Cousins!

Colton had a great time playing with his cousins this weekend.  And we had fun making them pose together in their diapers...

Two

It's hard to believe that I have a two-year-old.  On the one hand, it seems strange to imagine a time without our little Colty-bug, but on the other hand it's crazy how fast time has flown by.  This birthday was fun to celebrate because, unlike last year, he understood two things: Birthdays = cake and presents are good.  A few days before his birthday, I started asking him, "What happens on your birthday?"  And he would immediately respond, "CAKE!!" (And sometimes he'd also throw in "Meen Yang" which clearly means ice cream...)  So I obliged my dear boy with a Bob the tomato cake.

Not too shabby for someone with no cake-decorating skillz.  You can at least see the resemblance. 

Colton waiting for us to start singing.

Colton deciding we should probably pray before digging into the cake.  He is very adamant about blessing all food before he eats it.  He also usually likes to include Bob and Larry in his prayers anyway, so praying over a Bob cake seems very appropriate.

Blowing out his candle.

And the moment he'd been waiting for...CAKE!!!

We love you, Colton!!

Fun in the heartland...

This year for the Fourth of July, we headed West to America's heartland to celebrate our nation with real Americans...most particularly Justin's parents.  Here's what we did:

We saw a lot of fireworks--which were kind of loud and scary...

...but totally awesome and worth clapping for--when they ended.  (There are seriously a lot of fireworks in Nebraska.  You have to see it to believe it!)

Justin pulled out his artistic side once again and created another license plate map of the U.S. for his mom.

Voila!  It looks pretty awesome!

We walked with the gorillas.  

And discovered that the Durham family is deeply involved in the Omaha zoo.

We had lots of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa!

We posed with several animal sculptures.

And I showed off my 5 month baby bump. 

It was lots of fun.   And now every time Colton sees and airplane, he points to it and says, "Go."  When I ask him where we should go, he makes his signs for Grandma and Grandpa.  I think he misses them a lot...

Sour face

Even though Colton is currently choosing not to make the sounds of about a fourth of the letters of the alphabet, he isn't let that hold back his communication.  Case in point:

He's not really into the "s" sound, but this is the face he makes when something is sour (or more often to tell me he wants a piece of sour candy).

Apparently the "sour face" is contagious...or (more likely) they both wanted me to give them candy.

Bob-a-La

If you asked Colton who is best friends are (and if he could actually speak), he would probably tell you Bob a La.  That's Bob and Larry.  You know.  From Veggietales.  Colton loves them...and now he loves that he can hug them and squeeze them and take them for walks in his baby doll stroller.  Thanks Grandma Louise!

Hello?

I'm sure that someday Colton will realize that my alarm clock is not actually a phone, but until then he's been having some really great conversations...

3:21:21

Justin ran his first marathon six years ago--and missed qualifying for Boston by a mere 46 seconds.  So every few years, he decides to ramp up from nothing and try it again.  This year we arranged our annual visit to Utah with his third and most recent marathon attempt.  And I must say that he did amazingly well, finishing in 3 hours 21 minutes.  He was a little disappointed that he missed his goal again, but this time he's not going to wait three years before he tries again...  Here's his strong finish:

Colton was yelling "Go Daddy Go!"  We worked on it all morning.

A few yards from the finish...

He said he was about to pass out, so I offered him some chocolate milk.

Colton was enjoying the chocolate Creamy that was provided for the runners.  Thanks for sharing, Dad.

On the way back to the car, Justin stopped to stretch his calves.  Colton couldn't figure out why Dad was trying to push the tree, but he decided to help.

Really, Dad.  Why are we pushing this tree?