Tractor Adventures

Carter couldn't wait to see the tractor at Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Wesslers house in Springfield. He got an extra bonus this time, Great-grandpa let him actually drive for a little while. He was on cloud nine!

That's a pretty big tractor for a little guy...


We have this same picture of Carter in the wheel when he was just over a year old. The tire must be shrinking...


Checking things out...


I'm told he is actually driving at this point - check out the look of determination on his face!


Future Farmer and the Voice of Experience - I love this picture!

The Royal Gorge

Another highlight was visiting the Royal Gorge Bridge on our way down to Springfield on Monday. Ryan had been several times as a kid, but it was a first for Carter & me. We enjoyed walking across the bridge, riding the Air Tram across the canyon, taking the Incline Railway to the bottom of the gorge, and also driving across the bridge. It was breathtaking - the bits of snow on the canyon walls was an added bonus.

Carter was a bit nervous about sitting on the ledge of the viewing deck for a picture.


Family picture on the bridge. Notice the bridge is made of wooden slats, you can see the bottom of the gorge as you walk across, especially when they have larger gaps between them...we were all a bit uneasy!:)


The bridge is lined with signs for each state. Since they were in alphabetical order, we had to cross the entire bridge before reaching the Texas sign:).


It really is an amazing bridge!


Picture of the bridge from the Air Tram as we crossed the canyon.


At the bottom of the gorge overlooking the river.


Self-taken picture on the Incline Railway back up to the top.


We were reading this sign about the gorge and Carter wanted to tell us the story...he was very animated!:)


Ryan driving across the bridge - this made us more nervous than walking across it!


We all had a great time here, well worth the visit!

Colorado Springs & Denver

Prepare yourselves! My goal is to update pictures from all our recent adventures in Colorado and Christmas in Amarillo, so here come the pictures... :) This post will include pictures from our weekend in Colorado Springs and the Broncos game in Denver.

Ryan & Carter went hiking in Monty & Ellen's backyard shortly after we arrived. Carter had his stick all prepared and desperately wanted to find a "serious bear", but no luck this time.


On Saturday we took Carter to Cave of the Winds. We didn't get any pictures inside the cave, but this is from the overlook.


Carter finally found his bear. If you look closely at the bear's mouth, you can see that Carter decided to share his candy cane with him:).


We also went to the Focus on the Family headquarters that afternoon but didn't get any pictures. Carter had a blast playing in the kids area and shared a Root Beer Float with Daddy at Whit's End Soda Shop:).

Here we are outside Invesco Field in Denver before the Broncos game. So exciting!


Ryan, Carter & Uncle Monty - thanks so much for the tickets!!!


This was Carter's favorite part of the game - at halftime there was mini game between the Denver Boys Club and various NFL mascots, it was fun to watch!


Our first official Broncos game... the game was great until the last 2 minutes. Apparently we were bad luck for the team and they lost to the Raiders, major bummer!

Texas Snow and Christmas with the Boudreaus

The week after Thanksgiving we woke up to a surprise outside! I didn't believe Carter when he told me it was snowing, but he was right! Carter enjoyed playing outside for a little while before the snow melted away.


Trying to make a snowball:


Throwing snow at Koda:


Climbing up the playset - he couldn't resist going down the slide:


Family picture at our Boudreau Christmas celebration - we had to celebrate early this year due to everyone's different travel plans.


The grandkids eagerly opening one of their gifts:


They had a blast loading up their suitcases and dragging them around all evening!


Carter & Santa opening a gift from Granny & Papa - remote control bumper cars, fun, fun!

Cast Your Vote!

Check out our poll to the right and cast your vote ---->
(If you receive email updates, you'll have to actually visit the website to see the poll.) We'll hopefully find out on December 7th if your guess was right!:)

Pumpkin Pics

Once again, I'm a few weeks behind, but I wanted to share some pumpkin pictures. This was Carter's first experience carving a pumpkin. He really wanted to help with all the "cutting", but didn't care for the "gushy mess" inside the pumpkin.


He wouldn't touch it with his hand, but he liked using the tool to scrape the inside.


The final result:


We also went to the Dallas Arboretum with some friends to see all the pumpkins, get a few pictures, and let the kids play. This was the first attempt at a nice fall picture.


About 10 minutes after arriving, Carter fell in the mud...he wasn't too happy about being dirty:).


Will, Lauren, & Carter


What a cutie, if I do say so myself:).


He loved the big pumpkins and kept insisting he was strong enough to pick it up.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Here's some pictures of a few random activities in October.

Great-grandpa Wessler sent Carter a care package with an assortment of goodies from their church's 100th anniversary celebration. There were some small screwdrivers, several pens, and some clip-on tape measures. Carter proceeded to hook all of them to his pants and spend the day working on things around the house. It was a hoot!


This was the afternoon we spent at the park and Ryan worked with Carter on riding without training wheels. I was amazed at how quickly he learned. Here he is ready to go!


He was a little unsteady for a while, but balanced himself out quickly.


Off he goes....
since that afternoon, Carter asks everyday to "practice" his bike-riding.


A few weeks ago we picked Trevor up and spent the morning at a park. The boys had a great time playing together, like long-lost pals:).




Amazingly, neither one went in the water:).