Reunion – oldtime photos

August 5th, 2010 by robfelty
Old time photo from Estes Park of the family

Old time photo from Estes Park of the family

Another fun thing we did at the reunion was get an old time photo. We went to Memories Old Time Portraits. They were very nice, and did a good job. I’m posting my two favorites here.
Smiling old time photo from Estes Park

Smiling old time photo from Estes Park

Reunion – Elkhorn Lodge

August 5th, 2010 by robfelty
Spencer on a toy horse, Dave, Clare, and mountains

Spencer on a toy horse, Dave, Clare, and mountains

On the last day of the reunion, we took a tour of the Elkhorn Lodge in Estes Park. It is one of the oldest lodges in Estes Park. It was a very interesting mixture of new old, with several large buildings as well as some smaller cabins. They still rent out many of them. After the tour we had a chuckwagon lunch there with cowboy entertainment. Spencer really enjoyed the cowboy music. There were also some spectacular views of the mountains from the lodge, including some beautiful wispy cloud formations.

Stacking, planning, and communicating

August 4th, 2010 by robfelty
Spencer stacking Yogurt

Spencer stacking Yogurt

It seems like Spencer is developing really quickly lately. He is starting to be able to plan ahead much more, and his receptive vocabulary is growing rapidly as well. A few anecdotes:

Sit down

Last week at the reunion we were eating dinner one night. Spencer was sitting on a normal chair next to Geebi, and I was sitting across from him. He started to stand up on the chair, and I asked him to sit down several times. He continued standing, so I started to get up from my chair to make him sit down, and as soon as I stood up, he sat down. Spencer knew exactly what I was saying, but he was testing me!

Barbecue Sauce

Sunday night we were about to eat dinner, and I was getting something from the fridge. Spencer frequently likes to shut the refrigerator door, so I was going to let him do that, but he wanted it open. I shut the door, but he kept opening it back up, and was pointing to something in the refrigerator door – barbecue sauce. He wanted some barbecue sauce. I got it out and handed it to him, and he was immediately happy. We then proceeded to heat up a veggie chicken patty for him to dip in barbecue sauce. Speaking of dipping, he was also dipping chips in a bowl of salsa last week at a Mexican restaurant

Communicating

When Spencer wants to go outside, he starts trying to climb into the backpack, or he finds his shoes and brings them to one of us. He doesn’t have any words yet, but he is starting to communicate better. He has been saying “Uh-oh” a lot over the last week, but it seems to be at somewhat random intervals.

Stacking

Just a few months ago, Spencer only wanted to destroy towers. Now he is actively building them. Dave got a short video of Spencer stacking yogurt cups.

Reunion – Aspen Brook

August 3rd, 2010 by robfelty

Spencer also likes playing with the big fuzzy bear at the cabin

Spencer also likes playing with the big fuzzy bear at the cabin

In addition to hiking and touring Rocky Mountain National Park, we spent much of the reunion just hanging out in the beautiful cabins that Ellen rented. Here are some more photos from around theh cabins at Aspen Brook.
more pictures follow

Reunion – hiking

August 3rd, 2010 by robfelty

We hiked to Adams Falls near Grand Lake

We hiked to Adams Falls near Grand Lake

Since we were staying right near Rocky Mountain National Park, we had the chance to do some hiking at the recent reunion. Jenny and Thad did some long hikes, but we only did a few short hikes since Spencer had to nap in the middle of the day. On Monday and Friday we hiked a bit straight from the cabin (but forgot our camera both times). On Tuesday we drove through the Park on Trail Ridge Road all the way to Grand Lake. It was a very beautiful drive (though there was some construction). We had lunch in Grand Lake, then hiked to Adams Falls. On Wednesday we attempted to hike around Lily Lake, but it started raining. We had a great time hiking.

more pictures follow