first hike of the year

near the end of may we took our first hike of the year...a couple months late. we usually work hikes in from march on, but with the business of the end of the school year and my pregnancy exhaustion we ended up putting it off. 

we hiked up grizzly creek - it's one of our favorite trails - beautiful & easy enough for kennedie to do most of the hiking on her own - since she's getting a little big for the kelty now a days :) plus - she loves to hike & especially enjoys being the leader. 

it was a gorgeous day and we got out early enough that we didn't run into too many other hikers. we did, however, encounter a fish caught by a fisherman & put in a little hole to keep until he was finished. unfortunately some a couple of hikers who got there before we did (& were still there which is how i know it was them - i watched it) wanted to take a picture with the fish. the man gave the fish to the woman - who then proceeded to drop it right onto a large rock - pretty sure it died on impact - but they took the picture anyway.  kennedie liked looking at the fish thought - and didn't seem to notice that it wasn't moving (which actually made for a better picture probably).

 a little further up the trail, was a great place for a picture...tommy wanted kennedie to stand on the log - you can see who skeptical she was - with the water rushing behind her, she wasn't all the jazzed to be out on the log.

 a few more picts...kennedie leading the way & taking in the sights along the creek.

 and of course - the family shot :)

turning 3

happy 3rd birthday kennedie!!

kennedie celebrated her birthday multiple times this year :) as she's been lucky enough to do the last 3 years actually. 

celebration #1: the birthday party

the celebrations began the weekend before her actual birthday at a party at our house with her friends. i planned a rainbow themed party, complete with rainbow cupcakes, rainbow jello, a rainbow fruit platter & of course, rainbow decor!

 the birthday girl was also decked out in a rainbow tutu :)

the party schedule - play, lunch, cake, presents

overall - i pretty successful party! 

celebration #2: the actual day of birth

april 13 - the celebration began as soon as she woke up (hence the bed head in the picture below!) with a super special birthday breakfast - a #3 pancake with sprinkles!!

we continued to celebrate in denver at the butterfly pavilion. she loved all of the butterflies. the only disappointment was that one didn't actually land on her (thought not for lack of trying!). kennedie was also very brave & held rosie the tarantula!

 

celebration #3: florida

kennedie's birthday always falls around our spring break (or has ever since our district went to a winter break & spring break). since it's so close, she is lucky enough to get to celebrate with her nanny & poppy too - they always do something special for her. this year, it was a trip for everyone to legoland! kennedie LOVED it all - the legos, the rides, more legos :) 

 rides with daddy :) kennedie went on her first real roller coaster at lego land...first time - she loved it & wanted to go again right away. talked about it all through lunch - how fast & fun it was. round two - she was hyped to go on it again, but not so thrilled afterwards - not scared, but just wasn't as impressed - said it went too fast ;) silly girl!

 

 tuckered out after a fun day!!

 once we got back to nanny & poppy's house it was time for birthday party #2 - complete with cake, decorations (princess themed this time - b/c she's nanny & poppy's little princess) & presents!

it's a....

we got to find out whether a little sister or little brother will be joining our family in august this morning. kennedie seems very aware that there is a baby in mommy's tummy & we thought this would be an excellent opportunity for her to solidify that awareness & be able to see her sibling to be! 

the whole family went to my 20 week ultrasound to see the little gal/guy. everything looked good as far as development and we asked the technician to put the gender results in an envelope so we could find together as a family...kind of. when we found out with kennedie, we asked for our results in an envelope & tommy got to see first - he went into walmart & got something that would reveal the gender for me (i get to carry the little one for 9 months & he got to know the gender for about 15 minutes alone - fair trade?) so this time, daddy got the honors again & went into city market to get boy/girl colored balloons to put in a box for big sister to open to reveal who we would be expecting. 

 kennedie was pretty excited about the whole thing...especially because it involved balloons :) 

since she wanted a baby sister, it took awhile for her to get a firm grasp on the fact that she would be getting a baby brother instead - but she caught on!! we're so excited & cannot wait to meet our baby boy!!

easter weekend

easter came early this year - the last weekend of march. 

luckily - it was a beautiful weekend, full of fun festivities!

saturday morning we got ready & were off to eagle to try out their easter egg hunt in the park. last year we did the gypsum one at the rec center, so thought we'd try something new. we met our friends amanda, jim & calvin for coffee before hand & walked to the park together. they had a small area roped off for each age group 1-2, 3-4, etc. since calvin was already 3, & kennedie would be in a couple weeks, we decided to 'hunt' in the 3-4 zone. she only got about 5 eggs & i could tell was disappointed (heartbreaking for mommy to see) but we made the most of it & she loved opening up the eggs to see all the candy inside. 

 ready to hunt :)

 with her buddy calvin                         taking in the scene

 

hugs for the easter bunny        checking out her haul

 when we got home, it was time for some egg decorating of our own. this year i thought we'd try painting the eggs instead of just dunking them. kennedie loved it! 

once the eggs we all done, they needed to dry, so we went out to the backyard & made our own easter egg hunt! kennedie was very good at finding all of the eggs i hid & wanted to do it over and over and over :) it would prove to be good practice for our easter brunch with friends on sunday.

the easter bunny left an easter egg trail for kennedie to follow from her room to her baskets on easter morning. here are before & after shots - she obviously had no trouble finding them & once she did, she opened everything, threw it on the floor & went for the next. she got some treats, a twirly dress, fun farm animal book, a new pair of shoes & some hair bows.

we made our way over to the brummer's for an easter brunch. it was a beautiful day! we had a wonderful potluck meal with friends & then the dads hid eggs around the yard for the kids. kennedie filled her basket with eggs right to the top this time! she was so excited!

we had a wonderful weekend with friends! we are so lucky

lord stanley

at the AVS game went to in March - it was trophey night! what did that mean? that meant that tommy was in heaven - we got to see 4 of the big hockey trophies - the hart memorial, the vezina, the art ross, & the conn smyth trophy...and we got to not only see, but touch the stanley cup!!

if you know tommy, he's not a big fb guy - but once we had a family picture taken with the cup - it was his new profile picture before i could even download the picts onto my computer!

 the many faces & expressions of kennedie

the only thing that would've made the game better, is if the AVS would've won :)