Rocky Mountain National Park

We have been getting out and exploring the beautiful state of Colorado. We recently become members of the Rocky Mountain National Park and have been getting out as much as we can. It's amazing how much the park changes with the seasons. We love it and look forward to exploring and making lots of memories together in this park and the rest of the state. 

Want to build a snowman? 

Looking a little mischievous after breaking the snowman.  

Arrabella power! 

Frozen lake girl! 

Bear Lake is amazing in the winter! This frozen waterfall was neat! I actually don't know if it really is a waterfall or just a whole lot of icicles, either way it was cool.  

Chasing waterfalls! Below William is standing on what normally would be rushing water from the waterfall. The hike was hard to this waterfall. I don't think we would do this again during the winter with little Bella. Come summer we will definitely be hiking this area more. If you go up close enough to the waterfall top you can see the rushing water under the frozen ice. 

Museum Girl!

Arabella's number one spot to go play and discover is the Denver Musuem of Nature and Science. The Musuem is only a few blocks away from our house and we recently became members. We go to the Musuem at least once a week, I am sure it will probably get old but for now we can't get enough! 

Arrabella loves dinosaurs!

We enjoy looking at all the beautiful butterfly's and moth's.

Crystal cave from Mexico! 

We learned that most of these dinosaur bones were discovered right here in Colorado. We never knew that Colorado at some point had a large population of dinosaurs. Pretty neat! 

Checking out the fossils. 

Arabella loves watching the paleontologist at work. He was working on a triceratops skull! 

The Musuem recently opened this new and very exciting Discovery Zone just for the little ones to enjoy! They do such a good job keeping it interesting. Arrabella being a water child immediately went to the "bubble table", that is what she calls it. It's messy and I need to make sure to bring a change of clothes. For the fist few times she didn't even play anywhere else, water lover! 

Checking out the bugs. 

Inspecting the animals. 

Lite Brite fun! 

Mermaid girl!

One day they had a guy walking around with this T-rex costume, Bella was unsure about it. 

High fives for the Polar Bear. 

Puppet time with the squirrel.

Christmas with Gramps and Granby

One Sunday morning after we all went to church, we headed over to Gramp's and Granby's house to celebrate Christmas! The kids enjoyed opening their gifts, playing and Arrabella tried to eat all the oyster crackers in the house. 

Dance time! 

Puzzle time with Granby. 

William loves his new, high tech car track!!! We did not get a picture but William also got the whole collection of Harry Potter books, thanks to aunt Lyssie! Chris and William have been busy reading non stop and are on the last book. 

As soon as we got home William and Bella wanted to play with it. William's very large room is great for the big track. 

Basketball

William just finished another exciting season of basketball. It has been really fun for Chris and I to watch him grow with this sport. He will be starting a new season in early April and Chris will be head coach! Chris has some awesome videos of William playing ball, I will see if I can get one on here. 

Christmas in Long Grove

We had another exciting Christmas in Long Grove! Pamma and Grandpa are very generous hosts! It was so nice to see everyone after a whole year (crazy)! It was fun going back to the Chicago area and we enjoyed eating at all our favorite places and spending lots of QT with Pamma and Grandpa! Another great Christmas in the books!  

Newton children sure are beautiful! 

Having a peaceful moment admiring the tree before the present explosion! 

Bella chilling, probably watching Charley Brown.

Racetrack fun!

Arrabella is curious about Charlie! 

Time to try out the toys with uncle Greg! 

One of Arrabella's favorite Christmas gifts was her princes castle! 

Christmas in Belleville

It was so nice to spend Christmas in Belleville with the GG's and family! I took no pictures, thankfully Chris took some and was able to capture some of the fun! 

William looking handsome in his new Bears hoodie from his cousins. 

Hugs and photobombs. Kids loving on GG Lavern! 

Chris decided to put the kids to work making him an ugly Christmas sweater!

Let's just say they did a pretty good job! It kind of reminds me of the Big Island. 

Christmas got a little weird this year!?

William loved spending time with his cousins. One of his favorite parts of this Christmas was the sleepovers.

We were able to make it to mass just in time after the drive down from Long Grove. 

Bella enjoyed playing with all of GG's toys!