Cleo is 1! Summer is flying by...

Cleo turned 1 on July 22. We had a gathering at our house to celebrate her bday, and Andy's family came in, which was great. Andy's sister, Jenny, and her son, Eli, stayed with us for about 5 days. We loved having them and wish they could've stayed longer. Gus and Eli, needless to say, loved hanging out. They wore each other out every day! We took the kids to the zoo on Cleo's birthday (zoo in Topeka). It's a great zoo, and there's a train park across the street with a carousel. The kids had a blast.

Cleo's 1-year stats are: 29" inches long (45%) and 19 lbs. 12 oz. (27%) for weight. She had a growth spurt in length, which is fun. She went from the 9% in height to the 45%. She has almost caught up with Gus' growth. He was at just over 30" at one year. Their weights are quite different, though! Gus was over 25 lbs. at a year and Cleo is under 20 lbs. All her weight is in her legs...she has some awesome thunder thighs! Love it. She is also getting her top two teeth, and they are almost all the way out. So cute, but it's been painful for her.

Gus starts preschool the first week of September. I cannot believe it! I'm gathering paperwork for it now. I think he's excited. He talks about going to school, so I think he gets it. And he'll be in class with his daycare friend, Elizabeth, so that's great.

I'm excited b/c we bought a new car. We bought a Subaru Forester, and I love it. It's silver, and it's just nice to have a new car. We traded in the 1991 Buick, and I'm still sad about it. I'm happy to have the new car, but the Buick had been in the Dierks family since day one, and it has treated us so well. It was a wonderful car. I hope the new owners treat it well. It's funny how we get so attached to cars.

Andy and I are getting geared up to go to Florida next week. My mom will watch the kids for the majority of the time and then Annie will come for the last night. I hope the kids do well...fingers crossed. I'm just so very, very excited for some R&R on the beach! Yes!!! It's been insanely busy at work for me, at least compared to what I'm used to, so I'm ready for the long weekend.



New blog on lawrence.com coming tomorrow or Thursday...check it out!

4th of July in Colorado

We are back from Crested Butte, CO. We had a great time, and I already miss my little sis, Kerry.

It's a pretty small town (around 5,000 total including Crested Butte proper, Mount Crested Butte and Crested Butte South), but with all the folks there for the 4th activities, it was crowded and very busy. The 4th of July parade was awesome, and there were easily over 15,000-20,000 folks there. Everyone is so "granola" in CB... it was hilarious. And I thought Lawrence was hippy. Kerry knew people wherever we went. That little social butterfly. She seemed very at home. The weather was brilliant. It maybe reached 80 degrees during the day, and it usually rained for a bit off and on during the day and night, but then the sun would come out blazing. You are at such high altitude there that getting a tan was pretty easy! It didn't take much time.

We took a few hikes that were out-of-this-world awesome. We drove to this tiny little place called Gothic, just up the mountain from CB. It was gorgeous and so remote (only accessible 6 months out of the year b/c they don't service the roads during the winter). We shopped in the fun downtown area of Crested Butte, and our condo was in Mount Crested Butte, just about 10 minutes away from downtown, right on the mountain of Crested Butte. Kerry lived just down the road from us on the mountain. She lives with 3 or 4 other people in a condo. She is a nanny for a family who also lives in Mount Crested Butte. She said she either walks or rides her bike everywhere, or takes the bus.

We had fun with the rest of the family. My older sis, Shana, brought her kids and we all had a great time together. My Mom and Dad came, too. Gus had a blast w/ his cousins, Brody, Rory and Molly. The fireworks on the 4th were honestly the best I've ever seen...ever. They were short (about 12 minutes long) but truly amazing! It was the first time in 10 years they had been able to shoot fireworks in CB b/c it hasn't been wet enough in past years. They shot them off the top of the mountain, literally just up the mountain from our condo. We had the best seats on the balcony of our condo. It was so awesome!!! My 10-year old nephew, Brody, told Andy that the vacation was the second best thing that has happened to him (1st best thing was getting their kittens). I loved that.

Here are some photos and videos from the trip. The second video is of Kerry by a waterfall. Oh, and I forgot to mention we saw a bear! We were hanging in our condo and my Dad spotted a black bear walking down the mountain. It was pretty awesome. I tried to get a photo, but it didn't turn out.

Hope everyone had an awesome holiday.