the elf teams,

With Santa's approval they work with much care,
So Christmas he'll deliver below your tree there,

She is filled with much magic but, not so with games,
Her magic will work only if you giver her a name,

Don't touch her or poke her or carry around,
Don't play or abuse her, she just wants the sound,

Of Echo's pure voice, so wonderful and clear
Whispering softly in her little ears,

But, remember she's Elfish and twitters at night,
So don't become started or give a little fright,

If during the day she isn't where you expect her to be,
She sometimes hides, not just by the tree,

So when morning arrives if you think she isn't around,
Look for her closely to see where she's found,

Just follow the rules and she'll be a good friend,
And be there this season until the very end,

When Christmas comes she goes back to her home,
North to the snowflakes, and won't ever roam,

Until next December when Santa needs help,
Then she'll return to you, your little Elf on the shelf.

Love,

Santa Claus

Christmas ... Time Warp 2011

2011-12-22T20:03:00.011-07:00

Not that our lives aren't busy...but December is always a flash of activity. So here goes a 'clip show' of all the things that have happened!

PUTTING UP THE TREE

OK, So this wasn't Christmas but Thanksgiving weekend. Hey, it all runs together after the Turkey Day :)

Echo helping Daddy get it setup...

WEEKEND AT GRANDMAS

Echo and I went to see family on the first weekend of December. Friday was spent shopping, followed by an early Christmas at Grandma's on Saturday. The weather held out as cold but clear and we had a great time having lunch and opening presents!

Echo - Alex - Grandma

Jon - Echo - Alex

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GYMNASTICS

Echo placed high during the season. The way they structure the gymnastics meets is they divide the girls across four groups based on each girls highest all around score during the season. For the girls that have scored low, medium, moderate or high, they are competing against their peers. Echo placed in the highest level therefore she was going up against some tough competition.

We are so proud of her!!! She scored total 37.575 AMAZING! This was her highest of the season even with a fall on the beam. Overall she came in 9th in state! I am so proud of her. She worked so hard all year and this was a big accomplishment!.

BAKING CHRISTMAS COOKIES...THE TRADITION CONTINUES

I am not a good cook, I admit it. I made a stab at doing some cookies this year and Jay took over for the rest (or I should say the best) cookies. However, I did have a little help from my cutest kitchen buddy!

ELF ON THE SHELF... More to come on this :)

MULTIPLE SANTAS

Echo saw multiple Santa's in one day. She told me which one she thought was the "real" Santa and which one was just "acting". Let's see if you can pick out which one was which :)

December isn't quite over yet...so more to come!

GK's Gym - November 18th Fort Collins

2011-11-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

And to round out the season our girl came in first place overall again!

Bars - 9.05
Beam - 9.1
Floor - 9.15
Vault - 9.30

Next up State Finals! There is a lot of time between now and state. It's a good thing the gym will hold 'mock' meet in early December to keep all the girls skills sharp. LET'S GO GU!!!

Windsor November 2011

2011-11-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

YAY! First Place Overall

Bars - 9.5
Beam - 9.05
Vault - 9.8
Floor - 9.2

You go girl!!! We are so proud!

Gremlins in our Midst - Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T06:18:00.001-06:00

My girl isn't the usual Fairy Princess or other girly-girl. This year for Halloween she wanted to be none other than a vampire. They have Trick or Treat Street at their school so she got on her costume and Mom made up her face. She actually looked very spooky. We got to school and sure, here are the usual suspects donned in Mario, Princess and the occasional Batman however, looking around all of the kids looked pretty tame. Even the older ones (her school goes K-8) were not scary.

As we are walking door to door in the school and they are depositing candy in her bag, she turns to me and says "Mom, I don't think I like this costume. People are looking at me funny". So mid way through you could see her taking the teeth out, rubbing some of the makeup off...etc.

The night of Halloween she put on the outfit, but no makeup. I thought to myself, that's ok. There are enough scary things in the world, be a child just a little longer :)

Gotta love my neighbors. We joined up with a group down the street and walked around the block. They had beers in their hands to begin with and mid way through theirs a guy with a rolling cooler handing out more beer to the parents. I refrained from the beer-fest because I needed to get back and hand out candy.

It was such a nice evening there were literally car loads of kids being dropped off in my neighborhood. We don't live in the type of development that would normally hand out full size candy bars or anything so I'm not sure why we have so many gremlins in our midst. By the time we made it home it was about 8:00 and all the little ones had passed by. Jay wasn't there to hand out candy so I had a lot left. I started giving out handfuls at that point.

Last but not least here are a couple of pictures from the pumpkin carving on the back porch. Madison from down the street loves this type of activity and both girls were intent on getting the pumpkin just right!

Denver School of Gymnastics Meet - Oct 2011

2011-10-22T18:50:00.000-06:00

Besides it being ECHO's MOST FABULOUS 7th BIRTHDAY! she also won first place all around for her gymnastics meet.

Vault: 9.40
Bars: 8.2
Beam: 8.6
Floor: 8.4

She did a great job and was surprised she came in first place. We celebrated by going to lunch at Bennett's BBQ with some other team members!

October Brings the Judges Cup 2011

2011-10-15T22:07:00.004-06:00

Close to 100 girls were in attendance. With no divisions in age, Echo held her own against the masses!

Vault: 9.250
Bars: 8.50
Beam: 9.05
Floor: 9.10

Total Score 35.9

Usually girls ages 6-8 compete in a class to themselves. Echo placed 13th place overall against ALL girls...all ages! Go E!!!! So proud of my girl!

EEEEEEEEEK FIRST CONCERT!!!

2011-09-28T17:41:00.001-06:00

Echo's First Big Concert! It was a blast!

Life is a Zoo

2011-09-25T17:18:00.001-06:00

Life isn't always a zoo, but sometimes we feel we're running so fast and things get a little hectic! That's when it's time to take a break, a deep breath...and well...go to the zoo!

Echo talked Mom into going one Sunday afternoon in September. After circling the parking lot at the zoo a couple of times and not finding a space I thought this might be a bad ideal, however, we finally got settled and went into the zoo. Our timing couldn't have been better because all the other parents and children were 'done' for the day and finally heading back to the cars. By the end of the day there was only a few people left and it was great.

Echo's been to the zoo more times than I can count. Much like my childhood in San Francisco, I could navigate all parts of the zoo with my eye's closed. Here is a quick tour in pictures!

Echo's impression of a prairie dog!

Just some kids climbing on rocks!

Carrosel Fun!

Brain Freeze!

Ape Arms!

Home Sweet Home with the Wolf Pack!

Heading Home...What a GREAT DAY!!!

Fall Festival 2011 - Gymnastics Unlimited

2011-09-25T16:29:00.000-06:00

We were at the home gym this meet...posting scores of:

Vault: 9.625 ****First Place Vault
Bars: 8.45
Beam: 8.1
Floor: 9.2

Overall Score: 35.375 **** Fifth Place Overall

Team came in Third Place!

College Daze 2011 - Premier Gymnastics @ Loveland

2011-09-11T16:17:00.000-06:00

Next meet on the schedule...Premier Gymnastics at Loveland

Scores:

Vault: 9.0
Bars: 9.05
Beam: 9.225
Floor: 8.85 **** Third Place Floor

All Around Total 36.125 ***** Third Place Overall

In this picture she's sporting the megaphone they gave the girls as a treat...along with our traveling gnome and all her ribbons/medals!

Meet Me At The Meet

2011-09-04T20:47:00.000-06:00

NEWS RELEASE: Labor Day 2011- USAG Meet

Today, in a record breaking performance for one Echo, she wowed the crowd with her death defying gymnastics skills. Actually the people she wowed most was Mom and Dad! The team traveled to Steamboat this weekend for the first gym meet of the year. It's a nice way to kick off the season and end the summer all in one fell swoop. Along with the Traveling Gnome (made by Big AL) we packed up and headed to the hills.

The weather was beautiful and most of the families stayed at a local hotel that had a swimming pool. The girls swam, got their hair done up for the meet and the parents sat around the pool enjoying a pot luck dinner and refreshments.

Echo was on the podium quite a bit. She really surprised us with coming in FIRST PLACE ON BARS!!! and THIRD PLACE OVERALL! The team did really well for their first meet coming in second place.

As we post to the blog we'll post her scores at each meet:

Floor - 8.6
Beam - 7.8
Bars - 9.15
Vault - 9.2

Overall Score - 34.75

And So It Begins....FIRST GRADE

2011-08-22T20:32:00.002-06:00

This will be a short post, just to show off the first day of FIRST GRADE. You have to have pictures the first day. Echo wanted to take my 'messenger bag' rather than a back pack. I think it will be a decision she will change in the next few weeks... :)

School...with clothes purchased, supplies ready to go, hair combed, teeth brushed and in a whirlwind of motion we are out the door and going off to school. E had first day jitters, like most kids. She is now entering #1 of 12 before graduation of high school. Grab on to your hats...cuz it's going to be a wild ride!!!

The Last Days of Summer

2011-08-20T19:51:00.000-06:00

The week before Echo went back to school my work finally calmed down enough to take a little more vacation. We both needed some 'us' time. A time to get out of the hot lull of summer and go out with a "SPLASH".

Our week started with a trip to Water World. Acres and acres of swimming pools and water excitement. Although my idea of fun at the pool usually consists of a flotation device and drink with a little umbrella, we ventured beyond the local neighborhood pool to the BIG KAHUNA! One of Echo's buddies from school and her Mom accompanied us on our adventure. We took the biggest ride first, just to get it all started. The decision was made to scream all the way down (or was that just me?). From that point forward we were hooked and continued to go from water slide to water ride, ending up several times at the big wave pool. It was awesome fun!

Going to the movies is fun in the summer to beat the heat. Echo and I tried out two movies (not on the same day mind you). One was a dinner and movie experience with waitstaff that bring you food to your seats. It was a lot of fun and not as expensive as one might think. Her milkshake wasn't any more than a drink at the theatre.

Since E's school was out one more summer day then the rest of town, we took the advantage of going to Elitches (or hometown version of six flags).

Again, E's buddy from school and Mom were game to go.

Everyone had a blast! There was hardly anyone there and we didn't have to wait for any rides. It was like we were rock stars or something! The girls both squeeked by the "you must be this tall to ride" signs, just making the height restrictions so we could go on any ride they liked. Two rides that were the most fun for everyone was the TOWER OF DOOM and the old fashion roller coaster called the TWISTER. The Tower of Doom is the ride where they take you up about three stories and drop you...totally awesome. The girls were laughing so hard when they got off. The old fashioned roller coaster doesn't go upside down but it's still a blast. Echo and I had to leave at 4:00, but Alyssa and her Mom said they just stayed on the roller coaster for about 5 more rides back to back....too funny!

We ended the week with cooking hotdogs and marshmallows over our fire pit. Ahhh...what a great week!

Brother Alex and More Fun

2011-08-16T07:41:00.008-06:00

Alex came to visit us this month. He wasn't here for very long, however, per usual Echo style she had a list of fun and exciting things to do with him while he was here.

Alex and Echo get along like two peas in a pod. He is very patient and actually listens to her when she's talking rather than patting her on the head and saying "That's nice, Echo". Alex can't come to visit without the both of them going to Dave and Busters to play video games and get tickets. Echo waltzed away with a small electronic 'Whack-A-Mole' that has a highly irritating sound to it. It's perfect for the back seat of the car (Not :)

The new Smurfs movie came out so the two of them went to see it in 3-D. The funny thing is Jay used to have a collection of Smurfs when I first met him. Something about a drinking game called "Atomic Smurf" in college. I won't elaborate, since I don't have all the particulars. I'm not sure where that set of Smurfs are now, but the McDonalds Happy Meals now come with them. Echo is collecting these, yet my hope is she won't save them until college :)

Although it's HOT outside, Alex and Echo ventured across the street to play tennis. That lasted about a half an hour before both of them came back dripping of sweat!

Jon just happened to be in town that week so he came by and Jon, Alex, Echo and Mom went to dinner. It is rather a strange dynamic when you see how old the brothers are versus Echo. Most people don't know how this group is organized when they see us. It was great to have them all together. Even though we are photographers we never get a chance to take many pictures of them together. Shame on us!

The Adams County Fair was on so we hopped in the car and went over. All the memories of county fairs can be summed up by the smell. A mixture of dirt, hay, funnel cakes and...well...animal poop. Unfortunately it was too late to get a wristband for rides, so we paid as we went. Yeesh! That's an expensive way of doing the fair! We snacked on some items, Echo rode the rides, Alex won Echo a stuffed dog and we watched a 'dog show' of performers.

After the fair we grabbed our lawn chairs and headed for the free concert outside of the small mall down the street. We ran into Calley, children and a variety of people we new. A rock band doing a blast from the 80's was singing and it was great fun. We wedged our way into the corner next to the patio of the brewery and Alex could step in and have a beer, Echo could play with her friends and even Calley coerced Mom into getting out in the middle to dance. It was great fun and the weather was gorgeous.

Saturday early evening Alex had to leave. Before he left Echo was going to a birthday party at a place that paint's pottery. We decided to stick around at a table far away from the birthday fun and paint a pot or two while we waited. Alex made me a garden gnome, decked out in Av's colors and sporting the number 33 for the ultimate hockey goalie, "ROY". Go Avs! I painted a plate. I am not very steady and can't ever stay within the lines on things. This is great of impressionistic art but not so good for brain surgery. Maybe that's why I didn't become a surgeon HAHAHA!

It seemed like the time flew by. As always I wished he lived closer and I'm sure he would like to see Echo more often. He want's to make sure Echo remembers him as she gets older and he isn't one of those distant relatives you only see on holidays.

July Fireworks and Family Fun

2011-07-31T07:52:00.000-06:00

July just raced by!!! I was trying to collect my thoughts on this as I write, however it's just a blur.

There was Jon's Birthday (which he is never at home for). Over the years I would send him a box cake and tub of frosting to make his own. I know it sounds weird, but then you can't send him a cake and with this he can make it whenever he has time. I think over the years there is some secret stash of old boxes of cake hidden somewhere. Maybe years from now, if archeologists dig they'll find these boxes and tubs of icing, and provide some bizarre explanation of it being a shrine or perhaps the great cake famine of the early 21st century. Who knows!

Speaking of cake (and this is for future reference), the hot thing right now are 'cupcake' stores. Places you can go and buy special cupcakes with frosting piled on inches thick...oh and sprinkles. I am mentioning this now because as we all know...as yummy as these are, it is a fad and will be over in the next few years. Perhaps as Echo reads this journal when she is in her 20's she'll revive this trend. Much like fashion is revived every few years. Oh...plus, there is a current fad of small, dainty, cakes and edibles. Right now Starbucks has cake 'pops' that are about the size of a tootsie roll pop. Actually they are very tasty and not as many calories. I have to disagree with the calories because you can't eat just one! Again Echo...just for future reference :) In case I'm in the 'home' gumming my oatmeal, you can bake me one of these yummy cupcakes (the ones with the big icing!)

We can't go on with July unless we talk about the 4th of July picnic in the neighborhood! Fire trucks flashing lights, fire hose water fun and kids on bicycles! This was the first year that Echo rode in the parade by herself. She wasn't too thrilled with it since I wasn't there riding beside her but, I didn't bring out my bike fast enough and they were around the corner before I could catch up. The short, yet festive parade only lasts about 10 minutes. I told her next year I would deck out my bike too.

Echo has gotten so tall this summer. Time goes by so fast that you have to grab each day for what it's worth. A couple of years ago my work had gotten to the point it was interfering and monopolizing my time. At that point I had to re-assess what was really important to me. The fact that she still want's to sit on my lap (despite her legs dangling to the ground), that she still want's to cuddle with me on the couch, comb my hair...etc. Although summer seems fleeting, I'm savoring each day and am thankful for each moment. I am thinking of this especially since Jay ordered some pictures of Echo for our wall. I see her with her little stubby baby teeth, and now with her big ones growing in. She changes daily and I don't want to miss a single day.

So for now...what will August bring...let's find out!!!

Jumpin into June!

2011-06-30T07:13:00.000-06:00

Personally I'm never sure why any school districts let the kids out in May. June is kind of unpredictable. It was as if we were living in some tropical rain forest. For over 7 days we had an average of 1 - 2 inches of rain a day...crazy stuff! This never occurs in our state (which always seems like it's in a perpetual draught). But enough about the weather, because that didn't slow down the fun!

Echo, the family collector, has adopted her 'sissy's' (Megan's) grandfather as her own. Pompo is a very nice man who now resides with his daughter and family next door. He has a very kind heart and Echo can recognize this. A couple of years ago Echo saw that he had part of one finger missing...asking what happened Megan replyed 'Bret bit it off when he was a boy'. Although a joke, I think that Echo still believes this story and has to repeat it again and again at parties. Speaking of parties, the reason that this is running on is it was Pompo's birthday party. We were invited over for the festival with the rest of the family members. It is so great to have wonderful neighbors and Pompo's party was filled with food, cake and family love. Thank you to our neighbors for being 'the best'!

Mom has elected not to let any more birthday cake settle on her every spreading area (south of the wasteline). So I have been convinced by our friend Calley (an awesome personal trainer) to join one of her 'bootcamps' this summer. Usually I'm intimidated by exercise class, Calley makes it fun and she's no drill sergeant. The best part is they are held outside at a local park and you can bring your kids. I think the kids outnumber the adults most time, however, they can play on playground, run around etc while the rest of us are working out. Echo loves these classes. It's over an hour of kid fun! She's my motivator when I'm tired and don't want to go. Although Mom won't ever have abs of steel, this class is great for both of us!

