Andrew 16 months old

Andrew is Curious George.  He is into and gets excited about everything, well, at least everything Sister is excited about.  Elizabeth is of course excited about bugs so Andrew is as well.  He tries to find them like big Sister but most of the time can't figure out what she is looking at or  for.  Still, he lets out a big Yeah when she finds one.  Andrew is Elizabeth's biggest cheerleader and vice versa.  

And he has six teeth now!

First Fly Trip of the Year

Due to a hectic travel schedule for work, sick kids, and an old boat that I'm putting back together after an eight year hiatus from the water, I am kicking off the fishing season a little late this year...

                   

As usual the first day out was full of surprises, and a windy day like this one didn't help.  I managed to get halfway to the stream when I realized that I didn't have an updated fishing licence - of course halfway to this stream puts you all the way into the middle of nowhere.  Fortunately, I remembered a hole in the wall near the stream that, if it was open, just might sell me a license - lucky for me it worked out.  

                          

My frst two hours fishing were spent on the South Platte below Spinney resevoir.  Usually this time of year can be quite productive as the large lake run fish move into the river to spawn providing some great opportunities for some big trout.  Unfortunately on this day - I didn't see a single fish in two hours on the river let alone have a shot a catching one so I decided it was time to change things up - I packed it up and drove over to Eleven Mile Canyon about 20 minutes away where instantly the fishing picked up.

 It didn't take long to land a few nice fish

Despite catching a few nice fish the first day out craziness continued.  After getting the feel the stream and pulling a couple fish out I was greeted by a truck load of idiots who must have seen me fighting the last fish and decided that my hole, along the eleven mile long stretch of river, must clearly be a great place to fish; and the closer to me the better.  Clearly non-Coloradans, they had thick accents with a lazy drawl, wore cowboy boots, ridiculous cowboy hats,  jeans with an ironed crease and had no idea how to use a fly rod - pulling out the line and reeling in with every pathetic cast - yup - Texans!  At least they weren't using bait!  These kind of antics are perfectly acceptable in the proper setting - its perfectly acceptable to wear a beer dispensing helmet to a frat party but just try wearing it anywhere else - especially to say, maybe... church.  This stream is Colorado Gold Medal Water, its recognized world wide as one of the premier locations for large numbers of wild trout in a setting that is simply majestic, for many this is Church and these guys just wore the beer helmet into the service!

As one would expect, my lack of southern hospitality, at least when it comes to sharing prime fishing holes, and their inability to catch a fish drove them out pretty quickly.  I was left to some prime water in solitude for the rest of the afternoon...

Dinner time

Dinner time is always entertaining at our house.  Yesterday's dinner did not disappoint.  I called everyone to sit down at the dinner table and Elizabeth said, "ok mommy but I need to go potty first."  I turned around and saw that she left a little friend at the dinner table to help her out with her spaghetti-o's.

And then there is Andrew.  He always finishes his dinner first (Elizabeth is always last but starting to do a little bit better).  We're eating and look over and Andrew is calmly sitting on Gregario.  Gregario never let Elizabeth even near him when Elizabeth was 16 months old, let alone ride on him!  Andrew and Gregario are truly best buds.  Andrew asks about Gregario first thing in the morning and right after nap.  One of Andrew's  favorite activities is feeding his furry friend dog biscuits or whatever he has left over on his meal tray.  In the second picture, Andrew is bouncing up and down on Gregario and yelling Yeah!  A Texas cowboy in the making!

                             My loyal Julio.  Don't worry, he got quite a few treats after this one!

Day at the Zoo - For the Birds

Last Friday we went to the Denver zoo with friends and had a very fun time.  We were greeted by the lion king when we entered the zoo.  He was pacing and roaring and then peed all over his rock throne.  Elizabeth asked why the lion peed right where he was standing for a few days afterwards.

They have a special Lorikeet center at the Denver zoo where you can feed the lorikeets.  I've been in there before but the birds were never hungry.  To try to maximize our lorikeet adventure, we were there right when the center opened in hopes of hungry birds.  Tiff was such a sport as little did I know at the time that she not only dislikes birds, she flat our hates the creatures.  And here we timed our entire zoo day adventure around the lorikeets!   To my delight, the birds were super hungry.  So hungry that they would just come on over and sit right on us!  It was wonderful!  Andrew was not too sure about the birds at first but he really liked them once he figured out that they were not going to hurt him (but they do nip a bit).

And what is the Denver zoo without a ride on the carousel.  Elizabeth chose the "Big Bad Wolf Dog" as her animal of choice.  She and Andrew alike love the carousel!

We had a picnic lunch on a nice grassy spot at the zoo.  It was mass chaos trying to feed our kids and our friends kids and keep them in one place but that is just how we roll anymore.  I don't know what I would do if we had a quiet meal!  Anyway, we had a visitor for our lunch, a very handsome peacock.  He walked right up to Elizabeth and Andrew and tried to get their food.  And then when we were leaving, we almost got hit in the head by some low flying Canadian Geese.  It was a day for the birds at the zoo!

Playing in the Park

One day it's snowing and the next it's 78 degrees.  That's Colorado in March.  Andrew and Elizabeth love to play in the park.  We are so fortunate as there are literally 5 parks within 1/2 mile of our house.  Andrew is almost 16 months old and just as curious as his big sister.  He really loves watching birds and will stand on his stool and look outside the picture window for 10-15 minutes continuously at the birds and occasional squirrel.  Elizabeth will stand there with him with her Audubon book and try to identify the birds (most of which are finches or robins).  Today we went to the store and got three different varieties of bird food and another bird feeder (now we have 4) so that we can attempt to increase our bird options.  In the summertime we get lots of hummingbirds but not yet.

 Andrew is learning so many words and is trying so hard to communicate, of course getting frustrated more often than not.  He is really good at saying please, thank you and more and pointing at what he wants.  His most common word is "uh oh" and then a form of "spaghetti-o" at the end of it.  His favorite word is Gregario and he constantly asks where Gregario is?  Gregario is usually right underfoot at Andrew feeds him his food or has food attached to his clothes most of the time during the day.  Gregario is so well fed by Andrew that he is becoming lazy.  When one of us actually drops something by accident on the floor, we now have to call Gregario over to clean it up!

Today Elizabeth found 4 rollie pollies and she won't stop looking until she has found five.  Aunt Tiffy gave Andrew a bug box that is also a neck lace  (with a quick release on the back) but Elizabeth has aquired it (along with everything else in Andrew's spring basket) for the time being.  She even wore her rollie pollies around her neck during lunch, talking to them while she was eating.  It kind of grossed me out as I think they are gross looking.  I could not look at them and eat my hot dog and baked beans at the same time.

 Andrew and Elizabeth love dancing to Disney Princess.  I'll be happy when Andrew has some say in the music but for now, he is ok with Disney Princess too.  They dance around together and Andrew falls down, almost like he thinks that they are playing ring around the rosie.

The other favorite activity as of late is bubbles.  Andrew loves holding the bubbles himself and pours them all out within one minute.  He then carries the bubble container and wand around with him, making pretend that he is blowing bubbles.  Big sister says, "Andrew" and just laughs and shakes her head and says, "Andrew, you are such a silly little guy."