New Post But No Pictures

We are having some technical difficulties, so unfortunately, I am unable to post pictures this time around. We are working on it though and hopefully we can get it resolved soon! We've got some great pictures to share!

It has been a great week! Our first camp week officially ends tomorrow as the families leave in the morning. Kyle has been having a great time with his Summer Staff. For those not familiar with the way that YL works their camps, here's the run down. The summer is broken into three sessions pretty much by month (so June is Session 1, July is Session 2, etc.). Field staff (which is what Kyle is considered) is sent to the camps during the summer as the "Assigned Team". Our assigned team consists of approximately 12 staff members from across the country and their families. There is also Summer Staff which is made up college age kids who volunteer for a month (or a session). And then there is Work Crew which is made up high school age kids who also volunteer for a session. So, we are working Session 1. Kyle's job is "Summer Staff Coordinator" which means that he oversees/disciples/hangs out with the college aged kids that are here for the month. So there is a brief overview of the vocabulary regarding YL camp!

We'll keep working on the pics but in the mean time... be anticipating pictures of Logan feeding chipmunks out of her hand, the Johnson fam in full western gear and pics of our Jeep tour! Fun times!

Elevator Fun

While in Breckenridge, Logan discovered how much fun you can have on an elevator... watch to find out for yourself!

oh... wait... 3 quick disclaimers:

For some reason, I turned the camera once I started filming so you'll have to turn your head to view SORRY!

That is Kyle's voice you here squealing along with Logan - not mine!

It ends rather abruptly as someone gets on the elevator at one of the floors.

ENJOY!

Breckenridge and Trail West

Thursday was our last morning in Breckenridge. I got up that morning and took a yoga class in town at a small studio. It was an interesting experience. I knew better than to assume that it was like my normal class that I take at home... and I was right. The class was full on yoga... with the "Om" and sanskrit chants... the works. Anyway, I probably won't forget that anytime soon!!

We didn't take very many pics while in Breckenridge but here are the few that we did take...

Logan would yell "Hi!" everytime we walked past these sculptures... pretty sure that she thought that they were real.

This is outside of the studio where I took my yoga class.

We did a little shopping in Breck before heading to Buena Vista. Kyle got the bargain of the day with a pair of Earl Jeans (which he so could care less about the brand, but I was shocked at the price!). They were originally $190 and he got them for $25!! So he got a few pair. I got a pair of Uggs since I have been wanting some for a while. They were on sale but definitely not $25.

Outside of Buena Vista on our way into town, there is an amazing overlook that we stopped to check out. The Collegiate Mountain Range is just behind us.

Logan decided to climb a tree...

Our first full day in Trailwest... Logan is checking things out!

Check out her new Nalgene sippy cup. A must have for Young Life camp.

Logan loves these little chairs that are just her size. She climbs in and out constantly.

We are starting our third day here. Work Crew and Summer Staff arrived last night and our first camp week starts tomorrow when the families arrive. The first two weeks are reserved especially for Military families. I am not fully aware of what to expect but I am anxious to see Family Camp at work!

Logan is hopefully making progress in the sleep department. Yesterday she woke up at a painful 4am. Lord, have mercy! Today she woke up at 5:30am and we were so excited!!

No Rest for the Weary

We left on Saturday morning for Colorado. Every summer Kyle gets an "assignment" which is a month working at one of the camp properties for Young Life. Now for those of you who have never been to a Young Life camp, you are probably envisioning what your childhood camp was like. Well... no, no, no, Young Life does camp like no other. They believe in making it the best week of your life which means that not only is it set in one of the most beautiful places you can imagine but they also serve amazing food (Which is why I gained 8 pounds on our last assignment! But I was also pregnant and that accounted for a 1/3 of the total weight I gained, but still... it's a testament to the quality of food!) and they also provide some amazing experiences for the camper. This year we are serving at Trail West in Buena Vista, Colorado, which is a family camp (the only one for YL!) set amongst the the Collegiate Mountain Range.

So back to the original purpose of this post... we left town on Saturday morning and stayed in Amarillo with our friends, the Ratliff's. Logan had a great time with their kiddos, Molly and Noah. We so enjoyed our time with them. I cannot say thank you enough to Julie for what we will refer to as the "Poop Incident of 2009" and just leave it at that. (Logan is the main character in "The Incident", just for clarification.) After two baths for Logan, due to the aforementioned "Incident" and a nice little plastic diaper cover to help protect her carseat from any encore performances, we left Sunday morning for two nights' stay in Colorado Springs.

Luckily, "The Incident" didn't follow us across state line and we have been safe from a reoccurance thus far. But that was just in time for Logan to enter her new phase called "Sleep is for Suckers". Seriously, we are struggling on the sleep front. Note the time of this posting as I type sitting up in bed with Logan sitting next to me reading her books and playing with her dolly. The first morning (Monday) in Colorado Springs, Logan woke up at 3:30am ready for the day. Today we stretched it out until 4:30 a.m. Seeing as though it's almost 1:00 am right now, surely we will be able to make it to 6am...maybe? Regardless, we are having lots of fun. Here are a couple of pics of our time in Colorado Springs.