Marlene and Dave came through on a visit as they make their way to Chicago. We had a great time and got to meet their sweet dog Penny. Penny is a rescued Vizsla. She is a very pretty dog, smart, loyal and above all doesn't smell like other dogs. We had a great couple of days and even sat out back and BBQ'd. Despite the mosquitos, we had a fire in the pit and it was fun! Thank you guys for coming through, it was wonderful to see you!!! Love you sis!

In June we did so many things it's hard to keep all of them straight. There were graduation parties (Yeah TYLER!), spontaneous outdoor neighborhood party at Troy & Melinda's, Kenzie's birthday party (Happy 7th), Biking, swimming, and of course Father's Day!

Despite the rain... Echo and the family packed in another fun June!

May-Be Cra-zee Part3

2011-05-31T12:50:00.001-06:00

Decorating the window at the hotel...I wonder if the maids found this after we left :)

Echo on stage...acting out "How does your body fight virus'", needless to say her character didn't make it to the end. She had a dramatic scene where she had to fall over dead on stage. Maybe she'll be an actress... but I think she should stick to athletics!

Kid Power...pulling herself up by the rope

A note to Mom

Lunch at the Rose and Crown

And a big THANK YOU to Kim and Bob for inviting us to the 'FUN NIGHT' at their house. Echo loves to play with Hector and James...she had big fun with the boys!

And so ended Echo's big summer fun with Mom! We both had a great time...she was a joy the whole time. I loved every minute!

Claudia

May-Be Cra-zee Part 2

2011-05-31T12:36:00.001-06:00

Echo at Museum...her need for speed!

On to the kitchen... making a little something for Mom

A little desert to go with the lunch

A post lunch concert

Then some crafts fun... Echo Loves Mom

Off to swim...

Phewf! End of first big day! Even with all her energy, she got tired!

May-Be Cra-zee Part 1

2011-05-31T12:22:00.001-06:00

May was totally out of control as far as things Echo has done (along with the rest of the family). Instead of a huge running dialogue of events I thought pictures were in order.

We start with Mother's Day 2011 - I baked mini-cupcakes and the girls in the neighborhood came to decorate them for their Mom's.

Followed by end of year field trips from school, this is from the zoo...

She also had field day, however it was a bust because it was raining buckets...the pictures for this didn't turn out very well so skipping along...

Last day of school, with her wearing her school T-Shirt...

Followed by the 'continuation' ceremony at school...

Then off on a mini vacation...just Mom and Echo to Phoenix. Sorry to family that we didn't get to see while there. It's was quite a whirl-wind tour.

At the Children's Museum - climbing the three story fun platform in a game of Where's Echo

Ok...Where's My Basket!

2011-04-30T21:42:00.003-06:00

Just like everything else in our lives, Easter came much faster than I had originally anticipated. I seem to be running about 2-3 days behind schedule now days.

The good news is, Echo did get her opportunity to color Easter eggs before Easter! Yay!

We are shooting pictures of gymnasts recently and had an opportunity to go over to Grand Junction and take some wonderful pictures. Leaving the Friday before Easter, it took us about 4 hours to make it over the pass an on to Grand Junction. Saturday we got to the gym by 7:00am and set up the lights. Echo ran around the gym all day (per her usual speed) and by 8:30 that night we were done and on our way back towards the city. About half way it started snowing. Usually April snow is that heavy wet kind that clings to everything and mounts up quick. Mom was driving while Jay, Echo and our assistant Jayson snoozed away. We considered pulling off into a town and getting a room, however, when Jayson looked up the weather report it indicated 'worse by tomorrow' rather than better I made a decision to go for it. With a Starbucks frappacino in one hand and a mission to make it home to my own comfortable bed we went for it. Across Vail pass there were tow trucks lined up and people driving like Ms. Daisy. This seemed very unneccessary since there was all of about an inch on the road. By this time everyone was again awake in the car (probably fearing we'd be in a snow drift soon), but I pushed on. What should have taken us 4 hours took 5 and we rolled into town 1am Easter morning.

Home sweet home! We flopped into bed and I neglected to leave a note for the Easter Bunny that we were home and Echo would be looking for her basket.

Easter morning arrives...and Echo springs from the bed. "IT'S EASTER!" she exclaims and bolts downstairs. And just as fast as she bolts downstairs, she bee-lines back up stairs teary eyed..."The Easter Bunny didn't come! He must have thought we were gone!"

Fortunately for Echo, Mom is a close personal friend of the Easter Bunny. My affinity for those little chocolate morsels of goodness in the form or a rabbit have always had a place near and dear to my heart. Even as I write this I can still taste the creamy, chocolatey goodness of those chocolate bunnies...mmmmmmm. However, I digress.

Being such a good friend of E.Bunny, I went to take a look for myself. While Echo was searching the upstairs, Mom came downstairs and surprisingly enough, found a basket with Echo's name on it in the formal dining room. Now, how amazing was that!!!

Another disaster averted!

I hope everyone had a good holiday...whether it was Easter, Passover, or Festivus for the rest of us! May Spring come in waves of colorful jelly bean rainbows and chocolatey delight!

Meanwhile, we're working hot and heavy on the new studio for Senior Pictures in Denver! If you want great photography for your senior, give us a call.

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Green Eggs and Ham

2011-03-25T15:40:00.005-06:00

The first March weekend came around and that Saturday it struck me "Green Eggs and Ham". This was most likely prompted by Dr. Seuss' birthday a few weeks earlier, but I thought what the heck. Who knew you could make such green eggs with just a drop or two of food coloring. I didn't take any pictures thinking it would most likely gross out anyone looking at it. Echo eat them up! She loved them. I'm not a proponent of putting food coloring in things but who's to say a little pink in the potatoes next time won't be fun?!

The sun is finally starting to shine so we went to get out Echo's bike. Now why I really thought those long legs would let her ride her little Barbie bike again this year? Walmart saves the day with a brand new bike ready to roll. I would have gone out to an expensive place for a bike however, at the rate she's growing she'll get about a year, maybe two out of it before she moves to a bigger model.

This month is always Spring Break. Mom only had Friday off to spend with E. We definitely made it a big day though. We started off by mailing brother Alex his birthday present and from then on it was all fun and games. We spent some time at her favorite place, Dave and Busters. I have realized with the lights and sounds, arcades are much to children as casino's are to adults. There is a definite fever frenzy in the place of kids racing from one machine to another in hopes to score those precious 'tickets'. After investing usually over $25.00 to acquire the ticket's they trade them in for what could have normally be purchased for$2.50. Yikes! Hey it was all for the fun though right?

We then grab some sandwiches at Subway's and got the bikes out to ride to the park for a picnic. Spring weather is always unpredictable. The days started out beautifully and by the time we got ready to ride back from the park Echo was shivering and wanting to get home. The good news is she peddled pretty fast to get there (cuz Mom was cold too!)

The Luck of the Rabbit

2011-03-07T20:52:00.007-07:00

Welcome in the Year of the Rabbit. Our little munchkin let us take a few shots of her for the annual New Years Card. I have really gotten to like this holiday. I'm never ready at Christmas for any pictures or cards to be sent out, January is usually the 'catch up' month, then it rolls into February with New Years.

Echo started her lucky streak for the year early. She was helping at the gymnastics competition and won the big raffle item. It was a huge basket filled with popcorn, movies, candy and a snuggly blanket! She has now officially designated Friday night as movie night at the house. She and I snuggle into the chair with a huge bowl of popcorn on our laps and watch everything from Scooby Do to Spy Kids.

In February, she and her 'sissy' Megan again went to Cheer for the Cure. I know it seems that she does this quite often but, it's only once per football and once per basketball season.

Pictures coming soon!

She is hanging out quite a bit with the kids in the neighborhood lately. She is growing up so fast! There isn't a time during the weekend that she's not running from house to house in the 'hood'. However, with this new excitement of freedom she has been reprimanded severely for changing houses without letting us know where she is. She has been grounded which in her little social network is 'harsh'.

Pictures coming soon!

We believe she is on a total growing streak as well. She chows down large amounts of food and is sleeping really hard at night. Just to mark this event I thought I would document her size from top to bottom so here goes.

Pictures coming soon!

And in this corner...weighing in at 46 pounds...ECHO!

Height: 47 1/2 "
Chest: 21 1/2"
Waist: 19 "
Hips: 22"
Legs: 20" long
Girth: 46"
Wingspan: 46"
Head Circ. 19"
Shoe Size: 13 1/2

Let's see how much she grows by next year!!!

I'm a Mom torn between loving to see her grow up and one that want's her to still sit on my lap and snuggle. As children get older you look at them at certain points and think "I won't forget this moment". But, years go by and with every new turn there is a new look, new expression, new adventure. Having the two older boys I think I realize that more now than I did when they were small. When you're younger there are struggles, stresses and the time slips by very fast. One day they are sitting on your lap, the next is school with endless supplies of paper their little hands have written, colored and cut out. Followed by the rebellious years, drivers licenses, long nights where you try not to be worried but can't help yourself.

Echo hugged me very long and hard one night. I'm not sure if there was something going on in her head that prompted it, but it felt really good to have her little arms around me holding tight. I count myself very lucky to have been surrounded by the love of my children. Even when the boys (now men) have grown, they are always my children and they give me hugs. It's one of lifes pure pleasures.

I'll end this blog on the best thought for the month of love...February. Never underestimate the power of a the hug.

All Out - Alegria

2011-01-26T16:42:00.004-07:00

My Christmas present to the family this year was tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil - Alegria in January. I booked the matinee showing so we could ensure that the weather would be good enough to get there and Echo would have enough focus to sit still for 3.5 hours.

Jon couldn't make it with us so we took our camera assistant Jayson with us. The four of us had floor seats about 7 rows back from the stage. There was a break in the seats of about 6 feet between us and the next row in front. This was perfect placement for the clowns and performers to walk in and out of the crowd.

I have to admit, the performance was awesome. Echo was perched on either Dad's or Mom's lap to get a little height to see over the crowd, but she was mezmerized the entire show. During a small break between performers, the lead singer wove her way through the crowd, stopped right in front of Echo, placed her and on Echo's cheek and sang to her. She looked up at the woman (who was dressed in a big white wig and Marie Antoinette dress) captivated. It was a moment that will probably stick with Echo for a long time.

Echo and I especially liked the clowns...they were more European style pantomime rather than slap stick. Very funny! They would occasionally make their way through the crowd to pick out random patrons and bring them up on stage. Jayson and I were sitting next to each other and with every passing clown we silently said "No...don't pick me...don't pick me". Phewf! we said as they walked by us. Now if they had picked Echo, she probably would have ran up there to join in...showing them a few stunts along the way...LOL!

A fun time was had by all!

Christmas...in a wink

2011-01-25T19:14:00.012-07:00

Christmas 2010... wow! It really flew by me. I have pictures to post...presents to thank people for...

In the blink of an eye our Christmas tree went up this year. We don't decorate very much at this house, probably because many years the boys weren't home to enjoy it. In year's past our decorating skills ran a dismal last place to the glittering, light enhanced suburban neighborhoods we have lived in. One year we were even passed up by the Jewish family across the street that had pretty little blue and white twinkle lights on their trees complementing their menorah in the window.

This year was different though. Echo looked at our neighborhood and proclaimed that "Yes, there is a Santa Claus" and there would be no way he can find our house if we don't have some lights outside as a beacon for the gift filled sleigh. I'm not the best on a ladder, so I gathered up our twinkle lights from the basement and spread them willy-nilly across the leafless shrubs and the front window. Add a few candy-cane lights from Walmart and we were ready to roll!

Countdown to Christmas always seems like a mad dash. Personally I think that December should be set aside to lay on the beach and soak in the sunshine...thinking about the past year and looking towards the future. However, that being said, we pack as many events into December as humanly possible.

December 1-2 Mom is out of town in Chicago (brrrrrr!)
December 5 Holiday performance at Echo's gym
December 6 Echo gymnastics practice
December 8 Echo gymnastics practice
December 9 Echo gymnastics practice
December 10 The Oh My Word, I'm running late on getting presents to send out

December 11 Ship out presents (not really sure if I got everyone taken care of but the box must go out!)
December 12 First bout of strep throat at the house (Mom)
December 15 Evening dinner and performance at Echo's school
December 16 Photo shoot for Christmas cards
December 17 Echo class party
December 18 Put out a few festive lights for Santa

December 20 Make annual cookies for neighbors
December 21 Echo's first day of Winter Break and Mom's last day off for the year, deliver cookies
December 22 Echo gets to go play, Dad's at home, Mom's at work
December 23 Is it really this close to Christmas...where did the time go!!!
December 24 Echo begs to open presents, she's checking the Norad site online keeping tabs on Santa's sleigh across the world and cookies are out for Santa's consumption
December 25 Jon get's off work at 6:00am from USPS and makes his way over to the house for Christmas breakfast...later we go for our annual Christmas dinner at our favorite Chinese Restaurant, come home and flop comfortably on the couch....ahhhh all is well!

Echo noticed Santa ate the cookies!

Look at all the presents...and what's Christmas without the Big Bird stocking!

Jon's still a little groggy from work...Look Ma I got a cool pair of gloves! OOPS guess those are Echo's

Echo cleaned up and showing off her presents

And so is our holiday season! Happy Holidays to one and all!!!

Echo Goes USGA

2010-11-17T20:52:00.008-07:00

Echo participated in the two final gym meets of the year in November. She couldn't officially compete until she reached 6 years old. I knew she was a little concerned prior to the first meet. One evening we were just talking and out of the blue she says "What if I throw up at the meet!". She then confessed she was a little nervous. I just smiled and hugged her and told her it wouldn't be any different than doing her routine in front of her team at the gym.

Her first meet she was awesome! She scored a total 31.5, where you only have to score 34.0 to make the state meet. We were so proud of her! In addition, their team took second place overall.

And the best point for her...she didn't throw up! I asked if she was nervous and she just smiled and said "Nope". So that was that for nerves I guess.

Her second meet she scored 31.4. All her routines were better than before except for her beam. Half way through she teetered and had to jump off. She recovered but also went overtime.

The other fun part for E is the fact the families usually go for dinner after the meets and the girls giggle and talk. She loves it. The last place we went had a little area with a few arcade games. The girls kept coming back to the parents asking for change.

Next up will be the Christmas Show at the gym...so more gym pics to come.

Howlin Halloween

2010-11-07T15:37:00.010-07:00

It has been a spectacular October here in the Mile High City. A few days before Halloween Echo and the little girl Maddie, from down the street carved up the pumpkins. Actually I gave them the task of 'gutting' them, which neither of them wanted to do very badly.

They made a good attempt at it though.

Then came the time to get Echo's costume ready. Oh no, Echo wouldn't want to go as something easy like a princess, ghost or bunny. Nope, she picked wolf. Not like you can go right out and buy a wolf costume very easily so being the ultimate make something out of nothing kind of Mom, I put together a quick costume from some furry fabric, hat, glove and face paint. She took on the persona of the wolf right away sitting and howling away.

She even picked up the Most Unique Costume at the party at the gym.

My boys ended up with a lot of home made outfits for Halloween and school projects. At this point I wish I could pull out the Chaka Zulu warrior outfit I made for Jon (for a school project) when he was in about the 2nd grade. Maybe one of these days when I run across the picture of Jon decked out as an African King it will make it to the blog. He looked very pale in a George of the Jungle looking outfit...along with spear. It was very cute. It was his 'king' persona that pulled if off, much like Echo and hers with the wolf costume. I guess it's not the costume that makes it believable...its the character :)

Full of Fall Fun!

2010-10-19T12:19:00.005-06:00

Yowza...what a busy month!

The first weekend of the month was the Fall Festival at Echo's gymanstics. This was a competition for levels 4-6 competing over four days. Friday night I signed up to help out with food, while Jay manned the photo table and Echo was a runner for the judges. She thought that was pretty cool. As the judges score the girls, Echo took the 'paperwork' and ran it back to the office so they could keep talley. She was working the vault table.

Next up another gymanstics first!
Echo has been working on her 'front hip circle' and 'mill circle' for months now. YAY for her she finally mastered it. Her coach even sent out a loud cheer and hugged her. She had been struggling with this move and attempted it so many times I can't even count. She mastered it though!!! She even has the blisters on her hands to prove it. If nothing else gymnastics teaches her it's that if she works at something she can achieve it. With gymnastics you can see the progress with every new skill. She is very proud of herself (and we are too!!!!). Of the girls that were in her 'Profiles' group and moved up, she was the youngest to have mastered this skill. YAY FOR MY GIRL!!!

Cheer for the Cure 2010
Her sister (aka Megan the neighbor teenager) lured her into Cheering for the Cure again this year. It is fun, with all the little girls going to a one day cheer camp and then cheering at one of the high school football games. Last year she split her chin open on the gym floor so this year she was a little more cautious. She had a great day and then the next Thursday (Oct 14th) she cheered at the game. This time she did a round-off, double back handspring tumble. It was a crowd pleaser, with the announcer even giving her kudos for her stunt. She ran alongside one of the regular cheerleaders and tumbled alongside. I'm sure Megan had something to do with 'showing her off' to her friends!

At Practice...

At the game...

Bowl-a-Birthday
For Echo's birthday we decided to have it at the bowling alley. We planned it the weekend prior to her regular birthday. Echo wanted to invite the kids from her class and I was ok with that. Out of 25 kids usually there are soccer games and other events that keeps about half of them from coming. We sent the invitations to them, plus gave a handful out to others.

