Just another six weeks or so of hiking high up in the mountains. The snow usually starts up there around mid to late September. This weekend we hiked below the summit of Mt. Evans at above 12,000 feet. Daniel was on his own this time and hiked higher and further than a lot of adults I know would be able to! We were very proud of him! We use, "You have to get strong legs if you want to learn how to ski this winter," as motivation when he starts to lag.

Summit Lake, elevaton 12, 600ft, appropriately named since it is below the summit of Mt. Evans. This is where we began our hike on Saturday.

We did not hike too far this time since Daniel was walking and there is a significant amount of oxygen missing above 12,000 feet!

Daniel, Eli and Mommy on the edge of a 2000ft cliff. Yikes!!

Daniel and his illegally picked wild flowers. We forgot to tell him we shouldn't pick the flowers and when we turned around, he had a whole fist-full. I smuggled them back to the car inside my jacket. I'm not really sure what the National Forestry personnel will do to you if they catch you picking flowers...
Looking over the 2000ft high cliff and down on Chicago Lakes. We could see tents down by the lakes.
You can drive to the summit of Mt. Evans on the highest, paved road in America. That may sound exciting, but it is also a harrowing experience. This picture does absolutely no justice to the shear drop off from the highway. It is straight down for thousands of feet. And we were driving this while it was sleeting! What is disconcerting is when you see the areas where the pavement has begun to crumble and break away. Eeek! Have they not heard of guard rails??!

Just Caleb and I went to the Downtown Denver Aquarium yesterday. I'm trying to spend at least one morning a month with each boy by themselves. I am part of a babysitting co-op so I dropped Daniel off at a friend's house to play with her son. I don't know if Caleb realized the "specialness" of having Mommy all to himself. He cried quite loudly and was fairly distressed as we drove away without Daniel. He is pretty attached to his older brother.

For about an hour I listened to "ishy" and "shar" repeated over and over and over and over and over...

I love it when I spend time alone with Caleb. I feel like I know Daniel so well. (maybe this is where mid-child syndrome begins) Partly because Daniel has been a part of our family twice as long as Caleb has, but also because I spend so much more of my day with Daniel. Caleb naps 3-4 hours a day. Daniel no longer naps so he follows me around the house most of his waking hours.

I love seeing how curious Caleb is. He asks questions all the time (I have to go by the tone of his voice since I don't speak much 2-year-old gibberish). He has a sense of humor and is always doing things he thinks is funny. And he has one speed -- RUN! Caleb is also extremely affectionate, always giving hugs and kisses or sitting for a long time on our laps while we read to him. I LOVE this little boy!

I'm going to go ahead and talk about something that may be a little controversial. That's my prerogative -- it's my blog!! Patrick and I had been leaning toward homeschooling our children. Obviously, it was a decision still in the theoretical realm since none of our children are school age yet... Since it was something we were praying about we went to the Christian Home Educators of Colorado (http://www.chec.org/) conference in June. The 1% of us that was still on the fence regarding homeschool was pushed completely over the edge by the end of the first day of the conference. I wanted to post a YouTube link to one of the speakers, Dr. Voddie Baucham, a huge advocate for homeschooling. Please watch and consider what he says... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq_tcyPV7Vg

Just throwing some recent pictures of the boys up there for my mom. Apparently, she looks at this blog every day and she's wanting to see something new...

Happy, Mom??

Yeah and praise the Lord! Caleb's doctor called this evening and all his blood work is normal! I didn't realize I had been holding my breath until the call came. Very happy and thanking God for my healthy son!

I'm posting some pictures of precious Caleb because he is heavy on my heart this evening. Caleb had some blood work done this morning and I am anxiously waiting for the phone to ring with the results. He has been exhibiting some symptoms for diabetes (which runs in my family) and anemia. His symptoms can also have perfectly logical explanations.

His doctor says there is probably nothing to worry about and my thought is, "Yeah, easy for you to say. He's not your kid. " So I'm sitting here writing, mostly for something to do, otherwise I'm going to drive myself crazy. I cannot believe how much I can worry about my children. I'm learning to turn my worry into prayer! We'll know in the next day or so what is up with Caleb and keep you posted! In the meantime, please pray with us.

Someday we'll show this picture to Daniel's future wife...