At Garden of the Gods

Busy, busy, busy...

Smelling the flowers with Daddy.

Snuggling with her dolly.

We were able to have lunch with Tony B today while in Colorado Springs.

Tony took us to a great lookout area overlooking the Garden of the Gods.

As you can see, it was pretty overcast today and it was COLD.

We left CS and headed to Breckenridge after lunch. It was overcast the whole way and as we approached Breckenridge we were met with snow!!

That's all for now...I'll be back soon with some pics of our time in Breckenridge. I am off to try to get Logan to bed... again.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.... Right?!

Dear Faithful Blog Readers (all 5 of you that I could just as easily list by name),
I haven't been "feeling" the ole blog lately but that could be due to busy-ness. But I am hoping to be inspired once again by the next month of our lives being spent in beautiful Colorado. I may even get crazy and decide to post a few times about our adventures while in the mountains.
To get a quick update on our life here are a few things that I have not posted about (yet!) that have been the focus of our days...

** Kyle leaving Young Life staff
** Kyle starting a new career
** Shalen possibly going back to school
** Selling our home (moved out today, close on Friday!)
** Trusting the Lord to provide for us (He's never let us down!)

So, I'll be back soon to fill in the details but most of you already know all of the details anyway. (I guess the details are for any lurkers that may decide to drop by!)

Saturday morning we will be heading to Colorado. We are making a little vacation out of our journey to Trail West where we will be doing our last assignment with Young Life. We will be staying with some friends in Amarillo on Saturday night and then driving to Colorado Springs for a couple of days and then on to Breckenridge for a couple of days before ending up at Trail West on May 28. We will be there until June 23. Pray for our travels... I'll be in touch with pictures and stories as they happen.

Easter 2009

Logan with her handsome cousins!

Checking out what's inside of those eggs!! All she got were some Gripz (crackers) and raisins... maybe next year she can have some candy! We figure we'll keep it away from her for as long as we can!

Easter was so much fun this year.... even though we did get rejected at church (30 minutes early and the parking lot was already full!!) BUMMER! We had lunch with my family and then an indoor egg hunt due to the soggy weather. Logan loved it though!

Catchin' Up...

Here are a few more pictures to catch you up on the our exciting lives for the rest of March...
just a couple of cute pics of Logan...

Logan is digging her new trucker hat that Gommie and Papa bought her while on the ski trip.

We had a really pretty afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Logan, Dudley and I spent some time in the backyard after school...

Kyle and I had a fun night at a Stars game with Autumn and Justin!

4th Anniversary

Dancing Snow Queen

We returned home from the Young Life Ski Trip today. This trip is one of mine and Kyle's favorite events of the year. Here is a quick run down of our trip...

Here is Logan trying on her ski jacket before we left. She seemed to like it quite a bit even though it did cause a nasty accident later in the week. Keep reading below for details on that!

I just had include the back view!

We left for Colorado on Saturday, March 13. My parents went with us this year (as they did last year, also!). We rode along with the Wimberley's. Logan LOVES their girls - Ellie and Caroline. Caroline and Logan have a slight obsession with one another, so the fun began right away.

There was lots of this going on... Logan and Caroline loving on each other.

And also a lot of this... although you can't tell from this picture... Logan was dancing. She LOVES dancing. She literally danced ALL WEEK LONG! Her night routine went something like this... dinner, bath, change into pj's, then we would go to club long enough for her to dance to a couple of songs then I would hurry back to our room to put her to bed in time for me to make it back in time to hear the message.

Here are Caroline, Logan and Ellie dancing.... Don't you worry, I have lots of video of this to prove that they were actually moving rather than just sitting/standing like the pics show. If I can figure out how to post them, I will!

Out of order here, but once again, Caroline and Logan playing... this time Caroline was trying to do Ring Around the Rosie with Lo...

On Thursday we headed over Frontier Ranch before skiing for a tour of camp. Logan found the bear in the Kachina and LOVED it... sorry the pic is blurry, I wanted to include it anyway!

Our little family while at Frontier Ranch. Logan had a little accident right before this picture was taken. We were lucky to have beautiful weather while in Colorado this year. Logan never needed her ski jacket until this morning. Once we arrived at Frontier Ranch, I put Logan's jacket on her. Apparently, the jacket made her a little top heavy and as soon as I let go of her she did a face plant directly into the gravel. So sad!!! She got a mouth full of dirt as well as some pretty decent battle wounds on her nose and cheek. She was a trooper though (as she always is!!) and brushed it off pretty quickly and was ready to explore some more!

