ohboy, what a weekend. grandma&grandpa edwards are here, halloween and a party at our house, first ever trick-or-treating, and most importantly-we figured out how to bypass our computer glitch that kept us from getting the pictures off our camera. hopefully more frequent blog posts to follow. next weekend in moab with all kinds of great friends, and then from 11/12 to 11/30 we'll be in japan with yusuke and sayaka. more great things to come.....!

part of the wall of jack-o-lanterns everyone made during the party tonight

domogoj, ivana, damjian and the wee tiger

with daddy at the zoo boo

Balloon Fiesta and Birthday Party!

thanks Becky for coming from Denver for the weekend, and thanks everyone who sent prezzies and cards. we had a fun bithday week -- cosmo, samuel, eleri and megan. Can't wait to do it again next year....

September's been a busy month: travel, wedding (Grandma Anne), the state fair, Servas visitors, and just lots of regular old fun. here's a smattering of photos from the month.

Eleri at the Tent Rocks during our hike with Lili and Ronja, our german servas guests.

exploring a big tree root

Ooohh, rocks!

Ronja and Lili at the start of the tent rocks trail

In the corn filled sand box at the fair, Eleri's favorite part of the whole fair. Probably everyone's favorite, it felt really cool.

Watching the horse and buggy show with daddy

Mackin' on the giant pickle with tio and tia at the fair.

A beautiful fall morning with mommy at the rio grande nature center

Dis, Dis!!

tiger rag

Here's photos from our recent long weekend trip to Wisconsin. The first ones are of Sam's parent's house, recently moved into, and quite spectacular (designed by Sam for those who don't know). I realize this is technically Eleri's blog, but her daddy gets some bragging space too :-)

at the airport on the way back home

with recently married Grandma Anne at House on the Rock

helping make cinnamon rolls in the new kitchen

family portrait after the wedding

base jumping

Eleri jumped off this rock in Yankee Boy Basin about a hundred times. And it never got less cute. She likes to count these days, and a good thing too. It's the only thing that keeps her from launching off rocks, or the side of the pool without someone being there to catch her.

susan

imitation is the highest form of flattery....

Brought to you by the letter "D"

Eleri's list of words continues to expand. Just this last week she decided to start saying "mama", which warms my heart. She also has started to say "up", "help" (which sound the same), "water", "eleri". The most prolific words, though, are of her own design -- all of which start with the letter "D". "dawa", "dewiss", "dewhadis", "dow"(cow), "do"(go), "dall"(ball). And she can string them together, "da da da doooo". She continues to be very selective about which words she chooses to say ("boba", "no"), and those which she has no interest in saying, but could probably say easily ("nap", "more"). Go figure.



Last weekend we had fun in Ouray with Becky, Drew and Debbie. Did some hiking, soaking, and lounging. Here's some pics and vid.










close up of the hiking boots from grandma anne. she got them all muddy, and thought they were great.

pigging out on ice cream. she ate all of susan and samuel's strawberry scoop, refusing several times to share.

We just returned from a week in South Carolina visiting Grandpa Hans and Nana Sandy, having a grand time. Eleri got to play with her cousins Koty, Tyler, Vinnie and Baby Jaxon and snuggle with her Uncle Jeff at Myrtle Beach. Where's the pictures, you ask? Silly mommy forgot the camera. Maybe Grandpa Hans will have some on his blog. Thanks Grandpa and Nana for having us, it was great to see you!

Does blogging more make me miss her less? Of course not, but I certainly have more time for it. The short kid is spending a long weekend in WI with 3 of her grandparents, her tio and tia. Sam and I are working long hours most of the weekend, although I have had today off. I finished painting the blue wall in the backyard, cleaned up the garden, and had some quality alone time. Here are some non-Eleri photos (gasp!) mixed in with some cuties. This is the current state of our backyard project. The shade structure over the patio will get finished probably sometime in the next couple of weeks. Hot tub in place, crepe myrtle in bloom, garden full of bounty (I picked 2# of mixed greens and 33 cherry tomatoes today--26 ears of corn are gestating) -- a regular "paradise" as sam would say.

looking fly in daddy's shoes and socks

this is a good squinky eye caught for posterity

modeling the new shoes that grandma sandvig sent her