Yikes! We had 24 kids respond! I was floored and a little panicked that we would need to corral that many kids. I rented 5 bowling lanes plus it came with the shoes, pizza and drinks. It was "Cosmic" Bowling where they darken up the bowling alley and have special lights. I thought I would lose about half of them in the dark so I bought the glow bracelets and had our photo assistant Jason (he's 15) come with us to manage them all. It turned out AWESOME!!! The kids were all well behaved, no meltdowns or fights. Most of the parents stayed to watch their little ones bowl and helped them get started. I was totally shocked and very happy. It lasted only two hours but that's good enough. I can't say enough about the bowling alley. They had two people manning the area making sure everything turned out great. Echo waltzed out with enough presents to keep her busy for weeks...even months.

That night she was still riding the wave and sat down, reading each card and carefully opening each gift. The next day two little girls from the neighborhood (that were also at the party) came by to play with all the new toys. They had fun all day!

Pumpkins All Around

Echo and I went out to the Pumpkin Patch the weekend before Halloween to get "just the right" pumpkins. I honestly think I get more excited about this then she does.

To many to pick from...

This one good!

Getting if off the vine...

Ah, but here's another one I really like too!

We ended up with two pumpkins in all. She wanted to come straight home and carve them but, I talked her out of it for a couple of days. They are currently residing on the front doorstep hoping not little gouls in the neighborhood take them before the big day.

Directionally Challenged

2010-09-30T17:04:00.006-06:00

I'm not here to say that all members of my family are directionally challenged. I am just saying that everyone has their own thoughts on getting from point A to point B. Take Jon's graduation trip to Europe as one example. With a map in hand we set out to see Florence. FOLLOW ME was each of our battle cries as we navigated through the city. Little did we know that city blocks in Florence don't exactly equal a city block in the US and before we knew it we were across town and headed for the countryside.

Our family, being more Monty Python and the Holy Grail, rather than the Romans conquering Europe, we believe we have a clear direction but, often get a little over enthusiastic and go astray. Thus it brings us to Echo and the Corn Maze...

I took Echo out to the first weekend at the Corn Maze at Chatfield. I remember going with Jon when he was younger and even though we got a little wound up we made our way out unscathed. Upon entering they gave us a map and let Echo have a little compass. (not that she can read a compass but a toy is a toy right?)

We get in, she checks her bearings and we're off! I had to jog along behind her as to not lose her at each bend. I could just see the headlines "Woman loses girl in corn maze, suffers heart attack attempting to find her". Even if she had blown the whistle attached to the compass it wouldn't have helped. By the time she slowed down we were thoroughly lost. The best I could tell was from the placement of the sun which direction were were pointing...but that doesn't really help you in a maze.

We stood there for a while as I attempted to look at the maze map and find out where we were. People came by us but, they seemed as utterly lost as we were. Finally, one group, also with the map in hand actually seemed to know where we were at..."We are at Morticai's flower" (part of the map) and headed away. Like sheep we followed. Low and behold we made it out unscathed! Looking back we had only made it through half...but that was fine with us!

Next for a little fuel, we stopped for a drink and hot dog. Then on to the hay ride.

We polished off the day with the a snow cone. The snow cone place had a netted tent set up that you could go in and get different flavored syrups for your snow cones. This is the country...there are fields and flowers and ...bees. Yes, the tent was thick inside with bees. Echo gave me the look like...I'm not going in there. Although it was her that selected sno-cone as a treat, she wasn't going near the dreaded bee infested syrup tent. I can't say I'm the bravest of people around bees, yet I forged in. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ was all I could hear as I quickly splashed some unknown flavor on the cone and bolted out.

She enjoyed her sno cone...and being lucky for the second time that day decided we were ready to hit the trail and go home. She fell asleep in the car as I drove. Listening to a little soft music, the windows rolled down with the last breaths of summer flowing in all I could think was...this was a good day!

School Daze...hey where'd the Summer go?

2010-09-25T21:50:00.014-06:00

Wow! Where did this summer go to? Just when everything was getting fun back to school for everyone here in Colorado. Echo started her first official year of Kindergarten. She was excited and even let me put a dress on her (although she thought it was a long shirt over shorts)

Most kindergarten Mom's and Dad's stood around in anticipation of the door swinging open and their little ones entering the first of many years of education.

I honestly thought that Echo would be a little shy, however, the class had taken the opportunity to get the kids together for swimming, skating and going to the playground several times to get them acclimated to each other. One little girl by the name of Sunshine has an outgoing, fun, personality, much like her Mother. Echo recognized her straight away and chatted/played before the bell rang.

Ok, the teacher opens the door, ready to let them in...guess who's the first in line for her big adventure. She didn't even look back or give Jay or me kiss. Nope, ran straight in! She had her backpack put away and had found her seat prior to my making my way in to snap one last picture or two.

Since this first few shots have been taken Echo has had a little trouble being 'chatty' in class and not focusing. We have had a few unhappy nights explaining to her that she has got to politely tell her friends not to talk to her during class and to pay attention when the teacher is speaking to them. It can only be better from here on out.

Another altercation happened when another little girl hit her...and of course Echo hit her back. After hearing this from the teacher and how Echo needs to verbalize rather than hit my reaction was "Well, Echo is a scrapper and I'm just glad she didn't pound the little girl into the ground". (However, I didn't share this thought with the teacher).

At least she is keeping up with her homework, although the 10 minutes per night sometimes stretches into an hour if she's sitting with Mom. Dad has a more 'intimidating' manner where she promptly gets it done and on her way. Guess Dad can continue to help her and for me...I'll just give her hugs and encouragement!

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

2010-08-15T14:49:00.004-06:00

I just thought I would name the blog post Mr. Toad's Wild Ride after an amusement park roller coaster I once visited. It had it's ups and downs but was very FUN! That's where the last of our summer has been, mostly ups with a few down days to recuperate prior to starting up school again.

Echo made it to Level 4 gymnastics team this past month. She had attended an all week gym camp and a little while after that we found out she could be on the Level 4 team but can't compete until after her birthday in October. They stated that as long as she kept her focus on what she was doing then she could stay. This is a big step for her! She has been practicing her floor routine to the music all good little Level 4's practice too. It's not very toe tapping and gets to be a lot like your child practicing the same song on the piano or violin multiple times a day. We are of course very proud of her and it's something she likes to do so we'll keep up with it.

Getting ready for school always involves shots. She had to get 5 of them, all in one day (OUCH!). Not having any body fat is a lot like sticking a needle in a tree branch so they have to go at her arms at an angle as to not hit the bones. Her one little shoulder was big and red for several days. In addition we had to buy the pre-requisite school supplies. Ok, I know that many of the folks hate Walmart...but, where else can you buy a box of crayons for $.25. Back to school night comes up this week so we will haul all of her goods over there that night for the big day on Wednesday Aug. 18th!

Echo also took a few weeks off from daycare life to play all day with her gymnastics coach and her children. Callie is a personal trainer, gymnastics coach and teaches boot camps. Let's just say that her family is very active. Echo, for the first time in ages would come home completely exhausted. Running, playing and even going to gymnastics did a number on her.

Add to the summer fun was a trip to Denver by Alex. Echo wrote a whole list of things down she wanted to do with her brother and she almost got all of them marked off. Alex was here from Wednesday to Sunday and we packed in all of the following Echo Fun:

Visit Rocky Mountain National Park
Have a picnic (we took sandwiches to the park and had to eat in the car...but hey, we weren't in the house right!)
Go swimming
Watch a movie (Alex fixed our DVD player while he was here...YAY Alex!)
Go to Wash Park and peddle around the park on the carriage bikes
Go to Dave and Busters and play video games
Play basketball
Eat ice cream
Work on crafts

I think she tired out her brother. He had fun but, I'm sure that he was ready to get home and relax after his vacation.

Chalk It Up

2010-07-21T22:47:00.001-06:00

First note: I will have pictures up of the last post and this one sometime in the near future :)

July is rapidly fleeting and it has been another big month.

Chalk up another 4th---
The 4th is usually being a major holiday for us, this year it was rather ho-hum. Since the 4th was on Sunday, our neighborhood decided to have their parade and picnic on the evening of the 3rd. I hadn’t even noticed that it was changed until I saw all of the kids on their festive bicycles pedeling towards the clubhouse. Jay and I had a previous engagement set and Echo was going with the neighbors to another party. Later that evening Echo finally made it home and before we could go see some fireworks displays it began to rain buckets or water. So her and I wrapped in a blanket and we sat on the front doorstep under the eves and watched as home purchased fireworks exploded in the park across the street.

Chalk up another life change ---
Echo has transitioned out of the daycare setting she was in since she was 2. Not a lot of fanfare occurred, however, she did take some gifts and flowers over to the teachers that she really loved. She is now spending her days with her gymnastics coach and the coach’s children. They have a lively lifestyle with the Mom a gymnastics teacher/personal trainer and two really active kids. Echo loves it and comes home very tired but happy each day.

Chalk up more gymnastics ---
The third week of the month Echo was at gymnastics camp. They bring in several coaches and all throughout the day they move from coach to coach learning and experiencing new talents. Plus, Jay and I are assisting the gym with a fundraiser. Part of it is to take pictures and sell team posters. Here is Echo with her little gym mates trying to raise funds for a new floor.

Chalk up better swimming skills ---
After being at camp all day, Echo and I would go to the pool when we got home for another hour or more of swimming. She is actually getting much better at her underwater guppy swim skills as long as she has her goggles and nose plug. Let’s just say I have never seen her so worn out. She is actually exhausted by the end of the day.

Chalk up growing ---
Kids always seem to grow more in the summer months…or is it just my imagination. Since March Echo has grown more than 1 ½ inches. In addition to being busy I’m sure this growing spurt has slowed her down a bit.

Chalk up meeting new friends ---
Her new school is having gathering events all summer to introduce the kindergartener’s to one another. I think this is a great idea since none of these children know one another. Hopefully it will make the transition to the new school much easier.

Chalk up another lost tooth ---
The last day of gym camp Echo’s other little lower tooth came out. She didn’t participate in the final ‘performance’ because she had a mouth full of paper towels stopping the bleeding. She forgot all about the tooth fairy that night and decided to put it under her pillow the next evening (without telling us). Needless to say the tooth fairy didn’t replace the tooth, plus the tooth went ‘missing’. Echo, believing the tooth fairy scammed her out of her cash was in a state of tears. Dad to the rescue. I wasn’t in on the drama of the moment so Dad told Echo I had found some money on the floor next to the bed but wasn’t sure where it came from. Phewf! Another drama averted and childhood fantasy intact.

--Claudia

The Hills are Alive with the Sounds of 5yr Olds!

2010-07-04T22:28:00.009-06:00

Towards the end of June we met up with 5 other families that had traveled with us to China to get their little girls. The Coil's, Druckman's, Koski's, Lark's and Thayer's all came to Colorado and we spent a very packed three days at the YMCA of the Rockies. Thanks to the Lark's we were able to reserve three very nice cabins at the camp, plus Tonya bought all of our groceries for the three day event.

Day 1: Getting to know you...getting to know all about you!
Thursday was a beautiful day and everyone arrive by 3pm, with the exception of Jay and the Koski's. Jay had to work that evening and the poor Koski's got caught in some extensive road work over the pass. What was surprising is the girls acted as if they had always been friends from the first time they met. We met at the main check in lodge where the girls amassed at the closest dusty area and Dave Coil gave them a lesson on asphalt. They were all intriged as he described a big hunk of dark mass that was laying there...it was too funny.

The Koski's finally arrived where and dinner for night one began. Andrea had put together some wonderful home made spaghetti sauce and we feasted on spaghetti, bread and salad.

We had just finished dinner when Echo came in with a splinter in her foot. Ok, not so much a splinter as one of those that looks like a 2x4 is wedged in the bottom of her foot. I had the premonition that someone would be needing neosporin and bandaids so Lynnette Coil drove us, along with two little 5yr old nurses, back over the the cabin we were sharing to attempt a little surgery. After a screeching 1/2 hour Lynnette returned with her other little nurses to the party and Echo and I continued to work on her foot. She would calm down enough for me to touch it and then say "ok, I'm ready", then as I moved in towards the foot she would scream at the top of her lungs even before I could touch it. So here we are, me attempting to remove the splinter and her screaming as if I was amputating her leg without a sedative. Now the windows in the cabin were open to let though the breeze and I took a moment to look up to see the 'hay ride' with approximately 15 people riding on it staring at the cabin as if they should call the sheriff to arrest me. Yep, the evening ended on me getting out most of the splinter and her with a baby tylenol chaser. Unfortunately just a spoon full of sugar didn't make this little emergency go down very well. Both girl and I were exhausted.

Day 2: Climb Every Mountain...
The next morning the whole hee-haw group rounded up for a little hiking trek. We doused ourselves with mosquito repellent and headed towards a nice little trail right out of the area. We went by the raging river, climbed a few hills and stopped frequenty for water breaks. There was a little sluggishness from the girls half way through but, all in all they were little troupers. It was beautiful with the mountains still a little snow capped and the fields green. The last 1/3 mile the concensus from the group was to let several members trek the final way to bring the cars around while the girls and us deviated towards the livery stable to see the horses. We drove back to the cabins where two of the three girls in ours (not Echo of course) took naps.

I made several calls to Jay to pick up this and that, and he made it up in the afternoon. Later after naps we took the girls down to the craft center where the Coil girls picked out bird houses to paint and Echo picked out a ceramic puppy. We sat down to paint and just as we were getting settled in they called that in 15 minutes the craft place would close. We scurried back to the cabin, the girls got changed into their swim suits and the guys took the kids to the pool while we put together fajitas for dinner.

The guys got to the pool with all kids in tow, however, the pool was closed to lane swimming in 15 minutes (what was with our 15 minute timing I'll never know). They got back and dinner was close to being served. Everyone made their way over to the Coil/Cole cabin for a Mexican feast and Lynnette's awesome peanut butter pie for dessert. The kids played in a pack swarming from room to room within the cabin giggling all the way. The Coils have an older boy that stayed out of the mix, however, the Lark's and Thayer's have younger boys in the family that were being attacked by the girl-swarm.

We watched in wonder at the forest fire that was billowing smoke over the mountain with the hope that it would not crest in our direction nor have the wind change. It was lucky for the fire was out by the next morning.

Day 3: Giddy-up little pard!
Saturday started with Lynette and I taking the girls back over to the Craft Center to finish up their projects. Then on to the stables for pony rides. These little ponies were as docile as big dogs and the parents led the small animals around the Minnie Mouse path. Although the ride is supposed to last 20 minutes or so I think it was more the fact the parents maybe decided 3-4 times around was about right. They all looked very cute as they rounded the trail. Jay stayed back and took pictures of the girls while I led Echo and the pony around. The smell of horses, hay, dust and horse pooh reminded me of my summers on the ranch back home. It brought back great memories for me and Echo loved the ride. We may have to venture out on a trail ride again some day when she is old enough to ride along with me on a bigger horse.

Saddle Up Sophie & Ride

Saddle Up Lizzie & Ride

Saddle up Brynne & Ride

Saddle up Ellie & Ride

Saddle up Aili & Ride

Saddle up Echo & Ride

We packed up a lunch and everyone met at the picnic grounds. Echo was a little out of sorts and I couldn't figure out why. Her Dad finally got her to confess that her tooth hurt. She had a big molar coming in and it was really bugging her. Daddy stopped and picked up some Advil at the country store on the way back. Too bad for her it was the adult type and she couldn't swallow the pill. Poor girl had to chew it up while Dad let her wash it down with his Diet Coke. Okay, so we won't win the parents of the year award but, she did feel much better after she took it.

One more chance at the pool. Dad took Echo over while Lynette and I went into the craft center for a little fun. Lynnette painted something that had to be fired in the kiln overnight. I opted for a tye-dye T-shirt for Echo.

We walked over to the pool next door where the kids were trying to get their swim in. Because this is in the mountains the pool is actually inside. This is good if the weather is cold, however, if there is lightening they still call for all kids out of the pool. Kids and parents were in the pool for probably 45 minutes when the whistle blew to evacuate the pool area for lightening.

We got the kids back and ready for the final dinner and a pajama party. The Thayer's and Druckman's ordered pizza from a local shop and the kids all wore their pj's. The evening was gorgeous, starting out a little cool from a short rain. The girls and families were rounded up for pictures. As you can see most of the pictures on the last night had the kids in their pajamas. It was very cute!

The parents sat on the porch and the kids ran around inside leaving s'more residue around. Towards the end of the evening the amazing tricks came out, like spoon on the nose (Andrea's is a champ at this), the coin from your ear trick...etc. I have to say, with the exception of an occasional bruised feeling there was very little issues or attitudes from the children. I don't think I have ever been around 22 people that got along so well over three days...especially with so many children in the mix.

Day 4: So Long, Farewell...
The last morning came. The Coil's needed to exit the hills to make their plane. They were up and gone, saying good-bye to all by 9:00. The Thayer/Druckman cabin was packing up and ready to get going as well. The Thayer's plane was a little later in the day but better to be safe than sorry based on traffic they hitched up their ride and made their way down the hill.

Most of the Lark clan was headed to relatives with the exception of Tonya. Tonya, Stacy&Sophie, the Koski's and us went into Estes Park for a little lunch and a quick visit to the Scandenavian Festival. The three remaining girls got their faces painted. Aili and Sophie with butterflies while Echo tried to get some really gross and scary monster. The other girls didn't want her getting something so scary so after some discussion she opted for a panther. Only Echo would try to look as scary as possible. They all turned out very cute.

