The Incline

We drove down to Colorado Springs this morning to go on a "hike" with Kelsey and Alex.  Kelsey's little brother is in town, so we took advantage of his babysitting services. 

The Manitou Incline used to be a railway that washed away in 1990, they removed the tracks, left the ties, and people started hiking it.  It was actually illegal to hike it until last February, so we got lucky!  The trail goes up over 2,000 feet in less than a mile.  Some parts of the incline are as steep as 68%. It was so hard but we loved it!

It was a little cool and breezy, so I thought I was going to be miserably cold, but I definitely heated up quickly!  This is a little ways up.  The views are pretty great.

Holy stairs!

Parts of the incline were snowy and icy, but the majority was clear.  This is maybe halfway up...

Neil and I made it to the top in 59 minutes.  There were these cute Olympic rings at the top.  I have to tell you, I felt like a freaking Olympian after that hike!  There were some pretty huge wind gusts up at the top and they nearly pushed me over!

You go down a different trail that's about 2.5 miles long.  This wouldn't have been so bad, but the trail was covered in snow, slush, and ice.  Our feet were soaked when we finally managed to get to the bottom. None of us fell either, which is a pretty big accomplishment with how slippery it was.  Neil and I got down the trail in 1:08.  We want to do it again when the snow is all gone and demolish our times!

Unrelated, but we've been going swimming each weekend at our gym and it's been really fun!

Valentine's Day

I did a 14 days of Valentines countdown for Neil this year.  He got a little present with a saying each day- it was super cheesy, but kind of fun.  I blurred out the little cards because it was a cute idea, but I'm embarrassed at how cheesy the sayings were.

Last night, Bear fell out of his crib for the first (hopefully last!) time.  I think he just tipped out trying to reach for his blankies that he had thrown on the floor, but he might've been trying to climb out, I don't know.  I heard a thump, then he started crying for me and I ran right in.  This morning I made him lay on the ground the way he was when he fell so I could take a picture.  He was kind of confused about that, but did it anyways.  I think he must've done like a front flip or something to land like that.

Then we opened some valentine presents.  Bear got that crazy dancing and singing frog from my parents and we got him a big balloon and some bath fizzy things.

 He's been having fun with the frog and the balloon.

Neil brought home roses and had Bear give them to me.  They smell so good and are very pretty.

Bear was pretty tired and clingy throughout the day.  I didn't mind too much, I never turn away cuddles from that boy!

Bear used his special Valentine kitty cup and we used our cute heart plates too.

He's trying to get through his big chocolate heart from Pops and Lala, but it's taking a while.

Neil and I don't usually do gifts for Valentines, for some reason this year we bought ourselves a few things.
I got a new makeup bag and red Hunter boots (which are, sadly, not very comfortable).

And I got Neil the BEST surprise anniversary/ Valentines present but he hasn't opened it yet :)  I think he got himself a new swimming suit too.  We generally buy our own presents, but I had the best idea ever so I got him one too.
We wanted to get a family picture of us.

Then we put Bear in the bath with his new bath fizzies.  That's a yellow fizzy, not pee...

Then he put in a blue and a red, because, why not!?

And this was the result.  Happiness.  I thought his skin would be stained but he was clean as a whistle :)

Happy Valentines Day!!

Friends!

Yesterday we had Tyce and Rylee over to play all day.  Kelsey's flight from Utah got cancelled the night before, so Alex drove the kids up to stay with us while he went to work.  It was a very busy but fun day!

We played trains.

And decorated the door for Valentines Day.

Read some books with Scout.

And looked like the sweetest little diva!

Barrett woke up this morning asking if they were coming to play again today.  He loved having kids to play with all day long!

Scrapbook

This is more or less, Barrett's "scrapbook" and I need to add some of his latest and greatest accomplishments to it.
I'll try to post some videos or pictures, but I don't know how many I have of these things.

Here's some of the fun things he's been doing lately.  He learns things so quickly, it is seriously incredible.  

He has learned all the letters of the alphabet and knows each one of their sounds.  Everywhere we go, he's pointing out letters and numbers that he sees.  Since learning his letters, these spoons have become his favorite!  My friend Kacey made them for him and they're wearing out so I thought I better get a picture.  He calls the Barrett spoon, "TTT" and the other one is the Johnson spoon.  He is learning to spell his name with these.

He loves singing songs.  He sings (mostly by himself) Ring Around the Rosies, the Alphabet Song, The Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Jingle Bells, Old McDonald, and... I know there's more that I can't remember right now.  He also hums and makes up his own songs and they're my favorite!

He can count to 20. Sort of, he usually gets to 13 and then skips to 19 and 20.  He can do all of them, but often doesn't.

He loves to type.

He has learned to negotiate with me.  If I say he needs to have 10 more bites, he'll say he wants 7 or 5 (or whatever).  Or if I tell him he has 2 more minutes in the tub, he'll tell me he wants to stay in for 11.  I'm amazed that he understands the value of numbers.  

