Party Day!

Spencer's PARTY DAY!!!

PJ's * donuts * Monkey Bizness
Lots of F U N!!!

Spencer with good buddies, Mason and Riley.

This child was a true Monkey. To say he had a blast would be an understatement. He climbed and climbed and slid and slid. He was running around so fast you would just see streaks of orange stripes fly by.

Spencer and Mason. They would slide down right on top of each other and laugh and laugh.

Campbell

Jake. He was air born about half the way down. I thought he was going to bounce right out. All the adults had a blast and thought an adult party at monkey biz would be great! Several of us came away with burns from sliding. I see why they make you sign a waiver.

Happy 4th Birthday my Spencer Man!!

YUMMM!

Spen got lots of fun gifts and had lots of little hands eager to help him open!

A very successful party...done before lunch, no house to clean, one very HAPPY birthday boy.

Birthday Boy!!

Spencer is FOUR!!

Say it aint so!

He was very excited to start his day off with a Cupcake...ahem...icing.

"The spongy part isn't my favorite."

And then he was off to his second day of pre-school or "four year old school" as he likes to call it.

He wanted to wait for Daddy to get home from work till he opened his presents. Pretty impressive huh. He adores his Daddy and knew Daddy would love getting to see/play with his new toys.

After opening we headed to Old Chicago for yummy birthday pizza.

And back home for ice cream cake! A day full of sweet yummy sugar.

Spencer you are 40 pounds and 42 inches on your 4th b-day!

You love your family like crazy and love to make others happy. You are smart as a tack and have a huge imagination. From the day you were born we said 'you know what you want when you want it' and nothing has changed. You try and talk your way in to or out of everything.

When you grow up we laugh that you are likely to be: in communications, a salesman, a politician, lawyer or preacher. You currently say you are going to be a fireman or more specifically you are going to be the firetruck driver.
We love you to pieces

Spencer Arrington!!!

Daddy's work

Rocky Mountain Children's Hospital.

This building is the reason we are here in CO!

So Jake could manage its construction.

And it is

beautiful.

I wanted the boys to see the what their Daddy has been working so hard on.

I think Jake was a tad anxious while the kids were in the building. He was worried Campbell was going to tear up this table and honestly he has valid reason to be concerned. The kid is small but mighty...mighty wild!!

They love their Daddy's office and think any big building is for sure a hospital!

Kaleidoscope Ball

The Kaleidoscope Ball was the Gala to celebrate the opening of Rocky Mountain Children's Hospital. I was so excited to get dressed up and have a long night out with Jake. We were grateful to Opa for being here and keeping the boys. I didn't worry the entire time we were gone. That's a huge compliment to Opa. THANK YOU!!!

I would have loved to go around taking pics of all the things they had set up, but I think I would have embarrassed Jake to death. The bottom pic was the set up for community day they were having the morning after the Gala.

I got a tour of the building Jake's been working so hard on. I always love getting to see inside of the hospitals before they are up and running. I am proud that he had a hand in building such a beautiful place for children.

I'm a sucker for children's books so I loved the library! We were able to choose a book to donate to the hospital. We had been wanting to find a way to honor and remember our little baby and this was perfect. I loved being able to write Lael's name in that book.

I love that Lael's name is in a book in the hospital that his/her Daddy built.
A little piece of our baby here in Colorado.
It felt so good. Each year we plan to donate a children's book to a hospital/library/church in memory of our baby, Lael.

Good food. Great company. Fun band. Lots of dancing.

Kids home in bed.

Perfect night.

Summer visit from Opa

Opa came for a visit mid August.

The boys were excited and had many a game planed for Opa!

Looks like all three are ready for a KS game!

We had fun strawberry picking at Berry Patch Farm in Brighton, CO

It's really nice to have these views while picking fresh fruit.

Here are Spencer and his friend Mason. They went a little off on their own picking strawberries and did really well. I think Mason ate more than he put in his basket. I could over hear him trying to get Spencer to eat them. Spencer kept saying no that he wanted to wash them first! Ha! My child! He finally did eat a few at the end.

proud of his basket of berries

Me with the boys while waiting on our wagon ride.

Opa and Spen

"I carry it so carefuwee." Campbell shocked me. He did REALLY good!! I thought he was going to go wild out in the field but he got pretty serious about finding the berries. He loved it!

Resting before heading home!


Sunday lunch and stroll at Southlands.

I can't finish this post without mentioning that Opa has yet to have to change any diapers since becoming a granddaddy 3 years 11 months ago. He did pretty good making it so long!! Well, while I was out for a few hours one morning he was keeping the boys. Campbell helped him break the years long span and went big with a #2!! Opa said he new it was bad when Campbell went and got the newspaper and put it out on the floor. (That's what I do when he has a poo.) So funny!! Good job Opa!!

Thank you for coming to visit and especially for taking care of the boys so we could have our night out without worry!

Oh what a grandfather will do for his grandsons!!!

Wordy Wednesday

SPENCER..

"What in the Lord is he saying?"

"Mama, did you forget that I really don't care for picking up?"

"I've got a lot of kisses for you. They are just resting in my heart."

"hummm. I just love when I get what I want."

CAMPBELL...

"Get off [the potty] Bubba!! It's my turn!"

Me: Why did you tt in your pants?

Campbell: "I don't know eiiiiiiither!"

IRONMAN

A year ago, August 30th 2009, Jake became an IRONMAN.

We traveled to Louisville, KY where he

Swam 2.4 miles

Biked 112 miles

Ran 26.2 miles

For a total distance of 140.6 miles.

Yes, he is CRAZY!! You wouldn't believe how many crazy people were there to participate in the Ironman!

The boys were so excited to cheer for their Daddy. It was hard work though keeping up with these two (2 1/2 and 15 month old) the entire day. Thank goodness I had help with them during this race!


The swim start was so neat to see. I wish I had a better picture. Most of Jake's races have a mass swim start where you all start at the same time or go with your age group. This swim start was a time trial. So there were about three seconds between every 2 people. It was fun to watch the long line of swimmers jumping and dancing to the music happy to start such a hard/exciting day. I have to say I felt less nervous with this type of swim start versus the everyone on top of everyone swimming in dark water.

Waiting for Jake in Lagrange, KY at mile 60 of the bike portion

Go Jake Go!

DONE!!

The IRONMAN!!

He's always been an Ironman to me, but now he has an official title.

We are proud of you Jake! But, NO rush signing up for the next one, please!!!!

Being a spectator is hard work in it self. My friend Janice decided we needed to get t-shirts made that said:

I walked a mile to watch a 2.4 mile swim

Drove 50 miles to see the 112 mile bike race
Napped

Walked 10 more miles to watch a 26.2 mile run

or this one..

I walked a marathon to watch an Ironman

Both so true! Traininig to be a spectator is a good idea!