Big hugs all around and we headed back to town. Stacy and I were taking bets on really how long it would take before the girls passed out in the back seat. 10 minutes and they were out like a light.

Stacy and Sophie stayed with us another day. We had to go for Chinese food (of course) that evening. Sophie powers down this 'soul food' just like Echo does.

Monday night after everyone had gone, Echo stood in the driveway as I was washing my car. Her first statement was she needed some snuggle time from me. Then with tears streaming down her checks she said,"All my friends are gone!" It was a big weekend, filled with fun and friends. One warm bath, lots of snuggles and the promise of to visit them in the future Echo closed her eyes and fell soundly to sleep.

What a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day...Turn about is fair play!

2010-06-21T21:58:00.002-06:00

So Jay posed these questions to Echo on Mother's Day, so I thought it only fitting to post what she said about him on Father's Day.

1. What is something Dad always says to you? "Stop standing on the chair"

2. What makes Daddy happy? "Kisses and Hugs"

3. What makes Daddy sad? "When I'm going to be big and go away"

4. How does your Daddy make you laugh? "By tickling me in the arm pits"

5. What was your Daddy like as a child "He played baseball"

6. How old is your Daddy? "25"

7. How tall is your Daddy? "12 feet tall"

8. What is his favorite thing to do? "Play with me"

9. What does your Daddy do when you're not around? "He gets a little sad cause he doesn't know where I'm at"

10. If your Daddy becomes famous, what will it be for? "Playing in a band"

11. What is your Daddy really good at? "Throwing a ball"

12. What is your Daddy not very good at? "Doing back bends"

13. What does your Daddy do for a job? "He works at an apartment where there is drinks and coffee"

14.What is your Daddy's favorite food? "Cookies"

15.What makes you proud of your Daddy? "When he tickles me"

16. If your Daddy were a cartoon character, who would he be? "Evil professor on Scooby Doo"

17. What do you and your Daddy do together? "Sit on the couch and watch TV...and get tickled"

18. How are you and your Daddy the same? "Black hair"

19. How are you and your Daddy different? "I'm short and he's tall"

20. How do you know your Daddy loves you? "Because he gives me kisses and cares about me"

21. What does your Daddy like most about your Mom? "That she cares about him and they got married"

22. Where is your Daddy's favorite place to go? "Downtown"

Now You See It...Now You Don't

2010-06-19T20:50:00.003-06:00

We'll be expecting the tooth fairy tonight! Yep, Echo has lost her first baby tooth. It was driving her crazy...wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. She wanted one of us to pull it but, we declined. However, Dad wiggled it little more for her and she did the rest.

She's pretty proud of herself and ran next door to tell our neighbors. Now the big question, does the tooth fairy have any change in it's pocket tonight or will there be an evening run to the store to get some change!

Echo Funny-isms

2010-06-19T12:15:00.002-06:00

Dad: "That's right, you'll start full time with Coach Cali. No more Primrose, you'll be with coach all day till school starts"

Echo: "Dad, why can't I spend all day with you."

Dad: "Because I have a job."

Echo: "So?"

Dad: "Well, Coach Cali has more flexibility with her job than I do."

Echo: "So if you try to do a back bend you'll hurt yourself?"

The non-sequitor, is however, totally accurate.

Jay

Schools Out For Summer 2010

2010-06-12T11:22:00.009-06:00

Here it comes again...the song "Schools Out For Summer" by Alice Cooper ringing in my head as each school year closes. With the closing of this years Kindergarten ala Daycare program, they always like to have the cap and gown ceremony. I'm not sure if it's so much for the kids as it it for the teary eyed parents that come with camera's in hand to capture the next steps in their childrens lives. Of course I'm there too, edging up in the crowd to get a quick picture.

Here our little Echo, with all the pomp and circumstance that she can muster at the ripe old age of 5.

They always like to have the children go up one by one and state what they either want to be or want in the world. Most little girls opted for rock stars...boys were a mixture of basketball players or race car drivers. Echo came up and said she wanted "Love for Everyone". A collective 'Ahhhhh' came out of the crowd. I beamed with pride!

The most amazing part of the ceremony (at least to me) is how in a mass of children they all seemed to be so well behaved. They have definitely learned the art of standing in line, not to push or shove and mind the teachers. I feel this is a great accomplishment all on it's own due to the fact that there's a daily power struggle at home to get her dressed and off to school, sit still while eating dinner and to not be obstinent.

This summer boast fun in both gymnastics and track. Their gymnastics has gone from one to two hours twice a week. We thought we were so smart because it was scheduled right along with track on alternate days. Well the best laid plans...gymnastics got changed to the same day as track. So poor little Echo goes to gym for two hours, then track for two hours. Talk about a tired little puppy when she gets home. We usually miss the first part of track but, they just warm up at that time and I figure that she's pretty well warmed up by the time we get over there.

The first track meet was this weekend for all of the track clubs around the area...and it was a gully washer of a day! It was raining and exceptionally cold. The car outside temp gauge said 49 degrees. Yeesh!

Echo made it there for the softball throw and 50m dash. She placed second place in the softball throw and third in the 50m for girls ages 5-6. We attempted to get her in the 100m dash but, a stop at the bathroom kept her from getting to the starting line in time. It was ok since we were done for the day...wet and cold. They rest of the events were scheduled for another 4 more hours. We could have stayed for the 200m but whimped out (totally acceptable for her age group)

A Little Sun...A Little Rain...A Little Snow...A Little Sun

2010-05-24T22:38:00.009-06:00

Echo and Mom went to visit Grandma, Marlene and Alex this past weekend. You never know about Springtime in the Rockies. We started the extended weekend with a trip to Grandma's house to plant flowers. Marlene and Echo planted beautiful flowers in the front of Grandma's house. This is a tradition for Marlene and my Mom and this year Echo got to help. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them planting because I was in the house chit-chatting with Mom and by the time we made it outside the planting was done.

We spent a little time at the parks this past weekend. As you can see little Princess Echo found some goose feathers to play with.

We also stopped at the zoo. It's not a big facility but, it's easy to navigate and there is just enough to see in a couple of hours.

Plus a walk down the greenbelt...my favorite part of town. I was hoping for a few flowers but it has been so cold that they just hadn't made their way out yet. It was beautiful none the less and we even checked out a few kayakers on the river.

It actually snowed on Saturday...(BRRRRRRRR!) but, by Sunday the sun was back out again. Echo really loves her brother Alex and they get along fabulously! She especially likes the fact that he has games at his house to play with her. The sad part is, here are three adults and Echo playing the Princess 'Memory' game, where you turn over and match the cards together. Okay...as adults we look and see all these princesses and with the exception of Pocahantas and Mulan they are all very similar. Needless to say, Echo with her very fresh young mind and grasp of Princess Power crushed her opponents handily.

We had a great time and got home Sunday night exhausted but happy we got to spend time with family.

Another Mother's day

2010-05-10T10:57:00.003-06:00

We went down to Observatory Park for our annual Mother's day mother/daughter photo shoot. We go to the same park every year and take the picture on the same bench w/ the same two people, Claudia and Echo. Finally, this year, it didn't feel like Winter. All the green and flowers were out and it was a beautiful 80 degree day. The most amazing thing was how tall Echo has gotten. I've put in the picture from the first year compared to this one. Her legs nearly touch the ground while sitting on Claudia's lap. What a difference 4 years makes.

Happy Mother's day Grandma York and Grandma Cole!

- Jay

Open for Business June 4th Officially

2010-05-01T08:35:00.003-06:00

Well, we're about to jump into the photography business fairly heavily, full time in June. Please put a link in your blogs/sites, etc to help us get our name out. Anyway, here's a couple links.

Denver Senior Pics

from us...Images @ 5280

This will be quite the change!

Jay

The Mysterious Dorkmeister

2010-04-15T22:11:00.000-06:00

The other night Echo woke up from a nightmare. She said the 'Dork-meister' monsters were after her. Unfortunately that made me laugh rather than providing the usual soothing Mom response to nightmares.

"What did these 'Dorkmeister's' look like" I asked.

"Big hairy monster's" she responded.

I went on to ask her why she thought that they were big hairy monsters.

"Because you always call Jingle's a big hairy Dorkmeister"...her little voice quivered.

I gave her a big hug and said...do you really want to know what a Dorkmeister is? She nodded. A Dorkmeister is someone or in this case your dog when she does something that isn't very smart. I say she's hairy because she sheds all the time.

Ahhhh! Relief flooded her face as she understood "It's when Jingle's is doing something like... chewing up my socks."

Exactly, I said!

And with that, another mystery solved and monster slain!

Included in this post is a picture from Easter. This year the bunny got the colored eggs but, had to hide them above Jingle (aka Dorkmeister) level.

Random Musings

2010-04-08T11:55:00.002-06:00

Just a few from the Echo Joke bag:

Megan: "Yeah my dad's lost 30 pounds so far, he's doing good."
Echo: "My dad hasn't lost any weight because he doesn't stretch."

From bed time stories.

Echo: "How do they get animals to the zoo"
Dad: "They use a tranquilizer gun, shoot them and it puts them to sleep."
Echo: "Ohhh...I want one of those"
Dad: "No"
Echo: "Why...because I'll shot myself?"
Dad: "Yes, why do you want one?"
Echo: "So I can shoot my dog and see what happens."

Poor Jingle. Many more fun stories, but so little time. Luckily, Claudia has picked up the blog posting duties!

Jay

Marching through March

2010-03-21T14:59:00.011-06:00

Like many places, March weather can be a little unpredictable. We have had highs at the 70 degree range and up to 10 inches of snow. As I look out the window while I post this it is a beautiful Spring day, while just a couple of days ago I was shoveling snow. One one very nice weekend day we made it downtown to scout for locations to shoot pictures and Echo, being the little summer nymph didn't want to wear a coat...let alone sleeves in her shirt. She caved in and wore a sweatshirt but, promptly took it off and tied it around her waist.

Here's our little model, in her summer attire, showing her skills for the camera.

March milestone for Echo, learning how to tie back her pony tail into a scrunchy. For most women this is kind of a right to passage. It means that not only do you know how to comb/brush your hair, you can now 'style' it (albeit a basic style) without little clips. Being a Mom remiss in her duties never showed her this little feat, mostly because I am always in a hurry to get her off to school or gymnastics that I just normally take charge. I believe her little school chums had started her on this and one morning I showed her the rest. She beamed and ran upstairs to quickly jump on the bed and wake Dad up to see!

It's almost time for Spring cleaning and as I looked around the house this morning I noticed that there was little Echo art all over the house. Once the discovery of tape was made the whole house has been an open gallery for her artwork. Here is just a few that will be noted here prior to the Spring Clean-Out 2010.

This weekend was the state gymnastics finals for level 10's. Echo's favorite older gymnast JoJo was there. JoJo did pretty well in the meet however the excitement came when she was announced state gymnast of the year. She was in heaven hanging out with them...plus she got extra scrunchy's too! And JoJo, she qualified for regionals. Next up, Nationals after that...go mighty Jo!

Fabulous February

2010-03-13T20:06:00.006-07:00

It was quite a fun filled February around here. After being derelict of our responsibility of getting the final 'frosting' on Echo's paperwork for adoption, we finally got our court date in February. Welcome Echo, as an official resident of the great state of Colorado and officially adopted in the state. The judge seemed to like this type of event. I am sure with all of the divorces and other unhappy court hearings he seemed to enjoy the proceedings as much as we did. At the end he brought Echo up to his chair and had her pick a stuffed animal from a box underneath his desk. She picked out a stuffed kitten and has named him Mr. Fluffy-pants. Along with the picture to save the moment, there were smiles all around.

picture to be inserted as soon as Jay forwards it from his cell phone :)

This year Valentines Day cards were a lot different then in the past. Echo insisted on picking out each card specifically for each classmate from the boxes. Plus, now that she is reading and writing she addressed each card and envelope. Quite the change from last year of having me write on all of them.

Our friends the Cranston's had their annual Chinese New Year's party. It is always great to see them and we look forward to visiting. I'm really not sure if it is planned but, every year on that day it snows....like clockwork. Thanks again Cranston's for inviting us!

Jon went on a vacation to Australia at the end of the month. He is truly and adventurer. He had a blast and I can't wait for his photo montage of 'What I did on my winter vacation, during summer in Australia'. He came back saying g-day a lot and has even talked about moving there. All I can say is sure! Then we'll have a place to stay when we come visit!

To end the February post, it has been a very long and cold winter. With snow arriving on our front lawn in October it still hadn't melted at the end of February. Everyone at our house, including Jingles is ready for Spring. Although I'm not sure Jingles will know what to do with herself if she's not walking in the snow :) All I know is she is quickly gaining weight and when Echo and I walk her, if Echo has a hold of the leash it's more like dog walking girl.

Last but not least we are waiting patiently for March. We have submitted Echo to two different schools that have Gifted and Talented programs. They are in the school district which means public school funding rather than us paying (YAY!). However, there is a lottery drawing because so many kids are submitted. Guess we'll know in March if she won the 'lotto'!

On to March and Spring!!!

Gymnastics Milestone

2010-01-27T19:03:00.002-07:00

Just to mark this moment in time...tonight at gymnastics Echo conquered her back-hand spring...unassisted! Next time hopefully I'll have my camera ready!

~Proud Mom!

It's a Dog Eat Dog World

2010-01-18T21:25:00.003-07:00

Prior to Jingle's arrival at the Echo Ranch, our girl had a fascination with wolves and foxes. I think a lot of this stemmed from the fox appearing in our back yard a few years ago. That being the case, over the past couple of years Echo has amassed a pack of stuffed animals ranging from foxes, wolves, husky's and just to keep it interesting one cow. She even asked for a wolf house for Christmas along with a puppy. All have very specific names as well. The foxes are Rusty and Ferdie, Wolves are Mickey, Grey Gray, Budders and Buddy, Husky's are Bones and Jack, with the Cow being Spot.

Now Jingle thinks it's oh so much fun to abscond with them once in a while as Echo shrieks through the house chasing her and one of her beloved pack. So, in an effort for her pack to get revenge on these little pranks I round the corner the other day to see this...

I thought I would never stop laughing! As if her pack (including a few other stuffed characters that had been slobbered on by Jingle) had plotted their revenge, there sat Jingle outside with her leash firmly secured to the inside of the house and all of the Echo pack staring at her like they had just pulled the ultimate prank. The pictures tell a thousand words!

Up The Nose

2010-01-10T11:28:00.003-07:00

Echo-ism for the day:

Our neighbor, Megan, was over at our house and was telling Echo of a boy in China that had stuck a chop stick up his nose. Seems the boy fell on it and it got logged up his nose. Moral of the story, don't put things up your nose.

Echo, describing the same story to Jay started to say "Daddy, there was a boy in China that put a pork chop up his nose and fell on it". Guess the moral of this story is, don't put pork products up your nose.

12th Day of Christmas

2009-12-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

For all of you that have been on the edge of your seat in anticipation for the last Christmas blog...Jay got a new movie camera at Christmas and will load up the film as soon as he gets done editing it.

In the mean time, let's just say that Christmas was wonderful. Echo was still sleeping at 8:00am when I finally went up to go get her. Echo got to open her other presents from Santa, which were only a few since Jingle's was the big present. She was pretty excited for all the other presents but, we waited for Jon to show up before diving in.

With the 'Christmas Vacation' movie playing in the background we dug into the presents. Echo always made sure everyone had presents before we opened the next one. Jingle joined in the action with ripping to shreds all of the paper as it was discarded.

We had wonderful presents from everyone. Thank You...Thank You...Thank You!

We ate bagels, drank coffee/tea/juice and reviewed each gift. I think I like this way to start out Christmas...bagels, presents and family. As you know Alex was here so it was wonderful. Echo loves to have family around and reveled in all the people, talking and activity.

As is our usual Christmas tradition we went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant and late lunch. Echo powered through her meal like always and we all walked away very stuffed.

A few phone calls went out from everyone to other friends and family.

I know that I had one of the best Christmas' ever, surrounded by my children. I wish I could have given my Mom and Sister a big hug...but, they know I love them and I will see them in the Spring when the snow thaws :)

Hope everyone had a happy holiday and a great new years!!!

Day 11 - Oh Crap

2009-12-24T21:42:00.003-07:00

It's a lot harder than it sounds to maintain 12 posts in a row during the Christmas Holiday. So, I missed mine yesterday...even though I had the pictures and I had the idea for the post. But, I'm finally getting around to it now after watching Star Trek with the family. With Al home, it's almost like old times. Eating at the table with everyone and having Echo at the end of the table makes it something new and special. Anyway, we're up for our traditional Chinese meal tomorrow with Bagels and presents in the morning.

So what have I been doing. Well, the last two days, it's been Echo's and my mission to transform this:

to this

10 plates later and a couple of days of baking and Echo and I were done. Echo and Al delivered and they even picked the wrong house to give one to. Now, hopefully we have some new friends. They were "and...who are you?" I was in the car so I didn't pick up the mistake until too late. You can't really take back Christmas cookies. So Metzger's, we're sorry, but they got yours...I'll make something for you and bring it over.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Jay

Day 10 Jingle All the Way

2009-12-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Meet Jingle Girl. The newest member of our family. Santa brought Echo her biggest gift a little early when Jingle Girl was delivered a couple of weeks ago. She is a boxer mix puppy that has white and brindle coloring. From the original 'elves' at Puppysavers.org (the group that rescued her) they believe she was between 8-12 weeks and her mix was with lab.