Thursday night, Logan sported her cow "Baby Leg's" and was so adorable. She seemed to know that she was extra sassy that night. At club, not only did she dance her little heart out, she also planted a big ole kiss right on her friend Spencer's lips in the middle of club.

Overall, we had a great trip! Logan was so much fun and really did so well!! It was definitely different traveling with a toddler (and thank goodness for portable DVD players!!). Logan kept us laughing all week. We actually do have a couple of pictures of Kyle and I skiing but they are not on our camera, once I get them, I will post those, too!!!

It's Been Awhile...

since I have been on here... Sorry, just not very motivated to update the ole blog. We've had a good and quiet few weeks. Friday, Logan went to the doctor for her 15 month appointment. She is holding strong in her weight and height - (24 pounds and 30 3/4" respectively) in the 65th percentile for each. Dr. C was once again surprised that she is weighing and measuring as much as she is... he is waiting to see her start dropping in the percentiles seeing as though her genetics don't lend themselves to her being a very big girl! She is great though... so happy, so BUSY!, so verbal and really just so much fun. She brings much joy to our lives! I haven't taken very many pictures lately, but be ready for seeing lots of pics after this next week! We leave next Friday for our ski trip and there will be lots of pictures to post once we get home!

Here are a few of the pics that we actually did take this past month!

Busy Girl...

Logan has been a busy little girl... Seriously she runs everywhere. When we are out and about she wants to be walking with us not in the stroller or grocery cart, etc. She's a big girl! When did this happen?!?

My camera's batteries have been dead so I haven't been able to download some new pictures but here are a couple from the last few weeks that I thought were cute...



Logan found the bandaids at Gommie and Papa's house. She has no clue what they are but she likes em!

Logan got this stroller for her birthday... she loves pushing it around but would much rather sit in it. As you can see, she doesn't exactly fit in it.

Unfortunately, we are dealing with another ear infection!! A mere month since she had her tubes put in, and here we are with another ear infection. I noticed on Saturday that she had quite a bit of "goop" dried in her ear. I ignorantly assumed that maybe that was a good sign - the crud was coming out instead of settling in her ear. I've kept a close watch on it the last few days, then yesterday when she woke from her nap, I noticed a bunch of dried blood in her ear. (I mean a BUNCH!). I immediately called the doctor's office and luckily Dr. C called me back quickly and told me to use the drops they gave us when her tubes were done and to bring her into the office today. Luckily, it is "just" an ear infection... the blood was a bit unsettling to see yesterday. Logan doesn't seem to mind... she has been a super happy and BUSY girl in the midst of it all!!

Not Cool

Well, I had just posted 2 new posts a little while ago... the first one is no longer on here. It was a cute little post showing how Logan had learned how to take off her diaper and it included a pic of her walking and showing her little hiney. So not a big deal but fortunately, I checked my site meter right after I had posted it (not sure why I did, but I am glad that I did). Well anyway, in a matter of maybe 2-3 minutes, I had 16 hits from various foreign countries. Anyone that watches their site meter, realizes that you do get some random visitors from time to time, but literally 16 in a 2 minute time span on my blog is little weird. So I quickly removed that post and all pictures and got a little sick to my stomach. I don't know if I am just paranoid, but I have read on other blogs how they have tracked key words that had brought random visitors to their blog and it can be gross (regardless how naive the intent). So, just a word of caution - be careful what you are putting out there of your kiddos... there are some lurkers that are not welcome visitors that have access to everything you are allowing them to have access to...

I may consider going private - which I HATE because it's so not convenient and I love looking at blogs and love to have normal folks look at mine! I will keep you posted if I do decide to do that...

Fascinating

Or at least Logan thinks so... Logan LOVES pulling eyelashes... her own, her dolls but especially everyone elses... I usually will not let her (it hurts! and she DOES not stop, she could seriously do this for hours!) but decided that I would document this new obsession of hers...

If she is sitting on your lap and facing you, it will not take her long to notice your lashes and she will then go to town!! And it is all business for her...

And then she does this when you make her stop...

Praying for Harper

Hey guys -
You may notice the new little button to the right of my page. I have been burdened since Friday (Harper's birthday!) to pray for this little girl. Do I know her? Nope! I have read her mom's blog for quite some time... I guess you could say that she is "famous" in the blog world (not that she wants to be!) And I would like to think that if we lived closer we would probably be friends! Anyway, Friday was the big day for Harper to come into this world and she did but has had some complications. Amazingly, it seems as if this is where the story begins. God is doing some amazing things through this newborn baby... bringing people around her family to love on them and really using this newborn to show how God intends for His people to live as one body (and so much more!!). Click on the button to go to her Mama's blog.
Thanks! Oh, and be sure to pray for Harper!!!!

Ho ho ho!!

Logan's teachers at school surprised me with an 8x10 Christmas picture of her that they had taken... how cute is she!?? They brought the clothes and everything and pulled off a fun surprise! The top one is the one that they gave me and then emailed me the others to have for fun!