On Sunday, Gracie was her typical self….one silly girl. We were watching TV when music came on. This is what she told me:
Gracie (in a super serious voice): “Mom, Mom slow it down, sloooowwww it down.” (That is her way of telling us to pause the TV)
She then runs upstairs and comes down with this on so she can dance around:
She then switched to this outfit:
Is it safe to say that I may have a little fashionista on my hands?
*What is your name?
Grace Anna Cunningham
*How old are you?
Three
*What is your favorite color?
Yellow & Purple
*Who is your best friend?
Adriana and Lilly
*What is your favorite animal?
Monkey’s
*What do you want to be when you grow up?
Rapunzel
*What is your favorite movie?
Kung Poo Panda (Kung Fu Panda)
*What makes you happy?
Harley & Daisy
*What makes you sad?
My friends are not play with me
*What is your favorite food to eat?
Mac & Cheese and applesauce
*What is your favorite song to sing?
Single Ladies (from Alvin & the Chipmunks, the Squeakqel)
What games do you like to play?
Elmo & T Story (Toy Story)
*What makes you excited?
Jungle Jaks
*What is your favorite toy?
Books
*What is your favorite book?
Penguins
*What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
bike ride
*What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
Help her
*What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy & Daddy?
Go to McDonald’s and play
*What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
Clean up (ironically, she refuses to pick up her playroom!)
Here I am apologizing that it has been 2 weeks since I last update…as a matter of fact, I think it might have been about vacation. Yep, just check it. So, I am sorry, but we have been dealing with a lot on our end. First and foremost, we are all alright. It’s been a stressful couple of weeks. (It tells you something when I only picked up my camera for the first time since vacation when we went bowling yesterday!). So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
Vacation Withdraw
Usually when you go on vacation, you are happy to be back at home with your own things, your own bed, and routine. This time around, I had a seriously hard time coming back home. Not necessarily to my things, but to here. I am ready to move. I have not made it a secret about how I am not a big fan of living in El Paso. I have had a positive attitude as best as possible, but I am seriously ready to move. So when we got to experience a new place, I wanted to stay there. I want to move on to the next chapter. But as always, as a military wife, you have to have patience and know that all things come to an end. Eventually, we will come down on orders, eventually, I will be able to pack all my things and start a new chapter…eventually.
Dad + Tree = Broken Leg
Last Sunday, Dad (Matt’s Dad) was working out in the yard pulling down tree branches that had broken off during a nasty storm they had a couple of weeks ago. Long story short, a tree branch about 18 inches-2 feet in diameter, fell on his leg and of course broke it. He went to Carrollton (the town right next to the house) to the ER but they to to transport him to Springfield because the doctors thought they were going to have do emergency surgery. By Monday, they had decided the swelling was too bad so they couldn’t do the surgery. So now he is having surgery this coming Wednesday. We are trying to do all that we can from here, but there isn’t much. Thanks for all of you that have been following on Facebook and sending up prayers. He is going to need some more on Wednesday.
Gracie, Gracie, Gracie
Where do I begin with this girl. She is growing up so fast. It seems everyday she is coming up with a new idea or vocabulary that just knocks me off of my feet. For example, she is currently playing in her playroom making instruments with her toys (making a bullhorn out of another toy, talking about how to make a guitar, etc.) She also plays with her babies non-stop. She is coming to me all the time telling me stories about what her babies are doing. She is getting really good at “reading” books to me. She will look at the pictures and tell me the story. She even tries to fluctuate her tone of voice like you do when you are reading a book. It’s really cute. She is just blossoming into this intelligent little girl, it’s so bittersweet!
Etc. Etc. Etc.
We haven’t really been doing much lately. We have been just spending time relaxing and together. We have officially watched 5 movies this weekend and that is something we don’t do very often. We also went bowling yesterday. Gracie uses the “helper” all by herself now and bowled a 99. I am not kidding. She almost broke 100 if she hadn’t pushed too hard and went over the line. She is quite the achiever at everything. Matt is finishing up with is last 2 classes and should graduate with his bachelor’s in just a few months. So we have been keeping it close to home since we got home from Colorado.
I promise to post some pictures from yesterday when I get them uploaded tomorrow. I promise to keep you more updated this week. Enjoy your Monday…boo…it’s already here!
*Be prepared…this is a SUPER long post!
We enjoyed the weather (rain included) and fresh mountain air from the moment we entered Colorado. The landscape is beautiful. The views are breathtaking and something that I could definitely get used too. We spent the week seeing the sights, enjoying the mountains, and spending time with family. It was great to spend a week with my Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob. I have always said I was raised by my family, so no matter who I see, it’s like going home. Gracie, no surprise, fell in love almost immediately with her Uncle Jan and Uncle Bob. (By the end of the week, I think she was using “Aunt” Jan at least 80% of the time!) So onto all the fun stuff we did!
