Colorado Pictures

Keeping busy on the airplane
Enjoying the campfire with the family
Stacy, sister Steph, cousins Ashley, Justina, and Kyle
The family sang "Happy Anniversary" to us around the campfire:)
Of course, ice cream completes a vacation!

Looking Good

Isaac had his 1 year check up this week. He is 24 lbs and 31 inches long. He is about 2 lbs lighter and one inch shorter than Caleb was at this age. He still has the milk allergy, so we'll hold off on introducing any dairy for another year. We accidentally spilled milk on Isaac and wiped it off with a washcloth. A few minutes later he rubbed his face with his hands and broke out in a rash. So, the allergy is still present.:) Cooking dairy free has been a little challenging, but not as difficult as I anticipated. We can now switch him to soy milk and off the soy formula. Otherwise he is a happy, healthy one year old!

Colorado Trip

So this is one of the few pictures we have of our CO trip! The camera story is funny now. There were about 12 of us travelling to the airport together, so my Grandpa arranged for limo rides. We took the camera out in the limo to take pictures and guess what, that is where we left it! We realized we had left the camera later in the day. Thankfully the limo company found it and gave it back to us when we returned home. Needless to say, we don't have many pictures! I'll post some as my family emails some to us.

As you can tell in the picture, Caleb was not happy about the limo ride. He always stresses about the unknown and that day of travelling was filled with new experiences. I had never been in a limo so I was pretty excited! Caleb's reaction to the limo was nothing compared to his reaction about getting on the airplane. He had been crying about flying on an airplane for the past couple weeks. When we got on the plane, Nate had to carry him crying down the aisle and shouting, "I don't want to ride on the plane!" I'm sure all the passengers were thrilled to see us boarding.:) Eventually, Caleb calmed down. The ironic thing is that Caleb flew so many times when he was a baby b/c we lived in NY. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember that. Isaac did fine in the plane, he just didn't like to sit still. Thankfully there were alot of family members to pass him around too.

Travelling with two young kids over time zones was not fun. The first two days were pretty rough as sleep schedules were all messed up. Thankfully things improved over the week and we all had a great time. The whole Jongsma family was there, all 34 of us. We stayed at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. We stayed in a lodge where each family had a hotel-like room. We ate meals in a big cafeteria, which reminded me of Calvin. Some of the highlights were; hiking, horseback riding, swimming, hanging out with family, and taking advantage of lots of willing babysitters! Nate and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary while in CO. My family watched the kids so we could go out to eat at a restaurant which was a nice treat!

The trip home was less stressful. Caleb was still nervous about the plane, but he calmed down much faster. We realized that in our day of travel we took a car, a bus from the rental car place to the airport, a train in the airport, a plane, and a limo. Pretty much all modes of transportation!

Cardale did well with the foster family he stayed with for the week. The family is pretty amazing. They had 4 kids of their own and then adopted a sibling group of 5. Right now they have 7 kids living at home. They are also in the process of adopting a 1 and 3 year old from Ethiopia. Cardale had plenty of attention and entertainment there. I think he was happy to come home and he was smiling alot.

Overall it was a great trip!

1 Year Old!

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! Isaac is 1 year old today. It is hard to believe I was as big as a house and gave birth to an 8 lb 14 oz boy one year ago. I remember looking at Isaac and wondering what his personality would be like. Well, he is mischievious, curious, happy, and outgoing to name a few. He will eat anything and doesn't have any stranger anxiety yet.

Yesterday we celebrated Isaac's birthday early in Chicago with my family and grandparents. I made a dairy free Curious George cake, as our nickname for him is Curious George or Trouble. He loves cake! He enjoyed tearing paper off his presents too. Our gift to him was one of those collapsible tents with balls, both Isaac and Caleb think it's the greatest! We thank God for our beautiful boy!

See ya!

We're heading to CO tomorrow! We're going to YMCA of the Rockies for a Jongsma family reunion for a week. We dropped Cardale off at another foster family. It was sad to leave him, but it will be a nice break to have only 2 kids. Talk to you all later!