Seems that 'Santa' needed to deliver her early to make sure Echo got her, so one Saturday a couple of weeks ago while Echo and Daddy were running errands, Jingle was placed in her crate under the tree. Her brother Jon knew that Santa was thinking about getting the new puppy and helped by initially coming along to the PetCo to pick her up. Echo was elated! This has been on the top of her wish list for some time now.

Jingle is a sweet girl and we are currently crate training her. She's had a few mishaps in the house but, she is understanding more each day that she needs to go to the door and let us know to take her out. Echo loves her but, also gets frustrated that the dog doesn't know how to speak English yet. We are training both Echo and puppy at this point.

We've been out to the park a couple of times. I let Echo take the dog for a jog...or should I say Jingle takes the girl for a run. Either way it burns off energy from both. Once Jingle gets past the puppy puddles and chewy shoe fetish I think she will be a great dog for our family. She doesn't bark very much and likes to sit on your lap and be petted. We all know that the lap thing won't last to long but, she isn't allowed on the furniture so we end up on the floor quite a bit and the lap is a very handy spot to snuggle into.

She is pretty good on the leash, however, today as Jay was bringing in groceries for his cookie baking extravaganza Jingle decided to make a break out the front door. I'm upstairs working and I hear "honey, your dog got out and won't come back in". Jingle was running back and forth across our yard and the neighbors. Both Jay and I are out there trying to coax her back in with a city employee at the park across the street watching us with an amused look on his face. I decided not to give chase since this will only be worse in the long run. I sat down on the front steps and just waited. Sure enough she bolted back to get pets and sit in my lap. So I guess you can say the 'lap' training is going very well.

She likes chewing up paper so Christmas ought to be a lot of fun for her. I promise...better pictures to come. These were just quick pics for this evening.

Day 9 - Christmas Hives

2009-12-21T21:22:00.004-07:00

What holiday season isn't complete without a visit to Urgent Care. Well, Echo's been breaking out with all over body hives the last few days. The other night, it got particularly bad with dollar bill size hives on her lower back. The culprit...Echo's hands had been chapped from all the washing at school. Claudia gave them some Aveeno, but they put it on her thumb and hand. Well, at nap time, Echo sucks her thumb. After we removed the lotion as what recently changed...no more hives :).

Tonight I would have posted pictures of Echo's annual horse carriage ride. But, we kept getting to carriages that were already taken. Finally, it was late, the meter was running out. We headed toward one last horse and a lady across the street spied us and sprinted to get in front of us so her family could "get the ride". If you're reading this, you know who you are. Why on earth would you teach your kids to be so rude. You dissappointed a little girl who wondered why your mom didn't teach you to not be rude. You built up some pretty negative Karma just to get a ride in and not wait another 10 minutes...hope it was worth it. We told Echo that some parents just don't teach their kids to be polite and they grow up into rude adults.

We'll have to try again when Al gets here on Thursday.
- Jay

Day 8 - Advent-ures

2009-12-20T22:18:00.002-07:00

How many of you out there have had Advent calendars...raise of hands please? Every year as a child i remember one of the highlights of the season when my Mom give me an Advent calendar to count down the days till Christmas. In those days they weren't really fancy, mostly little doors with pictures behind them of drums, horns and toys. Today's calendars come in all shapes and sizes.

While in Illinois after Thanksgiving I was attending an offsite work related meeting. After being cooped up all day in the building it was nice to get out and walk around Chicago. The lights were out and the hustle of the city along with a crispness in the air made me think of Christmas and I wanted to be home with my family even more. A group of us walked along Michigan avenue and at the point it crosses the river is a Fanny May candy store. Just to get out of the cold for a moment we stepped in. There, sitting on the counter were the calendars. I bought it and brought it home to her the first week of December.

Her and I had talked about the calendars before but, when I gave this too her, her eyes lite up. She absolutely loves it. Every day, she carefully opens each little door, receiving her candy prize and counting the days remaining to Christmas. It's very heartwarming to me that this little calendar can bring her so much enjoyment.

Sometimes it the little family traditions that stick with us the most. Thanks Mom for giving me those calendars through the years. This is one family tradition worth keeping.

Day 7 of 12 - Attack of the Killer Bunnies

2009-12-20T21:24:00.004-07:00

Here are some pictures we didn't get posted from our trip at Thanksgiving. Come to find out Echo loves apple cider. Not just kind of but as she would say "Really, Really, Really" likes it. She would drink it every single meal if we would let her. Near where the Grandparents live there are several apple orchards so we picked out a day and went for a ride just to get some sunshine and a little cider at the local farm.

The orchard is one of those places where you can pick apples, has a kids playground, picnic area and petting zoo area. The parking lot was pretty much deserted when we pulled up. There were a few folks putting Chrismas trees and wreaths out when we arrived. Their little store was opened and we sauntered in to get some cider. The cider was in either slushy form or hot. Opting for the slushy we got some take out and stepped back out to walk the grounds. Echo took a big swig and gave us a look like someone was trying to kill her. EWWWW! I guess she is more into the overly processed and pasturized version we buy from the grocery store. Personally I thought it was great but one is my limit.

Walking by the petty zoo pens we saw goats...yup, Echo had seen a lot of goats at the fair. Burros...yep, nothing new there. Bunnies...hmmm...what's this? The bunnies saw us coming and bolted over to the fence like a stampede. Wow! Not that was something new. Being a big Monty Python fan I kept thinking of the scene in the movie the Holy Grail waiting for a bunny to launch it'self over the fence. Okay, I'm being a little dramatic but hey, how often do you see a 'herd' or whatever they call a group of rabbits all coming at you at once.

Echo thought this was great. We circled the big bunny habitat and they followed us all around the perimeter. It's not as if these little guys were hungry. All looked very chubby and happy.

After a trip over to the go cart track and back we went by the pen again on our way out. Again, the bunnies spotted us and headed over. Maybe they were just a little socially deprived since there was a definite lack of people there. Jay hoisted Echo over the short fence and let her walk around. They followed her and wanted her to pet them. It was very cute and Echo had a blast petting them all.

We all had a great time and it was nice to get out into the sunshine if only for a little while.

Day 6 of 12 HoliDaze

2009-12-18T21:03:00.003-07:00

Here I go bragging about my little girl but, what's a Mom to do...she is cute, talented AND smart! Parent teacher conferences were this week with Echo's kindergarten teacher. They had testing done and she ranked in the 97th percentile in the nation for standardized testing. She was the second highest in her class! That's pretty good considering she took the standardized test when she was 4 years old and her test scores have her at a 6-7 year old level. Most of the kids in her class are on average 6 months older than Echo, so her scores were even high against older kids in her class.

She is accelerating in math (go figure with all the math majors in our household) and holding her own in reading. We always knew she was a smart little girl. Pretty soon she will be out-smarting her Mom...or maybe she already does and I'm not smart enough to figure it out :) Born in the year of the monkey she has all the attributes.

As bright as she is there are always new and different things to learn. Jay was teaching her the concept of time, such as 'before and after'. He would ask questions like, 'Does the number 3 come before or after the number 5". He said that when the little light bulb in her head went off and she got it she was so excited. Too bad when we are older it isn't such an 'ah-ha' moment as it is a 'well duh' moment when we finally catch on to new things.

So the moral of the story is...as I get older I'm going to put a little more 'ah-ha!' back in my life when I learn something new. Maybe then I'll enjoy the same excitement that's found daily in Echo's world.

Day 5 of 12 - Keep on Dancing

2009-12-17T21:14:00.008-07:00

The fantastical part of Christmas is the holiday programs. Things you see every year, but for some magical reason and 365 days to put fondness around your memories, you go to see them again. We go to the Christmas Carol every year at the Denver Performing Art Center. We take a horse carriage ride through down town Denver. We sometimes go see the lights at the botanical garden, and of course, we now have Echo's Christmas programs. Yesterday, it was ballet. Echo's not quite as active in ballet as she is gymnastics, but she takes it as part of her preschool curriculum add on.

The first year she was in tears and left the stage. The second, she made it all the way through the "free dance" part. But finally, she made it all the way through. She came over eyeing mom and dad's laps a few times, but we shoo-ed her back into the fray.

The very cool thing is, this year...she seemed to get it. It wasn't just a set of disjointed moves, it all came together into a small part of Swan Lake. Echo and her friend Lydia were great and they went from stomping around to graceful movements all on one day a week for a year. We'll see if Echo wants to stay with it once she's out of preschool, but for now, she likes it a lot.

Jay

PS: The little mark on her cheek? It's been the Echo month of injuries this month. Scratches, falls, rips on her hands and chin (same spot as the stitches last year). Hopefully 2010 will be a bit more injury free.

Day 4 of the Christmas 12

2009-12-16T16:44:00.002-07:00

Making our way back from the Thanksgiving holiday started our December off with a little dancing. Actually it was more a little gymnastics thrown in with dancing. Included in this post will be the Holiday Show, put on by the gymnastics club. I had to have Jon video this since he is the tallest in the bunch. Echo was a little timid at first but, got through the program doing her stunts and dance moves. These little girls really know how to shake their hips around!!!

I love shows like this. Most of the levels were represented in the show from the baby beginners going through the level 10's. The big girls can really fly through their routines! It is pretty amazing when you look at the upper levels and think maybe one day your little girl might fly like that.

Hope you like this post. Tomorrow more adventures from Echo-land!

On The 3rd Day of Christmas my Echo gave to me...

2009-12-15T21:46:00.004-07:00

While in Chicago we had an opportunity to see Stacy and Sophie. Stacy and Sophie are our 'extended' China family. Stacy and her family traveled with us to China to get Sophie when we were there for Echo. It was wonderful to see them again and always amazing to see how children grow so fast. Stacy looked great and Sophie has grown into such a fabulous little girl. We met at their house and the girls got to spend a little time getting to know each other once more.

We decided to go out to dinner and you'll never guess what the girls wanted to eat...Chinese of course!!! So we piled in our rental car and headed out to their neighborhood restaurant. It was funny because Stacy and Sophie know all of the wait staff at their local Chinese restaurant much like we know the owners and staff at the one in our town. The food was great! We all ate our fill and of course the girls had to go out multiple times to see the fish tank.

We topped off the evening with the girls having some hot chocolate and taking a few pictures. Looking back at the pictures Stacy had in her album, especially the red couch with all the families brought back all the memories of our trip. It was one of the biggest adventures of our lives. The group of families that traveled with us to China were warm, loving and caring. They were there for us in our brightest days and darkest hours. I remember the evenings when you would hear the families walking their new little girls through the halls to quiet their babies fears...and a little of their own I suspect. Now seeing Stacy and Sophie it is if they have always been together, much like Echo has always been here with us.

We closed the evening with the girls having some hot chocolate, a few pictures and a definite plan to visit again in the future.

The red thread not only wove it's way for us to find Echo but, it also links us together with all the China families that traveled with us. To all our extended China families near and far, may Peace and Happiness be yours during these holidays and all throughout your new year.

Post #2 - Thanksgiving in Pekin

2009-12-15T02:22:00.006-07:00

See how Claudia is. Fortunately for her, I don't sleep but maybe a couple hours a night. Okay officially this post is not late in Hawaii, which is where I wish I was, so that's good enough.

We finally had a chance to get back to Pekin for the holidays. I flew out early for work and Claudia and Echo followed. Claudia stayed for another week for work, so we traded Echo over the holiday in Chicago. It's amazing at how well she travels now-a-days. I guess 40,000 miles by the time you're five makes it a non-event. Grandpa had wrapped up his knee surgery and was actually able to make it back home prior to Thanksgiving. Michelle threw the Thanksgiving party and made it feel like the old days at Grandma's. Grandma had a large family and the house was filled to the brim every holiday. Echo got to experience a big holiday, something in Colorado we just don't have with our family 5-7 depending on neighbor's and friends. Echo loves having a big family...on the way home, she asked me, "Dad, is that my entire family?" Thought about it a little bit and said "no." She wanted to meet the other dozen or so before we left, we just didn't have time. Hopefully we can begin to make it back more often.

One of the big reasons I went back was to meet my brother's newest addition, Eamon, my new nephew and Echo's first "cousin" on James' side. Eamon is a happy little boy, coming up on a year old shortly, and smiling constantly. I brought the camera gear and did some not-so-serious family photos for them. Echo as usually added herself to the frame often. She looked like a part of the family. I actually got to hang out with Kimi and James quite a bit more than normal. Found out my brother likes Gin and Tonics as much as I do ;). The pictures on this post are all his. Yep, that's my younger, and handsomer brother....so they tell me ;).

We went to Michelle's son Tristin's basketball game. Tremont (his team) had Pekin beat, but gave it up in the last few minutes. One of the more exciting games I've seen in a while, down to a shot in the last few seconds. Those 8-year-olds can really play. It's hard to believe he's only a couple years past Echo's group...they were so good.

It's tough to describe a big family holiday, you kind of have to be there. The whole week is just about family. I'm glad Echo got to experience it, food, family, fun, etc. She just played, played and played. She didn't want to go home and now that I think back, neither did I.

- Jay

The 12 posts of Christmas

2009-12-13T14:04:00.003-07:00

Claudia and I have been remorse in our blog duties. Facebook, photography, business, travel, end of year, Christmas, etc. All stealing away valuable time from what's important in life. In order to counter-balance all that energy being turned inward, we decided to do a 12 days of Christmas series on the blog. So, tune in daily and we'll have something new in.

We've got new family editions, holidays, new and old traditions and of course holiday baking. I kicked off the series and although it's a bit of cheating, this is day 11. Kind of like the promo trailer. Anyway, lots to update, lots of pics and lots of activities. The good news...Alex is coming down for Christmas...yeah!

Anyway, happy holidays to all of our friends out there and have a great holiday season.

Cheers,

Jay

Autumn Leaves

2009-11-11T12:16:00.010-07:00

The first big blast of snow has given way to some sunshine this glorious Veteran's Day. What better way to spend a day off then working in the yard raking up the leaves. It's great to be outdoors and Echo is having lot's of fun with her day off helping Mom with the raking. This post will have more pictures than news this time around. Other than to say Jay has been a very busy guy out of town and the girl and I have had some great moments lately. Here are just a few pictures from today to capture a break in the action.

Mommy's good little helper!

There are still some left on the tree...

Got it!

Fun time now...

So much fun!

Rocktober Spooktacular Fun!

2009-10-26T19:37:00.008-06:00

Snow, rather than frost on the pumpkin got Echo's Rocktober Spooktacular fun filled month kicked off in style. In our fair city the Race for the Cure for breast cancer is a huge event each year. This year the local high school enlisted younger girls to come out with the cheerleaders and "Cheer for the Cure". Echo joined her 'sister' Megan to cheer with the big girls during half time at the high school game.

Congratulations go out to the high school cheerleaders for raising $4,000 for the cure this year! Way to go!

She also started basketball again this season. She is the only girl on the team but shows no fear in dribbling and shooting like a pro. In practice where all the others were throwing up bricks she landed a couple of beautiful shots. The hoop is higher this year and she will have to practice on dribbling rather than running with the ball but, I think she can handle it. I have to say, watching the practice is pretty histerical. I always thought Echo was a busy little girl but, compared to about 7 boys looking like they just took a shot of energy drink before they got out on the court...man, she was cool and collected by comparison.

Drum roll please......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now on for the BIG EVENT!!! ECHO'S 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!

She has been waiting, almost counting the days since her last birthday for this big number 5. I thought that a costume party would be fun so I booked the local clubhouse and invited her friends from school, gymnastics and neighborhood. There were probably 17 kids in total coming and going during the afternoon festivities.

As the kids arrived we gave them all a plastic drink bottle with their name on it so they could fill it up without spilling and Echo gave them a sticker. I set up three play stations with drop the clothes pin in bottle, bean bag toss and pin the treasure chest on the map. After they accomplished each one they could come and get a prize from the goody bag. They could come back as many times as they wanted because there were plenty of little treats to be had.

Echo really made a haul! There were a ton of gifts and all the kids sat very patiently as she opened each one very carefully. It was all about Echo that day and she loved every minute.

With a spontaneous parade or two, plus a game of musical pumpkins I think the kids had a great time. We ordered in pizza, had the ice cream and cake, then sent them home with smiles on their faces. It was a great day!

Now she's counting the day's until she's 6!

The Mystery of Google

2009-10-08T00:07:00.003-06:00

It's interesting, if you search for "9.8 meters per second squared", "law of gravity", "horse carriage rides Denver", Echo's little web site pops up at the top of many of these types of searches in Google. We get some very interesting Google keyword hits.

And, although this has little to do with Echo, it has a lot to do with searching the web. So, I've decided to capitalize on this little known fact. Since about 6 months ago, Claudia and I have gotten serious and started to do some photography on the side. Nothing tremendously serious and certainly not a day job. If you want to check out some of our work, go to:

Your Denver portrait photographers, Images at 5280
Denver's Photography choice for Senior Portraits, Seniors at 5280

Since this is such a high rated site, I hope the links to our sites will help get us above all the noise in web searches. If you're a regular reader and you have a blog or site, add a link for us...we can even return it.

So if you need Portraits, senior photos, children photos in Westminster, Thornton, Denver, Arvada, Erie, Longmont, Boulder, Littleton give us a ring.

So, that's my one self serving post to exploit our little blog for purely commercial purposes. But here's a couple of Claudia's photos from a recent couple of shoots.

Next time more pictures and events in Echo's life!