He's really good at finding things that match.  

He generally speaks in full sentences and uses hilarious words like ridiculous.  I can understand what he's saying most of the time, but other people can't always comprehend.

When I tell him not to do something, he'll often say "sorry mom," "it's fine," or "it's okay" and do it anyways.  We've got to work on that but I have to admit I do find it hilarious most of the time.

He's super attached to me right now and won't let Neil do anything for him.

He definitely has his share of "2 year old" moments.  It seems to be getting better most days, but I'm not sure if we're just getting more used to it now or if it's actually decreasing...

He started saying "I love you" about a month ago!  Not that he couldn't say it before, he just wouldn't!

He thinks I am the Starbucks mermaid and every time we pass a Starbucks, he says, "Mommy's picture!"

He says muh-cause instead of because.
He calls a lamb a lamp, because even though he knows what a lamp is, he gets sheep and lamb crossed.
He calls a piggy back ride, pig horse.  Actually, he calls ME pig horse when I'm giving him a piggy back ride.
He's always telling me and Neil good job for things and also "be careful".  He also compliments our clothes often, "Cute/cool shirt, Dad."

We taught him how to play hide and seek last week.

We have so much fun together and I'm extremely grateful to have him here with me to explore Denver while Neil's at work everyday!

I could only get 1 video on because it made the post too big I guess.  Or it could be that the internet here is really crappy.  

Sold!

The first house we ever bought is no longer ours. We bought it in 2007 and lived in it for over 5 years.  For most of the last 2 years, it's been totally empty while we've moved around with Neil's job.

On one hand, we're happy to be rid of it, but it's still a little sad as well.  On to bigger and better things...eventually.

Be Impressed!

So yesterday was our 9 year anniversary! I'm completely shocked by that!  I usually don't post pictures of us when we got married because we were just chubby little children!  I seriously can't believe we were so young!

We actually celebrated our anniversary apart this year. Neil had to fly to Utah last minute to go close on our house (more on that soon), so it was just me and Bear having an anniversary party.

It was a high of about 5° yesterday, so we cuddled up by the fire. Today was just as cold, it was -12 when we went to the gym this morning!

I tried to do a timer picture of us and I obviously didn't have the camera in the right place.  I wish this one would've turned out!

Maybe Neil and I will get to celebrate another time!  If not, there's always next year!

Go Broncos!

It has been really fun to be here in Denver during the last month when Denver won the AFC championship and got ready to go to the Super Bowl!  (Side note, we had tickets to that awesome championship game but we didn't have a babysitter so we had to give the tickets back to Neil's work.  We are still kicking ourselves for not making it work somehow!)  Anyways, there's just been a really fun energy here with all the diehard Broncos fans.  We were living in Toronto when the Maple Leafs were in the playoffs too and that was really fun as well, it just gets you into it a lot more I think.

We had our own little Johnson family Super Bowl party yesterday and even thought the game was not very fun to watch, we had a good time together.  

We didn't have any Broncos gear to wear because we don't care that much, but Bear wore his football sweatshirt and I wore a navy sweater (I know you can't tell it's blue) and painted my nails Bronco orange. 

We had some good food too.  We had pizza, pigs in a blanket, chips and guacamole, and Shirley Temples.  YUM.  I had to go pick up the pizza during the game because they weren't delivering and the streets were pretty much empty!

Neil threw Barrett up in the air for our halftime entertainment.

Some Stuff

Bear and I went to a story time at the library the other day.  I've got to make sure we go to more of those because it is so close to our house.   He even got to make a cute little tiger puppet (not pictured).

He got a darling valentine in the mail from Pops and Lala that day too.

I know these are dumb pictures but I thought it was funny so I took them anyways.  We were eating our Lucky Charms the other day (don't worry, he has to eat a bowl of Mini Wheats before he can have his Lucky Charms), and he eats all his marshes (that's what he calls them) first but doesn't usually eat the crappy pieces unless he wants more marshes.  I eat all the crappy pieces first, saving the best for last! mmmmmm...

We went out to feed the ducks the other day and found out they were totally scary ducks!  As soon as we threw a couple pieces of bread into the water, they started swarming us and I was sure they were going to bite us!  I was pushing them back with my feet (also known as gently kicking) and trying to pick up Bear so they wouldn't get him!  He wasn't scared but I was totally panicking!

Since I was afraid, I told Bear we had to go inside and wait for Dad to come home.  Those ducks followed us all the way back to our front door!  Greedy little creeps!

Luckily Daddy came home soon and Bear could go back out and finish feeding the ducks.  We tried throwing bread to the bunnies too but they didn't seem to want it.

I am becoming a self-proclaimed master at building train tracks (this is the only one I had a picture of).  He got a ton of Thomas trains and tracks for Christmas from my mom and sisters and has been having fun with them.

It has been snowing like crazy here the last few days.

Our neighbor built this awesome snowman and Bear really wanted to play with it!

I wouldn't let him play with theirs, so he decided to build his own.

And it was a masterpiece.