Nathan's 2 year Stats

Better late than never, right? So, since we're not quite at a month after Nathan's 2nd birthday, here are his stats.

He weighed in at 26 lbs and 8 oz. This is the 32%. His height is 35 1/4 inches which is 74%. He's actually really leaned out. I'm thinking it is all of the bike riding he's doing! So, based upon how tall and lean he is, it is not IF he'll pass Silas in height, it is more like.....WHEN and how quickly! I looked back at Silas's 2 year stats and he was 33 1/2 inches, so we'll see if this holds true and how quickly Nathan passes Silas up!

Other than that, I wanted to post a few pictures of what we did to surprise Nathan for his birthday. I had heard about a celebration in the Denver area for A Day out with Thomas the Train. Nathan and Silas both really enjoy playing with trains, so we decided to surprise them. We left on a Saturday around nap time, so Nathan and Abby slept in the car and Silas just hung out, but we told them we had to drive quite a ways to do some errands. So, we got to the festival and had to park and then take a bus. That would have been fun enough for them (gotta love this age!) and they still didn't know what we were doing. Then, we pulled up to the festival and there was a full size train carrying people and it truly looked like Thomas. I wish I had it on camera both Silas and Nathan saying, "Thomas!" They were truly amazed. So we had a very special day looking at trains and then getting to ride on Thomas as a family. Here are some pictures from that day.

Silas and Nathan playing on the different trains.



Daddy, Silas and Nathan ringing the bell on this train.

Sitting as a family getting ready to take a ride on Thomas.




Our family in front of Thomas.


This is what Thomas looked like, so you can see why Silas and Nathan were so amazed. It truly looks like Thomas with the eyes moving and a conductor on board. It was really neat for the kids.

Nathan's Birthday

So I'm a little bit behind, but that's ok. We had a wonderful time celebrating Nathan's bday. He is starting to realize how special birthdays are (thanks to having an older brother), so it was neat to see him excited. We started the morning off with donuts and then opening gifts. The rest of the day was spent playing with those gifts. He got a bike (as you can see from a previous post). I can hardly believe how quickly he took to riding a bike. It is amazing! Now, Silas and Nathan chase each other on their bikes. Sometimes I have to turn around so that I don't look, but it's so fun to see them riding together. Nathan also got a surplus of legos.....yeah! He loves to build and so does Silas, so it is great to see their imagination soar as they build things and interact. Yes, we have seen quite a few flying legos recently!

Then, the special day ended with some very special friends over to have a bbq and enjoy some cake. Silas and Nathan's best friends are Timothy and Aleks, so we invited their families over along with our friend Damon. It was so nice to fellowship with friends and celebrate Nathan's 2 bday; what a blessing he is to us!

Yeah....legos!
Lego heaven!

Silas and Nathan chasing one another around on their bikes.


Nathan getting ready to blow out his bday candles.

Camping

We have hit a milestone in our marriage.....we no longer are tent camping!!!!!!!!! Yeah! We did our last tent camping experience as a family and on the way home I told Kurt I will never do that again until our kids are MUCH older! This was sad in a way, because we love to camp and we've been doing it every summer since we got married, but I just knew I couldn't do it again. So, we've looked into campers quite a few times, but we never had the resources, or when we did, the door closed and we knew the timing was not right. So, this time around we started looking again and this experience has really shown us how it truly pays off to be patient and put much wisdom and prayer into big purchases.

Here is a brief description of some details that helped us in this decision. As we started to look, a gentleman from our church told us his daughter was wanting to sell their camper. He said it was in perfect condition and we should look at it. After some contemplation because of the price and it had way more things than what we thought we needed, we decided to go ahead and look at it. Sure enough, mint condition and although it had more than what we thought we needed, we started to realize if our family grows these features might come in handy and it can actually be something we grow into. The price was more than what we wanted to pay, but we soon realized that what they were listing it at was well below what it was worth and they just asked that we just pay it off for them. Hmmm...that helped us to realize how much we were getting. So, then we thought about it and prayed about it and soon realized there were two things that would not allow us to get the camper. Because it was a larger camper than what we anticipated, it was too heavy for our mini van to tow. Well, a friend of ours has allowed us to use their suburban to tow it. (that is a whole story in and of itself, but what a blessing). Ok, so now where to store it? Another friend of ours said, hey you can store it at our house for free. Hmmmm...ok, so now we felt much better about it all. So, we went with this family to the bank with our certified check and we are the proud owners of a new camper!!!!!!!!! Yeah....here are some pictures of our first camping trip. More pictures to come because we're going again this weekend! (thank goodness for the amazing heater it has!)


Here's our new pop up camper


Here is Kurt making us breakfast on our stove and even our oven. This has a fridge and double sink and even a toilet if we need it. It also has tons of storage and even room for Haven to sleep with us.
The boys eating breakfast at our table which turns into a full size bed.

Here's the boys on their bed (we had to baby proof it so that they wouldn't fall out.) We have two king sized beds, lots of room for all of us.
Daddy and Silas and Nathan fishing at the lake.
Playing in the swimming pool at the campground.
We are so excited about our new adventures and all the places we will get to camp and make memories as a family!