Last weekend Team Bolen loaded up the pick-up and drove 1100ish miles to Colorado for a Bolen Family Reunion. It was the first time since our wedding that all the siblings have been together. It was a ton of fun for me to see the original Bolen crew and to imagine what their house must have been like when they were all younger. That all of the siblings now had their own kiddos made the weekend even more fun.

We rented a house near Estes Park, CO, up in the Rockies. Oh my goodness, it was just beautiful. It was exactly the climate, landscape, area, etc that J.E.B. and I would love to live in permanently. Have the snow-covered mountains visible from our house in the winter, be able to hike those mountains in the summer/fall, have lots of trees to surround our house up on the mountain, maybe even a creek or pond on our land. Yup, exactly where and what we want!

The house we all stayed in was about 8500ft up the mountain (the mountain was 14,500ish ft) and was surrounded by Aspen and various pine trees. This never-ending winter has affected CO too and there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground when we got there Thursday night. It then continued to snow/sleet/rain/hail on and off for the next two days. The temp did rise enough to make the last two days pleasant--sunny, 60s, clear sky--so we toured the town of Estes Park which sat at about 7500ft on the mountain. Estes Park is a tourist town because of the Rocky Mountain National Park there, so there were tons of fudge shops, cookie shops, pubs, t-shirt stores, etc. Still fun to walk around though and with a creek (or small river) running through the town, it was a wonderful sight to my dust and desert-soaked Yuma eyes!

Not everyone was able to make the reunion, but there were still 16 of us in the house, plus Atlas. It was actually spacious enough for all of us. The great room had a fireplace which Jack had going almost every night and the kitchen was large enough that a few people could be in it at once and not step on each other. The kids, of course, had the run of the place and they all seemed to enjoy it also. V was very curious about the other kiddos but is in the stranger danger stage so she was a bit clingy when the adults other than Mom or Dad came near.

I really didn't take many pictures because Sheila loves to take pictures. Emphasis on the word love! By the day before we left, she had already taken over 1100 pictures (Amanda helped take some too) and we still had the family picture and others left to take! I learned quickly that Momma will take pictures, no question about that, and she takes really great pictures, so we all just wait for her to make copies and send them to us. In fact, we didn't hire a professional photographer at our wedding since we knew Momma would take a zillion pictures anyway and that plus the other pictures taken, why spend the money for a professional to come and snap more of the same poses?!

So here are some of my camera shots of the weekend. The last few are of our drive home. We took a different route home, through west Colorado, into Utah and then south to Arizona. It was beautiful. Both J.E.B. and I remarked on how we each felt a bit of disappointment that we were leaving the pretty green landscape with 60 degree weather and heading back to the land of brown and 100 degrees in Yuma. C'est la vie!

Brode and V are only a few weeks apart but he is so much bigger than our little Peanut!

Having fun in front of the fire

The driveway to our place was just up the road. Gorgeous view!

Aunt Shelly with Knox and V

The creek (river?) flowing through Estes Park. I never found out the name of it

The communal birthday party!

Wayne laid next to Atlas like this a number of times. Such a cutie!

She definitely loved the cake, frosting and ice cream! Must get it from me!

I was surprised at how many curvy mountain roads did NOT have guard rails! It made me a little nervous one trip down the mountain into town when it was sleeting!

A pretty canyon we drove through. Of course it was raining at the time but still very pretty

I love the colors of these mountains in Utah

Appropriately named Hole In The Wall

And we're back into the high desert of Southern Utah/Northern Arizona.

So when I wrote the last post and said "not much has been going on lately" I lied. Just flat out lied. Actually something pretty significant has been going on but we were keeping it a secret.

I'm pregnant again and due this Thanksgiving. You tend to learn the lesson very quickly after just one miscarriage to keep your pregnancy quiet until you're outta the first trimester. Everything is moving along nicely and as of this post I'm 13 weeks along. We're still going to wait until the birth to see what "it" is and are pretty excited, although a little apprehensive of having two kids in the house.

This pregnancy is also the main reason why its been about a month or so since my last post when I am usually pretty good about updating it every other week or so. This morning sickness has been kicking my butt. I have a brief good period every day between 10am and 1pm and feel nauseous for the rest of the day. I am really hoping that the second trimester is better for me. So far? More of the same, although evenings can now be added to my good times of the day! That's something I guess!

Victoria is doing great. She's walking all over the place now and has definitely graduated to running. Its adorable to hear her little feet patter on the tiles of the kitchen. For those of you who have seen the TV show Family Guy, it sounds just like Stewie walking! She's not yet talking but has started to play around with some sounds other than a screech. I swear she said Ma-Ma the other day, but I am sure it was just babble and wishful thinking on my part.

She's 11 months now and I can't believe that she's coming up on 1 year old. Was it really a year ago that she was laying in the NICU bed with tubes all over her and requiring 3 nurses to change her and take her vitals because she had such a temper?! I think back to that time and how scared and frustrated and helpless both J.E.B. and I felt and think, wow, she's doing so great now.

J.E.B.'s doing great also. WTI has recently finished so he's around the house more. He's actually been working on another woodworking project and it is just about done. He's still doing the P90X workout (he just past day 60 out of 90) and is kicking butt with it.

I haven't been up to doing much in the way of my own sewing projects since I've been feeling like crap. The cute outfit I have in mind to make for V has been sitting on top of the sewing machine, pieces cut and pinned, just waiting to be stitched together. And, judging by how I still feel, it may sit there for a bit longer.

Here are some pictures from the last month or so. I also added a few new videos to dropshots.

Atlas has always been a snuggler and he was in heaven when J.E.B. laid down to watch TV that night. He (the dog) was passed out like this for a long time!

My first Mother's Day gift from J.E.B.--matching jammies! Man, they were comfortable!