Our 2nd anniversary

We just got back from our first camping trip together. We had a great time and it reminded me how much I like camping. We went to Lathrop State Park outside of Walsenburg. It was kind of hilly and deserty not mountainous. Unfortunately, the campground is a little close to the highway and to our camping neighbors but it was fun nonetheless. We got rained out and came home a night early but thats ok because we then went out to dinner and watched 4 Lost episodes.

Here are some pictures of our adventures...

the best smile EVER!

this week lincoln met his auntie woa-jinki (anna) and amanda. He was absolutely enamored with them. here are some pics of their interactions. cutest ever!

a visitor from the mount

today and yesterday we here in suburbia have had visitors from the mountains. 2 elk have stopped by to grace us with there beautiful presence. however, they should go back to the mountains where they are supposed to live. here are some pics...

Vacations galore...

We just got back from several vacations. In his short 3.5 months of life, Lincoln has visited 4 states and met a significant amount of family members. In the past 2 months we have traveled to San Antonio, TX; Salinas and San Diego, CA; St. Louis, Pomme De Terre Lake, and Kansas City, MO; and Mascoutah, IL. We are exhausted from traveling and glad to be home. However, we wish we could take all the special people we visited during this trips back here to Colorado with us!

Here are some pictures of our latest trip to Missouri...

Lincoln's Great-Grandmother Lorita Middendorff (my mom's mom). It's amazing how much she reminds me of my mom. It was awesome to hang out with her for the day! She loved Lincoln.

Lincoln's Grandfather Mike Meyerkord (my dad). He's doing well. Over 4 months sober and working towards a lifetime of sobriety. He was very excited to meet "the president." haha (we didn't name him after Abraham Lincoln)

My 2nd cousin's daughter Jordyn was fascinated with Lincoln. She's a year old.

Lincoln's first Lake Pomme de Terre swim. It didn't go so well. He hates that life jacket! Understandably so!

Me and Lincoln on my Aunt and Uncle's boat. He loved it when we were going fast but fussed almost every time we stopped. The kid likes to move!

more pictures

Lincoln

Sticking it to the man

My cousins, Tyler and Erika, Cory and I came up with a brillant way to "stick it to the man." We go to restaurants and consume as many free refills as possible. Two restaurants in San Antonio fell victim to our shenaniganry. Chili's and Houlihan's.

Chili's...we downed enough blackberry ice teas so that they equaled only $.52. Awesome...

then we went to Houlihan's the next day for flavored lemonades and teas. The price per tea was even better there because the waitress forgot to add a 4th drink on the check. $.48 each...Yes!

However, we learned our lesson...we can only "stick it to the man" once a week because it requires mass consumption of sugary drinks!

mother's day

along with celebrating my first mother's day, my brother and i spent time in evergreen to celebrate and remember our mother's life. we lost our mother to uterine cancer last september. exactly 8 months ago yesterday. lots of tears were shed as we drove up to evergreen and talked about the death of our mother and how we wished it hadn't happened.

we sat on the rocks overlooking the dam at the lake in evergreen. there we talked about how much we missed our mom and prayed that she would be watching over us. we were thankful for the close family that she helped create. we tried not to dwell on the sadness of her death but the happiness of her existence and our memories of her.

then we spread some of her ashes from our urns. we hope to make it a regular practice to spread her ashes and remember her as we heal from the pain of her death.

it was a very cathartic experience. we hadn't realized how much we needed to do this. sharing our pain with each other and taking the time to cry and just be present with God. we both felt better afterwards. we were thankful for the time that just the two of us spent together in honor of our mother. although it is extremely sad that we couldn't celebrate her in person. we miss her.

we talked about our fears of spreading ashes and how cremation is weird to us. we respected our mother's wishes to be cremated. she said she didn't want to occupy earth's physical realm after her death. she felt it was unnecessary. then comes the reality that her body was burned and her ashes were sitting in our hands...weird. but as we talked we recognized that whenever anything is burned it to becomes ashes...identical to our mother's ashes therefore demonstrating our connection to the physical world.

we are so thankful for the time that we did have with our mother. we have yet to fully understand the full impact she had on us.

in honor of louise c. meyerkord
1954-2006
we love you, mom! miss you.

the journey from suburbia to the city