Jay

Firsts and Last

2009-09-11T19:16:00.013-06:00

With the first red leaf appearing on the pear tree in our front yard, it signals the coming of fall here in the Rockies. Along with it comes the first day's of school for Echo. Not longer just daycare for our little girl...no sir, those days are over. We now have ourselves a full fledged Kindergartner! Along with that comes her first real homework assignments and first reading.

She was looking good, all decked out in her uniform. She had to wear shorts the first day but, we got her into the 'sissy' skort for the next formal picture day.

As per the last blog post you saw Echo with face paint. We had gone to the Greek Festival and they had a face painter. Another first for Echo. She used to be afraid of anyone wanting to paint her face but, this time was willing and ready to go for the most elaborate face-job they had.

Echo and I took our first bike ride to the park since she has now become a two wheeling biker. The first trip over we passed many a prarie dog yipping at her as she peddled quite steadily to the park. It's about a half mile away from our house down a dirt path. Since then she has had a few road rash episodes but, no major damage. She absolutely loves her bike and want's me to ride with her all the time.

Her next 'first' is gymnastics. Only five of the younger girls are selected to participate in what is known as their Profiles progam. This means she is part of the team and gets training like a team member. She can't compete until she officially gets to age 6. This will give her a year to get better at her floor, bars and balance beam work. It sounds as if we are pushing her into this but, quite the contrary. She loves it and it keeps her busy. She can do splits to the floor, both ways, American and what we used to refer to as Chinese splits side to side. Has been doing cartwheels for over a year already (even one handed cartwheels), and she can hold her handstands for several seconds. I'm such the proud Mom...I always look forward to her gynastics days.

We went to the state fair last weekend. For some reason I had anticipated seeing more animals there. Echo had fun, rode rides, petted goats and calves, then we went over to play games and let her ride a few rides.

Ok, so we are playing a few overpriced games per usual. We make our way to one game where there is a big table with small bowls filled with colored water. The object of the game is to throw a ping-pong ball into the little bowls. I only bought her five balls thinking that there was no possible way she could make them. First ball bounces high...ok, second ball~~~~plop, right in the bowl. Yahoo, she's going to win a stuffed animal. Oh Noooooo! a goldfish. Yep, I didn't think they gave away gold fish in plastic bags but there she was, the winner of one very small and fragile looking fish. The dread washed over me as I could see the future unfold...

She even named him Sparky before we made it back to the car and the thoughts were running through my head of how I was going to explain what we all know was going to be the little fellow's fate.

Now to add to this story, we weren't going directly home from the fair, we were going to spend the night at the hotel and go to the zoo the next morning. We got out of the car at the hotel and Jay gave me the 'look' that says, maybe she won't notice that he is 'accidentally' leaving the fish in the trunk of the car as the valet takes the car to park it.

I'm feeling really guilty at this point. Very bad karma in my future as the little fish was concealed in the trunk. I even had a bad dream about it that night.

Next morning we wake up and get ready to go to breakfast. Jay places our bags in the trunk and there is no fish. No bag, no water....no fish. The fish has gone missing. We try to make sense of it as we are going to breakfast...talking in code so Echo won't understand what we are saying. "Do you think the valet saw it and took it?" I mean really, it's not like it could get up and walk away. The whole thing perplexes us through breakfast and later as we get out to go to the zoo. Jay takes one last look and voila! The bag had fallen down a compartment in the trunk that holds the battery for the car. Phewf! I breath a sigh of relief. The fish in all his glory is alive and well, very unscathed from his adventure.

On to the zoo and then the car ride home where Sparky is taken out and placed in a mason jar. He's looking a little hungry. I'm not a fish person but I gave him the smallest nibble of a cracker in it and told Echo not too feed him anymore until we got some food. Later that night the inevitable happened. Sparky wasn't looking to spry. In fact not moving too much at all.

So to wrap up this post, let's just say we had our many first's but only one last. Sparky is now swimming with the fishes. As this story ends, Mom alledgedly took Sparky over to the pond to let him swim with the fish. We occasionally ride by on our bikes and she throws a little of the fish food in his direction.

Life is full of firsts and lasts...and a lot if in betweens.

Claudia

Echoisms

2009-09-06T13:30:00.003-06:00

Just a quick post to remind us of what Echo was thinking and articulating during her transition from 4 to 5. Echo who hated face painting, now loves it!

- Echo thinks Obama "had a dream" that we should love "chudders" (short for each other's)
- Martin Luther King and Obama are one in the same, although she's not sure why an assassinated guy keeps showing up on TV talking
- If something is a huge amount of time, effort, money, it's "like 70 80 minutes". It's roughly equivalent to infinity
- When dad works magic and pulls food out of Echo's ear mysteriously, it's called an "ear snack." It's hard to respond in public to "Dad, I want another ear snack."
- Diarrhea is known to Echo as flat poop. "Oh man I don't like flat poop...I wish it would stop"
- Getting attention at night consists of "who wants to color with me, raise their hand" in an excited, escalated tone of voice
- When seeing a mohawk for the first time..."Oh...I want one of those."

Anyway, they seemed to be coming in waves lately so I thought I'd record them before my over 40 brain lost them forever.

Jay

The Elusive Party Pony

2009-08-11T17:33:00.007-06:00

You know that point in the day, the one were you want your children to go to sleep and they just can't because they know the minute they close their eyes something exciting will happen. They just don't want to miss out because as they sleep they believe that clowns, games and party ponies might show up and they'll miss the action. That is Echo...always wanting everything she can squeeze out of the day, plus more.

The other day we were going to a park to stroll around the lake. It seemed a little boring to Echo, just walking around the lake. Grumble, Grumble, Grumble...she didn't see anything that was making her happy until the mention of the elusive party pony.

Jay, the great white hunter, told her of the party pony and how...if they were very quiet and sneaky could track down the wonderful animal. Well that got her attention! Off they went, looking at all sorts of tracks. They found geese, dog, probably a prarie dog track or two and possibly some coyote, but alas no party pony. Although you may think this would have dulled her spirits she thoroughly enjoyed the chase and just maybe, someday in the future, she will be able to at least see the tracks of the pony.

We also spent an evening at Elitch's amusement park for Jay's company picnic. We met up with a friend and his two children and hit a few rides and games. The game where you climb up the slanted rope ladder...Echo almost got to the top. I was relieved she didn't because if she had we would have had to pack around a giant stuffed animal the remainder of the evening. The kids did love the ring toss over the bottles. Although they didn't hit the mark, the rings were 100 for $5 which was great because it kept them entertained for quite a while.

Last but most importantly...Echo is now a 2 wheeling girl! Yep, she has graduated from the bike training wheels onto the bigger bike and is off and peddling. I got my bike out of the basement, brushed off the cobwebs and follow her around the park in the evenings. My friends kept telling me to take the pedals off the bike and just let her get used to gliding along for balance. I tell you what, that really works wonders! If you have a soon to be biker with training wheels, take those trainers off and the foot pedals and push them along for a while. They get the balance thing really quick and move into the pedal action fast. Made all the difference inthe world, I highly recommend it!

Off to more adventures!!!

Claudia

9.8 Meters per Second Squared

2009-07-21T21:47:00.014-06:00

For those of you that follow the story of Echo you have more than likely seen her in action many times. This is a quick series of Echo doing cartwheels...

As we can all remember as a kid, doing these kinds of stunts never really bothered us. One reason...well, we were much shorter to the ground. Plus, there was no real worry that we would get hurt because we were indestructable. And finally, gravity was still on our side. As we get older, gravity seems to fail to be our friend and I'm sure through my numerous encounters with hitting the ground due to general clumsiness I may look at Echo and tell myself I could still do these kinds of acrobatics but, the reality is I know that gravity would prevail.

This being said I have to give big kudos to the next set of pictures that I took during my spring trip to visit the family. Drum roll please!!!

TA-DA! The neighbors in my Mother's seniors community gasped, clutched their pacemakers in one hand and their phones in the other in anticipation of pending disaster. But, Marlene's execution was amazing, scoring a fantastic 9.8 out of a possible 10 points. The crowd went wild!!! (ok, just my Mom, Echo and I but we're a crowd...right?) Although I knew she could do it all along I was still very impressed.

However, even with her x-treme sport maneuver Marlene may have pushed the boundaries she won't be arrested. Because folks as we all know, 9.8 meters per second squared isn't just a good idea it's the law...the Law of Gravity.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2009-07-07T21:42:00.007-06:00

The annual 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood is an event most families look forward to. It's a time for parades, swimming, food and fireworks.

This year was no exception. My favorite part by far is the kids parade. Our local fire department comes to kick off the festivities. Kids were lined up for half the block waiting in anticipation for the big yellow, shiney truck to roll up and get things started. Kids on bikes, trikes, scooters and in wagons are all decked out in Red, White and Blue style rolling behind the big truck. Sirens blaring and an occasional honk of the horn, then the're off!!!

This year Echo's bike tires were both flat, so she opted to do up her scooter instead. We'd gone to Target and ransacked through the dollar bins picking up decorations and a hat. She wanted Mom to come along so I broke out my scooter (Yep, I have one too...I'm such a dork :) but, I didn't decorated mine...I was more the escort than the parade participant. She is really fast on hers and I could barely keep up. She was close to the front of the pack the whole way.

Our neighborhood HOA buys the hotdogs, hamburgers and chicken while everyone else pitches in food items. There is always enough for everyone with plenty left overs.

Echo made it to the pool but, elected not to participate in the sack races. However, she did go for the pie eating contest. It's more a whip cream in a pan contest but, it's fun to watch the kids smoosh there faces in to get the last drop.

Weather broke up the party as black clouds were closing in fast. Everyone worked in tandem to pick up and move everything to the club house, get lawn furniture put away, etc. Then it came...a real gully washer. Good thing the group is fast on their feet! We had made our way home by then thank goodness.

That evening was cool. We still sprayed ourselves with bug-off and went out to see the fireworks. People light them all over the neighborhood and we usually hang out in the driveway and get a good view.

Finally, with the windows open and a cool breeze blowing across the room, we sat on the bed upstairs and watched fireworks in the distance in the different towns. My guess is we could see at least four different places. They were only specs on the horizon but, it was fun none the less. A nice relaxing end to a great 4th.

A quick shout out to my Mom and Sis. Jon received his birthday presents and was very happy with them. I took him out to lunch on his birthday and his remark was...'You know, Grandma could make me anything and I would be happy...she doesn't have to go to a lot a trouble." He always likes Grandma's home made jam...he still has the comforter you made him on his bed and he never has perfected your home made roll recipe (but he keeps trying). As for Marlene he always says "I would cook with her anytime, anyplace!" He went to the hills for the 4th and was coming home today. He sends you all a big hug.

That's the story from our neighborhood!

C

Summer Sun-n-Fun

2009-06-30T11:01:00.016-06:00

Ahhhh...Phoenix in the summer! I may be crazy wanting to go to Phoenix in the summer, with a sweltering 110 degrees in the shade but, what better time to spend at the pool. Jay was there for work so Echo and I tagged along to see great friends, take a litle time at the pool and just relax.

I bought Echo a swimming suit that has a little life jacket that hooks to it. What a great idea...much better than water wings or other float devices. The first day we hit the pool at about 8:30 in the morning. No crowds yet...just her and I wading in to the grotto pool. By noon she was surrounded by new found friends and by 2:00 we were worn out.

Even with the 50spf on me I got a little crispy. I found that the spray on spf doesn't work as well as the smear on kind even if it says waterproof.

That evening our good friends invited us over, Jay cooked, Echo got back in the pool and I sat and had a couple glasses of wine with our Aussie and Phoenix friends. The sunset was awesome, the company as always was wonderful and the dinner was great! Hector and James (our friends boys) swam and played with Echo all evening allowing the adults to chill out. I asked Echo what her favorite part of the day was, 'playing with Hector and James!!!'

I must say swimming is one of those activities that actually wears Echo out. Even though she had a nap that afternoon after the pool she crashed hard in the car on our way back to the hotel.

Friday her and I had another great day at the pool with Saturday a trip to the Children's Museum. There she painted a giant cupcake and made an elaborate paper house that included a pool, trees, grass, a street light. It was quite the project.

If anyone ever has a chance to take their kids to the Children's Museum in Phoenix it is really fun. Three floors of activities. We didn't even get to all of it and we were there several hours.

We are back to the daily grind this week but are looking foward to the 4th of July and Jon's birthday. More after the holiday!!!

And Another One Bites the Donut

2009-06-22T16:05:00.008-06:00

That song keeps running through my head. The one by Queen...Another One Bites the Dust. Busy, busy weekend here at the Echo Ranch.

Jay's Aunt Tootie and Cousin Marcy stopped by this weekend from Illinois. They are very adventurous and with GPS in hand set out in the big city of Denver to check out the sites, using the Echo Ranch as a base camp.

Friday was Donut's for Dads at the daycare where Jay was treated with donuts and putt-putt golf. I guess Echo was out shooting a few hoops on the playground and was the ace in the pack of boys. As seen in an earlier blog she can catch some air for a tiny little thing and make the hoops like a pro. Made her Daddy very proud! She is definitely our little athlete.

Following up on Saturday Echo was off to gymnastics. She is getting better each time she goes...from the trampoline to the bars, then handstands and cart wheels. I am so happy that she is back in gymnastics again, she really likes it and it burns off a little energy along the way.

Sunday was the real Donuts for Dad's as her and I ventured out to the local Krispy Kreme to pick up a dozen for everyone. Then in the car and off to the Greek Festival. Nothing like a few "O-PAS" and dancing, a little Greek Food and carnival games. Of course I took her out to play a few games and with her luck she won some of the bigger prizes that Mom (aka 'sherpa') had to schlep around but, it was great fun. And the weather thank goodness finally held out the rain until we got home.

On the way back from the Greek Festival Jay was taking a different way home when in her four year old way, she started to argue about the direction we were taking. "Dad you aren't going the right way" Dad..."Yes I am"...Echo,"No you aren't"...Dad, "Yes sir"...Echo,"No sir"...etc. This went on for several minutes until Echo declared "You are supposed to be on I-5", which isn't even in our state. "Daddy is lost" she finally said. Ah, to be a four year old again. I was laughing pretty hard at all of this.

When we finally got home Echo and I went for a very short bike ride when the T-storms started rolling in. I'm not a big fan of lightening so she peddled back to the house in short order.

Topping off the big weekend was our visit to the hospital. We hadn't been there in a while and Echo decided to take a header off the back of the chair and got a goose-egg size welt on her temple. Just to be on the safe side I took her over and let them check her out. They gave her the thumbs up, instructed her not to do that anymore, which she agreed and we were back before bed-time.

Echo's world is always exciting! We'll be off to the 'beach', otherwise known as Arizona in a few days...hopefully I'll get some pictures of her in the pool.

Until then...the excitement never ends!

Our Little Girl Graduated!

2009-06-11T16:21:00.005-06:00

Our little girl is moving on up to Kindergarten in the fall. Her birthday is to late so she will be going to a private kindergarten but, she's making the move! I still think it's funny that they are all decked in cap and gown.

The cutest part of the ceremony was when all the kids got to come down and say what they wanted to be when they grew up. Echo want's to be an animal doctor. Then the class song...We will Rock You!

Summer hasn't quite made it to the Rockies yet. Several funnel clouds (not to be confused with funnel cakes) have been spotted near our house in the last few days. I am not a big fan of having the radio on while I work but, if this keeps up I might break down and leave it on. My fingers are crossed for some warm and dry days in the future.

The rest of the family is doing well. Big brother Jon has now moved into a great condo with his friend. It is a beautiful place with a spectacular view of the mountains. Jon is savoring the freedom of being away from us but, stops in now and again to raid the pantry or just say hi. My handyman Jon is now gone so I'm opting for hiring someone to mow lawns, do chores, etc. We don't have a huge lawn but, I have been mowing since I was about 12 and I give up...if I never mow another blade of grass I will be happy. A few weeks back I was less then 5 minutes away from finishing and I ran out of gas...that was the clincher. I think that is why I love to go golfing or to the ball games. The lawns are perfectly green and manicured...and I didn't have to mow it!!!

The sun is finally peaking out from behind the clouds so I will close this blog to run outside. As summer goes by hopefully there will be more to write about and of course more pictures to post...until then, sit back and enjoy!

Bragging rights

2009-05-20T15:26:00.006-06:00

I know you're not supposed to brag about your child, but I have to anyway. I'm constantly amazed with Echo. I've never seen a kid age 4 with six pack abs. She holds full conversations and is pretty proficient at debating at this point. Probably my fault ;).

We finally got to attend a ballet recital this year where she danced all the way through. When they did the free dance, she did come over and sit on daddy's lap...but she went back up. This was the first time I got to go and wasn't on the road. And, she focused all the way through, concentrating fully on the teacher and her instructions!

Claudia said she got position 1, position 2, and a whole lot of French words right. That's good I think?! I got to play catch with her the other day and she was catching even my fastest tosses with the nerf frisbee. Like I had said in a previous post, she picked up basketball in just a few minutes even though we had never done anything but play with some big gym balls.

Finally, Claudia went to parent teacher conference this week. We decided to put Echo in Primrose Kindegarten instead of waiting a year. She missed the cut off by a month or so. She was born in October instead of early September which is the cutoff. But, we got her standardized testing back today. It's called the "Bracken School Readiness Assessment" test which is standardized testing...in preschool??? She scored in the 98th percentile. Scoring a 100% in several of the categories of testing.

And she's cute to boot. I'm constantly amazed at the path that lead us to Echo and I'm so happy that I get to be a part of her life and I get to watch this amazing little girl just take off. Okay, I'll quit bragging now...she still can't focus :)!

