We're Back! (Part 1)

After two weeks away from home we are happy to return. We had a wonderful week in Georgia followed up by another wonderful week in Wyoming. Mike signed up for a class in Warner Robins, Georgia which happens to be where a dear friend lives. Sara and her two girls, Logan & Sydney welcomed us into their home for a week. We were able to even check out a new climbing area called Tennessee Wall which was absolutely amazing. We loved Chattanooga, TN and the climbing was exceptional! After touring around Georgia for a week with Sara and the girls, we flew home and headed straight to Lander, WY to spend Mike's Spring Break climbing. It was definitely chilly compared to Georgia but we had some great days climbing and enjoyed catching up with our good friends, Steve & Ellen.

A BIG THANKS to Sara, Logan, Sydney, Steve, Ellen, "little jr", Bug & Olive for letting us stay in your homes. We truly loved the time spent together and appreciated all the hospitality and coffee too!

I'm going to start posting photos now to show all the fun things we were able to do. Lucas did great with all the crazy travel days but boy is he happy to be home!!!!


Yummy chocolate donut while climbing at Shelf Road before our big adventure to GA & WY. This was the first "real" big donut Lucas has ever had so it was a real treat and a real mess!
Lucas is eating his peanut butter bagel at the airport while watching all the excitment outside. He sure does love airplanes!
This was looking outside our window as we taxied out to the runway just before leaving Denver. Lucas loves the tower too and wanted to take a photo of it!
Oh yes, the pilots were very good to Lucas this trip. A REAL pilot gave him a little battery operated airplane that lights up and makes sounds of taking off. He also got to sit in the cockpit again which is always fun, overwhelming and scary all together.

Exciting Day!

Yesterday was another snowy winter day but we made the most of it...reading extra books, building cool houses with Lincoln Logs and playing with our NEW SPONGEBOB SNOWCONE MAKER! Yep, Aunt Christina sent him one and it was a hit. We made snowcones before naptime and Lucas was freezing (notice the hood?) but determined to eat it all. After nap we had dinner and then soft-serve ice cream made by SpongeBob. Everything was very tasty and Lucas is eager to call his Aunt Christina to say THANK YOU!




After a late nap and dinner, daddy had a big surprise for us. We drove through the snow up to the Cadet Field House at the Academy. Some of his students were doing test flights on their model airplanes so there was lots of excitement...loud, fast airplanes and tons of cool crashes! Lucas was in heaven! We even brought one of our own planes to fly to join in on the fun.


Lucas watched in amazement and half fear of getting hit by one but the night was free of injury...to the people at least. The airplane took a beating.

After most every flight we had a little repair gaggle...


The Cadets were very nice and showed Lucas how everything worked. They even let him hold the remote and the smaller "fast jet." It was so much fun and we had a super late bed time but it was worth every minute.

Happy Times!

Cutting and cooking for daddy! Playing with appliances is still number one but every once in awhile he'll make time for some camp stove cooking right inside our living room...pretend of course. Lucas as fully grasped the "pretend" thing which as been wonderful. He plugs all his appliances into the couch cushion (he calls them the safe outlets) and will be content for hours. One challenge "pretend" as brought is when I want to really vacuum. "No mommy, I want to pretend vacuum, not real vacuum." He still hates when the vacuum cleaner is on so "pretend" buys him some time. When it comes to real vacuuming, his safety zone is on the couch watching intently.

This is at Grandma and Grandpa J's house. Grandpa had to leave for work so big squeezes and kisses were in order!

We took a little trip to Manitou Springs (about 15 minutes away) and discovered 25 cent rides. They have about 20 of them to choose so a dollar or two goes a long way and provides many choices. This one is the "fast jet"...he looks half scared! :)

Through the Eye's of a Child

Self portrait of Lucas, 2 1/2 years old.
Lucas loves taking photos with mommy's camera. Of course, he wants to use the expensive real one and not an old one that we gave him. Sometimes he gets to use it (against my better judgement) to take photos all by himself...
The computer...where mommy spends her "free" time...is there such a thing? Her new business is keeping her busy!
The music box... used to play favorites like Bert & Ernie, Frosty the Snowman, Twinkle-Twinkle and the Echo Song (Seasame Street). This is the old music box, the new one allows Lucas to use his microphone Uncle Mark and Aunt Kate gave him for Christmas.
Would a photo shoot in the Anderson house be complete without documenting our love for rock climbing? I promise, this was not staged! Way to go Lucas, your daddy will be proud!

Up With the Times!

Yep, we finally gave in and installed high speed internet this week. Okay, I should let you know that I ordered it and Mike sat on the phone for 45 minutes with "Alex" from India to get it to work properly...THANK YOU DADDY!!!!! It works great and I can actually post photos in minutes and not hours, amazing!

So, I'm be posting photos to get caught up! Above is Lucas painting with water colors. It was one of those sunny but too cold and windy days so we were stuck inside. When daddy came home a whole new level of fun was about to happen....
Daddy transformed the Lego train tunnel into the coolest airplane ever! It's since been converted to a helicopter and boy is daddy the coolest!
He's very proud! Daddy was taking photos too and as you can tell, mommy wasn't the cool one that night!

Time to go dig up some more fun photos! Here's Lucas sharing the camera...

Climbing with Uncle Mark

Here are a few pictures of Lucas and Uncle Mark climbing in our home gym. Lucas has all the gear and is ready to go.


















He was very excited to show Mark what an excellent climber he is but wasn't about to turn down free rides to the top!














This was earlier in the day climbing outside at Shelf Road...Lucas' second home! Finally, we can go outside without a jacket on.

REAL Cadets Standing at Attention!

Lucas watching the cadets at the Air Force Academy...he stayed like this for at least 30 minutes!
Picnic and pudding at the USAFA Chapel...it was a little cold out! Like the bib?

We are a little behind posting this month. We've had almost two full weeks since our last posted outing. We've since made a few trips out climbing with daddy and just last Friday, with Kate and Mark. Lucas always gets so excited when Kate and Mark come to town. His bed time ends up being around 10pm and it's still a fight because of all the fun ending for the day.

Last week I took Lucas to the Air Force Academy to see real cadets "standing at attention" and marching too! Boy, what a treat that was and Lucas watched intently. At one point he said, "Mommy, they all have shinny shoes on and socks too!" The little details or shall I say "attention to detail!" It was a cold day, sunny but chilly and we were determined to have a picnic no matter what. After watching the cadet’s march around for about 30 minutes we headed into the Chapel for nice views and warm heaters. Lucas was very impressed with the stain glass colors and enjoyed sitting and checking everything out. Of course, one of the first things he noticed was the microphone! Luckily it was too far away and out of a two years reach. We sat outside the chapel in a protected area and had PBJs and pudding. We froze but were able to warm up on the hike back to the car!

Inside the cadet chapel...very impressive building!

Lucas in amazement of all the beautiful colors on the church ceiling.

Here are the cadets with shinny shoes and socks too!

We'll write more soon.
Love, The Andersons