Lesson #9 Non Verbal Communication Revisited

This is a really short one.  So Ryan, Liam and I attended a really fun reunion picnic for SM West teachers (many of whom have gone on to other schools, chosen to work from the home or, like Ryan, turned to the dark side of administration :) ).  We managed to get ALL the children in attendance to pose for a photo and had Blake Sinkler, the oldest at age 11, hold Liam who is the youngest at 4 months.

Revisit my earlier blog on Liam's love of flipping people off and then look closely at the picture below.  Really?  I am half embarrassed, half proud.  Lesson well learned once again.

Lesson #8- Colorado IS the Best Place on Earth

This past week, Ryan and I took Baby Liam to our favorite place on Earth, Colorado.  We wanted him to visit the place we got married less than two years ago, and it couldn't have gone better.  First off, just like his first airplane trip to San Francisco, he traveled like a rock star.  Bottle on the way up, slept during the whole flight, binkie on the way down.  He was awesome.  This is what he looked like when we landed (Aunt Amy said that Colorado Tourism should use Liam's expression in their ads... this is how everyone feels when they arrive in Colorado).

 Within the first few hours, we had stopped at a Denver Target to stock up on groceries (Liam always loves Target- well, let's face it, we all do), driven over Loveland Pass, toured Main Street Breckenridge, checked into our lovely condo and had a picnic near Maggie Pond.  It was a busy first day, Liam was pooped and took a long afternoon nap during the rainstorm.

Liam proved to be incredibly flexible during our stay, which is always a great attribute in a traveler.  Too cheap to pay the ridiculous $25 a night rental fee for a Pack 'n Play, we decided to "McGyver" it and do what Grandma Becky suggested- put him on the floor.  It was strange that Liam had his own bedroom in the condo and couldn't even enjoy the double bed, instead he slept between the bed and the open closet door on a very simple blanket and cooled off by a small fan.  The room was REALLY dark, so whenever Ryan or I checked on him (very often that first night), we had to take our cell phones with us and shine the light on him.  He looked kind of weird, frankly, in the blue tint of my I Phone :)

That evening Ryan grilled an amazing steak and we had a lovely dinner after Liam went down. He slept like a little Rip Van Winkle and didn't wake up until what was 5am KC time, then slept a couple more hours for good measure.  He did surprise us though when Ryan went to pick him up at 5am, dark as it was, he grabbed him off the ground and was surprised to find him turned upside down, laying on his stomach, but happy as a clam.  Later that day, he turned over several times on the creepy (what looked like) baby bear rug in front of the fireplace.

On Thursday, we spent a wonderful morning showing Liam the site of our wedding, at Peak 9 at Ten Mile Station.  Of course, it looked very different without the snow cover, but beautiful just the same.  We  enjoyed just walking around and taking photos- Ryan even worked out the timer on the camera so we could get a family shot.  The place was set up for a wedding, so it was very meaningful.  We talked about how two summers ago we had driven up to the site with Becky and Mom and Dad and had decided it would be the perfect spot.  And now, here we are showing our son.  Very cool.

Next, we took Liam to Maggie Pond Bridge, where we had our first wedding photos taken.  This self photo was taken about 5 minutes before a HUGE storm, and about 4 minutes before we got safely back to the condo.

After another nice long nap during the storm, it was time for a bath.  On Friday we were able to meet with our wedding photographer, Robin, who took Liam's first professional photos.  So of course he had to look good.  Believe it or not, this was not a manipulated pose.  He really just kicked back as if he was in a hot tub waiting for a pretty lady to join him :)  It's my favorite photo of the trip.

We will get the professional photos in a couple of weeks and we can't wait.  This was a magical trip and Liam reminded us what we already knew to be true... Colorado IS the best place on Earth.  Lesson well learned.