- Jay

Gone missing...

2009-05-10T18:30:00.005-06:00

Has Jay really gone missing? I'll admit to being to busy, too tired, too lazy, too distracted, too etc to post. In fact, it would be several months, not just two. And, it is time for our annual Mother's day photo, four years running now. If you look at the last two May's on the left, you'll see the previous three years. It was cold this year, the greens aren't quite out and the girls had to wear a coat, but we didn't want to miss it. It's also a chance for me to benchmark how my photography is...is it getting better? So here ya go!

Yes, that's a stamp on Echo's cheek. As we walked up to the bench, Echo pulled out an ink stamp and put it right on her right cheek. We thought...well, that's our Echo, so we left it! We also had given Echo a quiz several months ago, from our friend Colleen. Here it is at age 4 1/2.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "Peek-a-boo"

2. What makes mom happy? "Buying flowers and hugging and saying I love you"

3. What makes mom sad? "When I'm not here"

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "When she tickles me"

5. What was your mom like as a child "With white hair and smart with short legs and short hands"

6. How old is your mom? "17"

7. How tall is your mom? "13 big"

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Play with me"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "Work"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "Rock star"

11. What is your mom really good at? "Running"

12. What is your mom not very good at? "Bicycling"

13. What does your mom do for a job? "Work at a place where people work"

14.What is your mom's favorite food? "Noodles"

15.What makes you proud of your mom? "When she says I love you"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "A rock star one"

17. What do you and your mom do together? "Hug and say I love you"

18. How are you and your mom the same? "We have soft hair"

19. How are you and your mom different? "Mom's taller and I'm short"

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Because I'm cute and she loves me"

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? "When he smiles"

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? "To the macaroni cheese store"

I have to admit, some of these are far, far, far left field. Others were right on. But that's Echo's world in a nutshell. Since I last wrote, my brother and his wife Kimi have had a little boy, my nephew, Eamon. Echo graduated PreK and is now in JuniorK. She starts kindergarten in the fall! I knew I should have started that college fund sooner. A lot more has been going on, but that's it for tonight...I'm too tired :). Claudia will be updating a few more things soon. I semi-promise to post a little closer to monthly.

- Jay

Gotcha day coming soon

2009-03-26T06:40:00.002-06:00

A little over a week ago Echo and I were sitting on the couch watching TV later in the evening. She crawled up in my lap, laid her head in the crook of my arm and with her thumb planted squarely in her mouth fell sound asleep. This is quite a unique experience for me since Echo is usually constantly moving until her last moment of the day.

As she lay there, her sleeping weight on my lap, long gangly legs drooped over the side, I cradled her in my arms, listening to her deep rhythmic breathing, eye’s peacefully shut and warmth radiating from her small body. All the while thinking to myself how much I love her, how her joy and spirit has brought be such happiness and savoring the small moments with her is a gift that has been bestowed on me. I thought back to her brothers when they were small, pictures of them flowing through my head like an old movie I could see Alex as a small boy with big thick glasses, sensitive and caring. Jon was my little man with a plan, always moving forward, as if his destiny was written somewhere and he was following its lead.

For many that read this, you’ll understand the meaning of ‘Gotcha Day’. March 29th is approaching. It is a wonderful day in my life because it represents my oldest son’s birthday and the day Echo entered my life. I think that this special day, not only as a birthday, needs to be recognized and Echo gets older and a day that changed many people’s lives. She has been asking a lot about her adoption and China lately. We are balancing a fine line of how we talk to her about this day, what it means to us and certainly how it has changed both her life and ours. She is quite in denial of her heritage. She see’s Chinese people as ‘those people’, not connecting with them on any level and almost removing herself completely from the prospect that she is Chinese. It might be because everyone asks her if she is from China. She looks at them with disdain and answers “I am from Colorado”. The challenge is going to be informing her of her past without her misunderstanding or even in her own small way internalizing a bitterness or low self worth. This is a challenge we all will need to make. Although she is everything to us, it is difficult to know how she will interpret everything internally.

Echo was 18 months when we got her. She was living in a mountain orphanage, not a foster family. From the sounds of it she had been placed with a foster family but, did not thrive there so they brought her back. When she was first beginning to speak English she would talk about her nightmares of mice biting at her toes as she slept. I shudder to think that there is any possible way this could have happened, however, given the circumstances you never know. Jay had read a book called Silent Tears where it talks about how they restrain children in the orphanage in order to shave their heads and tie them in bed at night to make sure they their blankets stayed on them so they wouldn’t freeze to death. Although I can’t be certain any of this happened to her during her first months, from her actions when we first got her of not wanting to be held tightly to her very short hair (which you could tell was shaved from previous pictures) it wouldn’t surprise me that she too had gone through all of this. So much for such a small girl.

This March 29th she will have been with us for three years. I can’t seem to fathom it has been three years. So that night, with her laying in my arms, so trusting, loving, peaceful, brought me to my own silent tears. What was my life without you? And more importantly, what will our future hold.

You are my love, my life, my Echo.

Echo's Perfect Day

2009-03-02T20:58:00.002-07:00

It was Sunday and we had just dropped of Jay at the airport for another week of work out of town. We delivered Jay at 6:00 in the morning so dawn was just peaking as we headed back to the house. With a day ahead of us we made our first stop of the day at Starbucks.

"Can we go in?" asked Echo. Hmmmm, I was looking a little ragged having a hair style close to what you see if we were camping, but hey, its a little after 6 on
a Sunday morning so I figured it wouldn't be packed. Echo, with her prized cow "Spot" and I saundered in and had a little breakfast. Finishing up her last bit of banana bread we got back to the car and headed back home.

It was going to be a gorgeous day...not a cloud in the sky and not at all 'frosty'. We got home, cleaned up a bit and headed down to the zoo. We rolled in just as they opened up so it wasn't busy. We brought the big stoller, which she actually likes better now then when she was little. We rolled from one animal to the other, watching the zoo keepers feeding animals their morning snack. Echo was having a great time pointing to each...let's go there....now over there! We stopped for
a few minutes to take some pictures. She loves the giraffes and we had an opportunity to see the baby that was born just about 10 days earlier.

When Jay's folks were here a few months ago Jay, Echo and grandparents had gone out to Famous Dave's BBQ. Echo has now decided it is one of her most favorite places so as the perfect day unfolded we stopped in for a little BBQ. BBQ is as wonderful as it is sticky. Have you ever noticed that it doesn't matter how many of those little moist towlettes they give you it still isn't enough to get the sticky off. And once sticky everything else attaches to you like a magnet. Echo's face, despite my best cleaning efforts still had black strands of her hair plastered to her face.

We pulled into the garage and Echo spotted her bike. After a little pleading on her part we put on her helmut and took the bike for a spin. I with my granny cart and Echo with her bike started off for the store. For those of you who do not know what a granny car its one of those baskets with two wheels that you see old ladies in cities carting thier grocieries in. Picking up a few items, including snacks, we started back home.

Snack time we sat out on the back porch and drew pictures with sidewalk chalk. She is actually getting pretty good at sounding out words and writing them down. She made it through Mom, Dad, Pig, Cow and Cat before she focused on collecting rocks. Her 'rock' collection looks a little like a bunch or river rocks but, I'm sure her vision of them are all different as she carefully selected them from our yard,

Echo is a social buttterfly. She spots our neighbors and immediately jumps up to go say hi. She has already interjected herself into the conversation with three of the women neighbors by the time I make it over there. While there she also has a moment to play with the neighbor girl Janae and pet the cat.

We again make our way home and Echo decides that her scooter hasn't had enough attention this winter. Back outside with her helmut in hand we get the scooter out and go back over to the park. It's surprising how a few months can make so much difference in her balance. She can actually use the scooter as it's intended with one foot on the on scooter and the other pushing. Amazing! She hasn't ridden
it in over 6 months and she get's on it like pro.

At this point Mom is kind of dragging along. It's starting to get a little dark and cold and I persuade her that we can get dinner and watch a movie if she promises to take a bath early. We eat, what the family calls the "Poo-Poo" platter for dinner. The Poo-Poo platter is just a variety of things on a plate...like some ham cut up, some cheese, orange and apple slices...you get the picture. She likes this kind of dinner because you can pick your favorites from the platter. Tonight she's having a little of everything.

One squeaky clean girl emerges from the bath tub and decked out in her pink Hannah Montana pajamas we put in her favorite of all favorites High School Musical. This is a girl that sees the commercial for the movie, runs up the the TV with hands spread wide and physically hugs the TV, all the while shouting I love you Gabriella and Troy. (for those of you not in the know about HSM, these are the stars of the
movie). Over a bag of popcorn, Echo and I watch as the stars sing and dance their way across the screen. Echo, during the dancing segments jumps up to join them...feeling all the teen spirit of Troy and Gabriella.

As the night closes on Echo's perfect day she holds my neck tightly, kisses me then withought a struggle snuggles into bed with Spot the cow tucked under her arm. She falls asleep quickly I'm sure dreaming of the days adventures.

Mom, a little exhausted, goes downstairs, sits quietly on the couch, takes a deep breath, smiles. This has been a perfect day.!

Claudia

Time Fly’s and Echo Thrives!

2009-02-10T22:14:00.006-07:00

It’s been a month since the last post and the word for this year is ‘BUSY’. With basketball, Chinese New Year’s, birthday parties and general ‘stuff’ we are living our lives to the fullest!

And Echo is enjoying every minute! As we left off last post, Echo was initiated into basketball and loves it. Jay takes her to the games because for some reason if Mom is in the room she will not play. Kind of like the ballet recital’s the minute she see’s me she doesn’t want to go out and play and would rather sit on my lap and watch. I’m not sure what is the catalyst behind this so I let Dad take her and will send along the video camera so I can get the play by play after the game is over.

In addition to basketball we attended two Chinese New Year’s parties. Our friends Ning and Fred asked us to spend an evening with them that included authentic Chinese cuisine. It was fun talking to them about how they remember their new years celebration’s with their friends and families in China. Although I’m a wretched cook I always love to take part in making traditional food and Ning sat at their kitchen table with a few of us and showed us how to stuff wrappers full of flavorful pork for pot stickers. The pot stickers are supposed to resemble small pouches similar to those that would hold coins as a symbol of wealth in the new year. We ‘westerner’s’ sat around making them, albeit they looked more like crumpled pieces of paper then coin bags it was still fun. The food was wonderful and Echo had a grand time with Ning and Fred’s plus Connie and Tom's little girls. The highlight of the evening was when the girl’s decided to provide us with a parade, each playing an instrument and marching throughout the house in parade fashion. Of course each time they made it past the table we would cheer them on!

The next party was at the Cranston’s. They always host a great Chinese New Year’s open house that supports the orphanage their little girl is from. On this day their house is chocked full of wonderful people and great food. Echo went from the ‘craft’ table to reading books and down stairs in the play room. The Cranston’s are lovely people and although we only see them twice a year (New Year’s and the CCAI picnic) it’s nice to have visit and catch up on this day.

Other than that we think Echo is on a growing streak right now…she eats a ton of food and sleeps hard! Her little brain is just buzzing as she is learning to read words and works in what she calls her ‘work-books’ daily. She loves to sit down and go through the Kindergarten and First Grade work books we buy her at the book store. In fact I have never seen her so focused on anything…ever. She will get one and work solidly on it for an hour with only my telling her what she needs to do on each page.

The other evening Echo was sitting in the kitchen looking in a magazine and without any encouragement or assistance she pointed to a picture and said,“That’s George Lucas, he made Star Wars”. Her brother Jon is a huge Star Wars fan (has been since he was 5) stood there in amazement…all he could say was “you go girl!”. It was quite the brother-sister bonding moment. Neither Jay nor I had seen the magazine before so I even had to look over her shoulder to see what she was pointing at.

Everyday is a new day in Echo’s life…I can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with next!

C

China Girls can Jump

2009-01-10T12:01:00.002-07:00

A 3'4" PreK playing out of Wuhan China, at power forward for the Adam's County Sharks.....Echo Cole!!!

In Echo's first game, she dribbled, she had 4 rebounds and 10 points, never having hit the hardcourt before, just bouncing the ball around the kitchen and basement.

She's also got a massive vertical leap. And although Daddy played a few sports in his day, Echo seems to be the first true athlete in our family.

Finally, Claudia shot some photos last night. I think this one turned out just amazing, so I posted it up here to show it off a bit.

- Jay

A long update

2008-12-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

It's been a big couple weeks and even though I was able to take some time off, it still had a feel of a rushed week. We're getting ready to clean up after all the merry festivities. Alex came down for the week from Boise and Jon was around more often than not. That left Echo, mom and dad feeling pretty special. It was fantastic! On Christmas Eve, we cooked our evening meal and the entire kitchen was humming with activities as everyone chipped in. It was, as usual, a fantastic meal and everyone's piece turned out great.

Prior to this week, I went on my cookie baking spree and delivered to most of the neighbors their cookies. However, the few that weren't home, well, their's got delivered elsewhere :). Claudia took a picture of a few of the plates.

Echo and I donned our Santa hats and went door to door. Finally Christmas day came and Echo got the lion share of the presents...go figure :). The favorite group present was from Alex, Gone Fishing and the whole family gathered around to play. One thing we discovered about Echo is she hates to lose and she'll cheat to win. When she fell behind, she resorted to just pulling the fish out with her hands.

Finally, we had a chance to take a picture of the kids together. Claudia set up the strobes and we snapped away. We don't have many pictures of the boys with Echo, so Claudia made up for lost opportunities.

In the end, Claudia had a new instructional DVD on some new styles of photography. We took Echo out to try some of the concepts out. It was intended to be a full portrait session, just playing around in direct sunlight. It was cold. The weekend before it was near 65 degrees that day, it was near 8. Go figure in Colorado. You can see Echo in the picture was not happy about being the test subject. Fortunately mom and dad were cold to, so we went back to the care and drove around looking for new photo locations.

- Jay

PS: I think that's all the updates till next year!

Observations by Echo

2008-12-06T19:31:00.003-07:00

Here's the print for Echo's Christmas ornament. Claudia an Echo are in decorating them and creating them. My family, save me, is very crafty. Anyway, we shot this of Echo a few nights ago and are going to use it for the center picture.

The other two pictures are Echo decorating the tree with Mommy and Daddy. She gets so excited. I'll have to post last years video where she ran around for 2 hours straight. Youtube might complain on bandwidth.

Anyway, two insights by Echo. Echo watches Dora and they have swiper the fox. And swiper the fox always is trying to swipe things.

"E:Daddy, why is swiper always trying to swipe things."
"D:I don't know Echo, why do you think he does it."
"E:Maybe because he doesn't have stuff of his own."
"D:Maybe so."
"E:They should just give him some stuff for his own so he won't swipe anymore."

Ah my little socialist...I get the feeling daddy and Echo aren't going to align politically. But, it's a great idea.

"E:Daddy I don't want to wear this."
"D:You have to wear long sleeves, it's cold out. Get your stuffed cow and let's go to school."
"E:Cow doesn't want to go to school."
"D:Why?"
"E:He doesn't like this outfit!"

I have a few more, but I can't remember what they were...damn over 40 disease. I'll remember later and post them.

- Jay

Photography 101

2008-11-27T11:08:00.002-07:00

We've been doing some modeling shots for Echo's daycare teacher Ms. Helen. She wants to get into modeling, so far be it from Claudia and me to pass up an opportunity to shoot with someone. This is one of her photos:

Anyway, Echo always has to get into the think of things. When Helen was changing outfits, Echo got into the action poses...

One funny story before we head off for Thanksgiving dinner. The other day I was showering and Claudia walked into the bathroom. We have a small glass enclosed shower so I could see her looking into the mirror. Then, in walked Echo...which is also not an unusual occurence. Echo looked straight over at me and said "look mom, dad's but is staring at us through the window." I told her to go watch TV as Claudia and I were laughing. She just looks at the world in a whole different way!

- Jay

A great day

2008-11-22T20:29:00.002-07:00

Well, Claudia's been cooped up in the house all week, long hours and I finally decided to get her out. We left pretty early in the morning and hit the botanical gardens. The Gardens take Claudia's mind off of almost anything. We drove downtown and hit lunch at Maggianos and had some great wine with our Italian food. Echo has been packing away the food for the last few days. Last night we didn't think she'd ever stop eating.

We headed down the 16th street mall and took the bus. That's a big adventure for Echo. We got down to the Millenium bridge and she ran all over the place. We were able to get just a few photos of her as she stood long enough to pose. The shirt reads "Hug Me!".

Finally, last week I continued expanding my photographic techniques and shot a set of "movie scenes" on my 35mm. It kind of turned out like a Quentin Terentino movie. This was using the same set of techniques I used in my photography class a few weeks ago. The shadowy figure at the end of the alley was a guy we paid $20 bucks to stand there as an ominous figure :). He did pretty good. This was shot mid day in an alley in downtown Denver.

- Jay

More Wonders of Echo

2008-11-21T01:18:00.002-07:00

No photos!!! A first for me, I think. Maybe not...when I first started this blog. I've done some interesting photography lately. I'll catch up on that later. Anyway, tonight we finally bought a couple books for Echo. She's been a bit of a pistol lately and she was complaining all of her books were baby books. She had to be good with no whining or fits for a whole two days and do what she was told the first time. Amazingly enough, it worked...who knew. It wasn't high school musical stuff, candy, toys, it was books. Her Grandma would be proud.