Grand Lake
Grand Lake is a beautiful town right outside of Granby. I spent a lot of time there when I was 16 and worked in Colorado for the summer. It is one of the many beautiful lakes around Granby. You simply can’t go to Granby and not see the lakes. We spent the afternoon walking the boarded sidewalks, the docks, and eating ice cream on the “beach”. Now, let me explain the beach. It is a beach with sand and water. However, you do not want to get in the water or at least not be in it long since this lake is melted snow. Melted snow = very cold water, even in the summer. Either way, it was a fun and got one of my favorite family pictures yet!
Gracie even got to go visit the alpaca’s (think llama’s). In this picture, she got to pet the baby alpaca! She loved it!
Rocky Mountain National Park
We took an afternoon to head up to the park. We were hoping to see some elk and moose. We lucked out and saw an elk, but no moose were in sight. Gracie got to learn that elk are like deer, but not deer. Uncle Bob made sure she understood this.period. After we got to the top, which was freezing by the way, 49 degrees, we stopped for coffee and gifts. It was so busy! Gracie quickly picked out a moose and elk so she would forget about her lesson. So, she named them Puppy the elk and Layla the moose. Sidenote: We now have a baby, a doll, a Hello Kitty doll, and the moose named Layla. She loves this name for some reason! :) After we headed back down the mountain, we stopped so we could play in the snow. Just 30 days ago, there was 25 feet of snow at the top, now there is just patches here and there!
The elevation really hit Gracie pretty hard. On Monday, she woke up all sorts of tired and with a tummy ache. So she slept all morning and did perk up in the afternoon. But every time we went higher up, it knocked her for a loop as you can see:
Winter Park
Winter Park is a major ski resort town that is just as pretty as Grand Lake. One afternoon, we headed over to do a little sight seeing. There isn’t much to do in the summer, but nonetheless, it is nice to walk around all the little shops. Gracie had a good time looking at all the animal statues. One night, Matt and I went back over to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, New Hong Kong, for date night. We have not had any luck finding a good Chinese place in El Paso, it was so good! The only picture I took at Winter Park was this one…for some reason, I just didn’t take that many (well, here at least!)
Tour of Parks & Outside Time
As I said before, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! We spent a lot of time at parks and playing outside in real grass! Granby is definitely a kid friendly town with 4 parks. Gracie visited 3 out of 4 of them along with ones in Winter Park and Grand Lake. These pictures are just a variety of playground pics and random pics from the Granby portion of our trip.
As you can see, our trip to Granby was a lot of fun. We enjoyed every minute of it! After we said goodbye to Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob, we headed off to Denver for a few days. Gracie was super excited to stay in a hotel and go swimming. Even after going to Casa Bonita, a baseball game and to the zoo, that is what she is still talking about.
Casa Bonita
If you have never heard of Casa Bonita, it is a super fun place for families! The food wasn’t as good as I remembered, but the experience and shows were. It is a place that puts on shows (think divers and fake shoot outs) every 15 minutes. We got bad seats, but we were able to go down and get a front row view after we finish our lunch.
Rockies Baseball
I should tell you that we are not Rockies fans, we are Cardinals fans. However, we do love baseball (or at least I love going to watch them, please don’t make me watch it on TV.) Rockies games are not nearly as exciting as Cardinals games. We ended up leaving after the 5th inning but it was still a good time. Gracie loved the game! She really like Dinger the mascot until we got close and she was like no thank you! All in all, it was an all American good time!
Gracie got a Dora hat to go along with Matt’s Cardinal’s hat…she look so adorable!
Denver Zoo
Gracie has been talking about going to the zoo for WEEKS! I am not kidding either. She was so excited that zoo day had finally arrived. We got there early and spent 4 1/2 hours touring the Denver Zoo. I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures because Gracie was way more interested in looking at the animals then posing for the camera. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything more then that but to say the least a lot of the pictures are the back of Gracie’s head! By the end of zoo day, Gracie was so tired. She slept through lunch. It had been a long time since I have had to maneuver around a child sleeping on my lap to eat. But that didn’t take away from our yummy lunch. We went to Maggiano’s, I was seriously sad that we couldn’t take home the left overs!
Gracie got to finally ride on a train. We saw a lot heading to Colorado and all she wanted to do was ride on a train. You can see she is clearly excited!
After our fun day at the zoo, we just stayed around the hotel. Gracie desperately wanted to go swimming again, so we did. After that we went to the mall that was right around the corner. It had an American Girl store. Gracie was so excited about seeing all the pretty dolls and stuff to go with it. We knew going in we weren’t going to get her one yet. That is definitely a birthday or Christmas present! Either way, she did pretty good just looking until she saw a stroller she wanted…she is still asking for it and we are currently right outside of Santa Fe, NM on our way home. ha!
Vacation was great, it definitely is going down as one of the best ones we have been on. I am sad for it to end and go back to work, but it was a very much needed break. Goodbye, Colorado, until next time (and there will be a next time!)
+1.jpg)
+1.jpg)