Anyway, I told her I bought an extra book to read to her tonight. When I came up, she had some disney-type show on the TV trying to settle down for the evening. I came in with the book in my hand. As I turned on the light, she said "hurry up daddy, turn off the TV." When I asked why, it was because she wanted to have me read her the book. She had me read it to her 3 times.

Earlier that day, she had the school Thanksgiving lunch. Claudia couldn't make it, but I had taken off the day. When I got there, she ran to me and jumped up in my arms saying "daddy! daddy! daddy!" She gave me a big smiled and buried her head on my should and just gave me a hug for several minutes. You could feel the smile in her body. She loves it when we come to events at school. I was one of the few parents there early and when I sat down with her, a crowd of kids gathered around asking me questions like what I did, why did I have braces on my teeth, who made liquid soap and why? Okay that last one was mine...but you get the point. I started to answer their questions in some sembelence of order and Echo put her hand on my mouth. "Don't talk to them daddy....you're my daddy!" I guess she gets mad at Claudia when she talks with other kids. So Echo has officially transition over the last few days from "pill" Echo to "cute" Echo.

Like I said last time...it's great sometimes to not have that filter on their brain to mouth neural pathways. This has been one of those weeks!

Jay

Does Echo love her momma?

2008-11-04T14:32:00.003-07:00

Here are the long awaited grandma/grandpa pic with Echo. We just went downstairs to shoot it and Claudia stood behind Echo and tickled her and tried to pull down her pants to make her laugh. Until then, it was the cheesy smile. For some reason, I don't think Claudia could become a children's photographer with this technique. But, in the end, it worked!

I also have a story to share from last night. I was talking to Claudia last night about her job. She's pretty stressed and while she ran down the days events, she had some tears in her eyes as we talked. Like I said, pretty stressful. So Echo, somehow, someway intoned it was me causing her to cry. So here is her direct quote:

"If you don't quit makin momma cry I'm gonna go hire some bad guys to
come and shoot your office."

Hmmmmm... It stopped us both and made us laugh, but I have several
concerns :).

How does my daughter know you can hire bad guys

She plans to hit me in the office, which she equates to the worse thing she could do to me

She knows that bad guys do this kind of stuff and shooting is not a good thing

She's very protective of her mother

I spend too much time in my office

I'm still laughing about this today. We explained to her the event was work,
not daddy, and we blocked CSI on our TV. She never fails to make an impression :)

- Jay

Halloween on Election Day

2008-11-04T09:25:00.005-07:00

So, I'm slowly catching up. Take yourself back to before daylight savings turnback, to a day of pumpkins, princesses and pirates. On a side note, does anyone else love the "fall back" day of daylight savings time as much as I do. You can't beat that extra hour of sleep, although I hate driving home when it's dark. I felt so great for a Monday yesterday because I actually had enough sleep. Echo loved Halloween. She had a school party

Got to go trick or treating with Megan and her friend and then finally again, for the second time, with Claudia.

I like the fact it looks like the unicorn is eating the candy.

Then when she got home she was completely excited by handing out candy. Big gaping handfuls. Each time I had to slow her down to say two or she would have dumped the whole container. One kid had a mask with a stake through his face. Echo was looking down at the candy, got some, went to give it to him and then looked up. She just froze, staring at him. She wouldn't drop the candy, move or even respond to my verbal statements. It was like 30 seconds as she tried to figure out if that stake really hurt :).

- Jay (I'll post more later)

Pictures with a little bit of text

2008-11-02T22:24:00.002-07:00

We did hit the pumpkin patch this year. It's actually pretty enormous as you can see. This is one field of probably 10 fields right in the middle of Lafayette CO.

We didn't have much time as I was heading to the airport that Sunday afternoon. Hmmm....I'm noticing a recurring theme. We had Echo do the final inspections of the qualifying pumpkins by rapping on it with her knuckles.

The other day, Echo was watching a TV show and she saw a guy get kicked in the groin. She yelled out "Ohhhhh....right in the knuckles". I said, "what?" "He hit him daddy, right in the knuckles." "Those aren't knuckles hun." "Yes they are, Tyler says they are the knuckes...see...right here." Okay, good enough for me, I can think of much worse names.

Finally, with the pumpkins, you get to carve em'. Lot's of gooey guts, sharp knifes, flammable objects. Is it any wonder kids love Halloween. Check out my brother's blog in the previous post for a curious journey of Halloween, safety and our amazing childhood. Of course, mom claims none of that actually happened. Hard to tell with us kids :).

Next up, Halloween costumes, school parties and the highly anticipated grandma/grandpa/Echo portrait(s).

- Jay

Catching up, again!

2008-11-01T20:49:00.004-06:00

Well, it's been one busy October. Claudia is so swamped at work, she's going non-stop. I think we have enough time in the evening to eat some dinner, some nights, and that's about it. We're thinking about getting Echo into basketball this fall and she really, really needs to get back into gymnastics. Unfocused, non-stop energy is not a good thing. Hopefully she won't sprain her ankle every fall like her dad. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa are here again back from Phoenix to see Star, winding their way back home. We'll upload some pictures of that later. Meanwhile, the next few posts will hopefully catch us up. Hopefully, no one minds if they are mostly pictures. I'll try to think of some clever posts by Thanksgiving.

Vacation Oregon: Yeah those bears are scary, high five!!

My brother James is having a kid. Well, technically Kimi is...but click here to read their adventures as first time parents!

And Echo turned four!! We held it at the Children's Museum. At first, we had no RSVPs for the first week. We were going to be awfully lonely all by ourselves in the big room.

But, late parents are better than no parents. All in all, there were about 20+ kids with parents, etc. It was a beautiful day and Echo got lots of High School Musical stuff, to compliment all the High School Musical stuff she has already. The microphone sing along set was nice...I will get you for that!

More to come over the next few days.

- Jay

The Greatest Thing

2008-10-23T18:46:00.002-06:00

about young kids is their unabashed truthfulness. They'll say just about anything to anyone.

"How come your butt is so big?"
"Where is your hair?"
"Daddy, you stink."

They say exactly what's on their mind and they don't hold back. The positive side of this is you know exactly where they stand. And when they say

"Daddy, you made me happy"
"Because I love momma so much!"
"You're making me smile"

You know it has no agenda, not ulterior motive. It's a simple expression of how much they love you. No place and at no time do you feel this certain. I think this is one of the greatest things about having kids. I've posted about other wonders of our children, but this is near the top.

Anyway, I guess you can tell what Echo has said the last few days. The only problem with this is we hope it never turns into manipulation. But, the teen years are a few years away...so I'll enjoy it for what it really is. Anyway, here are some more pics from the vacation and some grandma and grandpa Cole pics coming up next....they're here in the other room playing with Echo right now as I type.

- Jay

Back from Oregon

2008-09-28T22:17:00.002-06:00

We finally took a week off. No computers, no work, very little on the phone. It was a well needed break. We went to Oregon. Why? Because it's one of the 3 states I haven't been too. And, Claudia had some Alaskan Airline free miles stored up and it was close to free. It's never really free, is it. Echo, even if you have free tickets, free hotel, you still end up spending a lot of money. There is no free vacation. When you're younger, maybe you can get away with cheap...but that's it.

So how was Oregon?! Beautiful the first day and the first part of the second. And then, the clouds and moisture came in and showed us why it was so green. We did get one day of great photos and then several days of dramatic black and whites because of all the fog and low clouds :).

Echo on the beach? She loved it!! If it had been warmer, we would have set up lawn chairs and she would have run all day. Even in the full on cold, she wouldn't give it up. I only heard her say once she was cold. I'll have to post that pic another day.

When we got home, the neighbor's kids were heading to homecoming. We got in on Saturday and they said the "gang" would be by before they headed out. We promised to take some pictures. Here's the group...

Brett and Megan came by early to do some individual shots and some brother/sister shot. I figured I'd post one of them that we ended up with. It's always easy to shoot when you have handsom/beautiful models.

Finally, we had some bad news this week. Our son had stayed home because of work and when we came back, Raz, our dog had passed away the day before. This was Jon's first dog and he took it pretty hard. The house seems empty without her and you always expect to hear a bark or step over her lying on the rug. Echo had bought a dog bone in Oregon to bring back for Raz and when she came through the door, she was looking for Raz. We had to make up a story that Raz was out caring for some puppies. I didn't really know what to say. I remember my great grandma dying when I was very young. My family didn't let me go to the funeral, but I knew something was wrong. In the end, I remember I simply didn't see her anymore. That's all I remember from that event. So I searched for a quick picture with Razzer and Echo, and I found this. We'll post some more later.

So Echo, sorry, I didn't know what to say and I just don't think you're ready to understand that event. I know through our support community for adoption, that sometimes adopted children take the loss pretty hard. We're hoping over time you'll simply forget until you're old enough to understand. I'm not sure I'll know when the time will be right.

We did get good news this week that Alex is coming home for Christmas! Everyone is excited to see him again. That will be a couple years running we've had the entire family home, a rare event these days.

So long for now,

- Jay

Playing with Pink

2008-09-21T19:15:00.003-06:00

Echo and Claudia went to the store today. More often than not, that means Echo ends up with something in the shopping cart too :). So, early Halloween it was. I'm not sure this is a good trend.

Echo had her stitches removed the other day. Unless you look under her chin, you can't see a thing. Has it slowed her down? Absolutely not. One of these days, I should actually get Echo made up when I decide to shoot some pictures. More often than not, I just want to see if my ideas will work. Echo is usually a good sport about it for maybe 10 minutes tops.

On the progress front, Echo's writing the letters. She can recognize them and call them out and the same for the numbers. She's talking non-stop and her sense of humor fits right into the family's. She's always "jus kiddin."

Echo's also in some kind of hyper-spastik mode. She's none stop, and when she gets tired, she can't stop moving. It's like her body is involuntarily compulsing her along. It takes quite a bit to get her to calm down and get to bed at night. She seems a little tired today, so here's crossing our fingers.

- Jay

Claudia on the road

2008-09-10T23:14:00.002-06:00

Claudia was gone for two days to the East Coast. Echo started to miss her the last day she was gone. When that happens, we create a card and draw some pictures for mom to hang on the door outside for mom when she gets back.

The layout was stolen from a failed Claudia idea re-executed by Daddy. The photo was a Jay/Echo collaboration :).

You know Echo, life moves so fast, it's a shame if you waste any of it. You won't get back the 10 seconds you just read this sentence with. But, but, but, if you don't slow down and enjoy the small moments, life passes like a high speed highway. The wonderful thing about you is how I can laugh at things again that I thought were just silly. I can remember back to my long abandoned dreams and see bits and pieces begin to form in your plan to conquer the world. Your interest in the world and never ceasing questions on the details, makes me reconsider the rules set through years of experience and question them again without all the supporting premises and experience that I just count on to the guide me the right way not really revisiting the original reasoning too often. Follow Plato, always question your premises.

- Jay

Just Because

2008-09-06T22:39:00.003-06:00

I uploaded this simply because it made me smile :). Claudia and I were out in the backyard playing around. Echo can be really ticklish around the neck some times.

- Jay

PS: An Australian magazine contacted us to use a picture of Echo's in their article about Australian banning gymnastics/cartwheels in some of their schools. So, Echo's now published in Sydney. We asked for a copy of the article, I'll post it when I get it.

Echo and Dad's Weekend

2008-08-31T13:26:00.003-06:00

Claudia is taking a well deserved rest over labor day with her GNO club (girl's night out). Unfortunately, she left Denver during the end of the Democratic National Convention and flew to Miami where the hurricane is barreling down. Well, I guess it's time to hunker down and drink.

Since it's daddy that is constantly on the road and leaving Echo with mommy, it was time for an Echo/Daddy day. We headed to Colorado Springs for the annual Balloon festival. First stop was the zoo at Cheyenne mountain. It's about an hour and a half down so I had to wake up Echo when we arrived. She had a blast, we had to see everything. She fed giraffes crackers, she got to pet them. We went to every animal exhibit... rode a train...

...went on the carousel...took a pony ride and fed the pony with our hands...

...ate ice cream, bought a stuffed animal, go figure...and then off to the balloon festival. You'll notice from the pictures above, Echo had a bandaid on her chin. Her first stitches, 4 of them. It was just a small fall on the ground outside at daycare, but it hasn't brought down her fear level at all.

Now I've never been to festival in the Springs before. It was the largest attendance ever and they don't have one jumpy castle, they have twelve of them. And for a few dollars, you can run between all of them and jump like crazy. There's jumps, obstacle courses, big 50 foot slides, etc. Echo just went nuts and with the exception of the potty break, jumped and ran and slid for over an hour, non-stop. She would beat boys four or five years older than her on the course. We finally ended at her favorite, the trampoline with the bungie cords. The guy couldn't believe she wanted to go. He loaded up the bungies because of her weight, pulled down and I'm not kidding you, she looked like she was shooting into orbit. You could hear the guy say "holy crap" as she shot skyward...the crowd went "huuuuuugghhh" as they pulled in the breath and a fairly large crowd gathered around to watch. They guy finally caught her and said "I didn't think she was going to come down." It really did look like she caught escape velocity. She wanted to go again. In the end, when she was getting off the trampoline, she got a standing ovation from the crowd, which gave her a big smile.

Then, off to the balloons. To say Echo was impressed was a gross understatment. Once they got up and started to glow, she was mesmerized, "wow...look at that...ooohhhh...wow." She had more amazement with those than the 4th of July fireworks.

A quick stop for something to eat on the way home and only five minutes into the ride after the restaurant, I asked Echo if she was falling asleeep. "Yes daddy, I've been up all day and I'm really tired." With that, she was out and dad had the hour and a half drive home to himself. Boy were we tired...Echo woke up at 9:00am. I'm going to pay for it tonight. But, what a great day!

- Jay

The Adventure Continues...

2008-08-24T18:42:00.003-06:00

Haven't had much time to post lately. Seems like summer has come and gone. Echo, when you finally do take a job, don't take one where you get 6 weeks of vacation per year, but don't use it. Anyway, Claudia continues to work on her secret project...I have no idea when the unveiling will be.

I got a chance to take a photographic seminar this weekend from a guy who does professional corporate photography. But you know me, I had to apply it to my passion, children's photography or more specifically Echo photography. At dinner tonight, outside, I brought along the camera so I could experiment. I didn't really have too much time to set up the shot, so here it is...by the way, this shot was during full daylight :).

Ta da!!! Now, try to figure that out. This guys was fantastic. We actually had Colin Cheadle in the studio. He's Don Cheadle's brother from Ocean's 11. He was a great guy and sat through dozens of scenes. All in all, it was a well spent 8 hours. Hopefully you'll see me exploiting more of this in the blog photos. Here's a Jazz bar scene we shot with Colin...

Tonight, Echo wanted to take change to the store. She's finally learning that money is something more than shiny objects to through. Her purse was torn, so she stuffed all of her pennies, etc into her pockets. As she walked toward the office, they were so laidened with weight, her pants dropped to her ankles. She thought that was the funniest thing ever since the last funniest thing ever. Echo also loved the show Mamma Mia...every night she wants to listen to ABBA and she actually is starting to learn the words. I can feel a singer emerging and compared to her younger years, she actually has some tone. I'd try to video record it if my video recorder hadn't gone missing :(. That's all for now. I'll try to post more in a few days.

- Jay

Truly counter culture

2008-08-17T21:50:00.002-06:00

Claudia and I saw one of our close friends get married this weekend. Jay has no mold. He's an original and he doesn't subscribe to any of the number of alternatives to the "man" out there. His friends are just like him. When we asked him if he wanted to go to the Hari Krishna restaurant for Thanksgiving, you couldn't stop him. This year, near 40, he finally settle down to who we see as the perfect match for him. Inventions of Jay's include the Tie die cardigan. Jay and I spent a few weeks in the south of France, gambling in Monte Carlo, etc. I've never laughed so much in my life, but that's a different story. So, a toast to Mary and Jay!!

We got to say hi to several old friends we hadn't seen for a while. Great food and probably the best wedding band I've ever heard. Jay sits on the board for KUVO classic Jazz for Denver, or at least he did. We had our big Aug-toberfest party last night, the neighbors were extremely well fed and boozed up appropriately for the trip home.

We took Echo to the botanical garden with us, she thought it was a little cold. I told her to get a sweater on and here is what she came down with. But, once we got her in the high grass, all made sense and the other members of the botanical garden got quite the kick out of it. That's our shy little girl!!

- Jay

Special Secret Surprise

2008-07-29T18:34:00.003-06:00

Claudia is working on a top secret project. No hints in this post, but it's a really, really, really cool idea. More on it later. Here's Echo demonstrating her competitive nature in the park...you have no idea.

We've been working a lot on our photography, looking for more styles and types of shoots. These most recent ones are based on sun and flash fill lights. The last one in the group is heavily post processed in Photoshop, but that was just for some variation. I love to tinker in photoshop.

We were actually out shooting Echo and our neighbors came out...we had them fill in as additional models.

Echo's taking a break from all of the activities after school. We've stopped swimming and gymnastics until fall just to give her a bit of a break. That way she can play the rest of summer, and so can we :). More later, I don't know how long it will take Claudia to announce her big idea, but it's going to take a while to get it far enough along. Until then, it's top secret.

- Jay

Strike a Pose

2008-07-19T21:47:00.001-06:00

Just a quick update. Everything has just been too busy, but things are starting to look up and maybe, just maybe I won't be too busy to try a vacation. Anyway, this evening we were trying to capture the sunset down the street and Echo decided she wanted to pose for the momma. Claudia pop'ed the flash and out of somewhere, Echo started to strike poses. No, we didn't teach them to her...but here is her first Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover.

Jay